A Very Happy candleholder

For ages I have been searching for a candleholder that was suitable for this little project. There needs to be some distance between the candles and the decoration and as it turns out, those are hard to find where I live. I finally found this second hand one (I love those temporary Christmas departments that currently pop up at thriftstores), simply stripped it off it’s decorations (believe me, I did the thing a favour by stripping it, haha) and painted it white. Then I used beads, plastic toadstools (thrifted at that same Christmas departement), plastic animals (I love to use those, for example here and here), ribbon and binding thread to decorate the frame. One happy little project, it’s as easy as that!
Ik ben tijden op zoek geweest naar een geschikte kandelaar voor dit projectje. De kaarsen moeten namelijk niet zo ver op kunnen branden dat het hele decoratie gedeelte in de fik kan vliegen. Ik vond dit frame uiteindelijk bij een kringloop, bedekt met nep dennentakken, glittersterren, bundels takjes, appeltjes…de hele bij elkaar geraapte rommel (van die decoratie die volledig willekeurig en compleet emotieloos met een lijmpistool op een krans gefoefeld is, ik ging me bij de kassa bijna verontschuldigen dat ik zoiets lelijks mee naar huis nam). Enfin, ik heb alle decoratie van het frame gehaald en het frame wit gespoten. Voor de versiering gebruikte ik lint met pailletten, kralen, Schleich dieren (die gebruik ik graag en vaak, zie hier en hier bijvoorbeeld), vintage decoratie materiaal (paddenstoeltjes, plastic bloemetjes) en binddraad om alles mee vast te zetten. Fijn nieuw leven voor de krans, leuk projectje, goede reden om weer eens naar de kringloop te gaan. Altijd goed, blij moment!

Droplets

I found this air-drying clay in a craftshop and I can’t stop making new little items with it, it’s such cool stuff! I cut out these droplets from a flattened piece of clay, punched a little hole in them and hung ‘em in the window with thin fish wire. This clay is paintable, but for now I like them plain as they are.

Luckily, these are the only droplets we’ve seen the last weeks, the weathergods have been very kind to us!

A very early DIY Christmas tree

I found the super-easy tutorial for this sweet Christmas tree on Pinterest (where else?). It’s made with circular shaped pieces of felt, I made this one for my cousin (guess which colours are her favourite?).
Look for the tutorial here.
(I collect cool ’n easy DIY projects (and lots more) on my Pinterest boards. You can find me here.)
Enjoy your Sunday!

Succulents and doilies

I’m quite fond of succulents. I am in fact a bit of a plant lover (not to be mistaken for a tree hugger) and I’m the happiest girl on the planet if you let me dig in dirt, preferably in the drizzling rain. Which is strange for a girl who usually washes her hands about 40 times a day and in whose home you could eat from the floor (without getting sick). Psychologists will definitely have an explanation for this behaviour, but that’s not the point of this post.

Anyhooow.

A while ago, some people gave us succulents in a very very ugly flowerpot as a present (with a risk of sounding ungrateful, but it really was beaten with an ugly stick*). Since I wouldn’t even think of throwing away the biotope in it (and hey, the flowerpot might also look better if I painted it green!), I pulled those out and put them in my lately thrifted bowl, together with some stones I took home from our trip to Denmark. On Pinterest (my latest addiction) I found this great tutorial for a table runner made with vintage doilies. I love that the doilies made by our beloved late-grandmothers are now united in one contemporary piece of home decor.

After all, much better!

*) Must thank mister Austin Powers for that fab line.

The Vintage Embroidery Wall-Panel Tutorial

No…still ain’t got a better, shorter name for that one! But here it finally is, the tutorial which results in something like this:
This is a wall panel made of vintage embroideries, the ones I always take home with me when I find them at a thriftshop. (It always makes me sad, that all those hours of needlework end up at a thriftshop.) So, if you too have a pile of embroideries you want to join in one big piece, here we go!


You’ll need: some nice (a bit matching) vintage embroideries, some strong thread, a needle, a wooden lath and a tacker (a hammer and nails will do too). The cardboard can be used to stretch or tighten embroideries, I’ll explain that part of the project seperately.

Now, let’s start with the most barbaric part of the project: getting the embroidery off it’s original frame. (I suggest you do this when you’ve just had an awful day at work, or just discovered the neighbour’s dog pooped in your front garden again…you’ll need some aggression to do this.) Tear off the cardboard at the back and remove the frame. Careful with your hands!

Like this (I even needed a pincer to remove the frame):

Got rid of the aggression? Good! You’ve now saved yourself a lifetime of anger-management lessons! Yay!

What you have now is a perfect, frameless embroidery. If you’re lucky, it’s already attached to a piece of cardboard, so it’ll stay in good shape when you attach it to the other embroideries. If you’re left with a floppy mess, you’ll need to tighten the embroidery with a piece of cardboard, I’ll describe that part in a second post.Arrange the embroideries. They may overlap, but the most important thing is that you’re satisfied with the arrangement. You don’t want to pass by everytime and feel annoyed (like me) because you settled for good enough ;-)

If needed, mark out the wooden lath and make it fit the width of the panel with a saw (or with your teeth, if you are The Hulk.)

Attach the upper embroideries to the lath with a tacker or with nails.

Turn the whole panel around (you’ll need to arrange the embroideries backwards, it’s a bit tricky, but you’ll manage!).
Sew the touching sides of the embroideries to the ones that are attached to the lath and to each other with strong thread and a sharp needle (be careful you won’t puncture your fingers like I did…five times).
Remember, it’s the back, you won’t see it once it’s mounted to your wall, no one will know it’s a bit messy. (I had to write this on a mirror and humm it every day before I got to this point.)
The back looks like this:


Make sure the embroideries are well tightened, they’ll need to defy gravity! That’s all, don’t make a big fuss about it, as long as it sticks together, you’re a winner! :-D
If there’s anything that’s just completely incomprehensible in this tutorial, please leave me a note. If you want to share your result, please do! Good luck!