Showing posts with label coastal. Show all posts
Showing posts with label coastal. Show all posts

Monday, April 25, 2016

Mermaid Crown

I am fascinated with crowns.

Which is sort of funny because I do not consider myself a diva kind of girl.

I guess every girl has a secret princess inside.

So I wanted to take a hand at making my own mermaid crown.

Here she is....


Talk about fun....


You know when you get to use seashells, pearls and glitter that it is going to be a great time....


The tulle added just the touch I was looking for...


And I am in love with the graphic appeal of a starfish...


I am drawn to any piece that has starfish incorporated...


I love the additions of the little bits of tulle here and there....


I need a pretty mermaid model to wear it...


I used the finest glitter....

Love the tiny shimmer of it...


This was a great use for all the seashells I am always buying at yard sales and the thrift stores...


Truth be told, I have many jars filled with tiny (and not-so-tiny) seashells.


So I have my own little piece of magic now...


It is a bit heavy to actually wear, but it brings me joy none-the-less.


How do you celebrate your inner princess?

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Sunday, August 30, 2015

Plaster dipped silk flowers...


Have you seen plaster dipped silk flowers?

I saw them last fall and was enchanted. 

 I wanted to try it for myself.

Sometimes, the crafting gods deliver what I need right to my doorstep (almost).

Last winter, a small silk flower arrangement blew into our yard on a windy day.

There were red, white and blue silk roses stuck in a piece of styrofoam.  

The flowers were all faded and my husband was going to throw it away.

I saved it just for this project.


I mixed plaster with some water to make a little thinnner than pancake batter consistency.

Then I dipped each rose into the mixture and pushed it down several times to coat all the petals.

I hung them on this card display.

The newspapers below are very important.


The red and blue roses required more than one dipping to cover the flower as much as I wanted it to.


These were the white roses and I only dipped them once.  I liked the finer, more delicate look only one coating created.


They have the look of porcelain.


The blue and red ones were dipped twice and have a chunkier look to them.

You can also see where they were touching the hook below on my rack as it left a mark when the flowers were removed.


I wanted to make a coastal arrangement to say good bye to summer.

First I spray painted this hammered aluminum two-tiered stand.

Then I added my plaster flowers and some coastal touches.


I started with some spanish moss to fill the trays.


Then I added starfish, seashells and pearls.


I gathered another handful of smaller shells and went back to fill in some bare spots and cover  any chips in the plaster.


I also added some of the plaster-dipped leaves.


It is a fun coastal arrangement.


Right now it is on my front porch next to the door.


For these photos, it is on my workbench on the back porch.


I think something like this would be so fun to do for a coastal wedding.


Some sisal rope would be a great addition as well.


I really enjoyed this process.


It was fun and easy to do.


They are pretty fragile so it not something you want to do for things that will be banged around or handled a lot.


Once I am done with them in this arrangement, I may do a fall version with leaves and a Christmas version with either poinsettias or evergreen branches.


I removed my roses from the stems, but you could make an arrangement in a vase too.


The plaster hardens in the cup relatively quickly but it was hot and humid when I did mine, so they took a minimum of overnight to dry.



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Tuesday, August 26, 2014

A Wooden Box Beachy Redo....


I believe this box was in the throw away pile at school.

It had some stains in the wood but I thought it just needed a little makeover.


If you visited our mosaic series, you might remember it from here:


I never did show it to you all finished up.


This was it before the final grouting.


Here it is after.



Do you notice a problem?

One of these things is not like the others....

My daughter noticed right away when I said that to her.



One of the corner shells fell off before I grouted it. 

 So I put it back on. 

 I did not notice the problem until it dried.

Now I am just going to pretend I did that on purpose so it would be easier to lift the top....

The inside and outside of the bottom of the box got a couple coats of Americana Chalkiy Finish paints in Escape and Primitive.



I am loving tan and beachy blues together right now...

The stains are all gone...


Here is the back of the lid.


I added a little Sea poem from a discarded children's poetry book with Americana Decoupage.



Now it's ready to hold treasures.


A pretty good makeover if I do say so myself...




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