Its All About Sorting It Out - Life and Laundry

So, spring has arrived. And with it comes MUD!!  Lots of it here in South Dakota right now - but we are thankful for the wonderful moisture for the land!

Need some inspiration to help you keep the laundry done? Check out these 5 wall decals!

1. Department of Missing Socks - Help those poor socks to find a partner..even if it is slightly mismatched!

WD093

2. Add scrabble tiles for a fun and creative look in your laundry room!

3. Try some of these tips to make doing laundry a little easier!

 

4. Check Your Pockets! The rule that I grew up with, was if Mom ever found something in our pockets, it was hers to keep. Finders keepers and all that...

5. Don't forget to be thankful for all the dirty laundry, because it will be gone before you know it!

 6. And have fun with the laundry! Life is too short to be annoyed by the piles that build up!

7. So wash today, sort tomorrow and fold eventually! Have a good day, folks!

8. Make laundry easier on yourself and sort it out before hand!  

WD243

Have a good day everyone, and an even better summer!

Project How-To - Grandchildren Brag Board with Clothespins

Grandma, we know you LOVE showing off your grandchildren!  We have a project to share with that is PERFECT for this!   Daughters, you may want to follow along as this makes a great Mother's Day gift!  It's a Grandchildren Brag Board!

 

We tested out the use of a grandchildren wall decal that has been packaged for over a year to see if the wrinkles are any issue.  We found, when applying to this glossy painted smooth board, it was no issue at all.  We did have the wall sticker lying as shown above for about a week before we did the application.  This is something I recommend for all wall decals that come packaged in a roll.

 Here we show the beginning of application of the wall decal... where you use the hinge-method to apply a small part first.

 

 The Grandchildren board after we have the sticker applied.  

I am totally going to stock on more of this type of paint!  We had been using an acrylic craft paint previously .. but this paint made application of the wall decal SO much easier.  Plus we did not waste a foam brush nor did we have to come back the next day and apply a 2nd coat.  To get a good covering, we just sprayed a 2nd layer about 10 minutes after the first.

   

Here's where my manager was handy to have around.  I was struggling to get the clothespin nailed on properly.  She suggested flipping the top part off to the side - WooLaa - easy as pie now!

 I added wood glue under the clothespin along with nailing to keep it sturdier.

 AND... the finished project.. Grandchildren Brag Board!!  It just needs a couple grandkid pictures to display!

Clear Coat Sealant Over Decals - Should You Do It?

From time to time we have customers ask about applying a sealant or clear coat polyurethane over their decals.  Quite often they are applying decals to a board or tile and want to make it last for many years.

Here we have a little info about decal stickers and polurethane.

If you are ordering a wall decal, it is likely a matte finish and the adhesive is not super strong (this feature makes it more suitable for painted Home Decor walls).  Here is a picture of what can happen if you apply a thick coat of polyurethane over a matte finish wall decal sticker.

 

Polyurethane can seep under the edge of the wall decal sticker and can cause the edges of the decal to curl. Now I am not saying you CANNOT seal your decal sticker.... we have had customers tell us they have done it without any problems.

Keep this in mind:

If you have a Wall Decal (matte finish and not super-strong adhesive), use a VERY light coat of polyurethane.  

Mod Podge is another product that I have heard customers state they have used over their wall decal stickers. The polyurethane tends to curl the edges of a vinyl sticker and with the lighter adhesive, the strength of the adhesive can break down.... on a Wall Decal Sticker. 

 

Another factor on the above board might have been the seams of the wood - this allowed the polyurethane to seep under the decal sticker just a bit and this reacted adversely with the adhesive on the decal sticker.

When our customer sent us this photo with "Help!" as the subject line, we suggested we get her another decal (we generally offer a mess-up decal replacement at half price).  The second decal sticker would be made with the GLOSSY OUTDOOR grade material, though.  

The glossy was not a factor seeing the polyurethane she added made the decal glossy-looking anyway.  And our outdoor grade material has a MUCH stronger adhesive... once that sticker sticks to a spot, there is very little chance you have to pick it up and move it to a correct spot!  So the stronger adhesive of our Glossy vinyl material was a much better fit for this project. The strength of the adhesive allowed for a strong application to the wood and therefore wouldn't curl the edges of the decal when a light coat of polyurethane was applied.

Generally a seal is not needed for a vinyl decal made with our Glossy outdoor grade material.  If you want to feel safer, go ahead and apply a coat over your decal, but, please, make it a LIGHT coat! The beanbag toss board picture below is an example of using a light sealant coat over top the decal stickers.

Looking for a personalized or customized Wall Decal design?  Visit our website and use the Contact Us form.

Its Spring - Decorate your Office with Wall Decals!

Seeing as it is actually SPRING already, it was a given that the winter decor needed to come down in the office!  I chose these gorgeous Decorative Flower Decals to brighten up my office window glass.

Want to create the same trailing flowers layout?  Follow these steps:

My first step (after choosing my colors: Lilac, Plum and Soft Pink) was cutting apart the flower wall decals.   Flower Wall Decals will come on 1 full decal sheet.

Cutting apart the flower decals allows me to arrange them in anyway that fits my needs. 

The type of wall decals where you can cut apart and re-arrange them gives the most "bang for your buck". We, as a wall decal manufacturer, can make the wall decals in the most economical way and you, the customer, can arrange the wall decals to fit your available space.

Moving on to arranging the flower wall decals.... I like the flowing look.  I was aiming for the flower decals to appear floating around the edge of my office window.

So I started with taping up the largest flower decals; spacing the various colors out. 
You can do this with painter's tape, if you want to re-arrange first.  Or you can do as I did and peeled the backing off and stuck the flower decal right on immediately.
I had to take the tape layer off  of these right away because I was anxious to see how it was shaping up!

After that I added the next largest size and did this down to the littlest flower decals.

The tiny flower wall decals were used to fill, more or less and add tails to the floating design.

Looks nice and "Springy" right?!

Wall Sticker Stripes - An Easy Wall Border

Hello everyone! Are you wanting to revitalize your walls? Well, we decided to revitalize the wall in our shop with some stripes! And we figured we would elaborate in this blog how we did those stripes!

Make sure to measure your space to see how many wall sticker stripes to order! Ours sets usually include 8-10 pieces. They are about 2 feet long and depending on which one you order 1, 2, 4 or 6 inches high.

Once you receive your stripes, follow these steps.

1. As with any other wall decal, you want to make sure your surface is clean. Just a damp cloth will clean the surface just fine!

2. Make sure to have all the necessary items ready! You might need a level, if you don't want to eyeball how straight the stripes are. (And believe me it is hard!).

3. Peel and stick. Yup, it's that simple. Watch our tutorial to see just how easy it is!

Our walls look so lovely! I think that's my favorite part about them. They make our entryway to the shop very warm and inviting!

I hope this tutorial helps you decide to add some pizazz to your walls! It's so easy and looks awesome!

Go and Decorate TODAY!