Folk Art Cat Painting On Recycled Paneling
We had some paneling pieces that we removed from one of our rooms some years back. We were able to give the big panels to a friend who was able to reuse them, but we had some odd pieces left that we wanted to use for crafting. We were able to cut the leftover pieces into perfect sizes so I could paint on them instead of canvas. I then gave them a primer coat of gesso. I started painting on them just for fun, but ended up selling some of my Cat pieces. The folk art cat painting featured here was one of the paintings that I painted on the recycled paneling in 2005 using acrylic paints
Folk Art Cat Painting On Recycled Paneling
Folk Art Cat Painting Backside
Retro Pink Pearl Pin
I’ve always loved hats and living in the midwest gives me the opportunity to pull out my winter hats every year. The problem is that a lot of the hats made today have lost a lot of embellishment touches that they had in the past. My problem is that I go for warmth instead of style and a lot of the winter hats are just plain, and some even ugly, but boy are they toasty when the weather outside hits 10 below zero. One of the things that works for me as a crafter, is to embellish my hats with things I love like a crocheted flower, or pin, or knitted piece that I’ve made. This pearled fabric flower pin is very versatile because I chose to use a hat pin instead of a permanent attachment on the hat shown here. This way I can also pin it onto a purse, jacket, coat or other hat.
I used some vintage fabric, an old broken necklace for the pearls and leftover lace from another project to make this flower pin, and one of my old hats. I cut a two inch wide by 12 inch long strip of pink fabric and gently twisted the fabric while forming a circle. Then as I formed the center I started hand sewing the pearls onto the fabric. Next I continued gently twisting the fabric strip until the flower reached a size that I liked. Then I tucked the end under and stitched a knot there to complete the flower. I started hand sewing the lace trim onto the underside of the flower slightly gathering the lace as I sewed it on until it reached all the way around.
Starting the Pink Pearl Flower
Adding the Pink Pearls
Pink Pearl Pin Flower
Adding Black Lace to Flower
Sewing Lace on the Back of the Flower
The Finished Pink Flower Pin
Finished Flower Pin on Black Retro Hat
Repurposed Red Cast-Iron Sink
This old cast-iron sink got a new life as yard art. The sink was left over from a bathroom remodeling job done about thirty years ago. The sink had been in the yard so long that it was partially buried into the ground. We took the old sink and chrome faucets and cleaned them up. We did some sanding to remove the rust. We then primed, painted the sink a bright red color, the supporting pipe in a bright orange, and added some colorful glass flowers we had purchased a while back.
The sink looks great and added a wonderful addition to our yard. This sink could also double as a bird bath. Re-embellish, re-invent, recycle.
Red Cast-iron Sink
Whirly Man Trash Art
This piece all started with an old plastic Easter egg we had bought for our dog Maxx about ten years ago. We actually purchased two–one for Maxx and one for Angel our next door neighbor’s dog, which was one of our rescues. Angel chewed through hers in no time but Maxx never really liked the egg except in the winter when there was snow on the ground and he would slide on it throughout the yard. The egg was always around the yard in one corner or another. We never wanted to get rid of it, so in the yard it stayed.
Last summer, my husband started to clean out a spot on the side of the garage we use to keep pieces for future projects. After cleaning out the area we were left with a bunch of items we wanted to recycle. There was some tubing from our old tru-link fence, an old plastic bowl we had painted blue, a broken Stanley broom, a old paint brush, an old whirly flower, a blue piece from the top of a squeeze mop, an old sofa spring, a crystal glass piece, half-round glass pieces, and of course the egg. How David saw a man in all of this, I’ll never know. One day when I got home from work, he surprised me with this piece he named whirly man. Below are photos of whirly man and the trash art pieces used in the process.
Whirly Man Trash Art
Whirly Man Trash Art
Whirly Man Parts
Whirly Man Egg
Whirly Man Gets Eyebrows
Whirly Man Face
Recycled Bell Phone
This old Bell phone was recycled by David Romaxx by painting it red and using a spring recycled from an old couch. David likes movement in his outside art and the spring provides movement with the wind, and even the birds like to perch on it from time to time. Re-embellish, re-invent, recycle.
Hot Line Recycled Phone