RELAX

Posted on February 27, 2015 by walnuthollowcrafts

By Chris Wallace for Walnut Hollow

Take a deep breath…once again…..now R-E-L-A-X. I’m not speaking for everyone, but many of us do not do this enough. We get caught up in the rat-race of life and forget to RELAX.

This home décor piece is a reminder and provides inspiration for us to remember to relax. I used one of the NEW Rustic Pallet pieces now available – Rustic Pallet, 8” x 30”.

Use a large flat brush to paint the entire Rustic Pallet and each 5” Letter with DecoArt® Americana Décor®, Chalky Finish. I used Serene for the Pallet and Delicate for each Letter. I love this paint! It’s so easy to apply and no need to seal the paint prior to using.

Once everything is thoroughly dry, use a sanding block or an electric sander to begin the process of a worn or vintage look. Sand all the way down to the raw wood here and there!

Use the Crème Wax in Deep Brown to antique the Pallet and Letters. Apply the Wax with a large flat brush and remove the excess with a soft cloth. Once all is dry, you can buff everything with a clean soft cloth.

Now it’s time to adhere the Letters to the Pallet. The best product to use is the Tombow® Power Adhesive Tabs. Place a few Power Tabs on the back of each Letter, peel off the little paper and press in place on the Pallet.

What I love about the look you achieve with the Chalky Finish on the Rustic Pallet pieces is that the wood still looks “rustic”, but the sanding makes it smooth to the touch. Perfect!

Letters & Numbers

Posted on June 20, 2014 by walnuthollowcrafts

By Chris Wallace for Walnut Hollow

A few Blogs ago I talked about some products we have at Walnut Hollow and the differences and similarities. I thought I would do that again – this time with our Letters & Numbers. Because people have always liked to personalize craft projects and individual letters and numbers are so popular – they are all over Pinterest – it might be a good idea to show you what is available. We have 3 different sizes.

Let’s begin with the smallest. They are 1 ½” and are laser cut. They are thin (.15”), made from plywood and come 2 in a package with edges that are brownish because of the way they are cut. We have the alphabet, numbers 0-9, an ampersand and a punctuation package with bars, commas, period and asterisks.

I like that they are on the small size and fit perfectly on our Rustic Pallet items. Here, I used them for a quote by the fictional character in The Help, Aibileen Clark.

These are our 5” letters. They are made from pine and are ¾” thick – so they will stand on a flat surface. We have the alphabet and ampersand in this size. They are perfect for painting, staining, decoupage, glitter, buttons, wood burning, stamping and adding other embellishments.

This is a great project made with the 5” letter and a Wood Panel (we used the reversed side that is like a frame) for Ethan’s Room – you can tell that he loves cars!

The third set of letters are 18”. They are made from Baltic Birch and are ½” thick. Each letter includes one or two keyholes so they can hang flush on a wall. We have the alphabet and ampersand in this size also – perfect for personalized home décor, wedding décor and fun mixed media projects.

I sprayed these 18” letters with Krylon® Chalkboard Spray and decorated them with the Marvy/Uchida® Bistro Chalk Markers. They were fun and easy to make and Sara and Kenny loved them in their home.

Hope that helps to clarify any questions about our Letters & Numbers – they are all great to use for your crafting and Pinterest projects!

Table Top Quilt Sign

Posted on May 24, 2014 by walnuthollowcrafts

If you are coming from Judi Kauffman’s post then you are in the right place! Thank you for following along with the Walnut Hollow®+ Ann Butler Designs™ Blog Hop!

Be sure to leave comments on the Walnut Hollow Blog to enter to win this prize! We’ll chose a winner Wednesday, May 28th for our Blog Hop prize randomly drawn from your comments. The winner will be announced via the Walnut Hollow Facebook Page.

I have never actually made a quilt- but I love the way that they look! I adore textiles and their unique patterns and colors. When I received the Ann Butler inks, paints and stamps I was really excited to make a “quilt like” project. There are several quilt makers in the Walnut Hollow office and I created this project for them! It would make a great addition to any quilter’s studio, sewing room or crafting space!

I started out with Walnut Hollow’s 5″ Wooden Letters and a 23″ Wide Name Signboard. I sprayed a base coat of Krylon ColorMaster White Primer.

I painted the edges of each letter using a different color of Earth Safe Finishes Ann Butler Designs Iridescents. The colors are bold and go on very smooth. They have a subtle shine that really enhanced the appearance of the paint when I applied it over the white base coat. It took 2 coats of each color to get a nice vivid hue.

When the Earth Safe Finishes Ann Butler Designs Iridescents was dry I picked out all of the 2″ square Ann Butler Designs Unity Stamps. I practiced stamping them with the Clearsnap® ColorBox® Crafter’s by Ann Butler. Once I was comfortable with the stamps and ink, I used random squares stamps to stamp onto my letters. I used all of the colors of the Clearsnap® ColorBox® Crafter’s by Ann Butler to create a “quilt like” pattern on all of my letters.