Decoupage Experiments

I love me some John Derian. If you've seen any of this New York artist's stuff at local boutiques or home decor sites, you'll know what I'm talking about.

He takes found images from old botanical manuals, vintage maps, etc. and makes all sorts of awesome paperweights and dishes from them. Genius and ecofriendly, right? His home goods shop in the East Village is filled to the brim with these gorgeous little treasures.

You know what's not so genius and Emily-friendly? The prices. His plates usually run about $55-180. For that price, I can buy myself 1/4 of the Rag & Bone boots I've been eyeing! Which would I rather have, boots or decoupage plate? I'll take the Rag & Bone boots, thank you.

Since it's the holiday season, I decided to try out some homemade gift-making with my version of the John Derian decoupage glass plates. I picked up some vintage glass plates at my favorite thrift shop. 6 vintage French glass plates for $2? Yes, please.

First, a silly guinea pig, using my usual kitty inspiration and some Kate Spade wrapping paper...

Success! Sort of...
Onto the real tries. First, I used the holy water of crafting...

...Mod Podge! I decided to take a stab at the square plate, which seemed easier.

Then I cut my fabric to size (the silk Duralee Kalah that I used to reupholster this regency chair):

Using an angled sponge brush, I painted a coat of Mod Podge on the back of the glass plate.

Then, I carefully laid the fabric face down onto the back of the glass plate, directly onto the glue.

How 'bout them nails, eh?

Here's the flip side.

After about 30 minutes, I trimmed the edges with serrated fabric shears (mistake!...don't do this!) and laid down another coat of the Mod Podge over the back of the fabric.

I don't love how the edges show through, but that was a lesson to learn.

Now, an attempt with the round glass plates...this time using a map of Italy.

First, I found the part of the map that I wanted to highlight on the plate...

Va bene, Sicilia.

Traced the edges and cut out the dish shape with scissors. Since it's a circle shape with slightly curved edges, pasting would prove molto difficile. So I cut that map into slices of pie...

How I wish this were blueberry pie.

...that would overlap when pasting the paper onto the curvature of the glass. Again, a coat of Mod Podge and the same ol' rigamarole...

One hour after drying, this plate looks pretty damn bellissimo!

Here's another I did with that same Kate Spade wrapping paper. I stamped it with a gold ink ginko stamp in the center, which isn't very visible.

I then spray painted the backs of the dishes with my trusty gold Rust-o-leum, for a classier finish...

Once I got on a roll with these, they were pretty easy to make. I ended up making a bunch, using both found materials and pretty paper I got from Paper Source. I found that fabric was the easiest to work with since it bends and curves along with the dish. Also, in the future I'll stick with square plates.

I originally bought this lovely fabric to reupholster the regency chair with, but changed my mind when I saw it in the living room. Which left me with a yard of fabric to play with! I didn't take any pics, but I used a bright pink paper decoupaged over the back since I love the pairing of pink and green - makes me think of prep school.

Next time I head to the flea market, I'll look for some vintage botanical prints that I can use for my second foray into decoupage. I ended up gifting all these plates above with a personal note...

...but I kept my favorite dinky one for myself.

It makes me laugh every time I look at it.
I still haven't perfected the art of decoupage, but at least I'm 25% closer to those Rag & Bone boots.

Keeping up with the Gourdashians

It's harvest time for Thanksgiving table centerpieces!

Girls' Day In: Clothing Swaps and Terrarium Parties

Ingredients for spicing up a lazy Saturday a few weeks ago:

1 visiting friend from out of town

2 craft-loving LA friends

3 glass containers

1 bag dirt, 1 bag charcoal, 1 bag sand, 1 bag gravel

Lots of succulents

Animal and people figurines

1 bottle of sauvignon blanc

After my last post about making terrariums, some of my friends wanted to get together and have a terrarium-making party. And what better occasion to just this than when my friend Kai, who brings people together, was visiting from New York?

I whipped up a batch of kale chips...

We all pitched in and gathered our materials on the table:

Kale chips, shells, moss, soil, gravel, charcoal, figurines, and glass containers

Since we are all multitasking queens, we also used our terrarium party as an excuse for a clothing swap. Pilsen found something that really fit him.

Trying on our old-new duds...

Munchies donated by our friends Na Young and Karen, Kai's cousins, who own the mouthwatering Proof Bakery in Atwater.

Our pal Lynn of The Actor's Diet came by and scored some sweet threads. Meanwhile, we got our hands dirty...

Lynn chose not to succulent and instead hung with the birds...

...while Cyn (now an expert) and Kai made beautiful terrariums.

I went nuts with the gold spray paint...

Beware tiny alligators

Reupholstering A Chair Cushion

I moved to LA four years ago with just two suitcases and a cat (the second one came later). When I arrived, I was broke, but I had an entire apartment to furnish--my very first apartment of my own! So I spent my days scouring Craigslist, looking for treasures buried among the sea of rickety Ikea hand-me-downs and barf-inducing 80s furniture tagged #vintage. [I mean, that's just mean].

Lucky for me, I chanced upon a girl who was a mid-century enthusiast and amateur collector who would go to auctions and estate sales to find gems. And lucky for me again, she was moving and trying to get rid of all her stuff. Woo hoo!

That's where I found this guy:

I've been calling it Hollywood Regency style but only recently thought maybe it's more neoclassical? If you can name the style, please lemme know! In the meantime, I had some updating to do. That whole maroon velvet was a little too King Joffrey for me. So, soon after I brought it home from Craigslist, I reupholstered the seat with this cute fabric:

But after years of this...

Bella not included

 ...and this...

And a one and a two and a three and a four!

...it got gross and catty and dirty, and the robin's egg blue turned a furry dirt grey. Yuck. Time for an update! It was pretty easy. First, pop out the cushion.*

Noooooooo!!

 *Note: Then watch cat proceed to try to jump up onto the chair where its bed formerly was located and fall right through it.

I flipped the cushion over and used a flathead screwdriver to undo the staples.

I put on a little Aziz to pass the time while I meticulously pulled out staples.

The seat was already pretty uncomfortable to begin with, and after 4 years, even the batting I'd put in was flattened by constant ass pressure (both human and feline). So, I took some high density foam and laid it on top of the existing cushion to give the buttocks a little more, shall we say, ooh la la.

Awwww yeah

Years ago I fell in love with this ikat fabric, which is Duralee's "Kalah." It was about $20/yard.

I'd wanted to trash our boring white curtains and custom make this fabric into curtains instead, and then I realized I'd either need to 1) be the type of girl who's willing to spend hundreds and hundreds of dollars on custom curtains, or 2) be the type of girl who buys a sewing machine to make her own curtains.

Either way, a big ol' nope.

I decided just a seat cushion was enough to accent a living room with Kalah. So I laid the cushion on top of my fabric, leaving about 3" extra around each edge, and cut it down...

...and I used my trusty staple gun and wrapped it tightly around the cushion, making sure to taper in the corners like gift wrap.

I'm glad I cut a little more excess fabric than I meant to use, because the foam cushion made the seat considerably taller.

I could make this much neater, but eh. It's under the cushion, so nobody will see it.

Nestled the newly upholstered cushion right back into place, and voila! No more cat bed.

Same ol' chair, completely freshened up!

Remember, before, when I said I wouldn't be the kind of girl who makes my own curtains? Well, I had a bunch of leftover fabric and two episodes of Homeland ahead of me. So I hand-stitched a rudimentary pillow using the excess fabric and some batting. After all, I don't have a sewing machine.

Pinned it inside out...

Then hand-stitched three sides using my Home Ec 101 sewing skills, recalled foggily from 7th grade.

Yes! Pillow! Here's the old one again:

And here's the new guy:

I think it adds a nice splash of blue into the living room. At least until I can afford those custom curtains.

Repurposed Vintage Frame Turned Corkboard

I know, I know! It's been forever! But I have excuses. I've been busy. I'm grateful to have been working, and to have more auditions to go to, since it's prime in the middle of episodic season. But that doesn't mean I haven't been prettifying our home. I mean, let's be totally clear here. What's a weekend without some spray paint and a hot glue gun?

A few years ago, when I first moved to LA, I passed by a yard sale and bought this cool vintage wooden picture frame for $2. Here it is on the mantle at my former bachelorette pad:

That's the best pic I have of it, unfortunately. It was a nice dark wood, but my favorite thing about it was the curvature of the top. I don't know what it was...an old frame for a painting, perhaps, or something that had some kind of religious icon in it? Who knows. The shape seems to point to that. It was hard to find mirror to fit it or glass to turn it back into a picture frame, but the empty frame thing works for me as decor, so I kept it.

For years, it sat on my mantlepiece and then in our new office, alone and always a little sad-looking. Earlier this year, in an attempt to make it pop against our charcoal grey wall in our office, I painted it white.

Here it was in our pre-madeover office, earlier this year...

Still blah, right? This summer, as part of Apartment Therapy's room renovation challenge, I decided to tackle the dreary, cluttered office by organizing, downsizing, and injecting a little bit of color. I needed a cork board to help me tidy up my desk and to also serve as sort of a mood board, but found that most commercially available ones were both ugly and expensive.

Solution? Make my own and ombre that sucka with color! I bought a sheet of cork board from Amazon, traced the outline of the frame onto it with chalk, and cut it to size using a razor.

Then I used painters tape to divide the board into sections.

Took out some good ol' Martha Stewart craft paint...

And, using a sponge brush, did about three coats in each section.

I lifted up the tape while the paint was still wet, then waited for it to dry before filling in the other sections since I'd need to retape to get hard edges.

Meanwhile, while the paint was drying, I took that old frame outside and gave it a good ol' coat of my favorite Midas Touch.

A few swift coats and everything I touch is GOOOOOLD!

Then, to create a solid backing, I cut a piece of cardboard to fit the back of the board and hot glue gunned that sucker to the frame. I also used a staple gun for good measure.

Don't my nails look like the Enchantment Under the Sea dance from Back to the Future?

To spice up my push pins, I played around some more with the glue gun and whatever little doodads I had lying around. I'll do a future post on how to make cute push pins.

And ta da! A useful corkboard, a happy, repurposed frame, and a bright pop of color into our office.

Here it is again, from before:

...to after: