Bejeweled Candle Mat

Making a nice candle mat for my living room was in my long do-to list for a while. Finally with the lovely help my omnipotent super glue hot gun, the goal has been achieved.

MATERIALS YOU WILL NEED:

1. Round glass beads. (Around $3.00 a large bag of assorted colors)
   
   
   
2. Flexible fabric. I used liner that holds carpet in place (It was unused, of course)
   
   
   
3. Glue gun
   
   
   

STEP No. THE ONLY ONE: Cut the mat and bejewel it!!

Enjoy your CRAFTACULAR CREATION!! :)

Dad's B-day Present!

I don't know if you remember, but February is truly a month of celebration for my family as not only my mom's but also my DAD's birthday is in this month.

I though very carefully what would make a great present for my Dad and I realized that I should make something where my dad can display all the Zippo lighters he owns. He collects Zippo lighters and currently keeps them in the drawer in the bedside table. I wanted to make him a Zippo Lighter Collection Box, so that is what I did.

         

Materials I needed for this gift:

1. A box that had potential
   
2. Lots of sandpaper and elbow grease
3. Saw
4. Spray paint (navy blue-my dad's favorite color)
5. Felt
6. Pew and wood dividers
   

STEP No. 1: Disassemble the box!


The box initially had these dividers as I think the box of conceived to be a jewelry box. However, I needed some sort of displayable area so my Dad could put the Zippo lighters, so I had to disassemble the box.



I sawed off the little wooden pocket on the top portion of the box.



As well as the dividers in the box.


STEP NO 2: Sand the box and Spray paint the box








STEP NO. 3: Felt the pews and glue them to the box



STEP NO 4: Make a stencil for ZIPPO and Spray Paint




STEP NO. 5: Enjoy your CRAFTACULAR creation and MAIL it!

Upgrading Ikea Coffee Table

My Hubbybunches and I wanted a modern and contemporary look in our living room. We just got married in October and moved to this new apartment so we were very excited to finally get to designing our lovely apartment.

We had purchased the Klubbo coffee table and side tables for the living room, but I felt that the coffee table was not modern enough. It looked a bit clunky rather than sleek. So my Hubbybunches and I decided to chop off the legs shorter to give the modern look we wanted. It ended looking like this:

I was doing some research after we cut off the legs (I should have done it BEFORE) but anyways, I was doing some research and it re-confirmed that we had made the right decision because we just had upgraded our $49.99 table into a $768.00 table (that price was WITH sale).

Klubbo Coffe Table from Ikea

Bellini Overpriced Modern Coffee Table

Here are the BEFORE/AFTER the transformation pictures:

BEFORE NO 1

AFTER NO. 1

BEFORE NO. 2

AFTER NO. 2

And I could go on and on to show my immense love for our new coffee table, but I think you get the idea.


This is what my Hubbybunches and I needed to get this upgrading:

1. Hacksaw (around $5.00 at Home Depot)
2. 12" Mitre Box (around another $5.00 at Home Depot)
3. Lots and lots of Hubby's elbow grease :)

STEP NO. 1: MEASURE AND CUT

We decided that we would cut at the second slot after the legs were tightly pushed against the end of the box, instead of a precise measurement.

It took Hubby about 5 minutes each leg, elbow grease and patience. Repeated the process FOUR times.
The original height is 14 5/8 " and new height is 7 1/2 ". It was a dramatic cut.

We popped out the rubber end from the original leg and put it in the new leg.

STEP NO. 2: ENJOY THE NEW MODERN CRAFTACULAR COFFE TABLE

 I love it! :) Thanks Hubbybunches for the hard work!

Frame Your 2010 Calendar Back to Life

I was wondering around the house seeking for a new project I could do with what I already had at home. I fortunately found a frame that was just lying in the crafts' closet, an old 2010 kitty calendar that my Hubbybunches did not throw away because he loves kitties and the gift wrapping paper I used to make my mom's b-day gift. So I decided to frame the outrageously cute kitty photograph in the frame and hang it in our bedroom.



Materials I used:

1. Frame (mine was 12 in x 18 in)
   
   
   
2. Ornate paper (it can be anything, gift wrapping paper, scrapbook paper, even fabric, anything you want to be the background of the frame)
   
   
   
3. Old Calendar that you love and don't want it to go to garbage
   

STEP NO. 1: CREATE YOUR BACKGROUND AND CENTER YOUR ART


I used a sheet of the calendar and cut it to fit the frame and wrapped it with the gift paper and lightly taped the photograph in the center.



STEP NO. 2: ASSEMBLE THE FRAME!


I assembled my calendar art with the beautiful background into the frame. Luckily my frame already had the hanging hooks in the back.

STEP NO. 3: ENJOY YOUR CRAFTACULAR CREATION!! :)


Ta dah!! :)
The beaver and the bear, Boo Boo, also says hello and welcomes all the readers to our home:)

Candle Tray for $Free.99

My Hubbybunches asked me to please make a nice little candle tray for the candles we have in the bathroom on top of the toilet. We moved into the new apartment in December after getting married, so we have not had that much time, opportunity or the budget to purchase the small decors for the house.

So, this is what I came up with. The best part is that it cost me NOTHING!!
It was $free.99!!



This was now going to replace the aluminum pseudo-tray I made back in December when we first moved in.




I made the new tray following my hubby's suggestions which were:

1. Long and low sleek looking box shape
2. Maybe covered with aluminum foil and painted
3. Most importantly, long, low and sleek :)

Here is what you will need:

1. Cardboard box ( I had one from Costco from Sunday shopping)
2. Free paint chips from Home Depot (I got the idea from other blogs and stocked up some of these paint chips)
3. A type of glue (I used spray glue I had at home)
4. Paper cutter (optional)

STEP No.1: Cut the Box


I decided that I was going to only use one of the sides of the box (indicated by the red rectangular box in the picture)


I cut that piece into the following measurement. My candles measured around 7 cm in diameter, so I decided to give it 9cm, and in compliance to my Hubbybunches' request of making it low and sleek, I made the sides only 1 in tall.


After cutting the overlapping edges, it look something like this. I hot glued the edges of the box to make it look like a tray. (I know it is really ghetto to hot glue everything, but I have utter love for hot glue and its versatility, it's my confession of the day)

Note: I used some painters' tape to hold the edges of my box together, but if your box looks resistant, then this step is not necessary.

Step No.2: Experiment, Fail, and Paint Chip your way to success

Taking my Hubbybunches' advice, I wrapped the entire tray with aluminum foil and then spray painted it. It looked not as sleek as I knew he would probably expect :(



So, I went looking for resources around the house and I had some paint chips I had collected for another craft project I am still working on. So I decided I was going to use the paint chips.



At first, i was going to cut them into half inch cubes and tile them, but I felt that this would make the box look very small and too boxy (if that makes any sense), I wanted to emphasize the long and sleek nature of the candle tray, so I opted for horizontal strips of paint chips, which corresponds to my objective.
After lots of patience and spray glue in my hand, the final product looked very nice.

Step 3: Enjoy your CRAFTACULAR accomplishment :)





Some post thoughts: I probably should apply couple layers of Polycrylic Protective Finish so it will be protected from the moisture in the bathroom caused by my love for really hot showers.

Mom's B-day Present

February is truly a month of lovely celebration as both of parents' birthdays are on this month in addition to Valentine's Day.

This year with my newly found passion for crafts, I have decided to make the gifts myself instead of just thoughtful purchasing one.

I started thinking carefully what would be something that my mom would love and one image popped in my head. She used to make a collage of photos of the family around her vanity. As we moved into a new house, she started decorating more often with pictures of the family.

Photos have been very valuable in my family history because when we immigrated to Honduras from South Korea, all our family photos were lost. So as a family, we deliberately started taking lots of pictures and collecting them.

SO, I wanted to make a photo gallery that she could hang in the house to remind her of all the family.

Materials I needed for the project:

1. I went to Goodwill and purchased seven frames that were all the same size (I got really luck)
   
2. One bigger frame to serve as a header of the gallery style frames
   
3. Spray paint (black lacquer and primer)
   
4. Ribbons
5. Glue gun
6. Nice foam lettering that said "Our family"
7. Gift wrapping paper (it was velvety thus more resistant to tearing)

STEP No.1: Dissemble, Prime, Spray Paint
   
The frames were not meant to be hung, so it had the stands in the back, so I had to dissemble, tear the stand from the back piece, clean the glass, and later prime and spray paint the frames. After spray painting, let it dry.
STEP No. 2: Deck out the torn cardboard backing with gift paper

I found this beautifully ornate gift paper at Goodwill and decided to wrap the cardboard backings to hide the damages. The gift paper was velvety providing the extra resistance to tear.
Step 3: Assemble and Connect

I taped down the ribbons on the carpet to give me an estimate of the distance I wanted between the ribbons as well as where in the frame I wanted them to connect. I laid the frames on top to estimate the distance between the frames. Once I was satisfied with the assembly, I taped the photo inside the frames, and placed them facing the floor under the ribbons. I hot glued the ribbons to the back of the frame. Also added the foam lettering that said "Our family" on the header frame. For better hanging, I made a triangular hanging strips for the top frame.
Step No.4: Test, Enjoy, and Mail
    
And Voila, a CRAFTACULAR gift for my mom!!! I posted the article today because today is my mom's birthday and just in case the present did not arrive Honduras on time, she could see what I made for her.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAMI~!!