Painting Glass for Valentine's Day

With Valentine’s Day being Wednesday, I have been thinking of fun ideas for gifts and things to do with Ella. She has really started to love helping Mommy cook and thinks stirring is so much fun. We are going to be baking all kinds of delicious treats. I have planned to make cute heart-shaped mini cakes and a ton of cookies to decorate. It’s going to be a fun day for sure.

As far as gifts go, we usually do candy and little things. Decorated wine glasses are really popular right now. Painting a wine glass and filling it with candy would be a cute little gift for your special someone. Anything that comes in my kitchen must be dishwasher safe. That is a non-negotiable and these glasses are no different. It is very easy to make custom painted glassware that is easy to clean.

I used stemless wine glasses but any glass will do. You can let the kids decorate coffee mugs too. The process will be the same. Before you start to paint, make sure that they are clean and all stickers are removed. Rubbing alcohol works best to prep the surface. The paint that I used was Folk Art Enamels which is permanent once it cures. I made two glasses. One was inspired by a few that I had seen on Pinterest and I went with simple hearts for the other. You can decorate your glasses however you like. If you plan on actually using the glass, do not paint the inside or anywhere that will be in direct contact with food or drink.

For the first one, I placed heart stickers on the outside of the glass and used a fine point brush to make small dots. They are more concentrated down at the bottom and spread out toward the top of the glass. I did one color at a time and built up the design. You can always add dots but removing them can get tricky. If you do want to remove any paint, just wipe it off with rubbing alcohol. Once the paint had set I carefully removed the stickers to reveal their outline. To make sure that the outline was clean, I used a small blade to cut the paint around the stickers before removing them. You probably don't want to let the kiddos do that part. The little hearts are pretty subtle and the dots remind me of confetti. 

I placed little Valentine’s window clings in the second one to act as a guide. It worked well since they were completely clear and visible on the outside of the glass. I also liked that I could reposition them until I found the right placement. Painting the little hearts went pretty quickly and again I went color by color to build upon the design. The paint is pretty thick so I decided to play with the texture a bit. I let them dry for an hour and applied a second coat.

Once you are done painting, you will need to let the paint cure completely. If it doesn't cure, the paint can chip. You can let the glass air dry for 21 days or bake them. I like to bake mine but you will have to make sure your glass is safe to go into the oven. I let the glass air dry for an hour then placed them in a cool oven and heated it to 350 degrees, baking them for 30 minutes. Let the glass stay in the oven as it cools completely. Make sure you check the back of your paint bottle. It may have a different method to cure.

After your paint is set and the glasses have cooled, you can fill your glass with all kinds of goodies. The M&M's will be hard to keep from eating until Wednesday. We will see how it goes. I hope everyone has a fantastic Valentine’s Day. Happy crafting!

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Adventures in Quilting

                There are a few quilt tops in need of finishing in my closet. It has been years since I have worked on a quilt and I needed some practice before tackling the big quilts. I figured I would go ahead and knock out the baby quilts that I had planned for Ella. There was no piecing require since the tops are fabric panels which makes these a simple project that can be done fairly quickly. In my collection, I have Bambi and Ariel panels. I chose to start with Bambi.

                 With the fabric prepped, I sandwiched the batting between the top and bottom fabric. Starting in the center, I used large safety pins made for quilting to baste everything together. I tried to place the pins where I would be stitching so the holes would be covered in quilting stitches. The quilting hoop I used was an old 18-inch hoop which worked really well. I started with Bambi’s face and moved outward from there. Bambi, his name, and the gold borders are all hand-quilted. This part did take some time. It took me and my little helper 3 full days to finish this part. Ella was my quality control and snuggle tester. She was so excited about Bambi.

                If you have never quilted by hand, you will want to use hand quilting thread and a running stitch to quilt your design. Gathering the quilt on the needle before pulling the thread through speeds up the process and helps keep your stitches a little more even. I used the lines of the Bambi design as a guide but you can create your own if you like. Drawing them out with chalk works really well since it is easy to remove once you are done.

                Once I was done quilting the design, I was ready to bind the edges. I had already picked out the satin blanket binding. It matches Bambi’s ears and I like how it brings out the little details. I trimmed the edges so they would be even. There were a few issues with stitching the binding on my machine. Bobbin issues can cause a big mess and a massive headache. Once I had switched the bobbin and stopped fussing at it, I stitched the raw side down with my machine. Using binding clips to hold the satin in place, I flipped the folded edge over to the opposite side and used a binding stitch to secure it by hand.

                I think it looks really cute. When I look at it, can see issues with the binding but Ella doesn’t care. She loves it and has been cuddling in it watching Paw Patrol. Now I have to get to work on the Ariel blanket. Happy crafting!

                    

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