gingerandgeorge

Palette Pingpong (No.31)

This week, I PPP-picked a PPP-picture for Gabrielle which I knew she'd love as much as I do. There's a part of me which is devoutly thankful it's *only* a picture - if we'd stumbled across those vintage linens in real life, I would have to resort to actual fighting in order to get my mitts on them, and that kind of thing can really take its toll on a friendship. Also, she might win. 

The image comes courtesy of the uber-talented Dottie Angel, and in the highly unlikely event you haven't come across her blog/home/projects/gallery just yet, I can only suggest you run (don't walk) and stuff your face with the deliciousness of it all.

But - and it's one the size of JLo's - not until we've finished up this round of Palette Pingpong. You know the drill. Gabrielle has a pretty palette inspired by those vintage linens, and a whole pile of inspiring pictures inspired by the palette. Please go and see it now while I look up 'inspire' in the thesaurus. 

Enkindle, commove, imbue, give rise to . . . 

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Way Back Wednesday :: Hoop-la

A couple of years ago, I wrote a feature on Christmas gift ideas for a scrapbooking magazine. As you might remember, I'm not a scrapbooker but I do like hitting up their supplies.

The two hoop pictures below were my favourite of the projects I put together, not least because they were a very deliberate attempt at luring die-hard papercrafters over to the dark side. By which, obviously, I mean embroidery. 

Each picture uses slightly different techniques, but both can be put together in under an hour, with only the most basic of skills and materials. 

Like dogs, fruitcake and Macauley Culkin movies, they're not just for Christmas. They make excellent emergency gifts all year round, and are simple enough for creative children to try out, too. It's the summer holidays, you know. I've got your back.

I'm guessing you can work out the details from the pictures above and below, but in case you need a quick breakdown, here goes:

Hoop One

:: Paint the hoop or stain with coloured ink, then add dots with a paint pen.

:: Stretch light-coloured fabric over the hoop when dry.

:: Place something sturdy under the fabric (I used a wooden canister lid) and stamp stems using green ink. 

:: Stitch a selection of buttons at different heights on each stem.

:: Trim or cover fabric to neaten and finish off the back of the hoop.

Hoop Two

:: Stretch denim fabric over the hoop. 

:: Sew four short running-stitched lines across the middle of the fabric to make stems.

:: Layer paper and/or fabric flowers above each one and fix in place with a fancy brad (a button would work, too).

Hopefully it goes without saying that you can mix the ideas up - stamped stems and brad-fixed flowers for a total no-sew project, or vice-versa if you're feeling stitchy. You could even get really fancy and make your own flowers.

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I've been away . . .

(Happy memories, but no tan.)

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Project Restyle :: Clock

I found this clock in my local charity shop a few weeks ago. It was pretty grisly to look at, not in the greatest condition (faded face, peeling varnish) and cheap as you like. In other words, the perfect restyle candidate. 

The only thing I was really concerned about was how easy it would be to take apart. Thankfully, it turned out to be a breeze - the face lifted away so easily that I actually ended up having to apply a little glue at the edges to hold it back in place once the project was finished.

With the glass carefully set aside, I unscrewed the clock mechanism (if you're doing something similar, be sure to lay out the pieces in the order you need to replace them later on. Take it from someone who hasn't always done this in the past...) and then peeled off the decorative cardboard face. 

I then rough-sanded the peeling varnish, before going back over the whole of the wooden clock surround with a finer grade of sandpaper, ready to spray on 3-4 coats of gloss-finish paint. 

Once that was dry, I traced around the original cardboard clock face onto some patterned paper, cut it out and adhered to the centre of the clock. You could obviously add numbers at this point, but a busy print like this looked better without.

The hands and clock movement screwed back into place really easily, and with just a small amount of glue to hold the edges of the glass in place . . . one restyled clock, ready to hang and remind me just how late I very probably am.

One quick tip: if, like me, spray paint is something you struggle to get hold of, particularly in a good range of colours, it's worth trying either the London Graphic Centre or (a little less obviously) your local branch of Halfords. I wouldn't necessarily recommend using their car paints on paper projects, but for more solid pieces, like the clock here, they give a really good, tough finish and are relatively inexpensive - around £6 for quite a big can.

And if it's a clock like my thrift-store find you're after, there's currently one here on eBay. Let's just assume the bit where it says 'very rare' is a case of fancy seller-exaggeration, rather than an indication I've just wrecked a priceless heirloom with a can of green spray paint, ok?

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Orla Kar-ly

Considering the car trouble I'm currently having (yes, still), this is a very dangerous discovery.

It might just be the most beautiful car I've ever seen. Right now, offer me a Jaguar, a Mercedes, a Porsche, even a cooler-than-cool Alfa Romeo, and I'd very probably turn it down in favour of an Orla-fied Citroen (the stem-spot version, if you please).

I'm sort of hoping they don't have any hanging around when I drop our poor, sick Picasso off at the Citroen garage next week. If I see one in real life, I may just be forced to sell a kidney, rather than leave without it.

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Stripemania

A celebration of bloggers wearing stripes? Not much chance I was going to resist that. 

If you want to play along, the (very easy) details are over at Decor8. 

Thanks, Holly and Igor!

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Post No.200

However many of them you've read, thank you. I love you like the pesky blackbirds love our strawberry patch. 

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Palette Pingpong (No.30) :: Be Kind

Last Thursday morning, I woke up to an especially sweet comment from a blog reader.

By the middle of the same day, I was sitting on the hard shoulder of the M25 in scorching, shade-free heat with a steaming car engine, a dying phone battery, a pulled muscle in my back and a £50 parking ticket in my pocket. 

On another day, there's every chance we could have added 'throwing an elephant-sized strop', or 'sobbing like an overtired toddler' to that last part, but as it goes, I took this grizzly chain of events more or less in my stride. Yes, you could put it down to brain chemistry, but personally I'm inclined to think it had more to do with starting the day in such a positive way, reading just a handful of kind words from someone I've never even met. And in case you're in any doubt as to how much those kind words buoyed my spirits, this is what I had in my hand when the man from the AA turned up:

(Picked from the motorway embankment, guaranteed to make you look (a) bonkers to the AA man, and (b) inadvertently Morrissey-ish as you wander along the hard shoulder.)

The reason I'm sharing such real-life randomness with you is because it provided the inspiration for today's Palette Pingpong project. You can see the picture Gabrielle chose as her challenge over at the green gables (she also has a fun tutorial and shop discount while you're there), and this is how my palette looks:

The project is a mini-print I made as a reminder that even the smallest and simplest bit of kindness can go a long way. Sometimes, it's a concept that gets overlooked or even scoffed at, but I have the ox-eye daisies and sweet blog readers to prove it really does make a difference.

If you'd like your own version of the print, either to keep or give away to someone kind, you can download one of the four palette-inspired colorways by clicking on the links below. Each of them fits a 5x7inch frame or mount, although I've made them JPEG files, rather than PDFs, so the size can easily be adjusted if you prefer.

red/navy :: green/natural :: pink/blue :: orange/natural

Feel free to be kind and pass these on (for personal use only), but if you do, please link to the post, rather than just the files. 

 

Here's hoping this Thursday involves much kindness and slightly fewer car-related crises. 

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Four Favourites :: Hello Summer

 
1. The Tumtum Tree, via Leslie  |  2. Mary Ruffle, via Cynthia

3. Le Petit Bird Told Me, via Jeanette Kryzek  |  4. The House That Lars Built, via Tahnee Prior

 

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Way Back Wednesday :: T-shirt Restyle

Amazing as it seems (to me at least) this project is now a couple of years old. It's listed (along with lots of other tutorials)  in the Makerie (seriously - you should go and have a look). 

Overuse of brackets (or parentheses if you prefer. Oh. Bugger...) aside, I thought it was worth a quick revisit, partly in case you haven't seen it before, but also because we're heading fast into t-shirt weather, and you might have a few which could do with a little restyling. Although the one I used has long sleeves, it'll obviously work just as well with short sleeves or vest tops. You could even try something similar on a bag or cushion if that's more your thing.

So, here you go - one quick and easy t-shirt restyle, revisted:

TO MAKE, YOU WILL NEED:

A plain t-shirt

Fabric scraps

Needle and embroidery thread

Black Staz-On on Fabrico inkpad

Banana Frog Concentric stamps

Interfacing

Fusible webbing (e.g. BondaWeb, Wonder Under or Heat'n'Bond)

STEP-BY-STEP:

::   Iron your fabric scraps so they're flat and wrinkle-free. Ink up one of the stamps and press down firmly onto the fabric (place a piece of paper underneath if you need to protect your work surface from any ink that might bleed through). Stamp each of the six stamps on to a separate piece of fabric.

::   Iron a piece of BondaWeb (fusible webbing) to the back of each stamped fabric scrap. 

::   Cut out the stamped images, leaving a small border around the edge of each one. Don't worry about being too neat – a frayed, imperfect look is fine.

::   Position the stamped fabric circles on the front of your t-shirt. When you're happy with how they look, lift off one at a time and peel away the paper backing from your BondaWeb. Replace the circles, and iron into place on the t-shirt.

::   Cut a square of fusible (iron-on) interfacing to fit behind your pattern of circles and iron to the inside front of your t-shirt.

::   Now you're ready to start adding some embroidery, following the lines and details of the stamps. I used three strands of black embroidery thread for most of them, and worked in plain running stitches with French knots for the dotted circles.

::   When you've finished stitching, iron once more and your shirt is ready to wear.

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