HomeTips and GardenTips Information

Home Decor and Gardening Tips Facts and Information.

HomeTips

Stenciling Tips
Painting Tips
Wood Care Tips
Carpet Stain Tips
Candle Tips
Fresh Vegetable Tips

GardenTips

Chipmunk Control Tips
Dog and Lawn Tips
Daffodil Tips
Peony Tips
Blooming Plant Tips
Invasive and Banned Plant Tips

Money Saving Tip: If you use those Swifer dusters or the generic brands, did you know you could wash and reuse them? I've washed mine three to four times before I throw them out.

Metal Ceiling Panel Jasmine Stenciling With Spackle

Stenciling With Spackle Tips

For a different 3D type of effect for your stenciling try using spackle, you can find the spackle at any hardware or home store. When using spackle for your stenciling make sure your stencil is sturdy and a little thicker then most stencils you see. When making my own stencils I will find the thicker blank sheets to use so they won't tare, or find a heavier piece of plastic that you can still cut through if you are making your own. You can also buy stencils that are made for using spackle or plaster if you don't want to make your own.

From the pictures above you can see that I copied the pattern off my ceiling panel, then just traced it on the plastic sheet I had, then cut the pattern out. So here is how to go about using the spackle for your stenciling.

1. Tape your pattern stencil where you would like to do your spackling at.

2. Put some spackle in a small dish then with a butter knife take a small amount of spackle and start going over your pattern stencil. If the spackle is to thick just add some water to it. If you need to go over the pattern stencil again with the spackle waite until your first coat dries a little. When you are finished gently take off the pattern stencil while the spackle is a little damp. Let the stencil dry before proceeding to the next step.

3. Once your stencil is dry you can add extra layers to make the stencil thicker. Put some spackel in a dish add enough water to make a "slip" from the spackle. Add just enough water to make the spackle thick enough to be able to use a paint brush to add the slip on the stencil without it running, at this point you can also add color to the slip if you so chose. Let dry between coats. You can repeat this process until your happy with the thickness of your stencil.

What's nice about this you can add your color in with the spackle and not have to do painting. You'll get a nice rich color with more coats of slip you add onto your stencil. Believe it or not it doesn't take all that long to do, just a little time and patience.

Any questions you may have please email me at: loraine@lsccreations.com and I will get back to you.

Stenciling With Wallpaper

Most stenciling you've seen is always painted or plastered on the walls. To have something very unique, try stenciling with wallpaper. Make sure you buy the pre-pasted wallpaper its better for sticking to your walls and you don't have the mess of the glue. Also if you decide to take the wallpaper off all you need to do is dampen the area you want removed with water and slide the wallpaper off.

In the pictures above I've used 2 different wallpapers but in some of my rooms I've used up to 4 different varieties. What I've done to make a scene is very simple, but it takes time and patience. So here we go with the directions to make you walls into a beautiful scene.

1. Find a wallpaper with large areas that's plain with no design that you want to keep. This way you can get small scissors into the wallpaper without damaging the area you want to cut out. For example, cutting birds, flowers or vines from the wallpaper you want to be able to get your scissors around the object without cutting into it. Its better to get a wallpaper or boarder that has large items you want from it.

2. Once you've cut out the different designs you want on your wall, then its time to put them up. All you need for this is a dish that's large enough for the types of wallpaper you've cut out. Fill the dish with some water, put the piece of wallpaper into the water and get it well dampened. Now just put the wallpaper where you want to on your wall. Take a clean rag or paper towel and blot off the excess water that maybe on your wall and wallpaper.

3. That's it! Now you can have fun creating all sorts of wonderful scenes on your walls. Its a lot of fun to do and it looks like you've actually painted on your scene. The wallpaper will last for years and if something does get damaged you can replace it with spare pieces of leftover wallpaper. I've had some of my wallpaper stenciling going up my stair step walls for years. Everyone that sees my wallpaper stenciling thinks I've painted them on.

Any questions you can email me at: loraine@lsccreations.com and I will get back to you. Happy Stenciling!

Painting A Mural Tips and Tricks

Mural Painting

Painting a mural can be fun and rewarding. But make no mistake it can be long and sometimes pain staking depending on how detailed you want your mural to be. The one I painted on my ceiling took a few months to do because I was looking for detail to make the sky look realistic. In fact when I was painting the sky I went outside to look at the sky and find clouds that I liked and went back inside and painted the cloud. Some days I was able to capture the sun going behind the clouds to get a wonderful effect on the ceiling. So, for you to do your own mural I will give you a few pointers to start out with and if you have further questions please email me and I will be happy to help you out.

1. If your ceiling has that wonderful popcorn texture just scrap it off then wipe off your ceiling with a damp cloth. Leave any little dents in your ceiling that may come from scraping the plaster off, it gives it a wonderful effect. But if you have a medium to large holes patch them with plaster. Now your ready to start painting. If you are not sure on how to proceed try and do some cloud painting on a piece of cardboard. It'll help you to get a good idea on how to continue.

2. Find a blue paint that you like with a satin or flat finish and paint your whole ceiling with the blue paint and let it dry.

3. Now for your clouds. When painting the clouds find some small pieces of foam rubber and small artist brushes to use. When using the foam rubber try and have it rounded, try putting two ends of the foam rubber together to form a ball shape or wrap a piece over your finger. The brushes will be needed for doing an outline of the cloud to give it depth.

4. Get various pigments of white and gray and keep your blue handy. Also you will want to use different finishes like satin, semi-gloss, and flat to help give texture and depth to your sky. Also mixing metallic paints with regular paints can give a wonderful effect.

5. Take your foam rubber dip it into a bright white paint and dab on your ceiling to form a cloud. If need be, go outside and find a cloud you like study it for color and design and use it for your ceiling, or take some pictures of the sky when you have a lot of fluffy clouds around. When you have an outline of a cloud that you like, go to another part of your ceiling that you want a cloud and start another one. Just remember how clouds flow like coming from the west and going east, you don't want a long cloud going north-south and another one going east-west, otherwise you'll have a ceiling looking like a compass. When you have finished with your basic design on your ceiling then you can start with the real run stuff of shading and detailing.

6. Filling in and shading. Get other shades of white and gray and dab over your existing cloud. You can either let the paint dry or just use another color and go over the wet paint lightly, this will help blend the paints together. Now, you have a choice of letting the paint dry and add another color or leave the cloud as is, its up to you. Also you can add some blue paint when doing the clouds if you wish. Just put a small amount of blue on the ceiling and when its still wet add some white, this again will mix the colors together for blending.

7. When you are at a finished point you can add some water to your white paint and any areas that you have a lot of blue that you maybe want to tone down, just dampen your foam rubber with the paint and lightly wipe over the blue area. This will make your sky look like it has high thin clouds. Also, any clouds you would like to accent further, use your gray and blue paints and make a thin outline with a brush around or in the cloud.

8. FYI if you get upset because the sky isn't going just the way you would like it to, stop painting and leave it alone for a day or so and just keep looking at it. Always remember that you can paint over a spot you don't like and start again. Just take your time and have fun doing it. Infact I still paint on my ceiling from time to time when if I feel like changing something. Again any questions please email me at:loraine@lsccreations.com

Wood Floor Care Tips For Pet Stains

How many times have you seen pet stains on wood floors? The ugly part is that most people you talk to will tell you they can't be fixed, which isn't true in most cases. Here's my tip to what I've done in the passed. You can take those black spots out of your wood floor and without having to refinish you whole floor.

Here are the items you will be needing. Peroxide, oven cleaner, cotton balls, paper towels, rags, bucket with water and sandpaper . Nothing fancy just house hold products that work very well with a little patience. So lets get started.

1. Section off the area on your floor that you will be working at.

2. Take the sandpaper and lightly sand the stained area and wipe it clean with a damp rag and water.

3. Take paper towels or rags and cover the floor around the pet stain, this is so you don't get any of the chemicles on the good portion of your floor.

4. Using the peroxide first take a cotton ball and wet it with the peroxide and go over the stain with the cotton ball, then let it dry. Do this a few times to see if there is a difference in the color of the pet stain. The peroxide helps to left some of the stain out of the wood before you go to the next step. After using the peroxide wipe it clean with a damp rag and water, let dry.

5. Now for the oven cleaner. I've found some oven cleaners work better then others, Easy Off is my favorite. Spray the stain with the oven cleaner and wait until most of the bubbles has vanished, then wipe the stain with a damp rag and water making sure all of the oven cleaner is gone from the stain, let dry. If you get the oven cleaner on a part of your good floor immediately wipe it of with the cotton ball and a little peroixide, then damp paper towel with water. If you get it right away you won't hurt the other part of the floor. Let it dry.

6. When dry look at the stain to see how light it is, if you still want to lighten up the stain repeat steps 4 and 5 again until the stain is gone. It's best to go over the stained area after its dried with a damp rag and water, it will give you an idea of how much stain is left in the wood. Just let it dry before you proceed with extra steps.

You may have to repeat the steps 4,5,6 a few times before you get the stain out completely. When the stain is gone you will have a white spot on your floor. Depening on your floor, for example if its oak, you may have to use a maple stain to blend in with the oak. Check with your home store or talk to a wood expert that knows what kind of stains to use for the type of wood you have on your floor. When you get the spot stained to your liking then put a light coat of polyurthene on the spot.

One house I bought I found oak floors under the carpet. I started to tare out the carpet and found all of these black spots on the oak floor. I called various wood floor experts and they told me I would have to refinish my whole floor and they wouldn't guarantee the stain would be gone. They also stated there wasn't anything that would take the stain out completely. Well, you can take out the stains and I did, in fact you couldn't even tell where the stains were at when I finished with the floor. It did take time and patience but I didn't have to pay someone hundreds or thousands to come in and redo my floors and maybe still have the stains. Some stains you may only need to use peroxide on them a few times to get rid of them, it all depends how long the stain has been there and the type of wood on your floor.

Carpet Stains

A bathroom cleaner like Scrubbing Bubbles for example, helps to take out stains in your carpet. Test a hidden area of your carpet first so as not to cause possible color fading. Just spray Scrubbing Bubbles on the stain, rub it in with a damp cloth with water until stain is gone. With another damp rag with water wipe out any of the Scrubbing Bubbles that's left over in the rug. Repeat if Necessary.

Also for smaller stains try the disenfecting wipes like Clorax Wipes, for an example. Again check a hidden area of your carpet first as not to cause color fading.

Candle wax on your carpet? Try using an ice cube to harden the wax. Then gently remove the wax from the carpet with your fingernail or a butter knife.

Candle Tips

Do you have a problem with that sticky candle wax? If your trying to get it out of candle holders just put the holders in the freezer for a few minutes. Bring them back out of the freezer and let them stand less then a minute. Take like a butter knife or even just your fingers and apply pressure on the wax, you should beable to pop the wax right out of the holder. Also, there's a product called Dissolve It which you can buy at home stores which will take off wax really well. Read the instructions before using. Another tip is to add a few drops of Dawn dishwashing liquid into a candle holder with a very small amount of water and let it set. The wax will just pop right out of the holder.

Fresh Lettuce and Vegetable

Here's a tip to keep your lettuce and peppers from turning brown and rotting. After you open your lettuce up from the grocery store just rap it up tightly in aluminum foil. Make sure there isn't any part of the lettuce left open or it will brown. Do the same for peppers too. They will last for a long time before going bad. I've had lettuce for weeks that never went bad, because I rapped it up tightly in aluminum foil.

GardenTips

Additional Garden Links:Rosa the Fairy Sugar Plant Park Seed Rosemary Tree Pink Lily-of-the-Valley Aromatherapy Garden

Thanks to all my wonderful readers I've been asked about gardening tips and tricks. So I shell do my best to help you out with some of the common problems. If you have any questions or suggestions on gardening, please email me and I will do my to answer them.

Chipmunk Control Tips

How to get rid of those cute little chipmunks out of your flower beds. When you find a chipmunk hole, just put a good size wad of dog and or cat hair down into the hole. Cover it back over with dirt and leave it alone. Sometimes the chipmunk will dig another hole in the same bed, just repeat the same step again. After a while the little critter will leave for good and not return. I've had the chipmunk get really mad and try and kick the dog hair back out of his hole. I just stuck the hair back into the hole and put a small stone over the hole. He finally got fed up and left for good. Sometimes you will get a stubborn chippy that won't leave. If that happens just add a little hot sauce to the dog hair and place it back into the chipmunks hole. That should keep him/her away for good and it won't hurt them!

If you're planting flower bulbs just add dog hair into each whole that you dug for the bulb. Put the bulb on top of the dog hair and then just cover the hole with the dirt. The chipmunks won't bother any of your bulbs. I have thousands of flower bulbs planted, I've added dog hair in each whole(no my dogs aren't bald)and I've never had a chipmunk bother my bulbs. Yes, I have loads of chipmunks. Also, planting daffodils can deter the chipmunks from digging in your flower bed.

I feed my chipmunks and squirrels all year long. People say don't you get more of those furry creatures? No, I have a few squirrels that live up in my trees and when another squirrel trys to come in from another area and horn in on the bounty, the other squirrles chase it away. Infact I have 5 gray squirrles, 2 red squirrles, one black squirrel and hords of chipmunks that come and feed during the day.

Garlic you say? Yes, you can also put a fresh garlic clove down the chipmunk hole too. The chippies just hate the smell of the garlic and will leave. But, be prepared you may get garlic growing in your garden (great for a vegetable garden). That's one reason I don't use the garlic is because it sprouted every place I put it. When the garlic sprouted in my flower beds it looked like tall weeds growing up. So I stick to the dog hair, it does a good job and doesn't cost me a cent.

Dog and lawn Spots

Do you have a dog that makes those nice brown spots in your yard? Here is a cure that I've used for 3 different dogs for years and it works. From about March through September I give my dog a couple of tablespoons of tomato juice every day. Get the no sodium or low sodium tomato juice. Of course you may have to change the amount of tomato juice for the size of the dog. Some dogs have to get use to it and other dogs love it. This prevents the ugly brown spots on your lawn.

Daffodils

GardeningTips Daffodils

Those beautiful yellow rays of sunshine in the spring is a welcome site. People make a mistake of just planting daffodils in flower beds. If you have a natural wooded area around your house, this is a wonderful place to plant daffodils. All you need to do is take a few in your hand and just toss them anywhere on the ground. Where they land is where you should plant them. You will be amazed in all the comments you will receive concerning your daffodils. People passingby enjoy taking in the beauty of the bright yellow flowers in your woods.

Make sure you try and resist picking the daffodils. Its best to let the flower stay, so it will get the nutrients it needs for next year. Also, don't cut off the leaves or tie them up so they die quicker. This again, won't let the proper nutrients get back into the bulb so it will flower nicely next spring. My daffodil leaves stay on until July, when they start to yellow a little I may clip them off, depending where they are at in my flower bed. Others stay on until they die out on their own. But this may vary depending where you are located at. Being I'm in zone 4-5 the bulbs will come up later then someone in zone 7.

Adding bulb fertilizer in the fall and early spring is also a good idea. This helps to make a good healthy bulb, which makes extra little bulbs and in turn makes more flowers. My daffodils have been to healthy. After about 15 years, I finally dug mine up in one of my flower beds. I started out with about 150 bulbs and ended up well over 1000. The reason I knew I had to get them seperated, was because I wasn't getting very many flowers, all I was getting was mainly leaves. I couldn't have that, I love daffoldils and more the marrier!

Peonies-Ants Please!

GardenTips Peony Single Single Peony GardenTips Peony Double Double Peony

If you have peony bushes and those annoying little ants all over the buds, leave them alone. What those wonderous creatures do is eat the wax off the peony buds, this inturns lets the bud open into the beautiful flower. If you get rid of the ants off the buds your flower won't open up, then the bud just dies off. As much as you may hate ants they are the miracle worker for the peony.

Blooming Plants

GardenTips Clematis Vine Clematis GardenTips Hibiscus Hibiscus

Trying to get your flowering plants to really bloom? Try using a fertilizer called Triple Super Phosphate by Espoma its 0-46-0. You can find it at a local nursery or a good farm store. The middle number (46) is what you want for blooms and the higher the number the better. There is also a good product called Schultz Bloom Plus and its 10-60-10. Just be careful not to over feed the plants becuase you can burn their roots or the plant my not bloom at all. Always read the directions before using any type of fertilizer!

My clematis you see in the picture above is many years old. In fact I was ready to dig it up being it wouldn't bloom for me. The secret to the clematis, make sure you mulch the root base so the roots stay cool but the top portion likes more sun. But, I have clematis growing up oak trees which gets some shade. It really depends on the soil they are in and giving them a good fertilizer in the spring.

The beautiful hibiscus is a sight to behold. When this plant blooms in the summer it covers the new growth with those bright pink blooms. The old growth dies off in the late fall then in the late spring early summer it starts putting out its new growth. Every year the brush gets bigger and bigger with more blooms to enjoy. Of course I do feed it the Triple Super Phosphate to I get more of those wonderful blooms.

Sometimes to get certain bushes to bloom, you may have to cut them back or damage them by hitting the bush with a stick. When you damage the bush (not hard) it sends a message for the bush to stop growing and send out blossoms instead. That's what I've been told, but I've never gotten it to work for me. I just dig the bush up and tell it I'm going to flush it down the toilet if it doesn't blossom. I then replant the bush give it a good understanding and leave it alone, of course water and feed it. That has worked for me lots of times and the blooms I get are wonderful.

Invasive Plants & Banned Plants

Invasive plants can be a gardeners dream or nightmare. For example in the above pictures is a perfect example of an invasive plant. That's right I said plant. The plant is a pink strawberry plant that I bought 3-4 years ago. Now the plant has coverd an entire bed which is about 100 feet long and 10 feet wide. Being the pink strawberry plant puts out runners, it will cover very large areas unless its controlled. In fact, I have to keep cutting this plant back because its growing onto the road. Being there is sand and some dirt down by the road its a happy camper and is sprouting babies. This plant does get eatable strawberries on it but I don't get a one from that whole bank. My wonderful chipmunk friends eat the strawberries before they turn completely ripe.

Burning bush is another invasive and even bannded plant now. In New England its being banned do to the spreading of it into our natural wooded areas. What happens is the burning bush gets berries on it and the birds eat the berries and in turn distribute the seed everywhere. In certain parts of New England the natural wooded areas are getting invaded by the burning bushes and killing off various wild plants. So, starting 2008 I was told the burning bush will no longer be sold in New England.

Barberry bush has also been banned in New England. Like the burning bush it also gets barries and the birds eat the berries and distribute the seed. There is a nice variety of barberry bushes that will be taking big hit. The wonderful thing about the barberry bush is it will grow almost anywhere even in bad soils and very low maintenance. They have wonderful colors too which make them very attractive in many areas of your garden. But, being they do grow with very little care that's why they are getting the ax, so to speak.

I will be covering more about invasive plants and the ones being banned.

Keep checking back to this page from time to time for further information on various home tips and gardening tips , I'm sure you will enjoy them.

Loraine

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