DIY Sharpie Mug

Hello everyone!

I hope you all had a fabulous Christmas with your families! I know I said I was going to share this before Christmas, but I forgot that one of these mugs was for my little sister and I didn't want her snooping on here and finding it. So, I'm sharing it now!

I'm sure if you are on Pinterest, you've seen the new "Sharpie Mug" craze. Well, I thought this would be the perfect craft. Especially, when my sister told me she wanted a mug with a music quote on it for when she drinks tea. So as usual, I began doing some extensive research. And I mean EXTENSIVE.  I literally googled for days before finally starting this project.

Some of the most helpful videos I found with tips and tricks are here and here.

What you need:

• Oil Based Sharpie Paint markers (I got mine at Wal-Mart)
• Cheap White Mugs (I attempted to find some at my local Dollar tree, but they were all out, so I went to Wal-Mart and got these for $1.75 each. And of course, a few days later, Dollar Tree stocked back up)
• An oven

Step 1. Wash and dry your mugs.

 

Step 2. Now add your designs.

 

I scoured Pinterest for ideas for my mug (the far right) and finally just decided to wing it. You can either freehand the designs with the paint marker (which I did) or draw with a pencil so you can erase mistakes. If it's a big design (like the middle cup) then you should go over it twice.

 

Step 3. Let your mugs sit for about 24 hours.

Step 5. Place your mugs on a cookie sheet in a cool oven.

**Keep in mind that some colors will change when baking! My yellow turned out more of a gold and the pink ended up darker**

 

Step 6. Put your oven on 450 degrees and bake for 30 minutes.

 

WARNING: Your house will smell terrible while doing this.

 

Step 7. Once 30 minutes have elapsed, turn off the oven and allow your mugs to sit in there until it is cool. (I let mine sit overnight)

This is my finished product. As you can see, the colors did change a bit, but not too drastically.

I did not test these in the dishwasher because I was too scared to mess them up. One of the videos I linked to tests them and they do fine. However, I chose to hand wash them so that they will last longer.

Let me know how this turns out for you!

Recreations? #countryclassdiy

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DIY Honey Spot Treatment

Hello again!

 

I've been super busy lately looking for a car (I finally found one) and I'm also starting my own store on storenvy.com to sell scarves and stuff!

 

Here is a review/test that I've been promising you for who knows how long! I'm finally going to tell you about the DIY honey spot treatment I've been trying out.

 

What you need

•  Organic honey (I used the stuff from my local Meijer, because that's what we had!)
• Q-tips
• Gauze/band-aids (optional)

 

I'm going to apologize ahead of time for the strange faces in some of these pictures. I never know what to do with my face, and I don't want to look angry.

 

This is what my face looked like the day I started using this spot treatment:

 

To use this, simply take a Q-tip and get a small mount of honey on it. Then cover any pimples with the honey. You can then cover those spots with cut up gauze or band aids. Then go to sleep!

 

I used the gauze the first few times, but it kept falling off while I was sleeping and I would find it all over my room. So now I just put the honey on and go to bed. It's much easier!

 

What my face looked like with the gauze and honey:

 

This is a week or so later and you can see that the larger pimples have started to fade:

This is a little over a month after I started using this method:

Unfortunately, I stopped taking progress pictures, but as you can see, the honey treatment really helped my skin.

 

I will say that you do have to be persistent with it because it won't really help you if you don't keep on it.

 

I have since switched my skincare routine and began using an Avon face wash line, which has substantially helped to get rid of my acne. You can try it out here. The great news is that it is currently ON SALE for $19.99 which is a great deal!

 

I now use honey as a spot treatment whenever I get a problem pimple and it still works great!

 

Let me know what skin care tricks you use!

 

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Teal crackle nails

Hello again!

 

I'm super excited for my current DIY project to be finished so I can share it with you all! But for now, I'll share the manicure I did for my cousin's wedding in September (I'm behind, I know)!

 

This is a super simple mix and match manicure that you really only need a few simple things for!

 

Here is the finished look:

 

What you need:

•  Base Coat (Avon Ridge Filling Base Coat)
• Black polish(I used my Art Deco polish because I apparently don't have a regular black polish)
• Gelous
• Top Coat (Seche Vite)
• Black Crackle polish (Sally Hansen Ink Splatter)
• White Polish (OPI Alpine Snow)
• Mint Polish (Wet n' Wild I need a refresh-mint)
• White detailing polish/polish brush
• Dotting tool

***See my tutorial for DIY Gel Manicure here

Step 1. Paint a layer of your base coat.

 

Step 2. Paint a thin layer of white on your thumb nail.

Step 3. Paint the rest of your nails with your mint color.

Step 4. Now paint one of your teal nails with your crackle polish. Also, add another coat of white if needed.

Step 5. Take your dotting tool and place dots on your thumb nail. I think I had too many, but really, it's all up to you!

Step 6. Again, using your dotting tool, place two dots at the base of your pointer and ring fingers.

Step 7. Take your white striper and place some stripes on your pinky nail.

Clean up your nails with a concealer brush, or in the shower and you're done!

Let me know what you think!

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Mix and Match Christmas Nails

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Navy and Glitter Nails

Hello everyone!

 

I want to apologize in advance for the terrible final picture of this manicure! I literally have no clue why I thought it looked good! Terrible clean up on my part!

 

Enough of that, though! Yesterday, I was rear ended on my way to work and things aren't looking good for my beloved Escape, so how appropriate that this post features it's steering wheel as a background?

 

I did this manicure a few months back and it's super simple, but I absolutely love this color from Essie called No More Film!

What You Need:

•  Top coat (I use Seche Vite)
• Base color (Essie No More Film)
• Glitter Topper (Essie Stroke of Brilliance)
• Base coat (Avon Ridge Filling Base coat)
• Gelous Nail Gel

I'm not going to go through and tell you step by step how to paint your nails, since this manicure is so simple, but below, I will tell you my fool proof method of getting your nails to last 12 days or more!

To get your nails to last with Gelous, I have found the best method to be as follows:

 

Step 1. Paint a base coat of your choice. My current favorite is the ridge filling base coat from Avon. You can purchase it here.

 

Step 2. Paint one thin coat of your base color. Let dry.

 

Step 3. Paint a thin layer of Gelous. Let dry.

 

Step 4. Paint another layer of your base polish (if needed). Let dry.

 

Step 5. This step is optional, but if you're doing and designs, do those now. Let dry.

 

Step 6. Paint a layer of your top coat. Let dry. (A fast drying top coat like Seche Vite works best!)

 

Step 7. Paint one last layer of Gelous and let dry.

 

Below is my wear test of this manicure using this process:

 

As you can see, by say 7, there was minimal wear to the tips.

By day 12, I had to take it off because of how much my nails had grown out and I personally can't stand when my nail polish chips, so I started peeling it. Bad habit, I know!

I absolutely love this method and hopefully you all do too! Don't worry, I have plenty of tutorials to come! Hopefully I'll figure my car situation out!

Let me know what you think in the comments section!

Recreations? #countryclassdiy

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DIY Monkey Canvas

Hello again!

 

I just realized I haven't posted anything since November 4th. Sorry! I'm not dead, just busy with school and preparing for finals next week!

 

I have tons of posts to get caught up on and I've finally started working on the honey one I've been promising you for forever! I would have done that one first, but I just had to post this one because it seems like everyone I know is having babies and this is the perfect personalized baby shower gift!

 

I made this canvas for some of our friends who had a little girl and they absolutely loved it!

 

What you need:

• Canvas (I used 18x24" from Wal Mart)
• A sponge brush (I got this one from Michaels)
• Acrylic paints (I got mine from Wal Mart and Michaels and used: White, Green, a Baby Blue, Brown a Light Pink, Black, and Red)
• Paint brushes of different sizes (I got mine from Wal Mart)
• A plate for mixing paints
• Some plain white printer paper
• Scotch tape (Or you can improvise with duct tape like me)
• A Pencil

Step 1. Take whichever color you want to use as a background and pain the entire front of the canvas with this. I used my light pink for this step.

Step 2. While waiting for this paint to dry, start sketching out your monkey (Or whatever animal you choose).

 

You can always print something and trace it, I just googled cartoon monkeys and free handed this one.

As you can see, I had to tape two pieces of paper together to finish my monkey, which wasn't a big deal, other than the fact that we had no Scotch tape, so I improvised!

Step 3. Now paint the sides of the canvas with your background color. I find that the easiest way to do this is by lifting it up like I am doing below.

Step 4. Now, paint the general outline of your vine. This doesn't have to be perfect, so don't worry about super clean lines!

Step 5. Take your drawing and scribble all over the back with your pencil, making sure to cover all spots where there are lines drawn.

Step 6. Now, place the back side of your drawing (the one you just scribbled on) onto the canvas however you want to arrange it. With a dull pencil, press down firmly (but not too firmly) and trace over all of the lines.

 

You should have something like this:

(Sorry about the terrible picture, but the lines were so faint it was hard to get a good shot)

Step 7. Now outline all of the darker body parts with your brown, basically, leave out the hands, feet, and facial area.

Step 8. Fill what you just outlined in with a slightly larger brush.

Step 9. Now, mix a couple of drops of white paint in with your brown to create a lighter brown for the hands, feet, stomach, and face.

Step 10. Fill those areas in.

Don't be too worried about the color, though. I honestly hated this color when I was first painting it, but I figured there was no turning back so I left it. I'm actually glad I left it because it looks much better now that it has dried!

Step 11. Mix your pink with a few small drops of red to make the color for the ears.

Step 12. Fill the ears in.

Step 13. Fill your eyes in with white then add the black for the pupil.

Step 14. If you're adding a name, you can either print the letters and transfer them like you did the monkey, or you can freehand them, which is what I chose to do.

Step 15. Fill your letters in and let dry!

 

My little sister was hanging out with me when I was painting and she wanted to paint on my drawing of the monkey, so I decided to take some pictures to share with you all!

 

We were both exhausted because I was doing this at 10 at night and didn't finish until like midnight, but we had a great time!

 

If you have kids, this would be a fun thing for them to do while you work on painting the canvas!

Here is her finished product! (She hung it up on the fridge after this for my mom to see in the morning!)

Let me know what you guys think!

Don't forget to post your recreations to #countryclassdiy

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