Showing posts with label DIY. Show all posts
Showing posts with label DIY. Show all posts

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

DIY Chalkboard Globe

Apparently October is the official birthday month of my friend/family circle. Though I'm not typically one to exaggerate, I may be a little guilty here. Alas 5 birthdays and 1 anniversary, certainly seems like a lot to take on in one single month. Don't worry, I'll power through. The first of the 5 has come and gone and because mom always said homemade gifts were best I started this project early hoping to have it done early...ah the best laid plans. Turns out starting this project two weeks out was a great idea, but lets start from the jump.

I saw the idea for a chalkboard globe on Pinterest, shocking I know, and figured I could easily tackle this project and come out with a quality item for well under the several hundred dollar price tag I found online. Turns out I was wrong. Lets break down the budget....
Chalkboard paint: $2.19 (already owned from previous project) = $0
White paint: @ $2.00 (already owned from previous project) = $0
Globe: $5.00 (purchased by momma at a thrift store, thus free to me) =$0
Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint: $7.88 (already owned from previous project) = $0
Time: $400.00 (estimated 10 hours at $40 per hour, my time is very valuable) = $400.00
Total cost of the project = $400.00

Lets get to the how to's....
First I painted a line around all the continents as well as any islands that I deemed big enough to count (turns out I did not think Hawaii was big enough to count and thus does not exist in chalkboard globe world...oops!). I didn't worry too much about perfection here, I just wanted to have a line to generally go by after I covered the globe in chalkboard paint.

Next I put down three coats of chalkboard paint, I tended to paint closely, and at times over the white line. The really fantastic camera phone photo below is after the 2nd coat.

Next I retraced the continents with white paint. Obviously the most tedious part of the project. About halfway through this portion I developed claw like qualities to my hand. It was in a word, unpleasant.

Final step was to paint the base and the axis. For this I went with Rustoleum Oil Rubbed Bronze Spray Paint, mainly because I love it and while the standard goldish axis color does give it an older/antiquey feel I thought the ORB gave it a monochromatic and cleaner look....and ultimately looked more like something which would be valued at $400 (winky face emoticon).

Guess there is nothing left to say but....tada!

Thursday, September 8, 2011

DIY Wrapping Paper

Have I mentioned my love affair with pintrest recently? After transfering photos to canvas in this little project where I lost my epidermis and what I'm sure was 3/4 of my dermis I thought I'd try something a little easier and it just so happened I had Patty Cakes and The Grey Lining's birthdays coming up.

Ta-Da! Crossword puzzle wrapping paper!




Did that deserve a ta-da? I'm beginning to think I should reserve those for things more exciting than paper but I'm going to go with it for now. Here's what I came up with, an 81/2 by 11 sheet which covers both birthdays and Christmas depending on which you chose to circle. To save you the time and monotony of making your own there is a link to the file below. After all...sharing is caring.






Click here for the full 8.5x11 google doc of this.

A few other words were intentionally put in there just for poops and gigs but after getting her present The Grey Lining pointed out an very hilarious yet unintentional one...can you find "poop out it"?

Happy gifting :)