Tutorial for weave cork board.

 Materials you need:

• cork sheets (depending on how large your corkboard is, you may need multiple rolls, for my project I used two) 
• frame, prepared to your liking
• scissor and/ or craft knife
• craft glue/ spray adhesive
• cardboard or old corkboard (you want this peice to be thick enough so that you aren't poking completely through & hitting your wall, or it defeats the purpose, and you'll have a ton of wholes when you decide to take your board down)
• cutting mat & rulers 
• heavy books, like dictionaries/ phone books, etc.  

1) Determine how you want your cork board to look. I wanted mine to have a diagonal look & not the typical "checkered" horizontal design, so I knew that I would need to start with long strips. I measured my board from one corner to another like so...

And I cut the strips about 1 1/4" wide. Depending on how thick or thin you cut your strips you'll achieve your own unique look.

2) Now with your  strips of cork start by lining them up side to side in one direction...

then begin to weave more strips, over & under, going the opposite direction...

 Tips: Start from the middle of your project and make your weave as tight as possible. Leave at least an inch extra , you'll cut your weave later to the size of your board/ backing.


2) Finish weaving your board until you have a surface a little larger than the backing.

3) Glue. You have a choice of using craft glue or spray adhesive. I used both. Cover your backing evenly, and very carefully place your weaved surface onto the glue. It might go a little easier if you enlist someone to help you with this placement process. When everything is in place, use the heavy books to hold it down. Let the glue dry overnight.

4) With the glue is dry, your weaved surface should be securely attached to your backing. Cut sides evenly.

In this pic, I was still waiting for glue to dry. I held it down with thumbtacks while I was cutting. 

4) With my edges trimmed, I very carefully started to place my frame securely around my weaved cork board...
 

If you run into any problems or have any questions, let me know.

Thanks for stopping by & be sure to leave me a comment so I know you visited!


shen

Being bug friendly....

A few months ago our hippie & earth child (I say this jokingly, of course) Sam was over at her BFFs house. She noticed a bag of water with pennies, and asked them what it was for. They explained to her that it was to keep the flies away & she came home to share. We looked up a few sites online just to check out the theory...

http://www.waycooldogs.com/a-ziplock-bag-of-water-and-4-pennies-no-flies/

http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2009/07/repel-flies-with-a-bag-of-water/ 


What you need:

• plastic bag, we used a zip lock
• pennies (four per bag was the recipe)
• water (tap is fine)
• thumb tack, twine, tape ( to hang up the bag)

Being the long Memorial Weekend, we had the opportunity to finally try it out.

So the theory behind this method is that the reflection the water gives off confuses the flies because their "compound eyes".  They will then avoid the area.

I'm sure a few of the neighbors might have been confused too. Especially with a bag right above the entry way... Not exactly welcoming...

Anyways, this method is great if you are trying to stay earth friendly. It's kid-safe & pet safe.

Try it out. It works! We haven't had any flies in the house all day. 
My Sammie is such a smart cookie!  She just turned 13 & although you can't see it her shirt says, "Love our Earth"

Sam with "Beatles" cupcakes made by our wonderful family friend, Linda @ Baking Foodie. 

Hope all of you are having a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. Remember to take the time to honor the men & women who have passed serving our country. 

shen

easy upcycle jar project...

So I've had these huge kimchi jars (large enough to stick your fist in them) sitting & soaking on the kitchen counter for quite some time. I've wanted to re use them, but didn't know what for. Then I decided that I'd put them in my craft room, but the bright red top had to go... so I spray painted them white. And when I said "I" , I really meant that I did them this time, no help from the hubby & I must say I did a pretty impressive job.. 

I didn't want the red to show through, so white was the safe color for me.. 

Spray painted inside & out... Not to thick, or it will peel off the plastic..   
 

See not too bad right...

I did about 3 coats of very light spray painting just to cover up the red enough..

Then with some heavy duty jute cord from the local hardware store (In my case Lowes) & some craft glue.... 

I began from the side of the lid & worked my way to the middle of the lid...

It looks tidious, I know, but seriously it didnt take that long. May 10 minutes the most for each lid...  Then ... ! Beautiful! 

One of them now holds scraps of cork board from my recently completed cork board project...

The others... I'm sure I'll find something to put in them soon...

I love that I was able to reuse these containers... 

Now, with probably more than 100 feet left of jute...I wonder what else I can do this too! hee hee hee...  ::evil grin:: 

Thanks for looking, hope this inspires you to upcycle something wonderful!

shen

Succulents, a sleepy little gnome, and an old song...

Another succulent garden endeavor.

I can never just like something, I have to love it passionately. 

My little garden gnome. I didn't want to bombard my little garden with these little guys. That's just freaky. So with the help of the hubs, I got the sleeping one.

In Tony's words, "Get that one...He's lazy.. like you."  

Thanks, hunnie.  :D  

On the other side...

shen

Keeping me occupied....

I have a severe issue with being bored, hence my erratic crafting, and hobbies. Although, I have tried not to, I shamefully admit that I succumb to the urge of poking at the hubby & pouting (at times, yanking on his arm) and saying “I’m bored! Entertain me!”

My latest “bright idea” is designing my craft room…

And so, with a new notebook tucked into my “craft bag” I take to work, I am now searching and sketching up some designs for my little craft room. Which is in horrible disarray & in dire need of  major major organization. Aside from my "throw it in this container" philosophy...   I’ve found some really great ideas, and as I do, I print the pics out & glue them into my notebook…

If all goes well, I’m hoping to have my craft room done by the end of the summer…

Did I ever tell you I’ve had a strong infatuation with Owls since I was 4? I shall tell you the story some day.  But here are my cute little owl notebooks. The larger is where I am putting all my craft room inspirations in. (You’ll see the pictures below.) The smaller is a bit thick & I’m using as a “fabric” journal… I’ll post pictures of that at a later time. 

It has been over 20 years since I’ve done any needlework. I definitely need some practice, but I thought I would try out my logo. I plan on putting it up in a loop as décor in my craft room. 

Just a few things I want to incorporate into my craft room. 

 

Aside from my Crafty Room day dream.  Here are other craft projects I’m currently working on…

1.      Knitting a recycled t-shirt rug.  

 Making a patchwork similar to the above image. 

   

2.      Continuing to make vinyl covered sandwhich wraps.

3.   Searching for  new fabric & planning to make my new ironing board cover. She needs a makeover badly. 

4. Gathering material to use the seashell hangings I plan to make. I got a "craft drill" over Mother's Day, and I can't wait to use it! 

COMPLETELY COASTAL   

Great Items, and an Etsy shop too! 

Anyways, here is a song by OK GO.... I think I've played this a ba-zillion times already. 

Hope you are all having a great day.

The sun is shining again & its beautiful out.

shen

for the momma.

I stumbled on a blog by a lady named Arlette http://mousechirpypolkadotpineapple.blogspot.com a few months ago, and now I make a conscious effort to check  for updates. I totally love the things she makes, and (I'll admit) I'm a lil bias when it comes to all things Hawaii. 

I particularly liked Arlette's tutorial on Wire edged fabric flowers & when I decided to try it out, I found it to be addicting. I didn't know what to do with them all 'til one  morning, I thought I would try to put it on a circle felt wreath I was making. Tried it, and hated it! Way too much.. So, as the project sat on my living room floor, and I continued to make these cute little flowers....  it took me a couple days and one sunny bright morning and a lil Hawaii home sickness, and tadah! This idea was hatched into my head. With mother's day just around the corner, I decided to make one for my mom too. My mom's fave color is lavender. 
 
So please refer to the Arlette's tutorial for the flowers as for me this is what I did.







Aloha sign 

• Used a wood piece (found in the wood area of the craft store)
• Burnt the edges lightly to give it that aged beachy bonfire kinda look.
• As for the lettering, I just used a font I liked from MSword, sized it accordingly, printed it out, pinned it to the felt & cut it out.  Then I glued my pieces on w/ regular craft glue.  You can always do this w/ a cricut if you have one. I was transporting this project back and forth from home to work, so I did everything travel friendly.

 

Wreath

• Spray painted some inexpensive grapevine wreaths (3 coats) .  (here are pics of the hubby spray painting them in our driveway, they're on old drawers so it would be easy to transport between coats) I like playing the helpless chick when it comes to spray painting my projects because he does such an awesome job. 

Decor

• Hot glued everything in place. 

That's it! What do you think? Let me know if you have any questions. 

I hope my mom likes it.... 

Happy Mothers Day to all the moms out there!

shen

SUCCULENTS!!!!!

This is quite possibly my new favorite word. SUCK----YOU- LENTS!!!

haha...anyways, I was at the walmart a city down from me, and I was perusing the garden section when I ran into a specific section full of these beautiful plants & I fell in love.
Aren't they beautiful?

ooohhhs & ahhhs... 

 So, I continued on walking through the store, and I started to think... where am I gonna put these? do I have pots for them?  

SIDE NOTE: I am a plant killa' ... so notorious, in fact that even Sam ( my soon to be teenager) has always given me the "oh brother, rolling eyes" look all the time I look at plants... SINCE SHE WAS TWO! TWO!!! 

So, trying to salvage my reputation, I read the little info tab of each plant, and all said they needed lots of sun. So perfect spot? The loft/ den. It gets plenty of afternoon light & we needed plants in that area! ( I have since started a collection of houseplants a year ago, and everything is going well. :::knocks the closest wood::: ) 

Then I happen to go down the glass container isle in the home decor section, and  TADAH!!!!! Terrarium idea born!

So here is a short and quick tutorial on what I did. They didn't turn out to be exactly a closed terrarium, but the look is there, and I eventually want to make a closed one...

So this is what you'll need... 

• plants or plants (depending on how big your container is)

tip: it's always good to have similar plants together, it will make your plants happier if you've got a theme going... if you're all over the place, you just make plant vomit and your plants will wilt & eventually die.

• river rocks ( I bought aquarium river rocks) & placed them evenly across the bottom of the container

• moss/ activated charcoal ( I actually had a huge container of charcoal from our old turtle tank)  Place this on top of the rock layer. About an inch layer of moss or charcoal should do the trick.

 please remember that there are not exact measurements. EVERYTHING will all depend on the size of your container. 

• Regular potting soil, you can eyeball where you want your "ground level to be & then figure out how much soil to put in..

• Place plants as you see fit. (w/ mine, I had one plant in each so it was easy)

NOW COMES THE TRICKY PART.  (at least it was for me)

You need to get soil to go around the plants base ( the part that was in the pot)  & down between the glass. I used a piece of paper to prevent the soil from dropping onto my plants, and (in handfuls) tried the best I could to get that gap filled in. I used chopsticks (disposables ones) to scoot things into place & after lifted the paper up and out. It worked... The chopsticks come in handy when working with a narrower opening, and to move little figurines around.


Like I said I want to take a stab at an actual closed glass terrarium soon. I'm gonna hit up the local thrift shops this weekend to see if I can find an old vintage candy jar type  container.


I finished up by placing some rocks  on "ground level" with my plants. 

The middle plant was an early Mother's Day gift from the kiddos.

So here it is, my little indoor garden of 

SUUUUHHHH---CKKK----YYYYOOOOOUUU---LENTS!!!

 Com' on admit it you like sayin'  it too.

shen