All That Glitters

I'm very much into glittered objects right now. Whether it be faux fruit or veg, no inanimate object can get away from my glitter grasp. There is just something about it. So. Very. Sparkly. The first thing I got my grubs on was a pumpkin for Thanksgiving.

I bought one of those "funkins" and just applied the mod podge to a few sections at a time. I did this one in two-tone, gold and orange. I love the various types of glitter. The little shards, the very fine, the chunky. All of them look great and especially when combined. I also had an old metal star hanging around, so I grabbed that and sparkled it up.

Next I wanted to re-purpose a large glass vase, so I thought it would look cool to put glittered fruit in it. I bought a bag of various types of fake fruit, then added a few little gourds I had sitting around.

I put them all into the vase, but they didn't really show the beauty of the fruit. I think if it the vase was a large cynlinder, it would be perfect. Instead, I put it on the old stand-by. The cake/candy platter I painted a million colors, and it is now my favorite color...matte black. You can't lose with matte black, it seems to go with every single holiday's decor. When I piled them on top of the little plate, it looked perfect. I'm definitely using all of these glittery things for the tablescape for Thanksgiving.

Saving Vase

 When I first saw this in a magazine, it looked more like a Halloween craft, but I decided to switch it up a little to make it last through the Autumn season. They had painted various parts of a tree in black paint onto a bunch of pumpkins, then set them on various shelves. When they were all set up, it looked like a finished tree. Very cool. My biggest problem I had with this was the cost of the pumpkins. Wow, what a tightwad. But it's hard for me to spend all of that time on something, and then it will just go bad in a few weeks. The other option was to use faux pumpkins, which are pricey also. Unless you get them at the after-Halloween sale at the craft stores.

As I was roaming through Savers looking for Halloween costume stuff, I decided to try something way cheap, and different. Vases.
There was a huge shelf of $1.00 vases, which made me really happy. I bought a bunch, brought them home and sprayed them inside and out with a few coats of metallic copper spray paint. Then I had some leftover gold glitter spray, so I sprayed them with that,which added a little bit of dimension to the vases.

 My other big complaint about this project was having to hand-paint a tree onto these vases. It really sounded overwhelming to me. Just as I was about it give in, I found a large wall sticker of a tree at Hobby Lobby in the bargain bin. Yes! I cut it into pieces, and they stuck right onto the vases. I did need to use a little glue to get them to lie down flatter.

I arranged them on the shelves and it turned into a pretty inexpensive and unsual decoration. They do look beautiful with candles in them, which adds a little glow. I did that at Halloween, but I like them natural like this for the Autumn season.

Hope you all had a great Halloween and on to Thanksgiving!

Holiday Tray

It's almost Halloween so I need to move it fast and get this blog and a few others out! I did a few fun little projects over the last week or so, and they were both fast and easy. I found an old, ugly wooden serving tray in the back of one of my cupboards. (Excuse the not so professional photography lately. Broke my camera and am now using my cell phone camera. Not good. Dear Santa...)



The not-so-lovely tray before

I thought it would be fun to make a serving tray that I could re-use for any holiday. First, I spray painted it black, then grabbed a large sheet protector.
The scrapbooking ones for the larger books fit perfectly and I just had to cut about 3 inches off one side and an inch or so off the top. I put a piece of scrapbook paper inside (reversible makes it fun to change it out) and then just stuck a few little spider cut outs inside.

If you just tape them down, you can remove them for the next holiday. I thought they would look great for Thanksgiving also, so I will put the leaves in next week for Thanksgiving.

I also had a white candy dish I had made at Easter (glued a bowl on top of a candle holder). I spray painted it, yet again! This time I did black and put a top coat of glitter spray on top. It looks great on the counter with candy in it.

This little tray re-do is awesome for serving hot chocolate or snacks at a get together. I'm pretty sure I'll be using it somehow over the next 24 hours!

Glam Pumpkin

I'm loving that it's Halloween time. Not just because of the idea of forcing my family into costume, but because of the awesome decor ideas. I have made a few pumpkin projects so far this holiday, and this glam one is the first. Not much about this is actually re-purposed, but it could be if you can't find the lace for this project.

You can use a real pumpkin, but I bought a fake one, since they look real and will actually be around next year! I saw a picture of a pumpkin covered in black lace and wanted to re-create it. For some reason, black lace is really hard to find around here. Puzzling. If you wanted to re-purpose something in this project, I saw a few black lace shirts and camisoles at Savers, which could be used. (I saw these after I bought the fabric...of course!) So instead of lace, I found this great sheer fabric that had little sequins sewn into it. I cut a hole in the top for the stem, and then hot glued the fabric to the bottom. The photo I saw said they had sewn a running stitch into the bottom of the fabric and pull it tight. Obviously, that's way too close to sewing for me, so the glue gun came out. I figure if it's on the bottom, who's going to see it? 

I found some glittered up leaves (I think it was part of a former poinsettia) and glued them on, and it was done! My glam pumpkin took very little time, but has a great effect.

Rick Rack and Bottle Caps

In July we went on a trip to Las Vegas and had a fabulous time. We went to the coke factory and all guzzled down a coke or two. Hannah kept the bottle caps, and of course, wanted to do something fun with them. She decided she wanted to make a necklace out of them, so when we got home we experimented with a few things, and came up with this fun necklace. We made holes in the tops and sides of each bottle cap and added large jump rings, then attached them together and added the chain. After all of this hammering and finger smashing, this awesome, funky necklace was born!

It's so cute on, and I had to show it. You can do so much with bottle caps, jewelry-wise. And we don't even need to mention what can be done when you embellish them, or use them as an add-on to anything else. Endless fun.

     Next up is the easiest ring to make. Ever. Really. I saw it in a magazine and it's made with plain old rick rack. I bought the kind that had sparkly stuff in it, but any kind or size or rick rack will do.

     Here's how it works. Just start gluing the rick rack into a circle (some people sew it, no way for me). No twisting necessary. Then you just hot glue it to a cheapo ring form you get a the craft store. This seriously took me 5 minutes. You can glue them onto bobby pins, make earrings out of them, put embellishments in the middle or around the edges if you want. You can make them large or small, whatever works for you. Here it is on Han's hand. Very chic.



Table Top Art

Summer is in full swing and I have been a complete blogging slacker! To backtrack a bit, in May we went to many dance competitions with Hannah, and she had a great time taking pics in Logan. What an awesome photographer! I love this picture she took of herself. Then in June we had a big event with Lucy graduating from Hillcrest High School and also Seminary at Hillcrest.




Hannah, Lucy and Emma at Lu's graduation

 

Lucy, Bryce Hunt and Madeleine Homer at
Seminary Graduation

 

Then a few weeks ago we went to girls camp up near Park City. It was so fun and I was so happy to be there most of the week with Hannah and a bunch of darling girls and their leaders.   
    We have done some fun projects in between our summer fun, and I had to show a great one that Hannah helped me with. We had an old, really beat up end table that needed painting and I wanted a coffee table outside under our little gazebo. 

    That meant I needed something to put on top of the end table to make it have an actual table top. As usual, I was standing in my garage just looking for some random piece of junk to use. I saw a big piece of canvas I was going to use for a painting but never did. So Han and I decided we would have her paint it to match the cushions on the outside loveseat. I have always admired the artist Georgia O'Keefe, and we both liked the idea of using a large flower motif. Han is so talented at many things, and evidently painting is one of them!

She just got to it and created something fabulous, as usual!

When she finished we sprayed it with a coating of clear protective spray, then reinforced the underside with cardboard to make it more sturdy. It is a table, after all...

As usual, I hot glued it to the top of the table, and barring some crazy wind or rainstorm or wild party guest, the table top should stay in place. This idea would work well with an old framed wall picture. And the smaller, rectangular pictures also work great as serving trays, but that is another blog altogether!

I'm so proud of Hannah and her artsy table top painting. It totally changed the feel of the whole outdoor patio area.

  

Shabby Chair

Since it's gradua-tion time at our house, it's time for senior pictures. We have a cute friend who is a fabulous photographer, and decided to take Lucy's pictures out at the barns and orchard of Lu's grandpa's house. It turned out to be the perfect setting. You can see more of Andee McDonald's wonderful photography at: http://andeemcdonaldphotography.com/. I got some great pictures of Andee taking Lu's pics that cracked me up. Lucy is obviously good at being fierce. We had such a fun day! Andee took a few of the two of us that I really treasure.

Now on to the actual repurposing project! Andee asked me if I had any vintage-looking chairs around and of course I didn't. But I admire anyone who does have them sitting around! I decided I could just re-purpose one and see how it went. This was one of those one-night jobs that got the old adrenalin going. Once I started it, I just went hog wild.
    I went to D.I. and found a metal kitchen chair from about the 90's I'm gessing. I liked that it had a nice wood seat and figured I could somehow distress it. Oddly, I also realized it was the matching chair to the bakers rack I re-did back at the beginning of my blog! Too funny. Same metal, same design, etc. Somewhere out there are 3 other lonely chairs looking to get re-purposed...



The chair...before



     I decided I wanted to have a skirt on the chair, which seems sort of french-country and fun so I found this white skirt in the women's section and figured I could make it work. Then I tea-dyed the whole thing which took a few hours but was worth the wait. I threw it in the dryer after soaking it for a bit in some tea, and it came out perfect. Thank you Earl Grey!

I hot glued it (of course) to the underside of the seat, and then tore some strips to make into a rose. The white metal needed some serious work to make it look old, so I just took regular brown acrylic paint and wiped it on. Then I wiped on a little bit of black in certain parts, and stained the seat with the brown paint also. 

I love how it turned out and had to include some of the pictures Andee used for Lucy's photo shoot. (I also kind of love how Lucy turned out!)

A tacky 90's chair turns into a French Country/Shabby chair pretty quickly!