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 It's such an easy, economical way to transform boring or outdated fixtures!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For this transformation, I assembled a collection of old and outdated picture frames.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...)

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? 

Gum Paste Flowers - First Attempt

Look what I made! Gum Paste Flower

This week I decided to start experimenting with gum paste. After much research, I found a recipe I wanted to try. The recipe offered by Wilton on the back of their Gum-Tex container was supposed to be easiest for beginners. This is part of the plan to possibly make my own wedding cake - assuming I can master the art of sugar flowers in the next two years.

However, the dough didn't work out as well as I'd hoped.

Gum Paste Dough

See the picture? Yeah, that's my hard, crumbly, weird smelling dough. I'm not sure what I did wrong, but I definitely intend to try again. I let this dough sit for 24 hours and attempted to use it anyway - it worked well enough for the flower, but was really difficult to roll out and shape.

I'd post the recipe, and the instructions, but then you'd all be as frustrated as me while working with this horrible stuff. I'll follow this post up with my next attempt at gum paste - next time, it will be perfect, and I will start my second career as a fabulous pastry chef .... in Switzerland...