Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Make ALL THE THINGS Mercury Glass!

I'll give you a cookie if you got that Hyperbole and a Half reference. Anywho, I've recently developed a mild obsession with mercury glass. It all started with these three votive holders that my Mom bought for me in Jamestown, Virginia.
Behold!

I put them on my coffee table and have pined for more mercury glass like a zombie pines for human flesh. (I seriously watch too much of "The Walking Dead." I'm also a little bit in love with Norman Reedus.) Then I saw a tutorial about how you can paint your own mercury glass using Krylon Looking Glass spray paint. I tried it out for myself on some cheap glasses I got at the thrift store and it really works! I was feeling extra fancy so I decided to use India ink to tint the glasses first.This is really easy. All you do is mix two parts of the color India ink you want to one part acetone and use a paintbrush to apply it to the outside of the glass. (You could do it on the inside but I knew I was going to put a candle in the glass and thought it best to avoid starting a fire) The acetone thins the ink out and makes it adhere to the glass and acts as a sealant. Once the India ink had dried and sat for a few days, I applied the vinegar mixture and spray paint and hark! Colored mercury glass! 
Blue!

Purple!

Traditional!

What was supposed to be red but the ink got diluted too much and it turned out pink but that's okay!

I liked the mercury glass look so much that I decided to try it out on an old brown lamp I have. The lamp was a really weird brown faux-finish with a slight texture to it (it was a donation from a friend having a garage sale). Because it wasn't clear like the glasses, the look didn't turn out 100% like mercury glass, but it's still cool. Plus, anything is better than a weird brown faux-finish.
I made the lampshade too, by the way. Not bragging or nothin'.

Here's a close up:


All in all, I'm pretty satisfied with all my mercury glass endeavors.



Monday, March 25, 2013

Table Paintin'

So, breakups are hard. (And then anyone who will ever read this mumbles "Duh, Amanda.") I'll be completely fine for days or even weeks and then crippling feelings of despairing despair appear from nowhere with the sole mission of strangling the feelings of happiness I've cultivated to cope with said breakup.

This happened a few nights ago while I was calmly minding my own business, eating veggie chips out of the bag and watching like 7 episodes of "30 Rock" on Netflix because I was too lazy to browse for something else. Hey, I'd been at work all day and my Instant Queue was aaaaaaaalllllll the way over there.

Then I got all depressed for no reason and started freaking out about being forever alone. I usually text some friends when this feeling strikes, but I'm trying to wean myself off that because I know if the same friend kept doing that to me eventually I would run out of patience. So I decided to paint the top of my dining room table instead of badgering friends with my emotions for the millionth time. To be fair, it's a really old table that some of my parent's friends donated to me when I moved off on my ill-fated voyage to Savannah, GA. The top was pretty scratched up and had some wear and tear on it, so painting it really improved things. I used a light grey interior wall paint that I had laying around and then painted the pattern with a darker grey that I mixed up.

Here's an action shot of the finished table top:

Table tops don't do a lot of action packed things. Here's a closeup of the pattern:

And here's a shot of it with candles and these glasses that I tinted and then painted to look like mercury glass and put candles in (I'll do a post about those eventually). Candles are one of the things that I keep in my apartment to fool visitors into thinking that I'm adulty and have my life together.

The paint should hold up pretty well but I'm going to put a clear varnish on it just for extra protection since I won't be able to mix up the exact shade of dark grey again.

So, kids. If you're dealing with a breakup, you should paint your table instead of inflicting your feelings on your friends. You'll feel better afterwards and have a cool project to show for it.


Sunday, March 3, 2013

Bandana Tablecloth

So, I got bored one day a few months ago. This happens pretty regularly. I'm just sitting there minding my own business and then am suddenly and randomly crushed with the random feeling that I've accomplished nothing, that my life is going nowhere, that I must create something RIGHT NOW OR I WILL DIE. Okay, that's a tad over-dramatic, but you get the point. I get bored easily and like to make things.

I started rummaging through my collection of random craft supplies and discovered that I had 9 bandanas laying around (because that's so normal, you know). I had 3 patterns so I decided to arrange them and sew them all together and make something that was supposed to resemble a tablecloth.

Here's what I came up with:


I pinned the bandanas together and then hand-sewed it all together and a few hours later I had a pretty snazzy tablecloth! (If you have an actual sewing machine you could probably knock this out in like 30 minutes.)

Behold!

I'm quite pleased with it. I haven't tried to wash it in the washing machine because I'm afraid the seams might unravel, but it holds up well with hand washing. You could probably do this for about $5 if you don't have bandanas just laying around like I did. To be honest, I have no idea why I thought I'd ever need so many bandanas, but I'm glad I planned ahead for my future self. :)