Lamp Redux

       

After                                                                                  Before

I had this lamp in my bedroom, but when I decided to be an adult and get two bedside tables, I got matching lamps for them and moved this out to the living room. It originally had a silver base but that didn't go so I spray painted it with the same black matte spray paint that I used for my mason jars.

I wasn't sure what to do with the lampshade - the blue really didn't fit with my decor, but I had no ideas for how to update it.  That is until I saw this fluer-de-lis printed burlap fabric at Joanne Fabrics. I wasn't looking for fabric for the lamp at the time, but when I saw this burlap I immediately knew I needed to find a way to incorporate it into my home.

Here's how I did it:

Step 1: Tape off where the light bulb goes and the cord so you don't spray them.  I used a plastic bag to wrap the cord instead of wrapping the whole thing in tape.

Step 2: Spray paint the base.  I actually didn't sand or prime the base because I knew I wasn't going to be touching it much, and the matte spray feels like it sticks pretty well.

 

Step 3: Make a template. I used parchment paper and rolled the lampshade across the table to trace the shade to make a template for the fabric. I traced the bottom and the top - note: a rectangular piece of fabric wont work because of the curve in the shade.

Step 4: Pin the template to the fabric.  I initially pinned it to the wrong side of the fabric, but then realized that I couldn't easily align the pattern that way.  So I pinned it to the right side (with the printing).  This is where having a transparent template really pays off because you can easily align the template on the pattern.

Step 4.5: (not pictured) Realize that because your fabric has a large pattern that can only go one way, cutting the whole template in on piece will end up with a really weird looking lamp.  Decide to do three panels.

       

Pin the template to the fabric

Align the template so the pattern looks good

Step 5: Cut the fabric around the template.  Note: you will want to leave room for errors.  I cut the template out about an inch bigger on each side and then cut the fabric out bigger than that.  I'd say I probably had about 2 extra inches, but in some places that was barely enough because of the way the pattern fell.

Step 6: Place the fabric on the shade to ensure it lines up well.  I pinned the fabric to the shade so that I could play with it until I got it to look the way I wanted.

I tried to make the pattern match up between
the panels as much as possible

         

Step 7: Glue fabric to shade. I used hot glue (be careful: it's hot!!) and used folded up parchment paper (because it wouldn't stick to the glue) to press the fabric to the shade. I glued at the top and bottom, just folding the fabric over and gluing along the inside of the shade.

Finished!

Step 8: Finishing touches.  Even after playing with the fabric for (not even kidding) hours, I still didn't love the way the pattern matched up between the panels.  So, I decided to glue jute twine along the edges to sort of buffer against any misalignment.  (Bonus: if you do something like this, you don't have to be as careful when gluing the edges together.)  Since I was going to have the twine accent running up and down the shade, I also decided to put it along the top and bottom.  I doubled the thread over to make it cover more area and be more noticeable.

**I made an extra lamp (it's actually the one pictured) and it is for sale on Etsy, check it out!**

Animal Bookends, Oh My!

I got this idea from (where else?) pinterest. It was a take on a Pottery Barn Teen set of bookends. The pin shows what I believe to be the PBT version. This is mine!

Notes:

1) I got the Elephants from the $1 section of Target 

    about 6 months ago (they were deceptively 

    $3/each)

2) I spraypainted them with Valspar Metallic Silver 

    Paint (available here)

3) I had a really hard time finding a block that I liked 

    the size of in reference to the elephants.  I ended 

    up wrapping a foam block from Michael's in a 

    heavy paper and spray painting that with a matte 

    black spraypaint.  You can see in the pictures that 

    didn't turn out p-e-r-f-e-c-t-l-y, but you can't really 

    notice the difference that the glue on the corners 

    makes unless you're really looking at it.

Related Notes (similar projects):

1) I made a set of these, using small elephants painted in gold metallic and small boxes with lids that I 

    painted black.  I just glued the elephants onto the boxes and gave them to my mother for Christmas.  

    Though she just put them on a side table right next to the couch, she said she liked them, and they do 

    look really good there.  I think I spent less than $5 on that project (yes, I got her something else).

2) I made a set of these for my brother using dinosaurs and painting them green and putting them on 

    little wooden plaques I found at Michael's, which I painted gold.  He did not like them, and wasn't 

    particularly shy about telling me so. (in his defense... they did turn out kind of crappy, I wouldn't use 

    a green gloss spray paint for the animals, it was too dark to pick out the details.)

Here they are on my mantle, above the TV.

3) I cut a lion in half (inspiration), painted it matte black, 

    glued them to a gold plaque and then glued the plaque to  

    those plastic picture frames that the pin suggests. But those 

    kinda suck because they're too flimsy, if I did it again I'd 

    spring for real metal bookends.  

       3b) Another note: cutting the plastic animal was pretty 

             difficult, even using a really good serrated            

             knife, I messed it up and had to glue part of it back 

             together - be careful with that.  

       3c) Another thing to watch out for is the placement of the
             animal halves - I tried to get them even, but they
             didn't line up the way I wanted because the lion's feet
            were too far down.

Secret Ingredient: Twine Pt. 2

Before

When I get a new craft idea, I usually end up buying a ton of crap that I don't end up needing so it sits around in my craft closet until I get sick of looking at it ...ehhehemm... I mean, until creative genius sparks.

So, after I finished my table, I still had a bunch of twine left over. I wasn't sure what to do with it for awhile, but then I got this awesome idea to wrap a picture frame in it. Well, it turns out it wasn't exactly the best idea... (after the jump).

After

After I finished my picture frame, I was so amped on twine that I decided to make a whole bunch more things! [I didn't mention that I ran out of twine 3/4 of the way through, left the frame sitting uncompleted for about 6 months, then wanted to just paint it, but taking the twine off was too labor intensive, so I put it back and let it sit for about another 6 months until I got sick of looking at it and went and bought some more twine and finished the project in about 20 minutes]

Close Up

I'm not even going to put instructions for these. If you can't figure it out then you probably shouldn't be using a hot glue gun... which, coincidentally is what I used to glue the twine to these pieces. All of which I bought at my local Goodwill! Reduce! Reuse! Recycle! [my interpretation: re-do boring and ugly things so that the world is just that much more aesthetically pleasing!]

Pro Tip: Nail Polish remover gets permanent marker off glass and the like really well.

Super Pro Tip: Pam Cooking Spray, when sprayed and left on sticker residue will help it wash right off!

Here's what I came up with:  

Before (boring and dirty)

After (clean and interesting!)

Shameless Self-Promotion: These glass items are available at my Etsy Shop.

Secret Ingredient: Twine

I saw this Ikea Lack table covered in twine sisal over on IkeaHackers, and I was instantly in love.  A) it looks super sweet and B) I already had one of those tables.  Having pawned off it's POS coffee table mate on my parents, I just had this random black table.  Boooorrriiinnngggg.

So, I filed this idea away in the ole memory bank, bought some jute (which is smaller, and now that I'm looking at this picture again I realize why mine took forever and a year to finish ... no really.), and promptly set about not getting started until late one night when I didn't want to go out.

Anyway, here's my version.  It now holds my super sweet printer scanner.

I modified the original directions because there was no way in tarnation that I was going to glue all the twine down.  So I just glued it at the top and then I spread some glue over the twine every so often as I wrapped.

Notes:
1. I took the legs off to wrap them, so I could just twirl them around.

2. I wore latex gloves so I could smear glue under the twine as I went.  I pretty much just squeezed some glue onto newspaper and dipped my finger in every so often.






3. I couldn't figure out how to make the top square without actually gluing every strand (and, I repeat, there was no way in tarnation I was going to do that). So, I used some carpet tacks (tiny little nails - these are what you get when you go to home depot looking for upholstery tacks (another story)).





4. I basically held the tacks over the table using a pliers to hold them in place, then I hammered them in just a bit, then I wrapped the string around them and then hammered them in all the way.  You can get away with doing a few tacks at a time, you just have to do them from all sides.

5. this literally took forever and a year.  I ran out of twine when I was halfway through the top and really didn't want to deal with those stupid little tacks anymore, so I just put a placemat on top of it and no one was the wiser.  .... But then I did, eventually finish it.

Detail of the top

Warning: Explicit Content - Mason Jars

Everyone is obsessed with mason jars lately.  Mostly I think the ideas are cute but - since I'm not planning a wedding any time soon - irrelevant.  I have to admit, I did jump on the bandwagon when I saw a mason jar which was spray painted with words embossed on the side (see: http://bit.ly/11OUBcg).  I instantly loved these but I really am not the type to have the word 'love' spelled out anywhere I live... that's about as likely as me throwing a tupperware party.

Cheeky Mason Jars

I gathered my supplies: three mason jars (I have no idea where three came from, that's just how many I bought), some puffy paint, and black matte spray paint.  I was all ready to go!  But then I couldn't settle on what to put on the jars.  Sure, they only cost a dollar or two, but I didn't want to mess them up.

At first I thought I would just put some symbols - I really like the ampersand (&). So I was thinking: # & @.  Unfortunately for me, I cannot draw at.all. so those simple symbols turned out to be overly ambitious.  So I put the project away and didn't come back to it for months.

By the time I got back around to this project, I was back in school for the semester and not too happy about it.  I'm not really a school person, and I'm pretty sure (judging from their content) that it was getting close to #finalz time, so I was extra angsty.  And I must have been listening to a lot of Drake and Rihanna.

I settled on: f*** that noise, &, and #yolo.  The first is a lyric in a Rihanna song that I've always loved, to me it just says: "f*** the small and insignificant stuff" and/or "f*** what other people say."  People that know me think these are very fitting.  I love that they're explicit, but the black matte paint doesn't draw attention to them.  I also tried to soften the blow of the expletive by writing it in cursive.

Process: I drew on the jars with a marker that rubbed off until I got something I liked, then I went over it with puffy paint, then when that dried I spray painted it.

Mason Jars on my desk.  The black matte makes it hard to read what they say unless you're up close.

#mindblown - You Can Shop Online at Dollar Tree

First off, let me just say, I love the Dollar store.  Like, probably more than Macklemore loves thrift stores.  If it weren't for my complete lack of singing ability or training I would totally write a song about it.  I think the chorus would be something like: "Dollar Tree, thaz my jam" and it'd be set to the beat of "F**kin' Problems."

Getttting back to reality, I will pretty much use any excuse to go there and I always spend at least a half hour just browsing the aisles.  Sure, I inevitably spend $20 on things that I don't really need and will probably break, but there are some really great things there too.  In all honesty, I know I've bought a lot of stuff there over the past two years (I wasn't ever close to a Dollar Tree before), but I'm not sure what.

I love their glassware, I think my first project from the dollar store was when I filled a few of their square candle holder glasses with their decorating rocks and a small candle and those are now the decoration on my counter.  I also use some of their cleaning supplies, their version of the magic eraser is probably the cleaning supply I use the most out of all the ones I have.  It's great for getting stains off the counter and scuff marks off the walls.

OK, so now that I've gotten that out of the way, the real reason I'm writing:

You can buy things online at the Dollar Tree and have them shipped for free to your local store and pick them up!  I saw a sign about it when I was in the store browsing for crafting stuff (I think I went in to buy some of their candlestick holders to make tiered pedestals out of) and just had to look into it.

Most of the things you have to buy a bunch of, but they're still just a dollar.  So you're still spending like $12 for 12 candlesticks!  This might not make sense for everyone or every item (what would you do with 36 boxes of ziplock bags? or 36 travel mugs?) but if you need a bunch, why not just buy it online?

Online they have some really cute picture frames, and if you wanted to do a gallery wall, these would be perfect!  Plus, you'd know you were getting 24 of the exact same frame.  Here are a few of the ones I really like:

Silver Beaded 4x6 frame: http://bit.ly/102ue8w (this is $3/frame, min order: 6)
Silver Plastic Beveled 5x7 frame: http://bit.ly/ZCPm35 ($1, min order: 24)
Matted Triple Bevel 4x6 frame: http://bit.ly/19diPWE ($1, min order 24)

Also, they have some really cool craft ideas that show you what to use from their stores:
cupcake pedestals project: http://bit.ly/18Y8efr
tiered stand project: http://bit.ly/18Y8fjG

[oh, and no, I am not in any way affiliated with the Dollar Tree!]

String Art

A few months ago I invited some friends over for a 'crafting brunch.' We'd been discussing it for a long time so I decided to make it happen.  We all chose different crafts to do, and brought our own supplies. It was a nice break from law school and we all walked away with something fun.

Closeups of my string art and a visual of the wall they're displayed on.

I settled on a string art project I'd seen on Pinterest (http://bit.ly/102wYTD).  I'm a huge fan of boats and I love the simple lines on these, but I thought I should start out with a little less ambitious of a ship design than in the tutorial.

All I needed was a canvas, some string and some glue (note: hot glue probably wouldn't be good for this because it dries so quickly and you might need to move some things around as you're working).

I ended up using two canvases I already had from when I moved into my apartment.  My mother always paints the walls in our houses 'musiln white,' which is really just pale yellow, so I'm not used to staring at white walls and I guess I was a bit overwhelmed by all the blank wall space (I was used to living in a tiny studio in NYC, so moving into a (GASP!) one-bedroom in Durham was a huge change).  I was so desperate to get things on the walls to break up all the white that I picked up these awful flower paintings at the local Goodwill and put them up until I could find something better.

The point is, I had these two matching canvases sitting around (because I did find something better). I was going to take them back to the Goodwill they came from, but I thought that not only would using them for this project be economical, but I'd really be doing the world a favor by getting rid of two tacky paintings.

Before: Tacky Flower Canvases

I pretty much followed the tutorial at the link above, except I used a cream colored yarn instead of string.  The hardest part was finding simple enough pictures to use as a template.  I ended up googling children's coloring book drawings because I figured those would have simple lines.  It still took awhile but I'm really happy with the finished products. 

I really want to make some more, but I'm already running out of space to put things and these are so simple I could see my apartment becoming overwhelmed by string art!  Maybe when I finish all the projects I've got in progress now I'll make some to give to friends or sell.