Hip Hop Hangover Friday Great Gift Idea!

Ok, now i'm going to go ahead and post this because i'm pretty sure my sister doesnt read THIS blog, and only my other blog. man i hope i'm right! SISTER! If you are reading this - stop now! Do not keep reading or you'll see one of your christmas presents!!!!

(And so you know, i'm not hiding my sister's identity, we just call each other "sister". we always have. :) )

Anyhoo -

There was a challenge in the Hip Hop forum for Unity yesterday to not stress... but DISTRESS! I love distressing. :) Plus i already had some plans to make this gift for my sister, so it was perfect. Before i get into all the details... here is my finished gift... a recipe holder for her kitchen!



Now my sister loves to cook. But she has told me before how annoying it is with recipes when her hands are covered in goo and she's trying to hold up the recipe card to see what comes next. I've seen jumbo clothespins altered before and somewhere a bit back i read someone's idea of using it as a recipe holder. So thats what i went with, but you could easily just alter it to hold a photo like this picture....



This is just me turning the clip around but you could add some flowers or bling or buttons. Endless possibilities really!


Ok, here's how you start... get a jumbo clothes pin (they sell them at all the craft stores and they are really cheap.

Take it apart so it'll be easier to paint. It's super easy to put back together, dont worry.

I then painted mine a brown color. It doesnt really matter if your undercoat layer is dark or light, it just needs to contrast with your top coat. If you wanted to be really festive you could do a red undercoat with the green on top. Really again, its endless possibilities.

(sorry, no photo for this step) Paint crackle paint over the whole thing. You may need to do this in steps so that you arent laying a wet side down on the table. The crackle paint is clear and you can find it in the paint section of your craft store. Its also inexpesnive and gives such a cool look. I'm in LOVE with crackle! :)

Now you'll need to wait a bit before painting another layer. You dont want the crackle clear coat to dry completely though. The less time you wait, the bigger the "splits" will be. I usually wait about 20 minutes or so. Then paint on your constrasting color and the crackle will happen all on it's own!

i wanted to take the worn distress look on my clip 1 step further so i took an antiquing glaze (also in the paint section at craft stores, also cheap) and then took a sponge (i actually used a makeup sponge because thats what i have all over my house but any sponge will do. And then i just rubbed it around my edges. Antiquing glaze is really easy too because it's just a glaze. If you feel like you've got too much on, just wipe it off.

For my "marquee" i sketched it out on a piece of chipboard. This is important because if i had only used cardstock it could have easily gotten bent if it were to be knocked over. After cutting out the chipboard, i traced it over my cardstock so i'd have the same image and adhered it to the top. I chalk inked my edges in chestnut roan cat's eye chalk ink. I used my cricut to cut out the letters. After putting on my letters, i covered them with liquid glass (close to my heart) just to help them stand out.

Now here is when you can do whatever your heart desires for embellishing! Before adhering my letters to the block i created for them, i stamped Unity's distressed dots. If you dont have this background... you NEEEEEED it. Trust me. :) I also sponged my edges with antique linen distress ink and then chalked inked the very edges with dark moss cats eye chalk ink.

(No specific picture for this either) The whole front was sprayed with acrylic spray sealer in glossy. If this was just being used to hold a photo, i would have left it alone, but if my sister's kitchen is anything like my kitchen, it gets messy! I would hate for tomato sauce to get splattered on it and stain the paper. Now if anything gets on it, she can just wipe it clean!

Now dont just stop your hangover here! Go to this thread to see who else has posted some unity love today!