Hello! *waves* I'm ready to feature more DIY fun so are you ready?? I certainly hope so because the two projects I'm sharing feature a couple of my most favorite things... VINTAGE JARS and RUFFLES! Of course these projects will make your home look "vintage" and "trendy" without paying an arm and a leg (Hey.. we need those!) and will have the most important component of all... your hand in making them! So, without me rambling on... please enjoy! As always I'd love to hear your comments and thoughts ♥
The first DIY project tutorial is a darling shabby chic ruffled shade! Isn't it cute?
The Shabby Chic Pleated Shade
Full of lovely, romantic ruffles, and only 4 steps involved! Let's get started!
1. Start with a plain lampshade. whichever shape you like.
2. Cut out enough strips to cover the shade. You'll want about 3x the measurement of your shade. For example, if your shade is 40" around the top, make the first strip about 120".
3. Fold the strips over to make pleats all the way down, and pin each pleat.
Wrap the strips around the shade, to make sure they fit, and then sew strait down the strip, to hold the pleats together.
Look at all that ruffly goodness!!
4. Pin the start of each strip to the lampshade, to see where they will need to go, and use a glue gun to attach them. Try to glue along the stitching, so it doesn't show through lighter fabric when the lamp is turned on.
All done!
Turn on the light, and admire your handiwork!
The second cool DIY project tutorial is vintage looking blue canning jars! I happen to have an actual blue canning jar which was given to me by a friend when I was sick. The color is to die for. Literally. Note: It's mentioned that the final product is not waterproof so you may need to find some type of sealer to make them that way.
Have you priced vintage blue canning jars lately? Wanna make your own really cheap?
I bought these probably five years ago at an antique/consignment store. I think I paid about 12 dollars for a set of four. Now you can expect to pay at least that for just one.
Last night I was cruising around the internet and happened upon a link to a tutorial using mod podge and food coloring to make your own. Cool! In the original tutorial, she experimented with a few different methods and colors to get the look she was after. She had some problems with brush strokes showing up in the finished product. I think she had the best luck using undiluted mod-podge, painting it on then stippling out the brush strokes with the end of her paint brush. She used the jars as hanging garden lanterns, with tea light candles. Just lovely!
This afternoon I decided to play around with some mod-podge and food coloring myself. I'm thrilled with the results. First I gathered up a few jars, some mod podge and blue and green food coloring.
Just pour some mod podge into one of your jars. I didn't measure, I just pored in about 1/4 cup.
Add a few drops of water to thin down just a bit. So it's the consistency of.... oh I don't know, slightly thinned mod podge. Then squirt in a few drops of food coloring- to your liking. I tried a few different combinations. I think I liked a 3:2 ratio 3 blue drops to two green. But you do what makes you happy. Stir it around to get a uniform distribution of color, then start swirling. Swirl around to cover the inside and pour the remainder into the next jar you want to color. Keep swirling and pouring to your hearts content or until you run out of jars or you need to mix more- which ever comes first.
You want to get as much of the mod podge mixture out of the jar as possible so you don't have a big glob of dried gunk in the bottom of your lovely jar.
This is how it will look wet.
I'm pretty sure I read somewhere about heat setting paint on glassware by baking it at a low temp, so I set my oven on the lowest setting it would allow, 150 degrees and popped them in.
I took this after they had cooked for about 20 minutes.
And for the finished product, drum roll please.....
Not too shabby, eh? They look very much like the real deal and since no brush was used, there are no brush strokes. I don't imagine they are food safe. I wouldn't drink out of them or store food items, but they work great for showing off some pretty flowers.
You'll notice there's no water in the jars. I was impatient to take a picture, but I want to let them stay in the oven for a few hours to really set the mod podge. The label says once dries, it doesn't come off.
Edited to add***
OK, I've searched and searched for info about water and mod podge. After reading the FAQ page on the Mod Podge website, I don't think they will hold up to having water in them. I wonder how a clear spray sealer might work??? I'll have to give it a try tomorrow. Or you could just use the same method, but use paint made for glass, maybe something like this or this. Or just don't put water in them and they should hold up just fine.
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