Art in Recycled Trash Art Show!

It is difficult to contain my excitement! After lots of work and some serious nail-biting, I found out that all 3 of my art pieces were accepted to be displayed at the OKC Beautiful A.R.T. Show (Art in Recycled Trash).

Here are the three pieces that I entered:

#1 Titled "The Chimes are A'changin"

This piece was made from bottle caps, a tin can, wire hangers and discarded fishing line: all recycled items and spray paint (which was new, of course).

#2 Titled "Silver Drops of Light"

This Chandelier was made from an old hanging wire basket, discarded fishing line (are you starting to see what happens to all my husband's line after he has worn it ragged?) and some awesome Laminate floor samples that I scored from the Zero Landfill Project Sale. The Lamp part was recovered from old Halloween decorations made out of mason jars. This one is my favorite.

#3 Titled "A Shade Above"

This was made from the same Laminate floor samples, although unpainted and were strung from a chicken wire form and hung from formed wire hangers with a second mason jar lamp.

All Pieces will be displayed and for sale December 5th through December 31st. Please stop by and check out some wonderful art! There will be pieces from Local Artist and also metro students. The gallery is free to visit.

Check out the website for details: http://okcbeautiful.com/news-events/recycledart/

Stocking up for Christmas!

Although, it may not seem like it since my post have been few this month, I have been a very busy girl. I have several projects that I have been finishing up that will get written about very soon.

First of all I want to share with you the one that has taken me the longest to complete. It is also my favorite holiday tradition! Stockings!

When I was little, my Aunt Janie made me a felt stocking(seen above), and it is still growing strong after 30ish years. Everyone in my family, whether born into or married into, got their own personal stocking. It was her way of including everyone into the family. Since our family has expanded, I have chosen to continue this tradition with my side of our brood. 
These are felt stocking kits that are made by either Bucilla or Dimensions FeltWorks. You can find them online at their websites or on any shopping site: Etsy, Ebay. Amazon, etc.....

 My husband's stocking was a difficult choice. It was a retired kit made by Bucilla so therefore it was hard to find and brutally expensive. But my husband is a fisherman and I really wanted this one. So I waited, and kept watch for it online at different sites. And by miracle, God made it happen that Bucilla would re-release this and a couple other ones last year. I was super excited!

 Personally, I feel that Dimensions Kits have directions that are easier to understand and fewer pieces, therefore, for beginners, I recommend them. Bucilla kits have very many pieces and are very detailed with lots of embroidery. But they are beautiful! Either one you choose, these tedious little boogers will take an enormous amount of time. But with a little know-how, you can change anything on them you don't like.


 Taylor's was finished last Christmas.

 And Lucian's was made by an old family friend.

I am very happy to be finished with my family's stockings and now they can hang by the fireplace with style.
I love having that special touch of home-made craftiness in my home. There is just something about having something that travels along with you every holiday that brings back wonderful memories.

Get creative with your tools!

Think it's expensive to start your own recycled crafts? It doesn't have to be if you are willing to think outside of the box. Look around you. What can you see that you can use?

While staining the fence this weekend, I needed a paint carrier to go along with me along the span of fence line. But using a paint pan was out of the question because I would not be able to hold it in one hand. I I rummaged through the recyclables for this week and found a large peanut oil jug in there.

Perfect! It had a handle and was lightweight but was strong enough to hold a good amount of stain without collapsing. So I just cut off the front of the jug and THERE YOU HAVE IT! One ready made stain carrier!

Get creative!

The Seat with Sass

"Hello Lovely!" I said to this little bench when I first laid eyes on it at a garage sale. But of course, it was not this pretty at the time.
Before it's face lift and tummy tuck it looked more like this:

Now, I know what you are thinking: HOW DARE I THROW OUT THAT WONDERFUL FLORAL FABRIC?! Easy peasey. This girl needed some help to bring her into this century. So off came those staples!

Now the canvas underneath wasn't nearly as dreadful and relatively clean since the floral had a plastic (that's right) liner backing. Just imagine for a minute how that sounded EVERY time you had to sit down........ugh. But somewhat beneficial in our case. I use a multi-tool that has a flathead tool to pry up those staples and a set of needle nose pliers to rip those babies right out. Clean as needed (Which is usually constantly because getting stuff second hand generally means that it has had a battered past, of which you have little assurance that sterilization was the first owner's prime concern).

Next: get your foam ready. Since I kept the underlying padding in tact, I didn't need to get the heavy duty foam for cushions. I used a 1/2 inch thick foam sheet (also a garage sale find. I'm telling you, people will get rid of all kinds of useful things at fantastic prices- you just have to be willing to dig and keep your eyes open)

Lay your piece out on top of your foam and trace around it.

HLT: If you are starting with your new foam on top of just plain board than you will want to leave a 1/2 to 1 inch or so extra around your piece when you trace. Otherwise just trace the same size.

Next you would put a layer of batting on top of your foam cutting at least a 1/2 more on each side that the foam. I skipped this step because I thought it would be plenty soft already and I was going to double up my fabric anyways instead.

See the blue fabric above? (The one in the foam pic) that was some scrap fabric I had in my fabric stash that I thought would be handy. Since the pattern I selected for the top was primarily white I did not want the batting to show through. Especially when choosing a cotton fabric, you have to think about what is going behind it and also how to make it stronger. For this reason, I love to use canvas (or duck cloth) for reupholstering because of it's strength and durability. But I loved the pattern on this cotton and wanted to use it so I cut the blue fabric right along with the white and began to assemble it all upside down.

HLT: ALWAYS iron your fabric before putting it down to staple. This avoids the dreaded fight that will inevitably ensue when you staple, flip your piece over, then discover a wrinkle that will not stretch out. Save your self the aggrevation.

Start by stapling the middle of one side, then the opposite side, rotate, and do the other side all the while pulling the fabric taught. Flip piece over to make sure that the fabric is as tight as you would like it to be, then proceed moving around the piece in the same fashion, but moving outward toward the corners. Corners are last. They require folding fabric to get the right look before stapling. I did not get photos of this step because corners need all hands on deck, leaving none for picture taking.

Say goodbye to the (now) donated stapler who made this and a few other projects really difficult. Sights like the one above were a common occurrence. Many a staple have been wrenched out of this thing with a pair of pliers and my force of will. Sadly it made it's way out of my house after the 20th staple (in a row) jammed it self, yet again setting my intolerance for stupid things flailing. Online research proves fantastic when shopping for staplers! READ the customer comments :)

Finish stapling fabric!

The base is next. If there are any stability issues, now would be the time to fix them.

Otherwise start sanding.

 HLT: Buy the large sheets of sand paper and put duct tape on the back of them. Then cut out strips or shapes of your liking. This keeps the sand paper from curling or shredding in your hands.

Get it good and sanded, fine tuning and nicks or scratches.

Wipe all dust of  with damp cloth and allow to dry.

Painting time! My favorite part.





















I used a Valspar Paint sample. You can have them color it to whatever shade you like or they have ready-made ones for only 3.00 each. Well worth it if you have a small project. Two coats did the trick
for this one.

I wanted an antique look to this so I grabbed a can of wood finish and started painting.

 So Staining goes like this: Paint on, wipe off, another stroke of stain, and more wiping off of said stain, etc..... Just keep slapping it on and taking it off until you are happy with your result.

 Attach new and improved top to base using small L-brackets. Drill your pilot holes first or you have a chance of splitting your piece.


 Screw into the top.

Turn over and enjoy!

Mirror, Mirror on the wall...

Emerald Green - It's a fabulous color! And one of my favorites! So when I was staring at this mirror trying to decide what color I wanted this color was of course, my first choice. However, I do not have a bunch of  emerald green all over my house, so I had to decide what I was going to do with it.

I was lucky enough to find this beauty at a garage sale. After negotiating $20 off the asking price I had to make room in the vehicle for it. I loved the  intricate pattern in it.

Clean up always comes in two places on redo pieces- before the work and after the work. So if this part scares you (tedious and annoying) then remaking old pieces is not for you. I would suggest getting a great job with a well off salary so that you might buy everything brand new and thus avoiding this step. However if the act of rolling up your sleeves and changing into those "craft pants" that have already been through the ringer a few times - excites you, then you are in the right place!

So, wipe down your mirror with a mild soap and water on just a plain rag and allow to dry. Since this mirror had so many little crevices there were tons of dust bunny and spiderweb hidey holes. This requires something more skillful to get it clean. Ta-da! A paint brush! (HLT) Use a dry paint brush to get into those tiny spaces that are unmanageable elsewise.

Next use child labor to help- Just kidding. My niece was over at the house and, pouting,  insisted that she was too little to be of any help to anyone. "Rubbish!" I cried and put her straight to work on the mirror with me. 

Do not think that you have to run out to your local craft store to get rolls of paper to tape your projects off. Nope sometimes, it just takes whatever you have handy and are willing to part with in the end to get the job done.

We used painters tape (plus some packaging tape when the painters tape proved to be unwilling to stay stuck down in spots) and plain ol' notebook paper. (yep, ripped each piece right out of that spirally thing.)



Didn't she do a wonderful job? Big help to her Auntie!

We made sure to get as close to the edges of the mirror as possible to minimize the cleanup later.
 

Next lay your Mirror down on top of a tarp or dropcloth, or in this case, an old blanket.

HLT: If you do not wish to spend the outrageous amount of money that they charge for good canvas, then hop on over to your closest thrift store where you can usually have your pick of old blankets or yardage of material to choose from, for very little moolah.
That way you can use it over and over and not feel a waste if you need to throw it out.

Now grab that can of exciting color, give it a good shake and start spraying your way into new creations!



As ALWAYS: Remember to use thin coats, multiple layers with drying time in between, to get the best result and avoid drips.

Make sure to move your piece around a bit to make sure you sprayed all angles and that the spray paint isn't sticking to your fabric (I mean, VERY EXPENSIVE DROP CLOTH) below.

Once dry, Hit it with a good coat of clear spray paint in whatever Matte your prefer. I like Satin.

Remove all of your paper and tape. If there is spray paint on the mirror surface, then you can either scrape it off with a flat razor blade or use a plastic scrubbie (NOT steel wool! Something soft but firm).













Finally: Find a Fabulous Place to hang your new Mirror!