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String Art Project: Kids Names

String Art Child Name

This string art project… Well I need to fess up.  I was the assistant! However I watched the painstaking process and tied lots of little knots.  Use this ‘how to string art’ as a guide so you can skip all the mistakes we made.  The final project was much easier than our initial attempts.

We recently moved into a new house, and have been so focused on making sure all the essentials are in that any artwork has been neglected.  Yes, I chose to be able to have a shower curtain rod and blinds over something pretty on the walls.  Where are my priorities?!  We have been working hard to blend our family structure and Adam wanted to make each of the kids a special name decoration for their rooms.  In comes lots of string! On to the project:

String Art Children’s Names

String Art Child Name

Materials Needed:

  • Base for Nails(2.5-3 ft long): You can use wood, if you really are insane and like nailing hundreds of tiny nails.  Our suggestion: Foam Insulation or Double Layered Foam Board
  • Paint: For the Base
  • Lots of tiny nails as known as Wire Nails*
  • String: Embroidery Floss* was cheap, easy, and came in tons of colors. 3-4 skeins are needed per name.
  • Print Out of Letters (2.5-3 ft long)

Step 1: All about the Base

We tried wood.  Painted lovely planks.  Then started nailing, and nailing, and hammering, and nailing some more…  And here was the final result:String Art Fail

Oh yeah, that is one letter… Just one letter! and we had four children’s names to complete.  I had the idea to use something else.  Searching the web turned up cork as an alternative.  Have you priced out that much cork?  Oh. hell. no.  Cork was not going to work.  We had mostly resigned ourselves to weeks of nailing when taking the kids to the craft store I spotted some foam board.  While it was not thick enough as is, I said “Hey!  Let’s laminate this together.” Adam look dubious, but I took the sheets home, cut out rectangles, and sprayed adhesived those beotches together.  Of course they curled up, but I remedied that by laying lots of heavy art books on top of the panels over night.  Who says I never use my art degree?

Though after doing all that we realized the giant panels of foam insulation at home improvement stores would work just as well. Doh!

Of course the finish of the panels is very plastic looking.  So we just took some paint and rolled it on.  Then dry brushed the surface a bit to give it some brush marks and texture.  Much better and looked like the original wood panels.

BONUS: The panels were so lightweight they could be hung using command strips

Step 2: Just Lay It All Out There

Yes, we had to print out the letters a bunch of times.  Basic math seemed to be beyond us (even though one of us has a math degree) and the letters were either too big or too small.  Once we had the font the right size we cut them apart so work with the panels and letter spacing a bit.

Laying out the text for string art

Step 3: Nail’er? I barely even knew her.

I know in the above fail-photo the nails were driven through the paper.  Unless you like the idea of pulling out 100’s of tiny pieces of paper DO NOT do it that way.  Simply take one nail and poke small indention around the outside of your letter.  Remove the letter and then press the nail into the foam.  Then repeat, and repeat, and repeat.  Keep pushing nails until your fingers are bloody tips.  Get smarter about it and use the hammer to lightly push them through.

Nail layout for string art
So many nails…

Step 4: String them Up

This is the fun artistic part! Weaving the string can take many forms.  We chose a random pattern, but you can carefully lay out the string to make all types geometric forms.  You can look at my craft board on Pinterest to see some other string layouts.  For fun we let the boys pick out their colors.  We may or may not have influenced the selection a bit…  The hardest part of wrapping all the string is just making it look consistent and tying the tiny knot at the end.  That was my job!

The final signs were hung over beds and on doors to give each child a nice piece of personalized artwork.

Completed string art kids names

 

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DIY Gold Leaf Lamp Shade

Completed gold leaf lampshade with edison bulb

I have always admired the look of a gold leaf lampshade, but I have not admired the price.  DIY to the rescue!  I did the DIY gold leaf lamp shade for two different shades.  I absolutely love the look of the gold leaf paired with the warm glow of  Edison bulbs.  I like it even better when I just squash my liberal guilt down and tell myself that it is an accent light and I don’t reaaaalllllyyyy need to be using the LED’s to save the environment… Anyway, back to the tutorial.

How to DIY Gold Leaf a Lamp Shade

Gold Leaf Lampshade

Materials Needed:

  • Lamp shade: Note the underline and bolding.  The lampshade selection is key to choosing the correct materials from this point forward!
  • Gold Leaf Sheets*:  I grabbed a Gold Leaf Kit* and ordered a refill.  I needed somewhere in the order of 40 sheets to do two normal sized lampshades.  I am not advocating using real gold here!  The gold toned sheets give a great finish at a tenth of the cost of actual gold.
  • Adhesive* (also called Sizing*):  Here is where the lampshade makes a difference.  Hard plastic interior lampshades work well with the paint on adhesive contained in a gold leaf starter kit, BUT you will really need a spray adhesive for a fabric lampshade.  The fabric soaks up the liquid adhesive quickly while a spray adhesive coats the surface of the fabric giving a good sticky edge to grab the leaf
  • Sealer*
  • Soft Brush: Does not need to be expensive and frankly I misplaced my bristle brush and just finished up with a sponge brush.  I might have been too lazy to dig through the paint supplies to find a nicer brush, though, the results would likely have a smoother finish.
  • Spray Paint: Only if you are changing the color of your lampshade
    Gold Leaf Supplies
    Replace this sponge brush with a nice soft bristle brush. Don’t be a lazy cow like me!

Step 1: Correcting Your Lamp Shade

Is your lamp shade old? ugly? Old and Ugly?  Give it a good cleaning, spray paint the hell out of it, and or bedazzle the exterior until you are happy with the look.  You’ll need to complete the outside prior to the gold leaf.  What’s that you ask?  Can you spray paint a cloth lampshade?  Hells yes you can.  Just remember it will soak up a lot of paint so be prepared to do a few coats.

Spray painting a fabric lampshade
Boring white to… Yeah it takes a lot of coats of paint. Lots of coats…

Step 2: Getting Sticky

All gold leaf applications require that you have a tacky adhesive set and ready prior to gold leafing.  What this means in layman’s terms is when you touch a prepared surface it will need to feel sticky to the touch.  Picture your counter after you have left some sugary substance dry and you get a nice sticky feeling.  Liquid adhesive is painted on and left to dry anywhere from 10-30 minutes.  Spray adhesive is instantly ready. Remember to only apply in areas large enough that you plan to work with soon.  The sticky places can overly dry or collect dirt and lint.  I worked in 1/4 shade size pieces.

Make certain to cover any areas that you do not want to gold leaf!  Small particles of leaf will flake off during the leafing process and cling to any sticky areas.  Great if you plan on having gold in that area, bad if you do not.

Prepping a lamp shade with adhesive for gold leafing
By covering, I might have meant just take some old fabric and cover the areas you do not want to be sticky. Oh look, I used some old cardboard as a work surface again.  I think the ship has sailed on me ever having a nice prepped work surface and all materials present at the time of crafting.

Step 3: Be Delicate

First and foremost, the gold leaf is not actually attached to the little booklet.  The pages in between are there as protective dividers.  Don’t be a dork (maybe like me) and spend a good amount of time trying to rip out a page.  Lightly touch the gold leaf with clean fingers and kind of fan out the leaf above your project.  Where ever it touch the sticky part it is going to be STUCK.  So just know that wrinkles, ripped pages, etc are going to be part of the first few attempts.  This worked fine as I wanted an industrial, patchy look.  Also if the interior surface is not hard, you are never going to get a smooth appearance.  You should check out my tutorial on gold foiling fabric for an alternative if you are looking for a completely smooth fabric finish.

Step 4: Burnish Away

Once the leaf has been laid down use a soft bristle brush to pat it into any crevices and remove any extra leaf.  After burnishing a sheet repeat step 3 with the slightest over overlaps on the next sheet.  I wanted a more random look so I applied sheets at different angles and used partial sheets to fill in gaps

Burnishing Gold Leaf

Step 5: Protect Your Baby

Gold leaf is delicate and faux gold leaf will tarnish and change when not protected.  The kits come with a paint on sealer but you can use any clear acrylic coat designed to cover metal.  Paint or spray your coating.  Once dry place your lampshade on and admire!

Completed gold leaf lampshade with edison bulb

PLEASE NOTE: INSERT SOME CAUTION HERE

Use common sense here!  You just added a reflective metal coating to an item that surrounds a hot light bulb.  Monitor the heat that your lamp is putting out.  Use a lower wattage or LED lightbulb if you detect any abnormal heat.  A good looking lampshade is never a reason to start a fire!!!

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Remove Paint From Brick Part II

How to strip paint from a brick fireplace

Interested in other ways to strip paint from brick? See Part I of ‘How To Remove Paint From Brick’.

Using SOY-Gel* is pretty easy but there are a few things you can do to make the product work a little better. So let the paint stripping process begin!

How to strip paint from a brick fireplace

Supplies: Drop Cloth*,tape, newspaper, SOY-Gel*, cheap/old paint brush, 2-3 inch STIFF Paint Scraper* (about the size of one short side of a brick), Stainless Steel Wire Brush* (best size is one you can grip comfortable, if it is too big then your will not be able to get the necessary pressure. Having two is better than one!), thick rubber gloves, old rags/towels

Useful extras: Second or third stainless steel brush (we didn’t have this), coarse steel wool, someone with lots of upper body strength

1. Begin by covering your work area: I can not stress this enough; I’m a neat painter but even I couldn’t control the mess. The stripper makes the old paint into a sticky goo that will repaint anything it lands on. I suggest putting a layer of painters cloth or plastic over whatever you want to protect. The painter’s tape does an okay job of keeping the gel off of woodwork. On top of the drop cloth I would lay a layer of newsprint (more on that later).

2. Glop (yes this is my technical term) the stripper on the brick: The directions suggest spraying it, but as I didn’t have the necessary equipment so I used a cheap paint brush. It is important to put a much thicker layer than your would paint; at least 1/8″. As you work you’ll discover the correct amount, but it is better to start thicker.

3. Wait: Yes, this is the boring part. I got into a rhythm of glopping it on in the morning and then scrapping it after I got home from work and the baby went to bed. However, there is a point at which it doesn’t make any difference how long you leave it. For me that was around 8 hours after that it didn’t seem to work any better. If you are going to let it set more than a couple of hours I suggest covering it with plastic wrap. I tried to be eco-conscious and reuse plastic bags or not use plastic at all. Trust me it was a fail, if the gel starts to dry then it becomes hard and tacky and you’ll have to use a lot more muscle to get it off. Plastic bags just didn’t cover it well enough but plastic wrap worked great.How to remove paint from brick

4. Scrape, now the fun part begins: Don your rubber gloves, these will protect your hands from scraping against the brick and the sticky mess. Make sure you have newspaper under the area your going to scrape. Then take your scrapper and go to town. The old paint should fall on the newspaper and you can use the newspaper to wipe the scrapper on periodically.

Depending on how many layers of paint you have the four above steps can be repeated. For six layers of paint and rough-faced brick it took three layers. Two scraping and one scrubbing. Ah yes, the scrubbing…How to remove paint from brick

5. Scrub with your brush: If you have smooth faced brick this may not be as big of a deal, however I was cursed blessed with rough brick. Basically once you have scraped as much paint off of the brick you’ll want to get that stainless steel brush out and start scrubbing. You can use any method as long as it involves scrubbing till your arms feel like rubber. Periodically the brush will get full of paint crud, at this point use the edge of the scraper to remove as much as possible (this is where another brush would come in handy b/c you can remove the goo much easier when it sets a bit). Also, you can rub any smoother areas down with steel wool.How to remove paint from brick

6. Scrub with brush again: IMPORTANT, if you still have paint left and are going to do this scrub put a thin layer of paint remover on and let it set a couple of hours. The paint is pretty loose, but with out this lubricant (yes I used lubricant in a sentence) you will burn the brick with the brush. This last layer is a good time to enlist whichever person has the most upper arm strength (Patrick) in, but warn them if they over scrub it will literally blacken the front of the brick.How to remove paint from brick

7. Wash down: I used an ancient towel and a bucket of water with another old towel to soak up the water at the bottom. You might even do this step periodically while scrubbing. It isn’t necessary, but cuts down on the scrubbing.

8. Realize some paint will remain: Unless you have some nice smooth brick your going to have particles of paint left. Or let’s put it this way; I got to a point where I liked the look and decided it was time to stop scrubbing.

How to remove paint from brick
This is after one set of scrape and scrub. If you are willing to go the extra mile you can repeat the process to remove more…

Notes:   Please, please, please remember to check for lead when working with old paint.  Also, This is a physically exhausting process. I worked in 2 ft sections so as to make progress but not be overwhelmed. This took many hours over multiple days weeks. Always remember to test these products in your home first because your results might not be exactly like mine. In other words if this messes your home up don’t come looking for me.

 

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How to Remove Paint From Brick

So, you want to remove the paint from brick work? Good Luck! This is a messy, labor-intensive job.  However, I know that it can be done. Just remember, if you and a spouse/family/friend attempt this project together you may need to add in the cost of therapy above and beyond what I list here. So now down to PART I of the tutorial.  Skip to: Part II

paint-strippers1

Before beginning to strip the paint from the bricks I researched various means of completing this project. I ended up with 5 top competitors. Here are the pros and cons of each of these methods:

If you have old paint you really do not want to mess around with lead!  Get it tested before beginning this process.

Heat Gun*:

  • Cost: around $50 for a cheap one $100-120 for good one.
  • Pros: Can do small sections at one time. Once you own the gun you do not have to purchase further equipment.
  • Cons: Can emit dangerous fumes especially with older (probably lead paint), May not loosen paint enough to remove from brick/masonry

Sand Blasting:

  • Cost: $ 85- $150 per hour (Usually hire a professional)
  • Pros: You hire a professional
  • Cons: This will harm the surface of the brick and can really loosen mortar. Even with professionals there is going to be a good amount of escaped dust (Lead worries again)

Peel Away® One*:

  • Cost: An Entire Peel Away Set*  (covers 80 sqft) runs about $110.  You’ll need special covering paper, neutralizer, and pH tester in addition to the chemical if you want to buy them all separately.
  • Pros: Supposedly it will just peel away the paint
  • Cons: Product can burn skin and you have to clean the brick afterward which can be pretty messy inside a home.  Some people complain it requires multiple applications.

Regular Paint Stripper*:

  • Cost: $40-$80 per gallon
  • Pros: Easy to find at any major hardware store, will bubble and strip all types of paint
  • Cons: Doesn’t stay workable long enough to remove from the surface of the brick, may take multiple coats, has major ventilation issues

Biostrippers: SOY-Gel*/Citri-Strip*:

  • Cost: $45.00 Soygel per gallon (covers 200 sqft)/$40.00 Citristrip per gallon (covers 80 sqft)
  • Pros: Eco friendlier (bio-degradable but remember it doesn’t make the paint bio-degradable) Soygel is good for oil and latex paint on wood and brick, Citristrip does better for latex and can be purchased at major retailers
  • Cons: May take multiple coats and Citristrip was rated poorly for removal of paint from brick. Soygel is harder to find for purchase

After weigh all the options we went with Soygel. Why? We had to think about how this mammoth project would fit into our lives. Here was what we (mostly I) took into consideration.

  • Logistics: With a 10 month old baby we were going to have to start and stop the project over many days (make that weeks)
  • Home Health: With a 75+ year old house it was good bet we have lead paint in at least one of the 6 layers. (Please note using this process does not insure lead safety.  Seek professional guidance). Plus we didn’t want the baby subjected to a ton of fumes
  • Cost: Seriously, I would have rather hired a professional
  • Most likely to work

The paint gun seemed noisy and not as likely to work. Since, I am doing this primarily while a baby sleeps then I needed something quieter. The chimney is already have mortar issues, which a professional will be addressing, so we didn’t want to exacerbate this with sandblasting. Plus the mess and cost were a turn off. Peel Away 1 seemed really neat, but it bothered me that it was so caustic and it looked like the cost was quickly going to add up. The regular paint stripper just had too many fumes. Finally, while it was easier to find the citristrip most people agreed it just wasn’t very good with masonry. Also, we knew we had a mix of acrylic and oil paint to go through. We found a local distributor for Soygel and tried a quart of it before committing to a whole gallon.

soygelTo see the results of the Soygel and how to actually remove the paint from brick you can check out Part II of the tutorial.

Images courtesy of Lowes, Home Depot, & Franmar

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Halloween Vignette

Halloween Decorations; cast iron vases

Halloween is just around the corner and I hope this display gives you some Halloween decoration ideas.   It is one of my FAVORITE holidays.  I pretty much love every bit of it, from gaudy plastic spiders to sophisticated decorations.  Costumes! Candy!  I could go on and on.  This particular vignette was going for an old-timey, sophisticated macabre.

Halloween Decorations; cast iron vases
Before you make hot-glue spider webs read further down this post.

The cast iron vases were created from two cheap glass vases.  You can see the tutorial for faux cast iron here.

Detail of Halloween hot-glue spider web

I added an old picture, and lord my Mama would smack me, but I can’t remember which relative this is.   Surrounding it are spider webs made from hot glue.  I thought I was a genius making all those strings…  And I was EXCEPT, marble is porous.  And the tabletop is marble…  *scrape* *scrape* *scrape* Make sure to attach the hot glue to items you know will release the glue easily.

Idea for Sophisticated Halloween Decorations
Check out how well the faux cast iron finish on the vases matches the real cast iron table!

Topping it all off is my lovely bouquet of dead daisies.  The whole display makes me feel like someone left these fresh flowers by a lovely picture and then abandoned them for 100 years.  I love that dark Halloween feeling!  Must be a closet goth at heart.

Tutorials Used

Faux Cast Iron Finish 

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See other great crafts, DIY, and decor at these link parties: 52 mantels, Katherine’s Corner, Realcoake.com, Lambert’s Lately, Two Yellow BirdsCraftberry Bush, Pin Junkie , Craft-o-Maniac, Twigg Studios, Dream A Little Bigger , I Should Be Mopping The Floor, By Stephanie Lynn