July 31, 2012

Summer Copy Cat Challenge

Summer Table Decorations

Although I can't afford much from the Pottery Barn catalogs,
I do love to look at their great vignettes and rooms for
decorating inspiration.  This Summer they have used glass jars
and rope to show off the vase fillers that they have available.
Pottery Barn Summer vignette
For Debbiedoos Copy Cat Challenge, I wanted to try to mimick
some of the elements of Pottery Barn catalog's summer vases.

The only thing I had to purchase for my copy cat attempt was
the shells.  I was impressed with the affordable bags of shells
that Dollar Tree, Hobby Lobby, and Wal Mart had.

To copy the Pottery Barn picture, I studied it to break down what
types of objects they had used to make a great display.
PB picture used for Miss Kopy Kat summer centerpiece 2012

Clear Vases
Clear vases can be used for many decorating projects
Here is my hodge podge of  clear glass vases and containers before the elements were added...

Use glass vases, candles, shells, rope for stunning centerpiece
...and after.

Candles
tall candles can act as stands for smaller items
This star fish was added with thin silver wire

summer centerpiece
Sea shells were added to some of the candles with hot glue.

easy summer centerpiece


beach wedding centerpiece idea

Sea Shells
beach wedding centerpiece idea

Star Fish
Easy Beach Wedding centerpiece


Foam starfish for decorating made inexpensively by Miss Kopy Kat


Make foam starfish in batches to use for decorating
These two starfish are made from foam.
You can see how to make them in Whimsical Starfish post.

Rope and Vintage Beach Pictures
Use rope to add a nautical look to summer centerpieces


Fishing floats are a good element to add to summer centerpieces


Glue shells to candles to give them a summer look
Rope also got added to the tops of some of the glass containters.

A Touch of Silver
Ideas for beach theme wedding decorations
Well, my silver shells are silver in paint name only. 

They started out life as plaster shells from Dollar Tree.
Dollar Tree is a good source for beach and summer items

Then got a couple of different colors of silver-ish paint layered on.
Spray paint items silver to add sparkle



This was a fun and easy Summer display to do.  I only wish
I had done it earlier in the season...only a few more weeks
of Summer are left! 
ideas for beach centerpieces

Here are some pictures of the summer centerpiece display
in the daylight. 
Miss Kopy Kat Summer Decorating Ideas


Make each vase in a vignette interesting on its own


Shells attached to candles with hot glue usually come off easily


Use only non-flammable items in a vases holding a real candle


Use your best shells where people will see them up close



July 27, 2012

Faux Lobster Buoys

Another project that I attempted with the homemade chalk paint
I made with stuff I could find at my house is to repaint these
decorative lobster bouys that I found at Hobby Lobby.

I mean, I THINK they are supposed to be lobster bouys but they
are not painted the cute colors that the ones at Pottery Barn are.
They actually remind me of stubby pencils the way they were painted.   I also got the decorative fishing reel and (what I think
are supposed to be) dock scale weights on sale to make a vignette.

I had been watching the price of these items come down till at
last I found them at 80% off.  If I couldn't make them look like
vintage-y lobster bouys, I least I wasn't out much money.

Retrospectively, I don't know why I painted them all
cream color first.  Was I thinking they needed priming? 
Anyway, I used what I had on hand to make some 
 chalk-y paint which was latex paint mixed with
powdered wall texture and water.
 The ratio was:
1 ounce of latex (or craft) paint
1 heaping tablespoon of wall texture
1 tablespoon of water
Update: After I ran out of the powdered wall texture to use as "chalk", I now use plaster of paris
from the craft store. It is a MUCH smaller amount and cheaper than the box of wall texture.
  Then I painted on a couple of brownish colors (same homemade chalk paint recipe) to have wood tones on there when I sanded them down.  Lobster buoys used to be made of wood.  It seems
that the wooden bouys messed up modern boat propellers if they
ran over them so now lobster buoys are made of foam.

The fun part was to add the new decorative colors.  I had "googled"
vintage lobster buoys and saw some good examples to go by.
This shows the approximate ratio of powder to paint.  You can play with the ratio to suit yourself.

I used the Frog Tape from our swag bags at Haven to tape off
sections of the bouys to make decorative designs.


I stayed with the blue and green colors that I had used to paint
objects on my Summer mantle so the colors would co-ordinate.
The larger bouy in the back has had its tape removed and been sanded down to make it look
time-worm.  The smaller ones still are waiting to be finished in this photo.

This is the middle sized bouy sanded...

...and all three of them sanded down to expose layers of color.
.

Some of my favorite bouys that I saw on the internet had
numbers on them so I added numbers to two of the bouys.

To transfer the numbers onto the bouys I ran a font that I liked
on the computer and cut it out.  Then I scribbled on the back
to make a type of carbon paper to transfer the number.

To transfer the numbers, trace around the outside of the
numbers/letters with a pencil.

The numbers were painted with the homemade chalk paint.
Here is a photo with the chalk paint ingredients before mixing.

You can make the numbers something that is meaningful to
you like a birthday or anniversay.

The lobster bouys I saw on the internet were mostly wooden and
had a hole drilled through the top to add a rope through. 
To mimick the rope look, I just glued the ends of rope to the
 plaster faux bouys and tried to tie them convincingly.






To add a little life to the vignette, I gathered some barely
hanging in there house plants into a driftwood-colored boat
planter that I recently got at Jo Ann's at 75% off.





Since I wanted to keep a rustic look to the bouys, I did not
seal them with a wax or other type of protective finish
but if you use this chalk paint "recipe" for anything that
is going to get "wear and tear", you would probably
want to add a finishing layer.






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