Designing Details: Painted Lampshade & Liner

I picked up this lamp some time ago at the Goodwill. Actually the base came from Goodwill and I found the lampshade in the clearance section at Marshall's and paired it with the lamp. The oval shade paired nicely with the round base. I immediately spray-painted it silver (wish it had been more chrome like, but that's another story) bought an elegant finial and called it a day. And that's how it's lived it's life for the past five years. 

I don't know about you, but when my budget gets tight is when I stop buying things and actually get some of the projects I need to do done.  So I revisited my silver lamp. 

Somewhere I saw in a magazine a lamp shade that matched its base in color. I thought, well that's easy enough I'll just paint the lampshade silver. Now I probably could have used any silver metallic craft paint that I had laying around, but since Shade has a linen fabric texture, I researched and found a fabric paint in the shade of silver. I couldn't find it at any of the local stores so I ordered it online from Joannes.

Before painting, I used a mild cleaner (even dish soap would do) and a lint free cloth and wipe down the shade to get off any loose dirt and dust.  

Then using a foam brush I simply used long linear strokes to paint the lampshade.

 It took about four coats to get the color even.

As you know craft paint dries fairly quickly so I was able to let it dry in between the coat and still be finished within about 30 minutes.

Looks good right? But wait, look how it appears with the light turned on.

You could stop here at all you wanted was a painted lampshade tutorial. But as you can see the shade is less than opaque when the light is on. While this did allow for light to filter through the now painted lampshade, I was less than impressed by the visible paint stroke marks it also allowed. So I thought well I'll line the inner part of the shade. I wanted to make it a metallic finish to reflect the light bulb when the lamp was on.  My first thought was to use a silver leafing product. But after picking one up at Michael's I noticed that the sizing or glue was highly flammable. I didn't want to take any chances with the lightbulb so close to the silver lead, so I scrapped that idea.

After walking around the store looking for inspiration (some of the best ideas are born this way) I finally settled on using a foiled card stock paper I found in the scrap book paper section. Just my luck too it was on sale for $.99 a sheet. My thought was I could use some type of adhesive to adhere the paper to the inside of the shade. I picked up four just to make sure I had enough to make it all around the shade and rushed home to finish my lampshade. 

I pulled out this adhesive tape that I had picked up at a dollar store, did a dry fit on the lampshade and was just about to install it when the dangerous mind of a crafter took over. I thought I could install the paper and it would look just fine but what if I ran through my cricut.  I mean what can I lose a dollar?  I answered my own question by choosing a frilly pattern I had on an existing cartridge (picturesque) and made a test pattern. 

After screwing up one of the sheets, by using too small of a pattern, I realized that an oversized image would work best.

Here's how I installed it with the mounting tape.

Finally here's the result…

Now you don't even notice the brushstrokes. Not bad for a few dollars right? The cool thing is now I know I can change the look of any lamp I have with just paper.

Candle Meltdown

Do you ever notice how a candle seems to die before it's time? You know that time in between trying to relight it and finally giving up and throwing it away? Well since I have a deep disdain for waste of just about any kind, lately I found myself trying to extend the life of my candles.

 

I got the idea after purchasing quite a few of the scented wax melts on the market today. Sometime ago I had purchased one of those mini crockpots that I guess you're supposed to use to heat liquid potpourri (I picked up mine from the Goodwill for just a few dollars). So all I did was set the partially used candle inside of the crockpot and plug it in.

Before long it completely melted but scented the whole room.

I don't know how long the scent will last but longer than the candle burned anyway.

Pretty Pancake Muffins

Last weekend I had a craving for some pancakes but didn't really feel like standing over the skillet for half an hour. Then I remembered seeing quite a few recipe pins on Pinterest for pancake muffins. They all were quite similar using a pancake recipe or mix and baking the "pancakes" as muffins. I pulled out a mini Bundt pan that I had ( I'm sure I got this at the dollar store) and mixed up a batch of pancake batter. 

    Mini Bundt cake pan is 4" x 1.5" high

Of note, you could use a muffin pan or any small baking pan that you have.  This cute little pan that I have turned out to be the perfect size and shape for what I was looking for and even had an added benefit (i'll fill you in later). 

Onto the batter: I make mine from scratch just because I always have the ingredients on hand but you could use any pancake batter mix that you prefer.  

Here's a basic pancake recipe:

One cup of all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons of granulated sugar

2 teaspoons baking powder 

1 beaten egg

1 cup milk 

1 tablespoon cooking oil 

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon salt

Whisk all the dry ingredients together to remove any lumps and then add in the wet ingredients. Don't forget to add in some fun ingredients. I added one cup of (drained) pineapple tidbits to this batch but you could add in blueberries or even chocolate chips would be delicious. Just remember to drain any excess liquid or it might dilute the batter. I baked my muffins at 350° for 12 minutes. Your oven may vary so watch the muffins after 10 minutes to ensure they don't get over done.  Let it cool and then flip it out. And you're done!

And here's why my little bundt pan was perfect for this. The hole in the middle wound up being the perfect vessel for the syrup. Or skip the calories and skip the syrup entirely and give it a shake of powdered sugar.  How do you like my Pan-cake? Cute right? Can't you just see this at some fancy restaurant? Anyway so much easier than flipping pancakes for half an hour.

Last note:  I estimate this little bundt pan-cake was equivalent to about 2 to 2 1/2 pancakes.

Burda patterns on sale!

Quick post. I've been a sewer since eight years old. Then you grow up and life happens i.e. you have little time so  what you wind up doing is collecting patterns and hoarding fabric. Anyway I've been inspired by a recent course I took at Mood Fabrics in LA and I'm trying to develop a routine of sewing at least one garment a month. But I digress, supposed to be quick post. If you are a sewer like me you know that Burda patterns rarely if ever are on sale. Well to start off this Spring season magical things are happening.

At Joann's Burda patterns are on sale this month between April 16-18.  You can get any or all Burda patterns for only $2.49. So collect away this is a rare sighting!

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