Archive for Make it Yourself:

Life is Not a Dress Rehearsal…so paint it on your wall!

Thanks to the Maxim of the Month influence from my Mom (see January 24th Maxim of the Month blog), I painted Life is Not a Dress Rehearsal in the family room.  That way, we’re all reminded of this great maxim regularly.  If you’d like to do the same with ‘Life is Not a Dress Rehearsal’ or another maxim, I’ve explained below how you can do it.

• Choose your wall, furniture, floor etc. • Decide how high and/or wide you want it.  (Mine is 6.5 inches high x106 inches long, almost 9 feet). • Type your maxim in the font you want. • Increase it to the desired size. • Want it larger than your computer and printer can accommodate? Print it out on a single sheet and have a copy shop enlarge it.

Once you have a copy of your maxim in the size you want… • Tape the enlarged sheet to a window the wrong way around (with the type facing out the window so you can see through the paper.) • Trace the border of each letter with a no 2 pencil.  If you’re ultimately going to paint over the pencil with a light coloured paint, anything darker/heavier than No 2 might show through and give you problems. • Tape the sheets onto your chosen wall or piece of furniture (the right way around, so that you can read them.) • Now you’re going to re-trace or use a shading stroke over each letter’s edges (but this time on the front side), in order to transfer the no2 pencil from the back of the page onto the wall. • Peek behind the paper to make sure the pencil transferred. If not re-trace or shade (rub) until it does. • Once all the letters are visible on the wall, remove the paper. • You might decide you only want the outline of the letters so draw over them now.

Then if you like fill them in to make your own work of maxim art.  If you get a chance, send me a photo of your maxim.  betsy@carpemomodesigns.co.uk

Thanks, Betsy

Create your own Rope-Wrapped Chair

As my style is definitely eclectic, when I walk into a room I love to be surprised by something that’s a little, or a lot, different.  That’s why when I saw a rope-wrapped chair in a magazine, I had to have one of my own.

All I needed was a chair to use as my guinea pig.  Around my kitchen table, I had these french country-style chairs which I’d distressed.

And there was one left over.  So, I started in right away.

I chose a nubby twine as my ‘wrapper’.  It took a fair bit of going around and around legs and arms and navigating a few tricky bits but once I got into the swing of it, it was fun.  Cleaning up after a dripping glue gun wasn’t so brilliant but well worth the result.  Here it is…

And now it very happily lives in my living room.

Want to give it a try?  Email me betsy@carpemomodesigns.co.uk and I’ll send you a free Rope-Wrapped Chair webinar.