Wednesday, April 1, 2009

Plug Art Tutorial

Here's a fun little project to dress up your wall outlets. A little spot of creativeness in an unexpected place!

Supplies: Wood pieces, scrap papers-stickers-or other ephemera, acrylic paint, mod podge, E6000, paintbrush/foambrush, pencil, plastic safety plug.
After you've mapped out your design, paint the back & sides of your wood piece. Oh, about the wood pieces: I got mine at a craft store (like Michael's) & they come in all sorts of shapes: flowers, butterflies, circles, rectangles, ovals, animals, etc. And, they're only about 25cents each! (I like using the rectangle shape the best because it covers both wall plugs.)


Trace your shape onto paper & cut it out.



Apply your decoupage medium to the front of the wood piece (the unpainted side).

Press your paper firmly, & rub, to get out any air bubbles.

If you have a little bit of paper hanging over, you can snip off the excess.


I glued glitter onto some of the paper.

When the piece is dry, cover the front & back with a coat of decoupage medium.

Embellish with stickers, papers, stamps, buttons, or other decorative bits.

When it's ALL dry, glue on a plastic safety plug with the E6000. I have found my plugs in the baby department of Walmart & Toys R Us, near the bottles & next to the other child safety equipment & baby-proofing accessories.

I do not recommend these be used if you have small children. Attaching the plugs to the wood pieces actually makes it easier for small hands to pull out of the wall outelts.


You can also paint designs onto the wood instead of using the decoupage method.
Have fun!

17 comments:

Kim said...

I heart the cake images!

Amanda @ www.kiddio.org said...

Love this idea, what a hoot! Finally a way to use those things up :)
xo, amanda @ www.kiddio.org

The Real Life Fairy Tale Princess said...

These are adorable. The Toddling Terrorist has amazing fine motor skills and already pulls the safety plugs out. Good to know there's a cute second use for them!

sassypackrat said...

Cute idea! Fun for the plugs that are counter height in the kitchen. Thinking of making some for my mom's kitchen. It's a very green idea. Keeps you from keeping appliances plugged in that you aren't using and is cute too.

Rose Works Jewelry said...

What a fun idea :)

Tracy is ... Loving Pretty Things said...

LOVE IT!!! so fun!!!

clare said...

Great idea , thanks .
clares craftroom

Paisley Girl said...

Very cute idea. I will have to try that one out. I love your cake ones. And of course them being pink earns them extra points. :-)

Karen Mowrey said...

Brilliant idea! Very fun!!!

courtne450 said...

Oh my goodness! I love this, what a great idea. I'm going to make some today!!!

smilemonsters said...

Love it!!!! I'm gonna do some. :)

Jo

Heleen said...

what afun idea! never seen anything like it.

Lowell and Son said...

Ooooo, I love that idea. I wonder if I have any of those little plastic things floating around in the junk drawer? I better look, I will definitely give this a try. Thanks.

Daisigirl said...

This is the niftiest idea! Thanks! :0)

Suzy said...

Great idea for gift giving!!!
Thanks for sharing.

KatiesKreations said...

how adorable!!

Jana said...

Really great idea !!! I will try it! Thank you !!!