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Welcome to the Hazel & Ruby / Michaels-Arts & Crafts Reveal Party and 
Blog Hop!

All month long, we have been celebrating our little secret….

Michaels is now carrying our entire line of Stencil-Masks, Wrap It Up Paper, & Pass the Tissue Paper!  Now, it’s super easy to hop on over to your local store and pick up our amazing products.  We have made DIY easy and fun for everyone!

To celebrate handmade, we have gathered together some amazingly talented bloggers whose passion is to create, make and share every day. Some of these ladies will be regular contributors as part of Hazel & Ruby's Makery team, so you will see a lot more from them in the future. Each one will share project inspiration, product tips and how-to’s to teach and inspire. We are so excited to introduce you to each one of them and get ready to be awed!

For the next 2 days, you can hop around to each of their blogs, stopping by to say Hi and Hello!  Everyone is super excited to share their project ideas with you and how they were DIY inspired.
Simply follow the Blog Hop list below as you hop from one blog to the next.  Lost?  Return to the Hazel & Ruby blog to see who is next on your hopping list!

Hazel & Ruby  http://www.hazelandruby.com/blog/
Amber Packer  http://www.amberpacker.com/
Carmen Rogge http://theflairexchange.com/
Cheryl Sorce http://www.aprettycoollife.com/
Jana Eubank  http://janaeubank.wordpress.com/
Kelly Rowe http://livelaughrowe.com/
Margie Romney-Aslett  http://www.margieromney-aslett.typepad.com/
Ronda Palazzari  http://rondapalazzari.typepad.com/
Stephanie Bryan  http://stephaniemakes.blogspot.com/
Tamara Jensen  http://tamarajensen.typepad.com/lifeisanartform/
Tammy Tutterow  http://tammytutterow.com/blog/
Thuy Bui  http://www.mypaperpinwheel.com/
Tina Walker  http://adogslife-thirteen.blogspot.com/
Hazel & Ruby  http://www.hazelandruby.com/blog/

But what’s a Blog Hop without a giveaway?  Nothing, you may ask!  😉 In Hazel & Ruby style, we like to celebrate BIG, so we will be randomly picking a winner who will win a prize package worth $500. We will be announcing the prize package over the next couple weeks, but it will contain product from your favorite manufacturers! (we like to keep secrets, can you tell?)

What do you need to do?
Leave a comment on the Hazel & Ruby blog AND on the blog post of our talented makers telling us what you enjoyed most about their ideas.  Easy Peasy!

We will also be featuring each of these ladies on our Hazel & Ruby blog over the next 3 weeks.
We will select a winner on June 6th and stay tuned for more details on the prize package (oh the suspense!!)

Blog comments are due by midnight MST, June 5th to qualify for the drawing. Winners will be announced shortly after the end of the comment period, so be sure to check back to see if you've won.

Want more Party?  Don’t forget about our Instagram Party!  Get out those cell phones and take a trip to your local Michaels-Arts & Crafts Store.  Show us how much you love Hazel & Ruby by snapping a picture of the Hazel & Ruby display in the store.

You know what we would love even more? Take a #selfie with our display!  Tag your IG photo with #hazelandrubyslittlesecret and share it with us on Instagram.

On June 1st, we will be selecting one (or two) winners to win the ENTIRE Hazel & Ruby collection!  How awesome is that? If you aren’t yet following Hazel & Ruby on IG…. you can find us at 
@hazelandrubyhandmade.  Be sure to follow us so you don’t miss out on all of the fun and creative inspiration. Remember…sharing is caring….we would love you to share our good news with your friends.

Not on Instagram?  Please share your Hazel & Ruby projects with us on Facebook.  Really and truly…one of our greatest joys is seeing what YOU create.  You never know, we may feature your project on our Blog!

Are you ready to Hop?  Let’s go!
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I have been dying to play with Hazel and Ruby’s stencil-masks for a while and was thrilled to get the chance to participate in the blog hop. I have a couple of pallet art projects I will create in the future. But, since the reason for the blog hop is so special, I wanted to go a little outside the box. I used three different stencil-masks and came up with this:

I’ve loved this bench, but after having it for almost 14 years, it was time to update or replace. What better way to update and get creative?

I did some experimenting and used a little different process than the amazing video tutorial on the H&R website (click here). Just because I’m like that. I learned a few things along the way.

Stencil-masks used:

• Chevron
• Blindside
• Dear Ruby

Primer: Rustoleum

Off-white Color: Antique White milk paint (General Finishes)

Turquoise Color: Acapulco Aqua (Kelley Moore)

Instructions:

Lesson learned: In the tutorial, Jayme and Lindsay suggest you seal the base coat (antique white) with mod podge. Since my bench is kept outside, I used milk paint instead of acrylic paint and mod podge is water soluble, I decided I would prime the wood instead.

That worked out great! Look how gorgeous:

… that is until I ran out of primer and substituted white spray paint (Krylon). And then this happened… (Warning: user error!)

See the difference! To be honest, I kind of liked this look. However, the intent was to bring my bench back to life, not make it look old and weathered.

Lesson learned: white spray paint is not a substitute for primer. Next time I use milk paint, I am going to use primer underneath and seal it with the polyacrylic top coat I usually apply before applying the mask and top coat of paint. Oh, well, you live and you learn. It was easy to fix my mistake. Nothing a little sand paper and more paint can’t fix!

I am demonstrating the stencil-masks on today’s Good Things Utah. When the segment is available, I will upload the link here:

p.s. Be sure to return this week to see the pillow I demonstrated on the show today all complete and added to my bench.

Have a happy Monday!