Anthropologie Hack: DIY Driftwood Hurricane

 

Let me just say that I lurve hot glue. This was a delightful experiment in, well, experimenting- and it turned out great! I often come across things that look complex, but I'm like "you know, I bet I could make that with some hot glue" and every once and a while...I am correct.  Sweet, Sweet Success.

This project wasn't exactly free for me, since I had to buy the driftwood for $24(that includes shipping) bucks from, from this lovely chap in the UK from Etsy. But you could easily make this using things from your yard/beach/ neighbor's yard. 

He even gave me " a wee bit extra!" 

tee hee!

Thank you, Phil! 

The process was pretty easy. I used all the tallest sticks first and spaced them around the jar (which I already had on hand), and then layered the next tallest, ect... around to create a layered effect.

My conversations throughout the night went a little something like this: 

 Friend: "What are you up to"

Me: "Just gluing driftwood to an apothacary jar"

Friend: "..."

Me: " Hey, did you know that vodka, limeade and club soda are DELICIOUS?!"

(seriously, they are. By the way, honey, if you are reading this, we're out of Limeade. ) 

ANYWAY.

Pretty pumped about how that turned out. 

If this post was a president, it'd be Abraham Linkin: 

Different Glazes for Different... Phases?

Woohoo! Thursday! 

Lately I've been fooling around with glazes. I really like how a glaze can add depth and, depending on which one you choose, can totally change the look of whatever your item is. 

Remember my candlesticks from my weekend finding? 

Before 

After

Before you start hitting your computer screen- yes they are different colors! I painted them my super pale gray "oops!" paint that I used on my art-deco side tables and then distressed them. THEN I 'glazed' the right stick with regular old dark walnut stain from Minwax that I had lying around. Pretty much I just wanted to see what would happen. As you can see, you get a whole heck of an all-over color, since the stain is not water-based like a typical glaze, you have a much harder time wiping it off, and much more stays on. BUT, as you can see compared to the unglazed 'stick, you can see a lot more of the detail of the actual piece. I personally prefer the one on the left. I think I might try a black water-based glaze to give it some depth in the cracks, but not all-over color.

These poor chairs. I was also experimenting with glazes on THEM this weekend too. I must have been really obnoxious as a child with all this curiosity. I couldn't get the detail by showing the whole chair, so the first two are of the top, second two photos are of the legs. 

Unglazed

Glazed

Unglazed

Glazed

I know what you're thinking. Margaret, aren't these the same chairs that you were just talking about totally re-re-doing yesterday? Yes, yes they are. I told you I was downright nutty. I did these when I was thinking about making them into the french-country-ish style. I think I have since decided to go bold with them. Go big or go home!

What about you guys? Any good tips to share on glazing/finishing? And color combos or formulas you've found to just hit it out of the park when you're going for a certain "look"?

xo,

Chic on a Shoestring Decorating Feature!

Oodles of thanks over to Kate at Chic on a Shoestring Decorating for featuring my $10 DIY Upholstered Headboard in this week's episode of Flaunt it Friday! 

I'm pretty honored to be in a league with some of the other AWESOME stuff that's up there: 

In LURVE with this chalkboard wall. Woah. Structured *check* Bold *check* Versatile *double check*. Dear owners of House of Chic and Penoche, I will be arriving on Thursday. 

Bold (and home made!) curtains by A Thoughtful Place.  Love those stripes!

So, Kate - THANK YOU! And congrats on reaching 1,000+ followers! If you haven't checked out Kate's blog, Chic on a Shoestring Decorating, go now! (But don't forget to come back! ) :D 

Have a great rest of the weekend! I, for one,  need to go mix up some more glaze if only I could peel my lazy butt off the couch... 

xo,

$1 DIY "Vintage" Art

Hi guys! Happy Friday! 

This is a picture of our new above-the-bed arrangement. I am just in love with sailboat sketch to the right. It's vintage and given to us by my father-in-law. I wanted to incorporate it with our super pricy headboard (NOT!)  I'm sorry. I watched Wayne's World last night. Our headboard (which is a Cal King size, by the way) you can see peeking in at the bottom is one I whipped up using burlap and poster board, and cost a whopping $10. You can find the tutorial here. 

Anyhoo. I wanted to incorporate that sketch and create a sort of rustic/beachy/ vintage collection of prints. Enter THE GRAPHICS FAIRY. If you do not know who she is - shame on you. She's got an EXTENSIVE collection of vintage clip-art taken from all kinds of stuff that she provides for FREE. That's right. FREE.  

Margaret likes free. 

I could have spent hours poking around, but I finally settled on these: 

I wanted them to look like vintage scientific prints, so I added their names and a figure number using the 'ol computer. I used Mac Pages, but I bet you can do it in paint or word. 

A Gryphaea is apparently an extinct type of oyster, if this type of thing is important to you. I just printed them off using regular printer paper (note: if you've got a heavier stock around, use it, cause next we're going to... ) 

Tea stain! 

Just fill a long, shallow dish ( like a casserole) with room temperature tea. Easy like Sunday morning. Just try to make it even and don't leave it in for too long or else it will tear when you try to remove it. Really just a minute or two at most. 

For the framing, I just modified two frames I got at the dollar store for- you guessed it- a dollar each! The brown one I sanded and did a coat of watered down white acrylic paint and for the gray frame ( sorry, I don't have a before picture) started out blonde unfinished wood, like you would find in a craft store. I just painted it up with some gray acrylic paint. So I got some great personalized art for a grand total of $1 each! Can't beat that.

And here's Cali making her first blog appearance! 

Enter: Another gratuitous picture of our pup. She's a ham, this one.

Happy Friday!
xo,

$10 DIY Headboard

As renters, our bedroom was kinda bland. Like, embarrassingly bland. Here it is before: 

I've made a headboard for our bed before when we were living in San Francisco, but when it was time to move, our Cal King size DIY headboard was just too monstrous to move cross-country. 

I wanted to do something that would have a lot of impact for not a lot of cash, so I got a bit creative. I had some sturdy poster board from the dollar store lying around, as well as some extra trim, batting and burlap. So I taped my poster board together: 

(note- I would not use electrical tape next time since it shows through the thin burlap, just a little)

Then traced my design and cut it out with a boxcutter:

And used the cut out portion as a template for the other side, so that they were even: 

Then using spray adhesive. I patched together some batting scraps I had left over from previous projects: 

This is where it starts to look a little like Frankenstein. 

I then laid the poster board on top of the burlap and upholstered it using a regular staple gun. I folded the burlap back on itself before stapling so it had a little something to hold on to. 

Then, I secured the back together even more using some twine, hot glue and staples to create a zig zag pattern that secured all the boards together even more. 

Now, to hang it- I tried using picture hangers on some parts of the twine... not good. 

Soooo I nailed it to the wall. Haha. Well, its about as much damage as a picture hanger, and it stays flush! 

Here's the cost breakdown: 

Poster board $1 ea x 3 = $3

Burlap $2/yd x 2.5 = $5

Trim $1/yd x 2 = $2

= $10! 

Not bad! For less than a cocktail we gave our bedroom a big facelift! 

Also, want to know a secret? That trim isn't glued on- nope! I just pinned it on with straight pins. So if I want to throw out the headboard when we move, or use the trim for another project, it just comes straight off!

This is a great idea for renters, who don't want to deal with bolting a huge piece of plywood to the wall. It's light enough that a nail on each side holds her up, and cheap enough that if you don't want to carry it on to your next place, your guilt factor for just throwing it out is pretty low. 

This post linked to:
Savvy Southern Style
A Beach Cottage: Good Life Wednesday 
My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
A Stroll Thru Life
Flaunt it Friday @ Chic on a Shoestring Decorating
Frugal Friday @ The Shabby Nest

xoxo,

Crafternoon Tea: 'Love Notes' Wreath How-To

As you may know, I'm hosting a Valentine's Crafternoon Tea this Sunday for some ladies, and in case you were inspired to join with us in spirit, or host on of your own, I have a printable tutorial on how to make the "Love Notes" Wreath here. When you're doing a project with a group of people, I always find its easier to have some kind of printout that everyone can reference to go at their own pace.

You can download the tutorial here:
Download the 'Love Notes' Wreath tutorial! 


happy crafting!
xo,

"They Had Blood Banks in the Analogue Realm?" ( Book Page Wreath Tutorial)

Evidently so. The titillating excerpt from above is why I had no problem turning my dollar store copy of "The Ninth Talisman" into this: 

Armed with a hot glue gun, wreath form (the flat kind) and a copy of the "The Ninth Talisman, I single-handedly battled hot glue gun burns, interruptions, a husband who thought his wife had gone off the deep end (for reals this time) to take someone else's work of art (and I use the term loosely) and make it my own. Who knew crumpled up bits of paper could look soooo good?

Here's what I did:
I folded the single pages like this:

And this

And this

Because having some different folds adds texture and dimension. And then just glued them in place.

Then it started to look like this:

Ha! Yes! It worked!

There she is again, just for fun. Oh, you might be wondering about the "L-O-V-E", well, I put some white cardstock in tea to age it, then cut it out with a ruffle-edged scissor, and then hot glued it to some thread. I'm totes going to change it out for St. Patty's Day.

Happy Friday!!
xoxo