The best thing about this artwork is that it cost me less than $10.  It’s true!  Then only thing I had to purchase was the polymer clay, which I believe was $8.99.  (It would have cost less if I had taken a coupon with me!)  I had everything else on hand already…spray paint, scrap wood, hot glue, etc.

There’s nothing difficult about this project…although making almost 100 flowers does take some time. (I timed myself, and found that one flower took 2 minutes 18 seconds.) The good thing is that because the flower design is quite simple, you could easily recruit older children to help make the flowers!

Want to make your own? Here’s are the details:

Tools & Supplies:

• 8 0z. package of polymer clay,
• White spray paint,
• Scrap wood (pallets, fence boards, etc.),
• Wood glue,
• Wood screws,
• Drill with screwdriver bit,
• Stain,
• Polyurethane,
• Rag,
• Paint brush,
• Hot glue gun and glue sticks.

Instructions:

First, use the polymer clay to make all of the flowers.  I used an entire 8 oz. package, and ended up with just under 100 flowers in three different sizes.

To make the flowers:

1. Start out with three balls of clay that are about the size of peas.
2. Flatten the ball of clay so that the clay forms a ridge around the top and sides of your finger.
3. Use your finger to gently even out any harsh edges.
4. Form the bottom of the circle of clay into a point, and gently lift up on the rounded edge to create a curved petal.
5. Repeat this three more times, and then place four petals with the points together.
6. Drop a small ball of clay onto the center and flatten slightly.

Then bake the clay flowers according to the instructions on the package.

After the flowers are baked and have completely cooled, use a spray paint in your choice of color.  This is optional, of course, since polymer clay comes in a variety of colors.  However, I wanted mine to be a brilliant white, and as you can see below, the white polymer clay had a bit of an off-white color to it. 

If you want more of a varied color effect, you could also use acrylic paints to paint each flower. (The work of artist Michael Baxley demonstrates just how beautiful hand painted flowers with slight color variations can be. Although his are porcelain, and I would highly doubt that there’s a drop of hot glue anywhere on his beautiful artwork.)

While the flowers are drying, prepare the wood “canvas”.  I used scrap pieces of 2″ x 4″ cedar (left over from my elevated garden beds), and I cut them into pieces that were 20 inches long.  My “canvas” ended up being 20″ high by about 33″ wide.

Glue the wood pieces together using wood glue (don’t use too much or it’ll run down and get on the front side of your “canvas”, which will affect how the wood takes stain).  If you have a framing square, use it to be sure that the pieces are lined up straight.  Then use thinner scraps of wood and wood glue to hold the pieces together.  To make the piece really secure, follow up with wood screws, screwing them through the thin horizontal wood pieces into the main wood pieces.

Note:  If you have a Kreg jig, use that instead and you’ll end up with a much sturdier “canvas”.

After the glue has dried, give the front of the “canvas” a quick sanding, and then stain and polyurethane the wood.  Once that’s dry, you’re ready to arrange and glue the flowers.

And when you’re done, you’ve got a beautiful piece of dimensional artwork!

I really like the juxtaposition of the shiny white flowers against the rustic stained wood.

This will eventually go in my bedroom over my bed, so it might be a while before you see in in place. 

When I make something like this, one of the most asked questions is how to hang it.  Any time I’m hanging something heavy on the wall, I use a French cleat.

You can find these at Home Depot and Lowe’s.  They’re metal, they come with their own level, and they’re rated by the number of pounds they’ll hold.  I use these to hang anything from heavy framed mirrors to even heavier upholstered headboards.  They’re absolutely the best way to hang heavy items!

Remember that first campus apartment? I was given the old refrigerator that was rusting away in the family garage. For reasons that now escape me, we decided to paint the fridge bright yellow, so it looked like we had a school bus in the kitchen. Tres chic!

Actually, for a parent sending their child off to school, or for a student living away from home for the first time, there is a balancing act that goes into decorating. The parent is going to want to make sure their kid is comfortable, and that the whole experience is well, homey, and the kid is going to want that too, though with enough difference from their room at home so they can say it’s theirs. In other words, the same as it ever was, but distinctive enough so that it doesn’t look like Mom and Dad’s.

Fortunately, every appliance known to mankind–refrigerators, microwaves, hot plates, even washer-dryers–has now been miniaturized so that no one should ever have to resort to the yellow school bus refrigerator.

The first thing to do is sit down with your child/parent, and come up with a list of college essentials, like appliances (depending on how much room you have), communications and computer devices (laptops, tablets, phones), places to plug them in (power strip, for example), furniture (minimal, hand-me-down, lightweight, portable, collapsible), and bedding supplies such as pillows, comforters, blankets, etc. The latter can lend that air of homey-ness to a campus bedroom that can make all the difference, and the newly emancipated student might be looking for dorm room bedding supplies that remind one of home.

Lighting can be a big deal. That’s because in shared quarters, one roommate might want to sleep while another studies, so the overhead florescent 100 watt burner might not be appropriate. Instead, look for powerful but small desk lamps that don’t have much of a footprint, or powerful book light contraptions that clip onto a desk or the book itself, like the Mighty Bright series of clip-on lights.

Like everything else, sound systems have become smaller and more powerful. Check out systems like the Logitech Z623, which pumps 200 watts through two THX equipped 10 inch speakers that fit nicely on a desktop. (THX sound is used in movie theaters and is just the ticket for video gamers.) These speakers have a low frequency sub woofer that fits neatly under a desk, and are equipped with a bass control and a headphone and Aux jack, so you can plug in your iPad or smart phone. Roommates and visitors will be impressed.

What goes on the wall will most likely be the province of the student, as it should be. This is one of the first signs of independence or lack of taste, depending on your view. At any rate, the well equipped dorm room is a work of art, and may provide inspiration of all sorts for students of any age.

Well, around these parts, Friday means link party! Feel free to show off your latest project by linking to the party below. And then take some time to click around and see what others have been working on. You’re sure to find some fantastic inspiration!

Just a special reminder…Please (see how nicely I’m asking?), please link back to A2D if you’re going to link your project to this link party. I don’t care if it’s a button or text. I’m really not picky. Just pretty please.

If you’d like to add my cute little button to your post (and I’d really love for you to!), you can grab the code right over in the sidebar.

Don’t see the button and code?
Click here to go right to it.

A few reminders:

1. Link only things that you have done yourself…diy projects, room makeovers, recipes, etc.;
2. Please link projects that are new to A2D (repeats will be deleted);
3. Link to a specific post (permalink), not to your general blog URL;
4. Be aware that by linking your project to this party, you grant me permission to feature your project on other areas of the A2D site, including but not limited to the Inspiration Files gallery and the A2D Photo Gallery. I may also use your photo on the A2D Facebook Page;
5. Grab a button and add it to your post (or your sidebar, or wherever…or just add a text link to A2D);
6. Be sure to visit others and leave comments!!

Psstt…Unsure how to link up? Click here to see step-by-step instructions.

To get the full diy instructions, head over to Classy Clutter.

**This project was shared at the Addicts (not so) Anonymous Link Party. Have a project you’d like to share? Come join the party every Friday at 1:00pm!

Have a project you’d like me to feature, but don’t have a blog? No problem! You can click here to send your pictures to me.

She started off with an enclosed balcony that was being used mostly for storage…

…and turned it into this relaxing, plant-filled garden…

What a beautiful space! To see more of this enclosed balcony transformation, head over to Meeha Meeha.

**This project was shared at the Addicts (not so) Anonymous Link Party. Have a project you’d like to share? Come join the party every Friday at 1:00pm!

Have a project you’d like me to feature, but don’t have a blog? No problem! You can click here to send your pictures to me.

I started by rolling out some oven-bake clay, and then stamping it with the name of the plant.  These clay stamp kits can be found at craft stores for about $10.

Next I used a knife to cut out a rectangle around the stamped name, and then used the handle of the knife to create a “pie crust” edge for a little decorative touch.  Of course, you could also leave the edge plain.

Then I used a straight pin to make a hole in the top big enough for my wire (see below) to go through.  With the label finished, I put it in the oven to bake according to the instructions on the package.

While the label was baking, I prepared the wire hanger.  For this part, I used 16 gauge floral stem wire.

Using needle nose pliers, I curled one end.

Next I used a small amount of hot glue, and wrapped the jute around the inner part of the loop, stopping at the area where the clay label would hang.

After the label was baked and cooled, I threaded the wire through the hole, and positioned it at the bottom part of the loop.  Then I continued wrapping the jute around the rest of the wire.

I think it’s pretty cute!  And of course, there are a thousand variations you could do.  You could use cookie cutters to make fun shapes, or paint the clay labels, or even make plain unstamped labels and paint them with chalkboard paint.

I finished painting my outdoor rug Monday night.  The last stripes I painted were the small red and white stripes.  Because they were thin stripes, I didn’t have much room for “massaging” the paint into the fibers with the scrubby brush, so instead I had to just load up my paint brush with extra paint to get it down into the fibers.  That meant that the white and red stripes had considerably more paint on them than the thicker green and blue stripes.

Not a problem, right?  The blue and green stripes were dry, and I had sealed them with the clear spray.  So the plan was to leave the rug outside all night, let the white and red stripes dry completely, and then spray them with the clear spray in the morning.  It was a perfect plan, until I went out yesterday morning and realized it had been raining!!  And it continued to rain most of yesterday morning.

My heart sank.  After all those hours of work, and then my rug with the still-wet paint got rained on.  Uugghhh.

The rain finally went away yesterday afternoon, but with everything still soggy it was difficult to survey the damage.  So I went out this morning to see if I could tell if my rug was salvageable.

All in all, I do think it made it through okay.  The blue and green stripes…the ones that were dry and had been sealed…looked just fine.  But the white and red stripes…the ones that were loaded with extra paint and were far from dry…didn’t make it through quite so well.  Right off, I noticed that the red had bled onto other areas of the rug…

In fact, most of the unpainted areas of the rug that were still the original taupe color now had a pinkish tint to them.  Bummer.

I guess overall, the rug still looks pretty good and is definitely salvageable, though it will have to dry out completely, and I’ll have to go back over some of those stripes with fresh paint…

But I’ve also got quite a bit of cleaning up to do…

Yeah.  Sad.  What a bummer.

So, learn from my oversight.  If you take on the painted outdoor rug project (which I still like, and would still recommend if you want a great looking rug at a very low cost), then either bring the rug into a covered area until it dries completely, or just check the weather forecast!!  If rain is imminent, move on to another project until the sky clears.

But she didn’t stop with the outside of the cabinets.  She also gave the inside of her cabinet doors some special attention…

I love the contrast of the black and white, and I also really like how practical this is!

To see more of Virginia’s kitchen makeover, head over to Live Love DIY.

**This project was shared at the Addicts (not so) Anonymous Link Party. Have a project you’d like to share? Come join the party every Friday at 1:00pm!

Have a project you’d like me to feature, but don’t have a blog? No problem! You can click here to send your pictures to me.

I’m absolutely thrilled with how it turned out!  Yes, I did stripes…again. I really like stripes, in case you haven’t noticed.   But mostly I just like the fact that stripes are easy, while also being a high-impact design.

This project wasn’t difficult by any means, but it was so incredibly time-consuming that I almost decided to quit after the first stripe…but obviously I pressed on towards the finish line.  And I’m so glad I did!

I started out with this super cheap indoor/outdoor rug from Home Depot…

They don’t carry this in either of the Home Depot stores here in my city, so I had to order it online, and really wasn’t expecting much because of the price.  It’s a very thin and lightweight rug, but I actually really like it. I don’t know that I would ever use it indoors (probably not), but for outdoor use, I think it’s perfect!  The rug is made completely out of recycled post-consumer plastic bottles, but it doesn’t really have a plastic look or feel to it at all.  In fact, the feel of the rug is really quite soft under foot.  Of course, that changed once I put paint on it.

Painting the stripes was so unbelievably time-consuming.  (I’ve said that twice now…in a bold and italicized font even…so if you decide to take on this project, you’ve been warned.) 

I purchased five quarts of latex paint in different colors (I already had white paint at home) to match the colors in the outdoor pillows that I made, and started out by using painters tape to tape off the stripes, and a paint brush to brush, dab, and jab the paint into the fibers of the rug.  I really loaded up the brush with paint in order to get it into all of the fibers of the rug, even along the edge of the tape, and paint didn’t run or bleed.  I still got almost perfectly straight lines.

But that method was pretty slow, and used A LOT of paint!  So I decided to apply the paint with the brush (just swiping the loaded brush over the top of the rug in several places) and then use my fingers to rub the paint into the fibers.  But after about two rows, my fingers were just about rubbed raw.

Finally, I found a much easier method. I used the paint brush to apply the paint to the rug, working in small areas at a time, and swiping a loaded brush over the surface of the rug…

…and then I used a scrubbing brush to basically “massage” the paint into the fibers and spread the paint evenly. It worked great! I also quickly realized that painters tape wasn’t necessary, so I opted to use masking tape for the rest of the stripes since it’s cheaper.

When the paint was dry (I suggest letting it dry overnight), I sprayed the stripes with this clear finish that specifically says it works on plastic.

And it was finished!

I honestly have no idea how well this will hold up outside, but since the paint is really worked into the fibers of the rug, I really do think I’ll get at least one summer out of it.

So we’ll see how it lasts! I’ll keep you posted.

But I’ve never done this project that’s been on my “to do” list for years now, because there’s something about it that really overwhelms me. Perhaps it’s the headache of lugging all those pennies home from the bank, or maybe it’s the idea of sorting through thousands of pennies to find the best ones. More than likely, it’s the thought of mixing the epoxy and then having to deal with the air bubbles (I’ve heard talk of blow torches…that scares the heck out of me).

But Ashley at Domestic Imperfection took on this task, lived to tell about it, and has provided great instructions and tips for making an epoxied penny countertop.

To see the details of this project, head over to Domestic Imperfection.

**This project was shared at the Addicts (not so) Anonymous Link Party. Have a project you’d like to share? Come join the party every Friday at 1:00pm!

Have a project you’d like me to feature, but don’t have a blog? No problem! You can click here to send your pictures to me.