Chez Larsson

Magazine Holder DIY

Here’s a little fun project I did a while ago using breakfast cereal boxes.

 

DIY magazine/paper holders! Snip the top and corners off any old cereal box and you have yourself the base.

 

Then cover with a wallpaper scrap by simply brushing on wallpaper paste and folding in the edges all the way around and let dry.

 

I used a vintage wallpaper found in the attic, a scrap from a wallpaper used in the hobby room and a sample of this wallpaper.

They turned out pretty cute if I do say so myself! The sizes are a bit whacky and might not be perfect for our standard magazines over here but I’m sure I’d be able to find better sizes if I hunted around in the local supermarket. Meanwhile I’ll be using these for papers, bills and the likes.

Cute as a Button

If you follow my Lovely things Pinterest board you might have seen this pin and my comment to it. Ever since pinning that button trivet I’ve been wanting one. Lotta A pointed out that I could make one by using a cheese board from the local supermarket but although I’ve been keeping an eye out I haven’t seen one. Until I went to my mom’s place a couple of weeks ago. There, under a bunch of stuff in a drawer I was organizing, it was!

 

It had seen better days so I sanded it down. First coarse sandpaper and then finer.

 

Like so.

 

I’m sure there are more scientific ways to figure out the spacing of the holes for my button but I’m no mathematician so I just eyeballed the middle, marked that with a pencil and used stickers to mark where the holes could go. I moved the stickers around a little until I got a good feeling about it.

 

After marking the middle of each sticker with an awl through to the wood I drilled the holes. I only had this super long drill bit but a normal one will do too obviously.

 

I finished off by sanding the holes using sandpaper wrapped around my finger.

 

Done.

 

To seal I used some countertop oil. I did a couple of coats, letting each coat sink into the wood and after a while I wiped off any still greasy areas.

 

Tada! A button trivet ready to be used! Love it!

Edit: If you want a ready made one check them out at Snug.

Holiday Leather

Holiday prep is officially under way over here! This year again I’m keeping Christmas decor simple like last year and I will be reusing some of the things I made then but I’ll also be making some new holiday crafts.  This year I was inspired by leather, namely natural leather. I couldn’t find the pale kind I was after but I found this leather cord in a tan version which I liked.

 

The great thing about this leather cord is that it’s got a hollow core which allows you to insert wire into it. Here I used thin metal wire and was able to insert it quite a way into the cord. The green thicker wire in the top photo I used as a lock. I’ll show you what that looks like further down.

 

Here’s one piece of the leather cord with the thin wire inserted all the way through. It allowed me to twist it and for it to keep its shape.

 

And here’s what that looks like as a finished ornament. I got the end caps in the jewelry section at the local craft store (similar to these but without the hole).

 

To lock this little circle I drilled a larger hole into a wooden bead and simply inserted the ends. Easy peasy.

 

Here I used a short piece of green thicker wire as a lock for the larger ring by inserting one end (using pliers because it was a bit if a tight squeeze) into one end and then the other end of the cord forming it into a circle. The smaller ring I just did like the one above but hooking it on the the larger one before adding the bead.

Love how these turned out! I still have a bit left of the leather cord and it’ll probably make its appearance elsewhere in my holiday décor too. It’s early days yet!

No.27 in Concrete - the Finale

So if you read the first and second parts on my summer concrete project you might want to see the final result. If not skip this post, I totally understand if you’re sick of all the prep work.
Anyway, I started preparing the cardboard tube by giving it several coats of this natural rubber solution. It prevents the cardboard from getting soggy from the wet concrete and to prevent cardboard remnants to stick to the finished product. To be honest I think I could have skipped it for this project. 1. Because the cardboard was so thick. 2. Because you wont be able to see the sides of my finished product. I had some left from way back when i did those other projects so I decided to use it after all.

 

I wanted to prevent the wet concrete to escape under my tube so I stuck it down to the back of an old door with duct tape. them I hot glued my numbers to the door to prevent them from shifting when I poured in the concrete. I triple checked to make sure I put them in correctly, upside down! Making a backward 72 would not have been a pleasing end result.
 

Then I mixed the concrete. I don’t have a mixer so I just used a shovel in a bucket. The proportions are on the bag but I tend to make it slightly more watery so it pours more easily and evenly.

 

Then I filled all the voids around the numbers carefully, making sure I got concrete in all the little nooks and crannies.
 
 

I was a bit worried that my construction would become brittle with the 2 and 7 almost touching and possibly be too thin so I decided to reinforce my slab to be with some chicken wire and fill with concrete over the numbers.
 
 

I poured some more concrete to immerse the chicken wire and then lidted the door at one end and shook it up and down a bit to remove most of the air pockets.

 

 
My creation was laid to rest for about 36 hours covered in plastic. The plastic prevents the concrete to dry out too quickly so it cures more strongly and evenly.

 

After it had cured I flipped it over and removed the foam core milk carton numbers by poking them with a knife and taking them out bit by bit. 

 

Because I want the option for something to grow in the numbers I needed to poke out the thin bottom through to the chicken wire which I did with a big screw driver and a hammer.

 

The not so pretty back side as I was peeling off the cardboard tube.

 

To let the slab cure further it must be kept moist for another 24 hours or s so I sprayed it with water and wrapped it in the tarp it was on. Please excuse the shoddy photography in this post but the sun was merciless.

 

Bonus modeled my finished product as I was trying to determine where exactly to place it. See Bonus smizing? 

And here it is! For the moment I just transplanted some grass into the numbers but I might switch to tiny pebbles or possibly some of that creeping thyme that you can step on. Now I just mow over the slab with the lawn mover but if I do thyme I might have to trim with scissors. Too much of a hassle perhaps. I'll keep you posted! Anyway, I think it turned out pretty ok and when the grass fills in around it will look even better.

No.27 i Concrete - Preparing the Mold

I’m back with more on the concrete house number I wrote about last week.

So, Mini approved, so I continued.

 

 

I used the cut out numbers as templates and traced around them onto some foam core board. I did two of each.

 

Then I gathered my materials. Concrete (the fine kind), a bucket to mix in and some milk cartons.

 

I’m not getting into detail on how I made the numbers for the mold but basically I cut out the numbers from the foam core board and then cut pieces that went in between them to create 3D letters. For the straight sections I did longer pieces and for the curved passages I just made tiny little pieces. No need to be super precise in cutting these, just as long as they are all the same depth and don’t protrude outside the numbers. I used a glue gun for the assembly.

 

Here’s where the milk cartons come in. Milk cartons are great for concrete projects as they’re water resistant and slightly glossy so they’re easy to remove from the concrete once it’s set.

 

I was super lucky here to realize that the depth of my letters turned out to be exactly the depth of our milk cartons so I cut the cartons open and got four strips out of each one which was great. I used hot glue to stick the strips to my number carcasses. I used the existing folds on the carton to get sharp edges where I could and when I needed to I used duct tape for reinforcement.

The scissors are by Fiskars by the way and in case you’re wondering. The pattern’s not really my thing but I was happy to send some old wonky craft scissors packing and let a set of these move in with me in my hobby room via a surprise package earlier this summer. Can’t get away from the fact that there are NO better scissors out there.

 

So after a bit of hot gluing and taping i was left with a 3D milk carton clad 2 and a 7.
 

Are you getting the picture?

Stay tuned for the rest and the reveal!