Monday, April 29, 2013

What?! What!? Whaaaaaat?!? (a.k.a My take on the faux ceiling tray)

Awhile ago I posted the transformation of my dining room which can be seen here.  Likely, this is a project that you've never seen anyone do before....and probably won't in the future since the husband swears he will never help me do this again. 

And although it caused some frustration...(well to be honest it was a giant pain in the neck...literally...I mean, have you tried to glue stuff over your head before?  It gets old fast...) I couldn't be happier with how it turned out!




I've always loved tray ceilings.  There's just something about the depth of them that I find pleasing in decor.  So, once I had demo'd the dining room and had pretty much a blank (PINK) canvas, the idea hit me and I was wondering if and how I could make one using cardboard.  Of course, as I realized that this was completely possible, I also realized that I could easily (relatively) do just about any shape I wanted.  So here's how we did it:

After painting the ceiling the color I wanted inside the circle, we put up the template (just a single layer of cardboard cut to the rough dimensions).  We dry fit this, trimming where needed and making sure the circle matched up and looked, well, circular.

Please excuse the glare off my chandelier there....

Anywho, once we got it up there and we were thinking "ok, this looks pretty cool", I got to securing the pieces together to make 4 big thick panels. I used a mixture of caulk and tacky glue to get them all together (no real reasoning there, that's just what I had on hand)


That's actually two panels stacked together after being glued.  They are each about 2" thick.

Next, I got two big strong guys and had them hold a giant cardboard panel over their head and while I stood back and made them let me take a picture...


After which, we screwed it into the studs then added like a million more screws to help reduce the chance it would sag over time.


I put paper under it for a nice easy time painting it once it was up and not getting paint into the circle (I'm somewhat obsessive about clean lines....)


Our first experiment with finishing it we used spackle over the screw heads and caulk for the joints inbetween the panels so they were flexible in case of some shifting over time.

We then tried painting over this, but as I suspected, it dimpled oddly and looked TERRIBLE.
I think the husband and I both looked at it with the paint up and were like "OMG, we're going to have to take this thing down after all this $%&*.....we need to make this work!"

The solution?  A cardboard cap.  We simply made another layer and glued it to the one that was firmly attached to the ceiling already.  After a bit of caulking around the rim of the circle and the joints of the layers, we painted and finally had a smooth, beautiful finish.


The medallion for the ceiling, which in its former life, served as a bistro table. 

And Ta DAH!





I LOVE IT!

Happy Crafting!



Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Garden of Cardboard and Glue (a.k.a The Nature + Cardboard experiment)

So with the weather getting nicer and nicer every day as we move into spring, I'm less and less inclined to work on my indoor projects.  The living room design is almost complete, but I won't be ripping it apart and redoing it until mid to late summer.

Don't fret though! I still have many wonderful and amazing uses and projects to share as I experiment with them.

So this is the first year in several that I have gotten around to starting seedlings in time and managed to not kill them. Hooray!  In fact, at this point I think I have about 22 tomato plants...not sure what to do with all of them but that's for another day...

I wanted to try some vertical planting this year for several reasons.  The first is that my neighborhood is plagued with bunnies who eat all my lettuce. The second is that even though I have a large lot, not much of it is suitable or desirable for carving out a vegetable garden, thus leaving the plot I have quite compact.

I had already made trellises and plan on using a lot of makeshift Topsy Turvey-ish planters for the tomatoes and peppers. Through my pinteresting I've been seeing TONS of these awesome vertical planters made from rain gutters. (Like this cool looking one here)

Now it would have cost around $40 to make the gutter planters, so not too bad, but I like free.



This is the beginning of the project, but those planters are made of cardboard (lightly coated with a bit of spray paint). There's a hole in the very bottom for drainage.  I filled them about 1/3 of the way with drainage rocks, then soil the rest of the way.  I'll be finishing that row and staggering another row below it.  If they work out well enough I'll probably put up even more. 

Now of course, you're thinking...this is going to fall apart, right?  Well...they might, but I'm about 95% confident they will last the entire season and then I will be able to compost them.

Speaking of compost...another one of my favorite uses for cardboard is to use as the brown matter in my compost bin!

Just shred it up then throw some dirt on top, some food scraps, stir and cover!  (This is my makeshift compost bin made from a large Rubbermaid bin.  Simply drilled some upper and lower holes for aeration and drainage.)

Don't want to bother with composting?  Hate weeds creeping up around your young seedlings?  How about cardboard planters?  I transplanted my seedlings into these little boxes (5" cubes) when they were ready to be thinned.  The beauty is that you can carefully remove the tape on the bottom and just plant them straight into the ground!  Nature will eventually take care of the cardboard (and by the way, worms love cardboard...good happy worm poop makes the best soil!) but while the cardboard is still there it will act as a barrier to weeds. I call that a win-win!


I think my garden is off to a good start this year and I'm excited to see how all my new planters work out for me! Here's to hoping for yummy stuff all summer long!

Happy crafting!

Friday, April 12, 2013

No Deer, that's not real wood. (a.k.a I think I'm having a craft fail....)

Ok so I've been working on this beauty that my hubby randomly brought me home from work


Yep, that's a cardboard deer head. 

I had some big ideas for it and took quite a bit of time experimenting and testing some new techniques to make it happen.  Some of those things are working out...others not so much.

Anywho, I had intended to post the finished head this week, but it's not finished...and honestly I'm so irritated with parts of this project that it may never be, but that's for another day!

One of the things I stumbled across while attempting to make the placard look wooden was a fairly easy way to make cardboard look almost exactly like wood!  (Oh, the possibilities here!) 

Check it out:




And it's super simple to do.  Simply get some wood putty (I used Elmer's wood filler because I had a big tub on hand...)

Mix it with about 1/3 water so it applies easily with a paintbrush but is still somewhat thick (Think half melted ice cream)

Brush it on, then use a damp paper towel (I found the hard papery brown shop towels were better than say a kitchen type paper towel because they absorb less) to lightly smooth it and add any features you want to the wood grain look.


It dries quickly so you have to work fast and in sections...remember wood grain will run all the way through a piece, so working in long narrow sections is best.

Once dry, apply your stain of choice (I used a Dark Walnut and did 2 coats) and then a coat of Polyurethane.


Well hopefully soon I will be posting the finished deer head but I may just throw this one out and start over.   I'm really only satisfied with how the wood portion is turning out!

At least there are lessons to be learned from craft fails too!

Happy Crafting!


Monday, April 8, 2013

WARNING: This project contains no cardboard! (a.k.a Can we make "Sidecycle" a word?)

This weekend, we finally had some nice weather so I was more than happy to abandon my indoor projects and tackle a few outdoor ones.  It's been such a cold, windy, grey winter and I am so ready for some Spring! 
So here's what I managed to accomplish:


I started with just general weeding in preparation for this year's vegetable garden.  I haven't bothered with much gardening since I had my daughter (mainly because of exhaustion...) and since last year was the first full growing season that we had this house, I decided to just let the yard grow as it wanted so I could see what kind of plants popped up where. 

Nothing terribly impressive came up.

I have this little area behind my deck in the backyard that I thought may be perfect for growing a few edibles. 
This is me playing with the panoramic feature in my camera....

After removing a mound of weeds (and the mostly dead clematis vines at the fence), I went to pester my husband into looking through what kind of wood we had on hand that would work to define a vegetable bed.

I dug out a trench, he sawed them into the right length, we put 'em in, spiked them and packed in the dirt around for stability.  It's nothing fancy, but it serves its purpose!  


This project is what I like to call a "Sidecycle".  It's pretty much when I take an object (typically a piece of furniture), turn it on its side, and make it become something new. Can you guess what my new garden trellis is made from?



As I was diligently supervising the search for the wood to make the vegetable bed, I had noticed a bed of another type....the bed frame from a futon leaning against the wall in my garage.  Now, this bed had been through many moves and a whole lot of abuse over the years so it was never going to be put back up as a bed again. In fact, when we last took it apart the other month, one of the side pieces was broken pretty badly.  The frame was just one of those things I hung onto thinking I could use it for something else.  That "something else" was going to be my new garden trellis.

Before

My husband and daughter were tilling the garden box as I lugged the two pieces into the backyard from the garage and announced my intentions.  

A few minutes later, I got the go ahead...or rather hands were tossed up in the air and he said "I don't care what you do!"....Anywho....

I started by removing the end pieces so they were a little more ladder-like.  

Next they got painted black (mainly because that was the color I had on hand).


We dug a bit of a trench to bury the bottom legs and provide more stability, then used screws to attach it to the fence post. 


I added a few more screws to the top and bottom and used garden twine just to add a bit more for plants to grab onto.


And there it is! My new garden trellis made from an old futon frame. Simple, effective (hopefully anyways...), and free!


Happy Crafting!  



Saturday, April 6, 2013

I need more storage! (a.k.a My husband thought I was crazy, then he realized I was right.)

Recently we redid our basement, adding shelves for storage and sealing the walls.  Nothing super fancy, but we were able to add much needed storage shelves and open up a crafting area for me to work (my husband also wanted to keep my in-progress crafts off of his workbench...hah! Good luck with that, honey!)

Anyways, as with most crafters, I have a ton of small items and miscellaneous things that I hold onto with the intent of using them for a project some day. I needed some type of solution for limited space to store a lot of stuff and this is what I came up with.
Now, I could have spent quite a bit of money buying a bunch of those plastic drawer thingies, buuuuuttt that's really not how I do things...

I had an old bookcase that I had found on the side of the road one day and somehow managed to get it into my truck and home.  Some of the lower shelves looked like whoever owned it had a dog who enjoyed chewing things quite a lot.  Such a shame too, the bookshelves are solid wood!  

After a minor argument with my husband about it (he thought my idea was crazy at first) I had him help me put some casters on the side and turn it over.  Yeah, it rolls! 

Next, he made me some cardboard drawer inserts, slid them in and TA DA!  I have a huge storage system for my craft supplies.  It rolls easily, but is heavy enough to stay put when I want it to and it even provides me with a bit of extra workspace on top (great for cutting fabric is what I find).

I get quite a rush when I manage to find a solution to a problem re-purposing things I already have.  This was a simple project and I didn't spend insane amounts of time with detail work making it pretty (it will eventually get covered in glitter anyways) nor did I spend a penny! 

What kind of solutions can you find from what you have on hand?

Happy Crafting!


Thursday, April 4, 2013

I'm covered in glue now. (a.k.a Hey honey! Glad you're home. Look what I did today!)


So the first project in the dining room I tackled was this cute little feature window. (Go here to see the entire finished room)  I felt like it needed something to set it out in the room...it looked so lonely and uninspired in the original room. 

I felt like it put the room off balance or something...it needed more "weight" for lack of a better word.

Here's how it looked before I did anything to it:
Very very PINK and uninspired if you ask me....
At first I thought about making a frame for it to enlarge the look and attempt to make it look like a painting....but seriously, that's far too easy.  Plus, it doesn't really require glue or a giant mess so I had to come up with something else...something different. 



So I was at the fabric store one day looking for inspiration and I stumbled across this beauty!

That's just a small piece of it (yeah kinda forgot to take a picture before I got started....).  Anywho, it's a very light silver mesh fabric and the best part was it's about $3 a yard not even on sale or with a coupon (and you know I used a coupon)

I also knew I would need some sort of trim to finish the edges. Since the window is arched, trimming it with wood or anything normally used would either be expensive or extremely difficult so I opted for this ribbon instead. 

Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures while putting the fabric up...mainly because I was covered in glue and I have found int he past that glue and electronics don't mix well.  However, the process is rather simple and the most difficult part was only having two hands when trying to mod podge (Mod Podge is a decoupage glue, there are many different brands and types, but mainly it is a clear drying semi flexible glue) the top of the arch. 

Basically, sand and paint the surface whatever color you want to be the background, I went with the dark chocolate color I was already using on the walls.  Then cut a slightly over-sized piece of your fabric (once the glue dries you can easily trim with a razor).  Use a paintbrush to put down some glue in the first area, then "paint" the fabric onto the glued area and use more glue.  Use the paintbrush to brush out any bubbles or bunches and push the fabric where you want it to be.  

You will want to let the glue dry a bit before moving onto the next section (especially if you are about to do a corner).  This is a perfect time to go peel some dried glue off and have a glass of wine!

Keep on going until the entire surface you want is covered.  Tricky areas like corners and upside down surfaces will take a bit of patience and time, but they DO work eventually...

When the glue is all dry and set, use a razor to trim excess.  Then go ahead and apply the trim with the same method.

More razor trimming after that glue is dry...and if you are anything like me, you will probably need some touch up painting too....

I believe the result is stunning!  So enough of my blah blah blahing, here's some pretty pictures! 







My favorite time of day in this room is when the morning light is coming through this little treasure of a window!

Happy crafting!