Paper Pleasures

I have never been a big scrapbooker.  I have, in fact, completed three scrapbook pages ever.  But, I do like paper crafts on occasion.  It really is amazing what you can do with paper.  For instance, have you seen the things in the gallery at Anthropologie.com lately? My aspiration are much lower.

It really started when I bought a paper wreath at an antique store on my birthday.  

Then I saw a picture of a wreath like the one in my last post and I decided to make it.

Yesterday I attempted to recreate the one I bought.  It didn't really turn out the same. . .

But I sort of like mine better!

I started with a foam wreath again.

Then I rolled pages out of an old yellowed dictionary.

First one row all lined up around the ring, attached at the back.

Then two more rows glued down over the top.

Then I felt like it really needed something.  So I added some tissue paper rosettes.  Just like the fabric ones I made for Hannah's friend's birthday necklace.  It's all a matter of twisting and twirling and periodic/strategic gluing.  

I have to say I quite like it.  

Who knew books were so much fun without actually reading them!

Incremental Decorating

You know those home decor blogs that constantly post pictures of makeovers--room makeovers, furniture makeovers etc., all in one post. . . this isn't one of those.  My makeovers take eons to complete and if I waited to show pictures until the projects were complete I would still not have posted anything on this blog.

But I can give details as they come.  Last year (or was it the year before? I loose track during the process of project hopping!) we started Hannah's room makeover.  I had intended to do something fun above her bed other than hang a picture, but it took me forever to get around to it. Well, it is finally complete:

I actually started this wreath months ago and then put it in a cupboard and forgot about it.

I pulled it out last week and made Hannah finish it!  It was for her room, after all.

I even took pictures of the process. . . of course those pictures where numbered among the poor deceased thousands that weren't backed up when my hard drive died (Though I am still holding out hope that some will be miraculously retrieved here soon).

So all you get is the lovely after.

I bought the frame at the Goodwill, painted it white and distressed it a little.

The wreath is made with a foam wreath bought at Joann's.  The brown part is a gagillion paper sacks punched out with a scalloped circle punch--2", I think is what I used.  I would have preferred a 3" but there wasn't one at the store I was shopping at.

Remember in grade school when you made tissue paper wreaths by taking a square of tissue paper and folding it over a pencil eraser and then gluing it to a wreath?  That's how you make it, only you use hot glue.

The butterflies are cut out of various blue scrap papers and pages from an old dictionary.  I found a butterfly shape online and used it as a template in three sizes to cut them out.

Easy peasy and only like four months to make! But I think it was worth the wait.

Unfinished. . .

I feel bad about posting nothing on her for MONTHS.  I have been doing LOADS of projects, despite being in school.  But the truth is, none of them are finished.  I keep thinking I will finish some up and post before and after and everything-in-between pictures, but I haven't finished anything (which you might have noticed is a personal problem of mine if you read my resolutions post).

Which is why I thought this picture of the tree house we started a year and half ago was a very fitting picture for this post.  It is mostly sided, partly painted.  The cedar shakes are unfinished. . .

It is the perfect symbol of my current state with regards to project progress:  Unfinished.

Add to the treehouse: half finished crown molding in our family room, unpainted trim elsewhere, a partly painted bathroom and a started laundry room makeover, 8 partially sewn chair covers for my dinning chairs--not to mention the three bathrooms that need remodeled. . .

There's more--I think I'm blocking it all out right now.

And--Come summer the list will only get longer.

What I am trying to say is, SOON I will have loads to post about.  I have pictures of half done projects just waiting to be posted.

Soon, I tell you. . . Soon I tell myself. . .

Stripping in the Heat of Summer. . .

Hannah has been begging me to redo her room. She decided a year or so ago that she wants a light turquoise and white room. I got a vision a while ago and have been keeping my eye out for elements to fit the vision.

One thing I had been searching high and low for was an antique iron bed--can't you just see it piled high with crispy white, slightly foofy bedding? I definitely can. I searched craigslist daily and three times had to convince Hannah she did not need whatever bed Rob saw in some random store and offered to buy, right now. She has a weakness for the "buy it right now" temptation. But we pulled through.

Then a couple weeks ago I remembered that last year my neighbor was trying to sell an old iron bed. I had looked at it, but had not bought it because it was full and I really thought I wanted a queen because we had a queen mattress set already. Guess what? They don't make antique iron beds in queen and if you get an altered one they are a small fortune. So I walked across the street and asked if they still had it. . .

They DID! Yeah me. Plus it was lovely. . .

. . .or at least it would be once I stripped the paint and painted it antique white.

Which is just what I proceeded to do.

I scrapped and sanded and picked. . .

. . . through white, pink, red and green layers of paint. . .

. . . until I made it bare metal.

Then we sprayed it down with Rustoleum rust killing primer. . .

. . .and painted it antique white.

The actual color was Valspar's Porcelain.

It's not perfect, but it IS lovely.

I would have loved to have had it sandblasted and powder coated, but Rob thinks I will get sick of this bed in a couple years--so it wouldn't be worth it. He is so wrong. This bed was in my neighbor's family forever. She raised her daughter on in, had it before that herself, and before that it was her father's bed--back when it was new. I love knowing that.

It has history! It has character. It's going to look fabulous in Hannah's room.

Just you wait and see.

Hypertufa Pots

I finally made the hypertufa pots (sometimes called troughs) I have been talking about for over a year. . . and I LOVE them.  I may make more at some point, but the ones I wanted first were to line my front walk.

First you need to decide what forms you will use for your pots.  You can use buckets or boxes or a cooler or whatever, you just need to cover them in plastic so the cement mixture does not stick to it.  I wanted two the same shape and size so I used some very large cardboard boxes to make four smaller boxes--two to fit inside the other two with a 2 inch gap.

Next you need to ingredients:

Peat Moss

Perlite

Portland Cement (pure portland cement)

Mix and a 1:1:1 ratio. 

Add water a little at a time until your mixture is at about cottage cheese consistency:

Pour into bottom of box or other form and then place the inside box onto it and fill the sides.  At this point you could make dowels the thickness you want your pot to be (mine is 2") and stick them in the bottom--this will also keep your upper box in the proper place so it doesn't get too close to the lower box.

My upper box keep wanting to lift up so I filled it with a enough bricks to keep the edges even and the bottoms two inches apart.  I also placed logs around the edges to keep the sides from bowing too much.  If you have a hard container this won't be much of a problem.

Then you cover it with plastic and let cure for 24 - 48 hours depending on the size.  Mine was rather large so I let it sit for two days.

Remove from form:

The edges will be crisp where they met box or plastic.  To make it look old, like the old animal trough it is trying to simulate, I roughed up the edges and sides with a wire brush--Rob got me started:

See! No more crisp edges.  Now it looks older. . . and better.

While it is still kind of soft (it is not totally dry at this point) drill a hole or two in the bottom for drainage (unless you went the dowel route).

Now let is cure for 3-5 days, keeping wet by spraying down with water a couple times a day to help it cure.  Portland cement actually become harder and more durable when exposed to water.

Then plant!  Here is mine in front of my house filled with two kinds of sedum:

I am all about symmetry so I placed one on each side of the walk. . . the very dirty walk.  (Next project: Clean up front walk!)

Living in Washington I probably don't need to bother doing anything to encourage moss to grow on my pots, but I may anyway.  To do that, mix in a blender a chunk of moss with either beer or yogurt and brush on the surface of the pot.  I will let you know if I try one of those and it works.  For now I like the way they look and may just let them age naturally.

While I was looking for succulents to plant in my pots I came across instructions on making a living succulent wreath. . . I have become intrigued. . . I think I have another project on my to do list. . . 

Let me know if you try a pot and tell my how it turns out!