"Ignited My Love For Learning" {Teacher Gift}

I know many of you already have kiddos out of school and

 its the middle of summer break for a lot of you, 

but my little lady graduated her last year of preschool last week. 

Here she is on her last day:

{Doesn't she look so happy?!? She didn't want to smile for me so this is what I got!}

We wanted to give her teacher something for a Thank You Gift on graduation day. I remember seeing on Pinterest awhile ago a candle that had a tag with this saying on it:

"You Ignited My Love For Learning!"

I loved this idea and it has stuck with me since, 

so we did something similar to Thank her teacher. 

We took a candle holder and etched this saying onto the bottom part of it. 

I used the same technique I did HERE for Glass Etching.

Here Is How It Turned Out:

I am sorry it is hard to see. Its not easy trying to get a picture of etched glass! 

It really turned out so cute though!!

I wrapped it in a brown bag with a cute tag that I found HERE

and tied that on with bakers twine.

Her teacher didn't get to open it while we were there but I am sure she loved it!

Hope this gives you a Fun Teacher Thank You Gift Idea the next time you need one!!

Joining the Following Link Parties

HERE

Glass Etching How To

Shortly after my hubby and I got married we bought a sand blaster to do glass etching with. It worked really well, but was messy. The sand got everywhere and if you wanted to save it to reuse  {to save money} you had to strain it out a bit. It was just a lot of work. 

One day we decided to try out the chemical glass etching cream 

that you can get at any craft store. It is pretty expensive, 

I think around $30.00 for the big jar. After working with it for 

along time now, we have found that it lasts forever. We have been doing 

it a few years now and have only bought it 4 times.

Today I thought I would show you how to do the glass 

etching with this cream. It really isn't hard at all!

For the project today I am going to show you 

how I made an etched 9"x13" pan 

that I made for my cousin 

who recently got married.

What you need:

-Any type of glass that you are going to use 

{Cups, Plates or Pans. We like to use the pyrex pans for the baking dishes}

-Armour Etch Cream

{Like I said before you can get it at any craft store. Its around $30.00 for the large jar, but lasts for a long time}

-Foam Paint Brush

-REVERSE vinyl image

{For this project it has to be REVERSE since its going on the bottom of the pan. If its going on top of the glass you do not have to do a reverse image.}

How To Do It:

First, you are going to transfer the image onto the glass. I did a big square around the last name to help protect the glass around it. We also put tape above it just to be safe!

When you feel thats on there really good, you are going to take the cream and kind of dab/paint it on.

After you get it all on where you want it to etch, you are going to let it sit. On the bottle it says to leave it on for 5 minutes, but that does not really work!!! My hubby did that the first time and it hardly did anything to it. 
We leave it on for 30 minutes!

After about 30 minutes you are going to run your object under warm water to remove the etching cream. My hubby uses the foam brush to help get it off. 

Then you are going to dry it and peel off the vinyl and tape. 
Now you have a super cute glass etched project!

This works out so well on these pans so then if you take dinner to someone or take the dish to a party, they know who the dish belongs to!!

My cousins absolutely LOVED the dish and were so excited about it!
We gave this to them with some cake mixes, frosting, sprinkles and candles to use for the first birthday in their new little family!

Joining these Link Parties HERE

Easy Painted Vases

As you know, recently my hubby and I made a new bed frame for us. 

You can see that HERE if you missed it. 

Now that we have a fun new bed, I wanted to make some

 new bedroom decor just to freshen things up a bit!

I have seen in so many bedroom makeovers that have vases that are on shelves with nothing in them, just the vase. I have always thought this looked so cute and wanted to make some for the room. 

I had 3 glass vases in my craft room wanting to be used. They were the perfect hight together in the group so I knew I wanted to use all 3. I got 2 of them at the dollar store awhile back and 1 of them my sister was going to give to a local thrift store when she was moving so of course I grabbed it to do something with! {Its the tallest one of the bunch and my favorite of the 3!!}

I didn't really want to leave them plain glass.
I wanted to paint them to brighten things up a bit.

I thought about spray painting them, but didn't have the colors I was looking for so I looked in my craft paint stash and had the perfect color combo to paint them with.  

Since we are freshening things up in our room, I wanted to change the accent colors I am using. 

Now, we are going to use a soft blue, yellow and cream. 

{I actually ended up using a different yellow paint then pictured. It was the Buttercream Yellow by craft smart. I forgot to take a picture of the new color. Sorry!}

I knew I could paint the outsides of them with the craft paint, but it would take a lot of coats to get them covered and it would be messy. 

 So I came up with another idea instead:
WHAT ABOUT PAINTING THE INSDIE?!?


This seriously was the most easy and quick thing I have ever done
 and they turned out so cute!!



Here is what I did:

Step 1:
Get Vases, Paint, and a piece of cardboard or something you know you are ok throwing away.


Step 2:
Squeeze a bunch of paint inside the vase and start turning it around upside down so the paint starts covering all the vase. You can add more paint if needed. You don't want to add too much because you don't want to end up wasting a lot of your paint so I did a bunch at first and then added more as it got closer to the top and I could tell the paint wasn't moving anymore.

Step 3:
When they are fully covered, let them stand upside down so all the paint can drip off onto the cardboard piece. It will take a little while for it to all drip down. After awhile I would move it to a dry spot so I could really monitor when it was done dripping down.

Step 4:
When you feel they are done dripping down, stand them upright to let them finish drying. This was was longest part of the whole thing. I had 2 vases that had skinny necks on them so the air couldn't get down to them very well. Those 2 took a couple of days to dry. The one with the bigger neck was done over night.

Step 5:
This last step is optional!
The top lips of the vases were not very pretty from all the paint dripping down. So I took sand paper and gently rubbed over the paint to clean it up a little bit. I had to do this very carefully so I didn't scratch the glass.

The biggest thing I loved about doing it this way, is the glass makes it look really glossy and its just a hint of color to the vases!!

I put them on our dresser and they look so cute!! 

Now to make some more decor for our room!!

Joining the Following Link Parties HERE

Fall Mason Jar Decor

I have noticed lately that mason jars are coming in big time 

for all sorts of different things.

 I wanted to get on the bandwagon myself and make 

some cute vases out of them for my fall mantel. 

These were so beyond easy to make and I love the look they give!!

What I used are 3 different size mason jars. 

My mom had these in her food storage room and let me take them!!

BIG JAR: I took small jute and wrapped it around many many times. I secured it with hot glue.

MEDIUM JAR: I took a strip of felt and hot glued it around the medium jar. I also wrapped the small jute around the middle of the felt a few times.

SMALL JAR: I took a strip of burlap and hot glued it around the jar.

Here are what they look like together:

I bought those stick things at the dollar store awhile ago and this was the perfect place to use them. 

I love the way they turned out. They look so good with everything on my mantel.

Here is what that all looks like!

EEK!! I love it!!!

Joining these Link Parties HERE

Spray Painting Glass Tutorial

It has taken me a few tries to figure out how to spray paint glass.
 I have had a few projects that failed because I didn't spray the glass right. 

Today, I want to share my knowledge of what I have learned about spray painting glass correctly incase any of you have had problems as well or are thinking about upcoming projects.


For this tutorial I am spray painting candle stick holders that I did for a project HERE.

To start I just went ahead and started spraying them with normal spray paint, nothing special. I held the can according to the directions on it. This one was 8-10 in. away from the object. I have done research before and some sites said to sand the glass a little bit, to roughen it up so the paint has something to stick to but I found that it really wasn't necessary for my projects.

The TRICK with glass is SLOW & STEADY with LIGHT COATS. 

The picture above only has 1 coat of paint on it. You can still see through the glass. In between each coat I wait a good few minutes for it to fully dry. I end up having to put about 5-6 light coats on it to get the full coverage that it needs. It is a slow process, but the outcome is beautiful!!

This one has 6 coats of paint on it.

With my past projects that didn't go so well I put the paint on too heavy and too quickly. As it started drying it got a cracking and bubbling look. It was horrible. So it really needs to be light coats and put on slow.

This is another project that I spray painted candle stick holders as well:

This is one of the projects that I had one that failed. I had to go back and buy another candle stick to get it right!!

If you have an questions for me please let me know. Either comment below or email me at 

2yellowbirdsdecor@gmail.com

Hope you found this tutorial helpful!

Joining these Link Parties HERE

DYI {Trick or Treat} Candy Jars

This year I wanted to make some goodie jars for a Halloween Decor. Since candy is a big part of Halloween, right?!? I wanted them to be simple, but cute. I headed to our local Dollar Store to see if they had anything I could make them out of. Sure enough they did!!

Here is what I got to make them:

-3 Glass Jars {2 of the same and 1 different}

-2 Glass Candle Stick Holders

First, I spray painted the candle stick holders black.

{Tutorial coming soon on how to spray paint glass!}

Next, I took the 2 wider lip jars and glued them to the candle stick holders using E-6000. I am seriously in LOVE with this glue!!

I let those dry for a few hours. 

While they were drying I got on my cricut and designed the words

 "Trick Or Treat" in black vinyl to put on the jars. 

Next, I transfered those over to each jar.

Lastly...I filled them with CANDY!!!

EEEK!!! I am so excited about how they turned out! 

I am pretty sure that everyone in the family loves them too..wink wink!!!

Joining these fun Link Parties HERE.