Bling It Up: Personalising Your Space

I have a confession to make. I'm in love...not only with my hunky and talented husband, but also with one of the greatest craft/scrap booking supplies places I have ever found - Kaisercraft. Kaisercraft has several outlet stores in Australia, one being in Robina on the Gold Coast. I am thankful that I live in Brisbane, otherwise I would be there every day - spending money.

My friends will vouch I am obsessed. When we were there last time, I drooled over everything, took my time picking up bits and pieces and not surprisingly was the last one to leave the store with my very big bag of goodies. Kaisercraft Robina recently had a 20% off sale, so off I went, with lovely hubby in tow, and spent up a storm (much to my husband's feigned delight). "A happy wife, is a happy life" - right?

While I was there, I was inspired to add a couple of more craft projects to my ever-burgeoning list, one of which was the "Bling It Up" Project.

I thought it would be perfect to purchase the first initials of my husband's and my names ("N" and "R"), paint them up, cover them in self-adhesive jewels and put them on display in our living room area.

In the beginning: The plain MDF wooden letter "N".

As always for my wooden projects, I primed each letter's surface with two coats of gesso paint, to prevent the wood from absorbing the coloured paint to be painted over the top. This time I used a different brand of gesso, Chromacryl. My brief review of the product is that it definitely has more coverage compared with other gesso products I have used. Once dry, the result is a fine "tooth" finish - which can either be sanded gently or left as is.

Primed and ready: The letter "R" with two coats of gesso applied.

I had already decided that the "R" would be painted in Derivan's Structure Matisse paint "Magenta". However, I needed to visit my local Riot Art and Craft supplies store to choose the colour for "N". I knew it had to be blue (husband's favourite colour) - and had researched the many different colours of blue via Derivan's website. However, one can never really tell how a colour is going to work out by purely looking at their computer screen! It's definitely best to go in person and choose the colour off the shelf.

I ended up picking Derivan's Structure Matisse paint "Ultramarine Blue". It's an interesting paint colour, not just for its vibrancy, but also for its finish. Unlike other Structure Matisse paints, Ultramarine Blue dries as a matte finish. Most other colours I have worked with so far have dried with a distinct glossy look.

Both letters required a minimum of three coats of paint. Upon application of each coat of paint, the base coat took on a darker hue. Once dry, two coats of gloss varnish was applied to both sides of each letter.

Work in progress: "N" and "R".

The final stage of the project was definitely my favourite. I had purchased packs of round and flower shaped self-adhesive jewels to stick on the front side of both of the painted letters. I decided that there wasn't going to be any order to where each jewel was going to be placed. Nevertheless, I did decide to start with sticking on the larger shapes first.

"R": Bigger shapes were stuck on first.



However, almost at the end of this process for both letters, disaster struck! I had run out of jewels!!

Almost there: Needed more jewels!



A quick dash to my local Spotlight store allowed me to buy a few more packs - phew!!

And here are the finished products!!

In-situ: "N" and "R", blinging up and personalising our living room area!!



Love it!!

CraftyRach xo

The Three Amigos: A Gorgeous Cacti Plant Display

Ok, I know it's been a couple of weeks since my last post. It doesn't mean that I've taken a break from being crafty!! I've added several more creations to my collection of arts and crafts - which will all be revealed soon!

I think "The Three Amigos" project has been one of my most challenging to date. Not because it was difficult to complete, but I didn't have a clear direction as to how it would work out in my head!

I was given three small terracotta pots for my birthday just gone. They looked cute and suitable for growing herbs. Each pot also had a painted black space, allowing one to write the name of the planted herb in chalk. However, something was off with the colour - they were a light blue (the kind of blue that is used to paint the inside of a pool), that clashed with the place where I was going to display them, my kitchen.

Inside of pot: Original colour - "pool blue".

All three pots: Primed with gesso paint, black area kept unpainted.



I did look into buying paint that would be suitable for painting a terracotta surface. In the end, I decided to keep using my acrylic-based paints as the pots would be inside and not exposed to the outside elements. I had to prime each pot with several coats of gesso as the terracotta kept on "sucking up" (absorbing) the paint.

I then decided to use "Brilliant Alizarin" (a crimson colour), to compliment my kitchen's colour scheme (browns, silvers, whites, slate). Each pot was painted with several coats. Nevertheless, once I was done, I felt the colour looked flat and faded. I then mixed into the crimson colour, Derivan Matisse's acrylic paint medium, "Iridescent". After another coat or two, the pots looked more lively.

(NB: I didn't worry about painting the inside, as this won't be seen in the end.)

Before: Pots painted with "Brilliant Alizarin" only.

After: Pot painted with "Brilliant Alizarin" + Iridescent medium.

Seeing as the pots were going to be used as herb planters, I thought I would paint green grass on the back and front of each.

Front

Back

 

The green turned out black, and I was just so disappointed with the result. I even tried sprucing up the front black area with a border of silver paint.

Front: Silver border.

One word: Disaster!

I had a lot of my friends and family say it wasn't too bad. I kept on shuddering every time I saw them - I knew something was wrong. I guess the premise that they were also going to be used as herb planters was also not sitting well with me. 

Back to the drawing (or shall we say "Crafting") board!

I decided to use my acrylic Metallic Silver colour and paint over the entire surface of each pot, including the mini-blackboard at the front.

Silver Pot: Needed to use several coats of Metallic Silver paint to cover the crimson colour!

I also wanted to feature a couple of red lady beetles on each pot. I wanted to make them look 3D like. I used pebbles (or "Glass Nuggets") that I had from a previous project, primed them with gesso paint, and once dried painted them red and dabbed black spots on top!

Glass Nuggets/ Pebbles

 Pebbles: Painted with gesso.

Pebbles: Painted crimson .

I then stuck the pebbles onto the front of each pot with my glue gun.

Three pots: Almost there!

I painted on black antennas and black swirly, curly vines on the back for completeness.

I then went out to my local Bunnings Hardware Store, and found some awesome Cactus Plants! This was what I was missing! I was so excited to have three different-looking plants, that would need low maintenance and water and lots of sun (as they were to be placed under my kitchen skylight).

I also was thrilled to find some small terracotta plates to put underneath my pots.

Terracotta plates

Terracotta plates: Painted with gesso.

Once finished, I varnished all surfaces with a gloss. I also applied felt to the bottom of each terracotta plate, to prevent scratches on my caesar stone bench tops!!

Here's the finished product:

 

 The Three Amigos: Home at last!



The Three Amigos

From a disaster, it is amazing what one can achieve.

Crafty Rach xo