"I brake for birds. I rock a lot of polka dots."
In case you're wondering, the title of this post is a quote from Jess of the show "New Girl." You can read the whole adorable thing here. Back to the actual blog post...There seems to be a huge influx of patterns in fashion and home decor lately, and I have to say it can be refreshing to see geometric patterns on everyday items because it makes them so much more special. My first attempt at patterning on decor was with the cigar box, and I am still completely happy with the look! For this little project, I wanted to also incorporate the metallic trend that is making a comeback and we needed a little catchall bowl for the living room. It seems watches, rings, and my bobby pins tend to end up on any surface around the main floor, and I figured a bowl meant for these little things would at least keep them all in one place.
My intention was to find a plain white bowl at a thrift store or the dollar store, but I was having no luck finding a shape I liked, and a size that didn't make it look so much like a soup or ice cream bowl. On a trip to IKEA (yes, I do know that it seems that I am there every other day... however, I promise you that's not the case), I saw some sweet little white bowls, then a little turquoise beauty caught my eye. I got them both. At $3 a piece, I figured the bowl not used for this project will be put to use somewhere else... the bathroom could use a catchall too!I stopped at a craft store one Friday night (I know, I have a very exciting life), and came home to plot how I'd make good use of my new gold Sharpie paint marker! I should mention that I got the oil based marker as opposed to the water based one. I've read the oil based can last longer and handle more wear and tear.
My initial plan for the bowl was to free-hand some sort of design on it, but I was afraid I'd mess it all up and the oil-based paint is just so permanent! Then I figured I'd use tape to make a stencil, like on the cigar box, but a linear pattern seemed too ambitious on a convex/concave area, so I brought the hole puncher out and decided on polka dots. Because seriously, who doesn't love polka dots?
As usual, I didn't follow a particular pattern and just stuck the hole-y tape down on the bowl randomly. I failed to take pictures of me actually filling in the dots with the marker, but it was pretty straight forward - it was just like using a marker to fill in circles! Duh!
As you can see, some MOST of the dots are not perfect. It seems that I either needed better tape or I should have pressed down much, much harder (probably the second one...). Either way, I'm happy with the results. The imperfections don't really matter, I still think it's a great and fun little piece!
And one last shot, just because I adore this little bowl so much!
Has anyone tried any stenciling projects with tape or a Sharpie marker? I'd love to see what you've made - I'm itching to use the marker again!!
Here and here are where I'm linking up!
WOOOT! This post got featured! :)
