Let's Go Camping DIY Decor Challenge/Mostly DollarTree/Camp Theme Minis for my Tiered Tray

Hello my crafty tribe, this is Artsy Maddy and let's get creative. Today we're going to be making some more camping themed DIYs and I'm just starting off with these letter stickers from Dollar Tree and I picked off all the letters to spell out mountains and then just stuck them onto the back of the plastic sheet that they came on. And I'm just using some black latex paint that I just have on hand. Use any black paint that you have though, chalk paint would work or any acrylic paint as well. And then I just put a little bit of white to get a lighter stripe on it and then I'm going in with this bright aubergine color and I believe it's called wild eggplant and then just a bright fuchsia pink color. And then I'm just going to lightly, just very lightly kind of pounce some of these colors onto the white. The white is just going to make them a little bit brighter so I wanted these colors to look quite bright but just blend it in, like not too much of it, not a solid color. So I'm really enjoying those scruffy Dollar Tree brushes, I believe they're meant for kids. At first a couple bristles will come out but then they're not too bad. I'm really enjoying them, they're pretty good to have on hand. So going in with this neon blue color, so a bright blue, a navy blue and then a bit of a dark deep purple is the colors you want to create these. So just going in with a little bit of the purple over the black and a little bit of the navy over the black and that brighter blue, you just want to get a little bit of that on the white and a little bit of it on the black. So now I'm going to create some stars, we're doing like a galaxy effect and I just put some white paint down into an old toothbrush and we're just flecking it all over the little mountain stickers just to give it the star effect, like the galaxy effect. So I just put it down into a cardboard box to do it and now if you've seen my channel at all before I use this tool a lot, it's just a little embossing tool with a round knob on the end but a ballpoint pen, like a dried out ballpoint pen, anything like that would give you the same effect. So then I just peeled the stickers off, they came off quite easily and if you just kind of run your fingernail along the edges, if there's any paint that came off on the edges, it'll just clear it right to the edge of the sticker and then just taking my time lining them up. I already kind of had them lined up, I tried to do them evenly like they were on the other page just so I can know that they'll fit onto here. So if you just kind of space them out lightly before you really stick them down hard and this silver galvanized line is also from Dollar Tree, I was really excited to find those. So I wanted it to say the mountains are calling and I just did a little practice there on a piece of paper just to test it out. You can actually do it really lightly with pencil if you're nervous about getting the design right and then I went over it with a sharpie so I could see it a little better and then with the sharpie oil-based paint pen. It's a little thick, it was a little bit hard to get the detail that I wanted but it's okay, it's good enough, I'm happy with it. So here's the finished product, the mountains are calling, they really are. I can't wait to go camping, we haven't been yet. How about you guys, are you campers? Have any of you been camping yet? So moving on, this is just another little wooden sign from Dollar Tree as well and I'm just going to coat it again with the black. So it's going to be a little repetitive today but I didn't know how to show you guys without the projects getting too scrambled up to keep track of what I was working on. So we'll just go through project by project, there's five projects today. So just covering it with the black latex paint, again you can use chalk paint, anything you have and then just on an angle I just want to give that white again just so I can get that bright pink and that aubergine color and a little bit of that bright blue. So it just helps to enhance those colors and make them brighter. If you just go over the black they'll look dull so the white just brightens them up a little bit. So again just pouncing on, it doesn't have to be even, you're going for a messy random feel. So just think of how gas is mixed and nothing's ever like even or in an exact pattern. So just think very randomly and scruffy rough kind of just dab it on there, don't think about it too much, don't overthink it and don't over paint. So just a little bit at a time and you want to see some of that black still coming through as well. So then same thing, just some more white paint down into the old toothbrush and just flicking it into the box to keep it under control so it's not going all over the table. And then again with the little embossing tool I just want to go in and give some bigger stars. When you look out at the stars usually some of them are a little bigger, a little shinier, so just trying to make some difference like in the small little tiny flecks and then some bigger ones as well. So this is going onto a tiered tray that I had done in a previous video. If you haven't watched that video I'll have a link to it down in the description box but I'm just covering this with some reindeer moss from Dollar Tree because that is what I have in the tiered tray so this will just help it blend in with that. So of course you don't have to do this if you like it just without the moss then of course go for it. So I just want to let you guys know that today's video is part of an awesome camping theme playlist. So I was reached out to by LaParsha, a new friend, her channel's called Creating It Myself and she told me about this fun challenge that was coming up and I'm so excited she did. So it's the Let's Go Camping DIY Decor Challenge. It's hosted by Megan at the Crafty Quinn and Adrian the full-time DIY mommy. So these are some new friends I made. I'm really excited about this. I can't wait to see a whole playlist of camping theme crafts because I really love that theme. I think it's really fun and hopefully you guys will too. I'll have descriptions for all that for the playlist and their channels in my description box. And then here I'm just moving on to these little laser cut wooden owls. These are from Dollar Tree as well. I was really excited about these. It's hard to believe they're so perfect and so intricate the little details. So the edges get a little bit darker because of the laser cut on them. So because I'm painting them dark this worked out well. I didn't really have to worry about getting down into the little holes and like the little grooves and stuff. So I just used a sponge dabber and sponge dabbed black on the both the front and the back of them. But I didn't have to worry about the edges because they're already dark and they just blend right in. So now just same thing I'm going to go over with just a little bit of random white. Try not to make them all the exact same. Just think randomly if you're able to do that. I know it's hard for some people but just try and think not to do the same on each one. So then I just went in with a little bit of the pink and the aubergine color like you saw before. Now just going in with that little bit of blue. So you want a little bit of blue on the black and then the navy and the purple we will just do on the black. So again just that scruffy random. I love this brush for that texture. It's so perfect for that scruffy texture. So if you see these they're just in the paint section with the kids stuff at Dollar Tree. And you might have a few loose hairs at first but then they're good to go after that. So then same thing just into the box and some white paint on the old toothbrush. You guys will have to keep one of your old toothbrushes around for this. And then I wanted to do them as a garland. So of course you can use a ribbon or a string or some jute twine or whatever you have. I wanted it to look kind of invisible because the tear tray I'm putting it on is made of wire. So I did something kind of different and I chose to do a very thin wire on the garland like to be the garland. So here I'm just going to string my owls on. It was a little difficult like they're not exactly made for that so some of them it did have to go through the eye parts which isn't ideal but this wire is so thin that you hardly notice it at all. So it didn't bother me too much. So just evenly strung them out. If you see in the background there I have some little paper flowers that are from Dollar Tree as well and I thought the colors blended well. I was excited to find those. So what I'm going to do is just hot glue and two of them. I'm just going to sandwich them onto that wire and by doing that it just keeps it quite secure on the wire. Otherwise it might be difficult. I think if you just tried to glue one onto the wire I think they would be more likely to fall off. So this worked out great and here's the little garlands. I made two of them, one for each side of the tree. I thought those little paper flowers are so cute. I can't believe they have them at Dollar Tree. I think at Michael's those are eight or nine dollars for a little package of those paper flowers. So they were a great find. I'm excited about those. So this is a foot garden stone that I found at Dollarama. That's one of our dollar stores here in Canada. And I was excited to find it. My oldest son has always loved Bigfoot. He's always had kind of a what would you call it an affinity for Bigfoot. So we always kind of love to find Bigfoot stuff and talk about Bigfoot. So I'm going to do a similar painting technique on this Bigfoot foot here that I'm trying to create. So very similar. I just put some white down the middle going in with the bright pink and the aubergine color going in with some of that neon blue. And it'll be almost identical except that I don't use black in this part. So this part will just be the navy and the purple as the background. So I'm just going to kind of blend those in a little bit. So it just goes from light out to dark. So you know when you see a time lapse or a long exposure of the sky the night sky. A photograph that's had a long exposure and it kind of shows our Milky Way galaxy. That's kind of the effect I'm trying to go for. And keep it simple. Not be too like I think anybody can do this. If you just practice a little bit and don't overthink it. It is really easy and fun to try. So hopefully you guys will give it a try. So now I just found a silhouette of a Bigfoot and put it on my computer screen and traced it out. And now I'm just tracing it onto the Bigfoot garden stone. So I just have some carbon paper just tracing it down. And the carbon paper is black so it showed up fairly well. I was glad that it worked. So now just going in with some black acrylic paint and just a little detailed brush. And I find if you anchor your elbows down and kind of move the project if you need to more so than your arms then you'll be able to have kind of a steadier arm to get those lines right. Just paint up to the line. That seems to work the best. So here's the Bigfoot outline and then I just created just a little bit of a ground shadow too for him to be standing on. So just nice and simple. I did kind of a scumble effect just so the brush strokes because it's hard to get them perfect. So if you just kind of do that scumbling circular motion then it's all the same. It just kind of evens it out. So on the other side it has this cute little dragonfly pattern and I thought that was really cute too. So just really plain painting on it. So just trying to you know give it a little bit more detail a little bit more of the right colors I guess. So I'm going in with this caramel and then the burnt umber just mixing them on the branch to make it brown. And then I have some of these older I believe they're called like gleam paints. They're kind of pearlescent but I'm so excited to show you guys something in a minute that I came across after I painted them of course. Too bad I hadn't found out about them sooner but you know how dragonflies have that beautiful like iridescent kind of skin to them. They're so beautiful. So that's what I was trying to create and the wings too how they're all glittery. So I had this purple pearlescent and then kind of a pearl color. So I just blended the two together on the wings. So I just did the purple on the bottom and then that pearl color on the top. And they're just going over that light color so it worked out pretty well. And then I just tried to highlight the one side and then put a little bit of dark down into the grooves. And then the leaves were just you know like the one solid green. So I find if you have a couple different colors blended on your brush it just brings things to life. Nothing is ever just one solid color. So if you just do some blending it doesn't have to be perfect just a light and a dark together will bring things to life. So don't overthink it just practice play it's fun it's therapeutic. So then I just took a little bit of dark green with the little detail brush and just kind of ran it along the veins. And then just did a little bit of highlighting with some white just where the sun would hit it at the edge. Just blending in a little bit more brown yeah and just putting a little bit of dark down into the little grooves just to emphasize like the sculpture is already there. So if you just kind of follow the shapes that are there. And then I thought I would just dry brush a little bit of white onto the front. It already had a little bit but I just thought I would do a little bit more just to kind of make it look really old and worn. So I got a little carried away but I just used a baby wipe to wipe a little bit back off. So this is what I came across there's actually a paint by FolkArt that is a dragonfly glaze and it has the coolest iridescent sheen to it. It's like so neat it's like science and art coming together. So I have a link for that that I'm going to put in my description box and it's made by FolkArt if you guys are interested you can just look it up as well. So here is the finished product of the Bigfoot stepping stone. My son is so excited about this he really loves it. So of course it'll be his. He really loves the whole camping tiered tree the whole family does so that's been fun to have around. All right in the last project I don't have a little campfire yet so I just thought I'm doing this night theme to this camping tiered tree and I don't have a campfire so I was trying to think of how to do a easy DIY little campfire and I came across these flickering tea lights so I thought that's perfect and then I got some yellow orange and red tissue paper and I got these little sets so I got this pretty paper with it. I'm excited about that one and then I just took two sheets of tissue paper and I did this just kind of really messy like a almost like a messy messy sun around the tea light just to give it kind of a shape to follow just so I don't lose track of the circle shape as I'm cutting. You can just cut like rough haphazardly it does not have to be perfect again just don't overthink it it's just a craft it's supposed to be fun and and just therapy so just go for it just make those little finicky cuts but don't get too carried away it doesn't have to be perfect just a little rough kind of sharp and I did four orange sheets so I did orange red yellow orange but then I decided that having the two orange sheets was kind of too much so I would just do the one one of each color so one red one yellow and one orange and then one of my tea lights was like janky it didn't quite work well but the other one works great so I guess that's kind of what you get right when you shop at Dollar Tree you never never quite know but anyway it's really cute I'm quite happy with them and then I can't make a crafting video without some Mod Podge so here's the the Mod Podge I just used it to kind of stick the little pieces upright so I just kind of gathered them up I didn't have Mod Podge over the whole thing and you just want to be gentle because once the Mod Podge is on it it can really crumple quite easily so just be gentle try not to touch it too much and then I just cut a little rough round kind of circle again not perfect just to be the little base for the for the campfire and then I don't know I didn't hit record on it I guess but I had already Mod Podge some dusty gravelly yeah just kind of a dust at the bottom of my rock bag for my garden and so I Mod Podge that down and then I glued these little pebbles again just like a rock bag that I have for drainage in my house plant but just whatever rocks you have whatever rocks you can find and then I just tried to seal it all with some Mod Podge so hopefully that dusty stuff that I Mod Podge down won't be like coming off and making a mess so just trying to seal it all so that it'll stay put on the project and it seemed to work out pretty well it's on there pretty good now and there it is with the little light turned on and you can see it kind of flickers a little bit not as much as I hoped but it does flicker a little bit and so then I added all these pieces into the tiered tray that I did I think it was about a month ago there's a video for that so I'll have the link in my description box if you haven't seen that all of these crafts here on the bottom were from that original video and then here's the new the mountains are calling sign and I laid a bed of moss down on each layer so this tiered tray was such a score I got this off of a program or a web page here that we have called Kijiji where you can sell secondhand things to other people and so I got really really lucky and I bought two tiered trays off this one lady so it was such a great score and I've tried to look they don't sell this tiered tray anymore but you can find one similar to it I'll try and find the most similar one that I can find I'll put a link for it in my description box so just the little owl garland and then that cute little owl hanger guy is from Dollarama as well and the little owl plant holders those were from a thrift store with the little galaxy flowers those were from Dollar Tree I only found one bundle and then I never found them again so I don't know if they were like leftovers from last year have you guys seen those they're like a like these blue flowers with the purpley tips on them only found that one bundle so here's the other side of the tree the little lanterns are from Dollar Tree as well I haven't seen those again hopefully they'll bring them in again they're so cute that little owl the mama owl the babies that was a thrift find for five dollars if you can believe it I think it's like a real collector item it has like a little plaque on the bottom of it I just covered it with moss I didn't glue it down but I just covered it up so anyway hopefully I've inspired you today hopefully you guys are interested in these camping themed crafts I'm kind of excited about them I've really been enjoying them I was thinking maybe of doing my coffee bar as well let me know if you guys would be interested in seeing that and I do have some more bee videos coming up for you so I've been working hard on that and if you are already subscribed to my channel I just again want to say thank you it means so much that you guys are helping me grow my channel on YouTube and being so supportive and encouraging it means so much and if you haven't subscribed hopefully you'll consider it it really does help my channel grow and help YouTube notice me and kind of put my videos out there more so thank you guys so much oh and I did show this little campfire lit up in the dark too so in just a moment here I'll show you what it looks like at night it's pretty cute and these little s'mores guys those are from a previous video too so if you like those there's a whole video on how to make those those are mostly Dollar Tree products as well so here's the little campfire at night it does glow a lot better at night it doesn't flicker as much as I hope but I still like it all right so thanks you guys have a great week and we'll see you in the next video