'Crystal' Ornament Hangers–Ballard Style

photo from Ballard

I love to spend time each evening browsing for different Christmas ideas. Last night, these cute Holiday Magnetic Crystals on the Ballard site caught my eye. So pretty! But I couldn’t pay $39 for them. That’s just not in our budget.
So I dug out some some old shatterproof ornaments that I bought when my kids were in their Christmas tree destroying phase (not entirely sure that we’ve bypassed that stage yet!), along with some plastic beads, a magnet, spray paint, and the hot glue gun.

A straw and an egg carton from the recycle bin served as a holder for spray painting – look, action shot from the garage. I let the paint dry overnight, and then used my glue gun to attach beads to the top of the ornament. I like the delicate beads in the Ballard ornament, but I had star shaped beads and only a few round ones, so that’s what I used.

I tried using pliers to break a magnet into smaller pieces so that they would fit invisibly on top of the beads, but the magnet shattered. Plan B was a glue dot from my scrapbooking supplies, which worked perfectly.

Here’s the finished ornament. I really love the beads instead of string or ribbon, and can’t wait to make more. Here’s another view:

Linked to:
Sew Dang Cute -- CWTS Knockoffs

A Mirror for the Mantel

Our fireplace has never been much of a focal point. A couple years ago, my husband busted the glass (ironically, while trying to child proof it), so it’s been covered over and non functioning since then. The mantel has been used more for keeping things out of reach of the kids than for display. But a few days ago, I got a bee in my bonnet to put a mirror on the mantel, which I hoped would reflect more light into the room and generally make it less junky looking.

So I hit the local online classifieds, looking for a great deal. Nothing. After a couple days, I came across this mirror listed at $25. Not a great deal, but not awful for a good-sized piece (37”x31.5”). It was practically across the city, meaning a long drive in rush hour, but I got it for $20, so I was willing to go for it – dust, spider webs, weird gold accent trim and all.

After cleaning the mirror and frame, I taped everything off, excitedly grabbed a can of Oil Rubbed Bronze and was ready to transform this piece from dated to awesome. Hubby nixed the idea, as it was too cold to paint outside or in the garage, and he said the fumes in the house would be smelly all night long.

So, the next day, when the temperature finally climbed to 10C, I hauled the mirror out to the garage and gave it several coats of spray. I figured I was safe to skip primer, since this won’t be getting a lot of handling.

Tada! No more gold! Now I just need to come up with some decent autumn decorations to help my little scarecrows along.

Oh, I forgot to take a photo, but I took a length of ribbon and added snaps to either end of it and wrapped it around the hanging wire on the back of the mirror. It’s tucked behind there now, but when I want to hang a wreath, I can just pull the ribbon over the top of the mirror to the front, and snap it around the wreath. Little things make me happy!

Linked to:

Thrifty covered rocking stool

The theme for the first week of Crafting with the Stars was Dollar Store/Thrifted items. Pretty wide open. The contestants came up with some pretty cool projects. Go to Sew Dang Cute to check ‘em out – but after you’re done here!

Since I’m playing along at home and not competing against anyone, I didn’t want to buy anything extra. Luckily, I do have some thrifted items around cluttering up our house waiting for an upgrade.

Enter the grimy rocker foot stool. Do you love the dust and mysterious white spots? Sadly, those have mostly appeared SINCE the stool came into our house.

I love a good rocking chair. And if I can put up my feet and have them rocking, too? Pretty sweet. But the potential for foot swaying bliss is about the only redeeming feature of this stool. It’s not the prettiest thing for sure. And my kids love sticking their fingers into the rocking parts at the bottom –pinches waiting to happen.

The solution? A cover, of course.

This cover was made from another thrifted item – not sure exactly what it was before, but I’m guessing curtains? Or maybe a table cloth? Anyway, I had enough of it to cover the top and sides of the stool.

If you can see past the bad case of flash-itis showing in my photos, you can see that this is a fairly low-effort project. I basically just hemmed the edges and tacked the corners together with some zig-zag stitches (feed dogs down) to create a box shape. I folded the excess corner fabric to the side and cut off the additional bulk. Done. Oh, not quite. There was a small strip of fabric leftover, so I serged the edges to make a matching embellishment for the chair cushion. The whole lot needs a good pressing – will save that for morning.

So far, week one of playing along with CWTS has accomplished what I hoped it would do: get me out of a rut and back to crafting, even on a limited scale. I'm really looking forward to the challenge for week 2!

PS…watch out for my very first GIVEAWAY tomorrow! YAY!

Spray paint saves!

As promised, here`s a couple of the little projects I`ve been working on between house guests (needed some new last-minute pillow covers -- so GREAT to have a sewing machine!) and enjoying the awesome weather. First up is the little chairs I picked up off of Freecycle.

before

After

I painted them red, after what felt like hours of sanding and priming. I learned sanding takes much longer than I anticipated, and that I probably under-applied the primer. As a result, there are still some damaged areas that show through on the seat, and if they bug me enough, I may re-do the seats at some point. The matching table was in much worse shape than the chairs, and is still sitting in the garage. I envision it bright blue, with maybe some sort of black and white racing flag design built in for the race track playroom theme that`s percolating in my mind. Maybe one day.

Next up is the pair of weirdly painted little vases I found on the curb while out for a walk with the boys one evening. I was too embarrassed to pick them up since the sun was still up so sent hubby out with the car under the cover of night.

is this tole painting?

I used a textured spray paint that`s supposed to resemble stone. I think the new look is better than the originals, but I`m not sure if I like them or not. For now, they vases are sitting on either end of my fireplace mantel. I think they might look nice with some fall leaves, so will keep them around at least that long.

newly texture-sprayed

better

The last piece I wanted to post about was the little white plant stand/mini table I repainted. I used a darker colour (oil rubbed bronze), which looked great. Then I Mod Podged some scrapbook paper onto the underside of the top. No one would probably ever see it, but I liked having it there. It`s kind of like wearing fancy panties under your mommy jeans  (=

Anyway, as I was looking for my camera to snap a pic this morning, my youngest decided to use the little table to body surf. Boy 1. Table 0. So repairs and a new paint job are now on my to-do list. I also have a ton of alterations to do, so will be busy with that for the next while.

Furniture update

I finally plugged in the little hand sander that I bought last summer (right about the time I started reading DIY blogs!) and never tried. It wasn't hard to use at all! So my little table and chair set has been lightly sanded, and the chairs re-glued. The table lets need a little more work, so I need hubby to show me how to work a drill. Woohoo, more power tools! Mama likes.

Anyway, after the initial rush of my sanding success, I was too chicken to continue. After all, the idea of painting is grand. The actual execution? A little scary. So instead, I dug this little beauty out of a corner. I got it from my dad's house when I left home, and it's pure '80's goodness. I was all too happy to sand off that tacky gold print!




This morning I finally worked up the courage to attempt to use spray primer. I tried to follow the instructions, but I wasn't sure how much coverage I need (does it have to be opaque?). While I was pondering that question, it suddenly started to rain so I had to rush everything into our crowded garage. Will work on it again when the yard dries out. I wonder what is says about my mothering instinct that when the rain started, I got my newly primed treasures inside beforeI brought in my three year old. Hee hee.

I've also been busy in my sewing room, but nothing to show so far. I thought I could made a simple shirred sundress for myself, and while the shirring was ridiculously easy to do (hurray for elastic thread!), the style wasn't flattering, so I tossed it in the wadder file. When I'm less disgusted, I'll re-purpose the shirred part to make little sundresses for friends with girls.

Also in various stages of work are six pillow covers that I'm doing for a friend, a summer blouse for my step-mom, pants for me (ok, I'm overstating...I cut the paper pattern pieces...haven't even pinned them to fabric yet), and a bunch of little art aprons and other crafts for upcoming kids' birthday parties.

Next project: kiddie table & chair makeover

I've still got a case I-can-do-it-too syndrome thanks to reading a ton of DIY refinishing and craft blogs, so yesterday I picked up this cute kiddie table and chair set. It's been rain damaged and is coming apart, but I *think* I can fix it up. And if not, it came from Freecycle, so didn't cost me anything.

Table top definitely needs some work

The set

Chairs have seen better days, too.

So, we'll see how this goes. I'm guessing a good sanding is step number one for me. Then maybe priming and spray painting? I recently saw (in my blog travels) a cute child's chair painted black and monogrammed...I was thinking that might be fun, but maybe too girly for my boys.

Finally, a new blog called Crazy Domestic launched today. Looks good, and there's a few giveaways, so check it out!