Upcycled furniture - bureau

I managed to find a practice piece of 70's teak furniture to have a go at upcycling. I picked up this bureau for £10 and planned to turn it into a modern crafts cupboard.

As this was a practice project I followed some youtube tutorials on painting old furniture and went with the easiest plan of action.

I bought sandpaper sponges (small square sponges with sandpaper glued to each side, regular sandpaper would work just as well) and paint brushes from the pound shop. I also ordered white and grey tester pots of regular emulsion paint from Dulux and an old fashioned typewriter wall sticker from Etsy.

I sanded down the areas I wanted to paint and then cleaned all the dust off with a damp sponge. I then painted the sides and top white, I tried to leave the trim it's natural colour. So, lessons learned from this: 2 Dulux tester pots do not provide enough paint, pound shop paint brushes are rubbish and all the bristles stick in your paint, primer would appear to be a good investment and finally why oh why did I not use masking tape on the bits I didn't want to paint.

I managed to squeeze out 2 coats of white on the sides but a third (and maybe a fourth) would be needed. If I do this again I'll definitely invest in a pot of primer.

I decided to just paint the two front cupboard doors grey and leave the drawer, trim and legs in its natural state. 2 tester pots were enough for this and as it was a dark colour on top of a dark colour no primer would have been needed and quite a good coverage was achieved.

Once the paint had dried I set about applying the wall sticker (sometimes referred to as a wall 'decal' if you decide to order one from an American website as I did). Again lack of patience and equipment over ruled here. I should really have attached the sticker in the right place with masking tape to ensure it was straight but fired in and did it by eye. Thankfully it worked out ok. I peeled the backing paper off to reveal the sticky side. I started at the top of the sticker and using a credit card smoothed out any bubbles before removing the top paper to reveal the finished article. As I had placed the sticker over two doors I had to split it in the middle, this worked out ok and the credit card split it in the join quite easily although left a bit of a raggedy edge which I've not been able to fix. You can't notice it unless you open the door.

So the following week I had to go back and repaint the sides with white paint. This time I used a tin of Satin wood paint and a mini roller. The satin wood paint was great and a bargain at £4 a tin from Asda. The mini roller was a bit of a nightmare as I didn't have much control and it kept getting white paint onto the grey and natural wood areas. Much swearing ensued. The coverage with the roller was good however and obviously left no brush marks.

Eventually I plan to varnish it over. This is why I used emulsion rather than gloss or wood paint. I also felt I could get away with tester pots and would have access to a wider range of colours.

So the total cost worked out at:

£10 - 2nd hand bureau

£1 - cheap paint brushes

£1 - sand paper

£8 - tester pots (£1 each for 2 of each colour and £1 each for delivery, available from Dulux website)

£4 - white satin paint, Asda

£1.70 - mini roller and paint tray

£11 - wall sticker, Etsy

£36.70 in total. Paint, sandpaper and roller I'll be able to use again. I'm pretty pleased with that because I know I have a one of a kind piece.

Urban Art - Eyebombing

This weekend, inspired by the urban art 'bombing' phenomenon, I had a bash at eye bombing. I've enjoyed reading about yarn bombing which is pretty big in Berlin and around college campuses in the US. Eye bombing seemed a little quicker and easier and I like the daft images you can make with it. All in all it was a cheap and enjoyable way to spend a skint Saturday afternoon.

Clay painting

My name's Jennifer and I'm a Groupon-aholic. And all other bargain voucher websites too. One recent voucher purchase was for a clay mug painting session at Aberdeen's Cafe O'Clay. http://www.cafeoclay.co.uk/

I know pottery painting places have been around for a good few years but it wasn't ever anything I considered doing until the voucher came up. So I talked a friend into going with me and we spent a rather pleasant rainy afternoon getting creative.

On arrival we had to pick a mug or cup from the small selection we were permitted to use with the voucher. Other items available to paint included plates, wine goblets and clay figures such as penguins, lizards and frogs varying in price from around £8 - £25. You would first pick your item from the selection, then go to the counter to order a drink or snack and let the staff know you're there. Then you take a seat at one of the work stations and get busy with the paints supplied on the table.

This particular clay painting cafe hosts children's parties and has an extensive play area out the back. They also host ladies nights where you can go along, drink wine and paint.

I can't say I'm particularly arty and have never been very good at painting, it might be an idea to have an idea in mind before you go. I opted for an I Love Techno mug. I thought something simple would be hard to get wrong. It was pretty tricky, trying to hold the mug in one hand and write with a paint pen in the other meant the writing was a bit wobbly. But all in all I'm pretty pleased with the end result as was my friend with hers. Once we'd finished painting our mugs we had to hand them in at the desk and pick them up a few days later once they'd been glazed.

So, I would recommend clay painting as a new craft to try. Although not cheap (our mugs would have been £16 each without the voucher) if you go with an idea in mind it's a pleasant way to spend an afternoon. It would be a good idea for a hen weekend activity too.

Homemade Liqueur

My other half has started brewing his own beer at home. Not to be outdone I thought I'd have a bash at making my own fruit liqueur. Sloe gin is pretty popular just now but I'm not a great lover of gin so decided to try a vodka based liqueur and as pomegranates are in season thought that they would be a good choice. It's been on the go for a couple of weeks now and I just bottled it today. After 2 months in the bottle it should be ready to drink. I hope it tastes as good as it looks and smells.

So the basic recipe I tried was loosely based on a recipe I found for strawberry vodka liqueur.

I started with:

2 x pomegranates

150g caster sugar

500ml cheap vodka

1 x lime

A litre kilner jar

A home brew funnel

500ml swing stopper bottle

First of all I cut the two pomegranates in half and bashed out the pips and juice with the back of a spoon into a bowl. I picked out any white pith and then bashed the pips in the bowl to release more of the juice without turning it into pulp.

I poured the juice and pips into the kilner jar and added the sugar and 500ml of vodka. Then I added the peel from the lime. I gave it a good mix with a spoon to mix in the sugar. From here on in the mixture was stored in a dark cupboard and stirred every night for two weeks.

Once the two weeks were up the sugar had completely dissolved in the mixture which meant it was time to bottle it up. We have a brewing funnel in the house which is just a regular funnel but with a bit of mesh separating the spout and bowl section. A regular funnel and some muslin would work just as well. I poured the mixture from the jar into a tupperwear tub, mashing the pulpy mixture to extract all the juice and vodka. I cleared all the mashed fruit out of the funnel and binned it. Then put the funnel in the neck of the bottle. I then poured the liqueur from the tupperwear into the bottle. Now I just have to wait two months to see if its worked!

Due to the added sugar and sugar in the fruit the strength of the vodka liqueur will increase as it matures in the bottle. I'm told these liqueurs are rocket fuel. Just need to wait and see.

Upcycled sideboard

I bought a 1970's retro sideboard from someone on Gumtree a few months ago and I love it dearly. I have a real penchant for teak, retro, Danish style furniture. As much as I love it the way it is I've also fallen for

the upcycled painted effect that I've seen on some pieces online.

The fear is that I'll have a go, sand down my beloved sideboard and try some paint effects only to completely ruin it. I feel upcycling may be out of my crafting league and I'd be devastated if I spoiled it beyond repair.

The additional problem is that I live in a top floor flat above a commercial unit and have no outside space whatsoever. From some research I see that I'll probably need an orbital sander and some pretty potent primer that could cause problems if I were to start my project indoors. Additionally I can't decide what effect I would like. I could copy one that's tried and tested or be a bit more inventive. I love the stencilled style of the sideboards pictured but also the block colours.

I think some further research is required and perhaps a dummy piece of furniture to practice on first. But this will be a project for the summer, when I can aerate the spare room accordingly. I think this will be a long term craft so further updates to follow.

Christmas advent calendar

In the Autumn last year I took a notion to make my own advent calendar. I thought it would be a fairly easy and cheap project. It took a lot longer than anticipated to complete and I lost the rag with it a few times (resulting in some wonky stitching) but I'm pretty pleased with the result. I'll give some rough instructions on how I made it.

Materials: Large square of felt (1 meter sq), selection of felt material in a variety of colours, fabric glue, embroidery thread, needle, scissors, pins, dowling rod, ribbon, pen, sweeties.

1. First off I ordered a large sheet of felt off ebay. Approximately 1 meter square. This was this most expensive part and was about £6 with postage. You might get it cheaper if you shop around. I've since seen similar advent calendars made from hessian sacks that you can get for free from good coffee shops.

2. I folded a flap over the top and did a simple running stitch by hand. I intend to thread some dowling rod through this eventually so it'll keep its shape when hung. You could then thread some ribbon or cord through for hanging.

3. I have a fair amount of felt in my craft cupboard which I used to make the pockets and christmas embellishments. About 3 or 4 sheets of felt will make up the pockets but you could do this in any fabric you fancy. Gingham might be nice. I cut them into 24 similar sized rectangle shapes. I'm a bit slap dash so just did it by eye. Some are a bit bigger than others as a result! If you're a perfectionist use a ruler.

4. Now the tricky bit. For the 24 Christmas pictures I just drew them by hand on the back of some felt material, cut them out and stuck them onto the rectangle pockets with fabric glue. Make sure you arrange them so you've space to attach the numbers next. It was pretty tricky thinking up 24 Christmas things so I ended up with some random things like a toadstool and an owl.

5. Cutting out felt numbers accurately was way beyond my skill level so I managed to find some on ebay for a couple of pounds. Eventually I'd like my own die cutting machine but it's a pricey investment. I think I searched for 'felt advent calendar numbers' or something similar. I then stuck them on the felt pockets with fabric glue. I have no talent for sewing so prefer to use glue. If you have a machine or a steady hand and lots of patience you could sew them.

6. The last stage was by far the most frustrating. Again, if you have a sewing machine this probably wouldn't take you any time but I'm rubbish at sewing. Firstly I pinned the pockets onto the fabric sheet making sure the numbers were in a random order. Then I did a running stitch in white embroidery thread to attach them. This took a fair few hours over a fair few weeks and I got fairly fed up of it towards the end. You can just do it in front of the TV with a bottle of plonk and it makes it a bit less frustrating.

7. Then you have your finished product. Fill it with sweeties and use again and again.

Numeru uno.

So, blogging eh? Given how difficult it was to find a blog name with 'craft' in the title I suspect I may be jumping on the bandwagon with yet another blog about crafting being thrown into the ether. However, I don't claim to have any skill in the area and thought I would keep a record of my various attempts.

It all started with fascinators. After seeing one particular style I liked online I thought rather than buying it I could have a go at making it myself. The end result was pretty successful and I made a few more from there. This whetted my crafting appetite and I've tried a few more projects since. So rather than boring friends with my crafting exploits on Facebook I'm going to showcase them here.

The fascinators are still craft number one and I've had some success selling a few on Folksy. I don't really make any profit from it but it keeps me in materials. From there I've made some felty friends, mostly owls you can hang on door knobs or pot plants, an advent calendar, tweed brooches and most recently a sock monkey. I may blog about these individually with photos once I get the hang of this.

Cooking and baking is also another interest so I'll share any successful recipes I manage to try. The baking started in my current job where we take it in turns to bake cake for our coffee morning on a Friday. This was pretty daunting to start but has now become quite competitive. Again I've had various degrees of success.

So that's it for post numero uno. I shall get on with taking some pictures of my projects for future posts.

TTFN, x