Posts tagged ‘how to’

That’s right! Yay Shelly, it’s Share a Square 2010! I won’t (although I could) tell you at great length about The Share a Square project. I could tell you about it’s awesome inception by a crazy Texas RedHead with a heart as big as her home state, about the amazing bloggers and other folks from around the world who made squares and sent them to Shelly to be sewn together into colorful expressions of love and support for the kids with cancer, (about the huge mess in Shelly’s spare bedroom that overflowed into the rest of her house… hahaha); but I won’t. I’ll let you go check it out at This Eclectic Life if you want to know more about the history if this great project.
Instead I’ll direct you to the FaceBook group page that Shelly has set up for this year, and the FAQ that she put together with her experience of 2 years doing this great thing.
What I’m here to do today, is give ya’ll some visual images and ideas for making your tags. (I’ll be crocheting like a madwoman come Fall/Winter. In the first place it’s too darn hot in the Mojave Desert to crochet in Summer; in the second- I admit… I’m a last minute kinda gal).
Having learned the lesson of crumpled and torn tags in previous years, and knowing that part of the thrill for the kids is being able to see and keep the tags from 150 different people from all around the world, Shelly has come up with a basic format for tags this year, and has graciously added to her workload by offering to laminate, punch and tie them all on to our squares when we send them. She’d like them to be standard business card size, and plans to include a binder ring for the kids to use to keep their tags.
Idea Number 1:
What I did last year was to use my business card. This may seem impersonal to some of you and I suppose it depends on your business, but I kinda thought the kids might get a kick out of having a square crocheted by a tattoo artist (and my cards are pretty colorful, which I like.) If you choose this option, be sure to write a personal note on the back! It will mean so much to the kids.
Idea Number 2:
Print your own and cut them with a paper cutter. Easy to do. Most WP programs these days have business card templates that make it super easy. Just pick something colorful or fun and type your message and print n cut! Perfect! My printer is having fits right now, and jams the paper every time, so I think I’ll be mixing my tags up between Idea 1 above, and
Idea Number 3:
Buy a pack of blank (or already decorated) micro perf business cards and add your own personal flair. I’m using stickers and a hand written message, (but if I can dig out my stamping and embossing stuff I may do some of that, too. If I do, I’ll post pics.) Have fun and do good. What’s better than that?!
Peace!

Or, Part 2 of “Green Up Your Garden Decor”.

Okay! Did you have a great 24 hours?? I did here in my desert paradise. Are you ready to grout? It’s messy, so lay out a bunch of newspaper outside somewhere. Make sure you have gloves if you’re using colored grout; it stains. You can use any ol’ latex or neoprene gloves, but I like my purple ones.

You’re going to want to have a large container of water, as opposed to running your hose. (When you’re all done make sure to dump the water on a thirsty tree, okay?) A couple of sponges. See the big one with the black rubber on one side? That is a sponge specifically for grouting, but it’s not really necessary for a small project like this.

I like the latex grout for small projects and for garden art. It holds up well outside. Sanded grout is okay, if it’s all you’ve got. After you do a few projects, you’ll find your own way with it. It’s a bit rough to gauge how much you’ll need, so start with a small amount. You can always mix a little more as needed (I did for this project. The initial mix wasn’t quite enough).

Make a little well in the center of your grout. Make it about a quarter to a third of the volume of the dry mix.

Add water a little at a time. It’s much easier to mix in additional water if it needs more than it is to add the dry. Mix well, as the water is absorbed into the lumps it will get wetter than you think. Also it always seems to get lumpier and require a lot more mixing when you have to add more dry. Also when that happens you always seem to end up with more than you can use. We hate waste!

I think this photo shows the consistency pretty well. It’s about the consistency of cake frosting or maybe a little thicker than custard, (but not as smooth, of course!)

You can scoop up some grout on a sponge and begin pressing it in and on your pot, but it’s a little awkward on something this small, so I usually just use my hands. Press the grout firmly and make sure to fully fill all the spaces. Press down and toward the center of the individual tiles so that the grout goes underneath them a bit, too.

After you have the tile fully covered, use the foam “brush” or a small sponge to smooth and push the grout in some more.

 
Use the sponge brush to remove some of the excess grout, too.
 

Before you begin to wipe, wring the large sponge out very well! Wipe, rinse, wring; repeat. You don’t want to use too much water, it will just wash the grout out from between the spaces.

If you are using sanded grout, too much water will also make your grout grainy looking and will wash out the color and make it cloudy looking. Too much water (or too sloppy of a consistency) can make your grout crack as it dries. Bad news! Get it reasonably clean, but don’t worry about leaving a haze of color on the surface of the tiles. It will wipe off easily when the grout is dry. Focus more on making your grout lines smooth and consistent, especially along the edges.

How cool is that?! The grout will take about 24 hours to dry. Don’t sit the piece in the sun, it will dry too fast. If you have tiled something that is in the sun already; some piece of permanent or too heavy to move yard art, drape a cloth over it and mist it with a spray bottle periodically to allow the grout to dry slowly and evenly and to prevent cracking. When the grout is fully dry, buff it with a soft cloth to remove the haze and any excess grout on the surface of the tiles, then seal your tile and grout with any tile and grout sealant.

See? Who needs “new” stuff? Upcycle your old stuff into new art that is perfectly your style! Check back in with me here in Thorne’s World for more recycled art How-Tos. Coming up soon: Yard art Mosaic Bowling Balls (scroll down to #6). You can also see some of my tile mosaic and broken tile mosaic about halfway down this page of things that make me happy!

Back to Part 1: Green Up Your Garden Decor Questions in comments are welcome. I’ll try my best to answer and advise. I’d love to see your creative projects, too, so leave me a link!

Peace, out!

A couple weeks ago I wrote a list of fantastic junk to use in mosaics. Before we get into attaching some of the more randomly shaped items of various materials (which can get a lil tricksy if you don’t want your parts falling off randomly and for no apparent reason), I thought I’d give you a step by step how-to on a small project to get you started.

I know you have some old pots around that are just too worn and ugly to use, but still too serviceable to break up for planter-bottom-drainage. Maybe you are wanting to change the color scheme of your patio or porch and are feeling guilty about your secret desire to just say “To hell with being green! I want new STUFF!” Maybe you’re broke, like me! Maybe it has simply never occurred to you that you can have “new” stuff by giving a makeover to old stuff! In any case, this is a great way to give a facelift to a worn out old terra cotta planter (and with just a couple small changes works on plastic planters, too)!Click on the thumbnails for a larger view, or watch the flickr slideshow at the bottom of the post.

Read more »