DIY Dining Table Centerpiece

One thing that I don't like in our house is our dining table, I don't know why we got it in the first place. It looks so bulky and the glass top has an ugly pattern, we tried a table cloth before but it just didn't work for us. I crocheted a table runner to at least cover a part of it but there was still something missing, a centerpiece. I would prefer a vase with fresh flowers but I need to have a garden to afford that so I just have to settle on an alternative, fake flowers, also, instead of a vase, I used wine glasses.

Last month, I made an entry on How to Make Beaded Flowers and mentioned that it's gonna be a part of another project, this is the project I was talking about. Silk flowers would be a great choice for this, too.

The other supplies needed, as mentioned above, wine glasses, I used three, tea lights, removed from the tin, and a tray. This tray is from a repurposed picture frame, I made this the same way I made this DIY Vanity Tray, minus the feet and the beads, it's simple and fun to make, feel free to check it out.

Assembling the pieces is very easy, place the wine glasses upside down on the tray and put a flower, without the stem, inside each glass, if the flowers are smaller, two or more would be fine, then place the tea lights on top of the upside down glasses. There is really no need to glue anything in place, that way you can rearrange them, replace or remove some things. That one flower with the stem is just something I added, I only tried it and I think it's working there so I made it a part of the centerpiece. Arrange or position the glasses according to your liking and you're done.

These are cherry quartz that I scattered on the tray and around the tea lights for added effect. You can skip this one if you think it's a bit over the top.

So, that's my dining table centerpiece that I so adore, haha. I don't notice the pattern on the table top so much now and the table doesn't look boring anymore. It's very simple and easy to make, the beaded flowers are the only ones that took a while to make but you can always replace that with silk ones or probably a different item other than flowers.

By the way, that brown table runner took me two weeks to finish, am I patient or what? Bye for now, lots of things to do!

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Ball Mason Jars For Your DIY and Crafting Needs

If you are into food canning, you surely know about Mason jars but even if you're not and you're into DIY and crafts instead, you're also probably familiar with these lovely and useful jars as their use evolved from food preserving to home and party decor, storage, and gift ideas. A quick online search will give you hundreds of results for Mason jar crafts. 

This Mason jar craze, of course, also reached Manila a few years ago and everyone was on the lookout for suppliers selling these jars. One of the most popular brands is Ball and I've seen online shops here sell them before for as much as Php 200 (about $4.50) but since we can find more of these from a lot of sources now, the prices became more and more reasonable. There are even Mason jars available now in Divisoria and you can check out Ang Istorya ng Divisoria's post about this, there may be some real stuff there and of course imitations for cheaper prices. For food preserving purposes, you're safer with a legit Ball Mason jar as it is of good quality and is food-grade, but for other projects that don't involve food you're probably good with a cheaper version.

This is what I found yesterday, Ball Mason Jars on sale at Ace Hardware! Okay, so I honestly don't have any idea that Ball Mason Jars are available there so imagine how excited I got finding them at 50% off. They're sold in bulk and come in boxes of 12 and I just paid Php 499.87 for a box or a little over Php 41 apiece (about $1). I was at Ace Hardware V-Mall and the store personnel told me that the jars are also available and half-price in other branches as they're having an All American Brands Sale for the whole month of July. I didn't really look for the other items on sale as I don't need anything else at the moment but you can drop by their branches to check, some brands I've seen that are on sale are 3M, GE Lighting, Rubbermaid, Coleman, and Energizer.

Anyway, I just want to share this good news to Mason jar fans, this is a good time to hoard, right?. I was planning to buy two boxes but I think a dozen is good enough for now, I already have my fix for the whole year.

Well, gotta go and start playing with these jars. Bye!

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A Welcome Home Banner for My Beautiful Niece

DIY Welcome Home Banner

My niece, Chachi, was diagnosed with Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD) or "a hole in the heart" when she was still a baby. You may know that in some cases, those with small VSDs, the holes close on their own but unfortunately my niece needed an open-heart surgery, which she had just recently. During the ten days that she was in the hospital, everyone in the family kept on visiting and bringing her gifts and those abroad did Facetime to keep her happy as she was so bored and wanted to go home so bad. We're all thankful and happy that the surgery went well and that she's finally home and recovering fast. My mother who was responsible for almost all of the hospital expenses with the help of my stepdad and their relatives thought that it would also be nice to have a "Welcome Home" party for Chachi so we did have one. A little effort to make the banner myself is one way to show my niece how much I love her.

This banner is great for birthdays, baby showers, or any kind of party or occasion. To make one like this, you need:

Colored or printed paper (2 sets of different colors, I used letter sized ones.)

Scissors or cutter

Ruler

White glue or glue stick

Masking tape

Paper twine (you can also use a ribbon or any kind of rope)

With your 2 different printed or colored sets of paper, choose which one you would use for the letters and which one for the background. I chose the pink one for my letters and printed out two letters on each page. Do the same on the paper you chose for your letters.

Cut out the letters using your scissors or craft knife. The height of my cut out letters is 3 and 1/4 inches.

Based on the size of your letters, cut out the flags where you will be adhering them. I chose between the swallowtail and the triangle flag for the letter's background and went with the former.

Since I printed out two letters on one page, one letter fits on one half of the paper, so I cut the sheets of paper in half for the flags.

To make the swallowtail flag, find the center of the bottom side and measure how deep you want the v-shape to be and mark it. I decided on 2 inches.

Using a ruler, draw a line from that 2-inch mark to each of the corners at the bottom to form the v-shape and cut along the lines. If you are using a cutter or a craft knife you can just directly cut from the mark to the corners with the help of the ruler without drawing a line. 

You can now use the first flag you made as a template for the other flags.

Adhere the letters on the flags using white glue or gluestick.

String the flags by folding or wrapping a small part around the paper twine or rope and tape it to secure. Another way is to punch holes on the top part of the flags and string the rope through them. Make sure to leave a few inches of rope before the first flag and after the last one, just enough space where you can tape the banner to the wall. After making sure that all the letters are in order, you're done.

That's our Chachi looking well and happy. I'm so glad that she loved the banner, though I think she enjoyed the heart balloons more, haha.

There are lots of styles and materials you can use to make your own banner - scrapbook paper, glitters, colorful printables, ribbons, tassels, and a lot more. Whatever you choose, remember to have fun while making your little project.

Thank you for stopping by. Till next time!

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Repurposed Picture Frame - DIY Vanity Tray

A vanity tray is commonly used to hold perfume bottles, thus, it's also called perfume tray, but of course, you can use it for other things like your hair brush, make up, or just about anything else that you have to please your vain side. That's also why it's a must have for me but what I like most about having one is it serves as a place where I can temporarily put my watch and jewelry pieces when I feel too lazy and tired to open a jewelry box or watch organizer and put things on the right spot. 

I used to have this acrylic tray from a box of chocolate as my vanity tray, it's perfect for its purpose but I still wanted to replace it when I get to buy or make one. I couldn't find a tray that I like in the stores here or maybe I didn't look hard enough because in the back of my head I want to make it myself. Then, my sister gave me two 8R sized picture frames which she had for a long time but didn't use and she said that I might be able to do something with them as the frames are ugly, but they're not bad for their price, just Php 50 apiece (a little over 1$). And so, it hit me right away that I'm going to make a vanity tray from one of the picture frames. A quick online search told me that this is already a very popular DIY project, picture frames turned into vanity, serving, coffee table, and other kinds of trays. The frames mostly used for vanity trays are the ornate ones since they're already decorative, unfortunately, what I have needs a bit of work for it to at least look pretty.

There are lots of tutorials out there about this project, with different takes and styles that you can check out, and here is what I did to make my own version.

This is the frame I have, it's a kind of plastic and I also don't like black for this tray so I had to cover it.

The frame hangers at the back are already rusty so I just removed them using pliers.

As I didn't purchase any material for this project like spray paint or whatever I can use to paint over this black plastic frame, I just covered it up first with tissue paper, I did two layers, using Mod Podge so I can use watercolor on it.

I mixed a few colors to get coral, I think it got a bit darker but I still like it. After I finished painting the whole frame, I applied a moderate coat of Mod Podge and let it dry.

I measured and cut the size of the scrapbook paper I needed to put beneath the glass. It still look a bit plain to me even with the new color and the scrapbook paper with light pink patterns so I just added some bead details. I strung beads into a thread so I wouldn't need to glue them one at a time.

I glued the string of beads one side at a time using white glue and pulled off the string when the beads are already in place.

I used generous amount of glue to make sure that the beads are not going anywhere and it dried off perfectly with all the beads intact.

This is already good as it is but I still wanted to add a small detail, little feet using wooden beads.

I painted the wooden beads with the same color I used on the frame and finished off with a coat of Mod Podge, too. I attached a bead to each corner of the frame using E-6000 and let it dry overnight, just to be sure.

And here it is, my very own vanity tray from a picture frame. Simple and easy, isn't it? The best thing about this project is you can customize it, you can use a picture, fabric, glitters, or just anything you can think of to place beneath the glass, or you can remove the back completely and just leave the glass for a different look. When it comes to the frame, you can spray paint it, add distress, decoupage, or leave it as it is if you're happy with the frame you have. 

As you can tell, this is a very affordable project though I couldn't say how much it cost since I already have all the supplies I needed but even if you still have to buy your materials, it would still definitely cost less than a store bought vanity tray, and with the fun and satisfaction of having to DIY.

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How To Make Beaded Flowers

This set of beaded flowers is a part of a bigger project that I'm making. I did this first because it's the part that's a bit longer to finish. It's easy to make but I can't say that it's quick, I think it took me about 2 hours to finish just one flower, but maybe it's just me, because I always watch movies or TV shows when doing craft projects, so I'm not so focused.

This is commonly called French Beaded Flowers which from what I gathered is the name of the technique used which is threading beads into the wire and wrapping the beaded wire around a foundation row or frame to form the petals. The flowers you can make can be used as a home decor, which is what I'm making this project for, an accessory, a jewelry design, or a beautiful bouquet, I've actually seen pictures of bridal bouquets made with beads. So if you think this is a project worth your time, check out how I made these beaded flowers.

These are the things needed:

Wire (I used a 24 gauge wire but I think 26 gauge is better, only I don't have enough 26 so I used 24 instead.)

Seed beads

Wire cutter

Chain nose or round nose pliers

Floral tape (optional)

I still didn't have an idea how much wire I would be needing so I just cut about 16 inches as a start, then twisted and formed the wire into the foundation frame as shown in the picture above. I now have something like a deformed letter Y with one short tail and a very long one. I just also winged that part basing on the size of the petal I was planning to make, so, that lower part with two strands twisted together, which is going to be the stem is about 3 inches long and that shorter tail is about 1.5 inches.

I started with a row of beads in the center, which is the base where the beaded wire will be wrapped around.

Then, I threaded beads in the long tail, pushed the beads towards the base, just enough beads to form a row on the side of the base beads, and wrap the wire on top of the base. This is where you can start to form the shape of the petal you want, if you want a rounder petal, just form a half circle string of beads, if you want a pointed petal, wrap the wire on top with the angle pointing up.

I did the same on the other side, it's now looking a bit like a petal.

I just continued adding beads and going up on one side, wrapping the wire, and going down on the other side and securing the same way, until I reached  the size I want for the petal.

Before cutting the excess wire from both ends, I secured them by giving the tails another wrap and twist.

One petal down, more to go. The number and sizes of the petals will depend on the flower you want to make. What I was making requires lots of petals with different sizes so I made several more petals of various sizes. I used a different bead color on the outer row to emphasize the edge of the petal, so each petal would still be clearly seen even when they're already grouped together to form the flower.

Another way of making petals is starting off with threading lots and lots of beads into the wire without cutting it from the spool and form the foundation frame, the one that looks like a letter Y, this way you can just go on and wrap the beaded wire around that frame, continue doing so and just cut the wire after you formed your desired petal size. I just didn't do this method since my spool of wire is so big and it's getting in the way of my work. 

This is what I said earlier about how to form the shape of the petal, the one on the right which is still in progress on the picture above started off with rounder rows compared to the finished one because I wanted this new one to be round.

And these are the petals I made for a single flower, four groups of different sizes. The smallest petals used up about 15 inches of wire, the next smallest ones, 20 inches, the next group, 27 inches, and the biggest petals, 40 inches, those measurements would leave a long enough tail of wire to work with to secure the ends.

I gave the petals a little bend here and there to add form and a bit of effect to the stiff shape.

Then it's time to assemble the flower. I started with the smallest petals, positioned them to form a small bud and twisted their stems together.

I just kept adding petals, one at a time, based on their sizes, smallest to biggest, and wrapping the stem around the other wires already wrapped together until all the petals are attached.

Some of the petals on the outer part were still a little loose so I wrapped a wire around the stems to tighten and secure the petals.

I cut the stem shorter for the flower to fit the place where I'll be putting it and wrapped it with floral tape. You can skip wrapping it with floral tape if you want a twisted wire look or you can use other materials like ribbon or paper tape.

The flower I made is actually done for its purpose but I'll just show how to make one with a longer stem, something that can be placed in a vase. 

One way, and I think, the best way is to start off with petals with longer stems, so if from the start you know that you need a flower with a long stem, make the stems of the petals' foundation frame long, not just 2 or 3 inches. 

Another way is to attach a stick or a rod to the flower, that is when, like what I have here, you made your flower using short stemmed petals. Attach the stick or rod by wrapping wire around it and the flower's stem like when you're securing a splint. As shown in the picture, I used about five or six strands of wire with thicker gauge twisted together because I don't have a rod or a stick available.

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I also made a few leaves and attached them to the stem.

I then wrapped floral tape around the stem starting from the top, again, you can use other materials here like a ribbon or yarn.

I wanted to make the stem sparkly so I wrapped a beaded wire around it, I guess it looks cute although the stem looks thicker now.

So, all of this is just a part of another project, that means there's still work to be done. It honestly took me hours to finish but it's so worth my time and effort, I love how the flowers turned out. 

Thanks for visiting and if you have any questions or something to share about this entry, please feel free to leave a comment. Have a great day!

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