Thursday, April 9, 2020

Keepsake Decoupage Egg and Trim Stand

4:00 AM Gail @Purple Hues and Me decoupage egg, fabric trim, rice paper, stand 5 comments

Disclosure I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites, this post may contain links. I may receive a very small commission at no cost to you! The affiliate money I earn helps pay my crafting expenses. Thanks so much for your support!

Create a one of a kind decorated egg that will stand the test of time - a unique design using decoupage rice paper, fabric trim and a paper mache egg placed on a wooden stand.

To make, begin with a paper mache egg. This one is about 10 inches tall and the wooden candle holder is four inches tall.

And paint them both with a couple of coats of acrylic white chalk paint.

Next, take a sheet of floral design rice paper . . .

and begin tearing the rice paper around the floral image . . .

Then decide where you want to place the image and brush on a layer of Mod Podge to that area of the egg.

Apply a layer of Mod Podge on top of the rice paper, brushing from the center to the edges, while smoothing out any wrinkles from the rice paper.

Once dry, apply another layer of mod podge to seal. Repeat for applying additional floral images to the back of the egg.

Then, measure the fabric trim around the middle of the egg, lengthwise and cut to fit. Secure to egg with Fabri-Tac fabric glue applied to the back of the trim.

For a matching decorative look, cut additional pieces of trim . . .

to glue around the middle of the wooden stand.

How cute is this!

Back View:

And finally, apply several coats of gloss varnish for a shiny ceramic look!

Thanks for stopping by

and take a little time to enjoy,

Happy Crafting!

Thursday, March 26, 2020

Thrift Store Canister Clay Embellishments

1:00 AM Gail @Purple Hues and Me clay flowers, fondant plunger cutters, Thrift Store Upcycle Challenge 6 comments

It's that time again for The Thrift Store Upcycle Challenge on the fourth Thursday of each month! Here, a group of creative bloggers come together to share their lovely transformations of a thrift store item. Who doesn't love thrift store upcycle projects - whether it's actually creating one or admiring how an item from a thrift store was transformed!

The Rules:

Upcycle an item(s) from a thrift store, resale store, or garage sale into a new piece of decor.
There's no monthly theme.
There's no budget to stick to.

Meet the Hosts

Angela | Simply Beautiful By Angela - Beverly | Across the Blvd

Gail | Purple Hues and Me - Chas | Chas' Crazy Creations

Jenny | Cookies Coffee and Crafts

Presently, the world is going through a health crisis and for those of us who are not on the front lines either providing healthcare or essential needs, we are sheltering at home and practicing social distancing. Crafting for me has always been a calming effect and healing pastime which I'm grateful for.

Luckily, I've collected a few items from the thrift stores well before this crisis. One of them is this awesome canister I found at the Goodwill a couple of years ago for $4. What a bargain! Although I didn't have a clue what I would do with it other than to use it for storage. I loved the color - but not so much the painted-on flowers. Fortunately, I was able to sand them off.

I've been playing with clay lately - something I didn't like doing as a child. I could never make anything decent with it. But now there seems to be some amazing things you can do with clay! Like make flowers and even a decorative leaf dish! I've made clay flowers before - you can find the tutorial here. But these clay flowers are different in that I used fondant plunger cutters to make them. It's a great way to create embellishments and add dimension to items.

Here's how:

Knead a small piece of air dry clay until soft and pliable and place on a sheet of parchment paper.

Next, use a rolling pin to flatten out the clay.

Then use fondant cutters to make the flower. They are similar to cookie cutters except they have a built in plunger that pushes the clay out of the cutter.

Next, apply E6000 glue to the underside of the flowers and sti them on the top of the canister to dry.

Then glue a few more on to the front of the canister, too.

After drying, pain the flowers using Plaid Metallic Plum Paint.

And for a cute effect, place a white dot in the center of the flowers after the plum paint has dried.

What a fun way to update a thrift store find!

And now for more thrifty goodness!

Check out what my fellow upcyclers created below!

Wednesday, March 25, 2020

Recycle/Upcycle Toilet Paper Into Beads - Perfect for Garlands

4:00 AM Gail @Purple Hues and Me 20 comments

This is a re-post from a number of years ago.

Let's get personal and talk toilet paper! Some of you may have a whole lot of toilet paper on hand right now!

This is probably one of the easiest and cheapest crafts ever! I used a sheet of toilet paper, white glue, and water to form jewelry beads. Let dry and then use a nail or drill to make a hole, paint, nail polish and/or use utee to decorate!

Here's how:

Take a sheet of toilet paper (I used Charmin),

cup it in the palm of your hand, squeeze some white glue in the center and crumble it together.

Wet you fingers with a bit of water and dampen the toilet paper and glue, squashing and swirling it between your palms . . . . around, and around, shaping it into a ball.

Imagine making meat balls . . .

For larger beads, place the ball on another sheet of tp, add glue and dampen the tissue as before, and shape into a ball. Keep adding additional sheets, glue and water for larger balls.

If it gets a bit sticky, add a little water to continue rolling.

Place on parchment paper after reaching desired size bead and let dry overnight or if you'll impatient, use a blow dryer or place in a 250 degree oven for a while, til dry. You'll find it hard, hard, hard after completely drying!

Use a drill or nail to make holes in the beads.

Now here's the fun part . . . decorating the tp beads!

You can color the beads anyway you like, but

have you ever heard of nail polish marble dipped beads?

This is how I colored mine:

Take a bead and put a skewer through the holes on the beads you made. Using a glass (the nail polish might make holes in a plastic cup) of water, put 4-6 drops of each color of nail polish you like. The polish will float to the top.

Immediately dip the bead skewer into the floating polish and take it out quickly.

The amazing result is a pretty marbled bead.

If you need more coverage, dip the bead again after adding more nail polish drops. If you wait too long to dip, the polish will get filmy and harden while floating on the water. And you don't want this.

After dipping, you can take a skewer and scoop the left over scaly polish out of the water and use the water, again and again. After marbleizing the beads, let them dry completely.

Isn't this another fun way to recycle or upcycle!

Oh, and you can try another decorating method, too, if you want!

To take your tp marbleizing bead to a whole new level of shine, try dunking it in some ultra thick embossing enamel or utee for a glassy or ceramic look! How cool is this!

Just place the bead on a skewer. Then roll it across a clear embossing inkpad to dampen. Quickly roll the bead in utee. When the bead is covered with powder, use a heat gun and roll the bead around so that the utee melts evenly. While the melted utee is still hot, dip the bead back into the dry powder for a second or third coverage coat and melt again using the heating tool, making sure the utee coverage is even.