Junk Hippy

So my Sis-in Law sent me a text with this pic in it:

and asked if I wanted to go.

My response: "HECK YEAH!"

Needless to say, I am pumped!

And even though I do not want everyone else to get the good stuff before me, I want to share this event with all of you so that we can all support this event. So get out there and shop!

Caps Off to you!

Hello Peeps!

I started this project cause I got a whim in my head (which is usually why I start most projects). I wanted to make something that was not only upcycled but that was also recycled. There of course is an over abundance of trash in our lives, and I believe in recycling and other (as my husband phrases it: Hippy stuff) but I am not your average hard-core, flower-wielding tree hugger. I am quite lax on the whole business, but I do love a good piece of art that is made from recycled materials. I have been reading a whole heap about what people can build with everyday throwaway-able stuff and there is an enormous amount of incredible talent out there. Boats and buildings made of plastic bottles, furniture made from pallets and old cars, and even giant statues made from milk jugs. This got me thinking about what I could be doing with all of the hundreds of water bottles that my family alone goes through.... what I came up with....well, that is for a future blog when it gets accomplished.

For now here is a windchime that I made for my sister using an old tin can, bottle caps and fishing line.

Here are the steps to make your own:

My friend Shelly was able to wrangle up about 250 bottle caps from 1 4X4 night simply by asking her waitress to save them for her. Yes, that is alot, but they have a ton of Jeepers who attend those events.
I started by giving them a good washing. Lots of dish soap and a turkey pan big enough to move them around to get clean. Then dry them off really well.

Next: I grabbed my hammer, a really long nail, (or galvanized screw) and a thick block of scrap wood. This was a long process since I decided to do all of the bottle caps at once instead of only the ones that I needed at the time. Especially since I had planned on doing two at once, I wasn't sure exactly how many I would need. I started with all of the freshly clean ones in an old protein jug and as I went along punching holes, I threw them into a box top. Turn the bottle caps over and use your nail to press down on one side of the cap. HLT: try to stay in the middle of the side instead of too close to the edge to avoid punching your hole out of the side. Your nail will want to move on you when you start hammering, so watch out for your fingers.

Hammer your nail in just enough to make a round hole but not far enough so that you have to use your claw hammer to get it out of the wood each time. That would be exhausting and you will want to give up on this project very quickly. Then put another hole directly across from the previous one.
Place two holed cap into holding cell (box lid) until all remaining caps have had their turn under the knife (or nail, as it was).

Paint! You may wish to use the bottle caps displaying their original artwork of brand logos, but I chose to make mine a bit more fancy. So I laid all of the bottle caps face down on a tarp (my vinyl tablecloth that I use for all of my painting projects) and gave them two coats of white Spray paint/primer. HLT: It is ALWAYS better to spray lightly, wait and then spray again rather than using one heavy coat because this helps you avoid drips and also sticking.

Once that was dry, I took half of those caps and put them in more box lids and gave them a coat of Red. Not using the white spray first shows the logos through the red paint so do not skip that step.

This is also a good time to spray down your cans, but can also be done later, if necessary. I used a 28oz can of Rotel and a 64oz can of pineapple ( Some good recipes came out of those, I might add)

I used my pampered chef scraper and some WD-40 to get the sticky parts of the paper off of the can. Make sure to clean well using a degreasing soap if you go with the WD-40 to get the surface clean enough for spray paint. If there are any sharp edges sand them down at this point. My can opener has the clean-edging system so it eliminates that step.

Spray paint cans inside and out.

Allow to dry between each coat. I did not primer the can because paper logos are removeable, yea!

Next, you will need your handy dandy hammer, nail and block o' wood again.

Mark where you would like your caps to hang from. I had 8 holes on the small can and 16 on the big one. Use your nail to hammer through the cans.

Then mark your holes and repeat the steps for the top of the can.

I used floral wire to loop through the holes and create a hanging loop for the top.

You will need to string your bottle caps together. I commandeered 12 LB fishing line that my husband had lying around in the garage. Start with a double arm length of line and knot one end. double the knot until big enough to not slip through the hole on the first bottle cap. Thread it through the middle and out through the bottom. I loop it through the same way again and the tie a knot on the outside of the bottle cap. this secures your line to the first bottle cap. Now thread the line back through the bottom and out through the top of the cap. Thread line through the bottom of the next cap and then loop back through the top of the first one. HLT: You do not want them so tight together that they do not move in the wind.
This step will take you a bit to get a handle on, but You will figure out how loose to make it so that you are happy with it. Thread through the length of each cap then tie off at the top leaving the extra line attached.

Next, attach each line of caps to your can. I like to loop the line through several times to account for wear later on. Knot each one to secure it and then trim off excess.

Then paint it with whatever finishing touches you would like.

Since my Sis-in-law's birthbay was coming up, and she LOVES Mickey - I made it with Mouse ears all over.

So I hope this inspires you to take a double look at the things that you throw away and ask yourself - Is there something that I could make with that?

Neon and Glitter.....

Over the summer, my husband and I decided to redo the kids bedroom, since they hadn't been changed since we moved in. So in the process of changing things up we had lots of opportunities to make things for ourselves. Whereas I do not fault anyone for spending the money to buy beautiful furniture, I do not particularly enjoy buying furniture that I would then have to worry about my kids tearing up. Besides, I am a lover of redone furniture! I think it is fantastic to take an old beat up thing that has good bones and work it until you have made something beautiful.
Of course, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so each piece is beautiful to the maker, and not necessarily to all. I had to keep this in mind when I told my daughter that she could pick out the colors for her desk. Since she is 11, she is pretty much in love with all things Neon and Sparkly. So I found the desk at a thrift shop and knew it would be perfect. This was an a completely wood piece. Laminate is much harder to deal with and tends to fall apart, so I avoid it like the plague. Brought it home and then the real work began:

First: Removed the drawers and hardware (hated the knobs, and luckily 2 were already missing) and then gave the whole piece a good sanding by hand. This not only gets the surface ready to accept the paint, but also gets the years of grime off the piece.

Next, I bought some interior primer that was for trim moulding. This keeps the wood from showing through the paint. (Which is fantastic if you were doing a stain, but not if you wanted to avoid putting 50 coats of paint on.) I used a smaller sponge paint brush to first get in the corners, then used a medium weaved roller brush to apply to the rest of the piece. This desk had a couple really dark knots in it so I gave it a second coat of primer. Wait for each layer to dry in between each coat.

Then came the ELECTRIC LIME paint. That's right. She fell in LOVE with this color at the store so I bought a quart of the Satin finish interior paint. Then, I made her help. :)

HLT (Handy Little Tip): Use a a paint tray covered in plastic bags to avoid having to scrub the tray later. This also allows you to tie up any paint that you still need temporarily, while you are waiting for your coats to dry, but the paint will still be fresh.

We put about 3 coats of paint on the desk. Lime green does NOT cover things well. Of course you get to flip and turn your desk at many angles to get all sides covered. I chose to paint the front and sides but not the inside as the drawers had a lip big enough to cover that part.

Once dry, I then sprayed a layer of clear coat spray paint over the top.

Next: Drawers

They also got a good sanding and primer. But Taylor wanted them to be Florescent Pink so I went with two cans of the Florescent Pink Spray paint. You can find it on the spray paint isle. Now this spray is a bit different. It comes out more like a powder since it is used for marking utility lines and such. WARNING: IT WILL GET EVERYWHERE! I don't care what you lay down to avoid it, it will. The "Powder" doesn't stick right away so if you put down canvas or plastic and then walk around in it..... Well, you get the idea... Yep - I had pink footprints all over my garage and could not get the stuff off of my skin for days! But that is what I get for being craftsy in my bare toes.

Anywho- Once the Pink was dry, it too got a clear coat. Then the masking tape came out and I taped off a cute chevron pattern. The Modge Podge was then excavated from the bottom of the craft closet and I put down a thick layer on the exposed parts. The glitter (one GIANT sized bottle) was then applied on top before it was dry. Gently pat down the glitter to get it all the way into the Modge Podge (Note: this will inevitably leave you with glitter hands) Wash off said Glitter, or at least as much as possible. (You will never get all of it - Accept it and move on).

Then once that it dry, remove tape and give it another THICK layer of Modge Podge to be sure that it will not end up all over your house. Clear Coat to finish.

Purchase some fabulous drawer pulls or knobs (HLT: you can buy them WAY cheaper online than you can in the regular stores) and put it all back together.

Boom Baby! A Fabulous Teen-inspired desk to brighten any boring place!

Pallets A'Plenty

So, welcome back. I say this mostly to myself, reminding me that I need to get stuff done so that I will be able to actually post some of my projects. So Ta-da! Here is one that I have completed. It is not a step-by-step since I finished this a couple of weeks ago and only have a few pics to show.

My blackberry bush had been getting bigger, and the poor tomato cage (my husband's grandfather had made, which was 10 times stronger than the ones you find at Lowe's or Home Depot) started to look like a mangled web of twisted metal. So I hauled home two pallets from the warehouse at work. Originally I thought that I could use one pallet standing straight up and then just figure out how to make it stay in the ground, but that idea produced little solutions. So I leaned them up against each other to look like an A frame.

I had a few pieces of deck lumber laying in the shed so I cut them to fit and screwed one small piece to the top of each pallet. Then, do the opposite side. Next, cut a longer piece for the bottoms and repeat. I used deck screws since they are made to be outside and weather resistant.

This step is tricky, because you are holding up two pallets with your legs and a drill in one hand, and the screw/piece of wood in the other. Hint: in case you are saying to yourself "there is an easier way to do that" - It's probably true. However, my logic is not that of a rocket scientist and is more like a big ball of wibbly wobbly timey whimey.

Once you feel that your pallet trellis is sturdy enough, then comes the paint! Whoo Hoo! I chose Krylon spray paint in a TARDIS Blue (This of course isn't the real name, but my view) As if you can't tell, I am a Doctor Who fan. Mine took two cans of spray paint, but yours could take more -depending the size of pallets. I also layered on a clear coat of spray paint to help it last longer.

Once dry, I had a neighbor help carry this bad boy out to my blackberry bush and carefully lift it over. The hard part was interweaving the established branches of the bush around the pallets without breaking them. This can be avoided, simply by creating the pallet trellis before your plant has gotten out of hand.

Now I have a functional piece of art and I saved a couple of pallets! Its your turn! Lets see what you can do!

Blogger Beginnings.....

So being new to this blogger thing, I am going to try to make this short and as coherent as possible. :) 
I wanted to start a blog where I could showcase my crafty projects and maybe show others what I do, so that they may use these ideas to further expand their crafty nature. So there may be some personal posts, but due to my tendency to spew words when I get upset, I will try to keep this a project-based blog. Happy Blogging peeps!