Lilly Ashley: March 2012

3.30.2012

Easter printable

Here's another Easter printable!! We are only 9 days away from Easter!

This one is 8x10 and completely free! If you choose to download and are not already following The Latest Find, I would love for you to follow through GFC or Linky Followers (for the bloggers) and Facebook or Twitter!

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That way you will stay updated when new printables come available.

Click on the pic and it will take you to the download!

Be sure to check out my Printables page by clicking HERE for other Easter/Spring printables, as well as chevron and quatrefoil!

Hope everyone is having a great Spring so far!!

Stay tuned for more latest finds and printables!

Participating in...

3.28.2012

Re-using food jars for Spring decor...

So I am officially creating a series on re-using food jars and turning them into spring decor! So far, I have used a pickle jar (view HERE) and a Prego Pizza sauce jar (view HERE). Today, I'm doing a Ragu spaghetti sauce jar. Each kind of jar definitely gives a different look, depending on the shape of the jar.

So after I got my spaghetti sauce cooking for lunch, I got started fixing up my jars! (Two regular sized jars of Ragu flavored with meat, add cooked ground beef, let simmer on low for 3 hours, comes out really good!!) I rinsed the jars out good with dish soap and hot water. Then let them completely dry.

After that comes the fun part of getting the labels off the jars. Most of it peels right off, except the edge where it's glued on (as seen in the above pic). So that's my jar and the paint I used (pic above). The paint brand is craft smart, the color is Light Pink... 59 cents at Michael's!! For one jar, it uses just about 1 oz of paint, maybe slightly more.

Just squirt in some paint, and start turning and rolling the jar, to cover all of the glass inside. Tapping the edge of the jar helps the paint to move also. To avoid using more paint than needed, don't squirt in too much at once. Cover what you can with what you've put in there, then add more.

I got ahead of myself this time and added the paint before getting my hubby to help me get the rest of the label off...

There's a view of the inside, and rolling the paint around in there!

After all of your glass is covered inside, all the way to the top, turn it upside down on a paper cup that it fits into, to let your excess paint drip out. The top edge of the jar will need a little cleaning up afterwards

Add some twine, and you're finished!

Now here's my comparison!

And here it is on display! Perfect for spring decorating, easy and super-inexpensive!

Once the inside is completely dry, I can add my flowers! If you do add flowers, just be careful when putting the flowers into the jar, the stems can scratch the paint. I'm trying to figure out some kind of top coat I could add into the inside of the jar that's clear. Any ideas??

Stay tuned for another food jar re-do (hint...it's the white jar in the pics above)!!

7/21/15 UPDATE...Be sure to click our Make it Create banner at the top of the page and check through some of our most recent posts which include tons of freebie downloads...from svg cutting file sets to printables to freebie digital paper packs! Check back soon for more freebies as well!

3.25.2012

Turn a jar into spring decor part 2

If you missed my first "Turn a food Jar into Spring Decor" post, you can find it HERE! That project used a pickle jar. Today's project uses a Prego Pizza Sauce jar! I've decided to re-use my empty food jars rather than toss them when they're empty!

Since I forgot to snap a pic before I quickly got started tearing the label off, I'm using a generic pizza sauce jar pic. But that was the exact jar I used. It's slightly smaller than a spaghetti sauce jar.

I used an acrylic craft paint for this one as well. Believe it or not, it's a different color than I used for the pickle jar, although they look about the same. When you apply acyrilic color inside of a clear jar, the color outcome is slightly lighter than if you were to use the paint on wood or canvas. Keep that in mind when picking out your color!

First I washed out the jar with soap and water. I didn't let this one sit overnight, because in my experience with my pickle jar, the acrylic paint has it's own smell that definitely takes over any food smell the jar contained. But let it sit awhile, to get most of the food smell out, if not all.

Sometimes labels are hard to peel off of jars, and sometimes they come off in pieces. Use whatever method you've tried or product you've used to help get that gooey residue from the label off of the jar!

It took about half of a small craft paint to completely cover the inside of the jar. I squeeze some paint into the jar, hold the jar horizontally, and turn it so that the paint starts to cover all the way around. I put in a little at a time rather than just squeeze a bunch in there, that way there won't be too much to have to let run out as it dries.

Keep turning and tapping the jar (tapping helps too) and adding a little more paint until all of the glass is covered, then turn it upside down on top of a plastic or paper cup, to let the excess run out, and let it dry.

Then add your twine, or anything else you want to use to finish off the jar!

The result...

7/21/15 UPDATE: Click the Make it Create banner at the top of the page to head to our most updated posts full of free svg cutting file sets, printables, and digital paper packs! Check back soon for more freebies as well!

3.19.2012

Spring & Easter Printables

Here's a few freebie printables for Easter and Spring!

7x5

10x8

5x7

10x8

5x7

8x10

For more printables, visit my printables page by clicking HERE!
Follow along via Facebook/Twitter/Pinterest to stay updated on tons more free printables to come!!

3.16.2012

Pickle Jar Makeover...

I've seen lots of great ideas for re-using empty bottles and jars, so right before tossing the pickle jar, I decided to try something with it!! Being that it was a pickle jar, it definitely needed some soap and water...overnight! I filled it with warm water and dish soap, then left it all night. In the morning I washed it out, and sure enough, no smell left whatsoever! Yay!

I had some blue paint leftover from THIS project, where I started my spring decorating. I love the shade of blue, so I had to use the rest of it on something. I've seen many projects where the paint is poured into the glass (or vase, or jar, or ornament) and swirled around to color it, rather than painting the outside.

It worked really well with this pickle jar. It easily coated the glass, and dried evenly. I left it upside down balanced on a cup to dry, so that the extra paint could drip out in to the cup. Then I wrapped twine around the top of the jar, and added some flowers from outside!

It goes perfectly right next to my stenciled wall plaque. Now my shelf is completely spring-ified!!

Update 4/12/12: I've been getting some questions as to whether you can use water in the jars, and in a later post (click HERE) in this series, I share some tips as to which paint/finishing spray to use. It is recommended to use a matte finishing spray the same brand as the acrylic paint that you use. As long as you use 1-2 good coats of finishing spray, the paint does not seem to rub off when water is added into the jar. If there is no finishing spray used, the paint will rub off into the water. Click HERE to skip ahead to later on in this series where I have done a Bertolli alfredo sauce jar, Ragu jar, pizza sauce jar, and Pace salsa jar!

I will now think twice before getting rid of my spaghetti jars and pickle jars! So many possibilities and colors...

7/21/15 UPDATE: Click on our Make it Create banner at the top of the page to head to our newest posts full of freebie downloads, from free svg cutting file sets to printables to digital paper packs! Check back soon for more freebies!

3.13.2012

Spring decorating...

Welcome to part 1 of Spring Decorating on a Budget!

Decorating definitely does not have to be expensive. We've been in our home for less than a year, so I still have a lot of decorating to do! Instead of spending a huge amount of money, I came up with some ideas to add to my decor without spending a ton!

I finally started some Spring decorating! My first project was shelf decor, this time by the front door. My original inspiration for this project was from Christina's Adventures Winter Dollar Store Wall Art. In her project, she found some wooden plaques at the Dollar Store, and painted over them for some winter wall decor! Since I had a few of those wooden plaques left that I didn't use, I'm putting them to use for Spring Dollar store wall decor!

I decided to give stenciling a try! I found some blue craft paint at Michael's (I got Apple Barrel by Plaid, and the color is called "cloudless") along with some white paint. I picked the pattern I wanted to use for the stencil. Stencil and painting experts probably don't have this problem, but for me (a stenciling beginner), there was a lot of post-stencil touch-up involved using a small paintbrush, to make it look really good!