Protecting Windows from Paint

You are painting and notice that you are getting paint on the windows.

You don’t want to waste the tape and time to tape paper all over the glass.

You can easily protect your glass by grabbing a bunch of newspaper.

Gently soak a page or two and place directly on the glass.

The water will adhere it to the window.

When you are done painting, simply pull the paper off.

If you notice some sticking you can spray it a bit with some water from a water bottle.

Refreshing Carpet Dents

The couch has been in the same spot for years.

You finally decided to move it and now you have an indent where the leg used to sit.

One way to try to revive your carpeting is to place an ice cube in the indent.

As the ice cube slowly melts it will add moisture to help the carpeting fluff back up a bit.

Safer Luminares

You want to make some luminaries, but you are scared that the bags are going to catch on fire from the candles.

An easy remedy to this is to place your candles inside some canning jars before placing them in the bags.

Make sure that the jar is at least 2 inches taller than the candle that you are burning.

Now the glass from the jar will protect the bag from being burned by the candle and you should not need to place any other weights into the bag.

If there is a wind and you notice that the bags are starting to tip over, it is not the right night for your beautiful lighting.

Preserving Paint Brushes

You are re-painting several rooms in the house, and it is going to take you days to finish.

You don’t want to have to clean the brushes thoroughly each night, but what else can you do.

When you are done painting for the night you can wrap each brush in aluminum foil, then place in the freezer.

The next day about an hour before you are ready to start painting, bring your brush out and let it thaw.

Take off the aluminum foil and you are ready to paint again.

Play Space

Your kids have everything spread from one end of the house to the other. You are tired of having to pick up stuff every day. What can you do? If you are lucky to have a bit of extra space, this tip may help out.

Do you have any empty closet under the stairs, storage room, or even just a cubby hole in a room? If you have an empty room or storage space, retro-fit it with your kids help.

Build some shelves for games and extra toys. Spruce it up a bit with some brightly colored paint. (Since this room will be for the kids, go ahead and let them pick the colors)

Now, if there is not a door, just set up a bar with a shower curtain to block it off from the view of public.

You can make a new rule now, that if the items are not picked up they get put away. If they want their toys back, they will have to perform an extra chore from the chore jar to "earn" it back.

Crooked Pictures

You hung up all your pictures and they look great. Now a few weeks later you notice that a few of them are hanging a bit crooked. This can happen from just day to day vibrations in a house. What can you do to prevent this from happening as often?

For pictures that are hung with a wire, simply locate the spot in the wire where you would like the picture to hang.

On either side of that spot, tightly wrap about 3" of masking tape. Now hang your picture back up.

The masking tape will help prevent the picture from shifting out of alignment again.

For any picture you can pick up little rubber "feet" and place on the bottom 2 corners of the picture.

This will help keep your picture from shifting.

Heritage Doilies

You still have those lovely hand crochet doilies that your mom or aunt made years ago.

You don't want to use them around the house because you don't want them to get dirty and ruined.

How can you show them off with out damaging them? Here is a handy tip to do just that.

Instead you can turn them into a lovely piece of art to decorate a feminine room.

Take your doily to the local craft store and pick up a frame and mat that the doily will fit in.

For a bit of a twist, you don't have to show the whole doily, you can off center it and only show a piece if you want.

Now go down to the fabric store and find some fabric that is very dark, contrasts with the doily and matches your room.

When you get home, take apart the frame and attach the fabric to the cardboard backing of the frame, lay your doily as desired on the fabric and then lay on the mat.

Now just drop it all back into the frame and reattach the back. You now have a lovely piece of heritage art for your room.

Hanging Pictures With Ease

You are trying to get the pictures hung so that they look nice, but you have a billion holes in your wall from trying to place them. Here is a great tip that will save your walls, and your thumbs!

Grab an old piece of newspaper and place your picture on it. Trace the picture and cut it out. Now you have an exact size of the picture.

Using tape, tape up the picture in the area where you think it will look good. Step back and take a look. Is it centered? Does it fill the space? If you don't like it, simply remove it from your wall and tape in another location.

Now that you have it where you want it, grab a ruler. Take measurements from the top and the sides where the picture hanger is on the back of the picture. With your paper still on the wall, measure on the paper where the hanger is. Hammer in your nail or picture hanger to this location. Now hang your picture over the paper.

Once the picture is hung, reach behind the picture and grab the newspaper and pull off the wall.

Your picture is now hung perfectly!

This will also work well if you are trying to hang large groups of pictures. Just cut out a piece of paper for each picture and write on it a description of the picture if you have a bunch that are about the same size. Once you have all the papers hung in the arrangement that you want, nail up your pictures and remove the paper.

Magnetic Rooms

If you are decorating a kids room or play room, have a bit of fun. Don't put up regular old paint, take a little bit of time and pick up some new paints that are now available.

Go down to your local craft store and get some Magnetic Spray paint.

This paint when applied will create a surface that you can put magnets on.

Find a large flat surface like a wall, a door or a large cabinet.

Follow the instructions for the specific brand.

Now for smaller kids pick up some magnetic letters, numbers, and/or animals and the kids can have all kids of creative fun.

For larger kids you can pick up magnetic words from your local book store or craft store and they can let their creative juices flow.

Hanging Pictures With Ease

You are trying to get the pictures hung so that they look nice, but you have a billion holes in your wall from trying to place them in the best location. There has to be an easier way!

Grab an old piece of newspaper and place your picture on it.

Trace the picture and cut it out. Now you have an exact size of the picture.

Using tape, tape up the picture in the area where you think it will look good. Step back and take a look.

Is it centered? Does it fill the space? If you don't like it, simply remove it from your wall and tape in another location.

Now that you have it where you want it, grab a ruler. Take measurements from the top and the sides where the picture hanger is on the back of the picture.

With your paper still on the wall, measure on the paper where the hanger is. Hammer in your nail or picture hanger to this location.

Now hang your picture over the paper.

Once the picture is hung, reach behind the picture and grab the newspaper and pull off the wall.

Your picture is now hung perfectly!

This will also work well if you are trying to hang large groups of pictures. Just cut out a piece of paper for each picture and write on it a description of the picture if you have a bunch that are about the same size.

Chalk Board Paint

The next time that you decide to remodel your family room or childs bedroom, check out the variety of paints at your local hardware store.

You can find chalkboard paint that you just paint on any surface.

When it dries your budding artists can create endless amounts of pictures and stories for the whole family to enjoy.

You can even have just a bit more fun and get some velvet or contrasting fabric and create movie style curtains around their stage.