Canvas Art

Whipped up a little present for my good friend Tim for his birthday and his lovely new flat ... so here it is for the blog world:

I saw a similar canvas behind Heston Blumenthal on one of his programmes and decided to steal the idea. I chose a nice font off Word, painted the canvas yellow, traced on the letters and then painted them on in black.

I sealed it with a protective covering so that it can hang in the kitchen and not be bothered by the moisture, but ... depending on where he wants a quote like this ... he could also hang it in the bedroom ;-)

Bun in the Oven T-Shirt!

Well, now that I have my own little bun in the oven, I thought I should get around to making some maternity t-shirts!

Bought a cheap plain white maternity t-shirt and used material, thread and fabric paint that I had on hand.

First of all I sketched the design of my oven on paper to check I liked it, then I drew it on the t-shirt.

I then used black fabric paint to paint it on and then washed and sealed it according to the instructions on the label.

For the bun I went for a cupcake design, as ... well, I don't know ... I thought it would just look better, OK?

I cut out my cupcake case with som blue material I had leftover and the pink icing topping was also from scraps. I then sewed them directly onto the t-shirt and there you have it ... my very own bun in the oven! Just need to get a bit more of a bump!

Framed Chalkboard

I was commissioned with the task of making something out of wood for my friend's birthday. This was quite tricky as it couldn't be anything too heavy or fragile as I had to send it in the post to good old England!

I decided to go for a framed chalkboard to hang in the kitchen to put a shopping list on or something.

I had some nice border wood that I mitred into a frame and just glued it together and clamped the edges until they dried.

I then cut out a piece of plywood to size and painted it with chalkboard paint.

I painted the frame blue to match her kitchen colour and sealed it with a top coat as it will be in the kitchen that might get splashed with water.

I hammered the plywood into the frame and then added a pretty ribbon onto the back for hanging it from a hook.

Hope she likes it!

Feature Wall

I have injured my foot running so am resting it at the moment, which on the plus side means that I have quite a lot of spare free time! Have put some of that free time to use and painted one wall in our bedroom.
Everywhere else in the house has white walls (apart from the office and downstairs bathroom), so it was nice to get a bit of colour flowing!

Here's the walls before I started painting

I chose a colour called blackberry and painted the wall in a matt colour.

I then bought a stencil of cherry blossom and stencilled in a repeat pattern along the whole of the wall in a slightly lighter blackberry colour in semi gloss. The trick was to use as little paint as possible on the roller.

I then just used masking tape and started in the top lef-hand corner and worked along and down lining the stencil up as I went.

I love it! It gives off a really nice shimmery shine and is really nice and subtle but beuatiful. It also ties in really nicely to the blinds from Ikea which also have a sort of cherry blossom design on them.

We just need new bedcovers and I might even make some cushions with the cherry blossom stencil on too!

Letters Shelf

In a bid to have somewhere to put letters and all the little bits and pieces that are in limbo and don't really have a home (i.e. the stuff that comes out of G's pockets at the end of the day, like his wallet), I decided to make a little shelf to go next to the front door.

I made it using all scrap pieces of wood, paint, hooks and a jam jar that I already had, so this is a free project - love it!

I used one piece of wood as backing and cut out the corners with my jigsaw to give it a bit more of a fancy look.



I then screwed the shelf into it from the back. I added a bit of trim I had left over from another project so that the shelf has a lip to stop thing falling off it.

The hooks are ones I already had at home and I painted them a gloss black.

The jam jar was also hanging around in the cellar, so I painted it with some glass paint and slotted it into the round holder I made out of scrap wood with my jigsaw. It can be easily taken out to add water, depending on what little flowers are there. At the moment I've just got some dried lavender from the garden.

I painted the whole thing the same white as the shoe rack that is also in the hallway, so it all ties in nicely.

Here it is hanging up in all its glory:

Fingerprint Babygro

My friend Claire has just had a little baby boy called Luca, which means I have been busy making a little something to send her.

This babygro is painted straight on in black fabric paint and is meant to look like a thumb print with "one of a kind" written underneath.

Materials used:

babygro
black fabric paint
thumb print stolen from Google images printed out to required size
paintbrush

I slipped the printed image into the babygro and basically just painted over it ... simple as that!

I then sealed the paint by covering the babygro in a tea towel and ironing over it and then washed it.

Money Origami

I was invited to a wedding last week and the bride and groom asked for money rather than  gifts. So, instead of just putting some boring old money in an envelope, I decided to get my creative juices flowing!

I googled "money origami" and decided on trying to fold some Euros into a bride, groom and heart.

€10 wedding dress
€10 heart
€20 trousers
€20 shirt and tie

I followed the instructions I found here and this is what I came up with:

€10 wedding dress

€10 heart

Light in a Jar!

I made these for my friend Thomas' birthday to scatter around his garden and patio.

Supplies:

• Glass jar with swing-top lid (can get them at Ikea or any DIY store in the jam-making section near the gardening bits and bobs!)
• Frosted glass spray (I got mine off ebay)
• Glue
• Solar lights for the garden

First I disassembled the solar lights. They were on a cane to stick in the ground and I just unscrewed the top of the light.

Tape off the top of the jar with masking tape and add newspaper so the paint won't go everywhere.

Lightly spray the frosted glass in even layers into the jar directly.

Glue the solar panel section to the inside of the lid (the lid has been left without frosted glass so it can charge up properly).

Let it charge up in the sun and then enjoy it in the evening - easy peasey!

It emits a really nice soft light that looks like you have a slice of moon trapped in your jar! Will have to make some for my garden too!

Drawer Cupboard

So, here's the last installment in my cupboards built and now there really is no excuse for not having a neat and organised cellar (does it meet your high standards, Thorsten?!).

This cupboard is the same design as the cleaning cupboard and tools cupboard but is full of pull out drawers made out of plywood. This now sorts out the madness that was all my screws, nails, fiddly little things etc. that were previously just thrown together in one heap.

The drawers are made in the same way as the boxes I made for my craft shelf.
I used 12mm plywood for the sides and 6mm for the bottom.
All holes were predrilled, countersunk, screwed and the bottom is nailed and glued to the box.
I cut a notch out of the front of the boxes using a jigsaw to make them easier to pull out.

They are just on a really simple drawer slide that I made myself.
I screwed pieces of wood to the sides of the cupboard and then rubbed a candle over the tops of them so the drawers would slide more easily.
This mechanism is hidden by a piece of wood that is glued to the door frame and slides.
I also added a bit of wood as a stopper to the back of the drawer so you don't pull it out too energetically and it comes crashing down on you!

I finished the drawers by painting the fronts with chalkboard paint so that you can easily see what's where!

Cleaning Cupboard

Here comes my second cupboard to sit next to the storage cupboard in the cellar.
This cupboard is to hold cleaning stuff, e.g. ironing board, hoover, bucket, mop ... that type of thing.

The cupboard is very similar to the other one I've made, so won't bore you with the details of how I made this one!

The differences are that this cupboard only has one shelf to hold the iron and will possibly be a storage area for cleaning products or something and it also has a normal hook on the side so the ironing board can hang clean off the bottom of the floor taking up as little room as possible.
The door front is also different. I bought a ceiling medallion (or what ever they're called!) that is just polestyrene so is super light. I glued it to the middle of the door and then attached the door knob in the middle of it and painted everything the same colour - a nice purplish colour! I think it looks really nice with the white door knob.

Sorry about the dire photo quality too - they were all taken in the cellar with no natural light!