Quick Lamp Restyle with Tissue and Mod Podge

I've had this little uplight forever and the shade had yellowed and had little cracks all over. 

Time for a restyle!!

I hit my stash for Mod Podge and some pretty turquoise tissue paper. 

I crinkled the tissue up and tore it into postage stamp size pieces.

After cleaning the light shade I covered the whole thing with the crumpled tissue, 

including a generous border folded over the top. At this point I was 

really jazzed because this looks like burnished STONE.

I sealed it with clear acrylic spray.

Even during the day it lends a pop of the blue color I love to it's place on my shelf.

Oooh aaaah!

I like it even better when it's lit up!

It's the perfect light for the shelf at the end of my 

hallway and it highlights my painting so nicely!

Sometimes a project just comes together so quickly and 

easily that it makes me laugh out loud. This was one of them.

Now I'm looking at the other lamp right over there......

Three D Effect With Hot Glue

I had this idea of adding a raised, three dimensional design on a glass vase and kept wondering just how could I do it?

I wanted it to be simple and quick and, of course, cheap. I also wanted to use supplies that I or just about anyone out in DIY land had in their craft stash. Here's the list of things I used...

Use hot glue, tissue paper, Mod Podge (or school glue) and craft paint to turn a plain Dollar Store vase into a unique decor item.

Here is how I-

 For my first design I chose a simple fleur de lis shape and drew it on plain paper. 

You could also print out the shape you choose.

Tape it INSIDE the container you are decorating.

Fill in that shape with hot glue. Be generous and fill it in completely.

 Do not worry about being too precise or getting all the lines exactly so. 

This process actually looks better if it is not too exact, because next you will be

 adding texture to the entire outside surface of the vase.

Melt any glue strings that are hanging off your design with a heat gun or hair dryer.

Tear the tissue paper in irregular shapes and crumple tightly, 

then smooth out. Have your stack of tissue

 ready for the next step.

Working on the 3 dimensional design first, brush a generous coat of glue or Mod Podge on top of it. Carefully lay the tissue over the design and gently coax the tissue into the edges and details with a soft brush. Brush more glue on top. Go slowly and carefully so you do not tear the tissue.

If it does tear, just smooth it down with your brush and place another piece over the tear.

Glue tissue over the entire outside surface of the vase, including

 folded over the top lip by about an inch and down around the bottom.

I let it sit overnight until it is completely dry. The glue or Mod Podge 

will dry to a hard surface on the glass with really interesting textures.

Next, use acrylic craft paint for the base color of your vase. 

I used Country White which has a buttery hue.

Cover all of the tissue paper and let it dry completely.

And now, the final step to bring out all that great texture and really make

 that 3 dimensional design pop. Dip your paintbrush in black craft paint

 and wipe off most of the paint on a rag or paper towel so your brush is almost dry. 

Gently drag the contrast color over your design.

 Go slowly and add more if you want the design to stand out.

 If you add too much contrast you can touch it up with your base color. 

Dry brush your contrast color over all the edges...

top rim, bottom edge and every little crease and crinkle of textured tissue paper.

And VOILA! You've turned a plain jane vase into a great looking decor piece!

Remember, this decorated vase should be wiped down only, never immersed in water or even run through the dishwasher. The paint, glue and paper will come loose.

You could do roses, monograms, cartoons, logos and Halloween skulls. 

The possibilities are endless.

AND, you probably have everything you need already in your craft stash!

Shelves from drawers. Really.

              My girls and I will be at the Douglas County Christmas Fair in Roseburg this weekend. FOUR big buildings full of Christmas goodness, what's not to love? Come see us if you are in the area! Just look for the                                                      "Make The Best of Things" booth.

                       *****************************************************

Here is a fun project I did a few years back. I needed display shelving for our craft booth and didn't want to spend any money. I remembered we had an old waterbed set with a six drawer pedestal base, so The Welding Man helped me with this recycle/upcycle project on three of them. I've seen clever drawer redos in blogland and knew we could knock this one off "toot sweet."

I asked him to install a shelf in each drawer, putting each one at a different height. And since I was up to my eyeballs in other projects, he primed and painted all three drawers. Whattaguy! This is a redo that can totally be done by anyone out there even if you don't have an accommodating Welding Man in your household. What's that Christopher Lowell used to say before he went Hollywood on us? "You can do it!"

So here is the first, a pretty turquoise blue number to which I added some very cool scripty tissue paper I'd saved for projects such as these. After first crumpling up the paper slightly then smoothing it out to cover any small irregularities in the wood, I Mod Podged it down. You have to have a gentle hand with tissue paper because once it is wet and stuck on, you CANNOT move it. Also, do NOT touch the wet tissue until it is dry. A piece will lift off on your fingertip. Don't ask me how I know this. ;0)

The tissue came in two colors, so I used the darker shade for the horizontal surfaces and let it dry thoroughly. Then I glazed all the edges, inside and out, with burnt umber acrylic glaze and wiped it down. Lovin' it!

Eggshell white paint and torn up music sheets came next. The music came from an old, beat up Mozart play book for school bands, just a quarter at the local thrift store! I used the page edges on the straight edges for a neater look. So cool! And I still have plenty of music sheets left.

And after the burnt umber glaze on all the surfaces. Ooh, I love this one too!!

And finally, flat black paint and some black and white scrapbook paper in a damask print. Unfortunately my seams did not match up the pattern as well as I liked, so I made some casual, fuzzy edged black stripes to "fool the eye." How Goth/Twilight/Vampire/Halloween does this look, I ask ya?

And across the top, where there was a little divot in the wood, I filled it and covered it up with a strip of the same paper, with joints perfectly matched this time. Then a little bit of sanding and a bit of black paint dry brushing, and this one is ready to go, too. I sealed all three with several layers of clear acrylic spray and I love the way all of them came out!!

And here they are all dressed and ready to go on day 1 of our Artwalk booth. I made a few color matched accessories for them and had a great time playing around with the displays. I put price tags on them in case someone really, really wanted them but in the end I kept them. They will be going in my refurbished craft studio soon, and I can't keep from smiling every time I look at them.

The whole thing was done with supplies I already had from previous projects, so I didn't have to spend any money, and that makes me feel happy and smart. Love that! Annnnd, I still have 3 more drawers. Gotta love that, too!

http://www.funkyjunkinteriors.net/2014/11/pj-264-upcycled-link-party.html

Broken Mirror to Painting Save

What do you do with a FOUR FOOT wide cracked mirror? Well, I know what I'd do and then I did it.
I saved this totally cool cracked mirror in its AWESOME frame with spray paint,
tissue paper, Mod Podge, craft paint and clear sealer.

Read on to learn the details.
I

I started out with a beautifully framed mirror but ended up with this painting. How in the world did that happen?

It started out as a $7 Goodwill find with a gorgeous frame and a loose mirror.
 Four foot long and two and a half feet wide, it was perfect for our master bedroom,
right above the bed! Loose mirror? No problem!
 We tried to tighten it up. On the last turn of the last screw, it broke.
 Man, I nearly cried I heard that crack!

What to do? The frame was still good. Why not turn it into a painting instead?
 Can't fix the mirror so I figured why not cover it up?

I turned to my tried and true method for covering up and adding texture.....crumpled tissue paper and mod podge! I taped the crack on front and back with clear packing tape.

Then I spray painted the frame with Oil Rubbed Bronze but I thought it was too Goth looking,
so I high lighted it with an over spray of nice Leather Brown.
 Sweet!
 See how the tissue has dried to a nice pearly opaque textured finish?


Time to paint!

 I knew I wanted something as a vivid blue focal point, so I began layering shades
 of blue, lavender, teal, purple and black around a white circle. There is also a
bit of pink and dark green in there. The crumpled tissue really
grabbed the paint and gave this a nice interesting texture.
 I knew I wanted a branch with a nest and some eggs and
here is how it ended up.

I like it!

 I even used my favorite new paint tool, a Deco Color paint pen, to add some of the finer details.
 The Welding Man likes it too. And you know what?
 If I get tired of this I can always repaint it as something else.
 I'm adaptable that way.

Here's a close up of the nest with four eggs since we have four kids. Sure, they're all grown and flown now but since we've moved we all live in the same town, how cool is that? We see them all so often that our empty nest isn't really empty after all!

Ah, the carefully staged bedroom photo! What you can't see is the rocking chair on my side piled with clean laundry and the pile 0' shirts on The Welding Man's side of the bed. Also brought in some couch pillows since I haven't made more for my bed. But they're on the list!

So in the case of this cracked mirror with the fabulous frame,
it wasn't really a disaster. Gotta love that.

Two Tissue Boxes For My Desk Redo

For my continuing desk/office space remodel I had two tissue box covers I'd found at a Thrift Store. They were flowery and oh so eighties but they were .99 each so I nabbed them. Here's the first one which my daughter, Insanely Creative Christy, Mod Podged with cleanly cut book pages. She is neat and methodical in her craftiness while I am more untidy and, um, let's say, flightier in my craftiness. ;0) But I did add the chalkboard label. See how nicely it came out between the two of us?

And it matches the Mod Podged storage boxes and the little cubbyhole shelf so well!

Then I remembered this post over at Can't Stop Making Things about making faux first editions with hot glue and tissue paper. Here's the inspiration pic....

And here's the link...
http://www.cantstopmakingthings.com/2010/09/leather-bound-first-edition.html

So cool! This is just one of many neat projects on that clever blog.

I used a very similar technique in my own blog post, but I never thought to make faux books with it! Here's my link.....

http://makethebestofthings.blogspot.com/2010/05/3-d-effect-with-hot-glue.html

So I added dimension with hot glue, then decoupaged crinkled tissue paper over everything and painted the whole shebang black. I brushed on Elmer's glue then white paint for a cool crackled look, then dry brushed with black. NOTE-let the glue get tacky and brush on the paint in one direction only. You will see the crackle magically appear as the glue and paint dry! It is VERY COOL.

Here's a link to my Elmer's glue crackle paint post-

http://makethebestofthings.blogspot.com/2010/05/crackle-finish-with-elmers-glue.html

I added more details and a number with a Sharpie then glued on a vintage style heart and skeleton key. Lovin' it!

And now I have TWO tissue box covers for my desk. Hmmm. I like them both. Instead of choosing between them, I'll just have to put one on each side, lol!

These were both fun, easy projects and cheap, too. That's a win win in my book. I'll be linking up to the parties in my sidebar, come visit and see what's cooking in blogland this week!

Craft Fail to Craft Save

I love this blue painted display stand NOW but it sure didn't start out looking this way!

I put  the candlestick and plate together with E6000 and spray painted the whole shebang with Krylon spray paint in  Blue Ocean Breeze.  I am in love with the color and it gave this simple piece a gorgeous look. It was beeyootiful, trust me on this.

So, and you know there is more to this story; before I took some final pics I sprayed it with clear acrylic sealer to give it a nice protective finish. A clear sealer containing acetone and tuolene. Do you know what those two caustic chemicals do to wonderful, smooth, Ocean Blue painted glass? Aargh! It bubbled and blistered and looked terrible.

I'll spare you the gruesome details and the pics. My beautiful creation suddenly developed a case of severe blue leprosy. My heart fell. Did I cuss? Yes. My kids and The Welding Man say I'm an amateur when it comes to cursing, but hey, it works for me. Back when they were little I used to say "dirty rat fink." Yeah, they still get the giggles over that.

But I digress...on to the rescue!

So I figured it can't look worse and I resorted to my old standby aging technique, crumpled tissue paper and Mod Podge. Don't look at my painting station, it's a wreck. But you can see here that the "save" potential for this project wasn't looking good. Pieces of torn and crumpled tissue cover the top half in this pic. 

Moving on.

Okay, first coat of turquoise acrylic paint. I'm feeling hopeful here.

And a layer of burnt umber glaze. Okay, I can work with this. Feeling a tiny bit better.

And the base, where the leprosy was the worst. This technique adds so much texture and the glazing emphasizes it, so I'm going to call it good, even tho I remember that first, gorgeous smooth painted finish with a sigh. But hey, I really like how this is turning out!

I figured it would look great with the shelf I made from a drawer, and I have to admit, they seem very harmonious together. So, still calling this a save!

And with the various coastal elements this project looks pretty good! However, with my usual tendency to nit pick the details, the base is a slightly different shade from the plate. I'll be fixing that soon. At least this time I was able to salvage the project. Other times I've not been so lucky/clever! But we won't talk about that right now.

Linking up to the parties on the sidebar, you betcha. Come join the fun and see the wonderful projects out there.

3 D effect with hot glue

I've been kicking this idea around in my head for awhile and I just decided to do it. How can I get a dimensional, 3 D image on a vase, jar, box or even a canvas? I considered cutting shapes out of foam and gluing them on, or gluing on store bought appliques or even jewelry charms. But all of those require a bit more effort or money and I knew there was a simpler way. So here's what I came up with.....

The standard thrift store cheap glass vase. The sticker on the bottom says fifty cents, so it was a bargain. Now for my design....




Aha! It's my "leaving the house and my hair is a mess" hat. I got the pretty applique for $1 and it makes it look less like my "bad hair day" hat and more like a stylish statement. That's what I tell myself, anyway. Lol! So, I love the look of the fleur de lis and went for it....


I drew a symmetrical design on paper, folded it up til it was positioned correctly and taped it in place on the inside....


...and filled in the shape with hot glue. I stayed inside the lines but was a bit messy filling it in. I knew I could trim the edges with a razor cutter if I wanted to, and the next part of my project would minimize the messy appearance of the glue. Trust me on this, the finished deal is awesome!




Crumple up about 1/2 sheet of tissue paper. You could use other types of paper but the tissue is the best for this technique. Tear it into pieces less than 3" x 3".




Now Mod Podge those babies on the outside of your vase, putting the MP on the vase only, since the tissue paper is fragile and tears very easily. Just lay the tissue gently on the shape and pat it with a fingertip. If your finger gets sticky, switch to another finger and continue patting gently. Once the paper is sticking pretty good take a small, soft brush and more MP and gently ease the paper into all the crevices of your design. Gently, ladies, gently. BUT, if you do end up tearing the tissue here and there, it's OKAY!! This technique is very forgiving of mess ups. Trust me on this.
Smooth the torn edges with your soft brush and cover any tears with small pieces of torn tissue. Once they are Mod Podged they will disappear. Then MP the edges of the paper down over the bottom and up over the lip for a smooth appearance. Let it dry thoroughly.



Now paint your project the background color. I chose Antique White by Plaid which is a bit of a buttermilk white. By the way, can you see the little smiley face guy with a mustache on the vase? Curvy eyebrows, curly mustache? Little goatee on his chin? Come on, tell me you see him! He looks a little French to me. I'm not kidding, there really is a smiling guy there. Lol! It's okay if you can't see him, I KNOW he's there. ; 0 )


Once the paint is dry on the smiling guy fleur de lis vase, take a soft brush and stroke just a bit of your accent color on there. I used black. You may want to use burnt umber or even a color to match your decor, like blue or even pink. Make sure your brush is almost dry, blot the paint out til it is barely there before brushing it on your project. It is better to have too little than too much, BUT, if you do get too much on there it is fixable. Trust me on this. Let the paint dry then fix your dark spots with the lighter color, let it dry and dry brush again with the darker color. Seal it with clear acrylic spray. See how the roughness of the hot glue and the texture of the tissue really give this a rustic, vintage feel? As my dad the engineer always said, "If you can't make it look perfect, then emphasize the imperfection."

This is the first time I tried this technique and I am jazzed at the way it came out! The hot glue tissue paper decoupage idea worked and it came out just as I hoped! Don't you love when that happens? I'm going to try it on different surfaces and see how it looks and I'm already thinking some kind of swirly damask design on another vase and maybe some dots and circles....!

WARNING-your vase or glassware will NOT be dishwasher safe. Also, do not submerge it in soapy water. Just dust it with a cloth. The inside is still safe to hold water since the technique is all on the outside, so your vase is fine to hold real flowers. Submerging the finished project will "lift" all your hard work right off.

I'm so glad you're visiting me here, please leave a comment if you would. I'll be linking up to the fun blog parties in my sidebar, come see all the great projects posted there!