handmade Hello Partnerships

:: Paint Yourself A Paper Flower Advent Calendar

December 1, 2014

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This post is sponsored by Annie Sloan Unfolded, the nice people who distribute Chalk Paint™ in Australia : Follow them on Facebook here for more bright ideas!

 

Look! This is our advent calendar for this year! Remember last year’s? I liked that a lot, but we thought we’d try something new this year. SO, I made these cute paint poured bottles in cute colours AND I’m going to make a paper flower each day and put it in a jar… until we have 25 cute things and it’s Christmas Day!

I chose colours that reminded me of our camping adventures:

Dark blue for a starry night – Napoleonic Blue
Light blue for the sea – Duck Egg Blue
Yellow for the sand – Arles
Pink for the twilight – Antoinette
Bright green for the grassy bits – Antibes Green
Dark green for the bushy bits – Florence

The paint is watered down to make it easier to pour, so keep that in mind when you choose your colours – they won’t be as vivid as the paint samples promise. Instead, they’ll be a more serene version of themselves!

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Here’s how I paint-poured the bottles and made our advent calendar…

How To Make Paint-Poured Bottles  

You will need:

Cute little bottles (25 if you are making an advent calendar!)
Paint sample pots in colours you love – I used Chalk Paint (it’s from the Annie Sloan people!)
Some plastic cups and plastic spoons/knives/utensil for mixing
Some paper towel for cleanups
A nice clear space to work in
A jug of water for thinning your paint
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1. Tip some paint carefully into a plastic cup. Add a slosh of water to thin the paint a little. There is no hard and fast rule, but err on the side of LESS water (you can always add more if the paint is not runny enough!) Mix well with a plastic spoon or knife.

2. Next, pour the paint into your bottle. Be careful not to get it on the outside of the bottle. (If you do, quickly wipe it off!)

3. Turn the bottle slowly and let the paint run all over the inside of it (trying not to spill any!)  Once it’s covered, turn it upside down over your mixing cup and let the excess drain out.

4. Tip the bottle right way up and wipe the rim of any excess paint. Also clean up any spills on the outside of the bottle.

5. Allow to dry overnight (or for longer if you accidentally left a bit too much paint inside!)

6. Make a paper flower each day and pop it in to count down to Christmas day… or any day that is special to you!

Use decoratively as you please!

 

What kind of advent calendar do you have this year?

 

x Pip

 

11 Comments

  • Reply Clare December 2, 2014 at 1:59 PM

    Love the painted bottles, they are going to look so wonderful once they are all full of flowers! I am making pom pom snowballs and filling up a glass vase with them to make a pom pom snow drift!

  • Reply Little White Dove December 2, 2014 at 9:14 AM

    I absolutely love the colours you have chosen Pip, they are so ‘my’ colours! And I just love the effect of glass painted on the inside too – it has such pretty reflective delicate cheery qualities… and paper flowers, well I still have my large paper Peony flower on the kitchen window sill that I made at your fab Pip’s Petal class and it’s awesome how good it looks after all this time! Such a sweet advent calendar idea 🙂
    ps love the new look blog x

    • Reply Meet Me At Mikes December 2, 2014 at 8:07 PM

      Aw thanks about the blog! And thanks for the beautiful bunny softie! And thanks for reminding me of that lovely Pip’s Petals morning we spent together! How great was that. Thanks for being YOU, basically! xx

  • Reply Sandy Deasey December 2, 2014 at 12:52 AM

    Love the Meri Meri Advent Village we put together the other day. Sweet little glitter houses and trees with baker’s twine mini bunting. (There’s a photo on my blog if you want to see it.) Would love to do a homemade one, so looking for inspiration for next year!

    • Reply Meet Me At Mikes December 2, 2014 at 7:36 AM

      Oh I will have a look at yours for SURE!
      It’s super fun making your own, isn’t it?!
      x

  • Reply Reannon @shewhorambles December 1, 2014 at 11:36 PM

    Cute idea Pip!

    Last year I made 25 little envelopes & decorated them with stamps & paper cut outs, then I put a chocolate coin in each because even though my boys no longer believe in Santa, they do believe in chocolate & Christmas 🙂

    • Reply Meet Me At Mikes December 2, 2014 at 7:36 AM

      I totally believe in chocolate too. I get that… xx

  • Reply LINDA December 1, 2014 at 9:52 PM

    I think I can finally alter my little bottle finds I have collected over the years, with a project like this one.
    I have always guarded the little bottles carefully, as they have come from a variety of places and are just cute as they are. However, after reading this DIY, I feel ready to make them over.
    Cheers Pip
    Linda

    • Reply Meet Me At Mikes December 2, 2014 at 7:38 AM

      I totally understand guarding the bottles, but they actually turn out super cute and look very vintage-y. I was so surprised at just HOW CUTE they look! x

  • Reply Elethea December 1, 2014 at 9:35 PM

    Nice one Pip! Love the colours you’ve used.
    She Adores Vintage

    • Reply Meet Me At Mikes December 2, 2014 at 7:37 AM

      Thanks so much Elethea! x

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