Dying Wood

When creating my test tube vase, I performed something I had never done before.  I dyed wood.  This was only after an epic fail of attempting to stain the wood, I'll get to that disaster in a moment.

I dyed the curly maple base a beautiful blue.  It really brought out the grain and made the piece pop!  Had the base been a wood tone, I don't think it would have been as successful.  In order to do this, I went to my local woodworking store and bought some Mixol blue and green dyes.

At first, I tried mixing them with some shellac.  When doing this, you are staining the wood.  The shellac sits on top of the wood, and there is very little penetration into the wood.

THIS WAS NOT SUCCESSFUL!  

I think a lot of it had to do with the color I was going for.  The Mixol dyes and the shellac were not mixing well.  My husband suggested it might have been that the shellac was a little old.  Whatever the cause, it was not working so I needed a new game plan. 

I had to wait for it to dry completely and sand it off.  What a pain!  There is nothing more frustrating that having to complete a tedious process all over again.  My new game plan, dye the wood.  I was keeping my fingers crossed that it would work, because when you dye something, it penetrates.  There would be no sanding it off if it didn't work.

Here is what I used to dye the wood.

• Denatured Alcohol
• Mixol Blue and Green
• A rag made from a t-shirt
• Gloves (because you do NOT want to dye your hands)
• Glass jar for mixing
• Respirator mask (because of fumes)

Caution: Make sure you do this in a well-ventilated area!

I mixed approximately 2/3 cup of denatured alcohol with 15 drops of blue and 6 drops of green in a mason jar.  I shook it up to mix it well.  I then soaked half of my rag in the mixture and rubbed it on the wood.  

I wish I had photos of the whole process, but I didn't want to dye my camera blue and my husband was sleeping.

The dye went on quickly and easy!  The denatured alcohol evaporated very quickly allowing me to put three applications of dye on in under an hour.  This was the look I was going for.

The difference between the staining and dying was night and day!  I learned the hard way, hopefully you won't have to!

The dye was bright, vibrant and this was before applying a finishing top coat of shellac (new shellac just in case).

I will be explaining the full build of the test tube vase later in the week.

Sharing this over at:
Sugar Bee Crafts: Take A Look Tuesday

SYTYC Reveal - Test Tube Vase

After a second place win this week, it secures my spot into the final three!  YAY!  I am so excited that I have made it this far into the competition.  Here is my thrift store piece.

The thrift store I went to was amazing.  The Texas Art Asylum.   After striking out at thrift stores in my neck of the woods, I remembered this place and decided to drive into Houston to check it out.  It was exactly what I needed.  I found more inspiration in there than I had every other thrift store combined.  Look at this place, how could you not be inspired?

The aisles were packed with all sorts of goodies that could be reused.  There were old tools, a barrel full of corks, flooring samples, fabric, glass bottles, wine crates, empty frames, etc.

Among this hoarders paradise, I was able to bring home a few things, but I ultimately settled on using these test tubes for my So You Think You're Crafty project.

I will show you next week how to build my test tube vase and how to dye wood.  This build was so much fun and didn't take a lot of time.  My husband was even surprised at how fast it all came together.

I really feel like I didn't just craft this piece, but created fine art.  Being a trained artist and an avid crafter, sometimes I feel like the two worlds pull me in opposite directions.  Other occasions, they come together in a perfect marriage.  This piece is what came from my background in both.

I couldn't be happier with it.  I now want to plant more flowers that I can cut just to have flowers in it all the time.  I might have to settle for some real looking fake flowers while I wait for more flowers to bloom in my garden.

Click here to go to the tutorial.

Showing this off over at:
Tatertots and Jello - Weekend Wrap Up Party 

Anonymous Commenting

I don't know about any of you other bloggers out there that are getting spammed, but it's driving me crazy and it is something that just recently started happening.  I am getting "Anonymous" comments that aren't posting to the blog, but hitting my e-mail directly.  They are all very vague or talk about issues with blogging and then attempt to get me to click a link.  Of course, I don't actually go to any of the links. 

The crazy part, they look exactly like they would if it was a real comment from an anonymous person commenting on my blog.  Take a look.

Is anyone else dealing with this?  How do you handle it? 

For the time being, I am just going to turn off Anonymous commenting, so if anything hits my inbox like this, I will just delete it and not worry about reading it.  I know that it might keep some people from commenting, but know that it is because I really would like to avoid getting hacked or get any type of virus.

Photo 366 #32

Summer feels like it is now rushing to an end.  As a family, it feels like we are really trying to pack in a lot now.  School starts in a few short weeks, I'm not sure if any of us are ready for it or not, but I'm not trying to worry about it now.

July 31 - Maben enjoying some watermelon, while taking a break from playing in the water.

August 1 - The only photos I took this day were of my current project over at So You Think You're Crafty, so until the reveal, this is what you get to look at.  *Updated*  The only photos I took that day were product shots of my test tube vase.  I love it so much!

August 2 - Matt took Thursday and Friday off and we really celebrated Maben's birthday.  We hit up the Museum of Natural Science and Hermann Park.  This is a photo I got of us with my remote after we ate our picnic lunch.

August 3 - My baby is 5!  Today was his birthday and this is by far the most played with toy of the day.  He took over 200 photos today.

August 4 - My best friend and I headed down to Corpus Christi for the Antiques Roadshow (a post to come later all about that).  After we were done there, we went and toured the USS Lexington, an aircraft carrier from WWII.  It was so cool.

August 5 - Driving back to Houston from Corpus was rather interesting.  We had a large line of storms just seem to appear out of nowhere.  It looked rather nasty for a while.  Here is a photo of a funnel cloud that dissipated (thankfully).

August 6 - Maben and Colton rocking out to, "The Wheels on the Bus."

DIY Cufflinks: Tutorial

It so much fun coming up with new cufflinks for my husband.  The fact that I could use it as an entry for So You Think You're Crafty makes it all the better. 

Have you seen the price of a pair of cufflinks?  The price tag, huge!  It's hard to find a decent pair for anything less than $50.  When I discovered that you could buy the blanks to make your own, I jumped all over it.  I bought two bunches of the blanks, the flats and the recessed cufflinks.

All of them were very easy to make.  Each pair I did use E-6000 glue, I will break down everything else that was used for each pair.

I will start with the baseball cufflinks.  Needed is a pair of recessed cufflinks, your glue, a marker, scissors and a utility knife.

Place your cufflink on top of the ball face down, mark around your cufflink.

Cut out your circle with your utility knife.  Once cut, take the edge and peel up your circle baseball pieces.  They are glued down, but it didn't take much to get them to come up.  You will need to trim up the edge a little bit as they will be over-sized.  Cut a little at a time until you get the perfect fit.

Place enough glue to cover the bottom of your cufflink, then place your baseball circles in there, taking special care to make sure that your stitches do not pop up.  Once the glue is dry, gift them up for your husband/dad/uncle, etc.

The golf cufflinks are a little more complicated, but very doable.  You will use all the same items that you did for your baseball cufflinks, but will need to include a bandsaw and sand paper.  Your initial cut will be made with the bandsaw.  Make sure you make your cut based on depth, not on diameter.

Once your cut is made, mark your circle from the cufflink in the center of your cut.  Either cut it out with a utility knife or scissors.  Once you get it close, you will want to shave the edges down with your sand paper.  I used 150 grit sandpaper.

Once you have them sized to fit your recessed cufflink, layer it with some glue and place it in.  Clean any glue that might seep up from the side and once dry, gift them up!

The fishing cufflinks required flat cufflinks, glue and the bandsaw.  I cut the diameter of the bobber to match the top of the cufflink.  Then I glued it down. 

That is it!  Easy peasy!  The only simpler one was the lego cufflinks.  All that required was a flat cufflink and glue.

In all seriousness, each pair of cufflinks broke down to less than $3.  That's for the pair!  Take that stuffy men's store that overprices these things!

Is anyone out there in blog land going to be making some cufflinks?  Is my husband the only one that wears them?  Any good ideas for some fun quirky ones that I haven't made?

Sharing this over at:
Tater tots and Jello - Weekend Wrap Up Party