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.
Melanie and I had an impromptu craft night Wednesday and ended up with these decorated Christmas bottles. We’ve seen so many of you decorating bottles and wanted to do some of our own. Here’s the outcome:
We ended up sorta copying each other. You should have seen us trying to get started. That first step is the hardest. We had great components, but just where and how to start was tough. You kinda don’t know what it’s going to look like until after you glue it down and by then it’s too late. But we’re pretty content with our first attempt. I think my favorite is hers on the far right, but I like our lace and music bottles, too. The one on the left, I just glued on a corsage and stuck the clown head in the top. No real thought there. It was like, hey. I’ve still got a bottle and these things. Stick ’em on there. But it’s right cute in it’s own way.
All summer I said I needed to dry some of the gorgeous Zinnias by our driveway. But I never did. Now, as the last ones are blooming, I’m desperately clipping and drying. Those pictured are already dried. Pretty, aren’t they? I planned to add stems to them and still might do a few, but I sure do like them in that silver bowl.
The process? It’s slow, but not as slow as it was pre microwave ovens. Cut the stems in the morning about an inch beyond the bloom and place them in a deep glass bowl that’s filled with silica. Carefully cover the blooms completely. I cover the bowl, but I don’t know if that’s necessary. Microwave on high for about 5 minutes. Let cool. Gently remove, blow, spin and brush off the clinging silica then repeat with the next few blooms.
Are you buying old lamp bases when you see them? I do love me a pretty lamp base. I’ve been known to buy an ugly lamp just for the base. But I’ve also been lucky enough to find some bases without the lamps. Here are a few lamp base crafts to get you inspired.
My favorite of all my lamp base finds. Got it at a regular ol’ yard sale for a dollar, if memory serves.
Even the smaller, not quite so fancy lamp bases have uses:
So I’ve had this one for quite awhile.
It seemed to need a candle, but it took awhile to figure out how to put a candle on that skinny top. Then the idea of a bobeche struck and it all came together.
Huh? Christmas craft with a heater brick? Yup. Here’s the story:
We had girls’ night out for a friend’s and my birthday this week. I had one little gift for her, but needed something else. Naturally, I remembered this the afternoon of the party. Erin was up helping out in the shop, so she and I shopped the shop for something else to add to the gift. A heater brick was the leader of the pack for some reason, but just a brick seemed pretty lame. I remembered Lena had added some greenery and things to some one year and we started looking around to see what we might could add to this one. Here’s what we came up with:
Erin wired the glass beads to the brick and spiraled and glued the silver chenille. My contribution was gluing the bird. We both contributed the ideas of what to add. Now, I wish I had more heater bricks! I actually did have two of these originally, but there’s a story why there’s only one now. Always a story.
When I was still setting up the shop, I’d put a pile of things on the roll around dolly thing and pulled it into the middle of the front room. I’d almost emptied the cart. Only a homemade picket fence was left. Rather than push it out of the way or empty it completely and put it up, I just stepped over it and over it and over it….. I thought several times I was going to trip and I should put that thing up, but continued to step over it and over it until it happened. My pants leg got hung up in the picket fence. As I lunged forward, my back leg was trying to shake off the fence. Body lurching, front leg hopping, back leg shaking the fence and I was going down. And taking a stack of stuff with me. A stack which included the heater bricks. This one survived. The other – no. So that’s my heater brick story. Or maybe it was the picket fence story. It depends, I guess.
Here’s hoping this weekend will turn up some bricks!
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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