Pretty paper lantern–paper craft

I have a new found respect for paper crafters; it is time consuming, detailed and intricate. Probably why I haven’t attempted many paper crafts in the past.

I found a paper lantern on Pinterest that was captivating and so pretty, that I thought I could definitely give it a try.  Here is my result.

I decided to use pink and grey as the main colours and the whole time couldn’t help but think how pretty this would be in a baby girls nursery.  I cut all of the shapes with my cricut and hot glued them on. Nothing too complicated, but time consuming.

My original inspiration can be found here



I'm sharing at the following places, and already I see so many amazing projects.

As seen on … Apartment Therapy

Oh my, I’m so chuffed.  Today my bamboo étagères were featured at Apartment Therapy, in the before and after section!
I wouldn’t have known had someone not emailed me to ask a question, as I don’t regularly read AP, but I will now  Ha Ha.

My original post is here and you can read the post at Apartment Therapy here.
Totally made my day!

A coffee table becomes an ottoman

I seriously love this make over and I am considering keeping it.

I started with a $20 coffee table that I bought from Kijiji.  It is a Kroehler and has great bones. It’s also in great condition.  With the addition of some foam, batting and fabric, it’s now a gorgeous ottoman.



Here is the table and the steps I took to make it over.

The nice thing about the overhang is that I didn’t have to damage the top to make this, so it can easily go back to the way it was.

I played around with the idea of tufting it, but really didn’t want to destroy the top.  The size is 36” x 36”. 
I used foam that was left over when I made new cushions for my patio set. I had to get creative with the cutting as I didn’t have one piece big enough for the entire thing.



I added two layers of batting to make it nice and soft.



The fabric that I originally wanted to use was a little too small, so I had to go to the fabric store. Lucky for me, the fabric was 50% off and I bought just enough to cover this, for $9.90.   I toyed with the idea of painting the table before I even saw it, but I like the colour.  I chose a very traditional fabric to work with the traditional style of the table.



I have to buy some gimp to go around the bottom to hide the staples, but otherwise I’m done.

Dessert Tray

It’s a good thing I don’t throw everything away when I go on my purging binges. Digging through my stash of things and wondering what the heck to do with an old candelabra, I came up with an idea.



I started with this black candelabra that is just a wee bit wonky.  I had to remove the cups that hold the candles, then screw the ceramic shape back in.



The center part is welded on, so I took one of the pieces I removed, turned it upside down and glued it to the top.  After spraying it, which took forever to dry in this humidity, I used Gorilla Glue to glue the plates on. The plates I picked up two years ago for 99 cents each.



Since I had all of the supplies, it didn’t cost anything extra to make it.  I wish I had some yummy treats to stage it with, but I ate them all :)



And guess what I got?  Ok, I won’t make you guess any longer.  I met up yesterday with one of my readers, Denise.  She is up here from Texas with her daughter, visiting her parents.  She brought me my sofa cover!  After paying for the cover, extra bagging fee and parking to meet her at the airport, I still saved around $100!

Denise is in the middle of a kitchen reno, and I’m trying to encourage her to start a blog to document the process. From all of the elements she has described, it’s going to be fantastic.  This woman has staying power; for two weeks she has been removing wall paper from her kitchen walls. Another reminder of why I won’t ever use wall paper.   Anyway, look at how great the cover looks, it’s like I have a brand new sofa, much better than the black cover that I had, which made the couch look like a big gaping hole that you possibly could get lost in

Diy art

This is part of a quote attributed to Marilyn Monroe, and there was just something about it that resonated me. Probably the part about madness :)

Here are the steps I took to make it.
I used an old canvas and spray painted it in silver to cover up the old design. I dry brushed a very small amount of orange and green on. The canvas is 24” x 24”

I designed the lettering using SCAL and cut it out of vinyl with my Cricut. Because my mat is only 24” X 12”, I had to cut the middle row of lettering in two and place it on another board layout.
              
I then placed my lettering on my canvas, painted over top in black and then lifted the vinyl lettering off. I didn’t burnish it completely, so there was some bleeding, but I think it fits the theme “imperfection is beauty” , at least that’s my story :)

Storage cube updated – no sew

I had a restful long weekend and managed to do a few projects around the house. One of the things that I did was to organize my kitchen a little. I purged a lot of papers, cleaned out several storage containers and rearranged some things. It always feels good to get things in their rightful place, somehow I feel less stressed that way.
I had this faux suede storage cube that had seen better days.  Sifting through the chaos of my garage I found 4 wood furniture feet and came up with an idea. I did this at night, so the lighting is less than optimal. I didn’t photograph the steps as it’s pretty easy to do; cut fabric and staple :)

There are two chairs in my small living room and it’s one chair too many. But I couldn’t just have one chair, floating in the middle of the room, with nothing to anchor it.
I used some fabric from my stash, stapled the fabric around the base, then on the lid. The height is perfect for the chair with the addition of the feet.

Making art pop

Many years ago, my mother-in-law gave me a Toller Cranston print.  It’s a signed, limited edition and has lived on a few walls, but mostly has been in storage.  Let me show you why.
Professor Poopy Pants brown matting, with a gold metal frame, totally 80’s.

I sprayed the frame with a matte black and brushed some black satin paint on the mat, 3 coats. Can you tell that’s my work table? What a mess.

This picture also has some relevant history behind it;   this was presented to a radio show host, back in 1980. CBC Radio is our public radio station, heard coast to coast across Canada. There is an area of Toronto named Cabbagetown, named so after the first settlers that lived in the area, the Irish. They planted cabbage in their yards, hence it’s name. I lived in Cabbagetown until I was 7 years old. The area at the time was pretty run down, but is now more gentrified.

My mother-in-law comes up with the strangest things, and she has no idea how she became the owner of this print. I’m glad she did though, and gave it to me. Now it has a whole new life and didn’t cost me a dime to make it modern.

If you are not familiar with Toller Cranston, you can read about this amazing artist here (click on the photo)