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Imagine the Possibilities with me!

March 29, 2023 By Erica Deuel Leave a Comment

Imagine the possibilities with me for a minute! What is a way you LOVED to create as a kid?

  • Love playing outside and building forts with sticks and mud pies?
  • Come alive cutting and gluing paper?
  • Enjoy the heck out of painting free and big?
  • Play with blocks or legos for hours?
  • Was rearranging or redecorating your room the normal?

Chances are the way you enjoyed creating as a kid you will still enjoy today!

I know for me, growing up in a family of nine kids there were always DIY projects going on.

Recently, I have been thinking a lot about how expensive raising nine kids must have been for my parents. As my kids grow, it feels like it just keeps getting more expensive. Our oldest is learning to drive, and we all remember when we first caught wind of a brand we liked. Not just any pair of shoes always works anymore. I know my parents had to be thrifty to make our world work because I was so blessed and never went without. Being resourceful has been modeled for me.

I remember when my parents expanded our house. With nine kids, we outgrow the size house we had. The addition brought saw dust and scrap wood components to our lives. To this day, I still enjoy working with scraps.

Art doesn’t have to be expensive. We all have little things that we can reuse. For me, wood scraps has always been something I used, so to this day, I save them. The texture, possibilities of small pieces, and options of several things coming together to make something new is something I have always loved. Wood is a great material for all of those things to happen in the creative process.

Now, it’s no secret that I love to create in LOTS of ways. But, for many of us the ways we created as young kids can still be enjoyed years later or maybe the way we choose to create changes as we change.

Do you remember how you love to create? Has it changed?

Let me encourage you to imagine the possibilities.

Imagine trying that childhood creative process again that you loved so many years ago. Or, if you know of a new way you love to create imagine how you would feel if you took thirty minutes to do that activity this week?

We both know that your heart, mind, and soul will be better for that time of being FREE and using your hands.

I miss encouraging others in their creative process. It’s been a year, since we decided to close our art studio. So, as I was playing with some wood scraps, I dreamed up a kit with a lesson that I could share with all of you. If you need an extra nudge to get creative and imagine the possibilities, join me for this LIVE class one week from today. I will walk you through using these wood scraps to create a playful wood mobile. There will be a replay video, so if you miss the live. You can watch the tutorial replay back at a more convenient time.

Snatch up your kit to let me encourage YOU and your creative process. We will paint. Playing with order and design will definitely happen. Yarn will be wrapped. Of course, we will celebrate options and diversity. It will be so fun!

My hope for those that snatch up this creative kit (and for you on your creative journey) is that after playing with new materials and tools you feel a little more empowered in believing in yourself, knowing you can make good decisions, and trusting that how you think matters.

The creative process is a window into what’s going on inside us.

We find that inner discovery in playing, and pulling out of the expected. Keep playing. Keep creating. You never out grow the need to create.

 

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DIY Wood Painted Tray

July 21, 2019 By Erica Deuel Leave a Comment

This project has so many of my favorite components. I love color, paint, process art, functionality, and several steps for a project and this fun project incorporates all of that.

It’s not too difficult and a few steps can really set up kids or you for a fun project that (I believe) you would then enjoy the finished product for years. Embrace the process being the art and enjoy it with this project.

I will quickly show you the main steps I did in this project with campers at our studio. My purpose is to inspire you to embrace color and to maybe try parts of this project to make it your own. You can change the measurements, techniques and tips to create a fun piece that works for you!

1. Build

As I was dreaming up this project for my campers, I used a mix of donated wood and bought supplies to create a basic tray. I started by trimming plywood pieces with my Miter Saw and Brad Nailer to create small wood tray. The frame for my tray was approximately 13″ x 8.5″.

2. Sand and Prime

I wanted my campers to focus on the wood squares that went IN their tray, so I prepped the tray a bit more for them. I sanded the trays and primed them white, so my artists could spend more time enjoying painting the wood squares.

3. Paint squares & Tray

I built my wood trays to be able to hold (6) 4″ x 4″ wood squares. You can build your tray to hold whatever size tray you want. Or you can skip adding the wood squares and just paint the bottom of your tray any of these fun ways.

I pulled out a mix of different materials to allow my campers to paint their squares in an abstract, fun way. In this step, we focused on the process of creating, experimenting, playing, observing, pivoting to enjoy painting without a paintbrush.

The techniques we encouraged were:

  1. Painting with pipettes and watered-down paint. You can read a post all about this technique here. This technique creates a marbled-paint pour that is a super fun look.
  2. Scrape painting with an old giftcard or hotel key. In this technique, you move the paint around with the key and the focus is on play. Depending on how hard or light you press the key down you can blend colors and show movement with creating ripples.
  3. Fun tools like feathers, forks, cooking basters, and tooth picks all can add fun stamping or blending in paint. You can’t fully control your image with these tools, which forces you to play and discover.

I planed to allow my campers to use a paintbrush to paint their wood trays, after they painted their wood squares.

I imagined the squares fun and abstract and then the tray being where they could practice “controlling” their finished product a little bit more.

I was so surprised (and excited!) to see that the campers had so much fun exploring the fun tools and paint techniques that most of them choose to paint their tray in the same way!

4. Dry and Spray Sealer

After everything was painted, we let it dry overnight. Because of the thick layer of paint, it took longer to dry. Once everything was dry, I used Rustoleum’s Clear Gloss spray to completely cover the art. This sealed their masterpieces, added a protective layer, and helped some of those blended colors pop a bit more.

5. Final details- Glue squares and add handles

It was fun to encourage the artists to play designer on how they would like their squares to lay in their wood tray. Once they figured out the order they wanted them to go in, they used wood glue to put the squares in place inside the wood tray.

They were gorgeous! I added the handles to complete the trays and were ready to be taken home and stylized!

Each tray turned out so different, yet beautiful and colorful. I love the mix of color, wood, and metal handles.

The squares allow the wood tray to have fun different colors all mixed together. Any one of the wood squares might not be loved if taken out and used on its own. Yet, when the wood squares are paired together with other fun squares they look stunning and make one another even more fun.

I love how I had some ideas for the main parts/steps of this project, but it was open ended enough that the campers could play and personalize it to their own taste. I never mentioned splatter painting, yet the girls did play with that technique.

It always amazes me what the campers come up with, when given freedom to play. I learn from watching them. One camper painted a wood square and then used it as a stamp and stuck another square to it. When she pulled the squares apart the most stunning abstract design was the result. You can see this technique in the above picture on the bottom right tray.

You can try the fun techniques on paper.

You can buy a wood tray and add to it.

You can find other random things to paint with from around your house.

There are so many ways to personalize this project or the paint techniques to make something fun today!

What do you think!?! Do you want to make a fun, functional painted piece now!?! Imagine the possibilities. How can you add some color to your world today?

 

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How to Paint a Heart (scrap wood sign tutorial)

January 23, 2018 By Erica Deuel Leave a Comment

How to Paint a Heart (scrap wood sign tutorial)Have you ever wanted to paint a heart?

Getting both sides of a heart symmetrical while painting can be intimidating. When I have tried to paint a heart by hand, often one side gets larger as I try to perfect it. By the time I go back and forth from working on the different sides, the heart ends up being way larger than I intended.

I came up with this shadow painting trick to paint hearts, and I can’t wait to share it with you. I started by grabbing a bunch of scrap wood pieces. You can use canvases or paper too. Use what you have and have fun!How to Paint a Heart (scrap wood sign tutorial)I used some leftover spray paints and sprayed just the top of my wood pieces. I didn’t need the sides covered or for the whole top to be really even. I was just trying to cover the middle of the wood piece well. I will show you why.How to Paint a Heart (scrap wood sign tutorial)After I painted the tops, I sanded my signs a little with a heavy grit sandpaper. I wanted the color to be mixed a little with a rustic appeal. By sanding the signs a little, some of the color was removed to show the natural wood below again.How to Paint a Heart (scrap wood sign tutorial)This next step is how you get your symmetrical heart. Remember the old elementary school trick of folding a piece of paper in half? Cut one rounded half of your heart, unfold it, and ta-da… perfect heart! So, I cut a bunch of hearts out of thin cardboard. You could use construction paper or even paper bags from the grocery store. Just something that will withstand a little spray paint. The hearts were different sizes and styles. I wanted a mix of different looks, and the different hearts helped create that.  How to Paint a Heart (scrap wood sign tutorial)Now, I laid a cardboard heart on each wood sign and spray painted over them with a different color. The heart cardboard acted as a sticker shadow and allowed the new spray paint color to stay off the previous spray paint layer in the shape of a heart. Since this layer of spray paint is the top layer, you do want to spray paint the sides of your heart sign now.How to Paint a Heart (scrap wood sign tutorial)How to Paint a Heart (scrap wood sign tutorial)How to Paint a Heart (scrap wood sign tutorial)My hearts were pretty perfect. I did a light sand job to rough the edges up a bit more and then the signs were complete! If you have been following me for a while, you might remember I did this painting trick on magnets before too! I think these would be so pretty in a gallery wall display, sitting on a shelf, or even given as a Valentine!How to Paint a Heart (scrap wood sign tutorial)Do you give out Valentines? Matt and I aren’t a big Valentines Day couple, but I have created a number of different Valentines for our kids through the years. This notebook valentine was one of my favorites. It’s non-candy and can be used practically after Valentines Day has passed. Which is also what I also like about this wood sign…a wood sign with a heart is timeless! So, I might have to take a sharpie and write a few notes on the back and give these to my kids and friends this year!?!

What do you think? Would you try this technique to paint a heart? You can personalize this craft in so many ways. Changing the color is one way to personalize it to your taste. If you have scrap wood and spray paint too, then this craft is practically free! Enjoy! If you create some wood signs, I’d love to see them! Tag me with #spoonfulproject on social media, so we can all see your creations!

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DIY Wood End Table

June 7, 2016 By Erica Deuel Leave a Comment

DIY_end_table_tutorial2It is easy to fall into a birthday buying rut…especially for your husband. Do you know what I mean?

Shirts and movies can be repeated easily. When my husband’s birthday in March was approaching, I wanted to think of something different.

I spent some time listening to what he needed. We love birthdays, but also don’t spend a ton of money on them. Time and thought are huge components of some of our favorite gifts. Matt and I had recently decorated his office and I remembered he still needed a little end table. It had to be small but easily moveable so it could be wheeled around for a coffee table. I decided to get the kids and try to make him one. The result I just adore.

And get this….the kids did it mostly by themselves! I did a lot of the designing and supervising, but they made it. So, it’s not perfect, yet it is. It’s quirky. It’s fun. They made it and they were so proud!

Here’s our process. Adopt it! Grab your kids and try your hand at building. This could be the perfect present for someone you love, and your kids will have a blast too. It’s a win-win!

The first thing we did was buy a bunch of 2″ x 1″ and 3″ x 1″ pieces of wood as well as two 12″ x 12″ x 3/4″ square pieces of wood.

We figured out a good height for the table (taking in consideration that an extra two inches would be added with wheels) and Caleb started measuring the cut lines for me. He used a tape measure and drew pen lines.  I can guarantee you that none of our cuts ended up being exactly the same length, but they were close enough. He did a great job and was so proud.

measuring wood

measuring wood1

measuring wood2After I had cut all the wood, we started playing with the best way to attach our side boards to the 12″ squares. Those squares were going to act as our top and bottom of the table, so in short we were building a box.

cut wood

cut wood1

DIY_side_table

DIY_side_table_tutorial

ryobi_nail_bradWe used my Ryobi Brad Nailer. It’s my absolute favorite tool. You may remember it from our pallet wall. If you don’t have one, you can use a hammer and nails…or just invest in a nail brad. It will become your best friend.

Once the sides were complete, we then decided to change the direction of the wood for the back, which required measuring and then cutting the boards a little shorter.

end_table_tutorial

end_table_tutorial1After our box was complete, Jeremiah came in and sanded it down. He used a rough grit sandpaper and went to town on that thing. This boy of mine loves working with his hands. He often sands scrap wood next to me as I paint signs. He will be some kind of artist someday.

sanding_project

sanding_project1After the box was sanded, we screwed on four little wheels we got at our local hardware store for a couple bucks. I marked a spot on the bottom of the box, and Caleb used the screwgun to get the wheels in place.

building_a_wood_cart

kids_drill_project1

kids_drill_projectOnce our box was turned right side up and looked more like an end table, we decided it needed a little shelf in the middle to make it more practical. Caleb measured the wood and Jeremiah painted it. We used scrap wood to help give the shelf a little ridge to rest on and used the brad nailer to hold them in place.kid_measuring_project

paintingHere is the part Reagan was dying for. She got to paint the whole thing. She got quite messy and painted herself in large parts too by bending every which way to cover her project. She had a blast.

painting_project1

painting_project2Once the paint was dry, we gave it a light sanding job and then stained it.

stainAt times I wanted to jump in and remove a paint drip or wipe off the stain a bit better, but I refrained. I wanted it to be their piece, and it really does look more vintage-y, quirky fun for it. I just love it, and Matt did too!

DIY_end_table_tutorial

DIY_end_table_tutorial3Here you can see it with his yellow chairs. It fits right in the middle of that nook to hold a coffee, but it can be wheeled out to hold a laptop for a quick meeting as well. Reagan got to paint a frame too 🙂

end_table_projectThis was a gift that had time and thought…and it’s practical! I don’t know how much it ended up costing since we had some of the supplies. You can use scrap wood-even for the top and bottom square pieces! Take this idea, modify it to make it your own (in size, style, etc), and have fun!

I would love to see what you come up with!

I hope you are having a good week and are imaging the possibilities!

DIY_end_table_tutorial2

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