Monday, June 30, 2014

Awesome Studio Storage From the Recycling Bin...

Redoing the studio gets a girl dreaming.

At least it gets this girl dreaming.

Every artist wants that Pinterest worthy, picture perfect, naturally lit dream studio.

See my Pinterest Board here:


Reality is a whole different story.

Remember....

My actual studio style is....

PILES.

and

STACKS.

And 

More Piles.

But a girl can dream, right?  

Sometimes she can even do a little something about it.

Not too long ago, while shopping at Sam's Club, I found this awesome 3 tired galvanized stand back on the clearance shelves.

I was in love.

Only one left.

$24.90

Not as cheap as I would like, but reasonable.

Suddenly I remembered I might have a gift card from Christmas.

I put the stand in my cart so no one else could scoop it up while I went digging.

In my wallet.

For a card...???

Maybe?

Yes!

A $25 gift card.



My mother-in-law would be so pleased to have gotten me such a fantastic gift that I am going to like so much!

So I brought it home. 

 My husband just sort of shook his head.

It will be perfect for my studio.

Or parties.

Or on the kitchen island.

Then it sat sadly on the floor in my garage while I dreamed of a clean studio for weeks.

Now that I am organizing, it has a new home.

On my little rolling cart.



On top of the pretty new blue cutting mat my daughter bought me for mother's day.


Right now it is filled with coffee filter flowers and burlap flowers and scraps....

But I wanted more tiered stands....

So I spied a silver lazy Susan cake stand that I got at the thrift store this winter.

Among the piles on the garage floor.

I headed to the recycling bin.

And back to the garage for a couple silver plates and platters.

I began stacking and re-stacking until it worked.

Here are the before materials:



Excuse the dew on everything.  

I washed them with a hose and then left them outside overnight.

Took the photos in the morning before the dew burned off.



Next came a couple light coats of white spray paint.

Now things look like this....



I wanted everything to have a white base coat.

The cans look OK.



But I LOVE the trays...

They look just so pretty.



I almost changed my mind about using them...

I decided I will enjoy them more if they are being used every day...




Next I assembled my decorating materials:

a burlap bag, lace, images from the Graphics Fairy I printed on muslin with my printer, my glue gun, old hymn pages, some buttons and twine, a cupcake wrapper for wings, a wee bit of glitter and a couple twisted fabric flowers.

Decorating was fun once I got the burlap the right size for each can.

I just wrapped the burlap around each can and glued it in place with the glue gun.  

Then I added and glued other goodies until I liked the look.

To assemble the whole thing, I did not want to make it permanent.

So....

I got out some magnets and pried them apart.

I put several on each can to secure it to the stand.

I planned to use earth magnets for the center ones to keep them in place securely.

That did not work out as planned so I did use the glue gun to secure the center cans.

Then I wrapped twine around the glue to hide it.

Then I added my goodies. 

Bakers twine in old sugar shakers.

Markers and pens.

Pencils and scissors.

TA-DA!



Carrying this outside, assembled, was a circus balancing act.

But I did it!

I want to show you bits in detail....

I love the baker's twine shelf....


The burlap flower was added because the sugar shakers were too wide to put all of them on one shelf.

I had to make the center can slightly off-center to 
accommodate the sugar shakers...

which did not leave very much room on the other side...

So I added the little spools and it needed something above....

A burlap rose.



The bottom shelf is my favorite....


Those cans were as much fun to make as they are to look at.

And for once, I have some of my better supplies at my fingertips instead of being hidden away in drawers and cupboards.


Now I might actually use them...


Who could resist such temptation?



Each can has its own personality...



I want to let you enjoy each up close....


 I love the mica glitter and the little resin clock face I made...


The simplicity of the burlap really only needs a couple buttons to completely dress it up.

This burlap bag was so thick and soft.

My daughter is a barista and she brings me the coffee sacks when they are empty.... 



I love images from the The Graphics Fairy.  

There is so much you can do with them...


This one only needed a bit of lace.


This one is actually printed on card stock and carefully trimmed.

I got the crocheted snowflake at a craft show.

A sweet lady made them and sold them for 25 cents each.

I wanted to make her day so I bought every one on the table.

Came back a few minutes later to see she loaded the table again...

She must have had a trunk full of them under the table...

Sigh!

I defied gravity and Fate a second time by carrying the organizer inside again.

We made it!

Here she is on the now clean work table.


That's my transformed candlestick next to her.

She looked a bit undressed, so I added a necklace I made.


Such a pretty stand. 

 Who would have known its humble beginnings...?

From the recycling bin.

Thanks for stopping by....

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From My Front Porch To Yours

My Repurposed Life

Sunday, June 29, 2014

Another Studio Victory!

I am celebrating each clean surface in the studio....

Here is a look at the latest.

My work table.....

Is clean!


Well, as clean as it gets for me....


I added my scrap ribbon/fiber basket and a bin of bracelets I am working on...

I love this little cupboard...

I finally have a place to store some things I am always using....


 My RIT Dyes which I use a lot for my  RIT Dyesigner Studio.

My larger punches which take up too much space in my card catalog drawers or just plain don't fit.


You can see these are the big ones.


  My home made Alcohol inks  sprays which I plan to do a tutorial on later....


If you look next to the alcohol ink sprays, you can see those little vintage tins from this post fit perfectly here.
Above the alcohol inks, there is some ribbon.

I have lots of ribbon.
And fibers.
And yarn.

I try to squeeze it in wherever I have space.

I love to slide the spools on tension curtain rods.


All in all, I think it is the perfect little storage solution and it takes up less than 6 inches on the table top.



The table itself has a quilt top I got at my favorite flea market a couple summers ago.  

I put it down on the table and then just covered it with a thick piece of clear vinyl. 

 Spills, paint, dust and glitter all just wipe right off.


One last look.



Yay!

Getting ready for Where Bloggers Create 2014...

Only a couple weeks away!

Thanks for stopping by....

Thursday, June 26, 2014

Thrifty Thursday...A Candlestick gets a pretty upgrade...

A while back I  showed you a couple sets of candlesticks I picked up at the thrift store...

I told you I might use one as a base for a dress form.

I finally got around to it.

I have made quite a few of these dress forms from the pattern I got from The DIY Dish.

My girls are always a bit lumpy but I fix them up and soon you don't even notice.

I glued a pale blue one made from a muslin bed sheet to the candlestick.


I told you...

She is lumpy and bumpy.

Some turn out better than others....

So here is how I fixed her up.....


I made her a skirt.

Tattered and torn...

A bit like me.

Once she puts it on though...She looks so pretty.



I am glad I showed you the candlestick first.  

You can hardly see it now.

It is the perfect base for her.


You can't see it in the pictures but there was a slight breeze that blew the strips ever so slightly.

It looked so pretty.


These photos were actually taken moments before it started to rain.

  If you look closely, you can see a big rain spot on her neck.


Side view.



From the back.

You can see her skirt is just tied on.


I like them removable. 

 I can dress her up or down depending on the mood.

The skirt was super simple to make....

Rip your fabric in strips.

Remove the loose strings.

Cut them a variety of lengths.

Cut some pieces of lace as well.

Start with an 18 inch long strip and just begin knotting on the strips and lace. 

 Keep going until it is long enough to meet in the back.

Then tie it on in a bow.

So there is this week's Thrifty Thursday makeover....

What have you been up to lately?

Thanks for stopping by....

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