How to easily paint a fun light bulb icon pull chain

You’ve had it happen before.  You enter a room and want to turn on the ceiling fan light but instead of pulling the right cord for the light you turn the fan on full blast.  Not a fun experience right.  Well if you paint a simple but fun light bulb icon pull chain you will never pull the wrong cord by mistake again! 

It’s so easy to paint this light bulb icon pull chain in just minutes.  Then, attach it to your ceiling fan.  Using a piece of recycled champagne or wine cork you simply paint the light bulb with acrylic paint, so it basically costs nothing!  How is that for solving this common household problem?  So lets get started

Materials:

Ultra fine line sharpie marker

White acrylic paint

Silver acrylic paint

Yellow acrylic paint

Clear acrylic finish

Small paintbrush

Champagne or wine cork

Ball chain

X-acto or craft knife

Small awl or drill

Tacky craft glue

Corrugated cardboard or self-healing plastic mat

Fine sandpaper

1.     Working on the cardboard or self-healing mat use the craft knife to slice about ¾” off the top of a wine cork or champagne cork.  A Champagne cork is larger so that is what I used, but you can substitute a wine cork and your light bulb will be smaller.

2.     Use the sandpaper to file down any writing on the top of the cork and to make a smooth surface and remove any writing.

3.     Next, use the awl or drill to make a hole in the cork.  You only need to drill halfway down.  Then, add a dab of tacky craft glue and push the ball chain into the hole and let dry.  You are ready to add your image.

4.     Using the fine line marker draw a light bulb shape on the flat side of the cork.  (Pear shaped, see photo)  Next fill in the bulb with white paint.  Then, add the silver paint for the top of the bulb. 

5.     Finally outline the entire outside area of the bulb with yellow paint and let dry completely.

6.     When the paint has dried, with the marker, draw some highlight lines around the bulb.  Then coat the entire piece with clear finish. Let dry and attach to your ceiling fan light.

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How to quickly make a sweet little rock fairy house

Painting rocks are fun and inexpensive.  I mean a rock is pretty much free right?  And with a little paint, you can make an amazing little rock fairy house.  You can easily paint this rock fairy house with one larger base rock and two small rocks that you glue to the roof after painting them to resemble chimneys. 

Wouldn’t you just love to open that door and go inside?  I’ve set mine up with my little painted rock gnome in a flower pot on my porch!

Rock fairy house

Materials:

Large rock for main house

2 smaller rocks for the chimneys

Acrylic paint in light green, dark pink, raw sienna, burnt umber, red, yellow, dark green, black, and white.

White Gesso

E6000 glue

Medium flat brush, liner brush, and spotter brush

Instructions:

1.     First, cover your work surface with newspaper.  Next, get your rocks, wash and dry them. 

2.     In order for the paint to show up well, use a medium brush to apply a coat of gesso on all the rocks and let dry.

3.     Next, apply a coat of light green paint on the entire large rock and let dry.  While the large rock is drying apply a coat of dark pink on the two smaller rocks. Let the paint dry.

4.     Now, using the liner brush and white paint, add horizontal lines all across the small chimney rocks.  Then, add vertical lines all along the horizontal lines to resemble bricks. Add a small area of dark brown in the center of the rock that will be on the top. (See photo) Set aside and let dry.

5.     Paint the roof tiles. Now, double load your flat brush, one side raw sienna, and the other side burnt umber.  Apply the paint in vertical strokes on the roof, reloading your brush as necessary.  Continue until you have added the tiles to the entire roof. Use the liner brush to add some black lines vertical and horizontal to accent the tiles as needed.

6.     Use E6000 glue to attach the two chimney rocks to each other and then attach to the top of the large main house rock.  Let dry.

7.     Now add the extra little details.  Use the red acrylic paint to make a round door.  Add some vertical lines with white while the paint is still wet to resemble boards.  Paint the windows. Add yellow in the windows.  Paint some flowers with pink, white, and yellow on the windowsills, and all around the edges of the house.  Add other things like butterflies, bunnies, and more flowers as desired.

8.     Let dry and display with pride! And be sure and stop by Make it easy crafts again for more free craft tutorials!

How to paint a fun crazy quilt rock

I admit it.  I love quilts, but they take time and like many people have a limited amount of that!  So since leaving rocks has become a worldwide fad, I figured why not make a few quilt like rocks.  They are quickly painted and so much fun.  This crazy quilt rock is so easy and looks amazing when done!  You can leave your crazy quilt rock in a public place for someone to find, or just keep it yourself for a décor item or a paperweight.

Crazy quilts were quite a fad in the latter part of the 19^th century.  They were made into smaller quilts for framing or lap robes.  They were a way for people to use fancy fabrics and decorate them with unique stitching.  Your crazy quilt rock has all the elements but no stitching required!!!

The crazy quilt rock is so easy and is a fantastic craft for camp, girl scouts, church and senior groups, and more!

Materials:

Rock from a creek or river

Acrylic paint in desired colors

White acrylic paint for stitch lines

Pencil

Small flat brush

Line brush

Paper to protect your work surface

Instructions;

1.     First, wash and dry your particular rock.  Next, draw sections all around the rock with a pencil.  These will be your quilt blocks.

2.     Now fill in each section with a flat brush filling in each block with a different color acrylic paint. And let dry completely.

3.     When your paint is dry load a liner brush with some white acrylic paint.  Then, begin making stitch marks all around each block, varying the design of the stitches.  Try little X’s, or U shapes, diagonal lines, etc. this is where you can be creative just like they did in the 1800’s.  You can even write a message on a block such as “love”, or “peace,” etc.

4.     Let dry and your rock is ready to spread the love!

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