Key/Change Holder Dish

In keeping with the key ring theme, we are making key/change “dishes” as a gift that you can give dad for Father’s Day. They come in quite handy. You can also use these dishes to hold jewelry or little knick knacks.

You can make these dishes from lots of different things. We are going with ceramic dishes and we are using a very cool technique to decorate them. 

You don’t need very many things to create this cool little gift. All you need is some nail polish (your choice what colours you’d like to use; we went with blues), a big plastic tub filled with warm water so you can dunk your dish, and a ceramic dish of some sort (we found a couple at the dollar store).

First of all prepare your work area and put some newspapers down. You might want to have some paper towels and some nail polish remover with cotton pads on stand by. You may also want to wear some latex gloves to protect your hands.

Fill a tub, big enough to dunk the dishes that you have selected, with warmer water.

First we drizzled the nail polish on the surface of the water, swirling it around to make a cool pattern.

Then we dipped the ceramic plate (we also made a little bowl) in slowly and the nail polish will stick to the plate. Don't wait too long after drizzling the nail polish to dip. It may start drying.

Once you have the plate etc. looking as you want it, find a good place to let it dry for a couple of days.

You don’t have to do this last step, but we used a protectant spray to keep our polish sealed on the plate.

DIY Key Chains for Dad

It’s the end of May already! Thinking ahead to Father’s Day, we are going to do a couple of posts all for dad, and this week we are going to show you how to make some key chains. We made these with dad in mind but you can make them for anyone at any time!

The first type was painted. We found some wooden cubes.  The ones we chose had holes already in them which was perfect for the last step of our project. You can pick other shapes as well and then drill holes in them before you paint them.

We painted the cubes. Now we decided to do three for each chain but you can do more. The more you do, the bigger the chain so I’d probably stick to 3-5. We chose some nice colour combos for the three chains that we made. Then we painted.

You probably want to do a couple of coats and then let them completely dry overnight.

Next we wrote on the cubes. I always like to lightly sketch the letter/design with a pencil first before I commit to a final design.

We used a Sharpie, but you can use paint with a really fine tip paint brush, and we traced over our pencil.

Write on all the sides or on just one, two, or three. Do whatever you like. We did a mix.

Since it’s for Father’s Day, we did a couple that say dad and one that says “I ♥ U”.

Lastly we attached some twine to the actual key ring, then the cubes together with the twine.

We connected a couple by knotting the twine between the cubes and then the other one we just put them all on a strand and knotted the ends so they didn’t fall off.

For the second key ring that we did we used hot glue!

First of all you’ll need to pick the paper that you want for the two sides. We decided on a pattern piece along with a solid piece that matched the pattern. Pick whatever you like. You’ll also want to decide on a shape and cut that out with scissors, a punch, or a cutting machine. Make sure the shape is slightly larger than the key ring you are going to use. You’ll need two no matter what size and what type of paper you use.

Lay out some parchment paper to glue on so that the glued piece is easy to remove.

Hot glue over the entire shape being careful not to go off the edges, and do that for both of the matching shapes.

Let it dry completely. Ours warped a bit so we flattened them under heavy books.

We then took some floral wire that we had left over from another project and twisted it into a loop with a “tail.” You can use a different easily bendable wire that you have or you can buy pre-made eye hooks.

Once the two sides are flat and you have your wire/hook ready, then put hot glue on the straight part of the wire/”tail” and stick it down on the inside of one of the sides.

Take the second side and put a thin layer of hot glue and stick them together.

Attach the key ring to the hook.

The finished products...

Painted Wooden Spoons

Only a few more days until Mother’s Day and this week we’re showing you how to make a simple and easy gift...painted wooden spoons.

You can make this for any occasion; a house warming would be a great idea too.

You will need some wooden spoons. You can go to a dollar store to pick up some inexpensive ones or you can go to a kitchen store and buy good quality spoons; you can even make your own wooden spoons if you have the time and skills. If you get the shiny type spoons, you may have to sand them down a bit before painting.

Before we get started we should mention that you would probably want some sort of protectant or curing done if you want to actually use the spoons and not just have them as a decorative item in your kitchen - or else be really careful not to let the painted part touch the food. You can use a food safe protectant or you can cure the spoons (like in this blog here).

We’re going to paint the spoons in an ombre sort of way and we’ve chosen to do them in shades of blue. You can certainly do them this way or you can make the handles a solid colour or a variety of colours. They don’t all have to match and they can be in whatever colours you choose.

We just kind of went for it. We used sponge brushes to apply our paint and we just eyeballed the stripes. You can use painter’s tape if you want it to be more exact and straight.

We put the painted spoons in a mug to dry so that they weren't laying flat on the newspaper getting stuck to things. 

After doing one coat of each colour, we let the spoons dry or a few hours and then applied another coat.

We let them completely dry for a few days.

Since we are just using the spoons as decorations, we’re going to leave them as is (that is without a protectant or cure).

To finish off your spoon decoration gift, you can tie them all up with a thick ribbon and give them to mom on Mother’s Day.