64 Arts

Antique Child's School Desk, Open

Woodwork | Giving It a Once-Over

64 Arts

In my garage is a sad, neglected little table that has served me well over many years. It started its life as a child’s school desk. Growing up, it was my bedside table for most of my childhood and early adult-hood. When I graduate to a proper nightstand, it served as an entry table to catch keys and mail and whatever else. Inside it I stored owners manuals, take-out menus, show programs, and whatever else it would hold.

Antique Child's School Desk, Open

Except on the many occasions I’d stuffed it far too full of whatever I considered a keepsake at the time and the bottom gave way. The original bottom–tacked back into place many times–finally gave up the ghost and a piece of scrap wood was attached so it could still serve as a hidey-hole, but the message is clear: this desk needs a makeover!

Makeshift replacement bottom of an antique child's schooldesk

But why now? Well, I have a very special job for this little desk. Next fall, when Todd and I get married, this desk will be tasked with holding our programs for our guests and it will need to look its best.

Top of the antique child's school desk, scarred and stained

So here’s  my game-plan:

  1. Clean the surfaces. There’s layers of dust and pieces of at least one sticker on its surface and all that needs to come away before anything else is done to it.
  2. Remove the current, ill-matched bottom and have Todd help me find a better piece of wood to replace it with.
  3. Strip what’s left of the current finish. There’s no telling what varnish might be left underneath the dust, but I have a feeling it’s mostly worn away.
  4. Sand smooth any rough patches.
  5. Fit the bottom piece into place as seamlessly as possible.
  6. Stain the entire thing. I can tell from the bottom of the lid that the original finish was a golden brown of some hue, we’ll decide when we get it all cleaned up how dark we want to go, though.

The hardware (2 hinges) might be worth saving and reusing, the seem to be in pretty good shape, now. We’ll see.

This isn’t going to be an overnight project, but we might be able to knock some of it out over the coming holiday weekend. And you know I’ll show you the “after” pictures once we have some!

Until then, I hope you have a thankful Thanksgiving (those of you in the US). If you’re still planning your menu, consider the Apple Mallow Sweet Potato Bake a possible side-dish (at my food blog, Nibbles ‘n Bites).

Halloween Pin-spiration

64 Arts, Everyday Adventures

If I haven’t mentioned before, Halloween is our favorite holiday and, each year, we like to add to the decorations and props we keep around. Obviously other blogs are great for inspiration, but Pinterest has increased that exponentially!

Thankfully, I have a willing accomplice in Halloween crafting, and this year I sent Todd a couple of fun ideas, just as a ‘look, isn’t this cool?’ kind of thing, and he actually built them!

We’ve been talking about adding a coffin to our set-up for years, but just never got around to it (and often wondered how we’d store it, if we made one). But when I sent him this link to an Ground-Breaking Coffin craft, that seemed so much more doable and now it’s done!

And, hey, it even counts for our woodworking art!

While the coffin craft was 100% Todd, I actually got to help on this next one: PVC Candles.

Super simple, Todd still did all the cutting and filing, but I added the hot-glue drips on the sides and helped with the spray-painting. Lit up in a dark room (or outside, lining a walkway) they look super spooky.

At our party this weekend someone even mentioned they could work for Christmas decorations, too–hadn’t thought of that!

And on the edible front, let me share one last Pinterest-found Halloween treat, this time of the edible variety: Pumpkin Spice Fudge.

One of many desserts at this year’s pumpkin party, this super-rich fudge is super-simple to make and everyone really loved it.

Hope you have a Happy Halloween!

Harvest Fruit Digital Scrapbook mini-kit preview

Using What You’ve Got

64 Arts, Everyday Adventures

I’ve mentioned before that I’ve been working on digital scrapbook pages again. That’s still true, and–based on my experience as a part of the Gauche Alchemy team (which I will be continuing for the foreseeable future, I love working with them!)–have been wanting to find a spot on a digital design/creative team. This means I’ve been submitting applications and had to put up a gallery of my pages so the team leaders could take a look at my work.

That last part had proved the biggest pain  in my ass. I’ve tried numerous plugins only to have one not allow multiple galleries on a single page, another that I tried had a nasty habit of hijacking ANY images I uploaded to this blog the next time I’d go to upload a layout (so if you ever came here and saw a lot of broken image links over the last month, that was why), meaning I had to re-upload and remap each and every picture in the affected posts. And y’all know how many pictures some of my posts use. So I kept looking for a better plugin. A better addition to this blog.

Turns out, WordPress has a native gallery feature that does pretty much what I need without bloating the install with any more plugins. I just didn’t know it.

Sure, I had to do some minor code tweaks to get everything the way I wanted it, but I’ve become good at reverse engineering WP themes, so it wasn’t the end of the world. And I still have to re-upload, tag, and credit a couple dozen layouts before it’s all said and done, but that’s minor.

In the end, I will have just the gallery that I want without having someone else’s programming to deal with, update, or rely on.

Now, what does this have to do with the price of tea in China? Or our day-to-day creative spirit?

How many times have you put off that fun idea because you didn’t have just the right type of paper/fabric/bead? How much money have you spent on specialty tools when the basic ones, with a little ingenuity would have done fine? How many times do we get hung up on the what and forget the why?

If you’re anything like me–and I’ll bet we have a lot in common–you’re nodding your head to those questions. You’ve been there. We all have.

Living creatively isn’t just about following a set of directions to make the same crafts and tchotchkes that everyone else has. It’s about taking an idea and running with it in our own direction. Sure, sometimes you want to do exactly what they did, because you like their end result, but we always put our own mark on our projects because we’re human beings, not crafting robots.

So have some fun with it–whether that IT is a craft project, a meal, or just getting from point A to point B.

And don’t get hung up on the details.

(Except when the details are important, of course. Things like your safety, meeting obligations, and stuff like that are details totally worth getting hung up on!)

Now, if any of you have been curious about digital scrapbooking and wanting to try your hands at it, I’ve put together a little mini-kit perfect for October that I’m going to share with you: for free!

Harvest Fruit Digital Scrapbook mini-kit preview

I actually started this kit a few years ago, and I used it to make the invitations for that year’s BYOP party (which was the year of the Halloween brunch, hence the fruit images), but never got around to finishing it or sharing it. Now that it’s done, it’ll be available for download until October 31st or 500 downloads, whichever comes first. (And if, by some strange luck, we hit those 500 downloads really early in the month, I’ll put up a secondary link.)

The mini-kit includes 6 papers, 4 fruit images, 2 tags, a piece of organza-style ribbon, and a twine bow. All images are 300 dpi, the papers are jpeg files and the embellishments are png files with transparent backgrounds. Drop-shadows are on the previews, only. Enjoy!

[button link=”https://www.yousendit.com/directDownload?phi_action=app/directDownload&fl=SWhZekZqY1NvQnMxZW9LSFJsRHVnVE9yZWt5UmdteDRsUjJuWENHRzVZbz0&experience=bas” color=”#b00″ size=”3″ style=”3″ dark=”1″ square=”1″ ] Download [/button]

Wheel of XP

#35 Woodworking | Step Right Up and Spin the Wheel!

64 Arts, Projects

You know you want to!

When my cookbook was finished and ready for its official launch party, I decided I wanted to offer something extra to folks purchasing the book at one of our upcoming events. Since each recipe carries with it a certain number of XP (eXperience Points), I figured it’d be nice to give them some bonus XP to get them started. (And, since it could only be redeemed online, by creating an account on the book’s website, it was also incentive for them to log in and stay connected.)

So was born the Wheel of XP.

Those prize wheels you see at conventions, casinos, trade shows, and other events are really irresistible–you hand just itches to spin the wheel! So first I looked at buying one, figuring I had just enough time to have it shipped before the launch party.

Do you know they want $250 (or more!) for a flimsy plastic version?! Definitely not in my book launch budget, but it can’t be that difficult to DIY one, right? And ours would be better!

Wheel of XP

About 2 weeks before the launch I proposed my plan to Todd, who I’ve already explained is the handyman in this family, and we proceeded to spend that Friday night’s date night traipsing through Lowe’s, looking for all the pieces we’d need.

I was a bag blogger (not really intending on making our own how-to post out of it) and didn’t take copious amounts of photos of the process, but here’s the general idea:

  • 3/4″ plywood, 2 ft square, trimmed down to 18″ x 24″, the back of the wheel
  • 15″ round wooden disk, the wheel of the wheel
  • 1″x4″ cut down into 2-18″ lengths, the legs–though this could also work flat
  • 4 brackets, to hold the legs on and make them removable for easy storage and packing
  • 1 lazy susan mechanism, to make the wheel spin
  • 24 wooden pegs, attached around the outside edge of the wheel, for the flag to thwack through
  • Screws, washers, and nuts for all bits (wing nuts on for the 4 assembly screws make it easier to tighten and loosen without tools)
  • Long carriage bolt, for the flag
  • wood glue for wooden pegs
  • varnish for wood pieces
  • duct tape and a mini playing card for the flag (inelegant, but effective)
  • Paper and markers to make prize signs
  • Hook & Loop tape to make the signs removable (aka Velcro)
  • WD-40 (the wheel needs lubing up for each event)

And do you know what all of that cost us? A whopping $50. (Not including the duct tape, playing card, paper, Velcro, and WD-40 that we already had.)

In the picture above you can see a 1″ hole drilled through the center of the front disk, that’s so we could eventually add another carriage bolt with a round sign (decorated CD) that would stand out enough from the moving parts but not move itself. That part’s still not done yet, but it will be in time for our next show at the end of September. At the one convention we’ve taken it to, so far, though, we had plenty of people come up and ask us what the wheel was for and if they could spin it.

Mission accomplished? I think so.

The tools required for this were a drill and various bits and a table saw or circular saw for the straight cuts. Of course, if all you’ve got is a drill (or it’s all you’re willing to invest in at the moment), most hardware stores will do straight cuts for you at a nominal cost (.25 a cut) or sometimes even free.

Now, we use our wheel the give extra presents to our customers, you may not have such a need, so why is knowing how to build your own prize wheel a useful bit of trivia? Oh, I don’t know, how about for use at a school carnival or carnival-themed birthday party, a prize wheel for your next work fundraiser, or incentives for your kids accomplishing goals. Along that line, you could make one into a chore wheel or a rainy-day fun wheel.

#35 Woodwork | Fairies, and Toadstools, and Witches–Oh My!

64 Arts, Projects

Since I haven’t picked out my new woodworking project yet, I thought I’d show you some projects that Todd and I worked on together in the past.

Our first year living together we threw a Midsummer-themed housewarming party, but it wasn’t exactly what I’d envisioned. So when we moved again and took another shot at our Midsummer Fairy Fest ( not a housewarming party, this time), I shamelessly took advantage of Todd’s willingness to help, and cooked up these little guys.

We made 3 fairies and 5 toadstools from 4, 4’x8′ sheets of plywood and still had some leftover. Of course, lacking a truck, we had the hardware store cut the boards into 4’x4′ squares with the thought that they’d fit in the backseat. Lengthwise, sure, but they were still too tall to fit through the door. Oops! This is yet another reason Todd keeps a bundle of bungee cords in his trunk.

Fairy and toadstool under a lit arch

To keep the shapes workable in our 4’x4′ wood, I drew out my designs on a square of cardstock and then measured out a grid over top. Remember those pages in the coloring books where you’d have to transfer a picture by drawing each square, one at a time? Yup, same thing works here. I laid out a grid over my picture, with each square equal to 6 inches, and then Todd could measure out a grid on the plywood and transfer the picture there. I cleaned up some of the details before he cut the first one out with the jigsaw, and then he used that first one to trace out the other 2.

(If I can ever track down my original pattern, I’ll update this post with it, so you can better see what I mean.)

The toadstools worked pretty much the same, only we could fit 2-3 pieces on each square of plywood and it took 2 pieces for each toadstool–1 with a notch from the bottom, 1/2 of the way up, and 1 with a notch from the top, 1/2 of the way down. The great thing about this was that we could combine 2 pieces to get a 3-D toadstool but take them apart to stack in the off-season.

The fairies were painted white and then sprayed with a bit of silver glitter. The toadstools got a coat of white, a couple coats of orange for the caps, and then white spots painted on. We scattered them around the back yard, nestling some in the camellia bushes on our patio. A white, gauzy butterfly on her hand and it was done.

Fairy and toadstool nestled in our camellia bushes

When Halloween rolled around we really wanted to dress up the yard more and I thought back to the fairies. With some rip-stop nylon stretched over them and stapled in place, a witches hat & wig combo, and a broomstick made of a branch from the yard and some grass table skirt left over from a beach-themed wedding shower we threw ages ago.

I left the wings loose as if it were a cape fluttering in the breeze, and dagged the skirt at the legs. I didn’t plan it this way, but the leg and hand pose fit the idea of sitting across a broom perfectly.

All lined up you can see how we cut the conduit to different heights. On the back of each are two metal conduit straps for each conduit leg and a small cup hook to act as a stop for the conduit so they won’t slide down the pipes or flop around in the breeze.