Friday, February 24, 2012

DIY Upcycle Old Junky Finds Into Something New


DIY Upcycle Old Junky Finds Into Something New! You can transform anything with a little spray paint!  I found these brass candlestick holders and lamp base at a thrift shop and did a good scrubbing with dish soap. For the paint,  I prefer Valspar because it covers really nice, dries super fast and seems to work in colder, more humid places like Seattle!  I found the most variety of colors at our local Fred Meyer supermarket rather than at the home improvement stores.



The rim of this candle holder was chipped so I glued a lid from a jar with my E-6000 glue.  I sprayed everything with a coat of primer and let it dry.


upcycled candle holders

I added several coats of the turquoise and now I have something fresh and new!  The tray was an old black Pottery Barn wood tray I already had and wasn't using. Super simple DIY project.

Feel free to post links to your spray paint make-over projects!

Sunday, February 19, 2012

DIY Easy Hand Painted Vases

easy hand painted vases, upcycled vases


I discovered this crafty blog,  Little Gray Fox, on Pinterest and saw these super cute vases and wanted to try this myself!




DIY easy hand painted vases


               I had these cheap florist vases and I got three bottles of acrylic craft paint






I just squirted the contents of two bottles of craft paint into my smaller vase and slowly and patiently swirled the thick paint around until everything was covered. You can help it along with a paint brush; I just used my fingers. Then I drained it into my larger vase; set it upside down for a few minutes and then wiped off the rim and set it upright to dry. I then squirted the last bottle into my big vase and repeated the process; draining it upside down on paper towels.




hand painted vases, home decor
                                 
                                             Now I have some gorgeous vases !


Note: these are decorative vases; do not put water in them!  For a dishwasher safe version of this project see this great tutorial on this fun blog,  Sugar and Charm




Feel free to post links to your vase projects below; I would love to see them!

Saturday, February 18, 2012

5 Awesome Examples of Upcycling

According to Wikipedia, Upcycling is the process of converting waste materials or useless products into new materials or products of better quality or a higher environmental value.

        Here are five example of awesome upcycling or repurposing materials into colorful art:






            Gorgeous hanging lamp made from plastic bottles by THISgallery on Etsy.








Repurposed clothespins made into cool wall art  found one the best blogs for upcycling:  The Blue Velvet Chair










                      Repurposed shoe sculptures by Gwen Murphy found on Artstormer







upcycled jewelry, repurposed bobby pin necklace


Upcycled  unique necklaces made from bobby pins by BluKatDesign on Etsy.










Upcycled plastic bottle cap wall art.  How to make your own here: DIY Plastic Bottle Cap Mossaic


.