You raid the fabric boxes right quick and rig up some bows.
Our theme is whimsy! all should be good.
When you're having a tea party but you haven't gotten around to covering those super old, freyed, paint splattered, scratched by the cat chairs. You raid the fabric boxes right quick and rig up some bows. Our theme is whimsy! all should be good.
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I revamped the DVD cabinet. I've been dying to get my hands on it. The tangle of wires the only thing putting me off moving it. I used leftover wall paint, a little wallpaper, vintage door handles (slightly battered but still good), and picture frames to give it a new look. uHere is the before picture. It's a beautiful cabinet with a lovely shape. Just a tad dark for the corner it sits in. Also, one door has troble shutting, I plan to fix this. I Used . . .
I removed the door handles and doors. I removed the hinges entirely, to prevent them from getting covered in paint. I gave the cabinet a key sand. I found a little undercoat paint and used this as the base coat. I just used a paint brush to brush it on. I gave the cabinet 2 coats of wall paint. I used a small roller on all flat surfaces, it leaves a lovely smooth surface. Here is a shot of the cabinet drying after its two coats. I painted the doors and left to dry. I pasted wallpaer onto the back of a picture frame. I postioned the picture frames on the door fronts. I planned to glue them into place with wood glue but I ended up sticking them into place with command strips. The advantage to this is I can remove/change the frames without fuss. I used these velro command strips. Turns out I didn't have wood glue. I drilled a hole for the handles. I screwed the doors back into place. Place the hinges so they curve away from the door. The finished product!!
Paper Mache Bauble LightsImproving the cozy reading corner by adding more lights and general cozyness to the atmosphere. I've put battery powered candles in paper maches baubles that hang from the ceiling. You Will Need...- Balloons - Paper mache paste/wallpaper paste - Nespapers/newsprint - Paint - Clear nylon thread - Battery lights Get Your Glue On...Blow up about 8-9 balloons, decreasing in size. You might want to try using water balloons for the small baubles. Cover the balloons in newspaper and papermache mix. Build up the layers until the baubles are able to hold their shape, maybe 3-4 layers. Lets each layer dry before adding more paper. Once the layers hold thier shape add a final layer of white paper - this could be butchers paper, unprinted newspaper, or white printers paper. I used recycled printer paper. The baubles are all dry and structuraly sound. POP the balloons!! Neated up the front of the baubles. It is easiest to do this by tracing a lid, to get that perfect circle. Paint the inside of the baubles. Any kind of acrylic paint can be used, I've gone for old test pots. I have gone for a fade out of blues, starting with the lightest colour in the largest bauble and ending with the darkest colour in the smallest. Paint the outside of the baubles. Punch a couple of holes in the top of each bauble and tie on clear nylon string. Tie the string to a hook in the wall/ceiling. String the baub;es at varying lengths to get a kind of cascading effect. You'll find that the baubles all move and bob about, if you want them all to face one way, either sew or glue each buble t its nearest neighbour. Fill with battery candles and enjoy the atmosphere.
Mosaic House NumbersWe need new house numbers!!!!! We put up a new fence, and in the proccess lost the old house numbers. - On a side note while i'm here, Why are house numbers soooo expensive??? Whats the reasoning behind that? Doesn't matter ordinary house numbers are too boring, anyway, can't be puting those on a shiny new fence. Besides, this is a crafting house and all those visit must know this! A couple of plates and bolws got damaged recently and seemed a shame just throw them away. So, they are going to be reurposed into some lovely mosaic house numbers. You Will Need ...- Block of Wood - Old china (smashed) - Mosaic outdoor adhesive glue - Outdoor Mosaic or tile grout - A drill - Four screws - Waterproofing varnish (transparent) Method.Find a nice sized piece of wood, I've got a bit of discarded demolished house here (not like there isn't enough of that in Christchurch) First thing you have to do is drill the holes for the screws. It is too late to do this once the tiles are added. Alternatively, you add a hook to the back of the wood instead of screwing it down with four screws. If you do this, add the hook before you do any mosaicing. Draw a quick sketch/template. Smash up those old plates and bowls. I used a tile cutter to break the pieces. You can also place the china in a bag or between towels and smash with a hammer. Stick the tiles to the wood. If the project is going to be outside find some sort of outdoor glue, just PVA will not do. Mix up some grout. Spread all over the project, making sure all the gaps are filled. Wipe away the excess immediatley, use a damp cloth or sponge to wipe the grout off the surface of the tiles. I stuck straws into the drilled holes so they didn't get blocked up with grout. I also scraped away a small radius of grout from the holes to accomodate the screw heads. The grout I used was an indoor tile grout that I wasn't 100% sure wouldn't just disintegrate in the rain. Just to be sure I added a clear varnish. Nothing wrong with a waterproofing layer. It came out all nice and glossy. Once the varnish was dry I removed the straws. Last step. Screw it on the fence Nice and snug
DIY PVA Crackle PaintI recently found out you can make your own crackle paint, using PVA glue and acrylic paint. Well, I had to give it a go. I tested it out on a bit of wood. I took photos so you can follow along. Its a simple proccess, you just sandwich the PVA between two contrasting colours of acrylic paint. Start off by painting the base layer - the colour the cracks will be. Leave this layer to dry completely. Once the base layer is dry add a thickish layer of PVA. Wait for the glue to go tacky. A better crackle seems to occur when you leave the glue to get a little too tacky, to the point where you think you've let it go a little too far. This is probably the hardest part, the impulse is to paint the second layer on straight away, but waiting will produce a better crackle. Use a coarse brush to add the second layer onto the tacky glue. The cracks will form in the direction you brush. Leave the tacky glue and paint layer to dry. The cracks will continue to widen as the layers dry.
Most PVA isn't water resistant, so it would probably pay to coat any craft project in a waterproofing clear varnish. Stopping by with a quick recycle, to exspresso yourself with. Recently, I repainted our old coffee table. Its an old wicker coffee table we are very fond of, it came to us via a neighbour about 12 years ago. We've always loved it, but recently we've been wooed and wowed by the great recyled and upcycled furniture revivals that have been sweeping the markets. A couple of times we have been tempted to buy a replacmet coffee table. The poor wee dude he still serves us well, he just isn't as trendy as he once was. Long story short a tidy up of the shed unearthed a can of white paint and a new lease on life for one livingroom coffee table. I haven't got a tutroail for this but the method is simple, paint that old wicker table white. I've got before and after shots. Use an interior paint with gloss, thats important, other paint may just scratch off. Oh, and wash any piece of furniture before you paint. Usually its advised to key (lightly sand) furniture before sanding. I went for a shabby chic/distressed look, sanding back the paint on the wicker details. A look at the coffee table back in the living room.
A Pallet GardenIts currently Spring (at least as I write this it is) The garden is undergoing its usual Spring makeover. The aim this year is to add in more fruits and vegetables. You will need:- A pallet (trendy little buggers) - Spare planks of wood / another 1/2 pallet - Weed mat for lining - Soil - Plants MethodI thought it would be cool to fill a pallet with soil and plant in it. The only trouble we had was filling it, soil spills out everywhere. You can wrap the outside in weed mat but aesthetically this is less than pleasing, Plus the wood trapped between weed mat and soil is likely to rot and disintegrate. I had a spare/ half dismantled pallet just sitting around so I prised off some planks and nailed them to sides of my pallet. These will create a stable surface to staple the weed mat to. Cut, layout, and staple weed mat to the inside of the pallet. And fill with soil. - Cats are a useful paperweight (Thanks Figwit!) Add plants and wait, maybe water a little too.
I made two of these, one for courgettes and pumpkins, and one for peas and beans. I added a trelise to the back for the peas and beans to climb along. Travel FramesAbout 2 years ago I went on holiday to Paris and the Uk. When I got back I had plans to do something with all the travel related pamphlets, maps, tickets and the like to remember the trip. Scrapbooking is one way to use all the bits and bobs but some of the maps and (unsent) postcards are very pretty and it would be a crime to shut them up in a book. My plan was to create little collages. I didn't have any spare picture frames, I just thought I'd collect up some frames here and there and slowly build up a collection. I wasn't too worried about uniformity and the frames matching, if I go on holiday anywhere else I can add to the travel frames. I did decide on a theme of all white frames. That way the eye will be drawn to what's inside the frames rather than the odd hod podge array of frames. The original plan was to get these up by the end of the (holiday) year. Ahh well two years later isn't too bad. I love these, each frame has a story behind it and is unique to my own travel experience. My stack of frames all white. The only place I want to display these frames is in the living room, which has large free wall that needs some decorating. The top half of the wall in the living room is painted a dark blue with white wallpaper beneath. White picture frames should tie in nicely. The CollectionWe'll start off with Paris. We started the holiday in Paris. I loved Paris and would've liked to spend more time there. We only had two days to peruse the city and that is NOT enough time, especially not with jet lag added to that. My supreme wish was see Paris at night, we didn't manage it. We went from midwinter New Zealand to midsummer Paris. It never got dark I swear (or at least jet lag was not willing to see the moon) I didn't get many souvenirs from Paris just a map, a few Euro coins and a little Eiffel Tower - I got that free from a shop owner when he found out where I had flown in from. People talk about the French being snobby and rude but I found them to be very pleasant and friendly. This frame in full of the actual travel stuff. Flight tickets and bag tags, Eurostar ticket, and Landing card. One frame is dedicated to choccywoccydodah, displaying a carrier bag of their logo. I swear half the trip was planned around choccywoccy. Of course the main objective was to catch up with various family members but a large amount of effort was put into finding both the London and the Brighton shop. I think we would still have taken a day trip to Brighton even if Choccywoccydodah hadn't been there. The main beach I grew up visting is New Brighton beach and it would have been a travesty not to visit the original Brighton when possible. Soho in London we would not have travelled to, it wasn't really a shopping trip but we could not stay in London and not visit Choccy. Managed to find and visit the Brighton café. Had the best milkshake of my life, Dark chocolate truffle. Another special allowance was made to visit Wales for the sole purpose of hitting the Doctor Who Experience. It turns out Cardiff is a lot like New Zealand, in fact there were four, I repeat FOUR Australian/New Zealand bar and restaurants dotted around our hotel. I also found the memorial wall for Ianto Jones and ran around the Millennium centre trying to find a way into Torchwood. The London Underground, an integral part of travel in London. You know, I don't think its impossible to get lost in London there are tube stations everywhere, its terribly convenient. Anyway, this frame has a map of the underground and a sampling of oyster cards, in which we gathered up quite a hoard, and one pink underground ticket we got on our first day from a very unhelpful ticket seller lady. On a side note why are they called oyster cards?? Ironbridge. With family in Shropshire we spent a couple of days exploring Ironbride. They have some lovely museums all about tiles and china. This was the point in the trip where we had a car. The great revelation: not free parking in Briton. Only pay and display. Half the time New Zealand doesn't even have parking spaces people just park in fields and stuff. Managed to hit two zoos. The zoo is a big deal for me, no matter where I travel, I want to find a zoo. I managed to visit two zoos both London and Banham zoo. Its interesting going to the zoo with locals too, they all wanted to see the seals and penguins, I can go see seals and penguins whenever (being from the southern hemisphere) I was more interested in the reptile and bat houses. Being from New Zealand we are somewhat limited in the animals we have to view. There are absolutely no snakes and most reptiles are banned (this includes in zoos) and while we have bats they are extremely endangered and don't feature in our zoos. When away I just want to get the zoo and see all of those animals that I have no chance of seeing here. We saw a lot of estates and abbeys, visiting Sandringham, Holkham, Cambridge, Buildwas Abbey, Oliver Cromwell's house and Lavenham (where we saw the Potters house :)) Another Paris board. Using the biggest map of the trip its basically all of the receipts from the different cafes and restaurants we ate at, the Eurostar train ticket and the 5 Euro I somehow didn't manage to spend. Oh and the receipt from a chocolate museum, which was just around the corner from the hotel we were staying. That was the best accidental find of the entitre trip. This chocolate museum was in French, Spanish and English and they had a chocolate demonstration where you were able to sample chocolates!! I don't remember much because we had just landed after a 20-something hour flight but I do remember this place was magical. Day one! What a find. A general sampling of London on a UK map. We went up the London Eye, had sqiz at the National Gallery, went to choccy (of course), and found our way to Harrods. Got some nice goodies in the food section in Harrods. Just outside of Harrods some ladies gave us beads and heather, couldn't bring the heather home (border security laws) but the beads came back. Those are all of my travel frames. Now it's time put these bad boys on the wall Hanging it up on the wallDown to the nitty gritty. This is the bit of the process that is generally left out of most tutorials. You'll just get a vague "and hang it on the wall. " Not good enough. This is the hardest part of the entire project. Picture frames (especially those that need to sit symmetrically) are particularly difficult to hang. Here is a guide to how I put my picture frames up. I start out on the floor getting the frames into a satisfying arrangement. Having a play around with layout and spacing. Once I'm satisfying with the arrangement I tape together some sheets of paper - newspaper, wrapping paper, paper bags, whatever is on hand really. Then I trace the arrangement of frames onto the paper to create a template. A tip I have is to label your frames A, B, C, D etc and label the traced pattern. This way you remember what frame goes where. I was using a variety of different picture frames all with different hooks at different levels/sizes on the back. I find it crucial to mark the placement of the hooks onto the paper template. Measuring down from the top of the frame to the hook, and measring the width of the hook. There we are a nice mark as to where to place the hook. Tape the paper pattern to the wall. Everything is taped to the wall using masking tape. Then I nail the hooks to the paper matching the botom of the hook to the mark drawn on the paper. You can just nail the hooks onto the paper, then rip the paper away later but I find doing this can sometimes rip the hooks out of the wall, so rip a small hole in the paper then I nail the hook directly into the wall. I also have trouble juggling the hook, the nail, and the hammer, I only have two hands. To make life easier I tape the hook to the wall leaving me with only the nail and the hammer to worry about. At the end you end up with something like this. All hooks in place. Now is the time to remove the paper template and to hang the pictures. Ha ha ! Pictures up, square , and straight (relatively)
I really hope this tip has been helpful. Hot glue is one of the true great inventions of this world (for crafters at least) Did you know can bring new life into an old frame with the use of Hot glue? You can literally do anything with hot glue. Materials- An old frame - Paint - anything acrylic, wood paint, house paint, a test pot etc. - Hot glue gun - Hot glue sticks - Pencil MethodHere I have an old dark wood frame that needs a new lease on life. The first thing to do is to give it a base paint, I've gone for white. You wait for the paint to dry then grab a pencil and draw out a design. Any design you want, complicated or simple. whatever, have a scribble. I've gone for a swirly heart thing. While your doing this pop the hot glue gun on to heat up. Now hot glue over the pencilled design. A close up; 3D hot glue heart. Last step, give it a lick of paint. You might want to give it two coats.
Paper Pinboard - Part ThreeCan't find any corkboard but want a pinboard to hang on the wall? This pinboard uses only cardboard. It's fun and colourful. Cardboard works well as a pinboard. I once used a pair of giant cardboard butterfly wings as a pinboard. you will need:- Cardboard, enough for two layers - Frame - scrap paper or craft paper - Glue - Ribbon (optional) MethodOneFind a frame you like and cut two layers of cardboard to size. Two layers of cardboard are needed because any pins you use will pierce through a single layer of cardboard. You can paint, glitter, and decorate the frame however you like. TwoGather a collection of craft paper scraps and form a collage on one the pieces of cardboard. Once satisfied with your arrangement, glue the pieces into place. ThreePlace both layers of cardboard into the frame, securing with masking tape/duct tape if needed.
Add some wall hooks to the back and place on the wall. I use flat stick-on Velcro strips on the back of my boards. |
Author - JEBARSBY TUTORIALSHere you will find craft ideas, tutorials and fandom crafting. Maybe some recipes Archive
May 2018
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