crafting

Coffee Table Upgrade with Mod Podge

Posted by Nat on Jun 18, 2011 | 12 comments

What else would I use to upgrade something?  I mean, really.

So we bought this table from West Elm right after we got married in 2005.  I cannot say that I recommend West Elm furniture for families with small children- it just didn’t hold up.  I loved the table when we first got it- it’s not too big, round (I love round tables for some reason), looked cool for a long time.  But our first condo faced west and the sun hit it during sunset, which took its toll.  Then Anna came, and she did a doozy on it.  I didn’t help either, what with my in-home-acetone-using-French-pedicures (ahem).  So, it was looking pretty sad.  We are now in abode #3, and it was really looking bad.  But we didn’t/don’t have the budget for new furniture right now.  We do, however, have a budget for craftiness and fabric- couldn’t possibly cost as much, right?!  Hmmm… not so sure, but I sure do like how this turned out.  Here’s the before:

I went to my local JoAnn Fabrics, spotted the fabric and loved it right away, so I bought 3 yards, and some black upholstery/pillow trim.  I stocked up on staples for my staple gun, made sure I had plenty of Mod Podge (fabric and hard coat) and a brayer (new fave tool!) and off I went.  In case you aren’t in the mood to scroll, here’s the finished product:

I apologize for the lack of photos- this was done months ago during my blogging break, but I will describe it as best I can.  I won’t say this is a tutorial, but if you ever ponder doing the same thing with one of your pieces of furniture, please shoot me questions and I’m happy to answer them.

First I poured a pretty hefty amount of Mod Podge (fabric) on the table and spread it out as evenly as I could over the top, but not the sides.  Then, I carefully laid the fabric on top, like so:

Then I used the brayer to roll the fabric out as flat as possible until I could see no air bubbles, no bumps, etc.  With the pattern in the fabric my eyes did cross a bit from time to time, and eventually I had to sit down and take a breather.

I waited a bit, and then I carefully trimmed off the excess fabric.  This is when the stapling began.  I wasn’t really sure how I was going to do this part- it was definitely a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants project.  But I ended up being happy with the results.  Basically I pulled the fabric straight down and stapled until I absolutely had to pleat it because of the direction the fabric was pulling.  It seemed scientifically impossible to get it all to lay flat on the sides.  You’ll see in the collage below that there are just some pleats here and there- I stapled them as tight as I could- my fingers were nearly raw by the time I finished.

Finally, I added the trim with a hot glue gun.  I think in hindsight I should have stapled at least the beginning down with a staple or two, but it’s holding up great so far, so maybe it’s not completely necessary?

I wasn’t done yet, though.   I started the Mod Podge process with the hard coat formula using sponge applicators.  I have only been able to find MP hard coat in the smaller jar, and I started with two jars, but ended up buying two or three more.  I always did these coats after the kids went to bed so it could dry over-night.  I decided to go with the “built up finish” because I knew this table would be put under great duress by us and the kids, and the more layers, the better.  This equates to a minimum of 5 coats.  After 5 coats, I didn’t feel it was done yet.  There were lots of ripples in the MP, and I was curious to see if they would go away with a few more coats.  I think I probably did 10 coats or so- it was a lot.  It was also a bit tacky, as MP sometimes is, and I didn’t know what to do about that.  In the end I first sanded it a bit with a really fine-grain sand paper, then sprayed the top and sides with two coats of clear acrylic spray.  I’m actually not convinced I’m done with it, but it’s holding up great until I figure out what to do- maybe I’ll put some custom-cut glass on it someday when the kids are a bit older?  Or maybe by then we’ll be able to afford a new table… Hmmm…     Anyhoo, here are some more shots of the finished product:

Invitations, Paper Punches and Planning, Oh My!

Posted by Nat on Jun 8, 2011 | Comments Off on Invitations, Paper Punches and Planning, Oh My!

I love a good party.  What’s not to love about getting together with people you like and celebrating something… or just eating and drinking yummy things?  Last year we put on a Thank You Party for the teachers at Anna and Jack’s preschool, and it was a big success.  I didn’t get very many pictures last year- I’m hoping this year will be different.  Hindsight 20/20, Michael and I did way too much complicated food, so we were running around the whole time trying to balance entertaining with cooking.  This year I hope to choose much easier food that we can prepare ahead of time and then we can enjoy the company of our guests a lot more.  I will also have a new baby on my hands, so that’s another reason to keep it simple.

Every party starts with an invitation, and I wanted to try something different for these.  I’ve been oooohing and ahhhhing over Martha Stewart’s “Punch Around the Page” sets, and came across a coupon in one of her magazines for 40% off any item, so off I went to Michael’s.  I ended up buying this set:

I’ll admit I was a bit intimidated by these- I mean, really.  Can you really make them look as nice as they do in the photos of things that Martha’s people make?  The answer is: yes!  There is a bit of a learning curve, though, so I thought I’d share with you some of the things I ended up doing to help them look (close to) perfect.

Firstly, it’s important to know that you have to size your paper to a certain measurement in order for them to work correctly.  This makes sense, but it forced me to adjust my invitations a bit at the onset.  Also, do some practice punching on paper that doesn’t matter at all- scraps you’ve saved or something- just to get used to how they feel and work.  I do think they are very nice tools- they will last a long time.

I printed my invitations 8.5 x 5 inches.  I made about 4 extra so that if I messed up I didn’t have to print more- which ended up being wise because I did make a few bloopers.

Step 1 is to do your corners with the corner punch.  Turn it upside down so you can get it just right.

After your corners are done, you can do the edges.  This is where I made the most mistakes, but here’s what ended up working best.

The edge punch has a graphic guide that you line the corner up with.  I found that after punching those first segments just off the corners that I did better when I turned the whole thing upside down so I could see exactly where I was punching.

And here are some final product shots for you:

I just love all those little holes lined up.  I’m such a nerd.

Now that the invitations are out it’s time to plan, plan, plan.  I’m using two of my favorite magazines to lift ideas from.  I have some in my head, but nothing on paper yet.

How do you plan parties?   Any favorite sites or tools you use?  I’m a list person at the core.  I could use an app on my phone or something, I’m sure, but there’s something about writing a list out that helps my brain figure everything out.  More to come!

Martha! I Made It! Sewing Notions Organizer

Posted by Nat on May 30, 2011 | 8 comments

Whew!  I’m back!  I’m sure there are still several things to tweak on this new (and hopefully improved) site, but I need to get posting, wouldn’t you say?

I completed this project months ago and am so happy to a) have made it, and b) never have to make it again.  Ever.

You may have seen in my post about our house that we have an office.  It looks much different than it used to because now it’s a guest room AND my craft room AND an office.  While I didn’t need the office desk anymore, I did need help with all of those sewing notions that pile up.  I hate digging for stuff.  Maybe it goes back to my lovely run-in with scabies in Italy (shall I post about that sometime?  You tell me….), or perhaps it’s just that when I have to dig for something it’s a reminder that I should be more organized in whatever area it is I’m digging in.  This project eliminated a lot of that.   I am also a huge fan of taking advantage of vertical space.  Hence:

These sit above my sewing table, and they hold not only the things I use most when sewing, but also some crafting tools, as well.  And of course, it’s all because of Martha….

If you consult your Martha Stewart’s Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts, you’ll find this one on page 267. I apologize in advance for not taking great pictures- this was definitely in my “blog break” time and I was really doing this for myself.

I’ll walk you through what I did and what I used- I used the instructions in the book as a guide, but really had to wing some of it.  As a result some of my pockets didn’t turn out super swell, but that’s okay- they work.  You’ll see in photos below I actually made three of them, and the middle one has office supply things in it, which is nice.

In the book they suggest using homasote fiberboard.  When I went looking for homasote fiberboard I could not find it in a small enough size.  The one size I saw at Home Depot was big enough to warrant bungee cords on top of my car, and that felt a liiiiiittle over the top, so I opted for some plain pieces of wood.  The two squares are 24×24, and the middle one is 12×24. I then used some quilt batting and spray adhesive to give them a softer look.  I wrapped them up with the fabric and taped them in the back temporarily while I figured out what was going to go where.   Then I pulled everything that was driving me crazy and laid them out like you see here just above.  This took a long time.  I really wanted to get it right, so I debated for probably-excessive amounts of time making sure I could fit everything I wanted. I really took the photos of the layouts so that I could refer back to them while I was in the process- if you decide to make one or more of these I highly recommend it!

The most time-consuming part, however, was cutting the fabric for the actual pockets.  The book gives you a formula for adding length and/or height depending on the pocket you want to make, so I followed that and for the most part it worked out just fine.   What was challenging was keeping them all straight so that I didn’t a) get them mixed up and b) remembered where they were supposed to go.  You also have to press them and sew the tops over so that they look nice (who’d-a-thunk- Martha wants something to look…nice?). 

Here is a collage of some of the process.  You can see that I ended up using some office labels to keep everything organized.  This worked nicely because they stuck nicely to the fabric without ruining it, so once I had the pocket in place and ready to go, I could toss the label and it was like checking off an item on a to-do list.  Done!

The bottom left photos shows the middle panel I made for office supplies- and you can kind of see that I taped a border around the edge.  I did this to help myself remember where the edge of the wood would end up being- sort of helped me keep everything level, I guess.  And the bottom right is just a sketch of each board so I could write down measurements, placement, etc.

Once I had the pockets sewn on I stapled them to the wood on the back with a staple gun about 8 million times.  My husband helped me place the hanging wires on the back and, since we used wood which is much heavier than the fiberboard, we made sure to hang them on studs in the wall so that they wouldn’t fall off eventually (crossed fingers).  Here are a few more pictures of the final product as it looks in my office:

It’s hard to tell in these photos but my office is still a dusty lavender- quite similar, actually, to my new background color on this blog.  I love it.  And the gray of the fabric and the print really looks nice.  You can also see that I made some little cups to hang- it looked sort of empty in between and I had a ton of fabric left over, so I made six little hanging….cups(?) to put things like buttons, pins and safety pins in.

How do you organize your sewing notions?  If you decide to make something like this, give yourself plenty of time and don’t rush.  I didn’t rush this one and I still made a few mistakes, but I still love the final product.  My pockets don’t look nearly as perfect as the stuff in Martha’s book, but it’s so very nice to have this stuff right in front of me whenever I need it.   If you have a question, if I left something out, please leave a comment!  I’m going to link up to some link parties, too, as soon as I get a chance!  And if you’re all the way down here at the bottom, thanks for reading this far!

I linked up to:

Night Owl Crafting

Sew Much Ado

Creations by Kara

Hello 2011, Goodbye 2010

Posted by Nat on Jan 10, 2011 | Comments Off on Hello 2011, Goodbye 2010

Hi everyone,

I’m not even sure who “everyone” is these days- I know I don’t have a huge following on this here blog (yet).  I’ve been thinking the last few days about this blog and what I want it to be.  I have yet to totally arrive at any conclusion to that, too.  I do know that, with as much change as I’m going to see in the coming months, I need to take it easy on myself.  The readers will come, the crafting will get done- eventually.  And perhaps someday I will have thousands of followers and I can refer back to this post and laugh.

What I do know is that right now I must go easy on myself.  Work 4 days/week, expecting #3, and trying to keep my head above water:  that’s all I need to focus on.  I’m still sewing every once in a while, I’m still using good ol’ Mod Podge where I see fit, but my hopes of being a renegade, craft-at-all-hours, multiple-posting blogger WHILE doing all of the things I must to keep myself and my family healthy and sane- those were futile hopes, I fear.

So I guess in a way I’m sort of giving myself public permission to “let my blog go” for now.  I will post infrequently, as I see fit, and I will not feel bad about it.  I will keep my blog floating with minimal supplies, and come summer time when all of my big changes happen, then “Howdy, folks!” I will be back and blogging (I hope).

Until then I hope to bring you fun posts as they come- maybe once a week, maybe once a month… maybe longer.  I thank you in advance if you stick with me through this tough time- because it’s tough for me to work 4 days/week and try to maintain any presence…anywhere, let alone online. 🙂

Hugs,

Nat

Starbucks Card Upgrade

Posted by Nat on Nov 16, 2010 | 2 comments

Hi friends,

Working has certainly taken its toll on my little blog here.  I hope after the holidays I can really come up with a system to keep posting more regularly.  We’ll see…

Onto my project…  I actually did this just before Halloween, but the backstory goes back even further.  I have a former student who I taught at school, and I also taught him piano lessons.  I met him in 2002 when I started my current job.  This year he started acting school at NYU.  Talk about a reality check- did you know that everyone grows up? It’s amazing, though, to watch a student grow into such an amazing person- he really is someone to be proud of.

Anyhoo, I procrastinated about giving him a graduation gift.  Then I bought the gift… and it sat for a little too long in my purse.  I’m amazed I didn’t use it instead, because I love me some Starbucks.  But I wanted to make sure he got something relatively funny and special to make up for the fact that his gift was totally late and not really that creative.  So I made over his Starbucks card.

Remember college?  If you went to college, I bet you wish you had an endless Starbucks card for those mornings when you wake up and need.  Coffee.  Immediately.  I harkened back to a day when I slept through an exam.  Actually, come to think of it, I graduated from college in 1998 and I don’t think I had been in a Starbucks more than 2 or 3 times.  I digress…

So first I hopped onto Photoshop and designed the new front for his card.

This is often how I feel in the morning, even though our budget doesn’t allow for Starbucks nearly as often as I’d like.

Then I slapped it onto the card- this was easy- I just tried to make sure the layer of Mod Podge was super thin because I didn’t want it to thicken the card up too much.

Then I traced the card holder to make it match.  I had to trace the holder both directions- a good lesson in spatial awareness.  🙂  I also had to make sure I traced the little notches, and I cut them with a razor knife before MPing.

Then I Mod Podged that sucker up as well.  Here’s the final product.  Note that I poked fun at myself for taking so long.  And you’ll probably see that the Mod Podge smeared the ink on my card- I did a thin coat on top and it did sort of “fog it up” but I sort of liked it, and also didn’t want to delay sending an already-late gift just because of some smeared ink.

I think I will do this again for Starbucks gifts- it was fun, easy, and once I got my rear in gear, a fun way to perk up an otherwise totally expected gift.

Martha, I Made it!….. It’s just a pincushion

Posted by Nat on Oct 30, 2010 | Comments Off on Martha, I Made it!….. It’s just a pincushion

I know- it’s just a pincushion.  But I made it.  Ta da!

(Please pardon the poor lighting- I did this one at night.)

You can find the instructions (which are uber-simple) for this lovely heirloom tomato pincushion in your Martha Stewart’s Encyclopedia of Sewing and Fabric Crafts on page 278.

By the way, I’m in the process of making something else from this book that I am super excited about.  It’s taking a long time to make- silly thing I have called a job keeps getting in the way.   But it’s going to help me organize my sewing notions, get rid of my desk, and make way for a guest bed- wowzers!  Can’t wait to show it to you!