Tuesday, March 12, 2013

The "B" on My Wall






Using wood letters and monograms are very popular. You see them all over the internet. Hobby Lobby , Joanns and Michaels have a variety of sizes available and there are lots of places that custom cut letters and monograms for your wall decor. If I haven't told you, I love monograms. No, I am not trying to revive the LaVerne ( Oh come on , you remember LaVerne and Shirley) look, I just like monograms. I like them on a variety of things.  In fact , just about every graduate that has gotten a graduation going to college gift from me since 1996 has gotten monogrammed towel sets. Anyway, seeing all the letters that were being used in gallery walls made me want one too. I do have a couple of unusual monograms around my house...



This one sits in my dining room .











 





My office chair was a Goodwill Encore.






I saw lots of B's online, here are a few that I thought were really cool...



                                                                   via
                                                                                 via
                                                         (via Pinterest)

At first I thought I wanted to add a large B to my Family Gallery wall.
 But as time went on, I didn't see one that I liked or wanted to pay that much for .I wanted a B larger than I could get at Hobby Lobby and I wanted a different font.  So, here's what I did.  I found a font on my computer that I liked. In fact, I discovered that I really must like it because I used in when I embroidered the B that you see in the center of the silver tray in the above picture. I printed out the B and took it to FedEx and had it enlarged.  I can't remember how much it cost but I know it was less than $2.00.  I cut out the B , which was now 19" in height and 15.5" in width. I wanted cheap so, I used a couple of large cardboard boxes that I was going to throw away and cut out 4 B's. I then glued them together until I had a B that was 19"x15.5"x1". Cost, so far, less than $2.00. Now, I was getting somewhere.

My next wish was to add some texture to my B. I had this wonderful wrapping paper that I brought for $1.00 at a Salvation Army. The embossed texture was great




 . So, I cut out 2 B's ( remembered to turn the B over for the reverse). I then used my Loctite Spray adhesive to stick the embossed paper Bs to the cardboard B.  A slight mishap while purging pics from my camera so there are no pics of this process. I then sprayed it with silver paint.  To get a smooth edge I cut 1"strips of card stock and glued them around the edges to smooth it out.  But that still wasn't enough.  So I added Mardi Gras beads around all of the edges, spray painted them silver and .... I love it. Already had the beads and the paint, so I'm looking at a unique B in just the right size, etc for under $5.00.













Right now to  I have my B sitting inside a frame that I bought and painted. Not sure if I want to leave it there, or mount it  over my mantle .k? What do you think?






Sunday, March 3, 2013

My New Obsession - Mardi Gras Beads

I know you are probably wondering , Mardi Gras beads, yes, Mardi Gras beads . I mean come on if you have a bunch, you've got to ask yourself what can I do with these?  I love these !! Here is the first project that I saw:




I saw this on Pinterest and knew I had to make one. I also had to visit the blogger that posted this, Amanda at The Ivy Cottage Blog. Cool stuff on her blog.  Well, this was the start of my,"I wonder what else I can do with these things". First of all, I didn't even think about Mardi Gras beads, after all I live in GA not a big Mardi Gras spot. But I figured I could use beaded garland left over from Christmas past. Little did I know that during the month of Feb. I would travel to Louisiana  2 times and Mobile ( where Mardi Gras began) . That means I came home with Mardi Gras beads!

I wanted a much smaller lamp for a  night stand and found one at a Goodwill in Mobile.  Sorry, I was in such a hurry to get started that I didn't take a pic of the lamp before I started. Mask the socket and the cord before you do any painting. I did spray paint the lamp with Krylon Chrome Spraypaint. I them started gluing the beads to the lamp using my hot glue gun.

 
I simply cut the bead necklaces creating a long strang of beads . I just kept wraping and glueing the beads on the lamp.

Easy, easy, easy. Just make sure you remove the many hot glue strings that can really be a pain. After I had covered the lamp in beads, I spray painted the whole thing.  Make sure you turn it upside down and give it a good coat of paint. I discovered that the first coat looks good, but after it dries you can see the original bead color.



This little beauty cost me less than $10.00 (including the paint).  So, I did say I love these beads, well
here's a teaser of another project using Mardi Gras beads.


 
 
 


 mb