Pressed Metal, The Not Quite Tutorial

Remember these box/shelf thingy's?

My Wedding Expo display

I thought they looked great at the wedding expo. Black and white, bold, simple. Mr Frog/Mr I-Always-Have-A -Bloody-Opinion thought they looked too modern. "Your style is "Vintage"" he said.
Damn.
He's right.
Although it did look great, something a little more vintage would look even better.
But what? For awhile, I was thinking black and white damask scrapbooking paper. Easy Peasy.
But then I remembered something I saw on Bloody Pinterest.
Pressed Metal.
I adore pressed metal. I dream of having a Silver Pressed Metal splash back in my kitchen.
I didn't actually go to the original source. It seemed pretty simple. And it was.

Simple, yet I think, incredibly effective.

First, cut your cardboard to size. I used a random piece of cardboard and stole the giant box of un-opened Cornflakes. (Remember, Already had = Free)

Then I marked out my pattern. You know me, I kept it simple. This is a little less fancy than I imagine in my dream kitchen.

I then went to town with the hot glue. If you're doing this with kids, you could probably use P.V.A glue, it'll just take longer to dry. So scratch that, and just let the kids design while you take command of the glue gun. (There's gotta be some perks to being the grown up).
Be careful not to make the glue to high/thick. It'll tear the foil.

Next, lay the foil shiny side down and put your cardboard glue side down. Fold over the edge of the foil, carefully, and tape down.

 Flip it over and gently rub your hands over the foil.

 Then go over again with more attention to detail.

 Now remember when I said gently and try not to make the glue too thick...? This is why. The foil won't like it. And neither will you.

 Nevermind. Pretend it didn't happen and continue with the next two pieces.

 It's about this time I heard a little voice in my head saying " It doesn't look as good as you thought huh?".
Doubting bitch. I Ignored her and carried on.

It looked promising. I had such high hopes.

Hmm. Not quite how I imagined. I stared for a bit. Maybe it'll look better with a bag in there?

 Maybe up close?

Hmmmm.
Maybe with the black bags instead. Yes, that's it.

 I couldn't work out why it didn't look like I thought it would. The first piece I did was awesome. I even posted it on Facebook. (So it must be true).
Then Mr Frog chimed in.
In his "I'm trying not to sound like the critical pain in the arse you think I am" voice, he said "Do you like it babe?". I paused for a second too long and he continued with "It just looks like foil".

GAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!

He is a critical pain in the arse, but when he's right, he's right.

Now it just looks like a conspiracy theorist has gotten a little fancy with the foil on the windows.

Sometimes, things don't work out the way you think/hope/wildly assume they will. And part of the "fun" of being a crafty minx is working out how to fix things when they don't quite work out fail completely.

I went back to plan B. well, plan A really.
And I got to go to Kaisercraft. So, that's a win.

 A black damask acetate (After Five Collection,  Champagne), on white paper.

Simple, black and white, bold, Vintage.

And I didn't swear once.

What have you stuffed up and then fixed lately?

MC

Mon Amour

For months now I have been working on a scrapbooked frame thingy for my lounge room. It has taken ages because of my need to buy cheap supplies, and my complete inability to make a decision. Being a Libran is not easy.
Finally, today, I finished it!

In the process, I made a wonderful mess. I don't have a designated craft space so I just use the coffee table, or the kitchen bench, the floor (as in this case) or a combination of all three which I can assure you my husband loves. Here is some of my work in progress:

That's an opened up shopping bag protecting the ugly green carpet.

The frame, due to it's missing glass, fell off the back of a truck. It's quite big, but the picture window is small, and off centre. What to do? Well, after faffing about deciding on if I wanted the picture to take up the whole window or not (not) I then consulted a scrapbooking magazine for inspiration. The problem with that is that some of those projects are so full of stuff you can barely see the original photo... not my style. So, I took this idea:

And tweaked it!

  I found a fab pic from one of my weddings (long story- another time) to use. I think we look like movie stars but my husband has just decided he doesn't like it but HA! I thought of this already, (and the fact that I may change my mind), and I've just used photo corners so I can change it when I want!

The colour scheme was a no brainer because my lounge room is black & white with touches of red (copied nowhere near as well from an Instyle spread of Lara Flynn Boyles house a million years ago. I also copied her bedroom!) But what to do with the rest of it I had no idea. Now after going backwards, forwards, round and round... here it is!

The text in the middle says: "Once in a while, right in the middle of an ordinary life, love gives us a Fairytale". Now, if you knew our history, and had overheard some of our first conversations, you would understand why it had to be this quote. The fairy castle means a lot to me for various reasons, and the Eiffel Tower is for Mr. Frog... and it has come to mean a lot to me too.

Now, at this stage I'm not too crazy about the heart behind the castle, but I needed some red in that corner so there you go.

Dedicated to the one I love. Toujours.

MC