My WAHM Plan : painting

Slap ‘Appy: Sherwin-Williams’ ColorSnap

in #homeimprovement, App, color, painting, by Linda A Kinsman, Tuesday, July 08, 2014

We’re starting our home improvement projects, and I’ve discovered an app to help us choose just the right colors for each room: ColorSnap by Sherwin-Williams. This app allows you to make color palettes based on Sherwin Williams paint colors.

When you open the app, it brings you to the main menu, where you can choose how you want to make a color palette. One way to do it is to take a picture of an object with a color you like, for instance the pretty blue on the birdhouse below. Choose “Snap New Photo”. Then, you can take a picture with your phone’s camera. Or, if you already have a previously taken picture in mind, choose “Use Saved Photo”.

Once you’ve taken the picture, the app will ask you to crop the photo so it’s small enough to use.

Then, you can move your cursor around and pinpoint the color(s) in the picture that you liked and wanted to use in your palette.

The app can choose coordinating colors to go with the color you’ve chosen.

Color Snap App Coordinating color palette

You can also create color palettes by looking through Sherwin-Williams’ complete collection of paint colors. To do this, choose “Explore Color” on the main menu.

Once you find a color that you like, you can click on it and have the app choose two coordinating colors for it. You can also continue to browse through the colors and create your own.

If you like the palette, you can save it, and even adjust the colors you’ve chosen for variations on the original.

ColorSnap can help you create color schemes for one wall to a whole house, and it’s a lot of fun to play with and save your color ideas. (Saved palettes can be accessed when you choose “Saved Colors”).

And, when you’re ready to buy your saved paint colors, you can click “Find Store” to locate your nearest Sherwin-Williams location.

While we haven’t narrowed down which of our color palettes to use, we are having fun creating ideas.

Want to give this app a try? It’s available on the iTunes App Store for Apple devices and Google Play for Androids.

My oldest daughter assisted with the research and writing of this post and is looking forward to helping with more Slap 'Appy posts.

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Cute & Easy Birdhouses #craft

in birdhouse, craft, Cute, easy, kids, painting, by Linda A Kinsman, Wednesday, June 25, 2014

Inspired by all the cute birdhouses I saw recently on Plaid Craft, I thought this would be a perfect rainy day craft for my girls, and they happily agreed. So, off to Walmart we went.

You can pick up the supplies at any craft store, major retailer, or purchase online. Before you go shopping, double check your crafts supplies for foam brushes, stamps, stencils, etc. You may only need to buy the birdhouses!

Supplies Needed:

Small Birdhouses (we bought two)

1 Set of foam brushes

Assorted Apple Barrel paints (we bought six)

1 set of Stencils

Another great thing about this craft is it is budget friendly. I spent $11.32, and we will be able to re-use all the supplies except the birdhouses.

Directions:

Make sure all the glue from the labels/price stickers are off.

Pull or buff off any rough spots on wood. (Use a fingernail file if necessary.)

Now, your birdhouses are ready to paint.

Allow base coat to dry. (About 4 mins.)

Add additional colors as desired, using stencils, stamps, or free style; anything goes.

Freestyle Painted Birdhouse

Stenciled painted Birdhouse

As you can see, my daughters used different styles and painting techniques on their birdhouses. Both of them are very happy with their finished project, which makes crafting so rewarding.