Galvanized Metal No Soliciting Sign

Or what happens when a non-gardener finds a tomato cage. We are not big on solicitors. Not that we’re mean people but we’re just not people who like other people coming to our door uninvited, and if we need something we tend to go seek it out.  And yet it’s taken me this long to actually put up a “No Soliciting” sign.

I had some sheets of galvanized metal I picked up on one of my strolls through the HW store, and for reasons unknown, I always look at tomato cages as “what could I do with that” material. I don’t even love tomatoes, and Martha and I part ways at gardening. But naturally it made sense to use a tomato cage as a stand for my sign right?

I thought hmmm let’s put a finial on top. OK why not! And yes Mr. Lowes man, you do carry finials, and no Mr. Lowes man I’m not some silly woman lost in the HW store making words up! So glad I could help you learn your inventory.

I painted one of the finials taupe and dry brushed it w/ white.

Then came the uh-oh moment of exactly how are you securing this to the tomato cage genius? So I wired it.

I stuck the screw from the finial in the middle of the three prongs of the tomato cage and then went round and round with some wire. I went over that with some jute twine. This thing doesn’t have to withstand gale force winds so I think it’s OK.
I cut the letters and designs for my sign from white vinyl using my Cricut Expression and then made rolled burlap rosettes and a burlap bow:

Just to make sure my finial was even more secure I wrapped a couple of strips of torn muslin around it and remembered I had another skeleton key from a Michaels trip in my stash:

And I also had this little birdcage from Michaels “used to be a dollar” section that I thought would like cute hanging from my stand so I wrapped a bit of jute around it and tied it on:

Now when solicitors are turned away, at least it will be pretty!

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Centsational Girl

Scrapbooking Supplies Ring

SO excited to be able to add this button!

What happens when you have ring forms, flattened bottle caps, scrapbooking paper and dimensional adhesive in your stash? You make a ring of course!
I bought some ring forms at a bead store but hadn’t done anything with them until now. When I made the medallion for my altered bottle, I got the idea that I could easily make a ring using the same idea. So I did!

Started with a pad of Die Cuts With A View scrap paper “LA CRÈME” and picked a pattern I liked…this kinda quatrefoil:

and one of the flattened bottlecaps. Punched a circle from the paper and put a dab of Diamond Glaze dimensional adhesive in the bottlecap and pressed the punched circle on it to get it down really flat. Then I covered it with more Diamond Glaze making sure to get any air bubbles out w/ a pin. Let that dry overnight.

This is a ring form I picked up at a bead store. After the dimensional adhesive was set I glued the two pieces together with:

I like this glue because it doesn’t smell and aggravate my asthma. And that was that!

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Altered Vintagey Bottle Tutorial

Most of the time I like upcycling things to use for for something like storage. But sometimes the shape of an item just intrigues me and I want to play with  it like a blank canvas. Bottles for instance. Like this one:

I loved the shape which is kind of square and flat. The writing is painted / etched on so I covered the bottle with some of the contact paper I’ve been having fun with from Dollar Tree. I also had a pack of K&Co scrapbook borders called “Flora and Fauna” . These are vellum and somewhat transparent. I layered one of the borders over the contact paper and another on the bottle itself:

I didn’t feel like scraping the label from the neck of the bottle so I covered it with this cotton twine I got from Dollar Tree:

I had a vinyl monogram that I picked up at JoAnn’s on clearance a while ago for like $.25 and that went on the front. The bottle also had a seal that was part of the glass that I wanted to cover up so I punched a piece of the contact paper and put it in a flattened bottle cap which I then covered in Diamond Glaze:

Finished the whole thing with a pendant thingy from the jewelry section ( also one of those poking around the clearance bin finds) to which I added some beads and tied to the neck with a scrap of torn muslin:

While function is nice, sometimes so is just looking at something pretty. I hope this is that.

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BFF#13 : Rook No. 17

Yay! It’s Friday! That means Mexican food for dinner and I get to feature another wonderful blog and blogger. This week’s Blog Feature Friday is the wonderfully creative Jenn and her blog Rook No. 17:

I can’t describe Jenn better than she does herself so I’m going to borrow from her :

CREATIVE DABBLER, LOWBROW JUNKIE AND HIGHBROW HITCHHIKER. Both punk and preppie, sweet and spicy, and irresistibly drawn to shiny, glittery objects. MAKER OF THE CUTE AND THE YUMMY, & PATRON OF THE ODD & OFFBEAT; ERSTWHILE CAKE SCULPTOR AND CHOCOLATIER. Teacher of the pastry arts, student of life, avid reader, collector, and decorator.

And she is all these things and more! I mentioned in my last post that her bunny topiaries were one of the inspirations for my own. Here are hers:

I love how she aged the pots and she shows you how she did it.
I also adore this gorgeous “Friendship Craft” she did to celebrate reconnecting with friends at back to school time last year:

Isn’t that GORGEOUS! And not only beautiful but tasty because she made the biscotti that went with the mugs.
Since I’m obsessed with altering prayer candles, it’s no shock that I think hers are amazing:

She did these for a hostess gift. You should totally invite her to your house. Imagine what she’d bring! She might bring one of her delectable chocolate goodies on a stick:

S’mores on a stick

Chocolate (yes that’s some special chocolate with GOLD STARS!) covered rice krispies treats on a stick

Chocolate Dipped Salted Tamarind Caramels

Jenn does make non-chocolate goodies too but hello, where are you?
Jenn is not only a wonderfully creative artist and master of the foods on a stick ( as well as those that look simply gorgeous on a plate) and she also hosts a weekly link party every Tuesday called “A Little Birdie Told Me”. If you haven’t been before, now you have no reason not to!

It actually runs Tues – Sunday so there’s still time to link up to this week’s! I hope you’ll go visit Jenn. You’ll be glad you did!