DIY Painted Vases

A couple of days ago I saw a bunch of painted flowers at the market that I couldn't take my eyes off of because the colors were so vibrant. I instantly knew that I wanted to make something that would showcase the colors, so I decided to paint bud vases in coordinating colors. Let me start off by saying that I am no painter, but I stumbled upon a technique that seriously anybody can do.

First, here are the flowers that inspired this craft...cool, right?


I then selected acrylic paint in matching colors.


At my son's request I picked up these square-shaped bud vases because they reminded him of inkwells. I wanted to ask him how that related to this particular craft, but I decided not to go there.


So all you have to do is pour the paint into the vase, shake it so that paint covers the entire inside, and then turn the vase upside down to dry (this allows excess paint to drip out as well). That's it!


I painted one vase for each flower color in the bunch (please bear with me - there are 4 colors)...first up, purple:


blue:


pink:


orange:


The hardest part of this craft was waiting for the paint to dry, which took about 24 hours. I've also seen another technique for achieving this look by using spray paint - I think I'll try that next!

A Patriotic Centerpiece That Rocks!

A few years ago I signed up to receive daily organizing tips from Martha Stewart via email - I had to do something to keep motivated! So Tuesday's tip was all about lining your flower beds with river rocks to prevent mud from splashing when it rains...genius! For some reason the idea of using river rocks with flowers inspired me to craft. So, using Martha's useful tip, I decided to make a patriotic centerpiece.

First I rounded up a short glass vase and a glass votive...



I then placed the votive inside the vase and filled the votive with water.



Next I spray painted some river rocks in patriotic colors...



and then placed them inside the vase around the votive in layers.



Finally, I snipped a few flowers from my garden and the centerpiece was complete - too easy!



I hope this inspires you to create something using river rocks - please send me a pic if it does!

Junior Mint Julep Shake

In addition to Mother's Day, the 137th running of the Kentucky Derby will also take place this weekend. Last year I came up with some ideas for kids at a Derby party - you can check them out here. I decided to do a variation on the "Junior Mint Julep" by making it into an ice cream shake (recipe courtesy of 1000easyrecipes.com).

Ingredients
Vanilla Ice Cream
Milk or Half & Half
2 boxes of Junior Mints



Directions
Fill a blender half full of ice cream. Add enough milk to just cover the ice cream. Pour in the Junior Mints. Blend all together until smooth.



Top off the shake with extra candy, a bunch of fresh mint leaves and enjoy! If you want to make the shake into an adult beverage, just add a little rum!