Today is a big day peeps! The East Coast Creative team has been growing behind the scenes and today I get to introduce one of our new members! (You’ll be meeting everyone over the next week or so).
I am so proud to introduce to to the fun, fabulous, and mad talented
Caitlin of Desert Domicile.
I had seen some of Caitlin’s work last year during our CWTS link up, but more recently I fell in love with her Christmas Tree – That black and white ribbon had me at hello! Actually check out her entire home tour here.
We’re honored to have her joining the EC2 team and she’ll be sharing a fabulous new project and tutorial with you each month!
Take it away Caitlin!
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Hi East Coast Creative readers!
I’m Caitlin from Desert Domicile and today I’m sharing how I made a set of conversation heart napkin rings:
I used the following supplies to make my napkin rings:
Supplies shown:
- A paintbrush
- Super glue (hot glue would probably work too)
- Conversation hearts. I ended up needing 9 boxes because I ran out of purple hearts halfway through making the napkin rings. Each napkin ring takes 40 conversation hearts, if you’re wondering 🙂
- Pink paint (feel free to use another color)
- 4, 1 1/2″ x 2″ pieces of PVC pipe I cut from a leftover piece of 2′ PVC pipe I had on hand
Supplies not shown:
- Something to protect your work surface
- Spray lacquer
I started by pouring all of my conversation hearts into a bowl so it’d be easier for me to grab them as I went along:
I made a puddle of pink paint on a paper plate:
And starting painting each piece of PVC pipe:
I also painted the top and bottom edges of the pipe pieces:
Don’t worry about your pieces of pipe being brushstroke free, the conversation hearts will cover most of the paint!
After all the pieces were painted, I let them dry for an hour.
Note: I should have let them dry on a ceramic plate and not a paper one because some of the paper peeled up with the paint when I removed the pieces. Keep this in mind if you decide to make a set of your own! You don’t want to be peeling pieces of paper off, trust me haha
I noticed that there was some writing showing through some of the pipe pieces after the first coat of paint:
So I added a second coat of paint which made the writing disappear!
I started gluing my conversation hearts onto my painted pieces of PVC pipe after the second coat of paint had dried (another hour or so):
I made a small “V” shape with my super glue and then stuck a conversation heart in place:
I held each heart in place for 20 to 30 seconds before gluing another one. Be careful not to add too much super glue! You don’t want it to seep out and have your fingers getting stuck to a heart or the piece of PVC pipe!
I started on my second row using the same gluing method but I changed the direction of the hearts so they’d fit into the gap left from the first row:
Turn on a movie or some old episodes of your favorite show because these little guys take a while to complete!
After the napkin rings were finished, I took them outside and sprayed them with some spray lacquer to seal the candies so I can use the napkin rings again next year.
I slid a red cloth napkin through one of the rings and paired it with my favorite beaded white plates. Would you believe the plates came from the dollar store?!
These napkin rings would be so cute to have on display at your Valentine’s Day dinner table!
If you’re looking for a Valentine’s Day craft your kids can help you with, this could be one of them! Maybe use Elmer’s glue instead of super glue though 😉
What do you think of the napkin rings? Will they be making their debut at your Valentine’s Day dinner table?
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Thanks Caitlin! I actually think this is a fun project that I definitely could involve my kids in! I just might need to hide the “sexy” ones haha! Do they even make those ones anymore I wonder? They totally had them when I was in elementary school. We’d giggle over “sexy” and “hot” Ha!
Caitlin has made a bunch more napkin ring DIY projects- here is one of my favs…
Another project I’m swooning over is this Anthro Inspired Wood Slice Mirror
We’d love for you to show Caitlin some EC2 love! Check her out her blog and go follow her on Facebook too!
cute project!
Love her style and what a fun project. I adore her faux snow napkin rings too!
Everything Caitlin does is awesome!
Caitlin is the best….super sweet and amazing style!! So glad you guys brought her on board! 🙂
LOVE these napkin rings! Caitlin rocks! So much talent 🙂
I LOVE Caitlin! You guys couldn’t have gotten a sweeter girl with better style! Yay!
Thank you so much for inviting me to contribute! I’m really happy and excited to be on board with such a great team 🙂
[…] Last week you got to meet one of our new contributors- Caitlin as she shared her DIY conversation heart napkin rings. […]