Dollar Store Mosaic Pumpkin, Dollar Store Stone Planters and more Dollar Halloween Ideas

Sharing a couple of quick projects I completely recently that 

happen to be dollar store projects including this mosaic pumpkin.

It started when I decided to cover a couple of planters of 

artificial grass with stones. These grasses are the type

you can find in lots of stores where the fake grass is embedded in foam

and glued into a ceramic or clay pot. I didn't care for the pots they 

were in and hunted for other pots to stick them in but then just decided

to cover them with stones.

I grabbed a couple of bags of rocks from Dollar Tree.

I smeared the existing planters with a very thick layer of 

ceramic adhesive. I tinted my adhesive with a little 

brown Tints-all colorant so it wouldn't be stark white.

This adhesive is not recommend for constant water exposure

and I'm not sure if it can be used in areas that freeze.

We live in Florida so that's usually not a problem and I have

them out on our covered patio so they don't get wet, unless you

count the humidity!

After adhesive is smeared on, simply push the rocks into the adhesive.

It's easier to do sections at a time but I'm impatient and did it all at once

very carefully, except for the edges at the top and bottom.

Just make sure the adhesive is thick enough to really grab your rocks.

I forgot to take a "before" pic of the other planter but I applied the same

technique with this planter...I had two of them so you can see the

before on the right and after on the left.

When completely dry, I sprayed them with clear lacquer to bring the 

color out and add a glossy finish. I covered the artificial grass

with a plastic bag to keep the lacquer from getting on the leaves.

I have them out on our porch for a little extra color/greenery.

In my defense of using artificial greenery...I do have a live palm

tree out here as well!

While I was at the dollar store, Halloween decor was out so I snagged

a mini foam pumpkin. Wow! They used to have decent looking little faux 

pumpkins like I used for my studded dollar store pumpkins years ago. 

This one was pretty hideous, but... I bought it anyway.

As you might know, I'm a mosaic artist and had beautiful

red/orange stained glass scraps that I thought would be

perfect for this sad little pumpkin. I snipped the scraps into

little triangles.

I use Weldbond glue and I love it because it's non toxic and no

fumes but it is not an instant set glue. This is fine when I'm working 

on mosaics on a flat surface but on this guy I worked in sections

on it's side letting each section dry before moving to the next.

Glass is complete

I grouted with sand colored grout...cute, but...wasn't the look 

I had in mind...

So I painted the grout with orange acrylic paint...

better, but not exactly sold on it. 

And yes you can paint grout, I use this same technique for my 

octopus mosaic surfboard to get the red background color on the tentacles.

Simply paint, then quickly wipe away any excess paint from the tiles.

Lastly I added a wash of metallic gold over the orange paint and

this was more the look I had in mind.

You can see the DIY solar pumpkins I was working on the

background.

Before and after.

Now I realize everyone doesn't have access to stained glass pieces

but I'm thinking your could do the same process with glass stones,

pennies or even stones like the planters above. They had "pebble" sized

stones that were much smaller than the rocks I used on the planters.

I added the little mosaic pumpkin to other Fall decorations in 

our entryway.

While we are on the dollar store train, you might remember the dollar 

store spooky skull candlesticks I made a few years ago. 

One of my sister's wanted them so they live with her now.

I saw more skulls when at the dollar store, I kind of wish 

I had picked one up to mosaic it too!

My pumpkin is shown with the DIY large Halloween raven 

I also made from scratch and I tell you exactly how I made it!

I love the challenge of taking something simple, like a bag of rocks

or cheap foam pumpkin, and making it look like a million bucks...ok maybe not

a million but at least $10 bucks! lol

Thanks for reading about my dollar store ideas.

Visit my new online store for coastal and nature themed mosaic art, and

coastal ornaments. 

Find me on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Youtube

Cheers!

~Lucy

DIY Hand Painted Wine Glasses with Peacock Feather Design, Tutorial Painted Wine Glasses

I recently painted a set of peacock feather wine glasses

I used to paint on glass a lot, making decorative glass bottles, 

drinking glasses or decorative painting on vintage windows

 and it's a lot of fun and easy to do.

I found these great 20oz Libbey wine glasses at my local Dollar store.

I have a bunch of different colors and brands of glass paints on hand. 

They all require baking in the oven after curing to make them more durable.

I used both the Folk Art Enamels and the Deco Art Enamels on this project

depending on the color I needed. 

You can combine different brands of bake-able paints, just

read the directions and if they have two different oven temps listed,

use the lower of the two and it should be fine.

When painting on a glass remember your first coat is the one you are going to see

on the inside, so you want it to look pleasing from that angle.

This shows the start of the feather and I used metallic gold for the first coat.

This shows the outside of the glass after applying several coats...

Any metallic gold glass paint will be too sheer with just one coat.

I used a base of the metallic gold, so it will be pretty from the inside,

let dry, then topped it with a yellowish tan coat (or any yellow color similar to the metallic gold)

 and let dry then end with a final coat of the metallic gold. 

This will give you the opaque metallic gold base for the feather.

I painted a turquoise round spot on top of  the metallic gold base, followed by

 bright blue with a hint of dark purple. Give each coat a chance to dry

before adding the next layer. They dry pretty quickly especially when

working on more than one glass.

When painting circles or rounded shapes, a Filbert or Oval Wash Brush 

like the one in this photo, makes it super simple.

I knew I wanted my design to sort of wrap around the glass, so

I started with the feather stem and swirled it around to the other side.

I love peacock feathers and use the design in lots of projects...

Like these painted wood Valentine heart ornaments...

Hand painted Christmas ornaments

Peacock Feather Dragonfly...

And even peacock feather butterfly... 

I definitely love peacock feathers!

I started adding the rest of the feather using a long liner brush.

This type of  brush makes it easy to apply long, sweeping strokes.

The back...

It doesn't have to be perfect, no one will be examining every stroke...

if they are, serve them another glass of wine. 😜

I continued layering different colors of green, one was a pearlescent green

but you can use whatever greens you like. You could also make the feathers

blue, purple, gold or whatever look you are going for.

 For the final touch, I added strokes of metallic gold.

When adding layers using glass paint, you have to make sure what you 

are painting over is dry or it will lift the paint up...don't want that.

Back...

Inside view.

After curing for 24 hours, bake according to your 

paint directions for added durability.

Update December 2016

Sold out and I'm no longer creating the wine glasses. Thank you!

Paint your own or visit my Etsy store, I usually have sets of four listed there. 

This set had beautiful green stems. You could also paint 

this design on the stemless wine glasses.

Thanks for stopping by and reading about my wine glasses!

Update June 2017

Visit my new online store featuring my mosaic art.!

I still have some items and clearance items in my Etsy shop

You can also find me on Facebook, Instagram, Youtube and Pinterest too.

Flamingo Mosaic Garden Art Made from Plastic Pink Dollar Store Flamingo

Update May 2017, visit my new online shop featuring 

my coastal and nature themed mosaic art.

I found pink plastic flamingos while at Dollar Tree one day and purchased a 

couple thinking I would paint them in a fun design. I ended up putting

them on a shelf in my studio and I kind of forgot about them!

When working on a Mosaic Surfboard I spotted one of  thos flamingos 

and decided to try my hand making a mosaic flamingo too.

Sorry I don't have "during" photos but it's pretty straightforward.

I roughed up the surface with coarse sandpaper and used Acrylpro ceramic tile 

adhesive to attach the pink and orange stained glass tile and set aside to dry.

Since I work with stained glass I happened to have some on hand and I cut

the tiles myself. You can probably find pre-cut stained glass pieces online

or maybe even pink ceramic tile and you could smash it with a hammer...

cover the tiles with a towel and wear safety glasses!

After it was dry, I grouted with white grout.

He came with black wire legs that stick into the body. When I was 

grouting, I stuck a little nail in the holes so I would know where they were.

The legs are hard to see in the pic.

Since the plastic flamingo is much heavier now with the glass and grout, I had to do 

some finagling to get him to stand straight.

If I make another, I would find thicker wire or maybe even rods of

rebar to use for the legs.

I used little black beads for the eyes

He looks great! I ended up moving and selling him at my yard sale so 

I'm not sure how he ended up after living outside although I imagine the results would 

be great since it was a plastic base and the adhesive and the grout are both safe for outdoor use.

Visit my online store featuring my mosaic art.

You can also find some of my pieces in my Etsy store

as well as Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and my Youtube channel.

DIY Dollar Store Fall Halloween Decor ~ Studded Decorative Pumpkins using Thumbtacks

Studded pumpkins from the Dollar Store

I bought these little pumpkins at the Dollar Store and also a box of gold thumbtacks

I used spray primer and ivory spray paint on the pumpkins,

 then brushed on watered down brown paint and wiped off to give them an antiqued look

I bought thumbtacks too... bright, shiny, gold thumbtacks. 

But... I wanted a more antiqued look.

  

 I emptied about half of the tacks out of their container and used spray paint, bronze I think, 

to spray some shots into the box, closed it and shook 'em up.  

I dumped them out on a plate to dry, took about 2 minutes.... and did the same with the rest of the tacks.

As luck would have it, while I was on the second batch, I accidentally picked up the ivory spray paint that I used for the pumpkins....oops. 

 But in the end, it was fine and actually gave me more variation. 

I love thumbtacks... click the "thumbtack" category to see other ways I use them.

Then I stuck my bronzey, brassy, tacks in patterns on the pumpkins

I didn't use glue to secure them, the fit seemed pretty tight.

Check out my latest Halloween/Fall creation,

a giant painted pumpkin topiary.

Happy Halloween!

Visit my new online store for coastal and nature themed mosaic art, and

coastal ornaments. 

Find me on Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Youtube

Cheers!

~Lucy