Deborah Gayle Studio: Picnic Time!!

Picnic in a Bucket

by Debi, Sue & Friends

We gathered at Deborah Gayle Studio
on Saturday June 9, 2012 for a fun
Picnic themed gathering.

Our version of the Picnic bucket seen on Pinterest, uses Sap Buckets Debi purchased in PA.
Being Sap Buckets, they did not have a handle.
So, the ingenious, Debi and Sue used galvanized wire
to create a sturdy handle for each bucket.

We like this project because we covered several areas of skills with our Friends.
The skills we covered were:
washing & drying, stenciling, proper use & safety of an iron, using a hot glue gun and spelling.

First we washed the buckets with Simple Green and water.

Here two of our Friends are working together to clean the buckets.

Water on metal buckets can get a musical beat when our Friend is cleaning them!!

We dried the buckets in the sun. (Making use of the natural resource)

Debi designed the bucket with a universal picnic table sign. She cut each one time stencil out of heavy cardstock and applied repositionable glue to one side of the stencil. This allowed the stencil to hold tight to the bucket, while stenciling, and remove easily without leaving a trace of glue on the bucket.
It worked like a dream!

Our friends had a choice of one of three Reclaim Paint colours, Licorice, White or Versailles.
Reclaim paint will bond to almost any surface and metal is one of them.
Debi and Marie assisted with the stenciling skills.

We added a little beach theme into our project using shells for embellishments.
For the napkins, sewn by Sue, we took large 100% cotton cleaning cloths from Walmart cut them in fourths and hemmed the edges. Debi printed the shell designs from the Martha Stewart website onto iron-on transfers inkjet for light fabric paper and cut each of them out.

Rick and Sue took charge of assisting with the ironing skills.

Every picnic bucket needs a Utensil Caddy!
Putting our minds and skills together, Debi & Sue created
the most ultimate repurposed caddy ever!

Using three varied sizes of metal cans, we pierced two wholes in each can. We ran wire through the holes, pulled them together and twisted. We intentionally used long wire so that we could use the excess to create a tall handle.

Jute is wrapped around the bottom of the three cans for embellishment and to keep the caddy sturdy. Hot glue was used to add shells to the jute wrapped around the caddy and to the ends of 3, 18" lengths of jute. The strings, with shells glued on the ends, were tied onto the bucket for a beachy touch.

Two happy helpers!!

Rick and Marie

Could not do it without all of you!!!

When the buckets were all done we added a stripped tea towel, magnetic can opener, two plastic spoons, S&P shakers and a pair of ice tongs. Thanks to Sue for gathering all these supplies Now lets get down to some picnicing.

LUNCH TIME!!!

Our own personal
Grill Master
Frank!!!!!
Hot Digities and Burgers!
We also had all the trimmings, potato salad, baked beans and watermelon

Some ate outside and some ate inside, their choice!

For dessert each made their own banana grilled banana split.

First you take a sheet of foil, slice a banana and lay it on the foil, add chocolate chips, marshmellows, nuts or whatever you desire. Wrap it closed and set it over the coals to cook.

I think it took about 10 minutes over our coals.

Open and add vanilla ice cream for a delicious tasty treat!

Back to the buckets for one last detail!

Since the picnic bucket was intended to be for our Friends and their families. I painted the family name on each bucket. Before painting each friend had to spell out their last name for me. Following are the families that will enjoy the buckets for years to come.