LIGHT BULB REPURPOSED AS DIY VASE

  

     I completed another DIY project today. I took a burned out light bulb and turned it into a vase. I have an ivy plant that I think is so beautiful that I wanted to take some snippings and start another ivy plant. I think most people know that if you want to start another houseplant from one you currently have, all you have to do is snip some of it off and then put it in a cup of plain old water. After awhile, it will grow roots and then you can transfer it into some potting soil and viola! You now have a new houseplant. The problem with "starters" is that they are usually just sitting in the window in an ugly coffee mug or something while we wait for the roots to develop. Why not pretty it up? If you can create a gorgeous vase out of a burned out light bulb, then why not?
     Here's the how-to:
  --I took a regular old lightbulb    
 and used pliers and a screw-
driver to take out its end piece 
and insides. Make sure the light
bulb you use for this is one that 
is either already clear glass, or 
you can use one that has the 
white powder inside of it. That's
the kind I used because we can 
remove the powder very easily. 

   --I use a screwdriver          
to lightly tap through 
the center to break 
loose the inside parts. 
Gently shake the bulb 
upside down or pull little wire that's inside the bulb.




--The next step is to get the white powder out of the inside of the bulb. Dump some salt inside the light bulb. Only salt, no water or anything else is needed. Swirl the salt around inside the bulb until all of the white powder has come off the glass. After you have removed all the white powder, you can dump out and throw away the salt.

**(If the white powder doesn't seem to be coming off then you most likely have used the wrong frosted glass type of bulb and you will need to start over again with the right kind of bulb. It's important that the bulb is clear glass for it to be safe for your plant.)


  --Next, I looked around for wire to use to wrap around the bulb for decorating it and to use as the stand. The only thing that I could find was some soldering wire. It bends easy and is really simple to make a nice round shape.

 --At first I tried to make the stand so it would suspend the bulb up a few inches above the base. Unfortunately the bulb was too heavy when it was full of water and kept slowly sagging downwards.


  --Since I didn't have any sturdier wire, I went ahead and changed my original design so the bulb would rest on the table.  and only steadied it to keep it from falling over. I took apart an old butterfly keychain and twisted it  into place with more of the soldering wire.

--I didn't have to use any adhesive at all in this project. The soldering wire cups the bottom of the bulb and the concentric rings I made at the bottom steadies it. I love the butterfly because my son gave the keychain to me as a gift a few years ago, and it's like having it brand new all over again. I think it would also look amazing if the wire was strung through some colorful beads. There's so many ways that you could decorate this little vase, it just takes a little creativity! 

 --It's easy to keep an eye on the stems of the starters through the clear bulb. This should help to remind me to watch for the roots to develop so I can transplant the starter into potting soil.

 --If you have a friend that's been eye balling one of your house plants, this would a very sweet way to give her a starter off of it. It's so much better looking than giving her a starter in a plastic cup!  

     I'm always working on fun DIY projects. I especially love projects that reuse or recycle something old and give it a brand new life! If you've enjoyed this post please subscribe to my blog and I promise I will keep delivering the goods! Thanks so much for reading!  

DIY VINTAGE SUITCASE SHELF

       

     The cool DIY project for today was to create a fantastic looking Vintage Suitcase Shelf. I got the idea from a Pinterest post (love Pinterest!!) and decided to give it a try. I'm absolutely in love with the way it turned out! I plan to keep looking for cool vintage suitcases and I'll probably make several more of these. Here's what I did:

   --I bought this old suitcase from one of the local antique stores. It was a Samsonite and it was in really good shape so I felt kind of bad about what I was going to do to it! (But I did it anyway!) 

  --I decided that I wanted the shelf to be about 6 inches wide, so I marked a line all the way around the suitcase at six inches back from the front. 

   --I used a razor blade to cut out the material inside of the suitcase and used a hammer to knock loose any metal hinges that were in the way. 

  --Next, I used painters tape along side where I planned to cut. Just in case the wood tried to splinter. The tape helps prevent that from happening.

 
  
















  --I used one of my husbands air powered tools to cut the suitcase one side at a time with the suitcase open. It easily sawed through both the wood body and metal trimmed edges of the suitcase.

  --It works best to then put the top and bottom pieces together and close the clasps. I also put a couple pieces of painters tape on the inside to hold the back part together too. 

  --You will need to drill four holes of the suitcase. One on each of back corners on both the top and bottom so that you can secure the suitcase to the 2 x 4's that you will use mount it to on the wall. 

  --I pre-drilled holes in two 2 x 4's that I had cut to the length needed to fit inside the suitcase. I also pre-drilled the holes into my wall where I wanted to hang the shelf.

  










--The suitcase shelf was then slid
right over the 2 x 4's. They were
spaced exactly right and the suitcase fit snuggly 
onto them.

 --I'm lucky enough to have my 
darling hubby help me install the last four screws that secure the suitcase to the 2 x 4's.  He's a sweetie! 


  --That was the last step to make my shelf! I've decided to use this shelf to display three of the vintage cameras I've begun collecting. Here's the finished project. If you like my DIY projects please leave a comment! Thanks again for reading my blog!

D.I.Y. BRILLIANT WOOD KEEPSAKE BOXES

  

      I love DIY (do-it-yourself) gift projects because you can tailor the present specifically for person it's meant for. So much more thought, time and love goes into handcrafted gifts. I've tried so many different kinds of crafts over the years. I've made everything from cross-stitch to artificial flower arrangements for weddings. I've even tried my hand at making quilts for my sons. Almost everything I have attempted has turned out really cute, but the wood keepsake boxes are... dare I say... BRILLIANT!!! I've made probably twenty or thirty of them in all different shapes, sizes and styles. My kids each have a couple of them and they really love keeping all sorts of treasures inside. Here's a picture of the one that I made for Bailey a couple Christmas's ago: 

     I wish I had thought to take pictures of the process I went through to make that one, but unfortunately I didn't. However, it's really fairly simple to do. Here's a brief overview: First, I bought unfinished wood boxes at Hobby Lobby. I removed all of the hardware (hinges) and sanded the boxes thoroughly. Then I spent some time looking on the internet to find a font that I would like to use. I found this beautiful font and I traced it onto regular copy paper. Then I used carbon paper to re-trace the font onto the top of the box. I've gotten pretty good at wood-burning and decided that would look amazing to wood burn the kid's names on each of their boxes. Wood burning takes some practice to learn but quickly becomes easy with the right technique. After I was done with that, I stained the boxes and followed up with a few coats of polyurethane. To finish it up, I just reattached the hardware (hinges) and glued a complimentary dark mocha colored felt liner into the inside bottom of the box. My kids love their boxes and they know I made each one to be "one of a kind" just for them.     

    

     Now, if you prefer to have some pictures to go along with my how-to instructions then you are in luck! I finally remembered to take a few pictures of the process while making a keepsake box that will be a gift for my husband, Kyle. It is very different than the ones I did for the kids. After digging around the garage in the hopes of sparking a new idea, I found the original Chevelle emblem off of his 69 Chevelle...and was struck with instant inspiration!

** Kyle loves that old muscle car and has spent lots of time re-doing the whole car's paint job, luckily for me when he did that he put new emblems on it,  but he kept one of the original ones. Don't worry, I'm smart enough to ask if I could have it before I snatched it up for this project.**

Here's how I created Kyle's "Chevelle Keepsake Box":

     

     --I bought an raw unfinished wood box at Hobby Lobby (I LOVE THAT PLACE!!). They have many assorted shapes and types of unfinished wood boxes. I picked one that would be long enough for the emblem.

     

     --The Chevelle emblem is a chrome or silverish type of color but the hardware that came with the wood box was a yucky yellowish gold color. Icky! That just wouldn't work for me! I'm a girl, and things simply must match! So...

     

     --I took the hardware off of the box and bought some metallic silver spray paint.  I scuffed up the hardware with some sandpaper so that the paint has a better surface to adhere to.  Then I spray painted the hardware and all the little screws silver. Hint: use a pizza box to poke the screws into, it makes it much easier to paint and a little bit harder to lose! They turned perfectly. 

     --I sanded the box until it was perfectly smooth inside and out, paying special attention to slightly round the sharp edges.

     

     --I centered the emblem on the lid of the box, and used a pencil to mark where the emblems little pegs would need to go through the lid. 

     --Then I used a drill to make holes just large enough to accommodate each peg. (Check for fit at this point and make sure you drilled the holes in the right places!)

     

     --I used wax paper to protect our table before I grabbed my favorite color of wood stain and used a foam brush to apply it to the box (and my jeans...oops!). I let the stain sink into the wood for about 15 minutes, then rubbed off excess stain with a soft cloth or paper towel. It helps to get very creative and use whatever is around to suspend the box pieces up while they are drying.

  

     --It's important to wait until the stain is completely dry. The recommended time needed for it to dry will vary according to what the manufacturer's instructions are.

    

     -- I wanted the finish to be very shiny, so I added about three coats of polyurethane. I used 220 sandpaper to lightly sand between each coat (after first and second application was dry) to make sure it stayed smooth and glossy. Wipe all dust off really well before each application of polyurethane. I didn't sand it after the 3rd (final) coat. Be sure to let it dry completely before you continue! If you don't, you'll have fingerprints in the finish! Meanwhile:

    

    --I gave the Chevelle emblem a good cleaning and I tried to shine it up as best I could. It is an original piece from 1969, so it took a lot of elbow grease!

   

    --When the polyurethane was completely dry I installed the emblem. Thanks to the careful measuring and pre-drilling, the emblem pushed snuggly into place. I had thought about using super glue to secure it at this point, but quickly realized it was not necessary. It's an extremely tight fit just the way it is with no adhesives at all. Yay!

    --I put the hardware back on and I think the finished keepsake box looks amazing. I know Kyle will love it. I'm going to try to find some type of baby blue colored material to line the bottom inside with. I'm confident that will be the best color choice because that's the color Kyle used to re-paint his Chevelle. 

     
    So, how do you think it looks? I love it! I think that personalized wood keepsake boxes make such thoughtful gifts. It's a fairly easy  project to complete, and it's so much fun to try to match the keepsake box's personality to the personality of the person you are giving it to. I hope my instructions were clear enough and that I have inspired you to make a unique Keepsake Box for someone you love.

***Questions or comments are always welcome! Also, if you don't want to ever  miss out on any of my new posts or projects, you can subscribe to my blog by entering your email address at the bottom of this page. If you do, you will automatically be sent an email notification in the future to let you know when I've posted something new. Thanks for reading! God Bless!***