Friday, August 31, 2012

Gift Ideas: Baby & Home Decor

 
Good morning!  I hope you've had your coffee because I have lots of pictures for you today!  First up is this baby mobile I was honored to make recently.  It was requested to match THESE things I made a while back for a good friend's new baby.  It is entirely made of Stampin' Up! papers, old and new, Stampin' Up! felt ribbon and a piece of plumbing pipe insulation that I bought and cut then wrapped with the dotted ribbon (not SU). 
 
The long pieces of felt that the circles are attached to were wrapped around the circle and held in place by either a button (which is hand sewn on for safety!) or a knot of tempting turqhoise ribbon.  They all very in length and the circles are different too.  I think I used at least 20 different patterns of paper. 

EDITED TO ADD:  I completely forgot to mention that the circles (all punched with SU's punches) were done like this... I punched two circles in matching paper and glued one of them to a punched chipboard circle (thin enough chipboard that it would punch).  The one with the chipboard backing was the outward facing circle.  The other was glued to the back of that with the ribbon sandwiched in between.  Some of them had chipboard behind both sides, but that was a mistake.  They didn't stayed glued nearly as well and I had to clip them with small binder clips for hours while they dried completely.  The glue I used was Tombo Mono.  Hope that helps!
 
I didn't take pictures of the entire process because I was under a time crunch.  But I have a few tips on using the pipe insulation.  It is much cheaper than using one of those wooden rings ($4) for needlepoint and doesn't have that clamp part to figure out what to do with.  I bought a piece about 5 feet long at the hardware store ($1.75) then cut off the length I needed (you could probably make 2 out of one piece).  In order to make sure your circle doesn't end up oblong here is what you should try:  hold the tube in a loop then slightly overlap the two ends.  Eyeball the angle at which they overlap then try to cut that angle off one end.  (Don't panic with my vague instructions, it isn't an exact science).  Then the two ends will meet flush and your tube will stay more circular.  Tape the connection with duct tape then cover with whatever material you want.  I used ribbon! 
 
On to project two: 
This project doesn't involve Stampin' Up! products at all (even though it could), but since I gather you are somewhat crafty or you wouldn't be here, and since I need a place to brag to a captive audience, you get to enjoy this one as well.  

So I found this frame in my barn.  No idea what it was for- square is an odd shape for a frame. 
 Decided to cover the cardboard backing for the frame with an old map (I've got tons- you'll see that in the future).  Chose my favorite saying of all time and cut it out with my daughter's Cricut in two different fonts.  Then used temporary adhesive (I used removable Dotto) to apply the letters just where I wanted them.  I also wanted a faux matt around the final project so I used painters tape on the edges.  Here's another TIP:  Be sure to destickify (yep, made it up) the tape by sticking it to your shirt or pants or couch over and over before applying it or else your map might tear (mine still did a little). 
 Then spray the entire thing. 
 We used black spray paint.  I was a tad worried that the paper map wouldn't hold up to the wet paint and let my daughter make an executive decision to not go solid black, but just enough to see the letters.  I like that you can not only see the map through the font, but also behind the paint a bit. 
 Here is how it looks on the wall.  We barely let it dry before we got it up there!  Just couldn't wait! 
 
If you're curious about where on earth we hung this... you probably don't recall but in 2010 we bought a 12x16 foot playhouse for our kids.  It has taken us two years, but it is now livable.  We've painted the entire outside, stained the deck, wired it (with a little help from an electrician), insulated, boxed in plywood walls and painted the crap out of it.  It has kept us crazy busy for many many hours!  I'll do another post on it if anyone is interested, but this is one shot of the inside.  The table, chairs and ladder were all paint projects I've worked on all this week and last.  Hopefully I am DONE painting for awhile.  Thanks to Pinterest we have many more ideas to come!
 
I am going to link a few of the ideas that inspired these projects: 
 
mobile:
paint over letters: 
 
Thanks for stopping by!  If either of these projects inspires you to do something I'd love to see it!  Leave me a link to your online photos or blog post!
 
Have a great day!
~Kristin


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