attracted to all things office supplies, i kept thinking about those Italian thumbtacks i had seen on a few blogs a while back.
mostly i kept thinking about the beautiful colors.
so i decided to raid my paint cupboard + experiment with what i had on hand to create some thumbtack bling for my bulletin board.
this is pretty straight forward + doesn't really require much, if any, explanation, but here is what i did:
Supplies
brass thumbtacks (i had some of these in my supply drawer + think i paid $1.25 for 200 @ the bargain shop)
spray paint (left over from previous craft projects)
cardboard (for mounting tacks)
newspaper for protecting work surface
mount tacks onto cardboard---this is the most time consuming part of this project.
the above piece was already bent like this and i would suggest bending your piece of scrap cardboard in this manner as it helped with mounting the tacks as i wasn't worried about them 'sticking' into the surface below.
do NOT push the thumbtacks all the way down. if you do, once the paint dries you may find the painted thumbtacks have adhered themselves to the cardboard.
spray according to manufacturer's directions on the can.
i held a small piece of newspaper at an angle to protect previously sprayed tacks when i switched colors + was spraying a new section.
i also kept this in mind when i initially mounted the thumbtacks into the cardboard--leaving a bit of a gap between "sections" of thumbtacks.
allow to dry.
i allowed the tacks to dry for an hour or more
--the spray paint can will also give you drying times.
all of the paints were gloss, except one which was a matte finish (top row, center directly below)
i did 2-3 coats for each color--with the exception of the grey which needed 4 light coats to get full coverage--allowing to dry between each.
i think i need to add some lilac + maybe a hint of orange, or some teal + then a lighter grey...oh yes, this is going to occupy my "craft head space" for a while.
for a gift, these would be so pretty packaged up in a small jar. add a bulletin board made from a small vintage frame + you have a fairly inexpensive gift.