I have incredibly inconvenient creative inspiration.
I never seem to get creative brainstorms when I’m just sitting around trying to think about new things. I get creative brainstorms at the last minute or when I’m in the midst of doing something else entirely. Read the rest of this entry
I keep hearing variations on the phrase “if you love what you do you’ll never work a day in your life.”
When I was all about acting I would have interpreted this as “you may love it but you’ll never get a job.”
But now that I’m a little more….in control of things (acting is all about other people telling you when you can act) I’m finding the sunnier side of that turn of phrase.
I spent a good part of my weekend “working” on new ideas. Read the rest of this entry
Whenever I arrive at Angelo HOME hauling some stock of coasters or, perhaps a giant LA sign, they say “Great! What are you doing next?” Read the rest of this entry
Well the pantry project got a bit sidelined for the past few days. It’s coming along – walls painted, doors painted…..and that’s about it. Read the rest of this entry
As you are well aware, organizing is my mantra these days (or it would be if I could find my mantra – I think it’s under a pile of papers somewhere)
So, when my friend Aimee requested a small, decorative wall organizer for her desk I was up for it.
Also, because “organized” means using time wisely, I thought I’d combine two projects and make her wall organizer my latest Mod Pod Rocks project!
See? I’m getting really good at this!
I took some inexpensive (dollar bin!) boxes from Michaels, some scrapbook paper, a bit of scrap wood and, of course some poor, innocent candle and got to work.
It’s a very easy project although quite specific to Aimee so I think of this as more of a “jumping off point” idea.
Although I’m pretty sure you can intuit the various steps of this project you can, if you’d like, see the full tutorial at MPR.
Life is getting crazy busy and I feel like the guy in the movie who, while running away from the monster, falls and shouts to his friends:
“I’ll never make it! Just keep crafting without me!”
………….OK, they don’t usually say “crafting” but you get the idea.
Every day starts with laying out a “To Do List” and every day ends with me looking at the To Do List and thinking – “how did I manage to work all day and do none of these things?”
So, I’m scrambling to keep up.
I swear my tombstone is going to look like this:
So, I’m a bit behind on all fronts – blogging, manufacturing, exercise, personal grooming (no, really, I meant to grow a beard!)
But I am getting some things done!
I had a request for GIANT version of my HOME signs to spell out a child’s name –16” high with a San Diego/Beach/Sailing theme. I had to set them on the floor to get a (semi) decent picture of them.
I really love how they came out and wondering if GIANT Home signs might be a good idea.
And, no, the poor child’s name is not NAART.
Another custom HOME sign was for the great city of St. Louis
And yet another for someone in Australia who must have really wanted it because shipping cost almost as much as the sign did.
(you can see I’m still struggling with how to photograph these dang things. I don’t think I’ll do the mirror version again though)
And I made a delivery to my newest brick and mortar store!
If any of you are avid HGTV watchers you’ll remember Angelo Surmelis who hosted several of the networks shows (Rate My Space, 24 Hour Design etc).
Well he’s got his own line of home furnishings that can be found just about everywhere on the web. But, clearly bent on decor world domination, he’s just about to open a new store here in downtown LA called, appropriately, Angelo HOME.
He and his business partner saw some of my work, dug it and now I’m along for the ride. I got a brief glimpse inside the store and it is going to be very VERY cool! (Plus! Across the street there is a restaurant that makes amazing donuts. So it’s a total WIN/WIN!)
OK, back to work.
At last it’s chilly here in LA (in the morning at least) and starting to feel Fall-ish….or as Fall-ish as Southern California gets….I’m wearing shorts……
Anyway, it’s helped with my Halloween thinking. So, with the assistance of the invaluable Graphics Fairy along with some fun fonts from DaFont I threw together a quick, easy, Halloween Door hanger that I thought might be fun if you haven’t done all your decorating already. And the best part, it cost about $4.00!
You will need:
I came up with these designs using graphics from the aforementioned Graphics Fairy and a couple of free clip art images.
Here are all the graphics along with the two backgrounds in case you wanted to do your own thing. If I’ve done it right you should be able to click on them and then save them as a JPEG to print out.
I cut my scrap wood down to 10.5” by 3” strips
….and let’s say it all together shall we?….” rubbed my candle along the edges!” (Cheltenham Road: where good ideas go to be beaten into the ground!) and then painted over it with flat black latex paint.
(The candle lays down a barrier between the raw wood and the top coat of paint and the paint won’t stick to the candle wax. So, when you sand the edges in the next step you reveal the wood beneath and end up with an antiqued/aged look. You can see a full tutorial and explanation in this post I did on making chippy wood letters)
After the paint had dried a quick sanding gave me that slightly antiqued edge.
I then Mod Podged the graphics into place and, after they dried, trimmed and sanded the edges slightly and sealed them with a coat of Outdoor Mod Podge.
After that I put a mark 1″ in from each corner and drilled pilot holes (pilot holes are particularly important if you’re dealing with old, scrap wood – it prevents the wood from splitting).
I wired them together and my front door immediately took on a festive, fall Halloween vibe.
Now, if I can manage to look welcoming while keeping most of the candy for myself…………
Further thoughts:
I’m not crazy about the wire hanger. I think a black rope or something would be better and painting the eye screws black would be cool too.
I wanted to use hooks and eyes (rather than wire) which I thought would be easy to come by. However, by thinking that I, of course, immediately invoked the David Law whereby things that you’ve seen before and seem quite common and attainable suddenly cease to exist. This happens regularly. I don’t mean to be egocentric but I’m pretty sure that, at some point in my childhood I uttered the phrase “Oh, I’ll go pick you up a Unicorn – they’re everywhere” which lead to their immediate disappearance from the planet.
OK, it’s still, like, 90 degrees outside which does not make my mind wander to thoughts of Pumpkin Spice Lattes nor fill me with a desire to carve pumpkins.
However, the Halloween mantle must be created! (well, actually the Halloween store display must be created for one of my favorite shops and shop owners – Marci at Co0p 28 in Los Feliz)
You may recall that I came up with my Halloween subway sign as I was just about to sign off for a nap.
Clearly I’m good under pressure.
So, naturally when Marci called to say she wanted the full display sooner I immediately felt like lying down.
But there was no time! It was Thursday afternoon and she wanted it by Friday. I guess other non-weather-dependent people were already in the Halloween mood and had asked for products.
So I applied sunscreen and wandered to the garage and to try to come up with a plan.
I cut some of my spare ¾” plywood down to 9.5×9.5 squares, waxed the edges and painted them black. And after it dried I sanded the edges and added some support strips
(You may be noticing a distinct lack of new creative ideas a unique, personal style developing in my Halloween decorations.)
Back at the computer I blew up the images from my Halloween Coaster Sets to 8″ squares and, using Mod Podge applied them to some thin Masonite boards that I’d cut to size.
I went to attach the mounted, dried, graphics to the sanded backer boards and had a dilemma.
Once you put the graphic boards over the support strips you can’t SEE the support strips to nail into them.
Tricky.
So I slid extra support strips above and below them and, viola, a guide!
Genius!…..except when I accidentally nailed the guide in place and couldn’t get it out……
Anyway, a quick coat of spray sealer and it was off to the CoOp
I love it when a plan comes together!
They were very simple to make and Marci wants more.
I got some candle blocks in there.
And my Halloween Magnets
More ideas to come! After a brief siesta…..and a dip in a pool.
PS: These were, obviously, pretty simple to make and you could easily use images from the Graphics Fairy or any other clip art that caught your fancy.
I’m just back from a quick trip up to Tacoma WA to visit my sister Sally.
It is truly beautiful up there and I had a great time but I also experienced the danger of thrifting while traveling.
It turns out that very near my sister is a HUGE antique mall filled with amazing things at incredible prices! Big things! Will-not-fit-in-the-overhead-bin things. Why do I only find these places far away from my home? Ohio also seems to be populated exclusively by people who posses astonishingly cool vintage items that they are happy to sell very cheaply.
I restrained myself to paper items that were easy to pack but I’m developing a dream that revolves around a truck, the open road and low gas prices.
But for now I’m back home and happy to report that my latest project is up over at Mod Podge Rocks.
This one manages to combine my wonderful grandmother’s love of donuts, my wonderful mother’s ability to make delicious donuts* and my need to clean out the garage. A Trifecta!
I was inspired by the mind-bogglingly (not a word) cool recipe wall that KariAnne did over at Thistlwood farm. But I needed to work on a smaller scale.
I took some of my grandmother’s old kitchen tools (can you tell I was going through some boxes recently), a blown up copy of my mom’s recipe for donuts and an old shadow box to create this:
You can read all the details over at MPR but it’s pretty dang easy.
Aaaand now I’m going to go make some donuts!
*yes, I grew up eating home made donuts. Even I’d be jealous of me if I weren’t, conveniently, already me.
One of the aspects of this career path that I didn’t count on was the whole “get ready for a holiday four months before the holiday.” I still can’t quite master thinking about Christmas in June.
Hence my shock when people started rolling out their completed FALL MANTLES! this week.
I don’t really have a mantle (there is a big TV there) which I thought got me out of the Fall Mantle requirement.
I was wrong.
One of my stores asked me for Fall Mantle decorations. And, double whammy, Halloween Fall Mantle decorations.
I’m not much of a Halloween guy. Once people stopped giving me free candy I kind of lost interest in the whole event.
But, I have had good success with my snarky, literary Halloween coasters (warning: if you click on them you’ll end up in my Etsy shop)
And my vintage Halloween candle blocks
But, frankly I was a little stuck. My brain just wasn’t ready for Halloween thoughts.
And then this afternoon, juuuuuust as I was convincing myself that a nap was totally justified an idea hit.
Perhaps a variation on my subway signs with a Halloween theme?
I had all the parts so I thought I’d give it a whirl.
I took a ¾” pine board, painted it black, added some support strips, waxed the edges with a candle and then gave it a coat of Rustoleum’s Orange Spray Paint.
In the meantime after some after some quick brainstorming with The Muse
who is a whiz and both literature and being clever we came up with the text (text?! In a CheltenhamRoad craft project?! Well, I never!)
and I printed it out of 8.5×14” paper.
and mod podged it onto my precut slats of wood (3 x 13.5”)…..that I really should have dusted before photographing them.
By that time the orange paint had dried and I gave it a quick power sanding and got that rustic/antiquey look I like
I attached the wood slats to the backing board and
I have a Halloween Mantle!
Welcome Fall!
OK, it’s not really a mantle it’s the top of a bookcase.
I’d like some candy now please
PS: the full tutorial for these Subway Signs appeared originally on Mod Podge Rocks
