Fridge Magnets From a 2024 Calendar

Continuing with my Upcycle and Recycle

That's it***

 

SHORTS (2) : melt and pour soap; shower curtain rings

 

Melt & Pour Soap

One of the local libraries had a melt and pour soap class. I've used the glycerin soap in the past to make my own soaps. I always used food coloring to color the transparent soap. I never used the fancy molds similar to what was used in the class. Still it was fun getting with others and enjoying each others company.

Shower Curtain Rings

Curtain rings doing their duty :28 sec.

That's it 🚿🚿🚿

Here Come the Pots----Again but, with dessert

 

By now you know I do these as therapy and of course recycle.

...AND FOR DESSERT

That's It ***

Planters from recycled containers

From previous posts you know I like to recycle and upcycle.

The plan was to present this in Power Point but that didn't work out after hours of work. So just read the slides.

THAT'S IT***

Beads, glass, keys, trinkets????

What do you do with all of the beads, broken jewelry and other trinkets in your craft stash? This is what I did.The inspiration(below) came from Crafts by Amanda   to which I subscribed for future inspirational ideas.

Copied from Crafts by Amanda

Just about all of the "stuff" I have was given to me. Once friends and acquaintances know that you enjoy crafting from "junque" (that's the fancy spelling) you will get all kinds of goodies whether you want them or not. Below is a sample of some of those goodies.

There's broken jewelry, plastic beads, glass marbles, keys, lenses from glasses,earrings.

Those paper clips are good for keeping beads in place.

The cascades are done and ready to be attached to the pitcher. I didn't want to use my store bought jump rings so I made my own from wire I already had.

I really wanted a metal tea pot or coffee pot for the cascades to hang from. Thrift stores are not as thrifty as they once were. What I wanted cost $6.99. I bought the pitcher you see for $2.99 and also got a seniors discount since it was seniors day.

The paint was left over from a 75 cent vase I'd sprayed to look like mercury glass. 

I had to sand it a bit so that the paint would adhere.

I'm pleased with the paint job though it didn't come out with a mirrored finish. I realized afterwards that the mirrored finish would only work on glass. (Duh?)

It reminds me of a vintage milk pitcher. I sprayed a top coat of lacquer on it also. I expect it to rust and age after being out in the weather and that will only add to the character of it.

Time to put in the holes. I probably didn't have the right bit for the drill, so I made pilot holes and then finished by using a long screw, screwing it in until  I had a decent hole and then unscrewing it counter clockwise. Thank goodness for cordless drills. I didn't soften the holes so anyone touching it may get a cut. But, no one is supposed to be examining it anyway.

I have five  holes but seven bead cascades. This is where you ask me, "How do you spell lazy?"


Yes, I know the bed needs to be weeded but that's not the focus right now.

 VOILA'

I expect  the neighborhood cats to tear it down. It will have lasted for a short while.
That's it ***

2013 A NEW CHAPTER

I’ve seen a number of book page wreaths all over the net. Just one of the ways to use an old book.

I still had my tablescape props and so I decided to use the 2013 book as the focal point to my door decoration. I gathered the items I needed.

Since I wasn’t making a wreath (by now you know I use what I have on hand) I went to my tried and true base product, CARDBOARD. I strengthened the cardboard foundation by taping then hot gluing two pieces of cardboard together.

TIP: Hot Gluing large flat areas

If you know like I know, hot glue dries fast and when you're trying to cover a large area that can be tedious. So what I did was to spread the hot glue over the area, sandwich it together and then reheat the glue by placing a press cloth over the cardboard ironing over the cardboard back and front and letting it cool .



The pages started out rolled and long.

 Rolling and stapling the paper tubes was the most time consuming part. The first set of tubes I rolled lengthwise and the second set width wise


Since I was working in an off center way my tubes went a little array.




Since I'm a lazy crafter I folded and flattened the tubes so
that they would fill in more space.




Here you can see the acrylic and glitter paints along
 with the alcohol and spray bottle

 After gluing everything on I wanted more color so I took a small amount of turquoise acrylic paint and put it in a spray bottle along with some rubbing alcohol and sprayed the rolled book pages. (So much for alcohol ink)


I wanted more shine so I dabbed turquoise and blue glitter paint here and there with my fingers.

After it all dried I hot glued the book in the center such as it was.

TIP: Hot Glue Tip #2   Got this tip fromYou Tube

I placed the glue on the back of one side of the book. I knew it would harden  before I could finish the areas that needed gluing so to reheat the glue, I held  a blow dryer(low heat) about two inches above the glue waving it back and forth until I felt the glue was heated sufficiently and evenly. I quickly pressed one side of the book in place. I did the same for the other side.

There were gaps between the hardback book and the glued on pages so I took a piece of fabric I’d bought at a thrift store and knotted it in various places and glued it around the book to fill in the gaps.


I had bronze colored glass beads that I felt would add to the “glamour” so I placed those around the margins of the open book.

To hang the piece I used the rest of the left over fabric  to make an adequate loop. I sewed and glued the fabric loop to the cardboard and tubes. It is now hanging on my front door. 

It’s not perfect and it has flaws but so do I and I’m still functional.

That's It *** 

Copycat 2 or Inspiration necklace



http://www.jlkjewelry.com/

 More flattery through imitation. I saw this necklace at  JLK Jewelry. It's made from silver and semiprecious stones. Her website  describes her work in the quote below .
"Jennie Lorette Keatts creates handmade pottery cabochons, using Jugtown Pottery glazes. She then sets the stones into her own hand fabricated silver designs."



                 

Here's my DIY

I used:

flat glass beads (Dollar Store)

Floral wire (Dollar Store)

Cardboard (free)

hot glue

white school glue

 jump rings (in my stash )

paper clip

I began with prepping the cardboard the way I explained in my previous post titled Copycat. I made a freehand drawing of a triangle with curved angles and used it as a template. After cutting out the number of triangles I needed, I painted them with Dark Patina, a metallic acrylic paint by DecoArt.  I went around the edges with a silver Sharpie pen. The pieces were sealed with a matte water based sealer.

After the pieces were completely dry, I used my drill to place the holes for the jump rings and to join the pieces together.

The inspirational necklace has  earthy  semiprecious stones.  I didn’t have those so I used flat glass beads that are often used in flower vases and other decorations. If you go to my Tablescape post you’ll see where I used them as a decorative accent.

I didn’t have any silver wire so I decided to use blue floral wire which matches the flat glass beads. I could have painted the wire after gluing it to the triangle but I would have to sand it first to rough it up so that it would accept the paint.

I have yet to figure out a cheap, free, creative way to make a bezel for the settings. In this case I used a silver Sharpie( see yellow arrow) and colored around the flat bead to give the appearance of a bevel before gluing it on.

The hooked end of the clasp I made from a paper clip (see blue arrow). I need more practice on this.   

AFTERTHOUGHTS    The metallic paint was not the color I expected. Under store lights and in the bottle it appeared to be what I wanted but it was too dark.   The glue gun gave me fits with strings going everywhere.  It would make huge globs when I didn't need it to and not enough glue when I needed it. It made the project not as neat as I would have liked it. I have since learned that cleaning the nozzle and freezing the glue sticks is supposed to help with that problem. I'll try it and see. Using the silver Sharpie to imitate a bezel didn't work.

This is me wearing the necklace.

It has more of a medieval look to me.

THAT'S IT***