Collage On Lampshade
A great way to give old worn out or damaged lamp shades a different look and feel is to cover them with anything from leftover fabrics to holiday wrapping paper. In the case of the lampshade featured here, I decided to cover it with some type of fabric or paper when I found it had gotten stained after many years in our garage. I was lucky to find a beautiful Victorian print wrapping paper that had the colors and feel of the look I was trying to capture. To get started, I first removed the outer cloth-like fabric from the lampshade, which revealed a white plastic lampshade base. To give this white plastic base a more antique look, I painted the inside of the lampshade with a brown acrylic craft paint. The lampshade also had a narrow white cloth strip at the top and bottom rims, so I used a strong cup of coffee and paintbrush to tint both of the white cloth strips.
I then cut out all of my favorite pictures from the Victorian wrapping paper, and pieces from some leopard print wrapping paper too. I also have some rubber stamps of different old world pictures (like the London Tower, the Paris Eiffel Tower, and other various Victorian images) which I stamped onto parchment paper and cut out as well. Next, I laid out all of the pictures on a table so that I could see their placement before gluing them onto the lampshade. Once I finished positioning the pictures in an order I found very pleasing, I used a sponge brush and Mod Podge to apply the pictures onto the old lampshade. After the lampshade thoroughly dried, I applied another coat of Mod Podge on the entire shade to seal it. I let that coat dry for a couple hours, and then applied one more coat, which gave the pieces a blended look.
I was very happy with the results and although I didn’t use any decorative embellishments on the top and bottom edges of my lampshade, you can always use beautiful fringe, jewels or textured trim to decorate your lampshade. After a party or any holiday, if I come across a beautiful piece of wrapping paper, I try to recycle as much of it as I can for future craft projects.
Reclaimed Pillow Covers
Pillows make great accents in our homes. Sometimes, pillows that may have looked great a few years ago may have lost their luster due to everyday wear and tear and some fabrics may just go out of style, but one could always make covers to give those pillows a fresh look. I had such a dilemma with some pillows that I bought at a clearance sale at a store in our area that was going out of business. I liked the size and shape of the pillows, but not the color. I had some striped pink fabric I loved and had enough to cover the two small pillows.
I placed one of the pillows in the center of the fabric and folded one end of the fabric over half way over the pillow and then the folded the bottom of the fabric up towards the middle of the pillow. I measured and pinned near the places where I would cut making sure to pin a 1/4″ seam allowance. I then cut the fabric making sure to keep the stripes lined up and sewed the sides. I also sewed across the middle, but made sure I left an opening large enough to slip the pillow inside the opening. It turned out very well and I had enough fabric to make one more pillow cover. The pillows look very nice on my chair. In the past, I’ve also used leftover fabric that I reclaimed from old drapes to cover a chair and made a small matching pillow cover. I’ve even used denim from some old jeans to embellish other small pillows to give them a more interesting look, so you can reclaim fabric from just about anything you’d like.
Reclaimed Holiday Cards
Greetings and happy new year. With all the holiday cards we received throughout this holiday season, we ended up with quite a few holiday cards that were too beautiful to throw away. One of my favorite things to do with my old holiday cards is to cut out name tags and smaller cards for many other occasions throughout the year. Those little gift cards at the card section in many big box stores can get a bit pricey. In the past I’ve either free handed my own drawings onto small cards or I’ve made them out of reclaimed holiday cards.
After the holidays, I start out by eying the cards to see where would be the best areas to start cutting out my new cards. Great tools to have are a pair of scalloped edge scissors and a one-hole punch that you may already have or that can be picked up at any craft store. In the past, I have even used a small knitting needle to make the hole. Scalloped edged scissors make great designs on your borders and the one-hole punch is to pierce a small hole in the top center or corner of a gift tag. If you don’t want to tape the gift tag or note card to a gift and you can also pierce a spot on the gift tag or card and run any kind of string, ribbon, or even yarn through the pierced hole. I use a toothpick to push the string, ribbon or yarn through the pierced hole.
Using the scalloped edge scissors to cut around objects and even shaping your own plain circles and tree shapes in the blank areas of most cards can make very beautiful little gift tags. You can even create small note cards by cutting simple square shapes from the folded edge of a card, which looks even more decorative when cut with the scalloped scissors. These tags and cards are not only colorful and whimsical, but also very original. I just hated to throw away such beautifully designed and artistic cards. Some tags have turned out so beautiful that I’ve used them as an ornament to hang on our tree and our wreath.
I hope this gives everyone fun and useful ideas on how to reclaim your holiday cards.
Upcycled Winter Hat, Scarf and Gloves
I started this project with a pretty pink hat I purchased last winter. I really liked the way this hat was made and upon trying the hat on I found out that it didn’t quite reach down over my ears, but I bought it anyway, because I really loved it and knew from the way it was made that I could work with it. I instantly got a bunch of ideas on how I could create a better fit. I then also bought the matching pink scarf and gloves.
I knew I could crochet a band of yarn around the bottom edge of the hat to extend the length and cover my ears. As you may know from my past articles, I am constantly on the hunt for yarn and fabric sales so I have a little collection of each of those. I looked through my skeins of yarns and found several colors that I thought might look great crocheted around the bottom edge of my hat.
When I was ready to start crocheting, some of the yarn colors that I had were in various shades of pink, gray and purple, but when I pulled out a skein of thick black velour yarn, I couldn’t believe how beautiful the thick texture of this velour yarn looked against the knotted texture of the hat’s pink yarn.
Using a size K crochet needle, I crocheted eleven single chains and then five rows before I laid the band onto the edge of the hat. I then folded a bit of the band’s bottom edge over the bottom edge of the hat. The thick velour band looked very nice and well balanced against the heavy thick texture of the hat’s pink yarn.
Because I knew how well the velour yarn looked crocheted with the pink yarn, I decided to crochet two additional braids of single chains all the way around the scarf and then laid them separately (about six inches apart) near each end of the pink scarf. I then hand sewed four braids onto the scarf. I then did the same for the gloves, except that I only crocheted one braid for each glove.
Last, I made the fringe, which I cut and measured by eye. I simply cut one strand of the velour yarn (about 3 inches long), measured how long I really wanted the fringe to be by pulling the strand through one stitch of the scarf’s last row. I then trimmed it to the length I liked, cut all strands to the same length.
Using the same size K crochet needle, I pulled through only two velour yarn strands through one scarf stitch, tied the two strands near the top (using a separate velour yarn strand from the skein), tied a double knot and then I cut the strand two ends (from the skein) to the length of the strands I just tied (this makes the fringe thicker). In a similar fashion, I inserted two strands (tied and knotted) through every three scarf stitches (of the scarf’s last row), until I finished each end of the scarf. Even though this project took me a while to complete, it was a very simple project anyone can do and the embellishments you can use to reflect your taste are endless.
Upcycled Knitted Winter Hat
Upcycled Pink Knitted Hat Scarf and Gloves
Embellished Black Fleece Hat and Scarf
This project started out for me with a worn black fleece hat I had used for more then a few winters. The hat is very warm and very comfortable to wear, and since I have a big head it’s sometimes hard to find a nice winter hat that fits just right. I had some thick corduroy fabric I had previously purchased for making some armrest mats for our couch, but ended up using it for other projects, one of them being a cell phone case for my husband and the brim of the black fleece hat featured in this blog post.
I started by first measuring the hat’s circumference and height because I needed to go all the way around the rim of the hat. I also made sure to include enough fabric to fold over and into the inside rim of the hat. Once I pinned the fabric to the hat, I cut it and started sewing the fabric to the hat. After the corduroy fabric was completely sewn onto the hat, I was very happy with the results and decided to add a little sparkle by sewing on a few seed beads to a very small area on the front of the hat.
I measured the leftover fabric and decided to sew a band onto the bottom ends of my black fleece scarf. I was very glad that I could give my old hat a new look and it was especially nice that I could make a matching hat and scarf set.
This was a fun and easy project for me to do and the embellishments are endless. You can use old earrings, an old pin, knitted pieces, or even feathers if you wanted to, and although I enjoy sewing, you could always use fabric glue or hot glue to adhere your pieces. Remember to have fun and enjoy your embellishing projects to reflect you. So if you have an old hat you just can’t part with, retrobellish it and reinvent it.
Embellished Black Fleece Hat
Embellished Black Fleece Hat Top View
Embellished Scarf To Match Hat