Turning This Into That: burlap

Wednesday, September 5, 2012

Faux Wood Monogram Frame

I had some odds and ends lying around that I thought I would put to good use. I really like the wood- infused items I'm seeing EVERYWHERE...so I thought I'd try my hand at it. I started with an old picture frame, minus the glass.

Trace paper mache letter on the back of the paper.

Cut it out....

and apply spray adhesive (I'm sure the Craft Wars judges would see me off rather quickly.).

I added some more paper (just trace the sides and cut it out) to give it some more dimension.

I placed it in the middle to eyeball where I wanted it.

And commenced wrapping my letter first...then the frame with the wire.

I had some left over burlap from a past project. I knotted one end and started twisting and twirling it around itself.

I cut out a felt circle to give it some additional support and to keep it all together.

I added that with spray adhesive, too. {GASP!}

I took the remaining wire and twisted it around the top and side of the frame, ending at the flower. I attatched the flower to the frame with it.

I'm totally digging it! Wasn't sure if I would come together- but it did!

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Something To Do Saturday....Burlap!

Something to do Saturdays is a weekly linky party.

All crafters are welcome based on the weekly theme.

This weeks' theme:

Burlap!

Linky Party Rules

First rule of the weekly linky party is to have fun and play nice!!!

We'll have a theme for the posts weekly.

{Mentioned the Wednesday prior}

Its a great way to show case your talent or project to new people. We'd LOVE our next weeks' featured blogger to be you!

You may link up as many time as you like each week with either your latest creations or an older post that you would really like to share again.

Please remember though, all submissions MUST be your own work.

Please link back to your actual post and not just your blog and be sure to include a link back to Something to do Saturday in your post. We'll send something fun along to the chosen features!

Thank you for hanging with us!

Click on through HERE.

Monday, May 7, 2012

Industrial-esque Repurposed Burlap Message Board

I have four kids. My youngest recently turned two. I am not going to pretend we even used the crib much. We didn't. Not through all four. One good thing about that is that we paid $40 for it at a garage sale over ten years ago. We bought it from a family that also had four children. Needless to say...it was used before WE owned it. The second good thing about it is that NOW I can repurpose it's parts. :)

SO today I will show you how I turned the particle-board whatever-its-called that holds the crib mattress up into a burlap-covered message board that can be re-decorated at any time. (MOST, if not all of my crafting has to have that requirement. If I'm going to go to the effort...I want to have options in the future.)

The pictures aren't lovely. My battery charger is missing (as are a number of things) and therefore I was not able to use my "investment" camera...but rather my point and shoot. Don't shoot me. {hehe..it's getting late}

I can't ever decide if I should write ABOVE the picture or BELOW (if you read this...let me know which you prefer.)

Anyway- I started with a crib-mattress board. As you can see it is pretty beat up.

I purchased 8 (two packages) of cork tiles at Lowe's - they were in the kitchen organizing section.

They were the most expensive part of the whole project.

I practiced how I wanted to set them out...I am putting them down because I want to be able to stick things INTO the board...pictures, notes, etc. The batting that I add later wouldn't have been able to HOLD all that I want it to.

My youngest had gotten a hold of some of the tiles. FYI- cork tiles are torn rather easily.

Once I figured out where I wanted them...I simply hot glued them into place.

I ultimately decided on a staggard pattern...not exactly sure why. I figured this would be a more logical "hanging" pattern. I tend to group in the center and around corners.

Then I used regular ole baby quilt batting.

I covered this mess...

I trimmed it so it just folded over the edge of the board- all the way around...

And then I hot glued it down.

I had left over batting that I laid down the center so that it would look fluffy and full after I put the burlap down. I glued that at the top and bottom so that it wouldn't move too much.

Then we started to staple. I couldn't find my staple gun...so we (me and the hubby) used the manual staple "hitter" thingy. It freaked me out. So you don't have pictures of the "action"...I was too worried about impaled fingers.

I did pull equally, however. So, I started in the middle on one side. My next staples would go to the equal opposite side- I felt more in control of the way the burlap laid that way.

We just slapped down the corners- literally.

THEN! I wasn't sure what I wanted to do...I have sooo many ideas for this thing. BUT I wanted YOU to start getting ideas, too- so I just picked one idea and went with it. I had metal letters 'FAMILY', actually. I debated on if I should thread the letters to the board with colorful twine...but I couldn't find a needle. SO- I had some 20 guaze wire (from our last craft night) that I used to tie the letters to the board. I loved this because it made the board EVEN more functional. I am ALL about functional. And I LOVE industrial- so it worked!