On the odd Saturday morning about every two weeks or so, I am probably off teaching a class somewhere. And so my husband was shepherding the kids around to their activities. Well a couple weeks ago it was Cameron's Boy Scouts trip to the Home Depot for the 9:00am kids' workshop. Can I tell you my daughters were not amused?
Courtney and Brianna of course pride themselves in doing everything better, faster, etc. than any boy - and I must admit Courtney's little birdhouse, rainfall catcher looked very well put together. But that victory aside - it lost all its charm as soon as it got home. So this morning, I saw the sad little project sitting on the catchall front entrance hall table and asked Courtney if I could do some real home improvement on it. She didn't care what I did with it - because she was done with it.
I don't consider myself handy either. I have a little bin of this and that which I keep in the laundry room. First I found the hammer and pounded in the nails on the roof so they were flat to the surface. Then I put glue on one side of the roof. Now I know some of my altering friends like to use adhesive sheets for this step - but they are too ONE SHOT for me. I like a liquid glue that gives me a little wiggle room. So I outlined and 'squiggled' some Fabritac onto the surface.
I invert this onto the wrong side of my cardstock and hold in place for about thirty seconds. Make sure the edge of the paper is just barely visible. Loose paper edges sink altered projects. :)
Now the scary Xacto knife comes out. Just make sure you have the blade against the paper, not the wood. We aren't doing wood-shaving today. A fresh blade and a glass cutting mat are your friends.
Do this for all the edges you can get at easily. Obviously, it would be better to do these steps before the piece was glued together - but it is completely doable.
For the front, there is a little screw there, to hold the rain catcher. I'm going to leave it, because I feel like a little basket or something is going to hang there in the future. I cut a small v-notch in my cardstock, measuring from the straight edge of the paper and placing it alongside the screw.
The piece of paper was cut larger than the wood piece, and I use my fingers to bend it into corners and around the edges to create a cutting guide.
Once you've got this sized perfectly, use it to create a pattern for the other side and back of the shape.
And glue them on. After the glue has dried, you can use a nail file, pushing towards the unfinished edge, not pulling the paper away from the edge; to sand down any loose pieces. In this project, I had to loosly cut out the circle after the fact, and so this was very handy. Note: glittery nail files aren't required, but hey, they are fun to use. This is just me asserting my girly-girl self into the project at hand.
Now, I decided to apply some 'gingerbread' style trim to the house.
I used some Glimmer Mist and Glimmer Glam to color it to coordinate with my project and make it sparkle.
A little Fabritace along the edges, and the gingerbread lace is attached. And now I wanted to bedeck my house with climbing vines of pearls and roses too. But don't those roses scream 'color me!' ? At least that was what they were saying to me from the moment I saw them at CHA.
So a Copic Marker (V17) does the trick. It's an Alice in Wonderland moment. I'm painting the roses... purple.
I decided to add a Petite Floral Vine along the roofline. And a mini-clamp was just the trick to make sure it adhered in place with my Fabritac. Yes, girls - the mini-clamp is another thing I found at Home Depot that is indispensable for altering things.
And that's it! I decided in the end that this would make a darling placecard holder for my dining room table when we have Easter dinner. Of course that means I will need more... but it will suit at the dinner table tonight for Ms. Courtney. So I took the packaging from the Say It in Pearls and cut it down to size for a placecard.
As a last step, I sanded all the edges with my nail file and put a light spray of Marshmallow Glimmer Mist to give it an overall shabby chic look. I glued on a little butterfly wire card holder I had on hand for holding class sample placards. Perfect!
Make sure to click on the picture for a closer look.
As if the staff at my Home Depot doesn't already scatter when I enter the building. Someone once had the nerve to tell me something was in 'the hardware section'. Can you tell me what part of that store does not qualify as the hardware section? Puh-lease! To which I countered that I was looking for somethng, like copper pipe that could be cut down to make a petit four cutter, but I wanted it to be square. Thank you for returning the blank stare...take that, Home Depot.
Well let me tell you, after today - I hope the crafters descend upon the Home Depot - because girls... this house it haute!
Products used in this project:
- Indeed Cardstock, #813161
- Say It In Pearls Swirls #535667
- Flutter Vine, Violet, #533748
- Lace #529451
And now, to add to the fun...simply leave a comment on this blog post for your chance to win a prize! We will randomly choose a winner on Tuesday, March 23rd, 2010. Open to North American only for this drawing. Check back every 4 weeks or so for a world-wide drawing!!
From the entries received on our last technique post, using Random.org's random integer generator -- the winner for our previous technique post drawing is:
Claude!
Please contact me so we can mail out your lovely prize at sallylynn@primamarketinginc.com. Prizes will be held for 7 days only. Please contact us promptly.
Best of luck to each of you! And I look forward to chatting with you today and every week with TNT.
P.S. Do you want a Prima Endorsed Artist-Educator to teach a workshop at your store or event? Contact Lu at
Sally Lynn MacDonald
http://www.sallylynnmacdonald.com
http://www.facebook.com/sallylynn.macdonald
What a great idea!
Posted by: Claude | March 11, 2010 at 08:05 PM