Here are a few tips to minimize the clean-up time associated with painting.

• Slip your roller tray into a plastic garbage bag before you pour the paint in. When you’re done, pull out the tray, turn the bag inside out and use it to collect all the painting mess…and your tray is ready to use again.
• You don’t have to clean brushes and rollers between coats or when you stop for the day — wrap them in a plastic bag or plastic wrap to keep the air out. They’ll keep for up to a few days and be ready to go whenever you are. Keep in mind Latex paints will keep a bit longer than Alkyd – based paints.
• Put the roller tray (and roller) in a plastic garbage bag, twist the end closed and tuck it underneath. Leave enough air in the bag to keep it from settling into the paint. Pull it out when you need it again and you’re instantly back to work.
• Decant the paint you’ll need for brushing into appropriate size plastic margarine tubs, or yogurt containers as required. It’s easier to hold while you’re cutting in and you can just pop the lid on between coats. Mark the colour and finish (ie. “Mudroom yellow — eggshell — March ‘08″) on both the lid and the container for later reference. Keep it even after the job’s done, for convenient touch- up later.
• Have a brush and container of paint for each type or colour of paint that you’re using. You can easily switch between colours when you need to — bag one brush, put the lid on the container, grab the other brush and container and keep going.

Photo: miniozzy

This is a Stonehaven original design that you won’t find anywhere else — but now you can build your own! Click here for more information.

Decorate Your Beehive Bank

Here’s how we used a few simple painting techniques to make a realistic miniature “beehive” of the coin bank. First, the entire bank was given a coat of primer, and then a coat of ordinary white craft paint. We painted both the inside and the outside of the cover, but left the interior of the bank unpainted — who’s going to see it? And in any case, the inside of the bank would just get scratched up with coins if it was painted.

As noted in the Honey Money Bank construction plans, the handles for the “supers” of the hive bank are painted on, using a stencil — a stencilling template is included in the plans — and a very pale grey colour of craft paint.

On the Honey Money Bank we’re showing here, Rebecca added some decorative painted “grass” around the bottom with a very fine craft brush and ordinary craft paints in three shades of green.

The tiny painted “flower” in the grass are simply dots of yellow craft paint, put on with the end of a toothpick.

Three shades of grey, stroked on with a broad flat brush, give some texture to the removable cover of the beehive bank. Finally, the words “Honey Money” were added in freehand style. We used press-on lettering for another money bank, but in the end we preferred the “country look” of painting the words on by hand.

The fun is yours, to decorate your own bank as you like!

Build Your Own Honey Money Bank

The Honey Money Bank construction plans can be yours for $2.50 — click here for more information.