Painting with a small scrap of wood.

Yep, just something with a fairly smooth edge and and an easy size for you to hold (this is like a 3×3” block). For paint, choose something with a primer in it for best adhesion or just use a white primer if you want the result to be white anyway.

Next you just do a healthy dip in your paint, wipe some of the extra on the side of the can, and without pressing too hard smear it across your surface.

That’s pretty much it, just repeat to cover all surfaces and you may do a light sanding over the finish to smooth any “block” strokes. Then of course, add whatever details you desire on top and voilà!

Few more samples of pieces I’ve done this way…

So I’m always brainstorming craft ideas for my art-loving daughter (okay yes, and for myself), and this time it was for card making! Mother’s Day is coming up so I was trying to think of a unique card she could make that would be simple, fun, and also lovely. When thinking of Mother’s Day, flowers just seem to go… so I was thinking of something florally but also what I already had around the house and I realized we have lots of magazines that need to be recycled. Thus…the idea for floral-inspired magazine collage cards! We tried two styles- a wreath and a garden theme.

Simple steps

• Gather Materials: Magazines, Scissors, Glue Stick, 2 pieces of Card Stock (may want to choose your colors after seeing what flowers you can find in your magazine), Marker/Sharpie

• Scan through the magazines to find flowers/leaves/stems, preferably similar in size but you can always trim them up too.
• Cut out your flowers, leaves, and stems! If you don’t see any leaves or stems, find something green in the magazine and make your own. They add a nice touch!

• Play around with an arrangement then use a glue stick to glue your cut outs to a piece of cardstock in the size you like. I glued the flowers first then added the leaves. FYI Liquid glue will likely make the magazine wrinkle as it dries.

• Choose a color for the second piece of cardstock that compliments your design. Cut it to the right size and glue the two pieces of cardstock together, making a lovely little frame around your design- ta da!
• Tip: to help the card stick together better and for all to be nice and flat- stick it in a book for a hour to dry.

• Lastly just add what you like for the messaging. In our case, it’s for Mother’s Day, but maybe yours is a Thinking of You, Happy Birthday, Hello, etc.
• Write in pencil first to get it like you like or use a stamp
• Hope they turn out lovely!!