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Aug 22, 2014

PRIMITIVE NIGHT LIGHTS with Silicone Candle Bulbs

PRIMITIVE NIGHT LIGHTS WITH SILICONE BULBS
Dipped Primitive Silicone Bulbs came from my $4.00 RECIPE

I wanted to make some silicone dipped, primitive themed bulbs for my nightlights.
I used the recipe that I recently wrote about found here
It's very simple and just includes a tube of 100% silicone (cost around $3.00 a tube) 
and a bottle of cinnamon ($1.00).


I bought some plain bulbs in the night light section and learned to make my own mix.
Here it is.

I just grubbied them up a little more than just leaving them all clear.

And the night light is just a cheap one from the Dollar Mart. 
Just make sure when you buy these that they are not the light sensitive activated ones. You need the ones that are regular.
The bulbs to the right are some I first bought to go by. And I ended up putting them in a few nightlights too.

For my first set, I simply painted the bases a flat black and added some tiny star stencils. 
I finished them off by simply ripping some shreds of homespun to tie at the base. 
Make sure the fabric is not touching the bulb. 
These happened to be the daylight sensor ones, but I don't care for them as much.

Here we have a set of the regular ones that I used my handmade silicone candle bulbs in.

I grubbied up the base of these as well. I just rubbed on some mod podge with a paint brush.
Then sprinkled some cinnamon on it.
You can see I gave each light a coat of paint first. One with black craft paint, and the other with a barn red. And then is when I started with the Mod Podge and added cinnamon. I almost forgot to mention that.
Let it dry.
Add more cinnamon if you wish, and another coat of mod podge to seal it.

I attached a little button and homespun to some of them, just to prim them a bit more.

And then topped it off with another coat of mod podge to seal in the cinnamon and paint.
Then I added a strip of homespun around each. And to finish, I hot glued a button on the front of each.
That took care of the bases.

Then I just used my silicone recipe for the grubby bulbs, made them, let them dry and then stuck them in.

Always make sure you use the correct wattage bulb for each of your night lights and candles when changing out bulbs! And be sure to keep all fabric away from bulbs. Even night lights get hot.

Happy Crafting,
until next time!
~Lisa

*I am not an expert. And only share my crafting experiences for fun. Please take precautions and consult a specialist before trying any craft you may find within this blog. AND when dealing with bulbs that get hot, please check all warnings beforehand. For entertainment purposes only.*

Aug 18, 2014

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!
CLICK HERE TO SEE HOW TO GRUBBY THE BASES

CLICK HERE FOR BASE DETAILS

of these battery operated candles in the other post,  


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

Aug 6, 2014

$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!







Jul 8, 2014

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! :-)




May 28, 2014

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!