DIY: Monogrammed Cooler Tote

So I am IN LOVE with all the new prints for Lifeguard Press giftables for Lilly!

"Chin Chin" is an entirely pink and green print (I think it was made to match LBP) with elephants that have celebrating monkeys on them! It's slated to come out in a color way that includes pale yellow and pale blue in the next shipment of clothes. Think swimwear and beach pants--hello spring and summer!

I had a monogram decal that I had originally bought to put on my Nook cover, but I measured it wrong. I figured that my Nook dimensions would need the same dimensions monogram...oops! Probably a better rule of thumb would have been 1/2 the size of my Nook. Anyway, it left me with this AWESOME repurposable vinyl monogram! It had been in my purse for quite awhile, but then it hit me: put it on a bag!

Most of the market totes had too much white in the prints themselves, so instead I put it on the insulated tote! Not only will it be a great tote bag in general, but I can store drinks and snacks in it for the beach, and ideally Carolina Cup! It has a velcro opening at the top to keep your things the coolest they can be.

This might be the easiest "DIY" I've ever posted. I'm not even sure if it really qualifies as a true DIY but more like "Semi-Homemade" by the Food Network's definition. I really just combined things I already had (ehem, after I purchased the cooler tote) together!

1. Step 1: Assemble your items. My sticker took a bit of a beating in my purse, but it didn't matter in the end.

2. Step 2: place your monogram on your bag and press 100% of the vinyl on the bag firmly. I used the blunt end of a pen to make sure I got alllllll the spots.

3. Step 3: Slowly remove the sticky backing of the vinyl. This can be tricky, so be patient.

4. Step 4: Admire your work!

I purchased my vinyl monogram on Etsy, and there are hundreds of vendors you can choose from. There are tons of colors you can choose from and match it totally to whatever you choose to add your monogram to!

I am PUMPED to use my bag and I know I'm going to get a ton of usage out of it! They are durable with great handles and now a knock-out monogram!

Happy monogramming y'all!

xxKatie

Cooler Gifts!

Emma, The Cooler Girl herself and a beloved Sassy Sponsor, painted my sister a cooler for helping her out with her cooler website!

How cute did it turn out?! I am OBSESSED! While she credited me with helping her out pick the designs, I hardly did ANYTHING and left about 98% of the heavy lifting up to Emma! I think it turned out amazingly and I love how personalized to Grace it is: America, Auburn, her sorority, her school and a little bit of Maryland flair!

There are a few collegiate events where coolers are THE thing to have: Mountain Weekend, Beach Weekend, Birthdays, Big/Little Reveal, and (cue angels singing "ahhhhhh") Carolina Cup!

Cup is right around the corner and I cannot wait! People have started getting their dresses for Cup and I'm sure plenty of gals are planning how to paint their coolers this far in advance!

One of my favorite sides from my own cooler was the madras side which would be PERFECT for Carolina Cup!

xxKatie

Crafternoon: Clemson Cooler

I love my South Carolina Gamecocks. I will start by saying that. I do, however, live with a roommate who has a boyfriend who is a Clemson Tiger! (I know, I know, what am I doing?!)

We'd been brainstorming for about a month on what to do for his birthday cooler. I have the final product and let me say, my roommate knocked this one out of the park!

This was the front of the cooler! The blurry part is just his last name and I didn't want to share that, but it looked SO cute in her adorable handwriting! I loved the front and how closely she stuck to the Clemson theme!

This was BY FAR my favorite side! I thought Miss Kathryn did a GREAT job and how FIERCE LOOKIN' is that tiger face? AMAZING. I would also like to note that she free handed that...

This was the back and was personalized to him! Aiken is his hometown, and there's a baby Clemson paw at Clemson and a heart for her at Columbia.

Her boyfriend loves the Avatar show and follows it closely and I loved how this side turned out! I like the primary colors and how unique it is for a cooler!

Kathryn's boyfriend is an engineering major and this side was a little homage to that! I thought this idea was BRILLIANT especially since I'd never seen anything like that before on a cooler. TOO cool! 

I thought that a lot of my Clemson readers would appreciate this post! Kathryn and I were so excited when it was finished and she couldn't WAIT to give it to him for his 21st birthday! It was such a fun, thoughtful 21st birthday gift AND appropriate. I don't know what guy wouldn't want a cooler this special for his birthday!

xxKatie

(P.S.: GO GAMECOCKS! ...y'all I had to...)

Crafternoon: Coolers

I've posted about painting coolers before. I did one about a year ago and as a rule of thumb, they are a labor of love! My roommate Kathryn is painting one for her boyfriend, so we started crafting last night!

After finding your cooler, step 1 is to prime it! (Also cover your surface! I used one of those plastic re-usable tablecloths, one was left over from my birthday and fit the bill!) We used Krylon primer in WHITE to make the overall painting easier. Know going into the endeavor that your cooler will chip. Even the best coolers chip. Womp womp.

After priming and letting it dry, start your sides! We haven't gotten to all of Kathryn's sides, but it's going to be Clemson themed (AHHHH!!?!? DID I REALLY JUST TYPE THAT?!?!?!?!?!) and boyfriend themed. Plot spoiler: her sides are going to be REALLY CUTE.

Since hers aren't done, I'm going to post a few pictures of the one I did.

They key to solid sides is LAYERS and LAYERS of paint. Paint a layer, Mod Podge it. Paint another layer, Mod Podge it again. You see the pattern, repeat 50 times. (Butreally...)

This side was by far the most time consuming. Each square was painted individually. As you can see, all those plaid patches are different. Like I said, I painted all the squares and then painted on Mod Podge. Then I did all the plaid, and more Mod Podge. I also used the Mod Podge to seal it. Over and over and over.

Another good trick of the trade is to use paint pens. If you're not very good at painting like me, paint pens give you a HECK of a lot more control than a paint brush. Unfortunately I only found this out toward the end of my cooler painting experience. Arm yourself with plenty of pens!!!

I also focused on basic shapes. Lots of basic shapes. In the map I was able to coordinate our state, our college town and where we were going all in one side! And it was EASY!

Tips for painting:

1. Prime. There is no such thing as priming.

2. Check your lid often. The worst feeling ever is thinking that you might have closed it too early and the paint fused the lid and bottom together! 

3. Add in fun touches. I used metallic paint pens and glitter as the bottom of my Old Bay can! They add  something different to the cooler and you don't see that very often!

4. Keep in mind that coolers need a lot of paint! If you're mixing colors, mix a lot more than you think you might need. Trying to match colors after they've dried can be impossible!

5. MOD PODGE. You can't ever have enough Mod Podge. There are also "recipes" to mix your own, but I stuck with the tried and true brand name stuff.

6. Seal your cooler with Mod Podge and a clear sealant. These are usually sold in the house section of paint/spray paint if you don't do your shopping at a craft store. I did mine in WalMart...

Hope this helps all your cooler painting artists in the making!!

xxKatie

Coolers Coolers Coolers!

I get a lot of questions on tumblr and by email about painting coolers! I've posted my cooler before, but I'm gonna try another post since people are so curious about it!

This was the top of my cooler! It was my second favorite side. The guy I went with was one of my best friends and also from Maryland, so Old Bay was an obvious choice! What Marylander isn't a fan of Old Bay?! It was fun to paint, and I added some glitter to what would be the silvery part of the bottom of the can! I also used metallic paint pens to add some sparkle too!

This was my favorite side! It was certainly a labor of love! I had never seen a madras cooler, and so I knew that this was the direction that I wanted to go in. I actually had a lot of fun painting this side because I could do it however I wanted--there were no rules!

This was one of the smaller sides of the cooler! Obviously I wanted to include his fraternity and its symbols in the cooler and I used paint pens to do the details and the letters so they were more controlled. The only difficult thing about this side was finding the right shade of blue for the fraternity!

This was the back side of the cooler! It's a partial map of South Carolina and I copied the MapQuest directions from Columbia to Myrtle Beach, where we were going for Beach Weekend. I used the metallic paint pens again on the back of this and otherwise painted the roads and highways free-handed! It was a fun side and different than most of the other coolers. I didn't want any sides to have alcohol labels, etc. because I wanted the guy to be able to use this cooler in front of his family or wherever he would be going so I tried to keep it clean! 

I didn't get a clear photo of the last side, but it was a Total Frat Move quote about being a doctor and I added a stethoscope with his monogram on the bottom of the stethoscope! It was a very fun side! He was pre-med and is prepping for medical school, so the side was perfect for him!

When I first painted the cooler, I spray painted the whole thing white and used Krylon plastic outdoor paint. The white just gave me a blank canvas to start with! When I first bought the cooler, it was red from Walmart and would have been harder to paint the red. With each layer I painted, I used ModgePodge to seal it layer by layer--I'd rather be safe than sorry! Once I was done painting it all, I put two layers of MP, let them dry completely and then used a Krylon clear, matte, plastic sealant to seal the whole thing--and I went crazy with it--again I'd rather be safe than sorry!

I hope this helps anyone who is looking for cooler ideas! I had a blast painting mine, I hope you have fun with yours too!

xxKatie