A long time coming... (a.k.a This clock is always ready to party!)

So I can't remember where the idea came from, but it must have been several years ago because I've been thinking about it for quite some time now.

When I came across a very standard wall clock (it was going to be thrown away) a few weeks ago I knew I was finally going to check this craft off my mental list.  Ok, so maybe it's more of a revamp than a craft but eh...semantics, right?

In my typical fashion, I managed to forget to take a "before" picture of the clock...I think I just get too excited.

But it was your typical black and white classic-style, battery-operated wall clock, similar to this one:

All in all, the project was super simple.

I took the clock apart carefully.

Spray painted the dial and frame. (Chrome spray paint gets used on practically every project in this house)

Added die cut numbers (all 5's).  I used these Crayola repositionable vinyl letters...however if you are too impatient to let the paint dry fully before applying, they are not repositionable at all. Hah!

Once everything was nice and dry I reassembled and set the proper time on the clock.

And there it is, my party clock!

I eyeballed all the placing of the 5's so some are a little bit off-kilter...but hey! So am I, right?

LOVE IT!

It's always 5 o'clock somewhere!

Happy crafting!

Garden of Cardboard and Glue Update (a.k.a Oh Sweet Delicious Summer!)

I've had quite a few people ask me how the cardboard in the garden is doing now that we are halfway through the season.  I'm happy to say it is holding up really well and I'm confident it will continue to last through the rest of the growing season.

As you can see, there is some movement from the cardboard... the containers have rounded themselves out. The one on the bottom to the far right has no dirt in it at all and is of course retaining its original shape quite well.

Despite some peeling and settling, the are still quite sturdy and not going anywhere.

There were some inherent problems with the original design that will have to be modified next year.

Problem #1:  They have to be watered pretty much twice a day...I'm fairly confident this is mostly due to the sunny location I have them in.  I'll be finding a shadier spot for my green lettuce next year and perhaps try a less temperamental plant here...maybe flowers!

Problem #2: Runoff. The way they were made I end up getting a LOT of runoff off the top when I water them. I had to add additional soil and I lost a few seeds like this little guy here all alone...

So, all in all, I'd say this was a success...now if only my gardening skills were as awesome as my hanging cardboard planters.....

The rest of the garden is also doing very well this year!

Remember my futon frame trellis? 

My cucumbers are LOVING it!  I think I might have to learn to make pickles or something this year....

I managed to get a type of squash that wasn't vining....oops haha.  It's quite healthy and the squash are delicious anyways though!

Last but not least are my 5-gallon bucket planters.

I planted tomatoes and bell peppers in them and tried the Topsy Turvey-ish method. 

 My tomatoes are doing very well.  The peppers don't seem to be growing....but they aren't dead yet at least so I still have hope!

And this guy was originally an upside-down planter that fell off the fence and smushed the initial plant so I just decided to use it on the ground and added a banana pepper to it.

Well, it's pretty nice to report that I haven't killed and abandoned my entire garden this year.  I'm super proud of it!

Happy Crafting-- err...Gardening!

The Cardboard Deerhead Project (a.k.a. It's done! It's done! It's finally done!)

Ok, so it has been awhile since my last post.  I was off on vacation for the better part of May and then dealing with all the beginnings of summertime once I got home.

But I have been working on something super special!

Remember this beauty?

Well that was how it looked at first.  I'm proud to say that after several months and so so much glue, I have officially finished my deer head decor project :)

I've nearly abandoned this thing several times throughout the course of this, but the idea I had for it was just too interesting (in my opinion, anyways) to completely give up hope.  So, a few times I stepped away for a week or two, only to come back, make a modification or two, and forge along.

It was odd, right before my husband drought this thing home randomly, I had been seeing bloggers post about these faux deer heads and I was digging them! For example this one here from knowandtellcrafts.com is very simple and easy to do....but I don't really *do* easy so here's my version....

I mean, seriously, who wouldn't want a glammed up faux deer head in their dining room?

Anyone?

Well, I think it's pretty anyways! Besides, I will always have interesting dinner conversations while this bad boy is hanging around. 

I just need to think of a name for him....

The panels up close with the trim.

I'm so in love with my faux wood technique and managed to make it look different on the antlers and backboard.

Sorry for some of the slightly crummy pics :( I just couldn't wait for a sunnier day to post about this and my camera hates low light!

So, do you love it or hate it?

Happy Crafting!

I've got junk in my trunk.... (a.k.a. A new place to put my feet up)

So when I got married, I also married this trunk that my husband will not let go of.

It's not hideous or anything, I've just never really had a place to put it...in fact, for years and years it has lived underneath a casino table we had (yeah, we never used that either).  Well, I finally convinced him to get rid of the table...mainly by constantly stacking my things on it and then reminding him that flat surfaces are dangerous places that my things like to congregate....

Anywho, after unearthing it, my husband happened to move it in front of the couch and I kinda liked the way it looked there.  I've been wanting a storage ottoman for a long time.

So, of course, for the base of it I decided to go with (what else) cardboard. A few pieces glued together to make a nice, thick, sturdy base.

We measured out and pre-drilled the holes, making sure the bolts we intended to use weren't too short or long.

I cut some foam slightly larger than the base and used spray glue to keep them together while I upholstered.

And then I went nuts with the staple gun....

For the corners, fold carefully and staple to secure until you have something you like at the corners, then attempt to remember what you did on the first one to make it look that way and repeat with the other 3.

Trim off excess fabric.

Now, poke through the holes from the back and use a razor to cut a small hole in the fabric for your bolt to go through.

After all my holes were poked, I shoved the bolts in, then took it upstairs to attach it to the chest.  Make sure to use washers or eventually your bolt heads will probably just tear through the fabric.

Ok, now, rub your lucky rabbits foot or something and pray that your holes all line up well....

Mine were a bit off from the upholstery, but with a little finagling I managed to get them on and secured with a washer and nut from inside the trunk.

Whew.

Oh, pro tip, if you are having trouble getting the screws lined up and you happen to have a two year old that is EXTREMELY interested in anything you do where you don't necessarily want their help....grab a flashlight and have them hold it up to the hole from the inside of the trunk.  It actually was super helpful to have that little light, and it certainly kept the kid busy and out of the way for a minute.

Next, pick something to cover up the tops of the bolts with.  I considered buttons but then I realized I didn't have any. So my choice....

Accent gems from the dollar tree.

After a bit of super glue....

It's super comfy, has a ton of room to store games and blankets and I made it using leftover drapery fabric so it matches my 70's style room.  And no, the fabric is not my first choice, but the drapes came with the house and for now, I don't HATE it.  Plus, I did it all with materials I had on hand so my out of pocket cost was $0...I LOVE that!

Happy Crafting :)

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!

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!