Wednesday, September 26, 2012

More Fall Decoration - Torn Fabric Banner

 
My faux mantel still needed something.  Behold the banner!

 
These torn fabric banners are all over blogland and Pinterest because they are so cool,  so easy to make and no fancy new supplies are needed.

I started with 3 strands of heavy twine for the swag base. and knotted off about 10 inches on either side to hang down the side of my window frame.  You could use lots of things instead of twine - thin rope, wire, even an old fabric belt and probably lots of other things.
 
I looked through my fabric box for some with  fall flair.  Not gonna lie, if The Captain hadn't somehow  managed to take  both sets of car keys to work, I might have been temped to make an  emergency trip to Joanne's for more fabric.  I found some  off-white cotton and a few prints I had used bought for a previous project.
 
 
Now the fun part - ripping!  Cut a small slit to start, then rip your fabric into strips.  OCD types will want to measure, but I'm not that into precise measurement, so I  made the strips about an inch and a half apart, resulting in strips about that wide.  Grab the fabric on either side of the slit and rip - the fabric will tear in a straight line.  The sound of tearing fabric is so satisfying and pretty sure it's therapeutic as well!
 
Tear up your fabric until you have a generous pile of strips.  I find that projects like this  always take more fabric that you'd expect.  My banner is about 2 1/2 feet long and it took about 45 strips to cover the twine.  You want the strips close together, but it's no problem if some of the "line" shows through - just plan on having the color of the line work with your fabric choices so it won't be too noticeable.
 
Pull off as many of the long threads from all that tearing.  We're going for shabby here, but not messy nest of tangled threads.  We shabby- lovers do have our standards.
 
Then cut the strips.  I wanted the strips to be  slightly uneven , so I didn't measure the length precisely - I did more or less 10 inches, making sure there were some longer and some shorter.  Obviously if you like a more organized look, measure so all your strips are the same length.
 
Now the knotting fun begins.  You can tie these on in a couple of ways. You could fold the fabric in half and just  tie it onto the line with a knot in the center.  Or you could attach the strips to the line with what I now know is called a Lark's Head Knot - you know, the kind you use to attach fibers to a tag.  Fold the fabric in half, place the loop behind the line, then pull the two ends over the line and through the loop.  (Better  real directions are here).
 
 
Just keep knotting on strips until you're satisfied with how your banner looks.  I like a full look, so crammed on as many strips as I could.
 

 
Already thinking about making one for Christmas.

Monday, September 24, 2012

Fall Fantastics

Check out the brilliant colors from the farmers' market this weekend.  I got inspired to do some fall decorating!

 
I started with this metal bowl, filled with fall-inspired colors - apples, oranges, limes and lemons with some filler from Michael's. 
 
I needed a table runner.  I had a piece of burlap in my stash- hemmed the long edges and pulled out threads to fringe the ends.  Then hot-glued on the buttons - easy -peasy and fall-ish.
 
 
Next dragged out all the pumpkins.
 
 
Paper mache pumpkin covered with dictionary pages and green twine embellishments.
 
 
 
Painted and embellished plastic ones.

 
The book pumpkin I made last year.  Check out the acorn - a 50 cent score at a tag sale this weekend.
 
 
I try to add in fall decor without sacrificing my beach stuff.
 
 
The scrapbook paper one, at home with the beachy-ness.
 
 
 
Adding some fall leaves and another great acorn = instant fall decor.
 
 
Found this great pitcher on the 60% off shelf at Michael's.  It's perfect for  dried hydrangeas and joe-pie weed.
 
Next, outside.  Love this dark ornamental pepper.  I'm seeing lots of dark purple in fall decor schemes and it works well with other fall plantings.  Plus, the dark purple peppers turn red when ripe.
 
 
And let's not forget cookies - fall cookies from The Black Forest Cafe.
 
 
It's a little early for bittersweet, but I'll be looking for some .  I'm thinking I might fill the cloche with it.  I love the yellow and orange color and the twisty vines, but not the berries rolling all over everything, so going to try containing it this year.
 
Happy fall, y'all.
 
Be sure to check out some really spectacular fall decorating ideas at link parties: Centsational Girl  and DIY by Design


Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Frame Make-Over



I found these great frames at a tag sale for $2.00 each.  The label says "Danielson Designs" and it looks like they sell for around $25.00 each.  Score!  I like the frames as they are, but I needed three matching - or at least, coordinating frames , so bye-bye brightly colored frames.

The frames need to be white and it took some serious sanding to remove most of the color, plus a couple of coats of primer and a couple of coats of white paint.  I used white house paint from my supply, mixed with Floetrol to help eliminate  the brush strokes I always leave behind.

Then I hot-glued on some twine to add texture and brushed on some diluted white paint to tone down the brown a bit.

 
 
I'm in love with fabric flowers and made a few using some fabric scraps. 

 



 
Here are my new frames- perfect for my white and blue color scheme.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
I brushed some of the diluted white paint on the flowers to tone the color down a little.  And added some tulle leaves.
 
 
 
 
I used a large stamp as a pattern for this burlap flower.
 
These frames will be finding a new home in our family room, AKA the  dormitory when we have lots of company!  More restful than all that color and pattern.

Monday, September 10, 2012

Glassware in the Garden

 
("No success like excess" lawn decoration seen in rural Maine)
 
I've blogged about embracing some art in the garden.  I'm experimenting with adding some without becoming known as " you know, that crazy lady with all the stuff in her garden".   When I heard that The Captain has a cousin who makes lawn art from thrifted glassware, I knew I needed one (OK, maybe two).  What's not to like - creative fun, thrifted treasures given a new life, and buttons!

Check out these beauties.  Dinner plates, candle holders, small ash trays, little desert cups glued together to make these fun pieces.  She even adds buttons in the centers of some.  It was hard not to take them all. 

I settled on this one. It's on the smaller size - about 6 inches wide and adds some zip to this hosta.  The copper pipe pole will take on a nice patina in time, making it blend in with the foliage.

 
And this one.  Love the fluted plate, the light green embossed one and the little ash tray center.  Good use for those - glad we hardly ever seen them used for cigarettes anymore.  They were a staple in my house growing up and look so much nicer in the garden.
 
 
Love my repurposed dinnerware ornaments.
 

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Thrifted Things

I've been scoring with some thrifted finds lately.  I also made a great discovery at the Salvation Army - more on that later.

 
I love finding art supplies on the cheap - card stencils, fibers and ink jet transparencies. A new Lands' End belt that will be cut down to make a belt for best-ever-granddaughter, plus a sweet little dress.
The shoes are a find - brandie-new Lands end flats.  I have a green pair just like these and they are so comfy.
 
 
A thrift store lesson that we've all heard - check everything that you like, regardless of the size on the label.  These brand-new with tags Ann Taylor pants are clearly mislabeled.  I've been moving down the size range, but not this far!  They looked they'd fit and they did .  I think sometimes things end up at thrift stores because of incorrect labeling, so lesson learned - if it looks like it fits, try it on.  Of course, this is most rewarding when the number is LOWER than what you'd  usually wear! Otherwise, we'd have to cut that pesky size tag right out.
 
 
More art supplies - canvas boards, watercolor book for play and fun Mary Englebreit stamps.'
 
 
And  a sideways shot  (thank you, Blogger!) of paints, chipboard shapes and more drawing stuff .  During my collage class, I was bemoaning my lack of drawing skill and Claudine was very emphatic: "EVERYONE  can draw"!  She knows a lot; not sure she's right on this one, but I'm exploring.
 
 
Brand new Vintage Studio skirt and Chico's tank.  Here's my discovery - the folks at the Salvation Army don't understand Chico's sizing, 0-4.  Apparently they think it's like 1X,2X, etc., so this nice size 1 tank was in the large-size section.  You're welcome.  This probably explains why I've never found any Chico pants at the SA - now I know where they're hiding.
 
 
 
 Another Chico find - a linen top good for fall.   I'll wear it as a jacket with something white underneath.  Boston Daughter thinks it would work open and belted - I may give that I whirl.
 
 
And finally, a NWT (new with tags, in eBay-speak) Ralph Lauren V-neck and a NWT Banana Republic skirt.  This outfit at a real store is about $100 - mine for $11.00.
 
Happy thrifting!

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Lying, Cheating and Stealing - Why?


What do an author,  a Tour de France repeat winner, and unscrupulous bloggers have in common?  Apparently dishonesty is an equal -opportunity vice.



(here)
I waited for a few weeks to get Jonah Lehrer's book , Imagine - How Creativity Works, from our local library.  It sounded so interesting - investigating how the creative process works and what we can do to nurture it.   By the time I got the book, controversy swirled around Mr. Lehrer who had apparently made up some material - quotes by Bob Dylan that really were imaginary quotes made up by Mr. Lehrer.  (The irony of fabricating material in a book on creativity wasn't lost on anyone).  Making up quotes in a book about science is not like making up the science, so I was ready to read it anyway.  Then it turns out that some of the science was suspect and brought to Mr. Lehrer's attention prior to publication, but he didn't correct the errors.  I lost my enthusiasm and returned the book unread.  (Many libraries are pulling the book and Harcourt has pulled the books and stopped ebook sales).

Also turns out that Mr. Lehrer  had some issues in the past - pesky things like recycling columns written for one newspaper to another without proper acknowledgement.  When the papers are the Washington Post and The New York Times, people notice these things.

Why does a prominent, well-respected author do this?  Too busy to fact-check?  Too busy to write new material?  Or just plain chutzpah ?

(here)
 

Can we talk about Lance Armstrong?  Our DC son was a serious cyclist in high school, so I know more about the Tour and Lance Armstrong than any woman my age should.  We cheered Lance's every victory, not only for his athletic skills but also because of his history of surviving cancer and his work to promote cancer research.   While other winners got caught in doping scandals, I wanted to believe that Lance was clean, not that he had figured out a way to avoid detection. 

He recently lost all his medals rather than continue to fight growing investigations into his alleged doping.  While he technically hasn't been found guilty, (there may still be further investigations), it seems to me unlikely that he would have walked away from an historic accomplishment if he really were clean.

Why would a successful athlete do this?  Because everyone else is?  Because once he tasted victory and all that endorsement moo-lah, he wasn't willing to chance riding sans juice?

Dont Steal My Post!
 
(here)

And now, who on earth would steal blog posts and pass them off as their own?  The blogosphere has been buzzing about stolen content . Many bloggers with lots of traffic are truncating posts in feeds and watermarking photos to make it harder for content to be stolen.

One of my favorite bloggers recently had posts stolen and her DIY projects posted on someones blog in a "look what I made" post.  Really - stealing someones craft project and pretending it was something you created?  One of the wonderful things about blogging is the free-sharing of ideas and projects.  Instead of being inspired to go make something, apparently some folks are taking a shortcut.   We're not talking forging an Renoir to sell for a bazillion dollars - what is the bang for stealing someones idea for making a wreath or whatever?  No talent, no creativity, no imagination required to copy and paste a talented, creative, and  imaginative person's work.

These sad cases remind me of The Capitol Steps assessment of John Edwards (now there's a study in lying and cheating):  "What a piss-a-dointment"!

Saturday, September 1, 2012

School's Out - Last Class Collage

 
The last composition in the Composition for Collage class was the grid format.  This is pretty straight forward - work arranged in a linear, grid format.  What did I learn?  I learned that  I'm not comfortable with linear.  It's too rigid, too well-organized for me.  Guess it's not surprising; those gardens where everything is laid out in perfect rows and plots make me uneasy.  Rigid stripes - same problem. ( Although I do have an unnatural affection for grid paper - go figure).
 
I've had these little file folders for ages and thought they would make perfect grid-dwellers.  I started by stamping swirls with acrylic paint and then rubbed a few colors of Distress Ink over the swirls.  The acrylic paint acts as a resist, so the ink doesn't stick to the swirls.
 
I added a few scraps of text sticking out of some of the folders to give the idea that there were secrets stashed inside.  Most of the folders were  tied with string and a couple taped closed to keep all those secrets from enquiring minds.
 
Glued the folders onto a piece of artist paper and added a title - grid accomplished and kind words from Claudine - sweet!
 
But all that linear, lined up, straight edge thing was unsettling, so I tried out a looser grid format in my journal.  I call this the "grid - ish" format!
 
 
I gathered up blue bits from my stash and cut them into squares or rectangles to satisfy the linear thing.  But the arrangement is loose and much less structured and feels better.  I stamped a few things - the sofa, the Versamark resist on the tickets and some text over chalk.  I liked keeping to one color and since I'm in a blue phase, blue it is.
 
I've been playing around with doodling and added some to help unify all the unrelated scraps.  I kept the doodling in straight lines to reinforce the grid-ish format. 
 
I'm hoping Claudine has a follow-up class on composition.  I've learned just enough to know I need to learn lots more. 

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