| Arts & Crafts Tips |
From "DIY Crafts"
episode DIC-118 |
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Crafty household-hints expert Donovan Fandre gives us some tips for painting Styrofoam®, painting table legs, sharpening scissors, storing paintbrushes and much more. Place a glue gun on top of a 4" square of ceramic tile to catch hot-glue drips. When the glue cools, just peel it away. The tile is also a good insulator to keep the glue gun from burning surfaces (figure A). When drawing straight lines on a curved surface such as a ball, wrap the ball with a rubber band, and use the rubber band as a guide (figure B). If you're painting multiple colors on table legs, wrap a thick rubber band around the leg to separate the colors, and paint up to the rubber band. The band will prevent the paint from bleeding over the other colors (figure C). Wrap a rubber band around the bristles of a paintbrush to keep the bristles straight and in place. Be sure the rubber band isn't so tight that it distorts the brush's original shape. This is a good tip for stencil brushes too (figure D). Use a coffee can with a plastic lid for storing paintbrushes upright. Cut an X in the lid with a utility knife, and push the paintbrush handle through so the bristles are outside the coffee can. Place a small piece of Styrofoam in the bottom of the can on which to rest the brush handle (figure E). To sharpen scissors, cut through fine-grained sandpaper. Use a toothpick or wooden skewer to hold two pieces of Styrofoam together. Clip off any excess that sticks out. To paint a Styrofoam ball, push it onto a skewer, then push the other end of the skewer into a block of Styrofoam. The ball will stand freely, and you can spray-paint all around it. Instead of buying an expensive light table, put a lamp underneath a glass table with the light shining up through the glass. It's a great aid to tracing patterns or sorting slides.
RESOURCES :
Household Hints Expert
Limited Edition Rubber Stamps
Website: www.LimitedEditionRS.com
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