Up-cycled art chair

We didn't have iPads or computers when I was growing up. We played in the garden and collected stamps when it was raining. If we felt a bit arty we cut up cereal boxes and made dolls houses or heated crisp packets in the oven to make our own shrink plastic. 

I knew one day my stamp collection would come in handy! I selected the brightest ones and weeded out the best ones that ' might be valuable' one day and added a few I had stashed ready for a project. Last weekend I went to the local boot sale to source my item to up-cycle. Within minutes I had found the perfect kitchen chair at a rock bottom bargain price. It was in a pretty bad way! 

First I sanded the chair. I tried bribing my children to do this part as I hate the preparation part of a job but they weren't interested, not even in a fiver! It took ages but  I was happy with smooth finish after a few hours. Then the fun part. I used copious amounts of mod podge to stick the stamps to the chair. I tried straight lines and minimal overlapping but that didn't look quite right. The slap it on and fill in any gaps approach worked so much better. I'm sure there are still a few gaps but you would need a magnifying glass to find them. The hardest parts were the corners and then making sure the perforations didn't stick out. The easiest way to do that was using mod podge with bare hands to smooth out any rough parts. The glue peeled off my hands like the PVA we used to use at school. I have unused two coats of non yellowing varnish to seal the chair and give it a tough durable finish. 

I think it would look great in a shabby chic style room or a contemporary boys bedroom. 

I've really enjoyed this project and now need to source more stamps for another. I think a Beano chair might be fun too.

The final ETSY listing.....click on the picture for more info.

Wimbledon Week

Vintage Pair of Wooden Tennis Rackets with Wood Press by PickleVintage

I'm not much of a tennis fan and the thought of running around a tennis court fills me with horror but I have to admit I do quite like the way we Brits get excited about Wimbledon. Henman Hill, Murray Mound we love to get behind our players. 

Keep Calm and Play Tennis dictionary art print by PeregrinJewellery

 

 Did you know that it's the oldest tennis tournament in the world. It started in 1877. I've never been but I'm sure I would enjoy some strawberries and cream washed down with a glass or two of Pimms. I love this tennis inspired set of stone coasters.

Tennis Love, GAME, SET, MATCH Natural Stone Coaster Collection (4) by DandWstonecrafts

Did you know the total prize fund this year is a jaw dropping £22 million. Suddenly my boys might be enrolled in tennis lessons!

My final tennis inspired item today is this fantastic upcycled change purse. What a fabulous idea!

Recycled Tennis Ball Mini Bag/ Change Holder by MANIkordstudio

 

Homemade Lemonade

The best homemade lemonade tasted has to be from The Hotel Con Corazon in Granada, Nicaragua. I drank gallons of the stuff! Each country we visited had it's own local soft drink. Lemonade was a favourite but we also had pineapple, papaya, and various other fruit mixtures. Some were better than others. Some had even slightly fermented and were quite revolting!

 Today with my new squeezer from Mexico me and my helper tried to recreate lemonade. Well the squeezer broke on the first squeeze and we resorted to our traditional glass one. 

You will need : 

1 cup of lemon juice (about 6 lemons)

4 cups of water 

1 cup of sugar

First make a syrup by dissolving 1 cup of sugar in 1 cup of water.

Squeeze 1 cup of lemons.

Mix and add 3 more cups of water.

We poured ours into a lovely bottle and added a tag. Keep in the fridge. 

Easy peasy lemon squeezy!  Couldn't resist that one.

Had a quick search for lemon related products and look what I found!

Inspirational quote by Rock The Custard

The lemonade would look great served in one of these pitchers.

My Vintage table 2 U

And how perfect is this print.....

Purdey and Blue 

Polymer Clay earrings by Cute Enough Crafts

Please click on the links to go straight to the shops.

The Crafty Folk Team on ETSY

This week I'd like to shout about the wonderful crafts people on my favourite ETSY team. The Crafty Folk team. It's a team that works together and promotes one another in many ways.

Shop of the week - this week it's the turn of SimJaTa, I must remember to ask where the name came from. I love all the original bags but this sewn card caught my eye this week. A great sentiment. I'm sure most of us know someone that would be a perfect recipient for this original art card.

The hot 100 - an item is chosen at random from participants and the idea is to increase the items views until they reach 100 or a sale.  You can use any social media that works for you to promote as well as viewing and favouriting the item. 

This pendant by  https://www.etsy.com/shop/Lottieoflondon  is completely unique and a real eye catcher.

If an item is favourited it shows up in the feed of all your followers. I've been building up my followers slowly.I thought I was doing well until today I saw someone with 23,000! The more followers you have the more feeds the item favourited will show up in. So an item favourited by me in theory should show up in over 2000 in boxes. Build up your followers Crafty Folk and our reach will be in the millions!

Themed Pinterest boards. A willing team member chooses a theme and everyone uploads images of their products that fit into the category on the thread. . Last week Shirley from https://www.etsy.com/shop/WhimsyWooDesigns chose 'The Blues' . The pieces are all collated into one Pinterest board. Repinning from the board is encouraged as repins rank  higher in Pinterest searches.

This weeks board - http://pinterest.com/whizzywoo/the-blues/

Thanks Shirley and everyone else that has curated these.

A kindle touch case by WhimseyWooDesigns

We also have a daily listing thread. I try to list something everyday and while on the thread favourite everyone elses new items. My favourite today is this felted scarf from FrouFrouFelt. 

https://www.etsy.com/shop/FrouFrouFelt

This is not an exhaustive list there are many other ways that this team helps each other. Next time treasuries!

If you think you'd like to be part of this fabulous supportive team......

https://www.etsy.com/teams/15309/the-craftyfolk-team/discuss/

Hama beads - 3D designs.

I am constantly amazed when I sneak a peak at my blog statistics that the Hama bead posts are a constant source of traffic. The first post was my children's basic dinosaur shapes. In post two I discovered that Perler beads were taking over as they had more colours and were better suited to the detailed realistic pictures that were being created. So post 3 ?  I decided to find out what's new in the Hama world.

 It's 3D Hama! 

Check out these 3D bowls from Very Melicious on ETSY 

These look amazing with lights shining through.

The ever popular Nintendo and Pokemon images are still super popular but with a 3D twist. These cubes look so hard to make. There are lots of You Tube videos and tutorials for these. 

I think these cubes by JingleBells042 on ETSY would make great pencil pots for a child's desk.

Another version of the pencil pot is this 3D Tardis Dr Who style.

 How pleased would a Dr. fan be to receive this original gift. 

by Soranoo on ETSY

Pacman is still popular. There are lots of Pacman earrings in MangoCats shop on ETSY but my favourite is the Pacman cuff. Do they still have those glass game tables in pubs with Pacman as the only game? Many happy hours with a packet of crisps and bottle of coke.

A final link to a French blog magazine. Plumetis le blog . Please click on this link to go to the site where more information can be found about these amazing pots. This is much more my style. I wonder if I can persuade the boys to try these as a change from the normal dinosaur theme.

I have created a special Pinterest board especially for Hama. Inspiration for the rainy school holidays!

http://pinterest.com/bluedaisyglass/hama-and-perler-beads/