It's been some time since my last post, and though I do have a few projects in the works, none are quite ready for posting. So in the meanwhile, here are a free projects I have completed for or with my parents (they have all the good tools).
Lantern Rekindled...
Mom decided she needed to re-decorate the mantel over the fireplace for fall(this is done with every new season, how tedious, I know).
So we had these four crazy rusty lanterns sitting in the garage for years, they had belonged to my PopPop when he worked on the railroad. They had awesome red glass and we thought they were worth revamping, so after the 20 minutes it took for me to free the glass, I promptly washed off what seemed like 20 years of dirt and my mother promptly started to spray paint three of the four lanterns bases brown and one red. The lanterns were so rusted it was impossible to tell what they were originally made of (probably some sort of metal, duh) but she liked the brown paint because it matched the rust (go figure) and the one was painted red because we ran out of the brown(my mother is a hasty woman, you see). And in case you couldn't tell, they came in two sizes, lets call them big and small.
And yes, we are country so we do our crafting on tree trunks in the drive way...
Here's how they turned out...
The mantel re-decoration is complete. The lantern colors looked great with the exposed red brick wall and she accented the lanterns with fall leaves, antique bottles and yes, those are antlers(my brother collected for her but lets not discuss his methods of acquiring them) and a little sparkle of twinkle lights hidden amongst the folliage. Looks pretty fall to me. Way to go Mom. Next...
Pet Cameos...
Mom is an animal lover. She is a vet-tech and a pet groomer. Needless to say she has acquired quite the collection of pets. As a Christmas present one year, I came up with a crafty gift to showcase her collection of pets with a collection of cameos. All it took was some cheap Ikea Kvill frames, some craft paper and a little bit of creativity. Check it out...
Hopefully you are able to correctly identify these animals. We have a dog, a cockatiel, a hamster, a bunny and a cat in that order. I did generalized profiles of each one cut out of black cardstock and placed them on fun patterned backgrounds that match the general color scheme of Mom's livingroom. I found these awesome oval frames at Ikea that seemed antiqued inspired. They were originally horrible, white plastic, but spray painting them black made them look more natural, or wood-like shall we say. There are lined up as a group above the entry way to the next room (I hope you will forgive me but I forgot to take a photo of the entire group together, I know I am trying hard to get over it). Here is a closer look at the cockatiel which has the most detail:
He looks pretty handsome with his plumage don't you think? And I gave him a background with a feather pattern just to be cute. You may have noticed that all of my animals have antlers... so what?! It was sort of an inside family joke as most of my relatives are hunting enthusiasts and we have our fair share of deer heads on the walls. They memorialize the animals they hunt so why not memorialize the animals they keep as pets? Plus it adds a little bit of whimsy don't you think? No? Well too bad, it's not for your mom, make yours without antlers, or make them of people instead of pets, what the hell do I care?!
Well beyond that little rant, I hope you enjoyed this project. It was very simple but meant alot to my Mother Dearest and was certainly very afforable (which is nice because I am often broke). More fun with paper art to come, so stay tuned...
Until next time...
Keep your eyes on the sky...
<3 ray
Igot-it@: Kvill frame, Ikea. All other craft supplies previously owned.
Clickit!: http://www.ikea.com/us/en/
