Archive for the ‘Craft Projects’ Category

First let me say this is not my original creation.  I got my inspiration from Ruche (click on the name and it will take you the post).  Shannon from Footprints did a guest post and shared the Vintage Pomader with Ruche.

It seemed simple enough to make but I wanted to put my own spin on it.

 

 

 

 

 

I used an old Hymnal Book and cut out about 60 medallions.  The medallions are a simple scallop measuring 3.75″.  I purchased the scallop off of the Silhouette website for $.99.  I was able to get 2 medallions from each page.

Shannon cut the medallions out by hand but I was a little lazy and decided the Sihouette would be great at this.

 

 

 

 

 

I’m still getting use to the Sihouette Cameo but I’m loving it.  The pages from the Hymnal are light weight and my mats are pretty sticky.

Ugh!  This is a mess!

 

 

 

 

 

Inspiration struck me and I placed a wet towel over the mat and let the paper soak up the water.

It worked and now I just needed to figure out how to condition and make these mats work.

I did discover you do not need to smooth the paper down on the mat.  I placed the paper on the mat and touched the 4 corners of the paper to make sure it stuck.  Worked great.

 

 

 

Once I got the medallions cut out the next thing I did was ink them up with Vintage Photo Distressed Ink.

I inked both sides since I knew sometimes the front would show and sometime the back of the medallions.

 

 

 

 

Next I wanted to add some shimmer so I used my Copper misting spray (this is homemade, some MS Copper acrylic paint, Modge Podge and water)….cheap to make and just as good as the designer stuff.  There is not really a recipe, I just squirted paint in the spray bottle, then took a dollop of Modge Podge (mat finish) and then added water…I then added more paint until I got the shimmer I wanted.  My Bff Phyllis told me how to make this “stuff”, thanks girl!  Found the little spray bottles at Container Store for $.99.

I sprayed both sides of the medallions.

 

 

 

Once I got the Copper misting on I took my heat gun and dried them a little until they were damp.  I dried both sides.

 

The I scrunched them up into little wads of paper to add some dimension.  Gently open them up and stack them by twos.

 

 

 

I’m using 2.5″ Styrofoam balls,  I got them at HL for about $4 for 6 of them. 

I found these I think @ Walmart a few years ago.  Any pin will do, because you really do not see the heads.  However, having a head on the pin helps when you are hot gluing them and pushing them into the Stryrofoam ball.

 

 

 

 

With 2 medallions layered together, take a pin and push it through the center of both medallions with a little hot glue to stick it in place.

 

 

 

 

 

Now pull both layers of the medallions up and scrunch together, placing another dollop of hot glue at the base of the medallions.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Take the medallions while the hot glue is still hot and place the pin straight down into the Styrofoam ball.

Notice the pin is placed all the way in the ball to the base of the medallions.

 

 

 

 

 

Repeat with the rest of the medallions.  The important thing here is to place the medallions straight down in the Styrofoam, do not slant the pins in to the Styrofoam ball.  Once the ball is covered you will go back and fill in the areas that feel or look sparse.

If you slant the pins in trying to fill the gaps as you go the papers will become uneven looking and cause you to need to trim it to even it up.

 

 

 

Once you are done fluff out the papers and then when you discover a place that feels thin or needs an additional medallion fill it in at that point.  Remember pin should go straight down in the ball.

 

 

 

 

 

Love the way this turned out and I think it makes an nice addition to my Dining Room.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maybe I need to make a lot of these and fill the tray that is sitting on my dining room table!

We’ll see, we’ll see.

 

 

 

I thought I would show you how I altered some garland to decorate a candle.  This candle is one of those that is wax but it has a flicker candle in it.

 

 

 

 

 

This is a look from the top.  I like these candles because I don’t have to worry about drips and candle wax on my furniture.

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, I started out by finding a piece of paper that I wanted to use to compliment the decor of the room. 

I measured around the candle then torn the paper and distressed it.  Oops! I put the paper on the candle upside down. 

 

Easy enough I pulled it apart and flipped it over.

 

 

Now, I found this tinsel at HL and decided to us some Copics to give it some various colors.

 

I randomly colored various pearls to add some dimension and various looks.

 

 

 

As you can see I added some black and various shades of brown.

 

 

 

 

 

 

With that done I hot glued the piece of garland on to the candle in the middle over the paper I distressed.

 

Ok, the paper on right side up now I’ll glue this on the paper.

 

 

 

Looks like a lot right now but wait until you see it with the others.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here they all on the Mercury Glass candle holders.  I love the way they look.  I did have trouble keeping this one up on the small candle holder.

I solved this by cutting a circle the same size,  distressing the circle, and hot glued it to the Mercury Glass.

 

I love these candles all spruced up.  They add texture and whimsy to the room.

 

Today I spent the day with my BFF and just tried different techniques and made a non-Christmas tag.

Phyllis made the Kraft resist tag, and then we used picket fence stain, along with various distressed inks.

Used my Silhouette Cameo to cut out the awesome crown for $.99 and then embossed it with some “old age” aka gold from Stampendous.

 

 

From there we just started trying different things to include on the tag, from tinsel, to the distressed banner, a little doily and glitter covered “DIVA”.

The border at the bottom is a TH border where we covered it with foil and used Eggplant alcohol inks to color…super cool technique.

 

 

 

The little holder holding the Diva is from my birthday cake, so I wanted to be sure and keep it as a reminder of the great time with all my friends I had on Saturday.

 

The colors of this tag are so rich, but the best part is spending time with a friend and both of you creating something beautiful.

 

 

 

This picture is Tim Holtz’s altered pumpkin that he designed using Ranger’s Foil Tape Sheets and some alcohol inks.  You can find Tim’s creation here along with the how to’s, what to use and how to finish.  Tim’s work is always so outstanding!

 

So here is what me and my BFF (Phyllis) found at HL @ 80% off.  We paid $5.00 for each one of them.  Not exactly like the round pumpkin but it will work.  The initial will be covered up so that won’t matter.

 

This is just a teaser, I’ll be back to show you our steps, what we discovered and the finish product.

So after me and my BFF saw what Tim Holtz did to his pumpkin we started on our quest to find one.

We found pumpkins at HL @ 80% off.  The Pumpkin was $5 and this damaged Acorn was $3.00. 

 

 

 

 

Oh yes I did, I asked for an additional discount since it was broken.  Didn’t get it but I sure asked just in case.

 

 

 

 

 

So, I’m trying an experiment to see if this paperclay will work on making a stem on this acorn.

 

 

 

 

 

Here is what it looks like out of the package.  I’ve had this for a while and it is a little dry but I just spritzed it with water to give it some added moisture.

 

 

 

 

Pinched off a hunk and started building the base up to make a stem.  I googled acorns out on the web to see what the stems on acorns looked like and I liked this one.

Molded, shaped (using my circut pick tool) until I got it close to what I wanted.  Now it is in the drying stage.

Next I’ll sand the stem to get it smooth and then start the re-finishing.

 

 

My mind is spinning, do I paint this (I have some Annie Sloan paint), do I foil tape this like TH did his pumpkin.  I think I’m going to paint and wax, that way I can play with the paint a little before I start painting cabinets.  Oh yes, you read correctly, I’m getting ready to re-paint my hall bathroom cabinets with Annie Sloan paint.

 

 

Finally, got my perpetual calendar finished.  Hmm, my beads look a little off in the picture…not so much in real life.

 

 

 

 

 

Started out with a base that looked like this one.

 

 

 

 

 

Painted it black and decided I wanted to do some tin work on it.

 

 

 

 

 

Started out with black and using a plate that had numbers and alphabet typography.

 

 

 

 

 

 

My BFF helped with this part, and glued it on the sides and back.

 

 

 

 

 

Glued in pattern paper and dressed that up with some Stickles and ink.

 

 

 

 

 

Stamped numbers on the block and darkened up with Copics.  I also inked the edges of the blocks.  The block with 4 on the left sided has the edges inked.  The block with 2 does not have any inking.

 

 

 

 

 

I added some feet, some ribbon and a little silver beading….cute!!  Now if I can remember to change the days.

My #1 Daughter is dressing up her last year Halloween wreath.  This year we adding the stripped wired ribbon.

The rest of it looks like an old vintage Halloween card.  Sorry, no pics!  The rest of the wreath is at her house.

 

 

 

My #1 Daughter got these cute metal signs off of Pick your Plum.  This is one for my grandson’s teacher.  We added Read for a Spell in black vinyl.

 

 

 

 

 

Another little metal sign.  This is dry erase board vinyl.  I had some left over when I made a dry erase board for our woman’s ministry at church.  Worked just like regular vinyl.

 

 

 

 

Fun stuff and now on to things I want to do.

So, like most of you, I see things I want to make then run out and get the stuff and then it sits for a while

However, this one didn’t get to sit very long.  This is a burlap (loose burlap weave) and ribbon wreath that I made for my Mother’s 83rd birthday.

 

 

I started out with a green foam circle and a roll of burlap garland.  Both of these I found at M’s.

Wrap the foam circle with the burlap to cover the green foam.

 

 

 

I cut a length of 14″ (or so) from the burlap garland and a wide ribbon.

 

 

 

 

 

I used my tape runner to put down some thing to stick the ribbon to the burlap.  Then I folded the burlap over the ribbon so it looked layerd….burlap, ribbon, burlap.

 

 

 

 

 

Then I put another layer of ribbon after the layered burlap.

To save you some time you need to gather both ribbon and the burlap.  Just makes it easier to get everything looking uniform.

I hot glued the day lights out this thing.

 

 

I just laid down a bead of hot glue and layed the burlap or ribbon on top of that and worked my way around the wreath.  Cut, gathered , hot glue, attached over and over until you get the circle covered.

 

 

 

 

Then I needed something to add a little extra and these flowers did the trick.  They are made with a Sizzix’s die cut and out of hyms from an old hymnal.  I found some silk leaves and used my Copics to put a little fall colors on the leaves.

 

 

 

 

I put some gems in the flowers and a Happy Birthday tag to finish it off.

 

 

 

 

 

It came out great and Mom loved it!  Hmm, now I need to go more “stuff” and make me one.

I found this cute and simple board at Hobby Lobby.  It is family rules and I think it will be a great addition to my new dining room renovation.

Of course I can’t leave it alone so this is just a teaser as to something better when I get through adding to it.

I’ve got several ideas, so you will have to wait and see what I come up with.  Did I tell you I used my 40% off coupon……….sweeeet and totally a score!

Here it is the final product.  I took this and hung it in my office at work; however, this picture was taken in my home before I took it to work.

 

 

 

 

Started off with 4 canvases (20″ by 16″), I bought them when they were on sell @ M’s.  I will tell you that if you want a more sturdy piece don’t go cheap on the canvas.  While I was putting the various coats of paints on the cheaper canvas stretches and gives.

The first thing I did was coat the canvas with 3-4 coats of magnetic primer.

 

 

 

Martha Stewart came out with a new line of acrylic paints that can be used on anything and I decided to give them a try.  I think they are a little pricey, 1 bottle of the acrylic paint is about $1.99 compared to $.59-$.69 of other acrylic paint.  Let me say right here I’m not getting paid or sponsored by any one so this is just my opinion.  I think it took me 3 bottles of her paint to get the coverage on 4 canvases I wanted.  If memory serves me right I used “something” Linen.  Can’t remember the full name.

 

 

I started off using a roller, but I switched over to a foam brush.  I lay the coats down as follows, coat 1 the way the object is going to be hanging (in this case horizontal); coat 2 vertically; coat 3 horizontal again.  I do this to get a good coverage.  

 

 

 

 

Here we are all panels painted.  You will notice they still look splotchy but that is ok, this is not the final cover of paint.

 

 

 

 

Next I used Sure Cuts Alot program and my Cricut and picked out various numbers, fonts and symbols I wanted to use on the board.  I used some old shelving paper with adhesive on the back to cut out the item.

My suggestion here is to use some good shelving paper, or contact paper or vinyl.  The stuff I used did not stick very well and I had to do a lot of touch up.

 

 

 

I placed the vinyl around the 4 canvases (overlapping some from one canvas to another).  This will help bring all 4 canvases together when you go to hang it.

 

 

 

 

 

This is not my original idea. I wish I could remember what blog I saw this on; however, there are multiple post and multiple ways to do this project and I’m sure it is probably on Youtube.  Somewhere I read that if you painted around the vinyl first it did better.  I couldn’t tell with the vinyl I used that it made any difference.

 

 

 

Once all the vinyl was in place I started the process of painting. I wanted this to be a magnetic chalk board so now I am applying black chalkboard paint.  I use the same process of putting on the coats of chalkboard paint….except this time I knew I was using 4 coats to get a good coverage so I did vertical, horizontal, vertical and horizontal.

 

 

 

Nice coverage.

 

 

 

 

 

Removed the vinyl and discovered the chalkboard paint had seeped under the cheap vinyl.  Not a huge problem, but it is time consuming to “doctor” up  the mishaps.

 

 

 

 

I found these wood joiners at Home Depot.  They worked ok but when I hung the 4 panels they bow out from the wall a little.  I’m working on a fix for that issue.

 

 

 

 

I got super magnets at Home Depot also (you need super magnets..as strong as you can get them).

 

 

 

 

 

Yep, they work!

 

 

 

 

 

I like it and it is working great.  Now, if I ever need to bring it home it will work in my home decor also!