I love making stuff. Can't paint worth a damn (I leave that to painters) but I love to make things. That isn't limited to artsy-type stuff; I make pickles, tomato gravy, stuff like that, too. Making anything relaxes me; it takes just enough focus that the voices in my head don't go batshit crazy, but not enough that my brain can't slow down a bit.
And when I stepped into the new art thrift store at Creative Clay's new location, my brain started pinging at 100 miles a minute. See, it's a room filled with donated arts (and crafts) supplies only, and almost everything is bought by donation. Looking around, I could see seven different projects to try — all on the Creative Pinning Pinterest board.
The first thing I saw? Tea towels. Everywhere. Someone donated hundreds of them. Now, I'm not much for fancy, but I am about to have a pig roast, where it's gonna get messy. Guess what my guests need? Yup, napkins. So why not take these and use a rubber stamp to make them more... less boring. Instead of ink, use acrylic paint (they have tons there) mixed with acrylic paint medium (which is really watered down glycerin) to make it fabric paint. Voila.
Speaking of acrylic paint, they have a ton of those little bottles there, and I have an obsession to make old wine bottles look like they're old sea glass, accomplished by mixing a few drops of acrylic paint with Mod Podge and dish soap and brushing it on the glass. Seriously, it works. You can bake it it the oven to make it stick (or use sealer), which I didn't because I'm doing it for party I'm throwing this Saturday and after that they don't need to last.
My mom taught me to always send thank you notes. Honestly, this is so basic you really don't even need to click the link to see what to do, but if you do... some people take rubber stamps to a whole other level. As you can see, I'm pretty basic. I left plenty of rubber stamps for everyone else — they have at least two bins of them there.
They have some serious sand dollars at Creative Thrift. I'm not sure how that qualifies as an "art supply" but I do know Pinterest is lousy with things to do with sand dollars.
OK, so you're gonna need plain brown craft paper for the wrapping paper — when I was there Creative Thrift didn't have any, but that doesn't mean someone won't drop some off — but use their vast selection of paint, scrapbooking supplies, pastels and rubber stamps to make a 3-D gift box or bag. Tip: If you use pastels, coat the work with a light spritz of hair spray to set it, and it won't rub off on anything else.
Word has it that Leslie Curran donated some fantastic make-your-own-size picture frames (OK, word has it because I have some) and they're waiting for you to frame all those photos you have lying around. They're black — and they have other, pre-made frames in specific sizes — but you can paint them or jazz 'em up however you want.
