Handmade Plant Stakes

As often is with crafters (and writers, and chefs, etc.), after reading, Rukmini’s Vintage Enameled Tag DIY tutorial gave me the inspiration to create some plant stakes. I’ve made some years ago, Recycled Leather Butterfly Plant Stakes.

And right now, to be completely honest, I didn’t want to deal with heating stuff as is Rukmini’s tutorial. So I went with the simple, yet highly effective – decoupage technique.

Handmade Plant Stakes

thin plywood
colorful napkins for background design
water based clear lacquer
paper punched shapes for extra decoration
sharpie for writing on plant stakes when done

Cut plywood to desired sizes. Mine had a white finish already, so I sanded it randomly to give it a vintage, worn look.
If your plywood is of a natural finish, you might want to first coat in a background color of your choice and when it is completely dry, sand for the same effect.

Peel napkin apart, you only need to use the first, top layer that has the design part.

Transfer napkin to plywood with clear lacquer – the parts you sanded will be visible through the layer. Wait to dry.

Cut napkin around the edges, secure with some lacquer.

Decorate with paper punched flowers, butterflies, pumpkins, snowflakes, etc. that fits your design. Add some writing with a sharpie if wanted. Secure them all in place by adding another coat of lacquer (and yet another, if needed).

Place in flower pot and admire   

Happy crafting!

Liqueur and Champagne bottle upcycling: Mood lamps

This is something I wanted to make since the end of 2011, yet haven’t managed to find the right tools. Read the second half of the previous sentence as: I have this little phobia of sharp, pain-inducing things and my fingers being in their vicinity on a surface that might shatter, so I wasn’t in any kind of hurry.

I really wanted a unique mood lamp; this liqueur bottle saved for thirty or so years by my mom (nope, never throws anything away) was perfect for it. And also, I figured this would be the perfect gift for the Chef as he didn’t have a bedside lamp; so matted white bottle it was.

Then, just before Christmas last year I recalled my grandpa telling me years ago that one of our neighbors used to work with glass. I immediately rushed over, told him what I wanted and he helped me out with drilling two holes for the cords.

However, in case you don’t have a neighbor like mine, here’s a quick tutorial from Wit & Whistle, where I first saw the idea.

My liqueur bottle mood lamp

  The Chef’s Birthday present

Liqueur and Champagne bottle upcycling: Mood lamps

You’ll need:

an empty wine bottle
a drill
safety glasses and gloves (just in case the bottle breaks)
1/2″ glass drill bit
masking tape
short strand of Christmas lights (with a plug only on one end)

How to:

1. Rinse out your wine bottle and remove the labels (if desired).

2. Place a piece of masking tape on the bottle where you want to drill the hole for the cord. The tape keeps the drill bit from slipping.

3. Put on your gloves and goggles and start drilling. Don’t apply too much pressure or you could break the glass. The drilling takes a long time. I spent about 30 minutes drilling the hole. Be patient!

4. Once your hole is drilled rinse the glass shavings out of your bottle, and let the bottle dry.

5. Carefully feed the strand of Christmas lights into the hole you drilled.

 

*tutorial from Wit & Whistle

For a different take on bottle upcycling, give Rukmini Roy’s tutorial a read DIY: Wine bottle pendant with stained glass effect & Tutorial – I really like this one as well!

Happy crafting!

Getting the boot to fit one’s garden

While on one of the road trips we took over the summer, I bought a sweet little potted Hypoesthesia. I love it so much, especially cause it’s so colorful and deserving of the informal name of Polka Dot Plant

For a while it stood in its pot next to my other plants – but I had plans for it! As soon as I got a little bit more time on my hands, I repotted it. Why is that such a big deal, you might ask? Because I repotted it into an old rubber boot.

Want to know how I did it? It was really easy!

 

Repotting into a rubber boot

I used one of my grandma’s old rubber boots (I’ll use its pair for another plant in the Spring).

First I washed it well.

Then, I made tiny holes in the sides of the boot, near the outsole.

I added some rocks to make sure it was heavy on the bottom and won’t tip over in heavier wind; filled the instep with the rocks.

The boot had some lining and padding, so as not to have it unnecessarily steal water from the plant, I decided to recycle an old soda bottle. I cut off the soda bottle’s top, stuck it upside down into the boot, then marked it and cut off the excess.

Filled the bottle inside the boot with plant soil, then repotted my Hypoesthesia.

For the final touch, I watered it well, until the water started pouring out through the holes near the outsole; to make sure the soil was well drenched in water.

After that, I placed it next to my other plants and not it proudly stands out among them

Happy gardening!

Upcycling – Whimsical Planters (2)

I don’t know about you, but sadly it’s not within my budget to buy a planter, a plant pot cover for all my plants. I have some left over from previous years, some I received as gifts this year, and some I bought while on hiatus this summer.

Back in June, I gave you guys an idea on upcycling your unused mugs as plant pot covers. Some of those little plants outgrew their pots and needed to be relocated. But the pots I have are used and abused, either plastic or terracotta pots and plain; I just don’t like them anymore. I also have actual plants I wish I had some pot covers for to hide their current “brown plastic look”.

What was my solution for making my plant pots look whimsical and unique without spending any money on them? Read along

 

 

First off, I looked around the house and found more items I didn’t use. That’s how the Saintpaulia and Kalanchoe plants each got baskets to look all pretty.

 

Then, I gathered my terracotta pots, sanded them, primed, then painted in vivid colors. My baby Kalanchoe and baby Hibiscus look very happy in their new pots.

 

A few days ago, I noticed Rukmini Roy’s blog post about her Indian Clay Pots upcycled to French Country Pots. Needless to say I fell instantly in love with the idea! I quickly gathered a few more of my Hungarian terracotta pots, and with two coats of white+silvery paint, sanding and some pretty, French looking motifs modge podged to their sides — I now have lovely French Country Pottery to display my Fittonia and the baby Avocado in.

 

And for last, I did a little digging on Google, and found this great idea: fabric covered flower pots!

The pots I wanted to cover already contained most of my Saintpaulias, so I only covered them up to the rim. On the other hand, given the saucers are attached to the bottom and with the fabric not covering the rim, they’ll stay nice and dry when I’m watering the plants.

All the fabric I had laying around the house. As you can see, I went with denim decorated with lace for one of the pots. Colorful flower motif fabric decorated by tied sisal rope on the second. And since I used cut off shirt sleeves to cover the third plant pot, I decorated the sides with the left over cuffs. My Saintpaulia window garden is so much more fun than it was before!

Old Window Frame for an Inspiration Board

I absolutely LOVE the idea to use old window frames to decorate. We had to change all our windows last year, and as a result, ended up with a dozen windows no one needed (I still have several stashed away)

This blog post right here got its title after I played around with one of the old window frames last year. Because I was pretty much broke. Yet I wanted and inspiration board in the kitchen as well (which tend to cost money, don’t they?)

So today, I’m sharing how I managed to make myself an inspiration board with a little wit and supplies I had around the house

Old Window Frame Inspiration Board

I staple gunned chicken wire to the back and added a (hidden) wire picture hanger.

(Yes, I had this around the house. We used to have chicken when I was little. My grandparents never throw anything away.)

Roughed the frame up with sandpaper to give it a weathered look.

I hung it going with the “crooked look” – I think it just adds more flare to it.

Then I painted a bunch of clothes pins with different patters and colors and pinned them to the wire on my frame. For changing it up a little, I also hung some colorful paper clips on there.

I hung a pin cushion on it, and the window knob was perfect to hang the scissors from.

The frame works great for notes, inspirational quotes, pictures, to-do lists, cards, invites, reminders – the possibilities are endless!

 

And lastly, here’s my inspiration, some of my favorite blog posts on the subject.

Using old window frames to decorate

DIY Craft Projects using Old Vintage Windows and Doors

DIY: Jewelry Holder

How to make an awesome gift with items you find at an antique market

Unique (Tropical) Travelogue – not only for travel writers

You know I’m a travel writer, right? (If not, you need to fix that immediately! Go read my travel articles. I’ll wait.)

Well, as any self-respecting writer, I always have pen and paper with me. As any self-respecting travel writer, I also always have a notebook with me whenever I travel. And, as any self-respecting perfectionist, I wanted something pretty!

The notebook I chose to take with me on the first trips is kind of big. And has all sorts of writing in it, not only travel related. Over this summer I won’t be able to travel much and will mostly go on one-day road trips. I’ll be traveling light, with a small backpack. So I wanted a smaller notebook. And I found the perfect one. Spiral bound, half the size of my old notebook and quite thick for me to use for jotting down thoughts, names of places, ideas, etc. for many years to come.

Yet… I wasn’t thrilled about the cover. It was… plain. It didn’t look like something I’d call a travelogue.

Then, I remembered a tutorial I saw several weeks ago: Ways with Vintage Maps – Woven Notebook Tutorial. (I have an old Atlas from the sixties, which belonged to my uncle and couldn’t wait to see the light of day again.) It was perfect!

I turned my dull notebook into a unique travelogue which I absolutely love!

Here’s the tutorial. It can turn any old notebook into something very pretty, in no time

 

Unique (Tropical) Travelogue

You’ll need two pieces of a Map/Atlas etc. that have a mix of watery and land mass areas to give a mix of colors. (I chose one piece with mostly land, Europe, and the other piece was mostly water, Black Sea).

Mark up strips on the opposite side you want to use to avoid ugly black marks. So that you can read the name places you’ll want one map piece to have horizontal strips and one to have vertical strips. (My strips measure 1,5 cm wide and long enough to wrap around my notebook (covers)).

Weigh the bottom of the Vertical pieces down with some cans and start weaving.

When you’ve woven enough to cover the book front and back, add some tape to the bottom of the woven pieces leaving enough of the tape to be able to fold over and seal the ends together.

Repeat for the top and sides.

When you’ve taped each side and folded the edge of the tape over to the back, you should be left with a piece of woven Atlas ‘fabric’ you can now use this to cover your Composition book.

Layer Double sided tape to completely cover the front and back, making sure the spine has tape adhered to it also.

Then lay the back of the book on the woven Atlas ‘fabric’ and take the woven piece and wrap it around the book pressing down to make sure it sticks.

Trim around the edges. After trimming you will have some loose pieces that stick up, glue them down then put notebook under a pile of books to make sure all the pieces properly stuck to the cover.

Trim off the excess and enjoy your recycled Atlas/Map notebook.

(Since I have a notebook with spiral binding, I only stuck my woven map to the covers, both outside and on the inside. I also decorated with a few graphics I recently purchased from a new store in town which sells Graphic 45 products.
I’ll be taking my new travelogue with me on all my upcoming travels and trips, so I also ran a clear scotch tape over the woven map cover – just to make sure it’ll stay clean and not absorb moisture in case I happen to drop it in a puddle or something.) 

 

* Original tutorial by Ways with Vintage Maps – Woven Notebook Tutorial

Happy crafting

Vintage Looking Jar Vases

I noticed an old yogurt jar in my grandmother’s kitchen the other day. It reminded me of my childhood. It reminded her of my mother’s childhood. I asked her if she had any she didn’t use anymore. She did, of course.

Taking two, I wondered what to do with them. Then I remembered how we never seem to have enough vases. Especially smaller ones. So, I decided to try my luck at turning them into just that – vintage looking vases.

Vintage Looking Jar Vases

(40-50 years) old jars
marker/sharpie
nail polish
ribbon (optional)

Unless you have a really steady hand, I’d advise starting to decorate your jars by drawing the wished design/pattern, on them with a sharpie first.

(As soon as I drew the first line, I knew all perfectionism was to be set aside.)

After you’re done with your design, trace it over with nail polish. Let it dry very well.

Decorate further with a bow if you want to.

I’d say the whole thing took 30 minutes tops; the drying took the longest, seeing as you wouldn’t want to mess up the design.

Oh, and, keep in mind to do this outdoors, or near an open window. The nail polish smell is terrible (and will cause dizziness – I found that out first hand!) if you have a small kitchen or room that you’re crafting in.

Happy crafting!