Budget Makeover: Radiant Red Accents

Hello radiant red!

In an effort to add budget-friendly accents to our new apartment, I have been experimenting with colour. More specifically, I have been experimenting with spray paint. 

I love, love spray paint. It's such an easy, economical way to transform boring or outdated fixtures! For the budget-minded student, or for S and I who are being budget-minded because I'm a student and we're trying to save for a wedding, spray paint is making it really easy to add cute accents to our new apartment. 

For this transformation, I assembled a collection of old and outdated picture frames. I also found a fabulous black and white poster in a pile of items to be recycled at home - score! Whoever bought it - it's mine now! 

Easy Frame Collage

Equipment:

Can of Spray Paint

Assorted Picture Frames

Poster or Large Photo

Art Knife

Steel Ruler

Cutting Mat

I found picture frames at yard sales, thrift stores, and in the pile of things my parents were going to throw out after doing some de-cluttering. Remove the glass and backing to the frame before beginning. 

I purchased this fabulous bright red at a local arts & crafts store. I recommend Krylon Indoor/Outdoor MultiPurpose Paint. It is recommended for use on most surfaces. Always use spray paint outside or in a really well ventilated area. I can't stress this enough. You have no idea how irate my housemates have gotten in the past when their breakfast tastes like paint because I spent the night spray painting in the basement. 

Do your spray painting outside!

I found one coat of paint was more than enough. Applying only one coat allowed some of the original colour of the frame to show through, which made for great variations in colour! Once the paint has dried, spend some time arranging your frames in a way that makes you happy. If you are dissecting a poster rather than using a collection of photos, check out the size and shape and arrange your frames to suit the poster.

Funky painted frames!

Lay your poster out on the cutting mat, and carefully cut blocks of the poster in sizes to suit the picture frames. Measure often.

Before cutting too many blocks of poster, make sure you fit it in the frame to see how it looks with the rest of the frames. How much do you love how the molded frame looks in the candy red colour? And how about that black and white traffic photo? 

I love the molding on the frame!

Almost done!

One more to go!

Are you loving the final product as much as I am? The best part of this transformation is that, if S and I decide this candy-red colour just isn't our thing, it will take a can of paint and about half an hour of my time to change our decor.

Total cost of this makeover? $4.99 + tax - and it left me with half a can of spray paint which I then used to paint other things in the apartment! (S is just so thrilled when I get all artsy on him...)

Crab Apple Pie Recipe

Things have been exciting lately in my little life. After a wildly successful interview, I've been accepted into the qualifying program for a master's of architecture program (yay!) To add to the excitement, S and I are moving all of our things across the province so I don't have to commute nine hours to school every day. Of course this means I'm surrounded by cardboard boxes, and sometime soon I have to figure out how to take apart my desk, and somehow I don't think S would find it funny if I decided to build a fort out of boxes rather than pack away all of my pretty shoes?

In the midst of all this chaos and upheaval (and guiltily admitting to my fiancé the three boxes of shoes I wound up packing) (in my defense, knee-high boots take up a surprising amount of space) anyway, in the middle of all this packing, I have been baking, painting, organizing, refinishing furniture, attempting to apply for jobs, and ... reading the newest book in the Game of Thrones series. I know, as if I didn't have enough guilty habits. 

I love fall apples - so here follows my fabulous adaptation of apple pie: Crab Apple Pie, courtesy of S's grandmother Lucille, who was lovely enough to provide us with a large bag full of crab apples.

I have to admit, I cheated on the crust. With all of my baking implements safely stashed away in boxes, and a dozen other things to do with my time, I really didn't want to take the time to make my own pie crust. Next time, I promise.

Crab Apples

Deep Dish Crab Apple Pie Recipe

5 cups Crab Apples, peeled and finely sliced
3/4 cup Granulated Sugar
1/2 cup Brown Sugar
1 Tsp Cinnamon
Dash of Salt
2 Tbsp Flour
Lemon Juice, to taste

Peel and slice the crab apples - depending on the size of the apples, this may take a while. I enlisted some kitchen help in the form of a willing fiancé who really just wanted to eat apple pie. Throw them into a large bowl, proceed to add remaining ingredients. This recipe created a pie that was a bit tart - add more sugar if you aren't a fan (or serve with vanilla ice cream).

Stir well until apples are well coated with remaining ingredients. Pour into prepared pie crust. I used Pillsbury Roll-Out Pie Crust. I know, I should have made it myself, but there just wasn't time. Still, I was impressed with this crust. It was flaky, delicious, and baked to a beautiful golden brown.

Cover edges of pie crust with aluminum foil to keep from over browning. Bake in a 450 F oven for 10 minutes, reduce heat to 350 F and bake for an additional 45 minutes. Remove foil about ten minutes prior to taking out pie.

Crab Apple Pie! Yummy!

Excuse me for not taking photos of it all cut up and covered with ice cream, I was far too busy enjoying some fabulous crab apple pie.

Gum Paste Flowers for Beginners

One of the fabulous perks of working with lots of guys is that when I bake things, I have a whole group of taste testers to experiment with feed.

Gum Paste Flowers

Excuse the bright colours, I made these cupcakes for a summer BBQ at a co-worker's house. The cupcakes were just a plain vanilla (made ultra-delicious with some Caribbean vanilla) but some butter cream icing and a few gum paste flowers as decoration make them much more exciting. 

Gum Paste Ingredients

Unlike last time, I slightly modified the directions on the back of the Wilton Gum-Tex container.

Start by dissolving 1 Tbsp Gum-Tex in 4 Tbsp of warm water. I did this in a heat-proof glass bowl on the stove. I kept the element on very low and proceeded to dissolve the 1 Tbsp of corn syrup and some of the icing sugar. 

Keep stirring as you continue to dissolve icing sugar into the dough. The dough should become thicker and less sticky as you proceed, and the warm element makes it easy to work with. Around three cups of icing sugar were dissolved into the mixture, but be careful it doesn't get too hot. 

I added some food colouring at this point - yellow seemed bright and sunny for flowers. Seal in an air-tight plastic bag for at least six hours or overnight. This allows the Gum-Tex to achieve maximum stretch. I did try working it without letting it rest, but it was nearly impossible to roll and shape. 

Once the dough has sufficiently rested, knead a small section with more icing sugar until it is no longer sticky to the touch. Roll the small piece with a rolling pin, but make sure all surfaces are well dusted with icing sugar.  

I used a heart-shaped cookie cutter to form the petals. I purchased a kit for shaping gum paste, including the funky tool you see in the pictures. Flatten the edges of the petals with the tool (I bet a small spoon would work?) 

Glue the petals together at the small point of the heart for form the flowers. I use a mixture of corn syrup and water as adhesive, but proper gum paste glue can be made using this recipe. Drop the glued-together petals into a cup dusted with icing sugar (I used a mini-muffin pan) to shape the flowers. Adjust the petals with your fingers until you are happy with the look, and then allow to dry overnight. 

What do you think? Too much work for a few silly decorations? 

Painting T-Shirts: An Experiment in Patience

Eight months ago, I must have been an ambitious person. I must have thought to myself: I have no need of free time ever again! I must have assumed what little social life I have wouldn't interfere with volunteering myself to design almost six dozen T-Shirts for an upcoming family reunion. S just thinks I'm crazy.

Hand Painted T-Shirts

This weekend we are travelling about eleven hours to Mont Tremblant, Quebec, to attend a large family reunion. It will be a weekend of fun, excitement, activities, and wine. In a moment of insanity, I volunteered to make personalized shirts for every attending member.

Designing them was the easy part. I used photo editing software (but it's just as easy to use a word processing program) to pick the font and style of the text. I used an art knife to carefully cut out the letters - which takes a lot longer than you might think! Luckily, I was able to monopolize various members of my family to help with cutting out, including S who spent two days cutting stencils. For the front stencils, I used a thick plastic so they would be reusable, but otherwise the paper stencils are single use only.

I used a re-positionable spray adhesive to fix the stencils to the t-shirts. Using spray adhesive makes for nice clean lines, really crisp images and a very sharp result. Overspray is easily cleaned up with rubbing alcohol.

Wait for the spray adhesive to dry before pressing it onto the shirt - this way, it doesn't leave lots of goopy glue marks on the shirt which you would later have to remove with rubbing alcohol. Different types of stencils dry faster than others (the plastic ones take a couple minutes, whereas the paper ones dry almost instantly).

Instead of buying expensive fabric paints, I used acrylic paint. Acrylic paint is water soluble, but permanent in fabric and other textiles once it dries. Give it a 24-hour curing time just to be safe.

Once you're done, carefully peel the stencil off the shirt. If it's not exactly what you hoped for, you have a few minutes to tweak it before the paint sets. Use a paintbrush dipped in water to carefully clean up any messy areas (you'll need lots of water, but be careful not to disturb the areas you like!) or a paintbrush dipped in rubbing alcohol to clean up any areas where the spray adhesive has transferred to the fabric.

Let it dry, and then you're ready to wear your fabulous new shirt! Can you imagine doing 68 of these for a family reunion? S is right - I must be insane.

This was an amazing family reunion - I got to reconnect with relatives, meet new additions to the family, and introduce S to everyone he will soon be related to.

After the family reunion, we headed to Parc National du Mont Tremblant, a really wonderful national park in the heart of Quebec. Three gloriously rainy days later, we found ourselves wandering around the heart of Montreal in anticipation of Wicked - the fabulous fabulous fabulous musical S bought tickets for as a birthday present. Who knew he'd put up with three hours of singing, dancing and costumes for me?

As for me, I'm far too wired for sleep (and singing Wicked songs under my breath, poor S). Tomorrow we have another 8 hour drive ahead of us, and will hopefully find ourselves in Waterloo to visit some cousins and have a (hopefully) successful interview with the university!

Sorry to those who complain I should update more (I'm talking to you Mark) but I haven't been home in forever. More updates to follow.

Awesome Easy Glass Painting

Saturday was a day for crafting. Try this transformation - it's a great way to add life to vases you have lying around the house.

It's been made aware to me that S, fiancé extraordinaire, is a pretty awesome guy. So awesome, in fact, that he goes along with most of my crazy schemes, ideas and plans. When I call him and say, "S, we simply have to go out into the woods to collect car fulls of tall sticks for decorating my parents anniversary party!" He just shrugs and asks when and where (and then brings garbage bags so I don't litter his car with leaves and bugs and things).

So a few weeks ago, when I had a brainstorm for funky wedding decorating ideas, he was fairly cool about it. ("S, lets find dozens and dozens of clear glass vases to paint as centerpieces for the wedding!) He was so cool, in fact, that he helped me search yardsales and thrift stores Saturday morning for clear glass vases, and then took me to my favourite arts and crafts store to purchase more glass paint.

Clear Glass Vases

Four of the vases I picked up at a thrift store, for seventy-five cents apiece (score!) This gorgeous, intricate decanter was from a yard sale for a dollar - in retrospect, they may have not sold it to me had they known I was going to fill it with purple paint.

Gorgeous Decanter

I used PermEnamel for painting. It retails for $5.99 at the arts and crafts store I work at, but went to $1.29 on clearance - and then 50% off all clearance items as a summer sale. For 65 cents a bottle, I purchased many in anticipation of painting a lot of vases for this wedding. 

PermEnamel Glass Paint

This glass paint is perfect for painting more delicate vases. While other paints require you to bake the item in the oven, this paint dries within hours and cures within a week. It's not as durable as other glass paint, but it is waterproof. I chose several different colours of purple (the amethyst colour is gorgeous), as well as red (raspberry sherbet!) blue and silver to mix up into different purples. 

Painting the vase

A very long paint brush worked wonders for painting the inside of the glass. Painting the inside makes for a fabulously professional appearance, but was really difficult for narrow necked vases. Instead, pour paint into the vase and rotate and swish the paint around until the entire inside is covered. The paint cleans up quickly from my hands and the brush with just water. I can't vouch for whether it is washable from clothing - although my shorts are splotched with purple paint, I haven't even tried to wash them yet. 

Painted Glass Vases

In retrospect, my biggest mistake was doing them in the hot sunlight of the backyard. The paint dried too quickly and wound up being streaky on a few vases. They still look great from the outside, but the insides are mottled. The next batch will be better. 

S hasn't seen these yet - I'm hoping he loves them as much as I do. We're hoping to mix and match different shaped vases with different colours of purple paint as the table centerpieces at the wedding - and then fill them with assorted grasses or fronds or sticks...It's an inexpensive alternative to flowers, and we certainly have the time and energy to make them ourselves!

In Love (with this necklace)

Love Necklace

I first stumbled across this 'Hello Necklace' on Etsy.com, and it was love at first site. It's funny how being in love suddenly makes you love everything. I work part time at a local arts & crafts store teaching acrylic painting classes and jewelry classes (not at the same time, but that would be interesting). So when I came across some lovely 12 gauge aluminum wire one day, I happily picked it up and stashed it with the rest of my hoard of art supplies (don't tell S - I want him to marry me despite needing an entire room for art).

Creating this necklace was surprisingly easy.

Necklace Supplies

I had a small package of Swarovski crystals, as well as copious amounts of jump rings. Way too many jump rings. Jump rings coming out of my ears. I really need to stop buying jump rings.

I like using round nose pliers when working with aluminum wire because it dents so easily, but I also used plain pliers for attaching the jump rings.

Halfway Done!

Attaching the jump rings was easy, and to that I looped some eye pins on which I strung the Swarovski crystals. Necklace chain is easily found at department stores, craft stores, my basement, or repurposed from an existing necklace you aren't crazy about. I personally like that last option - it saves me from accumulating too much jewelry.

The final product was everything I hoped for and more. A fabulous present for someone? Perhaps I should make a matching set for my fabulous future Bridesmaids? And - when I get over this overwhelmingly loving mood, I really must make that Hello necklace.

Lovely Love Necklace