Tag: rope

Craft Projects

Ombre picture frames

Jessica Smith

My dad went to a yard sale in his neighborhood a few weeks ago and bought the hubby and I a coffee table and a piece of art for our house. The coffee table is great. I want to refinish it so it matches our existing furniture, but until then it’s a great piece for our family room.

The artwork wasn’t so great. Well, it would have been great had we bought a house at the beach… but at our house in suburban Maryland with no beach theme whatsoever, this piece didn’t fit in so well. It’s the thought that counts, though 🙂

While the hubby wanted me to chuck the beach frame trio, I held onto it because I had a hunch I could turn it into something we’d like to have hanging in our home. Then it finally hit me… this trio frame would be perfect for displaying the Love prints I designed.

I ran into a few problems with this project. First and foremost, the frames had no glass. So I had to find away to put “glass” into my non-standard sized frames. So I removed the beach scenes, printed my Love prints, and started trying to figure out how to make my frames look like they had glass when they didn’t. My solution was to take sheet protectors and cut them down to size so they’d fit perfectly in the frames.

The frames also had no back to hold my artwork in. So, I traced the outline of the frame onto cardboard and cut it out to work as the backing for the frame.

With all of the pieces of the puzzle solved, I assembled my frame trio…. but I still wasn’t crazy about it. The off white of the frames looked rather bland next to the white of the Love prints. I decided to paint the frames gray. Then I decided it would be fun to do an ombre effect on the frame trio.

With that in mind, I pulled out the gray paint leftover from our dining room and my wooden trunk project. I painted the top frame this gray, then diluted the color with some white paint.

I painted the second frame a shade lighter, then added more white paint for the last frame.

Once all three frames were painted and dry, I popped the prints back in. I think they look fabulous in the gray frames and even more fabulous hanging in our bedroom!

I designed five Love prints total, but I picked my favorite three for the frame.

If you like the hanging frame trio but don’t have one already hooked together, you could create your own using twine or thin rope and a staple gun to connect your frames. You could also get extra fancy and connect your frames with decorate chain. Oh the possibilities!

Craft Projects

Project 9: Rope Lamp

Jessica Smith

Today I beautified an old, ugly lamp. Well, I’m not sure how pretty it is… the hubby says it looks like a cat’s scratching post. He might be right. Either way, the idea is cool and certainly worth sharing.

Enter ugly lamp:

So, the lamp doesn’t look too terrible here… but believe me, it wasn’t pretty. The lamp was originally in my step dad’s aunt’s house and was a wood-tone color with a brass bass. Totally horrifying. SO, I spray painted it. But, as I’ve said before and will say again, I am not the best with spray paint. I am too impatient and I spray too much paint and it runs and runs and runs. that might be a hyperbole, but whatevs. Morale of the story: round one of beautifying the lamp didn’t go so well.

The hubby and I were strolling through Lowe’s today and I actually remembered to buy rope for this project. Once we got home, I propped down with some hot glue and scissors and began the transformation.

I started at the top of the lamp, but if you try your own version of this project, I’d start at the bottom — especially if the base of your lamp isn’t a circle. That gave me some trouble later on. Anyway, put some hot glue to secure your rope to the base.

Since the rope I used was a little heavy, I had to hold it in place along the way so it wouldn’t fall right back off. Once your rope is secured on, start wrapping. I wrapped the lamp base very tightly, which was the look I was going for.

As I traveled with the rope, I made sure to put hot glue beneath it all. I used a lot of glue. A lot a lot.

Many hot glue burns and an hour later, I reached the square base of the lamp.

I decided to keep wrapping the rope in a circle around the base until I couldn’t wrap it any more. Then, I cut strips of the rope to cover any part of the base that remained uncovered. It was at this point that I realized the bottom of my ugly lamp was reallllly ugly. So, I removed the bottom before proceeding.

Gross, right?

Once I finished covering the lamp with rope I glued a square piece of felt to the bottom to replace the nastiness that it was before. I didn’t want to leave it uncovered because the wires were all right there.

And, my lamp was finished.

So what do you think? Does it look like a scratching post? Eh, maybe. Either way, it’s way better than before.

And the best part… my shellac nails are still in tact, even after being covered in hot glue. Awesome.