Rotozipped Halloween

Pumpkin carving has always been a family affair in our house 

but now that my boys are older they just aren't into the 

whole pumpkin carving ritual anymore... so it was left up to me.

I've used the Rotozip saw before to carve real and faux pumpkins.

I had seen this idea on before and thought it was hilarious

so I got out the Rotozip saw and....

I drew the shapes with a pencil and went for it. 

It literally took like 5 minutes...that's what I'm talking about!.......

Happy Halloween :)

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Jellyfish Lights

 I had two hanging metal pendant lights that I've been wanting to do something with.

I had thought I would hang silverware around the edges so I stopped by the thrift store looking for said silverware and I spot these....

Are you thinking what I'm thinking?....  Me too!... jellyfish lights 

I saw these bags of garland lights, 2 bags 2 bucks each "as is" 

meaning they don't know if the lights work, but all I'm seeing are the clear,

opalescent-y balls that are going to be jellyfish tentacles 

so it doesn't matter if they work or not

Up close

Here are the lights I'm starting with, 

ignore the dust and the unfinished projects in the background.

I start cutting the light strands so I can get to the good stuff

Here's what I'm left with, 2 sizes. 

I'm using one strand of the lighted garland per pendant.

At this point, I don't really have a solid plan but 

kind of thinking of attaching them with fishing line.

Still thinking fishing line when I spot this and the vision begins... 

This is some kind of conduit that was rescued from a construction dumpster. 

It it metal (aluminum?) tubing with electrical wires inside.  

I've used it for other projects before and it's fun to work with ...

Plus it just looks cool

You have to kind of unravel one end to expose the wires

Then you can just pull the wires out. 

They are wrapped in plastic and easily slide out and you are left with the metal tubing. 

 If you REALLY want to recycle, you can save the green, white and black wire to use for other projects.  

I've actually done that before but I'm on a mission right now and don't have time to be coiling up used wire!

After the wires are out, you just pull it apart and it will start to separate and uncoil.  

You can also use it as is without uncoiling.  

You may want to wear gloves.  

It's not really sharp until you start cutting it but it will rough up your hands 

(You'll see examples of this in some of the other pictures).  

Then I got all involved and forgot to take pics. 

I managed to get a few more but when I was at this point, 

I just started unraveling the tubing and adding my clear balls in random patterns making eight strands per light.

To attach the strands to the lights, I drilled eight holes around the edges, eyeballing it, then used lengths of wire to thread through the holes with a bead on top to secure it and attached the strands to this wire

I coil the ends of the wire around a paintbrush, or whatever you have, to make it spiral-y

These aren't going in my house, I'll be taking them to my booth where I sell my pieces, 

so I had to hang them off of my chandelier in the kitchen to photograph.

So here they are all finished, look kinda cool huh?...wait till you see them lit up though...

I think they look very cool and I would hang them in my house if I had a spot

They really do look pretty all lit up!

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Linking up to....

Faux Bamboo Mini Blinds

When I moved into my current home 17 years ago 

we needed a quick inexpensive solution for all the windows 

and this is what we got these.....white metal mini blinds

Of course none of the windows were a standard size and they all had to be special ordered. 

(and yay! I have a "before" picture!!...kind of...got it off the Internet.

Fast Forward to present day, I have replaced all the blinds over the 

years except for the one in the laundry room.   

One day I finally got tired of looking at it.....

I took it outside, washed it and let it dry. 

I ended up layering about 3 different colors of spray paint to 

get the right color for the base coat and let that dry.

 I brought them back inside, hung them back up, then painted while they were hanging, much easier. 

I have other bamboo blinds so I studied them then headed back in the laundry room to paint.  

I used several different browns and tans to get the variation

They ended up looking pretty close to bamboo

Much better to look at than white mini blinds... especially while doing laundry

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Pebble Mosaic Fireplace

This is my fireplace in my home.

 It was surrounded with marble-y looking tiles, just very generic looking...

sorry, no before pic.

I chipped the tiles off and tiled with pebble mosaic sheets I found on Ebay.

I ended up using the leftover grout that had been used to tile the floor so it worked out great

big improvement...trust me

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Palm Tree Headboards

These are twin headboards I made and sold a long time ago.

They were cut out of a sheet of MDF and hand painted. 

There were two of these, sorry for the bad picture,

 it is still in the garage and was scanned from a photo. 

That yellow square on it is the price tag!

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Tiger Headboard

This is a twin size headboard I cut out of a sheet of Plywood. 

You can also see the Palm Tree Headboard I made using the same concept

When my son was a little younger he was reaallly into white tigers and I made this for him

I didn't attach it to the bed frame but just put it between the wall and bed

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Handpainted Toile Dresser

Toile Design Dresser...

This started off as a thrift store find and was way before I knew to take "before" pics. 

It had a plain wood finish, 3 large drawers and is solid wood.

I had a piece of fabric that I referred to as inspiration for the painting.

My son says the design on the drawer fronts look like manta rays....

hmmmm, I guess they kind of do!

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Handmade Mirrors Fish Mirrors, Dremel Carved Mirrors, Textured Mirrors

I make a lot of mirrors. 

All cut from wood or MDF and painted,  and of course, (my motto)... the bigger the better

This is a large 4 x 4 ft mirror cut from MDF.  I just draw it out on the MDF and get to cutting with the jigsaw and/or spiral saw AKA Rotozip. 

It's hard to tell from the pic but the designs on the fish are carved in with the dremel. 

I painted it out in an off white then antiqued it with some brown, wiping off the excess and leaving the paint in the crevices to show the details.

A smaller version of the white 4 fish mirror, also carved with the dremel and painted in blue

I used an IKEA wavy mirror for this one and cut a wavy frame to match. 

 I also used more of the discarded brass knobs that I had leftover when I revamped THIS dresser. 

I even taped this off to paint the stripes! I RARELY tape anything but I wanted this really crisp

A large full length mirror, cut from MDF. 

The swirls are carved in with the dremel and given the same paint treatment as above

  This fish and the one below can hang vertically or horizontally.

They are both 4 feet tall, cut from MDF and textured using compound. I used a squeegee that I notched out, (although sometimes I just use my fingers) to make the pattern in the joint compound.

The fins on this guy are some metal pieces that I already had and cut to fit

This fish is 8 feet tall, the size of a sheet of MDF and using another wavy mirror from IKEA. 

 Painted out in orange, with an old reflector for the eye, and vintage license plates for the fins

 Another full length mirror.

Again cut from MDF with spirals carved with a dremel. 

I spray painted it with gold and antiqued with brown so the spirals would show. 

I actually love this shape, kind of inside out parenthesis and I have one in my hallway.  I made this one with the intention of selling but now it's hanging in my closet

Fish mouth mirror. 

Cut from MDF and painted. 

Didn't have a mirror this exact size so just cut down an existing mirror I already had.

This is hanging in my living room and now I see that it is dusty... embarrassing

  This was my very first mirror I ever made! ...about 15 years ago.

The small swirls are caulk, (get the paintable kind), and the large roping detail around the inner and outer edges is....rope.

 I hot glued it on then used joint compound to smooth over it and build up the sides of the rope so it looks like it is part of the mirror. Painted and glazed.

Just to give you an idea of the scale, it's pretty big. If I wasn't hampered by how big the sheets of plywood and MDF are,  there's really no telling how large I would make them...I don't know why, it just sounds good.

Another starfishy/sun mirror from eons ago, way before I had a digital camera. Using a convex mirror and it's cut from plywood with caulk used for the dots around the edges

Another mirror from back in the day. Cut out of plywood to look like a highboy dresser and painted.  The flower knobs are real knobs so you could hang things from them

Another oldie. 

A "chair" mirror.  Looking at this now it looks suspiciously like the chair on Blue's Clue's which of course is around the time that I'm sure my then very small boys were watching Blue's Clue's over and over ....and over

This is another large mirror that I was intending to be one of those starfish that has a bunch of arms but my friend says it's a sun so .....there you go.  Cut from MDF and the textured dots are caulk. 

I had the convex security mirror left over from our store so was itching to do something with it