A random collection of crafts, costume ideas, recipes, and other miscellaneous nonsense.

We've always hated our gold brass chandelier, but haven't had the money to buy a new one. When at a friends house recently, I saw that she had spray painted  a similar chandelier for her baby's room.  I love the nickel finish, but as we have black furniture in our dining room, and had black spray paint on hand, we went with black. I read some reviews online of people that hung the chandelier from a tree to paint it. We had some empty boxes in the attic so my husband decided to make his own spray paint chandelier holder.   As you can see, he removed the bulbs and used painters tape around the bulb holders. He painted the bulb cylinders silver.  We may change our mind and go silver but for now its a heck of a lot better than the brass it was before!

I'm planning a Roaring 20s party for my upcoming birthday and I'm making most of the decorations. When cleaning out the attic recently, my husband found this really old door mirror. He was ready to throw it out but I saw potential! I didn't take a before picture because it was just.. Ew..and I wanted to clean it right away. Stick on letters are best, but since I didn't have any I just made my own letters out of construction paper and taped them down.  I sprayed frosted glass spray then removed the letters after it dried. Some of the spray went under the paper so I used nail polish remover to wipe the letter spaces clean. Next I covered the mirror with paper to spray the frame black.  I'm very happy with how it turned out. Since we had all supplies on hand we didn't spend a dime and got a great decoration for the party!

Shur-line touch up painter is a great find! There was an old brand I saw on Pinterest a while back that was no longer being sold. The only place I could find it was on Amazon and it was ridiculously overpriced! When I saw these at Lowes recently I bought 3! They worked pretty well. You fill up the paint color you want for retouching and after using it, you can cap it and store it for the next time it's needed!

My bedroom has had an in wall ironing board since I got this house. I hated it. It is directly behind the bedroom door so if you take the board out, noone can get in or out of the room.  My husband irons his work shirts in the morning, but never used that board. We have a full sized ironing board by the laundry room. If he used the wall board I would have burn marks from running into a hot iron while trying to do my makeup. It's frustrated me that it was just wasted space. It's right next to our dresser and a convenient place to store makeup and hair products. I asked my hubby for shelving to clear up space on the dresser.  To remove the board, he removed the screws from the bar then pulled the bar out of the wall. He used wood filler to patch the holes from the bar.  In retrospect he wishes he'd just sawed the bar off instead. He painted the inside and cut shelves to fit.  For the background we used scrapbook paper. I was not willing to s

I saw a cute laptop table on Pinterest shortly after my old one had broken. My old one fit one laptop and had the bar on one side so you could pull it over the bed. When I showed the Pinterest link for this giant one to my husband, he was excited to make it so we could BOTH have a place for our laptops. He followed these instructions . The instructions we followed are a couple years old and prices for wood have gone up. We also had a higher cost because we opted for wood stain instead of spray paint. This is about 5 coats from the smallest can of stain, and there was still half a can left. I love how it fits perfectly against the wall as a place to put our laptops when it's not in use. I also plan to bring this out during parties for another place people can set their drinks and plates down. 

With the oven at 200 degrees, I put the record on top of an oven safe round dish. It took almost 8 minutes for it to start flopping down, but I would start watching it around 6. You have to be VERY fast when you take it out, as it cools very quickly. I had just a few seconds to bend it around the bowl before it hardened. I had read you could put it back in for a few more minutes to bend it more, but when I tried this it didn't really get pliable again. 

These paintings were so simple to make! You just make a design on the canvas with painters tape and then paint over it. Once the paint is dry, pull the tape off to see your design! I used acrylic paint so I was able to use a little bit off water to remove the bit of paint that went under the tape when my brush broke.  Materials: -canvas -painters tape -foam brush -acrylic paint

I've been working on so many crafts lately, I forgot to blog! About 2 months ago I made teacup candles as presents. I scoured thrift stores to find cute teacups and old candle sticks. You can also get candle sticks at the dollar store. The AC MOORE in my area had a going out of business sale and I got a roll of candle wicks for less than a dollar. You can also reuse the wicks from the candle sticks after they melt. I also bought an old pot at the thrift store to melt the wax in, as it's difficult to clean the wax out. To hold the wicks in the middle of the teacups, I tied them to pens and balanced them over the cups. To melt the wax, fill a large pot with water and put a smaller pot inside it. Put the wax in the smaller pot and turn the water to a boil. Once the wax had melted, you can pull the wicks out. I used an old fork to get mine out. Add about 5-10 drops of scent to the wax and stir. Pour wax into your teacups and let it harden overnight. For

I have been wanting to change my kitchen valance for quite a while. My hubby helped me pick out a great design ( $10 a yard at Joann's), And I made it in about 20 minutes once we got home. Here is what you will need: - fabric of your choice - heat n bond ultra hold - ruler - iron and ironing board Cut your fabric into the amount you are going to use. I measured mine by an old valance I had. Remove both sides of the heat n bond. Lay it on the sides of your valance. As you fold the edges over, press with the iron. On the other side, make a wide loop around your curtain rod to get the shape. Put your heat n bond down and iron in your wide loop. Allow a few minutes for it to cool before hanging it on your rod. Note the importance of measuring with a ruler by my picture below. I just eyeballed it at first, and had to go back and redo the bottom to make it straight!

Holy ink disaster Batman! I have to get off the topic of crafts for a moment to share an amazing cleaning success! Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures (as I didn't really believe it would work). If you've ever had a pen go through the dryer, you'll know what a mess it can be. This is why I am adamant about always checking pockets! Unfortunately when you're letting someone do laundry at your house, you're not checking their laundry. As my eyes were bulging looking at the blue ink stains all over the inside of our new 6 month old dryer, my husband immediately started cleaning. Lysol wipes did very little, and goo gone did absolutely nothing, so he went online and searched for the best remedies. Hairspray was a little bit better. We could see blue coming off on the paper towels, but it didn't look a bit different inside the dryer. Soaking an old towel in bleach and running it through a cycle was what finally worked. I was shocked that it got almost all of t

Want to make a personalized DIY gift for Valentines day? If you're willing to get a little messy and have an old glue gun to ruin, a crayon painting is a great original gift! Sorry folks but I did not get any pictures while making this. I would recommend getting a glue gun that uses wide sticks of glue. I made the mistake of not checking this and had to keep twisting my crayons to get them to fit. You will need: Glue gun Canvas Crayon colors you wish to use ( I used different blues and grey) Painters tape Silhouette picture Projector ( or great freehand) Newspaper to work over Piece of cardboard Fine tipped magic marker I used photoshop to turn a picture into a silhouette, then added the umbrella into the photo. I used a small curved piece of cardboard covered in painters tape to block off the section where I wanted my image. I also taped under the cardboard. Holding the canvas over the newspaper I put crayons into the glue gun and let the melted crayons

I made these last year and have been enjoying them in my home. I have an older house that had gaudy gold light covers in every room. After seeing the finished product at a friends house, I was ready to tackle every room! You will need: Light switch covers Scrapbook paper Mod podge Exacto-knife I used an exacto-knife as I found it was easier to cut corners. You want to cut the page around the plate where you can just bend the corners over into the inside. Cut out a tiny little triangle by each corner. Also cut an X inside the center where the lifht switch goes. This way when you fold the corners over, it's not overlapping and bulky. Once you have the shape cut, mod podge the inside and place the switch plate on top with corners and sides bent inside. After its dried, coat the outside with mod podge. I put about two coats on mine. TaDa! Wonderful personalized covers made by you!

Another Pinterest find! I followed the instructions from this blog I loved the way her colors popped on the black background, but I had a different idea to match my decor. I took some pictures along the way to show the step by step process. You will need: A couple of scrapbook paper pages. ( I had 5 but I did not use them all) Scissors Elmer's glue Mod podge Foam paintbrush Canvas Acrylic paint ( if you're painting your canvas) I found two packs of 16x20 canvases for $9.99 BOGO at Michaels. I guess I'll have to find some other projects for the 3 remaining canvases! Cut a 1-2 inch strip of your scrapbook paper. Cut a rectangle piece off of that strip. Now cut from one corner to the other angling out to cut a leaf. I laid out the petals on the canvas to get an idea of what I wanted. It mainly just helped me get the correct amount of petals. I waited until the next day to finish, so it ended up looking quite different. By th

This should give you a smile today! I watched this gif a few times. I love red pandas! https://i.chzbgr.com/completestore/12/11/26/Gmq-smhIw0CD9iMomODBPA2.gif

I admit it, I'm a 'Pinhead'. I am Pinterest obsessed. A friend of mine made me sign up for Pinterest when I got engaged last year. It was much simpler than saving many pictures to my computer as I had been previously. Once I discovered the DIY/CRAFT category... whoa baby it was ON! I love browsing through the app for things to make! Therefore, whenever I get inspiration or ideas from another site, I will give credit where credit is due. I have not in the past taken pictures as I am making something, but I will try to change that as well. For me, I prefer images of the different stages when making something, instead of just written instructions. In the coming weeks I hope to upload many of my previous crafts with as much instruction as I can add. Going forward, I'll take more pictures! For craft upload number 1: I had some throw pillows I had been wanting to recover, but hadn't made it to the store to buy any material. I saw how to make a cover from an old sweate