Grubby Silicone Bulbs RECIPE

Do you need to make some primitive looking silicone bulbs?

I use this recipe to do both the electric taper bulbs and the night light bulbs.

I took some clear silicone (the higher priced one, not the white caulk kind) and mixed in some cinnamon spice in a throw away bowl.

Just mix it until it's a nice smooth brown color. No real recipe here. Just play around with it. 

It should look something like this:

 

 

TWIRL it with one motion in the mixture. I tie a string to the ends so when they are wet I can easily hang them up.

And I use a closepin to clip them up to dry.

AND HERE IS THE LITTLE BATTERY OPERATED CANDLE BULBS:

BEFORE:

And after I bought a few dozen of these, I realized they have a green flame:

Then I took the little candles, one by one, and hand dipped each flame. 

I just stuck it in, twirled it once and pulled it straight out, in an upward motion. 

Kinda fast, so that it gives a nice tip to the flame.

I let them sit and dry in the sun for a few hours. It took longer than I thought for the 100% silicone to dry. But well worth the time.

Then after they were finally dry, the bottoms were ready to grubby on up!

See how I did the bases 

of these battery operated candles in the other post,  

found here.

And if you want to see this bulb recipe used on other night lights, click here.

DIY Grubby Electric Taper Candles

 

In needing a grubby taper for one of my crafts, I figured I'd just try and make one.

Here's how it went. And it was super simple!

THINGS YOU MAY NEED:

Mod Podge

Cinnamon

Paint Brush

As you can see, I had to remove the bottom flat piece of the taper with pliers because I needed it to stick securely in foam. Totally optional and I'm pretty sure most of you won't need to do that.

Then I simply took some mod podge, brushed it on the entire taper with a small paint brush. I held it over a paper plate to hold back the mess.

And then while it was still wet with mod podge, I simply sprinkled some .50cent bottle of Dollar Store cinnamon all around the taper.

And then I found a place that I could hang it up to dry for the first time.

And after it was mostly dry and not falling off all over the place. I gave it a second, huge helping coat of mod podge all over the top of the cinnamon this time. And this way, it will seal up the cinnamon and keep it from trying to come off on our hands. 

After the mod podge dried, which only took about an hour, it was ready.

One more thing I did was replace the bland looking light with a grubby one I recently made to make it look more prim.

And here it is in my craft project that I needed it for.

I'm happy with it, and best of all I didn't have to go out and buy another item to finish my old tool box craft.

For Sale in my Booth#555

I THREW IN MY DISH SOAP APRON

I wanted to make some cute dish soap bottle aprons that I saw for sale in the local flea market. And just happens on Saturday I won a Sears brand sewing machine at a local auction for only $9.00! I know right?

I think it is doable for me.
I started out by searching Google for "dish soap apron pattern." And I was flooded by hundreds of links. I quickly choose one from sewing.about.com that said available in two views, .jpg and .pdf. I just figured this way I had a double chance of getting a page that was useable. lol. And I thought I was right.

Wrong.

After printing it out and cutting the pattern out of my fabric, I noticed something was wrong. It was way too big. Well, it was kind of huge. Take a look at how big it is compared to regular sized pc paper:

Think about it, being held up to your dish soap bottle.... Yea little too large.

Well, I set off anyways to add some ruffles around the edges, which by the way, is only going to make the apron larger...

And boom, all of my thread got tangled together underneath the needle in that little hole. I pulled and pulled and finally it broke. Breaking the thread line all the way to the top and back of the machine.....

Hum. Being as it is was now only 5:00am I threw in my apron. Ha Ha!!! For real!

Then I jumped over to Etsy to search for some premade dish soap aprons and Bam! All over the place and o'so reasonably priced!

I found a wide variety from one Etsy seller named MyApronLady who really must know how to sew! She sells them here for only $3.49 plus $1.25 shipping! So worth not sewing my fingers together. lol.

I'm going to pick up about five of these as Christmas gifts. And use my sewing maching for the simple straight lined things such as cornhole gaming bags.

Have you ever tried making dish soap aprons before?



Things you may need:
Fabric approx. 8" x 4"
Scissors
Sewing Machine or Sewing Glue
Patience lol
Etsy Account lol

$30 Primitive Cabinet

It's still unfinished yet I still like it. I may leave it this way.

With the high prices of primitive looking, plain furniture in our area, I thought I'd give it a shot and make one. Try that is! lol.

Here's some simple shots I took as I went. So maybe if you want to give it a try, you can see it wasn't really that hard.

I grabbed my supplies at Lowes hardware store, in the unfinished pine section. Just using my eye to figure out what I wanted.

I cut some simple, upside down V shapes in the sides to give it a country look. Very simple. I used a jigsaw and just kind of eyed it.

The photo above is the top. I had to use two pieces of wood to fully cover it because I didn't have one wide enough.

Little crooked cutting, but it's okay. It's in a primitive, country theme. lol. That's what is so great!

I put some very thin sheet of lu-on board on the back. It is so thin it's very splintery. And I heard it is what goes down on floors underneath some, as a sub-floor. And cheap! Also found in Lowes.

And here it is, a $30 Primitive Cabinet!

Not positive just yet, if I'm going to paint it or not. I may leave it plain ole' pine for now and just see.

Happy Crafting Ya'll!

EASY PRIMITIVE WELCOME SIGN

Here's a plain old board that I picked up at a yard sale for only a quarter. Being plain wood, I knew I could make it into something cute for my Booth #555 .  And here's what I came up with.

First, I painted it in two cute colors, maroon and black, both flat.

Really simple and one coat of paint did the trick.

Then I rounded up a cute stencil that I keep a stack of in a cardboard box. They are really endless in life, as long as you wash them up a bit after each use. Here's the one I picked out.

It was a simple "Welcome" wording with a house also on it. I thought it would fit perfectly as a welcome sign outside of someone's front door.

Here it is all stenciled on. I used an off white mixed with a touch of yellow for the word WELCOME and the house and stars. I also run a line of checkerboard pattern along the bottom to add a little something.

I think it turned out okay just for a 25cent piece of wood that I found. What about you?

Happy Crafting! And don't forget to "like" Booth #555 on Facebook if you enjoyed any of these posts! :-)

Simplify Sign from Old Drawer

Salvage a drawer front to a Simplify Sign!

This was a fake drawer, at the top, right under the kitchen sink. You know, the long one that doesn't really open. When we were redoing our kitchen, I saved all the wood I could for future projects and this is one of the easy ones.

I simply took the drawer front and put on one coat of flat, black paint from the Walmart paint section. The kind you have to paint on with a brush.

Next, after drying, I took a large "Simplify" sign and stenciled it on using some yellow stencil paint from the Heritage Brand collection. I love that stencil paint, but it is a little greasy based and needs time to dry. Probably about 24 hours.

And after letting it sit to dry, I also took some of the yellow stencil paint and touched around all of the edges to make a little more "worn" looking effect.

And here it is all finished. All I need to add is a sawtooth hanger on the back.

I am pricing this cute SIMPLIFY sign in my Booth #555 (Like me on Facebook) at the Morehead Peddlers Mall for $9.99.

And remember, you can also stay up to date on items I make for my craft Booth #555 by keeping up with me on Facebook also!

See you round' and Happy Crafting!

BARN LUMBER DISPLAY RACK

I needed something old and country themed to display my Country Sampler magazines in at my Booth #555 at the Peddlers Mall.

 

I took some short pieces of some aged barn lumber we had, and simply cut and pieced them together. In a type of form that he thought would house magazines.  And, in my opinion it’s ok!

After taking the photo, I sanded it down with some sheets of coarse sand paper and then sealed it with some craft sealer. I didn't want anyone to get splinters while reaching for the magazines.

I wish I'd taken a photo of it finished. If I did, I can't find it yet.....

And by the way, after being in my craft booth as a display item only, I had calls from the store that people wanted to purchase this. So I priced it for only $9.99 and it sold immediately. 

Here is a photo of the second one he made:

I loved the first one better, but with old barn lumber, hardly two are ever the same.

ROLLING PIN IDEAS

A few weeks ago, I had an idea after watching an "Everybody Loves Raymond," episode. If you haven't seen the show, over at Raymonds Moms' house, she has a rolling pin on the wall that holds mail.

So I went and bought a handful of rolling pins at the Dollar Mart for only $1.19 each, the wooden ones. And I tried my hand at making them. Well, turns out I'm not great at cutting the back off of the round rolling pins to make them flat against the wall. And the cuts to hold the mail.....well, they turned out awful. Take a look:

See how the lines came out all uneven? I had used a table saw for that and apparently it wasn't the right tool. lol.

And anyhow, I then came up with an idea to use some country homespun fabric and cover up my mess. That way I could try to salvage the wooden rolling pins. And here's what I decided on doing:

As you see in the photo above, I cut a piece of fabric to fit over the pin itself. Then I used a hot glue gun to glue it around the pin. I only glued the back of it. And it has held fine like that.

I also painted the handles in a flat back with some craft paint from Michaels. It just gave them a little bit more prim look.

And I took some craft wire and attached a metal star just to prim it up a bit more.

Lastly, I attached a sawtooth hanger on the back, which is the flat side, to make for easy hanging. I nailed in the small tacks that came with the kit. The kit was found at the Dollar Mart also, for only $1.19.

And that was pretty much it. After taking the pics, I decided to take some sand paper and rough up the handles a bit more. And they did look better after that. And that's all there was too it.

It was a craft fail that actually turned out salvageable. lol.

Happy Crafting Ya'll,

~Lisa