Label everything!

This stuff was meant for embellishing fabric, so obviously you can use it to label a jacket or a backpack or a hat. How about labeling luggage? Put a design on that suitcase that is easy to spot on the carousel at the airport! Check out what Natasha did over at Confessions of a Skincare Junkie.

Here are other ideas of what you can label: your bike helmet (and your bike too) and any other sports equipment, headphones, your phone, tablet, or other electronics, and your stapler (if you are very protective of it).

Use it to color-code your keys! Or, again, use it to label tools (e.g., pink is mine, purple tools are Em’s, blue tools belong in the garage, green tools go in the basement).

You can also use it to decorate or label wine glasses, such as these found over at SteeleMagnoliaDesign’s Etsy shop! Use at a party to keep track of whose glass is whose, give as a personalized party favor, or make ones for the bride and groom.

Also use it to label everyone’s reusable water bottles.

Note: when Puffy Paint is used on a slick surface like glass, it can be peeled off. Advantage: you can label glassware for a party and peel it off at the end of the night. Disadvantage: it probably wouldn’t hold up long term on something like a wine glass or mug. When hand washing, be careful around your design.

Help the visually impaired (or anyone at night)

One of the advantages of Puffy Paint is that it is three dimensional. This means you can feel where it is applied. My grandfather became legally blind in his 90s, so we labeled a bunch of things for him using little orange dots some blind organization gave him. But they’d sometimes pop off. Puffy Paint is a much better solution! It is durable, easy to apply, can be felt by touch, or use different colors for extra visual contrast.

Ideas for what you can label to help the visually impaired: the “minute” button on the microwave (put a dot near the edge of the button so the touch pad will still work), their comfort-level settings on the thermostat dial, one or two most-used settings on an oven or stove dial (or use a series of different length lines or dashes to indicate different temperatures), and one or two settings on a dryer dial.

You can also use it to label containers, for example to distinguish between the flour and the sugar containers, or to label spice jars with maybe the first letter or a symbol on the jar or lid. Or label the canned goods in the pantry.

Since it was intended for fabric, you can also label clothing. You could put symbols on the tags to indicate color.

I used one of those dots on my laptop keyboard to mark the Delete key. Every laptop puts it in a different place, so that dot was handy to make it easy to find the key, even in the dark.

That reminds me… they make glow in the dark Puffy Paint! So that would be even better on the laptop. Or on the switch plate for the bathroom light. Or on your house key. Or on the TV remote. Or a flashlight. Or on the charger cord that lies near your bed that you scramble for in the dark. Whatever you might want to see or find in the dark!

Make Jewelry and Costumes

With all of its vivid colors and versatility, dimensional paint is great for DIY jewelry. It is easy to create friendship bracelets, as seen on Chica Circle, or lacy necklaces.

It’s also great at Halloween to create costumes and accessories. Want to look like your neck has been severed? Create a dripping blood red necklace. Or create a spider web necklace or headpiece.

You can also use it on a costume to draw a symbol or emblem, or add the look of studs or rivets.

Decorate!

Again, think beyond the T-shirt. Decorate your phone and at the same time give it a non-slip, protective coating! You can embed things like gems in it while wet, since it will act like a glue, as seen at I Love to Create.

It can be used for home decor items as well. Embellish a lamp shade. Decorate a vase or mason jar or candle votive. Make a relief wall hanging.

And there are so many holiday ideas as well! For Christmas, use it to decorate ornaments, or make window cling snowflakes, like those shown here from Chica Circle. For Easter, decorate eggs (real ones to dye or plastic ones). For Halloween, embellish a pumpkin or make a spider web for your window or door. Or if you like more gore, how about a dripping blood window cling.

Embellish

Okay, you can also use it for what it was intended for. Embellishing fabric! But it doesn’t have to be a tacky T-shirt like we used to do in the 80s. You can get really sophisticated! Check out this example from Alisa Burke, where the patterned yoke looks almost like bead work, or get a rhinestone look on your shirt or jeans. You don’t have to start with a plain fabric, but instead try adding to a cool pattern for that extra pizzazz on your paisley tunic top or your clutch, as in this tutorial on I Am Momma Hear Me Roar. Tulip makes a special product called Beads in a Bottle that self rounds for perfect dots that look just like rhinestones.

Is That It?

No! I’ve barely scratched the surface of what you can do with this stuff! I’ve put together a Puffy Paint Ideas board on Pinterest with many of the ideas here, plus many more that I just didn’t have room to share, and I will continue to update it with new projects I find. Check it out!

Hey, and follow me while you are there!

Follow Cynthia Caldwell @ Yet Another Mom Blog’s board Puffy Paint Ideas on Pinterest.

 

 

Have you used Puffy Paint in a creative way? Let’s hear about it!