DIY Doily Lamp Shade

 

In our house, we don’t have over head lights in the bedrooms unless we’ve put them there. In the bedrooms, the light switches are connected to one of the outlets.  But with the baby’s room, I want a hanging light to save on space. Because frankly, her room is the smallest room in the house and it could use all the space saving it could get. My original idea was for a pretty little cream and crystal chandelier like the one below. But these days, I don’t have the money to spend on something like this. So the next option.. DIY!

Image from Luxoz.com

I’ve seen them all over Pinterest and Google. My original idea was to just to get a large paper lantern and glue some pretty paper flowers to it or to make a twine lampshade. But thanks to chatting with one of my friend’s at work, the idea to use doilies popped back into my head. And what do you know, we just happen to have some for $1.00. Lucky for me I found some white ones!

So armed with 10 doilies, Elmer’s all purpose glue, a paper bowl, some waxed paper, a punching balloon, and a roll of packing tape, a sponge brush, I went to town!

I loved using the punching balloon. I was able to get the size I wanted for the lampshade that would fit perfectly in the baby’s room without it loosing the round shape unlike normal balloons. And being that it’s made for punching, it was thicker than your normal balloon and wouldn’t pop. Lucky for me, it came as a twin pack, so if for whatever reason it did pop, I had a back up. And to make sure that it was completely round, I put a couple pieces of masking tape over the spout to keep it from popping out.

I used a watered down glue mixture because that’s what I had on hand and the idea for this whole thing was to keep it cheap without having to get expensive glues and such. I mixed the glue and water in batches, being that my doilies were on a thicker side, they soaked up quite a bit of glue. Dropped a doily in the bowl full of my glue mixture and worked it until it was covered in glue and placed it on the balloon, with each new doily added over lapping the last.

The roll of packing tape helped hold the balloon up until I added more doilies. Then the balloon would be heavy on one side and I’d have to constantly readjust it. So I’d layer more doilies on and readjust the balloon.

 

This is about the point I realized I had a slight problem. I didn’t have enough doilies (I originally picked up 8 thinking it was going to be enough) and I ran out of glue. Sigh.. don’t we all just love miscalculations? So what’s a girl to do when you can’t continue until you get more doilies? String it up so it keeps it’s form! I grabbed my curved sewing needle and some super strong thread and threaded the edges of the doilies to keep them close to the balloon until I got more doilies and glue.

 

Fast forward 24 hours (give or take a few), an additional 2 doilies and a huge bottle of glue later, the lampshade is now drying! I’m going to give the lampshade another good 24 hours of dry time before letting the air out of the balloon and attaching it to the cord kit.

So what did I learn from all this?

~ Thicker doilies require less water added to the glue. The first few doilies kept sliding off the balloon or the edges wouldn’t stay overlapped because there was too much water in the mix. Again with my curved sewing needle and thread, I’d carefully sew the edges that overlapped down with a knot.

~ A foam sponge brush makes applying the doilies a bit cleaner than using your hands. But I enjoyed getting messy anyway!

~ Patience, patience, patience is key!

Over all I’m thrilled with how it’s turned out so far. To make sure it’s doubly secure after it’s dried, I might take my needle and thread and just knot a few of the edges on the newer doilies to the original set so it’s all secure and won’t fall apart on me. I can’t wait until it’s completely dried and installed in the baby’s room.

All lit and ready to hang. I’ll post a picture once it’s hanging and hopefully with a finished bedroom!

 

 

 

 

 

Technorati Tags: DIY,Tutorial,Baby,Doily Lampshade

Tutorial - Faery Magnets

I love Faeries. Not only do I love them, I love crafting them. Here is a tutorial that I had written for the February Fairies event over at The Whimsical Cottage. In case you missed the original posting, here it is again. I'll also be adding it to my tutorial page. So get ready for some faery fun!!

We're going to make Faery Clothes Pin Magnets.

For this project, you will need:

Wooden clothes pin (the No Roll kind)

Craft paint or any kind of acrylic paint

Embroidery floss

Sand paper 220 grit

Magnet strip

Glue (I used E6000, any strong glue will work)

Wire (20 - 22 gauge)

Drill/dremel

1/16 drill bit

Extra bits (paper, fabric scraps, flowers, beads, etc)

Wire cutters

Round nose pliers

Scissors

Pencil

Paint brush

Small piece of card stock (for hair construction)

What you may want:

Tweezers

Small eye hooks

Vice/clamp (for holding the clothespin while drilling)

Safety glasses

Mask (for dust)

Step 1:

Determine which side of your clothespin you want as the front. With your sand paper, sand the front edges of the clothes pin a little bit to round the edges. You can sand the edges a lot if you wish, but it’s not necessary. Also sand any rough spots on the clothespins.

You may find that after sanding the edges of the clothespin, you loose a little bit of definition between the sections of the pin. Take a small piece of sand paper, folded it, and gently sanded in the crease of the clothespin, especially at the front, to bring back a bit of definition lost during the majority of the sanding.

Step 2:

With your pencil, determine where you want the holes for the arms drilled. Once you have determined where you want the hole, draw a small dot. It’s best to put the dot as close to the center of the clothespin as possible. Repeat for the other side, eye balling to make sure they are even. Rule of thumb: You want the hole you drill for the arms to be slightly larger than your wire, no larger.

Be very careful and use a slow speed when drilling. Hold the drill straight up and down. Drill your hole all the way through the clothespin. You may need to sand the hole a touch after drilling to remove the flaked wood. Touch up with skin tone paint if needed.

Step 3:

Now we're ready to paint. Whatever color you are using as a skin tone, go ahead and give your faery a coat of paint. There's no need to worry about painting the back, unless you are making a hanging faery. For my faery, I used light flesh tone paint. After the first coat of paint is dry, give it a second coat.

Step 4:

When your paint is dry, it is time to add the arms. Use your wire cutters and cut a piece of wire 5 – 6 inches in length. With your round nose pliers, grasp one end of the wire tightly and curl the end of the wire with the tip of the pliers to make a hand.

Insert the uncurled end of the wire into the drilled hole and pull through. Determine the length of arm you wish your faery to have, bend at the shoulder to secure the desired length. Bend at the shoulder for the other arm. Clip the excess wire and curl the end into the second hand. Half way up the arm, make a second bend for the elbow.

Step 5:

Take your pencil and lightly draw the facial features. (At this point, if you wish for your faery to hang, screw your eye hook in the center top of your clothespin until finger tight). Once you have a rough idea of how the face will look, it’s time to give your faery a bit of hair. I choose to give my faeries hair at this point because it helps me to visualize the faery's final personality and what they will look like in the end.

For this step, choose a color of embroidery floss for the hair. Cut a small length of your hair color and set it aside. Take your cardstock, hold it in one hand and begin to wrap the floss loosely around the cardstock starting at the bottom and wrapping upward. Continue to wrap a total of 15 times. Once you have finished wrapping (making sure you finished wrapping at the bottom of the cardstock), cut the remainder of the floss and set aside. Take your small length that you had cut previously and feed it between the cardstock and floss. Slide the floss to the top of your wrapped floss and tie tightly. Remove your wrapped floss from the cardstock and cut the loops of thread opposite your tied knot.

Step 6:

Arrange your “floss wig” so that the knot is on the underside, make sure you keep the 2 sections of hair even. Place a generous amount of glue on the top of your faery's head. With the knot in the center of the head, press your wig into the glue and arrange your hair, making sure you cover all exposed sides.

Step 7:

Now the fun part. Let your imagination go and have fun with it. This is also the point you will begin to decide what type of faery you wish to create if you didn’t already have an idea in mind once you began. Don't be afraid to layer different elements to create your faery.

I've decided mine was to be a Woodland Faery. For this one, I painted the faery's top green. I then glued a piece of green fabric I had cut into the shape I wanted, then roughed up the edges a bit. I layered a piece of leather I had fashioned into a belt with a tiny gold bead as a clasp.

For the wings, you can use paper, feathers, lace, fabric flower petals, etc. For my faery, I used an acetate butterfly that came with some scrapbook embellishments. I cut the butterfly in half and glued each section onto the back of my faery. Once the glue has dried, cut the strip of magnet into the length you want and glue that onto the back of your faery. Finish off by painting your faery's little face and add a bit of embellishment if you wish.

And there you are! A cute finished faery of your very own!

The different faery possibilities are endless! Have fun with it!!

Pin Cushion Tutorial

Pin Cushion Tutorial

This is the tutorial I created for my pin cushion. Please be patient as this is my first tutorial but I will try and make it as clear as possible.

Materials Needed:

Something round to trace for the size cushion you want
Some sort of base for your cushion
Fine Sand or Emery
Scrap fabric of your choice for the outer layer
Scrap fabric for the lining
Glue
Pins
Scissors
Pencil/Tailors Chalk
Needle and thread
Whatever embelishments you want to finish with

Instructions:
Step 1: Pick the base for your cushion

This is the base I chose for my pin cushion. It was something I had laying around for years and that I have always loved the shape of. This can be anything you wish.


Step 2: Trace your circle on your lining fabric with pencil or tailors chalk, whichever will show up best.


I used some t-shirt material I had laying around as a lining fabric. This will be keeping the sand inside your cushion. Whatever lining fabric you choose needs to be able to hold sand without letting too much escape.
The circle shape I found was just a metal loop that again I had laying around forever. This happens to be inch circle.


Step 3: Pin lining to outer fabric, trace and cut out.



Lay your lining fabric onto your outer fabric and pin. When you trace your circle, leave about 1/4" seam around the lining. Cut out.

This is what your lining and outer fabrics should look like once cut out.

Step 4: Running Stitch with your needle and thread!

The running stitch is what you are going to use to stitch both the lining and the outer fabric closed. I used a strong upholstrey thread for this.

Step 5: Start with your lining, slowly pull the thread to start to close your "pouch"

Remember!! Don't close it up fully, you still need to add sand.

Step 6: Add your sand and close it up!

Here you can add and subtract sand until you have the firmness you want.

Pull your thread until it's closed and stitched it closed anyway you wish.

Step 7: Start pulling the thread on your outer layer to start to close it up.

Before you fully close your outer layer up, put in your inner sand layer.

Optional: Add just a little bit of poly-fil to give it a bit more roundness if you like.

Step 8: Close it up!

Pull the thread and then stitch it closed.

And now the fun part! Putting it all together.

Step 9: Dry fit your cushion, then glue!

See how your cushion is going to fit in your base and then judge where you need to put glue. I filled the bottom of my base with some glass stones I had laying around just to give it a bit more interest (this is optional of course).
Once you have an idea of how your cushion is going to fit in your base, it's time to glue it down. Use a generous amount on the area of the base your cushion is going to touch. There is no need to use more glue than you will need.

Step 10: Place your cushion in the glue and hold

Since you are using hot glue, you don't need to hold it long, just a few seconds.

Finished!!

And there you have it. Once it's all glued down, you can add whatever finishing touches you want. I added a pretty light blue ribbon to dress mine up a bit. I love my pin cushion. I primarily use it as decoration or when I am hand sewing.

What do you think?

Happy Crafting!!
~K.Michele