Mother's Day presents the same hurdle every year - unique, amazing, memorable, useful gift that is better then the previous year. Thankfully, this year I had Pinterest. I created a jewelry stand for my Mom combining three Pinterest inspirations, add in a touch of sentiment and voila! Perfect gift for Mom. Or yourself. I like the idea of treating yourself too.
Project: Jewelry Stand.
Insipirations: Spool's Bird Softies
Spring Flowers or Second Life of You Nail Polish
DIY Frames
Materials: Picture or mirror frame, lace or wire ribbon, scraps of cloth, craft wire, glue gun, super-duper adhesive, sticks, hand saw, wood clear-coat acrylic polyurethane, nail polish, wax-paper, printer, pencil.
Find a frame. The oval frame above was a mirror frame and the square frame was purchased on crazy super sale from Michaels and the painting was removed.
Sticks! Scavenge dead branches, strip the bark and let them dry out. Position the sticks on the frame and mark for cutting. There wasn't much space behind the oval frame and the sticks were so tiny that they looked right at home on the front of the frame. Cut the branches to fit the frame and paint with wood clear-coat polyurethane. Alternatively, I imagine you could use a wood stain or maybe even spray-on clear coating for crafts that might be left over from another project.
Glue the finished sticks to the frame. I used 5-minute epoxy - it smells really bad. Like, polyurethane bad. After transport to my Mom's house and the unwrapping process, the bottom stick on the oval frame came unglued. I think it is because there is a finish on the frame that let go. I suspect that it would have held better if I had sanded and/or scored the frame prior to gluing. I was in a pinch, so I reattached the stick with a glue gun from the workshop. Hopefully the glue is a much better strength then the standard craft glue and the stick won't fall off again.
Lace! The square frame was designed for earrings, but sticks cannot fulfill the need alone. DIY Frames show the beauty of lace for earrings, but while I was shopping at Michaels (with a 40% off coupon!) I fell in love with the black spider-webbingish wire ribbon. Measure the ribbon to fit the frame, glue-gun the ribbon to your heart's content, and let it cool. Birds! The birds are completely optional. Spool's Bird Softies had an excellent design and I had tons of scrap material. The primary function for the birds was to hold watches and bracelets. I also used them to hide the glue points on the oval frame. Since the frames were a gift, I used fabric for the birds from sentimental sources. The white and pink birds are made from scraps from my Mom's wedding dress. The quilted blue bird on the oval frame is made from a vest my Mom made for me when I was a toddler. The other birds are scraps of clothing from my kids. The birds helped to make the gift extra special as well as functional. At first, I tried to stuff the birds with scraps from receiving blankets and baby socks, but the finished bird was lumpy and there was a ton of strain being exerted on the seams. I scavenged an almost-new and thoroughly ignored stuffed toy and removed the stuffing to re-purpose for the birds. The stuffed toy had faux fur, so I tucked the shell away in my craft case for some future project. I attached the birds to the sticks with craft wire.
The wire was small and flexible which made it easy to thread with a needle though the birds. After the wire held the birds in place I dosed them with a generous amount of glue gun action. The wire is the strength, but the glue.... well, it holds it all together. :)Flowers! Your frame is now goregous! If only you could hide where the glue peeks out around the birds and/or where the sticks join the frame. The frame is good-from-far, but far-from-good. Here comes the flowers! Take a length of craft wire and twist one end around a pencil to make a loop.
An alternative method is to make each petal individually, paint them, then fasten them into a flower. Sadly, I am unskilled in the ways of wire and I quickly became frustrated and developed the aforementioned method.
Now that you have the wire flowers made, cover your work surface with wax paper, a small amount is sufficient. I layered a small square of wax paper on top of the larger wax paper strip, a little larger then the wire flower, and one for each colour of nail polish. The wax paper made clean-up easy, and lets face it, after all the glue-gunning, scrap cloth bits and stuffing, an easy clean-up is just what you want. Hold the wire flower with the petals against the wax paper and place a few drops of nail polish on the petals with the nail polish brush. This part can be very frustrating but it will be worth the trouble. You want to fill the wire opening with nail polish and slowly draw the flower away from the wax paper. The nail polish should adhere to the wire and form a thin membrane, giving you a petal. Repeat with the next petal, etc.
Here's the frustrating part - often when you dip the flower into the nail polish pool on the wax paper, the petal you just painstakingly finished will touch on the pool and pop. Add more nail polish and try again. Sometimes I was able to do more then one petal at a time, something I could only get three petals done. If you are going crazy, let the flower petals dry then dip the empty petals. The petals need between five and ten minutes to dry. I painted with three different brands of nail polish and I found a big difference with how easy it was to have the petals form. The nail polish that had some iridescent qualities was the easiest, but there are too many factors to be certain. Finishing touches! I wrapped three flowers together, then wrapped the tri-stem around the stick and secured them in place with a touch of the craft glue-gun to prevent the wire from slipping.
Hang the frame on the wall and enjoy arranging you bling for easy access and a stunning display!
