Create with vintage and found items. Repurpose. Reuse. Paint. Don’t paint. These are tutorials of my DIY and craft successes – as well as pictures of my DIY and craft failures. Keeping it real, my friend. Keeping it real.
Can y’all stand more free graphics? That’s what I thought. Who can get enough? I’ve accumulated a ton of great graphics and photographs over the years, but have trouble parting with them, yet I’d really like someone to get some use out of them. So here’s my version of Free Graphic day. I don’t have enough to be like Graphics Fairy. Not even close, but I do have enough to do a once a week post with one or two. Haven’t decided how to handle it yet, but figure it’ll all work out. Here are the first two.
To copy them to your computer, put your cursor over the picture, right click and choose save as. If you’re new to all this, be sure you make note of where it’s saving to so you can find it on your computer later. Then you can edit it in your photo editing software to make it smaller if it’s not a good size for your project.
The first one is small, but it is the original size.
Here’s another gutter guard craft for you! You know I’ve said I rarely have an original idea and that’s true, but I think this one was all mine. Which would explain the lack of hurrahs and applause and the “how did you ever think of that” comments. But in the event you would like to make one of your own, here are the super simple instructions.
The gutter guard, which I believe is still made, originally looks like this:
Turn it upside down so that the tines are standing up. Using some needle nose pliers, curl the front few tines so that the very front tines are lower than the side tines. And there you have it. A picture or plate easel.
The hardest part is finding the gutter guard.
You can see the gutter guard cloche using a different type guard here Gutter Guard Cloche.
Y’all know I rarely have an original idea and this gutter guard cloche is no exception. I know I’ve seen it done on Raised In Cotton and probably some other blogs, and I’ve had it on my mind to make one of these for quite a while now. I found a bunch of old, wire, gutter guards over a year ago at an estate sale and they’ve just been sitting there, mocking, taunting, saying: Here we sit. Make a cloche with one of us! Make it. Make it. Do it. What are you waiting for? How long has it been? You know you wanna. Come on. We don’t think you can. Chic-kennnnn.
It wasn’t that I didn’t think I could. I knew I could do it. Nothing to it. My problem is inertia. And the shop taking over my life, but that’s a whole ‘nuther discussion. So a few days ago, Melanie called and said, let’s get together and make something. She brought a necklace that needed restringing and I got out a gutter guard, some thin wire and a decanter top. (Vintage trim and birds were later added, and I think it would be sweet with a tag. But I didn’t have a tag, so it’s going without one. Maybe someday.)
I believe you can still buy these at the hardware store, but don’t hold me to that. I haven’t actually looked for them. All I did to make this sweet, little cloche, was take the thin, wire that comes on a spool and “sewed”, laced, the wire in and out of the two side edges, so it would hold it’s shape. Stuck the decanter top in the opening at the top and squeezed the guard around the glass top. I’m having trouble getting the finial to stand straight, though. Then, using small pliers, I bent the bottom edge outward to make a “foot”.
Sitting under it is a tiny nest my friend Teri gave me. Teri has an Etsy shop, A Drop In the Bucket for her unique and fun paintings. Talented girl.
If you want to try your hand at making a gutter guard cloche, it’s very simple. Your gutter guard might be misshapen, it might be squished like this:
But the wire bends so easily, it’s no problem to reshape. Just stretch it out and reform it.
This stuff is hard to photograph in detail. I didn’t think about putting paper behind it, but really. You won’t need pictures in that much detail. It’s that easy. Even a caveman can do it!
Another impromptu craft night, this time Melanie, Tiffany and I. I’m loving craft nights. It seems to be the only way I get anything done! Tiffany had bought some little tin – OK, aluminum – heart molds, so the three of us put our own touch to one. It’s so interesting to see the different ideas for — Valentine decorations from tin heart molds……..
A concentrating Tiffany. Melanie had just stepped out of the picture.
Mine, Tiffany’s and Mel’s.
I took closeups, but the background made them too confusing to look at. I’ll try to get closeups of Tiff’s and Mel’s in the next couple of days. They’re worth a closer look. Here’s a closeup of mine.
We all started with the same shape mold and we all used stained cheesecloth as a base. Tiffany and Melanie got their graphics from The Graphics Fairy. Mine was a copy of a picture I had lying around. Mel and I used lace and glitter and jewelry pieces and she used a silver cord. Tiff used a fabric yo-yo, red check fabric strip, bit of lace and buttons. I hope I can get closeups of theirs tomorrow! They each made a bottle, too. (I tried, but had an…. ahem…. artist’s block. Ha!) Again I took closeups, but the lace background did nothing for seeing the details of the bottles. When I get the heart pictures, I’ll take bottle pictures. Personally, I like to see them in place anyway.
Update:
Pictures of Melanie’s heart and her bottle:
The red hanky says “Lipstick”
Update #2
Tiffany’s heart and bottle:
Love the glitter on the feather!
Supplies used:
(If you like this project, want to make it yourself and need to buy supplies, shopping through these affiliate links helps support my blog. Thanks!)
Cheesecloth. You’ll need to soak it in tea or coffee to stain it.
Hi! I'm Wanda, the owner of Just Vintage and this is my blog where I talk about buying, selling, and decorating with all things vintage. I want to help you learn what to buy for resale and maybe give you inspiration in decorating, even if it's what NOT to do.
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