Category Archives: DIY

quick & easy photo display

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Here’s a quick and easy little project. It only took 4 months to finish.
3 months, 30 days, 23 hours and 40 minutes were spent in the planning stage. The most important stage, as you know.
20 minutes were spent putting it together.
First step, spot these cute little flower frogs in an op shop.
(I was told that’s what they’re called. I had no idea what they were, much less what they were called, when I saw them. I just liked the shape. And the rust didn’t hurt either.)
 
Next step, pay your $2 and take them home where you put them on a shelf and let them gather dust while you consider options.
Then, when you’ve got a spare 20 minutes, search your computer for photos you like. Resize them, adjust the saturation in Photoshop and add frames to ‘age’ them. Put new ink cartridges in the printer, print them out, laminate them and trim them down.
 
Once that’s done, stick the photos in the frogs and photograph.
See? Easy.
Have I ever lied to you?
z
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DIY Show Off

upcycled pringles container

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The other night my hands got bored as I watched TV so I got this old pringles tin and made it unrecognisable.

First I cut it into 3 uneven slices. Put bottoms on the ones that ended up bottomless. I did a couple of layers of papier mache to strengthen them.

I wanted it to say something, so I found synonyms for the word ‘write’ and printed them out in different sizes.

By way of aging the paper, I used a candle and slightly browned it.

Note: Browning paper is a tricky business… there’s a fine line between browning and flaming.

After dancing about the kitchen with a piece of paper rapidly turning to ash in my hands, I kinda liked the burned edges.

Note (again): After a certain point, blowing on a flame doesn’t put it out. It encourages it.

z



live laugh love in 8 easy steps

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I really love signs on timber. After reading links on Pinterest on how to transfer letters or images to timber, and experimenting with a few suggested methods, this is what I found:

The best and easiest way to make signs is to use a method which I learned in grade school.

Tracing!

So, here’s the Zefi sign-making method.

1. Print out the words you want on plain printer paper. I used different fonts for each word. (Ok, this bit I didn’t do in grade school!)

2. Then, using charcoal, cover the entire back of the printed image. If you’re transferring onto a dark background you can use chalk or light coloured soft pastels.

 

 3. Lay the paper onto the timber, charcoal side down. At this point its handy if you made sure the words/image are the right size for the timber you’re using.

I used weathered timber I’d prepared earlier, using a dry brush technique to create an aged sign look.

4. Using a pen, ‘colour in’ the letters, pressing the charcoal onto the timber surface. If you want to make sure the image doesn’t move, use some masking tape to tape down both paper and timber.

I’m extremely lazy confident so I didn’t tape it down.

5. Remove masking tape (if you used it), lift up paper, and voila! This is what you have if you’ve done it right.

If, unlike me, you’re not ‘confident’ and taped everything down, you can check your transferred image before you commit yourself by removing the paper.

6. Using a fine brush and paint, you then fill in the letters. I used watered down artists acrylic paint cause I wanted a softer look. By watering the paint down I achieved an uneven saturation of colour which is what I wanted.

If you plan to sand and distress the timber sign after you paint the letters, you can use undiluted paint at this step.

7. When I had the pieces all painted, I added screw eyes and asked Wayne to make some S hooks to joining them together.

That step took 5 weeks.

8. Technically, the sign is finished at step 7, but I added some jute flowers to my sign cause I like adding these little touches.


So there you have it. Something I learned in grade school has come in real handy.

I’m still waiting to see if algebra will come in handy.

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DIY Show Off

z

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Knick of Time

the woodshed gets a door

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Hey! I’m back to typing with all fingers! Gently, but all fingers nonetheless!
So here, I am with the promised photos of the woodshed with its new door.
There’s a small drainage ditch in front of the woodshed, so Wayne made temporary steps up to the door as well! He’s a gem.
The door came from an old shed I pulled down at my house in Fentonbury. Its seen a few incarnations…
I used it as a divider in my bathroom in Fentonbury for a while…
I also used it as a ramp when I had puppies who needed a bit of help getting up and down steep stairs.
Now its back to being a shed door. Full circle.

In the spirit of using what we have, the hinges have come off a door somewhere, so has the lovely old rusty bolt. And being that Wayne is clever with wire, he made the bolt work with wire to latch it onto.
Looks great doesn’t it? Even Wayne thinks so. This morning he said ‘I hate to admit it, but the woodshed does look better.’
Score 1 for Zefi.
Though he did roll his eyes when he saw me hang the barbed wire on the door…
You may have noticed the roll of barbed wire lying against the shed along with an old tractor steering wheel and a huge wheel brace. After taking the photos I thought the barbed wire would make a great wreath for the door (hence the top photo).
I’ve got plans for that wreath.
Since when do I not have plans for everything?
Stay tuned.
z

the woodshed gets a makeover

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Ever since we moved into Wind Dancer Farm, I’ve itched to do something about the eyesore which was our woodshed.

Note the lovely heavy duty shadecloth gift wrapping… Very pretty. Not.

Ok. Its just a woodshed.

But I had a dream.

I dreamed of a pretty woodshed.

Something rustic, made from old weathered timber, with signs hanging on it and a yellow climbing rose growing up it.

Ok. The rose will have to wait. That will take a few years to grow up up the woodshed.

If indeed climbing roses are frost and strong wind tolerant.

Anyway, back to the point…

I’ve been itching to give the shed a makeover. It was clad in that dreary shadecloth. And we had piles of old timber lying in the back paddock, rotting away.

Wayne pointed out that we had to use that timber soon or it would be beyond using. At which point I jumped at the chance to bring up my plans to redo the woodshed. Again.

Note: Previously, every time I brought up the ‘woodshed makeover’ plan I got eye rolling.

Bring up using old timber which needs to be used or burned to clean up the paddock, and suddenly Wayne is making plans… Turns out I was just going about it the wrong way all this time!

Over our break (this week we’re on holidays from work) we were going to make over the woodshed!

Yeah!

It seemed like an easy plan.

It would have been if we agreed on the basics of how to go about doing it.

My idea: rip off the shadecloth (so we can see what’s under it), put in extra support bits to nail the timber cladding to, and go from there.

His idea: lay the timber straight over the top of the shadecloth cause he didn’t want to go to the trouble of removing it and cause it would involve moving firewood.

Of course I won.

Mainly cause I said I’d do the removing on my own, as well as moving any firewood needed to do the job.

We started on Sunday morning. Or should I say, I started on Sunday morning.

I spent what seemed like 52 hours (and was probably only 2) removing the shadecloth. I still have scratches, scrapes and a slice just above one of my nails thanks to the shadecloth…**

The heavy duty,  metal infused shadecloth which medieval armour was make of.

Then I put on gloves.

By the end I could only reach 3 sides of the shed as there was firewood piled high against the 3rd side.

In the afternoon we drove the ute out to the paddock and loaded it up with timber. Brought it close the woodshed. Brought out the power tools and got to work.

We did a bit of arguing about what would go where and in the end we compromised.

i.e. I won.

We discovered my circular saw is stuffed. It works fine for a while, then jams and kicks back. No idea what’s going on. We decided it wasn’t worth the risk, so brought out the drop saw. Sensible.

We worked till late on Sunday afternoon and got the supports in and finished one side.

We had sore muscles where we didn’t know we had muscles afterwards. Ouch.

Monday, after a few errands in New Norfolk, we got back to work. This time Wayne cut the timber to size in the paddock using his chainsaw.

Easier.

Sometimes he has good ideas.

It was quick and easy. All we needed to do was nail up the boards. That meant me carrying them over and Wayne nailing them on.

We got one more side finished and the 3rd wall almost finished till the rain chased us indoors.

Of course, it wasn’t without some stuff-ups. This wall below for instance. This was the result of the following conversation:

“Should I get the level?”

“No. We don’t need a level.”

“Yeah, you’re right. Its just s shed. I want it rustic.”

OOPS.

Tuesday we both looked at it and agreed. We had to rip those boards off and redo that section.

After we fixed the crooked bits, I tackled the shadecloth again. Wayne was really worried that the wood would get wet if it rained, cause the slats don’t fit perfectly.

Hmph.

So, in order to not hear “I told you so” next winter, I said I’d take care of it. I measured and cut the shadecloth, then clambered over the ever shifting pile of wood, legs spread-eagled, slipping and sliding, to nail it all up.

(Note: nail tacks in the back pocket isn’t a good idea if you end up on your butt.)

Then came the fun part. Moving the pile of wood from the outside of the shed to the inside. See it there? under the sagging roofline?


 I cut a hole in the remaining shadecloth and picked up and tossed every single piece of wood into the shed.

My back!

But in the end I had a clean and tidy outside, under cover (more or less) area.

The plan is this: we’ll need to redo the roof on that outside area. Then new wood that needs chopping will be staked there. Wayne does the chopping in our driveway right now, but with this area cleaned out now, he can chop on the grassy bit to the left of the shed where there’s room to swing an axe. He wanted to keep the door (I was all for closing in that whole side), so he’ll be putting an old shed door I brought from my old home on there tomorrow. The side that opens to the undercover area will get made into a large door so chopped wood can get tossed in.

All in all, its going well. I plan to do some more work to the exterior, make a sign for it… stay tuned.

Unfortunately,  I’ve managed to mangle my middle and ring fingers on my left hand. Typing is Really hard with one hand and 1 finger… Its like type, type, backspace, backspace…

How? Well, we took a load of trash to the tip this morning and somehow I managed to jam my fingers in the ute door. YOUCH!

There I was, fingers jammed, swearing up a storm (a couple of men nearby blushed) and trying to pull them free. Took me a few seconds to realise I could open the door with my other hand. I swear, if I’d been in water, I’d have drowned.

**The shadecloth cut is now gone. Sliced off with a bit of my nail bed. Nice.

Nothing broken at least, I had an xray and had a tetanus shot (ouchies). I opted to get the shot in the same arm. Why spread the pain?

So here I am. feeling sorry for myself.

At least I can’t do dishes!

z

rusty coathanger heart

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While digging around for scrap barnwood in the pile in the back paddock, I found 3 rusty old coat hangers.
I loved them so much I’ve planted a few new ones out there for next year.
 I bent the coat hangers into hearts (cause what else would you do with them?) and hung them off the curtain rod in the living room for a while. Let them mature, you know…
I made my heart welcome wreath out of one of them.
Which left 2 hearts waiting for their purpose and forever home.
One of the hearts is a bit too rusty (and weak) to hang things from… that will go somewhere later, when I find the right spot for it.
This heart has become a suncatcher, with different coloured prisms and other misc objects for a bit of sparkle and shine.
Just whimsical enough I think.
z

dragonflies & crystal

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 I saw some wire and bead dragonflies on Pinterest a few weeks ago and since then I’ve gone dragonfly crazy. I’ve been making them at work for clients, and at home, well… just because I can.

There’s something so cute about them.

A few weeks ago I found this silver dish thingy at an op shop. I have no idea what the technical name might be, but originally this thing held a small glass or crystal bowl. Without the bowl, this poor little silver thingy just looked sad.

Till I added dangly things to it and made it into something special!

I used some more of the antique cutlery (I got a load of the stuff so it will feature in a few projects). They make a great musical sound when they clink together.

I added 2 dragonflies and a small bumble bee (you can see him peeking out between the spoon handles).

I used crackle glass beads and the large crystal in the middle for a bit of sparkle and light reflection.

So the sad little silver thingy is sad no more!

z

what to do with old horse shoes

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Ok, so its not a problem most people have. But when you have horses (and have friends with horses) there’s no shortage of old, rusty, horse shoes.
This small training shoe found its way into my ‘miscellaneous’ box and was just sitting there, staring at me, asking to be used for something.

Last week I went into the little local cafe where I’ve been placing items to sell and found that all my suncatchers, chimes, dangles had sold! 
I had to make more.
Since I make these things out of materials on hand, each one is different. I’ll post each of the last ones I made in separate posts to keep things simple.
This particular one is made out of an old horse shoe (obviously), antique cutlery, old keys and aurora borealis beads. Plus an old clockface decoration. That was a last minute addition which just worked.
I just love the colours of rust on the horse shoe. I know where I can get a ton of these. Might need to find more things to make with them.
Suggestions welcome! 🙂

z

Linking up to Homespun Happenings’ Rustic Restoration Weekend.
Homespun Happenings

patchwork

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Yesterday afternoon we got home and did the usual feeding of animals routine. While I fed Ben I looked over at the old dog kennel I moved over to the dam for the ducks to use. Of course they never used it. And one day I found 15 chook eggs in it.
I decided it was time to check it again since Wayne hadn’t been… This time I found 19 eggs!
Being I had no idea how long they’d been there, I brought them in and dunked them in water to see if they floated. They all sank. Good.
But 5 of them were a blue-ish colour. And our hens lay white, cream and brown eggs. No blue.
Duck eggs.
Great.
Wayne said I should take them back out and put them back in the nest. He said the only sure-fire way to get the duck to accept them was to find some duck poop and rub them in it.
So I went out, muttering to myself, and walked around the dam twice looking for duck poop. I found some and was rubbing them in when Wayne came out to the porch and called “Make sure you find fresh poop, not old dry poop.”.
Groan. I couldn’t find any fresh poop!
After watching me for a while, Wayne said I might as well just put them in the nest. He’d made up that bit about the poop!
Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
meanwhile….
Last weekend was a write off as far as projects went. About the only thing I managed to do was patch up these incredibly annoying ‘holes’ in the kitchen.
See, we have a plain, standard (narrow) 500cm upright stove.
I dislike it intensely.
The gap it sits in is almost 700cm. That means gaps on either side of the stove. Different sized gaps. Gaps big enough to lose spoons, knives, pots and pans down. And food scraps, potato peels, sauce.

Wayne does most of the cooking… It was filthy down there.

When I dropped a spoon down there last week it was the last straw.
Since I can’t afford a new stove (let alone a new kitchen), I decided it was time I did something to forestall my impulse to get the sledgehammer…
I took one of the cabinet doors I removed a couple of weeks ago …

…and cut strips to fit the gaps, then used tiny brackets to fix them in place.

Not perfect (and please ignore the grime rings – I hadn’t planned on doing a photo shoot when I started the job). I have since painted the ends white so they don’t look quite so odd. Like thin white strips don’t look odd enough – with the Grand Canyon below them …

At least I got something done.

I’ll leave you with some photos of old projects I found while searching for some artwork. When I first moved to Tasmania I’d made a series of Tasmanian tiger objects which I sold through a local shop. Here are a couple of the coat racks made from old barn wood, images painted with gouache and finished with varnish.

z


lost socks

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This is a little project which took months to finish. Why? Cause halfway through I hated it and stopped working on it.

It started out as an offcut of pine from the shelves I made for the office. Never let bits of wood go to waste if they ‘might come in handy one day’, right?

I used the steel wool in vinegar method to age the wood, then gave it a bit of a sand to soften it. I tried transferring the type to the sign but that was a bit of a failure. I had to fix it up using a sharpie, but thats ok.

That’s when I took my first break. I didn’t like the type. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but then it just didn’t do it for me. I let the sign sit in the office for weeks before I thought I’d try putting an image on it… socks of course. I couldn’t find many socks pictures I liked so I settled for this one. Looking at it now, I’d probably have done it differently, but hey. Its done now. I just glued the cut out images to the sign and gave it all a coat of clear varnish.

Then I hot glued weathered wooden pegs to it.

At that point I gave it a bit more of a rest. Longer this time.

On the weekend, in my manic ‘do something about the casita’ mood, I finally tackled the sign. It was time. It had a home to go to and I couldn’t put it off any more.


I got DJ to tie some more of his cute knots to it for hanging. I really do like rope on signs. I then added a bit of twine along the pegs to make it look like a clothes line.
Of course, big ol’ mens work socks (or even less big ladies sports socks) aren’t cute for a photo, so here it is with some teeny cute baby socks.
Another little piece comes together in the laundry room…
z