Feelin' Crafty!

Do you sometimes get a vision or an itch to make something? I know I do.

I was thrifting the other day and came across a couple of vintage children's books. I fell in love with the illustrations and thought I could use them for something else. I spent an hour or so cutting out pages from the books. I've never done this before and felt a little bit guilty. However when you know that a book is just going to sit on a shelf it doesn't bother me so much that I repurposed it.

I have tons of colorful cardstock at home and wanted to back the illustration cutouts with them. I went to Michael's to buy some spray adhesive and came across a stamp that read "Thank You for your gift" in their dollar bins. In those same bins they usually have some ink pads so I bought two of those too. Michaels' is a dangerous place for me so I had to get out of these ASAP!

I came home and started printing, adhering, cutting and stamping away. I probably should have spent the time listing items for the shop but when I am on a mission, I am on a mission. I was partly inspired by the realization that I hadn't made little thank you notes to go into my Etsy packages. I had long considered doing moo cards but this won out instead.

For those who are curious about the lovely illustrations, the book is Attic of the Wind by Doris Lund and illustrated by Ati Forberg.

So have you been crafty lately?

A bit late but.... DIY Easter Egg

I wanted to share my latest DIY project that I did for Easter. Since I was in Florida I was going to be with my nieces and nephews which meant doing something for Easter. In the past I have bought plastic easter eggs and filled them with candy but I did not want to go that route this year. I then came across a cool blog with a project that I couldn't wait to try.

Some sticky and sore fingers later... 

I filled my eggs with Reese's and some little wacky finger toys. My youngest nephew tore them apart in less than 2 seconds! All that hard work...

Unfortunately this is the only picture that I have of the eggs that I made. I had a picture that showcased them but I managed to delete it from my camera before I uploaded it. Don't you just hate that!

Say hello to my little friend...

One of the latest projects I embarked on was cleaning and polishing a solid brass lamp. A lamp that I happened to find for $1 at a local Salvation Army. All of the lamps were one dollar that day and this one was placed in an odd spot in the store so it was overlooked I'm sure. Can you believe I actually hesitated to bring this home? I thought the boy would have my head. Luckily I convinced myself that for only $1 he wouldn't mind.(Something I do often.)

The lamp has a sticker on the bottom that reads Frederick Cooper Chicago. I came home to find that these lamps sell for close to $600!!! Here I was with my $1 lamp and I was ready to make it shine again. The lamp was in decent shape but the base had some oxidation spots. I researched ways to clean this up and tried several to no avail. I started off with good ol' ketchup known for its superpower cleaning abilities and that didn't work. It also made the lamp smell like, how can I put this, KETCHUP! I then tried some white household vinegar and that didn't work. I mixed the vinegar with some salt and flour to make a paste and that didn't work either!

How am I supposed to clean this thing?! I guess I'm going to have to resort to a real brass cleaner.

I looked into Brasso but read about the *new formula* not being as good as the old one. I then remembered other bloggers working with Barkeeper's Friend. He is a true friend indeed. With my two buddies, Mrs. Elbow Grease and Mr. Barkeeper I started cleaning up the lamp.

Here is what it looked like after some good ol' scrubbing a la Cinderella.

I must note that this was my first time cleaning brass. See all of those little bright spots, that's where the oxidation was worse. I thought those spots would end up looking like the rest of the brass on the lamp but instead they cleaned up brighter. Uh oh. I then realized I was going to have to clean up the whole lamp. After A LOT of scrubbing and Barkeeper's friend here is the bright and shiny lamp.

I also ended up buying some Brasso to lightly protect it from tarnishing again.

Does anyone have good experiences about cleaning up brass that they would like to share?

DIY- Refinishing a Lane Side Table

When the boy and I first moved here to California I decided to tackle some furniture refinishing projects as a result of searching for inexpensive ways to furnish our home. It ended up becoming a little hobby of mine since applying to jobs and not getting any replies was becoming the norm. I had to get my satisfaction from somewhere plus it was a good way to expend some energy as well.

So let me introduce you to this baby. She is a vintage Lane step end table for the Perception line that was designed by Warren Church. As you can see she was not in the best shape. I was a little hesitant to tackle this project because I knew I had my work cut out for me.

I must admit that this project took much longer than expected. It was hard to get motivated when I would spend countless hours hand-sanding and I was not seeing great results.  But alas, I took a deep breath and finally finished her up. Here she is in her current glory:

 

The final product may not be everyone's cup of tea but it is mine. It may be the purist in me that likes to see the natural state of the different woods used. Originally these tables were stained and finished to have the same honey color throughout. As you can see above, the ends are capped off with a bull-nosed oak and the larger surface tops are walnut. I like seeing the contrasting wood colors. 

I have included my steps for those of you that would like to tackle a similar project. I would recommended doing this outdoors because of some of the fumes from the chemical stripper that I used. ( I am going to try out citri-strip for my next project.)

Materials (for pieces that are varnished, lacquered or shellacked) 
For your protection: safety goggles, chemical resistant rubber gloves, and a mask

Stripper/ Refinisher (I used Formby's Furniture Refinisher because my item was lacquered, but I am going to use Citri-Strip for my next project), abrasive pads (to apply refinisher/ stripper), sandpaper (varying grits depending on the level of damage to your piece), steel wool, rags, metal bowl/ pan, drop cloth, wood filler (if you have really deeps nicks/ scratches) , wood conditioner, time and elbow grease. I would also recommend a hand sander if you know your piece is solid wood throughout. 

I also want to say that I am by no means an expert nor has my process been perfected. It is a work in progress.

 

Ready to Start?

1. Lay out your drop cloth in your desired work area. Wipe your piece with a clean rag to remove dust and other small particles.Gather all of your working materials.
2. Put on your protective gear. Play some music ( that's how I like to work).
3. Pour 1-2 cups of Formby's refinisher into the metal pan. Dip your abrasive pad and squeeze out the excess.
4. Start rubbing the pad in a circular motion on your piece about the size of a dinner plate. After the finish is picked up by the pad, rinse it in the pan, and squeeze out the excess. Repeat this step in an overlapping adjacent area until you have done the whole piece. (This takes a while)
5. When you find that the pad isn't working like when you first started, replace it. If the liquid in the pan also gets too gunky, replace it with some more refinisher.
( I had to go over the piece a second time to remove the finish, hopefully you won't have to)
6. If all goes well, you should just need to buff your piece with a dry pad. If it goes like it did with mine you have countless hours of sanding ahead of you.
7. In retrospect, because of the damage to my piece I should have used a stripper because I was going to have to sand the piece down anyway. I had to use 100 grit sand paper for the oak edges and the walnut tops. There were deep scratches and nicks that I tried to even out. I also had to hand sand instead of using an electric sander because supposedly Lane used veneer for these pieces. I still don't know if that's true because I haven't sanded deep enough to find out. I also had to use some wood filler for some nicks that were very deep. Once I had sanded the whole piece down to my satisfaction with the rough grit sand paper, I had to work my way up to the finer grits. After I finished sanding, I used a wood conditioner containing natural beeswax to really bring the wood grain to life. Finishing a piece is a matter of personal preference. You can oil a piece, lacquer it, varnish it, wax it and do many other things.It's all up to you.

 

For those who would like to tackle smaller, yet still rewarding projects I would start by gathering any lightly tarnished silver or brass objects. I learned about this trick while thrifting. I overheard a conversation on homemade ways to clean and polish your silver.

We all know that there are plenty of polishing and cleaning products for metals but little did I know that you can also use products that you find at home. For my Dansk bunny that I thrifted here, I used an old toothbrush, toothpaste and a rag.

It is recommended that you use a basic non-gel toothpaste. One that does not have tartar control or whitening chemicals. Supposedly you can use a mixture of baking soda and water, but I didn't have baking soda. I don't bake unless it comes premixed in a box. Shameful, I know.

With a bit of brushing, rinsing and wiping here is the transformation. Not only does the bunny look great but he smells minty fresh too!

Here is to a productive Spring weekend!

Gocco Love....

When I was recently engaged I became obsessed with wedding websites. Two of them being Style Me Pretty and Weddingbee. While perusing through the latter I learned about a nifty little printing machine known as the almighty Gocco. A nifty portable silk-screening machine that was no longer in production. NO LONGER IN PRODUCTION.... but I just found out about it!! How can that be? Well, I managed to get my hands on one locally with a decent number of screens, bulbs and ink. I couldn't have been happier! Well, then I started looking for gocco prints and compiled a long inspiration list. The Gocco was getting dusty just lying around. Thankfully my niece's birthday was coming up.

 Lo and behold my first gocco print.

It was my niece's 15th birthday, which in hispanic culture is a big deal. Very much like a Sweet 16th mixed with a coming of age debutante ball. A time when a young girl gets introduced to society as a young woman. I chose a peacock because they symbolize knowledge, kindness and the ability to thrive under adverse conditions.

Mid-Century Table

I purchased this side table from its original owner and restored it to make it look like it does above. Originally, it was much darker and the finished looked muddy. I enjoyed restoring it because I love working with my hands and this was a temporary outlet. Someday I will have my own studio/ workshop... someday