Wax Paper Capiz Shell Tabletop Chandelier

I've been seeing lots of chandeliers made of faux capiz shells out in blogland
 with some made out of wax paper, plastic cups, laminated rice paper,
 even wax paper mod podged onto parchment paper.

I figured I can do that and so, I did!

 I chose a $2 thrist store tabletop lamp for the bookcase in our hallway.

And I love the way this came out!

It has a soft glow, great texture and a bit of movement when you walk by.
 Even The Welding Man likes it, he says it reminds him of a wedding dress. :o)

I took two lamp shades from my stash and removed the covers. I knew I wanted the rings to be larger at the top and smaller at the bottom. So I wired them together and even added another ring with craft wire secured with florist wire.

 What is needed is a sturdy shape with at least two different sized rings to hold your fake shells in layers.

After a coat of white spray paint I flipped it over and got all my fake capiz shell circles ready.

Dollar Store wax paper, baby!!

Next I made the wax paper "shells." I used a dry iron on cotton and put
 parchment paper on the bottom between the ironing board and wax paper.

Four sheets torn off close to the same size melt together nicely
and make a good, stiff 4 ply sheet. Let the wax paper cool then start punching.
 I found my punches did best with 4 sheets of 4 ply wax paper,
 your punch might do better with more or less.

I used a 2" and an 1 3/4" circle punch. I figured I needed about 400 circles total,
plus I cut a few extra in case of mistakes or design changes.

I sewed my circles together using my machine's longest stitch and placed 9 circles on each "run."
 I sewed several sets of nine together in a single sitting with about three inches
of thread between each set. I cut them apart into sets
 of nine and started assembling.

I wound the thread from one set of circles twice around the middle ring and put a dab of hot glue over the thread. I placed each string of circles about 1" apart.

For the top ring I let six of the circles on a string hang down outside
and folded the other three over inside the frame, using a dab of hot glue
 on the thread at the top. This gave the upper half of the lamp a fluffier look
 and more visual "weight."

Extra circles folded in half and hot glued around the upper ring give the lamp a finished look.

As you can see, the stitched circles diffuse the light and overlap nicely, giving a nice soft glow to the evening. During the day they give that corner a bit of reflected light and nice texture.

I am already thinking ahead to doing this with my dining room light. Maybe with a little color and a bit of glitter? When I figure it out and make it I'll be posting right here.

Crackle Paint Those Christmas Balls For Halloween!

Since I discovered the easy peasy way to make a crackle paint effect with Elmer's glue, I've used it on just about everything. Christmas balls redone for Halloween are no exception. There are lots of pics in this post, but it's a fun project so read on...

I buy Christmas balls all year long when they are cheaper than cheap cheap. I'll be watching for more in different colors but my favorites for this project are silver and gold.

Ooh aaah!

Here is how you do it.

Pop the top off the ball and insert a pen or dowel or paint brush handle so that you can hold the ball without touching it. Trust me, this makes everything easier.Go into your stash and grab the Elmer's glue. This technique works with both the school glue and glue all by Elmer's.

Brush a thick coat of glue all over the ball. Not thick enough to run and drip but still, get a good coat of glue on there. Prop it up and let it dry for 5 to 10 minutes until the glue is tacky but not wet. Do NOT let the glue dry completely, but IF you do, just apply a new layer of glue over the top and let that layer get tacky.

Using a soft paintbrush, apply acrylic craft paint in long smooth strokes in one direction. I used gloss black. After I painted all one direction I did a few soft random crosswise strokes just to see what it would look like. Do not go back and forth with your brush, you will drag the glue layer. Prop that ball up and let it dry. 

Five minutes layer my paint was starting to crackle. I LOVE this part! See the crosswise crackle? That is from the soft sideways stroke I tried. I like the interesting pattern it made.

Let the ball dry completely. Once it is dry (and gloss craft paint takes a long time to dry, so be patient if you use it) you can use your wonderful crackled ball as is or seal it with acrylic spray.

And here is what this effect looks like on colored balls!

Here are a few orange over gold balls on my Halloween tree.

And a few more in a vintage wire basket.

So now my brain is churning out ideas for Christmas decor. Wouldn't white crackle over silver balls be a beautiful shabby chic look? Gotta try it! Or red paint over silver. Or white over red. Man, I am going to be doing this again and again in the coming weeks just to see what different combos look like.

So try it, you'll like it! It's easy and cheap and oh so fun to do. You'll never have so much fun watching paint dry than with this project, I guarantee it!

Here's a link to my uber popular post on crackle paint with Elmer's glue with LOADS of painted examples on different surfaces....

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

I'll be joining the parties on my sidebar. Come visit and check out all the neat ideas!

Wish List...A Blue Buffet, Part 1.

I've been pining after a blue buffet for my dining room for awhile now. My "Blue" board on Pinterest is full of photos of awesome retro buffets redone in wonderful blue paint finishes. I Googled and sighed and pinned and kept planning what I would do with the perfect vintage CHEAP buffet when I found it.

http://europaintfinishes.blogspot.com/2011/01/rustic-blue-buffet.html

Love this color. Cuz it's blue and it looks old. I'm a serious blue freak, let me tell you. But then, look at my blog header. Blue! Ahem.

 http://floferrell.blogspot.com/p/furniture-for-sale.html

The color, it makes me happy. I used turquoise blue in my craft room and with a bit of tweaking I could totally make this color work in my dining room. Le sigh.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/80040680/boy-blue-buffet

 The Welding Man took a look at this photo and said, in his best husbandly manner, "That looks kind of cruddy." Yes, but it's blue and its vintage looking and is loaded with character! Like me! LOL!

And look what I found! A vintage 70s Mediterranean buffet for $20!!! 

The guys brought it home and I immediately started loading it up with all manner of decor items, cuz I am loving it. Yeah, that eclectic mix includes a genuine Poortvliet gnome (looks like The Welding Man), cobalt blue glassware, an Oriental teak chest,  retro wire fruit basket, galvanized tin lantern and an apothecary jar full of  orbs with family names. And a samurai sword. And a painted butterfly rock. And an earthenware vase. Ok, I'll stop now.

Hey, Pottery Barn I'm not.

It is beat up and exactly what I was looking for. Look at that retro detail! The shelves inside are solid and the doors are straight and tight. And soon, it will be BLUE. A nice denim blue with a touch of turquoise. And a bit of crackle (using Elmer's glue, of course), and some glazing, and sanding, and distressed edges. Maybe with a dark walnut top. Or not. And oil rubbed bronze fixtures (thanks to Krylon spray paint) and maybe a bit of  Mod Podged book pages on the inside because I'm just that excited about this project.

Does it need legs or not?  Still deciding.

Don't you love it when a plan comes together?

And one last comment by The Welding Man. "I like the way it looks right now!" Funny man, he knows I never leave anything well enough alone.

I'll post progress right here, so check back for part 2.

Mosaic Tile Window Sill

I'm intimidated by tile work. There, I said it! Maybe because I've seen some horrific DIY tile projects that made me cringe. I mean, how hard is it to follow a level chalk line? But I digress...ahem.

But smashed tile mosaic work? Ah, now THAT I can totally do. This was my first ever mosaic project and I totally loved the way it came out.


Ooh aah! This mosaic covered my ugly, grungy kitchen windowsill that had gotten the worst for wear over many years. I needed a good, cleanable surface that looked good for my houseplants! Because, ladies, I am seriously infatuated with my houseplants.

http://makethebestofthings.blogspot.com/2012/03/house-plant-fanatic.html

I bought 4" tiles in two colors and put them in a paper bag before breaking them up with a hammer. THIS IS IMPORTANT-breaking tile is like glass, it is sharp and dangerous and flies everywhere! Safety glasses are good, too. Next step-I marked the dimensions of the window sill on a bit of cardboard and laid out the pieces on the counter, right next to the kitchen window where I was working, so I could transfer each piece with no fuss.

I used tile adhesive to glue each piece in place. This does not set up quickly and gives you a bit of leeway to move things around. I made sure to use the edge pieces to line up with the front lip of the windowsill.

I waited overnight then spread the grout the next day. This will be messy (I wore latex gloves and used an old plastic spatula) but make sure you get in between each piece. At this point it will look horrible, but wait! Following the directions on the grout package, wipe off the excess with a damp sponge. You will see your project transform before your eyes. So cool and so satisfying!

Using the tile pieces with straight edges made adding the reed molding on the front easy peasy since everything was nicely lined up. I love how this came out!  But, alas, we left it behind when we moved into our new place, so I'll be doing this soon on my new kitchen window sill, now that I know how easy it is.

Plus, I've been seeing some very cool pebble mats out there in blog land and I just have to try making my own. Hmmm, a pebble mosaic window sill mosaic maybe? I'll be posting right here when I do either project!

Please join me at the linky parties on my sidebar. You never know what cool and creative ideas you'll find.

Faux Moss Decor Balls

Here's a reworking of one of my favorite springtime projects...mossy decorating balls. Just a beautiful bit of emerald green for St. Patrick's Day!

The Dollar Store sells sheet, roll and loose moss, which is sort of olive green and dull grey. But they also sell foam rocks covered in fake emerald green moss. What a beautiful color and texture! This is exactly the gorgeous green of the moss on our Oregon mountain. So these faux mossy rocks worked out great for my next project...mossy decor balls!

I spray painted a large Dollar Store Christmas ball brown (2/$1 after Christmas sale. Score!) 

 Then, at my grandson's suggestion, I peeled the pretty green fake moss off the fake foam rocks. The moss won't all come off at once or in a clean piece. Some foam will stick to the back.

I hot glued the pieces to the ball. They are a little irregular and the pieces of foam that stick to the back gave them a few small bumps, just like real moss.

I really LOVE the way these came out!

I made two more with different size Christmas balls then had some fun arranging them in a vintage wooden bowl with a gorgeous piece of driftwood, creek pebbles and my favorite paper dragonfly. So pretty!

Just lovely on our coffee table with the morning sun shining across! See how realistic those moss balls look?

And then I put them in a different display and added googly eyes. Why? Because I could, and it made the family laugh. It probably also made them worried about me, lol!

The cost for these mossy decor balls is minimal. I figure $2 for the balls, $2 for 2 packs of fake moss rocks, hot glue and spray paint I had on hand and an hour or so of fun crafting. So $4 total? The googly eyes are in my stash, you never know where they'll show up next. Let's call this fun project $4 for 3 pretty decor balls that are perfect for  spring decorating. Gotta love that!

I'll be adding this post to the linky parties in my sidebar, come visit and see what's cooking out in blogland.

Book Page Chandelier

I made this book page chandelier today, and I LOVE the way it came out!

It's Sunday, and I decided to do something fun and frivolous for my craft room. It started when we changed a light bulb in my overhead light and this was sitting on my work top.

Hmmm, I don't want to just hang this back up there. I wonder if hot glue will hold string on glass?

This curvy red chandelier is going up there eventually, once The Welding Man checks if it needs rewired and makes sure it is safe. $7 at a thrift store, baby! It will be perfect when it's done.

With all the book page recycling I've used in my craft studio, I decided to make a temporary chandelier using a circle punch. I knew I'd need at least 450 circles, so I made 500. I could do 5 pages at a time and get 7 circles from each set of pages, so this did not take long at all.

I also used this gorgeous butterfly punch and made about 50 of them out of heavier paper, since they have so many open spaces, the book pages are too fragile to use the way I planned.

I sewed 12 circles and 1 butterfly together for each 18" long string.

A dot of hot glue holds the lightweight strings perfectly. If I ever want to return the glass shade to it's original condition, the glue pops off with a little help from my heat gun.

The book pages I used were very delicate, so this happened early on. I just used a glue stick on another circle and put it over the top, covering the tear and the thread.

The repair does not even show once all the strings are glued on. I sewed about a dozen strings and had to do alot of repairs. There had to be a better way.

So I changed tactics and laid out the circles and butterflies then stretched some crochet thread across them, securing them with dots of hot glue. A dot of hot glue on the string holds it down on the table and makes it easier to lay across the hot glue on the circles. This was just as fast and easy as sewing them together! Before lifting the string of circles up get rid of glue wisps with a heat gun.

Here are a sewn string and several glued strings side by side. I prefer the cleaner look of the glued strings.

And here is the chandelier put back in place over the light fixture. I like it. I like it alot!

I LOVE the random placement of the butterflies!

It diffuses the bright overhead light nicely without making the room feel dark or shadowy. I will try to get some shots in the daylight and see if it still makes me happy. I have a hunch it will! So that was fun, throwing away my "to do" list and creating something on a whim. Sometimes you just have to go for it!