Thursday, May 24, 2018

Decoupage Hanging Wall Rack with Scroll Style Hooks

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It's that time again - the fourth Thursday of the month, where 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
  Michelle | Our Crafty Mom Denise | My Thrifty House   
  Michelle | Michelle James Design | Debra - Shoppe No.5  

Make sure you follow our board on Pinterest for more upcycled decor inspiration!

For me, it's hard at times to find something you really want to transform at the thrift store. I have to limit myself to small items since I don't have the space or desire to tackle large projects.  I've struck out many times trying to find something and then I've gotten stuff and had no idea what I would do with them. That's how I felt when I came across wall hooks for a dollar! Who could resist these for one dollar each?

So I bought all six of them! Greedy me! As for what I was going to do with them, I didn't have a clue. Maybe a wall hanging rack? Well, yes! But there's something about a plain hanging rack - a painted piece of wood with hooks - that just didn't appeal to me. And I really don't have space for a rack that would hold all six hooks. After looking around a bit, I came across a small pallet-like design of wood slats at Michaels. Perfect for a small space - right beside my kitchen - a place where I can hang kitchen towels or maybe an apron or decorative items. And instead of painting  the wood, I would decoupage it with colorful napkins. 

I've had these adorable napkins for sometime and have been waiting to decoupage them onto a piece! Love, love, love the flower pattern and all the complimentary colors, including my favorite, purple! 


Let's begin by separating the layers of the 3 ply napkin at the corner to remove the pattern layer.
Next, generously paint matt finish Mod Podge over the entire board. I chose to leave the wood unfinished since the napkin colors complimented the look, but in hindsight I should have painted on a layer of white paint just over the area where the napkins go to help let the napkin's true colors show through.

 After painting on the Mod Podge, lay the napkin down over the wood, matching edges to smooth out. I cut open a plastic ziplock bag and use it to smooth out the napkin - removing any visible wrinkles. You can also use cling wrap, but I like the sturdiness of the plastic bag better. The napkin isn't wide enough to cover the entire board, so you'll have to add an additional napkin to cover the entire piece.
Once you've smooth out the napkins, let dry completely and then paint on another coat of Mod Podge and let dry.
Once the Mod Podge has dried, cut away the excess napkin between the slats and then use sand paper to remove any napkin paper from all of the edges.

I'm so loving this look!

 To attach the scroll hooks (which I kept black), line up two on the wood, evenly spaced and insert drywall anchors first (for additional weight strength) through the center opening on the hook and then add the screws.
The rack is now functional, versatile and oh so, eye-catching!

Sorry about the lighting in these pics. I just couldn't eliminate the light coming in from the windows.



And now for more thrifty goodness!
Check out what my fellow upcyclers created below!

Monday, May 21, 2018

Dress Up a Plain Vase with Spoon Flowers

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Dress Up a Plain Vase with Spoon Flowers - 
A Craft Room De-Stash Challenge

Every month a group of talented bloggers are challenged by C’mon Get Crafty to create a new craft or project from their own stash of goodies! 

 I'm sure you've gone into the dollar store looking for one item and ended up with a cart full of "can't resist" things - whether you need them or not!  Yes,  lots of things!  Well for me, one of those things included a plain, clear plastic vase that I've had for awhile! In fact, I have several I picked up and it's time to do something with them! This destash challenge is the perfect solution to get busy and create! How about dressing one up with - guess what? Spoon flowers!  
I have a huge stash of leftover plastic utensils from an outdoor party I had a few years ago. I got the box from Costco so you can imagine how big it is. I'll never use up all the forks! But, I have made quite a few items using the spoons.  One of my first projects as a new blogger was sharing a how-to on plastic spoon flower napkin rings. 

 I got carried away with making all kinds of spoon flower napkin rings - for friends and of course, for me! The post was very popular and I must say spoon crafts are still very popular today! They can be quite beautiful - especially when used to dress up things like a plain vase! 

 It doesn't take much to make spoon flowers - spoons, of course, a candle, needle-nose pliers, a hard surface like the bottom of a glass jar and clear quick drying glue. That's it!

 Let's start by working in a well ventilated area or outside. It's been raining here for most of the week and it's a bit cool so I opened my sliding glass door all the way to let fresh air in.  You don't want to have the spoons too close to the flame so that it burns the plastic and create bad smelling fumes. You want the heat to soften the plastic just enough to manipulate it with your fingers, not burn it. 

 So let's begin by lighting the candle and holding the bowl portion of the spoon down over the HEAT of the flame to make the flower bud. You will begin to see movement of the plastic as you move the spoon over and around the heat. 
Once the plastic softens and curls, remove and pinch the sides together to form the bud.
 You might have to re-heat to soften again to shape and pinch closer together. 
Once you have the desired bud shape, hold the handle over heat and twist off, separating it from the bud.

Let cool and set bud aside.

To make petal: 
Hold the spoon bowl up over the heat of the flame, moving the spoon around to make the plastic soft and pliable.


 Image how a flower petal might look and let the spoon take shape using your fingertips slightly bending the soften plastic into curls.  Once you've gotten the desired shape for your petal, hold between spoon base and handle with needle-nose pliers and .  .  .
twist handle off. Or, as before, you can twist it off with your hands. 

Make one bud and four petals for each flower. You will need a total of eight flowers - two on each side of the vase to decorate.

To assemble flower:
Hold either the bud or petal over the heat of flame to soften and slightly "melt" the bottom (you can use needle-nose pliers to hold petals over heat if it gets too hot to hold) and .  .  .

quickly push the bottom of both pieces together and hold. Then, press bottom onto a hard surface to flatten and let cool.

Continue heating the bottom of a petal (almost to a melting point) and pushing the petals together, staggering them, one by one.

Two petals .  .  .
three petals .  .  .
four petals .  .  . for a lovely flower!

Once you've finished making all the flowers, place finished flower near edge of vase to position and .  .  .
 glue on - two on each side.
Makes for a lovely vase, when finished! Perfect for accessorizing your décor! 
Pretty with flowers, but .  .  .
prettier, without! Some vases are just meant to be admired alone!
What an inexpensive way to dress up and decorate a plain vase!

Check out more awesome creations you might be able to make from your own stash! #CraftRoomDestashChallenge

Meet Your Hosts
 
 

If you'd like to join in the Craft Room De-Stash Challenge, you can request to join our Facebook group here!




Thursday, May 17, 2018

West Elm Inspired Insect Vase DIY

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I love looking through designer sites for inspiration! There's always a great feeling when you can get similar home décor looks by making it yourself for a fraction of the cost! West Elm is one of my go to sites for getting ideas - like this adorable, whimsical insect vase: 


Right away I knew I could make something similar.  Would you believe I had an empty disinfectant wipes container that I recycled that worked perfectly for the vase.
Materials used:

  • Container for vase
  • Plaster Cloth
  • Plaster of Paris
  • Plastic spoon
  • Spider Insect Mold
  • DAP RapidFuse  Multi=Purpose Adhesive
  • FolkArt Non-Yellowing Varnish
Begin by removing the paper label and cleaning the container, removing any glue residue. Next, wrap plaster cloth around the container to determine the size you'll need to cover and cut off.  Place cloth in water to wet and wrap neatly around container - with sides meeting and smoothing out. 



 This material is fascinating to use. The plaster powder on the cloth solidifies when dry into a nice surface.

Next, mix the plaster paris with water following directions. I basically used 2 part plaster powder to 1 part water for a pancake-like batter.
Drop mixture by teaspoon into molds.


Once the spider molds are filled, tap mold on hard surface to settle mixture and remove any air bubbles. 

Plaster Paris dries quickly and the molds should be ready to remove in about an hour. Gently turn the mold over to remove the spiders, pressing down - being very careful. Broken spiders will happen!
Begin lining up the spiders on the vase, gluing them on using RapidFuse adhesive. 

 RapidFuse multi-purpose adhesive dries in about 30 seconds, so it doesn't take long to secure the spiders. I used 45 spiders - 9 rows to cover this vase.
Paint on a coat of non-yellowing varnish to seal the spiders and vase. 

What fun!  Look how adorable this is!

The spider vase is a great focal point for any décor .  .  .


and a very cool dimensional conversation piece!




Thanks for stopping by
and take a little time to enjoy,

Happy Crafting!