Thursday, April 30, 2015

Silverware Handle Bracelet


I totally love silver and white gold. Especially bracelets.

Challenged to recycle and work with silverware/flatware or kitchen utensils this month, I was so excited to make a silverware handle bracelet!

It's quite easy.
First, you'll need some silverware/flatware that suit your style. I'm going with floral handles myself.



I went thrift shopping and found a whole bunch of the same set of floral flatware at Salvation Army for just 10 cents each. Perfect for practicing on.




Once you have your flatware to work with, you'll need to break or cut off the handle. I chose to break rather than cut because you still need to file or sand the edges to smooth the metal later.

To break off, you can use a bench vice, vice grip pliers, or just pliers to hold the handle while you bend off the mouthpiece.

Don't worry it's easy peasy.
Really. I'll show you how in less than a minute:

(Videographer: The AceMan)


Next, you'll need to drill holes through the ends of the handle pieces. I centered these close enough to the edge to attach them together later.

Repeating on the other ends.

Next, PUT YOUR SAFETY GOGGLES ON! Then sand or file down cut edges to smooth the metal. I used my bench sander. You can use any sanding method you like. Just get any of the sharp edges off to prevent skin scratching or cuts.

Now, the tricky part. That is bending the handles into the wrist shape. I used one of my silver bracelets as a guide while holding the handle with one set of pliers and bending with another set. ( I would have a video for this but my videographer is in school. He's a 5th grader.)

Now you'll need those round attaching things. (I'm not a jeweler so my technical terms are lacking.) You can get them in the jewelry section of a craft store.

Using as many of those silver round things you want, for the look you want, attach them together with small needle nose pliers. I used three in the back of the bracelet.

Then I used one in the front of the bracelet. It looks better with one. Kind of like a bull nose ring. :)

After getting those little circles or rings completely closed, I cleaned and polished the entire bracelet.


I have a whole bunch to experiment with. Beads, jewels and other embellishments can be used as danglers hanging to create your own one of kind flatware bracelet!


I've made spoon handle rings before but this is my first bracelet.


I'm thinking ... engraving them! What would you do?
If you have any silverware crafts, I'd love for you share them.





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Tween Boy Bedroom ORC Week 5


This is the last week of the One Room Challenge with Linda at Calling It Home and the pressure is on! All of the details need to be completed and our room finales are to be revealed next week. Eeeeek!



Even though I'm doing well as I'm crossing off the task list, there have been some stumbling bumps that I won't post. All of us participating in this challenge have done a lot of work and it would be a very loooong post if we noted everything.

I'm so stinking excited to have a room in this fixer upper house getting finished! So here we are with this All American Boy Bedroom so far:

The plan list:
Patch ceiling(the unexpected)
Paint walls (love the light gray)
Paint and put media center together (whew!)
Make tractor seat stool (dad wants it!)
Make /repurpose/ redo a desk (done!) 
Make desk lamp (um, put together a whole new look for one)
Paint chest of drawers (we all love it!)
Make 2nd lamp ("keeey-uuuute"!!)
Paint dresser (needs waxing and placing in room)
Paint mirror (waxing and hanging)
Make and paint headboard (finishing touches this week)
Upcycle trunk (yah, about that... I put it off and now need to get it done. Hey, I went shopping for bargains to add to the space and shopping counts!) 
Drapes (bought and hung...a necessity)
Pillows made (and one bought super cheap!)
Bedding ready
Accessories (desk) made and purchased and painted 
Decor (upcycle guitar(s), dogs, cars, trucks, sports... all American boy style)
Wall art (made and thrift bought!)
Telescope and Moonlight area (an afterthought added in!)
Airplane theme (small and another afterthought)



Here is what I've been up to...which is repurposing a lot!

Tags!
My youngest son loves Coca Cola because he is not allowed to have it but on rare occasions. I saved these bottle caps from Christmas.

A desk top from this 32 year old shelf unit I've carted with me since my oldest son was born. 

Desk lamp makeover. My office lamp is now a redo for our tween boy. 

Walmart and Target bargains.
I painted wired baskets and tray accessories for organizing in the room.

A thrift shop find... perfect for the dog lover! It's going over his desk.

Added reclaimed wood to the reused and made-over media center. Thrift shop cheap and ugly, but the wood is great for other uses!

Yah, that trunk. A curb side find that is supposed to be "awesome". I'm working on it. Really I am. It's inside the house now. The yucky stuff is pulled off it. It's just so much is going on and I know it will be easy when I finally get to it. 

And there are the little boy name letters that get a makeover (yes he scribbled on one of them years back). 


So anyway, those toddler letters got a USA paint job. A nice bright red, white and blue.

The bedding, curtain rods and drapes are bought. Toss pillows are made... except for one; super cheap from Target. 

We are keeping the ceiling fan as is. New globe though. The old one was plain and this new globe is a baseball. Pretty "cool".

Well, I need to add an airplane theme in. Just a small space. The young man loves planes and he does need a wall rack. I'll keep it simple... promise!

His moonlight and his world globe came together in an area. It was an afterthought to work in the moonlight he loves. It's remote controlled with waxing/waning features. The globe was too big for his desk area, so it moved in with the moon. They are quite happy together while creating their own little universe.

And that area motivated me to repurpose this page from the atlas map pages I added to his Route 66 lamp.

It went onto this vintage metal tray for an educational wall piece. 


I know... this is a lot to take in. As I design on a dime,  I'll post each segment "how to" as I catch up. That is after all, how Robin Redo It does it ;) 

My mind has been in high gear to get this entire room, and a small one at that, pulled together with all of the young man's interests and his certain "stuff"he is keeping. And for that reason, it has become "All American Boy" themed. 

What is so funny is... as I worked on this room,  that old 70's commercial kept going through my head... "baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet".  That is what this room is really. Well, except for the food. We'll keep the munchies in the kitchen. ;) 

I found the commercial and it was fun watching:

Now, let's go on over to see everyone else crunching this week! I peeked through all of the ORC posts on Wednesday and completely awed over them while anticipating the outcome next week. 




Linda is doing an amazing job at her own house update challenge. It's major! Permits, construction, etc. And she is hosting our incredible One Room Challenges.  Let's check out the progress with the other linking participants! 





Wish us all luck! 


Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Stenciled Tin Box


It used to be a tin box full of cookies. 
But now all it is ...

is a blank canvas.
Using stencils to decorate it...
 













it became an inspirational pencil box!