Wednesday 30 November 2016

Christmas in all Colors

Welcome to my home for a multicolored Christmas tour! Last weeks I have been crafting, making and thrifting. I have put an alternative decoration for Christmas tree that doesn´t take too much space from the living room and I have crafted a lovely door hanging (tutorial at the end of the post!!). Plus I found a new pink working chair and storage bench for living room from a thrift shop. Have a happy Advent season! Hope you find these pictures inspiring.
Who could resist pink Christmas curtains? This one has seen atleast 10 Christmases :)
 No need to water :) A few bigger branches from the ground, artificial snow spray and retro Christmas baubles from thrift shop.
You will find the tutorial for this fun December DIY project at the end of the post :)
New working chair is Finnish quality and the color is perfect. It is a bit worn out at the sitting part but I will repair it. Cost? Only 2,50€ at the local thrift shop! 
This storage bench is so clever! It hides all my magazines :) Good as new 38€ at the thrift shop.
Retro baubles from 60´s to 2015.
Knitting is a part of the winter season isn´t it? Yesterday I finished the first sock for this season.

Welcome December DIY -project
To celebrate December I share this fun DIY Christmas ornament project. 
You will need: a wooden door plate, 3 Styron drops, fabric scraps, ribbon, primer, acrylic color in neon pink, orange, violet ad gold, antiquing wax, pins, glue, pom poms, beads, felted balls, strong cotton yarn and neon garden twine.
Plus: Scissors, knife, cutting knife, brush, 2 small brushes for the details, needle and cotton cloth.

Step 1. Make 0,5 cm deep cuts to the Styron drop to divide it to 4 sectors. Take a piece of fabric and stuff the edges inside the cuts. Cut off the extra fabric. Go through all the sectors like this. Glue a ribbon to cover the seams.
Step 2. Sew pom poms to the drops and thread some beads, felted balls and pom poms to decorate the yarn.
Door plate before, someone had already decorated it with her/his own style. I bought this from a thrift shop but craft shops sell these in various shapes. I just washed off the old decor and put white primer and sanded a little. Then I painted 4-5 layers with neon pink. After the paint was dry I applied the wax with cotton cloth and painted the decor with a smaller brush. Last step was to attach the hanging decorations with pins and put a neon garden twine to hang the decoration.


Tomorrow it is already December! I don´t have an advent calendar this year but I am going to watch some calendars from the internet, TV and DVD. Hope you don´t have any Christmas stress with decor, presents, food or cleaning. I know there is a lot of pressure to have all things perfect. I have been sharing some messy Christmas organizing pictures on Instagram to relieve the stress :) Everything is still in process. When I get some corner done the next one is a mess. But preparing is the best part of Christmas. 

Happy December!

Sannu

Tuesday 22 November 2016

Vintage Christmas with 3 Simple DIY projects!


Advent time is near. Here in Finland First Advent is important day because it officially starts the Christmas season. Of course many of us begin our Christmas preparations a bit earlier ;) and for example commercial Christmas season openings are usually on mid November.

I am trying to slow down at the beginning of the Advent time, relax and enjoy all things Christmassy. Usually most of the decor is on it´s place and I love to drink glögi (Finnish warm and spicy Christmas drink), bake plum tarts, listen to Christmas radio, read familiar Christmas books and watch movies. I also try to find as much time as possible for `fairy light´ -walks. With that I mean long walks at the neighborhood spying beautiful Christmas lights that fill all the balconies, gardens and window sills.

In this post I will show you some simple tips how to build a Christmas table centerpiece and decorations for a small dining area. In these decorations I focus on vintage and a little bit old fashioned style. Key elements are gold, vintage baubles, candles, nature, flowers and glass. Remember that everyone can bring a piece of Christmas magic to their homes, whether big or small. You can also use quite bold and big elements even though you would decorate a small space. Think big, live small! 

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Rime Glass Jars



Glass jars seem to be a continuing trend even though it is almost ten years when I bought my first one. Maybe it is a classic. Well, some of these have got scratches and chips so it was OK to do some DIY.


I attached star shaped outline stickers and spray painted the jars with transparent rime spray. After the spray paint I removed the stickers. 


Now the spray painted and non painted jars make a nice arrangement. I put in nature elements like braches, pine cones and Christmas baubles. One of the jars got amaryllis and battery operated fairy lights that do not heat.


Tip! Use led tealights and fairy lights and you can decorate more freely.

Lace table runner


Lace tablets used to be very cheap at the thrift shops and I collected these a lot. Sometimes I even got 3 handmade tablets with 1,50€! Those were crazy times :D Some of these tablets are from a friend who rescued them from a garbage bin because she thought I might make something nice of them. I have used many of these in my home decor but some are a bit peculiar color or have spots that are difficult to remove.


So I chose four lace tablets that were either wrong color or worn out and combined them (pink marks are to show where I sewed) with cotton yarn and ironed well. Then I simply spray painted the table runner with golden spray paint 3-4 times. For a finishing touch I brushed golden acrylic paint to get more shine.


Pearl flower planter


 What would be Christmas without a tin DIY project? This DIY is extremely simple. You just need a hot glue gun, tin and pear chain (this chain is a Christmas decoration and I checked that these cost nowadays 2€ at the store).


Put glue little by little to the surface as you swirl the pearl chain around the tin. Remember that tin can be hot after hot glue! If you want the same look as I have in the last picture spray paint with gold spray after the glue is dry. Do not use spray paint when the glue is hot!


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Golden Christmas tree cost 2€ at the thrift shop and I decorated it with baubles. Cocoa tin is also an ancient thrift shop find. There is water washable snow spray on the window. Golden candle holders are from Ebba and Erkki boutique that situates at Levi. Candle holders cost 12€ per one.


Happy First Advent, May it be Peaceful and Relaxing!

Sannu

I updated my About page with new pictures :) I think it is nice to know who is behind the blog. All portraits taken from me are current and unfiltered, I have added just a little contrast and color. I think it is important to show real pictures of real people. In this cyber world it is so easy to create human 2.0. When I bought my new smart phone I was shocked about the selfie filters that modified my head and skin tone. I do understand artistic freedom and I use filters on Instagram to make colors better in my pictures. But I don´t understand filters that do not just change color but modify the whole object in the picture. Maybe I am just old fashioned :) But can that filtered 2.0 introduce her/himself in the real world?

Friday 18 November 2016

DIY Room Decor: Rough and Recycled!


I am continuing my series `from garbage bin to gorgeous´ and statement home decoration pieces. This time I will show you how to make a trendy light box star from recycled shelf back panel and how to transform a plain (found from garbage bin) chair into a stylish side/ flower table! I made both with black color but remember that you can choose what ever color you want. 

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DIY Stylish Side Table


The chair looked like it would fit into a 90´s kindergarten (maybe we had this kind of chairs in my own kindergarten years?). I found the chair next to the garbage bins.

You will need
a chair
Japanese saw
sanding paper
primer
paint brush
chalk paint
golden acrylic paint
small brush
ruler
white pen
painters tape
transparent shabby wax
cotton cloth to apply the wax

Step 1. Saw off the back and sand the edges.
Step 2. Paint the side table with primer 1-2 times depending the original color.
Step 3. Paint the side table with chalk paint 2-3 times depending the color you chose. Darker colors need more layers to become even.


Step 4. Now we will decorate the legs. Use painters tape to divide the area that is going to be painted (see picture). Tap golden paint to the legs. Remove the tape immediately so it won´t stuck and peel off the chalk paint. 


Step 5. Now we will make the decorative herringbone decoration.  You can see the measurements in the picture. Mark the long lines in every 3,5 cm with ruler and white pen. To the long lines make a mark in every 1 cm. 

Step 6. Paint the herringbone according to the lines.

Step 7. When the paint is dry apply the shabby wax using an old soft cotton cloth.
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DIY Light Box Star


This might be the most horrible before picture in the history of this blog. But have no fear! The end result will be awesome. The pile will be transformed into a star shaped light box. This material is from garbage bin.

To this DIY you will need

wood like material or thin plywood
ruler, angle ruler, pen
Japanese saw
wood glue
hot glue gun
led lights that do not heat
spray paint



As I am not sure if everyone remembers from school maths how to draw a star I thought it might be good to show you how I counted and draw this five point star. As I am not anyways a math genius (lack of practice ;) please do not mind that approx 21 cm. I have not counted that, just measured it after drawing the star so it is not exact. You will need that measure when you cut the side pieces so make your own measurements!
Step 1. Draw a circle. I had 30 cm radius. If you don´t have a big compass you can attach pen to a piece of yarn and draw the circle with it.
Step 2. Draw a radius from center to circle. Measure ten sectors with 36° angle (if you want for example 6 point star you need to multiply 6 with 2= 12= number of sectors and divide 360° with 12 so you got the angles right).
Step 3. In very other line count 13 cm. Join the lines as shown in the picture.

Alternatively you can miss all the fun and print the star from the internet :)


After you have done the maths these steps follow
Step 4. Saw the star with Japanese saw from outer circle to middle.


Step 5. Using the cut star as a model draw and cut another star. When you draw put wrong sides together. Make a mark to both sides to show which points join together. This is done because when you are using hand tools you might not be able to get geometrically exact pieces.
Step 6. Measure the point of the star, mine was 21cm. Cut 10 21cm* 8cm rectangles. Now you got all the parts.


Step 7. Now drill holes for the led lights to come out. I had 20 led light string, so I drilled twenty 4,5 mm holes. I wanted the lights to go symmetrical so I used the the star drawing lines as a guideline and measured the points where I wanted a light. Make light holes just to the front star.


Step 8. Glue sides to the star with holes in it. Use hot glue gun. As I said I was not able to do exact pieces so when gluing I had to make some side pieces slightly smaller to fit in. Secure the seams properly with the glue.


Step 9. Spray paint the pieces with the color you chose.


Step 10. Put normal glue (do not use hot glue gun in this step!!) that will dry transparent into every hole and place the lights. Let dry. Make a little hole to the back star so that when you glue the parts together you get the wire out.


Step 11. Using normal glue attach the back star to the box. You can secure the seams with hot glue gun but be careful not to spill any hot glue to the led lights and wire. If you want you can also spray paint the seams, just put the wire into a plastic bag and cover the lights while working.

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If you were interested in these DIY projects you might want to check these two DIY posts with similar style! 



More DIY Christmas decoration ideas and home decor coming soon! I have played a lot with darker colors and now I am changing into golden and pastel combo. I think the end of November is the most inspiring time of the year. There is still plenty of time before Christmas but it is already permitted to decorate and plan Christmas. 

What about you, Have you been making DIY projects or crafts for Christmas? Do you enjoy planning Christmas?

Happy Friday!! Weekend will start soon :)

Sannu