Thursday 15 November 2012

An altered pinboard.

I've had this idea in my head for a while, to make Leah a board where she could store her hairbands and stuff. She tends to use the same ones over and over again or the ones she does use end up on our bed or bedroom floor. The hope was that if she has a way of displaying and storing them, she'll use different ones and keep them in one place. A person can but dream!

It took me a while to find the board. Two weeks ago I finally found one, in Wilkinsons for £2.50 I think it was. Everything else I used was from my craft stash.


The board

The (general) idea

White acrylic paint and a little water.

One coat is enough, the papers I covered it with are thin so it looks better being backed by white rather than brown.

These are decoupage papers I got while on holiday, pack of 24 for £3.99.

I got Leah to pick out just 4 colours to try and keep it simple and make it easier to work with.

I started, roughly, in the middle putting down a thin layer of mod podge and then smoothing down each rectangle.

All covered.

Faux stitch lines with a promarker pen.
Then a coat of mod podge.

Cut grungeboard for bunting and covered in the same way as the board.

I made a rosette using ribbon and sewed and glued it to the board.

I coloured the pegs with promarkers to match.
The bunting is backed by small pegs.
The idea of the rosette is that hair slides can be put on the ribbon.

It's not perfect but for a first try, I'm happy.
I really enjoyed making it.
Leah was very happy, thankfully.
Maybe, just maybe I will stop stepping on hairbands in the middle of the night.

x

Tuesday 13 November 2012

Getting to where I want to be...

My crafting has been practically non-existent.
I found my self in a deep, dark, lonely, crafting rut!
Everything was in the living room, covered in a layer of dust, inaccessible, unused and unloved.
For sometime now, my crafting (when it has happened) has taken place on a small table with me hunched up and everything in a mess around me.
When you stop crafting because getting everything out just seems like a hassle is when you know it's time for a change.

After a while, a plan formed in my mind. 
To cut a long story short, this involved moving all my craft stuff down stairs, to the space under the stairs. I'll spare you the details, just know it took over a week of sorting, dusting, sneezing and thinking.


Now I can work on the kitchen table and everything has a place, amazingly.

To the left of the stairs is the cupboard which houses the unit that powers the warm air heating, the door was an ugly brown and had seen better days so out came my old friend, blackboard paint. Several coats later.



Then found a button that I bought ages ago, just because I liked it. Stuck it on the handle with a mixture of silicone and super glue.



Even Dave liked it.
Now I'm looking forward to getting more crafting done.

x