Happy Tuesday Y'all!
Hope the weekend was kind to you! I had some much needed relaxation with the ones I love, which is always a treat!
This past week has been a bit crazy but I'm surviving & felt I needed a blog post to help re-focus my creative efforts {as just last Friday I was complaining "I don't have anymore projects to work on that I can do by myself"} so I picked up the special issue of "Easy Decorating" by Woman's Day magazine and began to flip through, rather quickly, dog-earing pages that caught my eye and figured I'd come back to READ the articles soon enough. {I never quite outgrew "lets just look at the pretty pictures" ... Momma is the same :) }
So with my mind focused on finding a few small DIY {not DIY+Ry} projects, I have 2 so far... the list will surely grow!
First of all, there is a cane backed armchair in my bedroom that will one day make it out to the living room. First she will need a new coat of paint {the wood isn't bad but she was only $15, so she's getting some color} & then I'll need to recover her seat in burlap, of some grade. I'm no expert at crafting in burlap, so I might need a trip to Joann's to find some that isn't "itchy"
{I do NOT tolerate itchy well at all!}. After all, no one wants to come to your chic'ly decorated home to sit in your lovely chair, only to find their tail-feathers are itchin' from your upholstery choices!!!
I know I wouldn't.
So, research by feel @ Joanns the burlap, order stencils in "French fonts" {whatever that means, I'll have to look online for some pretty ones}and get my paints out do the burlap seat as a faux feedsack look. Or maybe I'll make it a bit more industrial looking. Either way, too many steps for right now.
That means that the etching mirror / glass project is next up on the board. Now, I have not etched since my sophmore year in high school, when I hand drew a pair of pointe shoes and their long swirly ribbons onto tracing paper and made my first {and rather impressive} etching.
I still have that mirror, it's not hanging anywhere but it has sentimental value to me; because
- I actually took an art class
- It turned out well and I didn't throw it away
- I drew the design myself & it wasn't ugly
So, it hides under my bed in a storage container. But its meaningful to me :)
Now, back to the magazine ... envision:
- large angled corners mirror
- etched monogram letters
- hung by a *Sturdy* pretty ribbon around a door knob / hanger
Here are the materials you will need:
- Mirror
- Contact Paper
- Tape
- Letter or design - print out on regular white paper
- X-acto
- QTips for cleanup
- Windex / glass cleaner
- Paintbrush / Sponge brush
- Etching Cream
- Cover your glass or mirror completely with contact paper
- Tape your design on your surface and use an Xacto knife to cut around the design. Peel off only the design.
- Wipe the exposed space (surface) with a Qtip dipped in Windex and clean the glass surface entirely.
- Follow the instructions on your etching cream bottle, sponge or brush the surface evenly & let dry
- When dry, wipe the design again with the Windex soaked Qtip. Remove all remaining Contact Paper
- If needed, like I did, several more sprays of windex were required to get all the gunk off my mirror.
I hope y'all will find some ugly mirror laying around, or feel inspired to etch some drinking glasses. It's relaxing, not too time consuming, and if you're really just not artistically blessed with a pencil in your hand {ahem, me} you can print out all sort of fun designs online. I love to use shutter stock for "swirly" vector images and since you're just tracing them, the watermark on their photos doesn't affect the overall design!
I have some glass bath room canisters that might be getting their etch on {simple 1 word labels}
Also a set of 6 little juice cups from Ikea {at 60 cents a piece, love it!} might look cute with a monogram or something on them. If you're obsessed with monogrammed drinkware {ok, or
anything } this is a great way to do a gift set or for yourself on the cheap & chic!
I'll be sure to let y'all know how the etching goes with photos! In the mean time, I leave y'all with some photo inspirations I've found around the web!
xoxo
b
