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Hand-made gifts are the best, aren't they? I'm always happier giving a handmade gift than any other. So I was super happy when I got ideas of what to get/make for my grand-mas this past Christmas.
I already shared the magnetic pin dish I made for my paternal grand-ma last week. That idea I got from blogland. But this idea I came up with it all on my own!
When my mom told me my grand-ma wanted a nice caddy to keep her remotes after seeing one at Staples for 15$, I thought uh hello, I can make that! and for less. I immediately had a flashback to the little wooden holder I saw at Dollarama that would be perfect for this and how I could spruce it up and make it look one of a kind with scrapbook paper. I was really excited to have finally gotten an idea of what to get my grand-ma for Christmas, and that it could be hand made; she's a picky one.
Of course I had a hard time finding the wooden holder, after that flash of genius, always seems like they run out of the one item I need at the time, but thankfully I didn't stress and I found it a few days before Christmas. That was a close one!
What I used:
~ Wooden holders; the big one I got from Dollarama for 2$ and the smaller one at Michaels for 1.50$
~ craft paint, Dollarama, 1$
~ scrapbook paper, Micheals, 3 sheets at 1$ each (I do not yet have a stash of scrapbook paper...)
~ Mod Podge, Michaels, 6$ with 50% off coupon (I think I got medium sized...?); I must've used like 1/10th of the bottle for this project, so let's say 50cents
Total: ~8$
I got the extra wooden holder at Michaels because I wasn't sure 1) if the remotes would be small enough to fit in the front pockets of the big one, 2) how many remotes my grand-ma had. I figured she would be able to put something else in the extra box if she had too much space, which is exatly what she did!
So my dad cut one of the handles of the smaller holder with his table saw, and I glued the 2 together:
Couple of hours later it was dry enough to move on. I mean, this was a couple of days before Christmas, and I had both my grand-mas' presents to make (actually, you can see the other one in progress in the corner of the above picture), I did not have time to wait for anything to cure completely.
Now you'll have to use your imagination for the next steps because I'm not used to taking in progress pictures... sorry :( And also I was doing it in half darkness while I watched TV (bonding time with the bro lol), so they probably wouldn't be pretty anyway.
So imagine me painting the edges and the bottom of the caddy. Then imagine me measuring every surface, outside, inside, and cutting out the pieces from the scrapbook paper.
There's a few things I wish I had done: cut the pieces slightly smaller than the surface, because they protruded too much from the edges of the box in the end, and also sand the edges, they were really not very smooth, especially once painted over. But they aren't that big of a deal.
Finally, imagine me Mod Podging (if it's not a verb then it really should be!) the paper into place. And voila! Pretty easy, right?
In action at my grand-ma's: she also puts her cordless phone in there, and keeps a notepad, a pen and a nail file.
My mom loved what I came up with so much she wanted me to make her one as well! So that's what I did, and gave it to her for her birthday early January.
2nd time around was much faster. I only bought 2 pieces of scrapbook paper, at 79cents each this time.
I also learned the proper way to applique paper with Mod Podge in the mean time: Mod Podge on the surface, on the paper, then apply paper to surface, smooth over paper with fingers if you don't have a roller, and let dry a bit before applying Mod Podge to seal, so you don't get bubbles!! I'm sure most of you are going, well yes I could've told you that, but after reading a lot of tutorials that used Mod Podge in the last few months, no one ever mentioned this piece of advice. It wasn't bad the first time around, it's just it was better the 2nd.
I also put small circle felts to the underside to prevent scratches.
I think I like the blue one better, because I really loved the pale blue paper I got.
Which one do you prefer? Let me know in the comments!!
Thanks for reading!
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Today marks a special day in Color Me Domestic history. I've been featured on The Creative Paige!! *does the happy dance* My first feature! Not only was I among the top 3 links clicked, but I was THE most clicked link!! I am truly honored!
Ok so here's how I found out, if you're interested. It was about 5 minutes before I was set to leave school for the gym. I was trying to waste time and perusing my blogger feed, saw The Creative Genius was up, and decided to look if there were any awesome Valentine's project made this week. When I started scrolling and saw a glimpse of my Magnetic Pin Dish, I quickly scrolled more and saw that I was in the top 3!! Woot woot!! I really did not expect to continue scrolling and see that I was #1. But I was, and I was speechless. Really? Really?! That means I'm the Creative Genius of the week and my button is displayed in her sidebar!
There's me in the left hand side bar!
So like any award, there are people I need to thank. First, Sawdust and Paper Scraps for the idea for the magnetic pin holder, I'm really just a copy cat, without her idea I never would've made this. Second, my dad for helping me with the project and supplying his muscles to remove the cap off the Krylon spray paint (seriously, those things are HARD to open!!) and his garage. Third, my grand-ma, who gave me a reason to make the dish. And finally, all of YOU who came to visit me!!
I'm also getting a lot pins for this on Pinterest, and some Pinterest traffic, which makes everything that much sweeter :) I am officially on the map lol
I have a feeling this is gonna be a great year! I've got a lot of project ideas, I'm just short on materials and opportunity to grab them, time and space. A lot of them, or well the bigger ones, involve woodworking (my primary crafting medium because of my dad's influence), which I can only do when I go to my parents'. So we'll see how things go.
Now I'm off to make a new section in my sidebar: Featured! And also will be working on getting my Projects page up and running while I don't have a ton a projects to organize on there; I see some people clicking there but know there is nothing to see :( That will change soon :)
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Do you or someone you know love to sew? This would be a great, easy present to make!
I know that's what I thought when I first saw this awesome magnetic pin dish at Sawdust and Paper Scraps(be sure to check out hers, too!). Of course I waited until 3 days before Christmas to make it, but anyway... (I blame it on the fact that I have no Michaels in Montreal to get supplies, only when I go home to Ottawa, and that I would not have any space to spray paint inside at my apartment anyway)
Supplies, where I got them, and how much they cost:
~ glass rose decorated plate- dollar store, 1$ (pictured ^^)
~ glass candle holder- dollar store, 1$ (pictured^^)
~ strong magnets- Michaels, 4 for 5$ (I used 3)
~ Spray paint- Michaels, 5$ (with 50% off coupon!) I got Krylon Ocean Breeze, which I've seen a lot of people using lately.
~ Epoxy glue, or E6000 (which I do not have, but original maker used that), on hand
Total: 12$ (less if you have some materials on hand)
Look on grand-ma's face when she opened it: PRICELESS
That's the beauty of making something hand-made for the grand-parents, and you don't need to be a kid for it to be effective!
Alright, so here's how I did it, it varied from the original tutorial quite a lot.
First, since I had a plate with a nice flowery design on the bottom which I wanted to conserve, I turned it upside down and only spray painted the bottom. I only did this once (dried overnight) before moving on to the next step. Also, I did not use a glass primer. Krylon Indoor/Outdoor says it's good for glass (this was my first experience with Krylon!). And I figured that I'm not gonna be painting the inside of the plate where scratching by the pins could occur, it would be good. I dunno if I did the right thing... but I didn't want to buy glass primer on top of that. Does anyone have experience spray painting Krylon on glass without primer? Will my gift hold up?
I used a handy-dandy box to contain the spray painting, even though it didn't go too far and it was in my dad's super messy garage. Oh and don't mind the horrible picture please, it was to illustrate this point. My dad did not want to wait for me to take a ton of pictures in the hope that I would get at least 1 right, haha! (he was helping me, though I didn't really need help, but it was good father-daughter bonding time :) Yes, I get the crafty gene from my dad! )
For the magnets. They were the strongest I could find , but I felt like one did not have a good magnetic radius, so I put 3. Glued with epoxy. Make sure they will fit inside the candle holder!
EDIT: I saw someone comment about not putting it too close to the computer/electronics on one of the pins from this post. I don't think it's THAT strong of a magnet, but I understand that you would want to take precautions. I would think that unless you put it directly on top of the computer and monitor, then you should be ok. I mean, how close does the pin have to be to get pulled by the magnets in the dish anyway... I'd say a couple inches... For more info about computers and magnets, I'm referring you to this article.
Why is there masking tape holding them, you ask? Well, if you'll remember from elementary school (I think?!), magnets have 2 poles, north and south poles. North pole is attracted to south pole, but north poles repel each other. Well, they being so close to each other, if they were on the opposite side from one an other (like one's north pole facing glass, and the other's south pole facing glass), they would just stick together. So we put them all with their north pole facing the glass, but that meant they would repel each other! So there we were having glued them, but they would not stay in the center!! So we put a bit of masking tape until the glue was set. We were careful to not put the masking tape over the glue, and all was good, no peeling.
We let that be for maybe an hour before gluing the candle holder (which was not painted yet). Sorry, forgot to take more in progress pictures :S Let that be for a couple of hours and then spray painted once over the whole thing, with it upside down, before going to bed and letting it dry for the night. Then spray painted 2 more coats in the morning and late afternoon the next day (it was the 24th, I had to wrap it up!). That's it!
Finished product:
The only thing that irks me, that I can't fix, is that since I only put one coat on the plate before gluing everything, there is a spot in the middle that has less paint than the sides and it shows. At least I don't think my grand-ma really noticed, but it does bug me some.
If I were to make one again with the same technique, I would either spray paint just the plate a couple of times before gluing the magnets, or protect most of the plate while painting the candle holder once it's all glued together. I suppose you could paint both pieces separately also, but then the glue might show.
For more crafty projects to make, check out my project gallery, craft section.
Thanks for stopping by! Until next time!
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I party at these parties.If you would like to invite me to your linky party, please do so on my linkies page, thank you!
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