A 45 minute inspired project

As promised in my Friday post I am working on projects during my break between semesters. One of several things I worked on was my inspiration board. I mean a real life inspiration board as opposed to to my Pinterest boards. 

Take one plain (ugly) cork board and with a little wave of jazz hands yeah you get a not so plain (maybe kinda nice looking) pin board. You see what I did there, eh eh? Pin board sounds soooo much more fancy than cork board.

I very carefully popped the cork board out from the frame. 

I did a quick sand and tack off of the frame before hitting it with several very light sprays of hammered metallic brown paint (allowing to dry between sprays)

Next I raided my hoard stash of fabric for some material to cover the pin board which I did a rough cut to fit the dimensions of the board (12x24 inches) by adding about an inch to each edge. After cutting I ironed the fabric smooth.

I flipped the pin board over and placed the "good side" of the cork to the wrong side of the fabric. I pulled the fabric smooth and taut while reinserting the  pin board in the frame. once pin board was reinserted, I smoothed any wrinkles and ran a bead of hot glue on the back side of the board to hold the fabric in place.

 

I reinstalled the wall hanging hardware, added 1/2 inch clear bumpers so as to not to scratch the wall and added a few inspirational pictures/ motivational quotes. Now when I sit at my desk, although I may not have a direct window view, I have an inspired view. Oh and I used orphaned earrings as my pins, which makes it funky and blingy!

The quotes are:

"Success is a journey, not a destination"-Ben Sweetland (author of  several self help and motivational books)

"Striving for success without hard work, is like trying to harvest where you haven't planted"-David Bly (Minnesotan Democrat and Farm Labor Party)

"Go confidently in the direction of your dreams"-Henry David Thoreau (an abridged quote from hs conclusion in Walden. One of the most renowned  (and still modernly relevant) Transcendental philosophies to be published. 

"If  you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need" -Marcus Tullus Cicero (An ancient Roman philosopher)

"The future belongs to those who believe in the beauty of their dreams"- Eleanor Roosevelt

I hope you find this as inspirational as I do!

A 15 minute blingy project

I have been working on my nest aka my living room. I spent 4 hours the other night de-crappifying the room, re-organizing and moving some furniture around. Now it needed a little more personality, so I dug through my stash of decorating stuff.

What do you do with a cute little hand painted thrift store canvas this is a little rough around the edges and there is no money in the budget to pay for a frame?

Well the 1st thing I did was add a little scotch tape around the edges to stop the fraying because I was afraid using clear nail polish or superglue would hurt the painting.

Don't worry I am not rednecktifying this...

I dug through my stash of crap crafting stuff and brought out the leftover nail head trim.

Once I tapped all the nails into place it was ready to hang on the wall.

I wasn't kidding when I said 15 minutes. It took me longer to schlep upstairs, pull my craft junk out of the totes and write this post than it did to complete the trim work.

Personally I like it and it gives it some dimension. Not so much  as oomph as a little nudge, kinda like, "Hey there. I got a little sparkle, wink-wink."  Not to mention it was cheap because I already had the supplies. Even better...

"I DO" silk flower bouquets and you can too

My crafting hobby used to be making floral swags, wreaths and bouquets. Life became busy and there was no time for my hobby. And to be honest, there wasn't much money either. I never gave it much thought for a very, very long time.

This is a pretty easy hobby--All you need are a good pair of wire cutters, a pair of needle nose pliers, a hot glue gun, silk flowers, ribbon, floral wire picks, floral tape and some imagination.

Then in 2009 my daughter became engaged. And she wanted me to do her flowers for her 2010 wedding. We were planing a wedding on a budget after all. So I enlisted the help of one of my sisters. The  flowers turned out AMAZING!

Obviously the flowers don't show as real but they compliment her dress nicely.

 Close up of the bouquet

We bought bouquet clips and used all of the bouquets to decorate the bridal table.

Toss bouquet

So what does this have to do with the here and now?

Well my daughter's friend is getting married 12/12/12 and I am making her flowers.

Here's the dress

Lilac Satin dress

She went to Joann's and Michael's-bought, flowers, ribbon and some decorative accents. It has been a while (about 2 years) since I have made any floral arrangements.

We made the bouquet

The groom's boutonniere

And a hair clip for my daughter since she is her bridesmaid.

What do you think of our craftiness?

Cockadoodle doo--I got a message for you!

fowlvisions.com

My alternate title was something to crow about...haha lots of corn here!! I love to hear crowing roosters.

Remember how I was working on my command center?  I still had a few things on the list to complete, such as

Install a tack board

Install a light

Get some chalk for my chalk board! 

After pricing out tack and bulletin boards I was a little frustrated by the cost. I COULD have bought a roll of cork but it seemed kinda flimsy. Then I got to thinking. Thumbtacks might not be such a good thing in a high traffic area. Because I guarantee if there is a rogue thumbtack (or any pain inducing sharp object)--my toes will find them!

sourced from web

So I decided to pin my hopes on something else. (Ummm-- these corny puns are getting to me now!)

Any ideals yet?
 Chicken Wire Memo board

I know, I know....Chicken wire memo boards have probably been done to death but I HAD to do this. It was perfect for my space.

Here's whatcha' need

Picture frame, an old window frame or scrap wood to make frame if you are handy (which I am not) staple gun/ staples
fabric
chicken wire
paint
clothes pins
wire cutters
gloves

I finally found a suitable sized frame. In this case an old window frame. This originally had glass but I didn't want the glass. I tried to score along the glazing putty to remove the glass but that didn't work. So I taped newspaper to both sides of the glass. donned a pair of heavy gloves and safety glasses, held the window over the garbage can and whacked the crap-o-la out of the glass until it broke. (Man was that cathartic!)

I then used pliers and wire brush to remove any remaining glass shards This was what I was left with.

A quick wipe down and time to start amping up the patina on the bad boy.

First some white

Some brown and blue (I forgot to take a pic of them separately--oops)

 HOLLA!  Can I get a Woot woot? ! I am soooo diggin' this!

Next I  added piece of poultry net aka chicken wire by stapling. (Painted side down) Pull the wire as taut as you can.  Do yourself a favor and get your chicken wire from Tractor Supply, Home Depot or Lowe's (you can get 25 feet for $8) not that overpriced mamby-pamby crap from the craft store.. 

Front view--next step fabric

Turn the frame painted and chicken wire face down. I grabbed some fabric from my hoard. Place the fabric right side down, fold edges, pull taut and staple. For every staple point, I stapled directly opposite checking to ensure the material wasn't warping or distorting.

Looking kah-yute! And the best part when I showed the hubbs my fabric choices--HE picked this one, haha!

Close up of finish

I added a wire hanger on the back so I could hang it up. Here it is as part of my command center.

Cost breakdown
window=free from a friend, in exchange for a pan of brownies (Not SPECIAL brownies! ha)
~ 1 yard fabric=free from hoard
paint=all free from my hoard
Staple gun/staples and Gloves/ wire cutters=free from the hubbs tool box
Clothes pins=free from my closet

FREE FREE FREE! Not to bad eh?


Since I have plenty of leftover chicken wire I have several other projects in mind. None of which involve  chickens.

disclaimer-all images/video not watermarked MyCozyLittleFarmouse sourced from web

 


 

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Wow Us Wed #56


 

 

Tiki Tacky no more

Do you remember these? If you were a product of the 1960's/1970's-I am sure somewhere in your repressed  faded memories there was a relative, friend or neighbor that had these hanging on their kitchen wall.

My daughter  desperately wanted a set of these for Christmas. SPECIFICALLY, she wanted THE set (or an identical set) to what her Mammaw and Pappaw T. used to have. Unfortunately, I couldn't replicate those no matter where I searched. But I came close when I found a pair on Ebay that are 32 inches tall. Yes--almost 3 feet tall! That sure is a whole lotta fork and spoon. Of course, I found the ginormous pair after  these were already purchased at a thrift store (which are about 18 inches in height). Hmmm, what to do, what to do.

Not trying to harsh anyone's mellow but the Tiki thing? So NOT my style. I really like the wooden utensil thing though. It's kinda kitschy. Quirky. Like me.  I had alluded to to using jute twine for craft in a previous post, so here we go!

Here are the supplies needed--

Also needle and thread and duh -giant fork and spoon

Do NOT waste your money buying twine from Michael's- they charge $6.99 for about 120 feet. (At least that is all that was available at my local store). Go to Lowes, Home Depot or Tractor Supply where  you can purchase 190-250 feet of jute for $2.99. Hobby Lobby has 400 feet normally priced at $6.99, but with coupon or sale you can buy it for as cheap as $3.99.

The first thing I did was very lightly rub the spoon, fork tines and handles with a very fine piece of sandpaper (220 grit).  An emery cloth would probably work as well. I really didn't want to sand to take the finish off and make it perfect.  Just  enough to knock off some of the little bumps (and get rid of 40 years of grime-bleh). Next, I went over them with a little Old English Walnut stain/ polish since I like the dark wood look. (A dark shoe polish would probably work as well. I just used what I had available.)  Paint is always an option if you opt to forgo the wood color.  After everything was dry I began  by wrapping the jute twine over the Tiki portion of the handles.

I wrapped these when I was watching TV because it is BORING!!  Try to make it a tight wrap and neat. If you have little gaps it is ok because you will go over it anyway. Once all the main bumps and divets were wrapped and relatively concealed,  I tried to make the handle appear uniform in size.

Sam-Sam was "helping"

When finished  wrapping the jute, tuck the end into the wrapped section using the tip point of the scissors and then apply a drop of glue to seal it. No worries about it unraveling! I  took a piece of twine that was  approximately 15-18 inches long divided it into 3 equal portions and tied a knot at one end. I then braided the three strands.

When finished with the braid, I knotted the other end, trimmed any frayed pieces and this will become the hanger for the utensil.

I looped the braid through the hole of the utensil's handle, butted the knotted ends together  and then whip stitched the knots together forming a loop. When  I was done sewing, I ran a thin bead of glue around the seam.

The hanger will be strong enough to support the weight of  the utensil.

And here is the way they turned out! I just love it!

Cost breakdown:
Over-sized vintage wooden utensils  $6.99
380 feet of jute twine  $ 5.98
Super Glue $1.00 (I already had this)

It took me maybe 1 1/2 hrs to do everything but I did take breaks between steps. The wrapping of each utensil was probably 20 -30 minutes each. I used ~ 190 feet of  jute on each utensil. For less than $15  I have cool and kitschy wall decor for my kitchen! What do you think?


Shared on http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com Metamorphosis Monday 2/6/12

Shared on  2/07/2012