DIY Saturday Etched Spoons

DIY Etched Spoons

Taken from and photos via designmom.com

A few warnings:

As a warning, it does get crazy hot and can 1) burn skin, 2) burn a whole through clothing and 3) make burn marks on anything it comes into contact with. Only two of these items are inspired by personal experience and I’m embarrassed enough not to tell you which two. : ) So please be careful!

That said, don’t be intimidated. It was actually really easy to work with. Just be careful, and when you aren’t actively using it, rest it on a surface that won’t burn. And of course, make sure to unplug it when you are finished.

There is a chance that when you finish, you will smell like burned wood. So crack a window, turn on a fan and pretend you’re enjoying a bonfire. The result is well worth it.

Supplies:

- Wooden spoons. Check your local dollar store or get some sturdier ones.
- Etching Tool

Heat up the etching tool (it looks like this) and get to burning. Any design will do.

You can doodle anywhere you'd like! The design can continue onto the the parts of the utensil that will come in contact with food. Draw on the handle. Draw on the head. Draw on the whole thing! Dots, lines, hatch marks. The sky is the limit.

You don't need templates just your imagination. You can use these designs as a reference, or free hand a design. If you are more comfortable, you can trace a design or use a pencil to sketch on the spoon what you intend to do first. Then put the tool to the wood and make it come true.

 If you want, make a little symbol, like an artist’s signature, somewhere on the spoon (designmom used her signature heart), because it’s a piece of art! Then tie them up with a ribbon and the gift is ready.

You could gift these as teacher's gifts, birthdays, anniversaries, wedding gift etc.

I'd love to see what you come up with if you try it.

 See our new blog posts as soon as we publish them.

About Michelle

Michelle is one of the blooms and founder of Two Blooms Design Studio Est. 2002. She is in charge of production, designing all of our labels in house, photography, customer service, alchemist behind all of our scent blends, designer, creator and pretty much whatever else needs to be done.

DIY Saturday Gift Giving Mugs, Bowls & Saucers

Coffee Mug Design Photo Credit:  Michelle Somers

This is the last DIY in our 30 day blog challenge and I wanted to share something really fun. It’s a great  project for kids and adults.

You will need nail polish in whatever colours you’d like. Word of caution it you want a more simple design and not something wild and crazy I recommend using only 1 or 2 colours that complement each other. ie. light blue with light green, light pink with light beige, light purple with light pink etc.

Buy some white cups, saucers and bowls if you like. I had cups and saucers already that were white so I just used those. Start with cups and then decide if you want to add in saucers or bowls.  It does take some practice to get a design you are happy with but this is meant to be fun and not perfect so don’t sweat it if it’s not exactly as you planned.

Summary of supplies needed:

• A few cups depending on size of your group
• Nail Polish in various colours that complement
• A plastic tub or bucket that you can throw away, it has to be big enough so your cups have ample room to move around
• Toothpicks or Q-Tips for the design part
• Wax paper to lay wet cups on
• Nail Polish Remover
• Throw away gloves
• clear acrylic sealant to protect your design

Optional

This is the last DIY in our 30 day blog challenge and I wanted to share something really fun. It’s a great  project for kids and adults.

You will need nail polish in whatever colours you’d like. Word of caution it you want a more simple design and not something wild and crazy I recommend using only 1 or 2 colours that complement each other. ie. light blue with light green, light pink with light beige, light purple with light pink etc.

Buy some white cups, saucers and bowls if you like. I had cups and saucers already that were white so I just used those. Start with cups and then decide if you want to add in saucers or bowls.  It does take some practice to get a design you are happy with but this is meant to be fun and not perfect so don’t sweat it if it’s not exactly as you planned.

Summary of supplies needed:

• A few cups depending on size of your group
• Nail Polish in various colours that complement
• A plastic tub or bucket that you can throw away, it has to be big enough so your cups have ample room to move around
• Toothpicks or Q-Tips for the design part
• Wax paper to lay wet cups on
• Nail Polish Remover
• Throw away gloves
• clear acrylic sealant to protect your design

Optional

-Saucers or bowls

 Various Mug and Saucer Designs Photo Credit:  Michelle Somers

1. Get your bucket or tub and fill with lukewarm water

2. Add your 1-2 Nail Polish Colours on the surface of the water

3. Use your toothpick to make a design. Move quickly as the nail polish does harden up somewhat.

4. Dip mug straight in and out avoiding the inside. You will get some on the bottom that’s okay

5. Pat with paper towel, DO NOT WIPE. I didn’t use the paper towel at all.

6. Set on wax paper  to dry for about 3 hours.

7. Apply clear acrylic sealant to finished design but avoid the area where your lips drink from the cup. I didn’t use this but you can try it out.

You will need to hand wash your mugs. Do not use the dishwasher to wash them or it will ruin the design. I didn't wear gloves and got nail polish on my hands. Also I got the design on the inside of the cup on the first try so just used nail polish remover to get it all off. It’s easy to avoid the inside just dip your cup in and try to swirl it  around on one side end to end as much as  you can. I also continued to add colours in the same batch of water and didn’t really care if it didn’t look as pretty but fresh lukewarm water is probably best. You can see in the last saucer photo I kept layering on colour and even using a Q-Tip to push the colour onto the saucer in spots. This is a great idea for gifts for weddings, teacher’s, friends, birthday parties etc. The possibilities are endless.

If you try it I’d love to know how it turned out. I haven’t tried it but thinking this may look neat on clear glasses too. #IBN30

Do you like the DIY posts or would you rather see another topic covered?  Let me know.

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About Michelle
Michelle is one of the blooms and founder of Two Blooms Design Studio Est. 2002. She is in charge of production, designing all of our labels in house, photography, customer service, alchemist behind all of our scent blends, designer, creator and pretty much whatever else needs to be done.

Mind Blowing Way to Take Macro Photos on an iPhone

Photo Credit:  Pinterest

To all of my American friends “Happy July 4^th” I hope you have a great day.

As I’m Canadian we had our celebration on July 1^st and instead of going downtown to watch the fireworks which is what we’ve done in the past, we hiked a mountain. Problem is there are way too many people and it’s mobbed in the city. You have to take the bus and down and there are so many people on there. On top of that everyone is really loud and screaming etc. Then when you take the bus home you sometimes are waiting for ages to get on because everyone is trying to get home just like you.  So this year the Two Blooms decided to go somewhere else that didn’t involve taking the bus and had a great view. There were people but only 1,000 instead of several thousands. If you really want to know all about the mountain hike in the pitch dark at 10pm at night I’ll tell you, but I think it’s pretty low key.

Today is DIY Saturday and I was trying to find something that men would enjoy creating too. Problem is I don’t have a lot of tools myself except the basics like a hand saw, some screw drivers etc. Also a lot of projects I looked up involved things I didn’t have so I looked for something that involved very few tools and I stumbled across a neat trick.

I found this on Pinterest. My sister (the other bloom) has a real old iphone (like from the Ark, hahaha kidding but it’s pretty old). Anywho it’s very hard to take a close up macro photo on a iphone on it’s own. Maybe that is easier on the newer versions but I can only speak of this older model that I'm experimenting with. So here is what happens when you take a close up shot with your iphone. It’s all black looking.

 Photo Credit: Top Three Photos my own, bottom three Pinterest

1.     So you need to get an old laser pointer. Don’t get a newer one, that is what I had on hand and it was impossible to get to the magnifying glass as it was glued underneath a plastic insert. I used pliers but gave up  after breaking the plastic insert.

2.     Then get the focusing lens and grab hold of it with a bobby pin.  Then attach that to iphone’s camera with tape. You may need to flip the lens upside down if it’s not working.

3.     Take a photo and lay the camera on the object and zoom in and you have your close up.
Sure you can buy some fancy attachment but where is the fun in that? 

Any cool tips you have to share? Let it rip in the comments section. #IBN30

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      About Michelle
Michelle is one of the blooms and founder of Two Blooms Design Studio Est. 2002. She is in charge of production, designing all of our labels in house, photography, customer service, alchemist behind all of our scent blends, designer, creator and pretty much whatever else needs to be done.

DIY Saturday - Make a Bunting

Photo Credit:  gingerlillytea.com

I’m a huge fan of “Downton Abbey” and have watched every episode. I love the clothes, the era, the acting, the scenery, the characters, the history. I’ve loved Lady Mary since Season 1 (Cybil was also wonderful but of course I didn’t get to enjoy her long enough). Back to Lady Mary… her acting is superb and the way she carries herself is so elegant. I have to say I haven’t liked her as much in later seasons because she seems to be a “Debbie downer” and not very nice to her sister Edith but I understand parts of her character.

So all this to say I became a little batty over buntings specifically because of “Downton Abbey” especially the scene where Lady Mary gets married to Matthew, there were buntings hanging everywhere.

Buntings represent celebration and I think they are fitting for so many occasions. You can hang them in your bedroom, dress up a dining room and give it a cozy feel, use them at birthday parties either as streamers or hanging above a birthday cake on two sticks.  We have so many varieties in our house and today I’m showing you just one. You can use remnants of fabric you have laying around the house or you can make them out of paper. You don't have to sew them either and today I’m showing you a really simple way to make one in a jiffy.

Paper Triangle Photo Credit: Michelle Somers I used pinking shears here but you can use normal scissors.

Get some coloured paper or material (you can use different pieces for each one if you so desire and cut out a two sided triangle on the fold (see above photo) about 1/5 inches big (you can make it bigger or smaller). You will want maybe 8-12 pieces. You only need 3 pieces for a cupcake version.

2.     Then you can get some baker’s twine or string and lay all these pieces with the flat fold side on top over the string and the point facing down.

3.     Then glue all these triangles together along the string one by one. 

4.     Space each one out about 1 inch apart.

5.     Leave a bit of space near the top so you can move them along to space them out.

Paper Bunting with baker's twine Photo Credit:  Michelle Somers

6.     You decide how long or short you want to make it. For a cupcake bunting you want the triangle mini and need only 3 (see below) 

7.     Then you tie the ends around the top of the chopsticks and stick the bottoms in a cupcake to support them.

You can also not use chopsticks and then just hang your bunting up to enjoy.  If you want to sew each triangle you can either by hand or with a sewing machine.

Have you ever made a bunting? I’d love to hear all about it. #IBN30

See our post as soon as they are published.

About Michelle

Michelle is one of the blooms and founder of Two Blooms Design Studio Est. 2002. She is in charge of production, designing all of our labels in house, photography, customer service, alchemist behind all of our scent blends, designer, creator and pretty much whatever else needs to be done.

DIY Saturday - Making Your own Rustic Beach Hanging

Graphics: Michelle Somers

Who doesn't love collecting shells? Your feet sinking into the soft sand, wind blowing in your hair, the blue water so calming with the sound of lapping waves. To this day I love collecting shells and living on the west coast on Vancouver Island in Victoria BC makes it even easier.  Whenever I head to the beach it's always a stress release and a place where cares melt away.

So today I'm going to show you how to make your very own Rustic Beach Wall Hanging using oyster shells. You can use smaller shells like clam shells (they need to be big enough to drill a hole through them.)  While you are on the beach you will also need to gather a piece of wood that is long enough to place your shells along it.  Then you just need twine and eye screws and something to drill the holes into the shells. I'll show you what I use in the instructions to follow.

                               DIY Rustic Beach Hanging Photo Credit:  Michelle Somers

Items Needed:

    •    1 piece of rustic looking wood that is somewhat flat for the top and bottom part
    •    14 oyster or clam shells
    •    5 pieces of long twine + an extra piece for the top
    •    hand held drill or mini drill to make the holes

You take your eye screws and wind them into the bottom piece of the wood.  In this case I used 7 eye screws (you need two for the top part of the hanging) but feel free to make it smaller or larger to taste.  Then you want to take each shell and drill a hole into it with a drill or a jeweler's cutting tool. I took a silversmith course with my sister and we found this vintage hand held drill at a flea market. You have to use a very fine drill bit for this. You have to do this outside because inhaling shell dusk can be bad for your lungs. I'd recommend a mask while you do this so as not to breathe in any dust.

                        Hand held vintage Jeweler's Drill Photo Credit:  Michelle Somers

You want enough shells to put on each twine section. So here I've used about 14 shells. Strings left to right have 3, 2, 4, 3, 2 but you can decide how you want yours to look.  Once you have all the holes drilled into each shell you can use your twine to tie each shell on and you will want to double knot these because they are heavy.  So you double knot your first shell then let the string hang behind it and then place your second shell on knot and continue until you are finished with all your strands.


Then take your final 2 eye screws and screw them into the top part on each end. Then take another piece of twine and double it to make a triangle. Voila you have your very own rustic piece of wall art. We hang ours outside on our deck as it adds to the west coast charm to our decor.

What DIY projects have you made recently? I'd love to hear about it in the comments below.  #IBN30

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About Michelle
Michelle is one of the blooms and founder of Two Blooms Design Studio Est. 2002. She is in charge of production, designing all of our labels in house, photography, customer service, alchemist behind all of our scent blends, designer, creator and pretty much whatever else needs to be done.