roisin girl...

From suzyssitcom.com

Feature Friday- Faux Metal Wall Art

I mentioned to my family that I'm collecting toilet paper tubes for use on some projects that were bouncing around in my head.  And an odd thing happened.  At every family function, every dinner party, every chance meeting since then, I have been inundated with toilet paper tubes.  They hand them to me when I least expect them, neatly packaged in Kroger bags, fully confident that whatever I have in mind for them is worth the extra effort.  At Christmas, I was given a bag of them along with my Christmas present.  Kinda nice, but apparently when folks look at me right now, they think of toilet paper tubes.  Not sure if that is a good thing or not.

Anyway, I decided to try my hand at mixing some quilling techniques and toilet paper tubes to come up with some faux metal wall art to spice up my Southwestern theme kitchen. 

 

For this project I used:

A large amount of toilet paper tubes

Several Paper Towel Tubes

Aleenes Tacky Glue

Metal look Spray Paint

3/8" Balsa Wood strips

 

I started by cutting the 3/8" balsa wood strips into 10" long pieces to form my squares and then glued them together with tacky glue.

 

The paper towel tubes were used for the straight pieces.  I simply cut along the length of the tube, flattened it out and used a scrap of the balsa strips to measure 3/8" strips cut lenthwise from the tube. 

The toilet paper tubes were cut in 3/8" strips across the width of the tube to keep the curl.  Simply cut along the length of the tube, flatten out and mark 3/8" strips across the width.  This will result in 3/8" curls.

 

Using some examples that I found on the internet of wrought iron wall art, I created four 10" squares. 

I curled the cardboard with the end of a paintbrush where I wanted curls and used the tacky glue to glue it as I went. 

With these squares, I started by dividing it into four equal parts and then creating the same pattern in each part. I simply created as I went and used the end of the paintbrush to make any curls needed.

Once they were completed and dry, I then spray painted them with metal-look paint.  Unless you get up close and personal and actually touch them, they look totally like metal.  But didn't cost nearly the price. 

I now have fancy looking wall art and spent next to nothing to make it.  In fact, my toilet paper loving family actually provided most of the materials.  You can't beat that!

If you enjoyed this tutorial, you might like some of my other faux technique tutorials.  Check out my Faux Textured Chair Rail tutorial.  An inexpensive way to put interest in a wall, creating texture with sheet rock joint compound. 

Also, check out my Faux Carved Wainscoting Tutorial.  This inexpensive way to break up a large wallspace using trim and textured wallpaper.  An expensive carved look on a dime.

From cfabbridesigns.com

Spell out your feelings this Valentine's Day with this easy to make sign of love.

To make this you will need: wire reinforced clothesline (available at home improvement & hardware stores), yarn & wire clippers. Clip off a length of clothesline and shape into the word, LOVE. Tie yarn onto beginning of word and wrap around wire.

When you reach a point where two wires cross each other, wrap yarn around both wires to stabilize the design and hold the word in place.

Wrap yarn all the way to the end of the word and tie a knot to secure. I left about two feet of yarn hanging loose at the end because I liked the way it looked.

From q-bella.blogspot.com

This project is easy and you only need a couple of supplies...so basically it is the perfect project.
All you need is sand, a piece of card stock (size to be framed), cardboard, and a spray adhesive (I used 3M super 77).

Place the card stock on top of the cardboard, then lightly, and evenly spray on the adhesive. Now sprinkle the sand (before you use the sand make sure that there is no bits a debris...you want pure sand.) on top of the sprayed card stock.

Gently pick up the card stock and remove extra sand, and let dry, and then you will have your very own custom made sand paper to frame.

Here is a close up of the paper just, because I think it looks cool.

When the paper is all dry then it is ready to be framed. I framed my sand paper in a thick frame from Crate and Barrel. It was just thick enough to put the star fish inside. I think a shell would be equally stylish. Have fun and enjoy!

P.S. If any one can come up with a better title then let me know. I don't know how to describe this project with out using sand paper, but I feel it could be confusing. So, sorry for the confusing title, but I love this project, and wanted to share.

love her voice....

From www.notmartha.org

Christmas tree ornament mobile, how-to

Here is how I made my Christmas tree ornament mobile, it was easier than it looks, promise.

The Supplies

• a 17" steamer rack from a restaurant supply store
• about 5 feet of lightweight jack chain
• a small carabiner
• 100 basic ornament hooks
• one roll, 500 feet, monofilament jewelry string (not the stretchy sort)
• 200 jewelry crimp beads or tubes
• jewelry crimping tool
• 100 lanyard hooks
• 100 ornaments

Note: In the photo above I show earring wire instead of ornament hooks. I changed that later as I found ornament hooks made it far easier to move ornaments around after they'd been hung. Also, my supplies are based on a 4 foot tall mobile using almost 100 ornaments, you'll need to adjust amounts if you make one larger or smaller.

Creating the Mobile Frame

Creating the frame for my ornament tree mobile turned out to be fairly simple. I used a lot of hooks to allow for easy adjustment and additions as the mobile was being assembled. I gathered materials from a restaurant supply store, a hardware store and the jewelry section of a craft store.

[Read more →]

· comments [84] · 12-21-2010 · categories:christmas · craft ·

Christmas tree ornament mobile

This year we decided to do something a little different with our tree and I created this Christmas tree mobile consisting of ornaments suspended on clear threads.
When I was shopping for ornaments to use found a lot on sale and went a little crazy. I decided it would be worth it to see how three different options would look. I did a variety of silver ornaments that came as a boxed set, green ornaments with three different textures and three sizes of clear glass ornaments that look a bit like bubbles.

Here is the mobile in context of our dining room (please forgive the mid-present wrapping clutter). We have room to put presents below it, and are still able to peek out the windows to see if the neighbor's cat is visiting our front porch.

The view from below.

The ornaments are hung on regular ornament hooks attached to jewelry monofilament secured with crimp beads. I'll put up details of how the mobile was created tomorrow. Instructions on how I made it are right over here.