If you are limited on time this holiday season, but still need a few extra small decorations for your upcoming get together, this is the project for you. These cute personalized last minute silhouette ornaments are pretty simple to whip up and something your can work on while the cookies are baking.

You will need:
– several wooden discs (I found these at JoAnn for a little over $0.25 each.)
– two colors of acrylic or chalk paint
– medium paint brush
– small paint brush
– pencil
– small silhouette cut out (Follow our Simple Silhouette Tutorial.)
– string

1. Figure out how you want to hang your ornaments. The wood discs were plain and I knew I wanted a space to put a string through, so I had my hubby drill a tiny hole in each one. If you don’t have time for that, you can always hot glue the string to the back. (Drilling Tip: Since this wood is so thin, we suggest sandwiching the discs between a couple of pieces of thin scrap wood to prevent splintering.)

2. Paint the front and sides of each disc with one coat of paint and let them dry. The drying time is the longest part of this process. I used that time to get other stuff done. (For example, making dinner, baking cookies, cleaning house, etc.) When they are dry, paint the back of the discs.

3. Once all sides are painted and dried, trace your silhouette cut out onto the disc.

4. Fill in the silhouette with the other color of paint using a small paint brush.

5. Add a string to hang it with and you are done!

Pretty straight forward, right? I love that these can be hung on the tree, placed on a stocking for each family member, or added to a gift. So fun!

I was able to get 8 of these cute ornaments finished in a couple of hours, which included drying time for the paint, babysitting an infant, tending to the never ending needs of a toddler, making lunch, and school pick up. I’m not Super Mom, so if I can do it, you can too!

I’m back with more changes to our kitchen. The last time we shared an update it was our painted cabinets. (Read more about that here.) Last weekend we decided to take the plunge and try painting our laminate countertops.

Initially, we thought we wanted to try to do something that looked like granite. There are a lot of DIY versions of painted counters on the internet and if for some reason it didn’t work out, our plan was to just buy new ones.

My hubby, Chris, started by removing the caulk around the edges of the counters and wiping everything down with a TSP Substitute to get off any extra grime or gunk.

Next, he taped around everything that we didn’t want to get paint on. We’ve found that if you take a damp paper towel and go over the tape (Blue Painter’s Tape or Frog Tape) that it kind of seals it so the paint will not leak through.

Then, he applied one coat of Zinsser Cover Stain Primer with a brush.

We let that dry for 2 hours and then, starting on opposite counters, we painted one coat of Rust-Oleum Black Oil Based Paint in Gloss. This stuff is super thick and we only needed one layer to get ample coverage. We let it dry for 24 hours before doing anything else.

The next part of the plan was to apply acrylic paint with a sponge to give the counters a granite type look. After a few attempts at applying the paint, we decided to completely nix that idea because it just wasn’t turning out the way we had hoped. Luckily, the acrylic paint had not dried completely and we were able to get it off fairly easily with a wet sponge. Thank goodness!

Since the counters were looking pretty good in their glossy state, we decided just to go with it and applied a protective top layer. We used three coats of Rust-Oleum Painter’s Touch Ultra Cover in Clear Gloss, as recommend by our local hardware store paint guy. I kind of gave this idea the side eye because we had planned on using an oil based polyurethane. However, it seems to be working out OK so far.

The clear gloss paint looked blue-ish going on, but it dried completely clear. I’m thinking I will go back and add a few more layers just to give it some extra durability.

We really love how our kitchen looks now! The dark counters add the perfect contrast to our bright white cabinets. Every thing is so smooth and easy to clean off. There are visible brush strokes, but it honestly doesn’t bother us one bit.

Because we’ve only had our “new” countertops done for a week, there has not been a lot of wear and tear on them. However, they seem to be holding up just fine with normal use and cleaning.

I will definitely share an update if we notice any problems, but so far, so good. Here’s hoping for the best!

(Update: Our countertops started to peel/flake over time. Please consider using an oil based polyurethane in addition the the oil based paint. You can read more about our countertop update by clicking here.)

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