Mold Making Progress

Yesterday I shared with you that I made a mold out of an antique metal applique.  Today I tried to make two castings that are drying at this very moment.  I'm not sure they are going to work though.  I used paper clay, and I'm not sure that will be any better than plaster of Paris.  The appliques I have been using are durable enough to hold up outdoors.  The mold is good, but maybe I will try some Sculpey to create another casting.

 If any of you have some ideas, please let me know.  I will not give up on this process and will keep you posted.  The paper clay takes one to three days to cure.

The top of my casting has some nice detail, but I think the applique I was trying to duplicate is warped and the bottom did not turn out well at all.

Mold Making 1

I love to use appliques on my signs and furniture because I love French inspired pieces.  My usual source for purchasing my appliques is drying up and although I can find them on line, they are much more expensive than I usually want to pay and since my items are for sale, and I need to watch my cost of goods.

 I've been searching and searching for a way to make my own molds, then finally, this week I found a product made by Sculpey that claims to make molds in minutes so I thought I would give it a try.

 I have this metal applique that is heavy and beautiful so I thought I would start with that. 

I rolled out the clay and pressed the applique into it. 

 I baked it in a toaster oven according to the directions.  The white powder you see on it is the talc that I poured over the applique so it would not stick to the clay.  I'm sure that won't bother my end product.  My next step is to attempt to mold clay into this and make a casting.  I'll let you know how it comes out in another post.

Thanks for stopping by.  I'll keep you posted on my progress.

I'm partying at...


Mondays          Le Chateau des Fleurs       The Graphics Fairy    
                                      Between Naps on the Porch Metamorphosis Monday
Tuesdays          Knick of Time       Coastal Charm  
                                      Boogie Board Cottage    A Stroll Thru Life   
                                     Cozy Little House Tweak it Tuesday
Wednesdays     Savvy Southern Style
                                           
Thursdays        The Shabby Creek Cottage    No Minimalist Here 
                                     Between Naps on the Porch Tablescape Thursday    
                                     Rustic Restorations Homespun Happenings
Fridays            French Country Cottage       My Romantic Home        Miss Mustard Seed
                                    Potpourri Friday     Common Ground
                                    The Charm of Home    Rooted in Thyme
Saturdays        Funky Junk Interiors

Sundays           My 1928 Charmer Sunday's Best

Glitterfest Roses

This is a reprint of a tutorial I did last year when I was an itty bitty blogger, but I thought I would share it once again.  These are roses made from coffee filters and book pages with a splash of glitter.  

 At the time I made these roses I was using whatever I had on hand.  White paper plates would have worked better, but the base is a quartered paper plate used as a base for the rose petals.  The rest of the tutorial is as it was printed in the previous post.

I used the coffee filters to come up with a pattern for the book page. The coffee filters are cut into quarters so I tried to make the width of the book petal as wide as the widest part of the quartered coffee filter. Then instead of making it a triangular shape like the coffee filter section, I made a wider base as shown in the photo. I cut a little dip in the shape because rose petals are not perfectly straight across. I outlined one side of the page petal with Tacky Glue and dipped it in silver glitter. I used German glitter I bought from an Etsy shop. It has a slight antique tarnished silver look.

Each rose needs 5 of these glittered petals.

I used white and brown coffee filters and cut them in quarters. You can cut a whole bunch at one time and separate them into a pile of white and brown petals. I started with 5 pieces of the white slightly overlapping the edges of each petal as I went in a circle. I used one of the quarter pieces of the paper plate as my base for this project. Now figure out how high you can count and that's how many hot glue sticks I used. Seriously. I used one after another after another and so on. So lay down 5 white petals in a circle using a hot glue gun. It just takes too long to use Tacky Glue for this part.

Now on top of that use 5 brown quarters and do exactly the same thing.

When that was done, I took 3 white petals and placed them in a circle on top of the brown layer. Then I took 3 brown petals and placed them on top of the 3 white petals kind of placing them in between. So now you have the plate quarter as your base and 4 layers of coffee filter petals. Understand? Now take the book page petals and fold just the base of the petal and sort of pleat from each side in. If you saw my poinsettia project it is very similar except we are not using tape. I pleated or gathered the base of the petal scrunching it in at the bottom of the petal. I stuck a glob of hot glue down and then using a thick wood skewer, I took the flat end and tamped it down after I placed the petal in place. Put down 4 book petals for this layer.

On top of that layer, I put 3 more brown petals always working in a circle. On top of the brown layer place 3 white petals. When I am saying petals, I mean the coffee filter quarters.

Now take your fifth book page petal and roll it up with the glitter side on the inside of the roll. Scrunch the bottom and make a little fold. Use the folded part to make your flower center stand straight up in the center of the flower. In other words, your flower center will have an L-shaped base. Glue that flat part of the L-shape into the center of the flower. Put another glob of glue in the middle of your flower petals and tamp your rolled up page petal into the center.

When that has been placed, take 3 more brown petals and drizzle some glue down into the base around the page petal and stuff the brown petals in. Then do this again with 3 white petals. DO NOT put the glue on the petal before you place it. You will mess up the layers you have already done. Just drizzle glue into the flower aiming for the inside base of your last completed layer. Tamp it down with the wood skewer. As you get to the last layers it is getting tighter and tighter in the center so as you place the glue and stuff the petals in you are not going to see the glue spots. They are hidden by the stuffing procedure you are doing. But the glue will hold the petal in place. Here is one of my finished roses. Believe me, it takes longer to read this tutorial than it did to make a rose. Once you start moving on this project it goes very fast.

I'm working on a new rose for this year, also made from coffee filters and I will be sharing it soon.  These flowers are great for gifts, wedding decor, tree ornaments, etc.  Just to add a little postscript, the book pages were from Reader's Digest pages.  Each page made two petals, and as for the green paper plate, you can't even see the green when the flower is finished.  Happy crafting everyone.


I'm partying at...


Mondays          Le Chateau des Fleurs       The Graphics Fairy    
                                      Between Naps on the Porch Metamorphosis Monday
Tuesdays          Knick of Time       Coastal Charm  
                                      Boogie Board Cottage    A Stroll Thru Life   
                                     Cozy Little House Tweak it Tuesday
Wednesdays     Savvy Southern Style
                                           
Thursdays        The Shabby Creek Cottage    No Minimalist Here 
                                     Between Naps on the Porch Tablescape Thursday    
                                     Rustic Restorations Homespun Happenings
Fridays            French Country Cottage       My Romantic Home        Miss Mustard Seed
                                    Potpourri Friday     Common Ground
                                    The Charm of Home    Rooted in Thyme
Saturdays        Funky Junk Interiors

Sundays           My 1928 Charmer Sunday's Best

Shop Small Stores 3

"The further behind I get, the more I think I'm in front."  Don't you just feel that way some days, especially around the holidays?  I know I do. 

In the meantime I'm still waiting for my camera charger to arrive, but you know how I feel about shopping small stores and local businesses so I wanted to share this with you just to give some food for thought.  I saw this on Facebook and for some reason the whole message did not copy and paste, but the bottom line is if you agree with this concept, copy and paste it and send it along.  

 

 

Aging Glass Jars

I have been admiring all the pretty altered bottles I have seen on Pinterest and on Rosemary's blog at Villabarnes so I decided to try my hand at doing an experiment of my own.  I used plain jars that had been emptied and washed out so they were nice and clear.  I started out by spraying the inside and the outside of the jars with clear flat spray.  I used Valspar, but any matte or flat spray will work.  This dried very fast.  Next I took some gesso and mixed it with water, about 2/3 gesso to 1/3 water.  I took a sponge applicator and started smearing the jars with the gesso mixture just blotting very gently as I went along.  When this was dry, I resprayed with the clear flat. 

 If you follow my blog at all, you will know I have become somewhat addicted to the reverse mod podge method for transferring images.  The possibilities for this transfer method are endless.  It's an inexpensive method that gives a huge pay off.  My kind of project.  To see the tutorial for this transfer method click here.  I actually have to give the credit for this idea to Rosemary at Villabarnes because she is the one that wrote about doing the transfer method on glass.  I had no idea it would work on glass as well as wood.

This method of aging the glass will be blotchy.  I was going for a calcified look that old glass gets when it's been left out in the rain for years.  If you want a more uniform look, try Krylon's frosted glass spray.  It has good sticking qualities too.

 I do have some nicely shaped bottles, but first I wanted to try this method on something that was free.

 I love the results.  Some of the transfer rubbed off, but that just made the jars even older looking.

 For the Rose jar, I actually stenciled the word  rose on it.  After completing the transfer method, I resprayed with the clear spray just to seal everything in.

 Just to give it a finishing touch, I tied some pretty seam binding around the mouth of the jar and attached an old clip earring to finish it off. 
Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you have found some inspiration to try your own beautiful projects.

I'll add a P.S. to this post.  I may be MIA for a few days.  I left my camera charger in Napa and I have ordered a new one.  A blogger without a camera is in sad shape so let's hope my new charger arrives before my battery dies.  Thank heaven for Ebay.

I'm partying at...


Mondays          Le Chateau des Fleurs       The Graphics Fairy    
                                      Between Naps on the Porch Metamorphosis Monday
Tuesdays          Knick of Time       Coastal Charm  
                                      Boogie Board Cottage    A Stroll Thru Life   
                                     Cozy Little House Tweak it Tuesday
Wednesdays     Savvy Southern Style
                                           
Thursdays        The Shabby Creek Cottage    No Minimalist Here 
                                     Between Naps on the Porch Tablescape Thursday    
                                     Rustic Restorations Homespun Happenings
Fridays            French Country Cottage       My Romantic Home        Miss Mustard Seed
                                    Potpourri Friday     Common Ground
                                    The Charm of Home    Rooted in Thyme
Saturdays        Funky Junk Interiors

Sundays           My 1928 Charmer Sunday's Best

Poodle Party

A couple of weeks ago I shared this poodle skirt table topper I made out of felt.  This was a total no sew project.  I suggested it would be great in a teen's room or little girl's room, but today I am doing a tablescape with it.  I found this tissue paper pom pom kit by Martha Stewart at a yard sale.  I can't believe how easy these are to do.

 My resident baker was unavailable to help me with these cute layer cakes that were Pinterest inspired, so left to fend for myself, they are sort of leaning towers, but I think they are adorable.  At least the ones on Pinterest were.

 The Paris plates came from Home Goods, and I think the black and white is perfect with this theme.  I have had them for a few months and have shared them with you before. 

Now, as much as I would love to take credit for this tablescape theme, years ago my friend Judi did a 50's tea party and she used old phonograph records as the charger plates.  Cute, huh?  Well, I picked up a couple for a dollar a couple of weeks ago and I can't remember where I put them.  But if you want to use this idea, the albums were way cute!

 My daughter purchased the little poodle picks about a year ago especially for a tablescape theme and I have been hoarding saving them ever since.

 The cookies are store bought vanilla wafers that I dipped in pink candy coating.  These were so easy and another idea I got off of Pinterest.

 How long has it been since you've had a Hostess pink snowball?  It's been years for me, but I thought they were so apropos for the occasion.

 This was my birthday card from my daughter this year.  It was also a perfect accessory for today's table.  An invitation like this would be spectacular!

Of course, I had to add some itty-bitty polka dots and some applique pink poodles too.  Thanks for stopping by.  Help yourself to the cake if you dare.   I'm clearly not the baker around here.

I'm partying at...


Mondays          Le Chateau des Fleurs       The Graphics Fairy    
                                      Between Naps on the Porch Metamorphosis Monday
Tuesdays          Knick of Time       Coastal Charm  
                                      Boogie Board Cottage    A Stroll Thru Life   
                                     Cozy Little House Tweak it Tuesday
Wednesdays     Savvy Southern Style
                                           
Thursdays        The Shabby Creek Cottage    No Minimalist Here 
                                     Between Naps on the Porch Tablescape Thursday    
                                     Rustic Restorations Homespun Happenings
Fridays            French Country Cottage       My Romantic Home        Miss Mustard Seed
                                    Potpourri Friday     Common Ground
                                    The Charm of Home    Rooted in Thyme
Saturdays        Funky Junk Interiors

Sundays           My 1928 Charmer Sunday's Best

Modern Masters Porcelain Crackle Tutorial

This blog post is my product review for Modern Masters Crackle Finish.  I love to paint signs and old wooden caddies and just about anything small that I can make look really old and weathered.  I leave the big stuff to my husband.

So first I'll start out by telling you I used to be a power seller on Ebay.  One of my biggest sellers was petite French night tables that I used to "spot crackle" and I really did an Old World finish on them.  I  could ship them for $30 anywhere in the country.  Then one very sad day the U.S. Postal Service wanted to charge me $70 because the rates had gone up.  So I let this little hobby of mine go by the wayside.  With my renewed interest in my hand decorated pieces, I have been longing for my porcelain crackle days to return.  The bottles of crackle I had on hand which were professional grade had lost their integrity (yes, crackle has a shelf life) and so I went in search of a new product.  Enter Modern Masters porcelain crackle.  I tried it this weekend on some cabinet doors I am doing a pair of signs on and let me tell you, this product delivers in spades.  It's too much crackle for even me, but it did what it was supposed to do so I give it an outstanding A+++++.  This was my result in the following photo.  With the old professional product I would get just spottings of crackle which is really the look I want.  A truly old piece doesn't crackle uniformly like this, but I can adjust for this on future projects.

 My husband painted my cabinet doors with a primer gray latex paint, the kind you just brush on.  Then I used Step 1.  I painted it onto the cabinet doors with a cheap disposable brush.  When I say cheap, it's because they can be washed out and reused until they die.  This is a water based product so I washed my brush with soap and water and I'll use it again.  My 59 cent brush will serve me well.

 I brushed the entire front of the doors figuring I would be lucky to get 25% of my door to crackle.  This expectation was based on all the other crackle products I have used from the professional ones to the Michael's Craft Store ones.  This is a porcelain size crack like the crazing on antique china, not the huge cracks of the 80's refinishing fad.

 What causes the product to make a crackle finish is because it's really a glue.  So step one is a glue that is painted on and it dries so it's sticky but the glue residue does not come off on your fingers.  Now that step one is complete, I have a sticky surface.

 Now I used another cheap dry brush.  I just didn't want to use the wet one and these steps need to be done within an hour of each other.  Step two is a top coat of the water base Step 2 Modern Master's Crackle.  This seals in the glue so it's not sticky anymore.  I could see the crackle appear on the surface once step two had dried for about an hour.  I came back and dry brushed with Annie Sloan's Old Ochre over the cabinet doors.  Look at that crackle.  Can you see it?  Seriously, if you can't, get your eyes checked.  Wow, that's a lot of crackle!

 We're talking crackle heaven here.  Even where I put heavy paint you can still see the crackle.  Now there is a step three to this process which I didn't purchase only because I didn't know about it until I read the instructions.  One is a dark finish and one is a light finish.  I think this is similar to the light and dark waxes we have all been using of late.  Since I had to improvise, and honestly I might have done this anyway, I sprayed the surface with Deft clear satin lacquer spray.  That is my clear coat of choice.  Use whatever clear coat you prefer.  Then I took my Minwax Jacobean stain and wiped it on and then wiped it back just to get some dark in the crevices and the cracks.  Once this dries (I'll give it 24 hours because it's still 96 degrees here in November!), I'll respray it with the Deft and continue on with the rest of my project.  So if you like the fine porcelain cracks of china, you will love this product to age your furniture projects and whatever else you love to do.  Thanks for stopping by.  I hope I "cracked" you up (lol).

I'm partying at...


Mondays          Le Chateau des Fleurs       The Graphics Fairy    
                                      Between Naps on the Porch Metamorphosis Monday
Tuesdays          Knick of Time       Coastal Charm  
                                      Boogie Board Cottage    A Stroll Thru Life   
                                     Cozy Little House Tweak it Tuesday
Wednesdays     Savvy Southern Style
                                           
Thursdays        The Shabby Creek Cottage    No Minimalist Here 
                                     Between Naps on the Porch Tablescape Thursday    
                                     Rustic Restorations Homespun Happenings
Fridays            French Country Cottage       My Romantic Home        Miss Mustard Seed
                                    Potpourri Friday     Common Ground
                                    The Charm of Home    Rooted in Thyme
Saturdays        Funky Junk Interiors

Sundays           My 1928 Charmer Sunday's Best