Recycle an old CD into a personalised clock

Recycle an old CD into a funky personalised clock. This project is incredible easy and most items can be found around the house.

What You Will Need

An old CD

A piece of cardboard (4.5cm x 21cm)

A Clock Mechanism (CLCLOCK - S36MM)

Acrylic paint

Glue

Step 1

Decorate the CD however you want. I used DecoArt Americana Acrylic paint for the base and DecoArt Americana Writers for the tennis ball and the tennis court.

Step 2

Paint both sides of the cardboard and leave to dry. Bend one end of the cardboard about 1cm in. Repeat at the other end. This is how you will attach the cardboard to the CD. Make another bend about 10cm along to create the stand.  Glue the cardboard to the clock as shown in the picture. Leave to Dry.

Step 3

Spray the whole thing with varnish. I used DecoArt Americana Gloss Varnish Spray. Attach the clock mechanism through the hole of the CD using either glue or sticky pads. Add a battery and set the time!

Hedgehog Eggs

What you will need:

• Egg shape - I used bisque CLM002 but any egg shape will do, this will work just as well on cardboard too.
• Glass Paintable Texture CLDA TX01 – 10oz
• Plastic Knife
• Americana Acrylic Milk Chocolate CLDA174
• Americana Acrylic Burnt Sienna CLDAO63
• Americana Acrylic Dark Chocolate CLDAO65
• Americana Acrylic Lamp Ebony Black CLDAO67
• Small piece of Cardboard

Step 1

Cover the egg with Glass Paintable Texture, leaving a portion uncovered for the head.

Step 2

Drag the ridged edge of knife down the back of the egg, to create the ridges on the back. Leave to dry, preferably overnight.

Step 3

Cover the egg with Americana Acrylic Milk Chocolate and leave to dry. Apply a coat of Burnt Sienna over the spines. Use a dry brush technique to apply the other browns over the spines, alternating browns to give a multicoloured, textured look.

Step 4

Use Ebony Black for the eyes and nose. Cut out foot shapes from the cardboard and paint them in Milk Chocolate. Stick them to the bottom of the Hedgehogs and allow to dry.

DecoArt Patio Paint Outdoor Snow

DecoArt Outdoor Snow creates dimensional effects like snow and stucco for outdoor craft projects. Outdoor snow is weatherproof, permanent, non-yellowing and non-toxic. It wont crack or peel but remains flexible and can be tinted with Patio Paint.

Can be applied to:

• Wood
• Plaster
• Concrete
• Resin
• Plastic
• Metal
• Terra Cotta
• Bricks
• Styrofoam

Hints and Tips

·  Stir gently.

·  Allow first coat to dry before adding more coats.

·  May be tinted up to 30% with Patio Paint.

·  Dries permanently hard in 2-3 hours.

·  Heavier build-up may require slightly longer drying time.

·  Wipe rim of jar and lid before closing jar.

·  Do not use on wearable fabric items.

·  Can be applied like paint to give textured appearance.

·  Wash brush immediately after use.

Projects

Add to Christmas decorations like wreaths, trees and door decorations .

Use with Patio Paint for garden art and outdoor decorations all year round.

  

Outdoor Snow was used on the bottom of the seagull flower pot to create a rock effect. Outdoor snow was applied over a stencil for the textured leaf.

Check out this blog by Holly Leferre for a very original way to spruce up old pots using Outdoor Snow.

 

All the other projects can be found here.

Pirate Sweetie Pot

This pirate sweetie pot makes an excellent Halloween present. And because it's been done in DecoArt acrylics, there’s no need to fire it. Only 4 colours were used and the mug used is currently on special offer at Country Love Crafts making it a cheap Halloween project.

The products used were:

·        CLMC018 Alien Mugs

·        CLDAO78 DecoArt Americana Flesh Tone

·        CLDAO67 DecoArt Americana Lamp Black

·        CLDAO1 DecoArt Americana Snow (Titanium) White

·        CLDA277 Decoart Americana Spa Blue

·        CLDAS12 DecoArt Americana Gloss Spray Sealer

·        Strawberry Laces

Just hear those sleigh bells jingling.....

September has only just arrived and already we are taking orders for Christmas! I'm sure it arrives earlier every year. I've been having fun with some of our new wooden items, adding the glitter really brightened things up during the dull rainy days we've been having.

The deer became my favourite in the end. I felt very uninspired by the wood blank at first, but once I started painting I couldn't stop! Once the eye was added it really felt complete and I am very please with the outcome. I used DecoArt Americana Acrylics for the deer and Duncan No-Fire Snow for the Snow. Though it isn't obvious in the picture I added some craft twinkles to the snow to give it a bit of sparkle.

For the background of the tree I actually used Decopatch paper. I then used Craft Twinkles for the tinsel and liners for the baubles and snowflakes. I think this one would make a great workshop for the kids, allowing them to play with two different techniques in a structured workshop, but the baubles and tinsel allow them to be creative at the same time.

The sleigh would make a lovely take home kit. The DecoArt Metallic 2oz bottles fit perfectly inside! Or you can decant the paint into smaller bottles. Stand the bottles in the sleigh with a small pot of Duncan No-Fire Snow (decant into a small pot, you don't need much) then wrap in Cellophane or even Clingfilm just to keep it all together.

Paint a Pot!

All those flower pot crafts projects we’ve been posting on the website look like so much fun! Unfortunately I didn’t have any terra cotta pots to use, so instead I decided to brighten up some old plastic pots, just as fun and a lot cheaper!  This would be a great idea for a quick workshop, you could even put a plant in at the end!

I started out with some cheap plastic pots from the garden cente, removed the labels and gave them a wash to get rid of all the dirt!

I used DecoArt Patio Paint to do a base colour. This required several coats and some colours covered better than others so it's always worth experimenting. I then used a different colour patio paint to draw a letter. Again this may require a couple coats depending on the colour.

 

I finished them off with DecoArt Americana Gloss Varnish Spray to seal the paint.

A very cheap and easy way to brighten up old pots!

Tips

Make sure the paint has dried thoroughly between each coat, otherwise you end up wiping the first coat off.

I did the last pot in Americana Acrylics rather than patio paint as I ran out of colours, but actually found the Americana Acrylic stuck to the plastic better. I'm not sure if this is just the colour I chose or if the acrylics really do stick better so this may be worth a play.

Definitely use varnish at the end as the paint chips off very easily.



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