Trash Talk Thursday: Carvable Dollar Tree Prim Pumpkins

Although I'm not usually one to sing the praises of cheap Made in China merchandise, I do occasionally find myself drawn to Dollar Tree's seasonal supplies. At least they sell their stuff at about what it's really worth @ $1 or less, right?

I was excited to find $1.00 carvable styrofoam pumpkins at our local Dollar Tree recently! I've seen them in arts & crafts supply stores (costing a great deal more than 1 buck & being a little too large in size) and have been wanting to try them out to make a couple of permanent prim pumpkins.

I purchased only 2, as we're trying to downsize for the golden years (hah!) and decided to use one as an Autumn vase/vessel, the other as a whimsical jack-o-lantern. I painted the vase one with acrylic craft paint (1 coat, dark orange) and let it dry overnight. The next day, I dipped a cotton rag in oil-based walnut wood stain with sealer, and rubbed it evenly over both pumpkins ~ wiping the excess in a downward motion (be sure to use rubber gloves, unless you like having the dirty fingernail look for several weeks!)

After allowing the stain to dry for at least 24 hours, I gathered up a sharpie pen and some tools & gadgets to carve the jack-o-lantern.

I pressed a vintage pastry wheel tool to indent 2 wacky looking eyes, drawing over it with a permanent ink pen ~ then added a nose & mouth. I used a basic serrated table knife to carefully carve the face & a hole at the top, for adding a battery operated LED tea light candle. Since the styrofoam inside the nose & mouth was white, I added some color by rubbing an orange marker along the exposed insides. Pretty daggon' easy, and cheap to boot!  © copyright 2013 redshedvintage.com

Tune in next Thursday when I'll show you how I turned some plastic treat cups into paper maché  party cups... 

                        

 

 

Trash Talk Thursday: Artful Twigs

Awhile back I ran across a rustic lodge lake plaque made from sticks on Pinterest, and have had it on my to-do-it-myself list ever since. (Thanks to pinterest.com, my to-do list is now long enough to last the rest of my life and then some!) 
This past weekend while I had the pleasure of babysitting my grand-dogter, Noodle ~ we walked along Lake Tarpon in search of suitable twig sticks for writing out the word 'Lake' on an old wooden plaque (found at a thrift shop for 50 cents.)

I sprayed my found tree-twigs with a pest control product before bringing them inside ( because it's  Florida ~ home of tropical bugs galore) and used snippers to cut the ends off twigs as needed. Once I had the word layed out as I liked it, I sprayed the twigs with clear acrylic sealer to bring out the wood hues (and further protect the indoors from that which lives outdoors) and used wood glue to attach the twigs to my plaque, allowing drying time overnight before hanging. © copyright 2013 redshedvintage.com 

  

 

Trash Talk Tuesdays: Radio Cabinet Redeux

I’d been searching for a shelf to house the assortment of little storage drawers I’d accumulated, when I spotted this grand old radio cabinet in a neighbor’s trash! The 1920’s era radio guts had been stripped, making it even better. Radios were often housed in elaborate wooden cabinets, to fit in as part of the living room furnishings where families would gather to listen to their favorite show or music.
Some of the veneer was missing & the top had been damaged, so I peeled the rest of the veneer off the top and used some wood putty to fill in the jagged edges ~ lightly sanding to round the corners once the putty dried. 
After applying 2 coats of flat Red Delicious interior wall paint inside and out, I opted not to distress the paint but lightly rubbed walnut wood stain over the exterior with a cotton rag, concentrating on darkening the grooved decorative designs.
When dry, I was able to use the existing shelving to stack some drawers between, and added make-do shelves with scrap wood planks & attached basic metal shelf brackets w/screws. 
I covered the speaker & knob holes with burlap, and added ball bearing wheel casters to the feet for easy rolling, and now have a hallway apothecary chest to organize craft supplies! I later added the DIY pie safe doors I invented, as posted for last week's Trash Talk Tuesdays Tutorial: Pie Safes Rule.
copyright 2013 www.redshedvintage.com

Scraped the loose veneer off, then filled in the rough spots with wood putty.

2 coats of Red Delicious flat wall paint, followed by rag-rubbed coat of walnut wood stain

Later added homemade pie safe doors on the back