One Crafty Mess - HAPPINESS handmade

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Craft show set up or home decor - your choice

This past weekend we participated in our annual craft show, it's a really big show and for years I have been trying to get my displays for my booth just right - well this year I had a vision ( da-da-da) and had been saving these 4 frames for another project and once I sprayed them with some fantastic colors it hit me.

A jewelry display for my booth that way all the pieces could be seen and not look to cluttered. As I was playing with these frames and setting it up for my husband to screw them together - I thought - Wouldn't this look cool in a bedroom or living room as a large wall piece maybe to add smaller art work inside or perhaps kids artwork...I mean really - what a statement this would make on a wall!

Anyway he show was a success and we did really well. Here are some really bad photos of my layout - again a bunch if stuff had been purchased so I was trying really hard "spread" things around.

The sun was so bright behind us and so hence the dArkness.

Here is another piece I redid for my booth set up - it's a baby changing table that my husband made slat for to act as the shelves... Then I added a ruffle to he bottom to hide stuff under there.

Anyway, I came home with a lot less stuff. Yeah and thanks again to my wonderful customers...love you guys!

I am linking this up to the parties above. Happy crafting!

Monday, October 13, 2014

String art

To be truthful - I thought this was going to be a no brainer. Something I could do while watching t.v. Boy was I wrong. The premise is simple the idea looks easy but when you are working on such a small space with nails so close together keeping the strings close to the base of the nails is necessary to keep the alignment looking right all the way around the piece. Well, I tried it twice and it can be even better so I will go again for my 3rd try...here are my first attempts - skull head ( the nose is a bit wonky)

Then I tried a ghost - a bit better but still need to capture the face a bit better

I think I need a larger working area---or a bigger face 😃

Here they are right next to each other. I like them but I need to try it again. To get the face

Poking just right. Hope you give this a try and good luck with your Halloween decorating! I am linking this up to the parties above.

Have a crafty week!

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

Recycled Chalkboards

I love to give old things a new life. I usually make-over furniture, large furniture...like hutches, tables & chairs and the like. But recently I took a trip to the local Habititat for Humanity and if you have never been there you really should search one out. They carry a bunch of old pieces of stuff, nails, screws, tile and furniture that goes for real cheap. I could spend hours in there scoping out junk to bring home and re-do.

Back tracking - in recent months I have seen the chalkboard really boom in the decorating scene. From the small chalk board stickers to the large kitchen walls being re-done and so on. I have made them from just about anything I could find well I found these really cheap old kitchen cabinet drawers at Habitat for Humanity and thought these would work well for my version of the chalkboard...

I started with these

Just your typical small kitchen cabinet drawers

first I sanded them with a hand sander

Then I spray spainted them with my favorite colors...and used some chalk board paint - I gave it 2 coats - make sure it dries between coats because if you rush thru it then you will life up the paint you previously put on...trust me I learned this the hard way!

Once it was completely dry - I conditioned the board by rubbing chalk all over the board and then erased it. and then did it again.

See how smooth the chalk glides onto the board - best part is you can use a wet paper towel and wipe it down if you are not a fan of the chalk residue and WAIT for it to dry then use as usual.