Personalised and handmade gifts are always a lot more special to the recipient. Here at Bee Creative Art Hub we always think about up-cycling old furniture and making things from scratch to be kinder to our environment. Below you can find information and instructions on how to create your own personalised gifts. You can also look at the pictures of our own designs for ideas.
What you will need:
-Plain wooden coasters
-Chalky finish furniture paint (any colour you like)
-Non-tamishing wax gilt (metallic)
-Metallic finishing wax or clear finishing wax
Method:
Step 1- Take your plain set of coasters and pick a colour that you would like to paint them. We recommend using a chalky finish furniture paint which helps give the coaster a vintage and worn look later on.
Step 2- Once the paint dries, you can either take a different colour and dry brush the coasters to age them or simply take some sandpaper and sand away the paint a little bit.
Step 3- Now its time to pick your stamps; apply ink to your chosen design and gently press it down on your coasters. You can use multiple ink colours depending on the kind of design that you’re going for.
Step 4- You can now add a bit of metallic non-famishing wax gilt to make your coasters shine and catch light in some areas. This step is optional.
Step 5- Finally you can add some finishing wax. Use metallic for a slightly pearly finish or clear for a more toned down look.
2) Tote Bag
What you will need:
-A plain tote bag
-Your choice of IOD stamps
-Fabric paint or chalky finish furniture paint diluted with water (any colour you like)
-Metallic fabric paint (any colour you like)
Method:
Step 1- Take your plain tote bag and decide whether you want to paint the edges or leave them plain.
Step 2- Once you’ve done this you can start choosing you stamps and using fabric paint to print your design on the bag.
Step 3- If you like, you can add some metallic fabric paint to your design to make it stand out.
Step 4- Let the paint dry and then iron the bag to seal in the paint.
3) Tea towels
What you will need:
-A plain tea towel
-IOD ink-Your choice of stamps
Method:
Step 1- Plan the design that you want to put on your tea towel and choose your stamps.
Step 2- Apply the IOD ink to your stamps and then print your design on.
Step 3- Iron the tea towel to seal in the ink.
4) Pillowcase
What you will need:
-A plain pillowcase
-Your choice of stamps
-Chalky finish furniture paint ( diluted if necessary)
-IOD ink
Method:
Step 1- Plan your design and pick your stamps.
Step 2- Start applying paint or ink to your stamps and printing your design.
Step 3- Iron the pillowcase to seal the design.
5) Upcycled chair
What you will need:
-An old chair (preferably prep and paint it beforehand)
-Some plain fabric
-IOD ink
-Fabric paint
Method:
Step 1- Paint and prep your chair. You can later sand some of the paint off to make it look worn and vintage.
Step 2- Swap the old fabric of the seat for some new plain fabric.
Step 3- Plan which stamps you are going to use.
Step 4- Apply ink to your stamps and start printing directly onto the fabric. You can use fabric paint for accents.
Step 5- Iron the seat to seal in the paint.
