Crafting Archives » UrbanDomesticDiva

CRAFT: Upcycled Bottle and Beaded Wire Hummingbird Feeder

Flora Caputo — Sat, 13 Apr 2019 15:13:00 +0000

We have been trying to entice hummingbirds to our property for years, and it has only been recently since I have been putting more native flowers in the garden, that I have been seeing them. I was hoping to make some homemade nectar and a glittery, pretty feeder using materials on hand to lure them closer to the house. I am hoping this feeder does the trick! It is super easy to make! See below for my how-to video. All you need is an old glass bottle, various gauge wire, a feeding spout, and some beads.

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CRAFT: Upcycled Bottle and Beaded Wire Hummingbird Feeder

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CRAFT and VIDEO: Make a Large Leaf Cement Birdbath with Quickrete Quick Set Cement

Flora Caputo — Sat, 23 Mar 2019 18:10:00 +0000

You may have seen this garden project all over the interwebs. I have always wanted to try it myself, and as the weather is warming up, my attention has turned to garden projects. This one has been on my list for quite a while.

Cement is a messy endeavor, just check out my garden stepping stone video. It’s also quite labor intensive. The crappy paper bags of cement are always leaking all over my trunk, making things dusty and gravelly. And they are pretty heavy to drag to and from the store and car let alone pour into a bucket or wheelbarrow. I am not saying I will stop making cement garden projects, but I was looking at using the smaller bucket of quick-set cement for this little project. I wanted to see if it worked better for smaller, more detailed shaped and molded projects. As it turned out, this quick-set cement does start firming up quickly, within 5-10 minutes, but is still workable. It acts almost like clay or play-dough at that point, which I was able to shape into a cylindrical base with my hands and plop onto the back of the birdbath, as well as work and shape the cement onto the back of my leaf mold.

In my research, I discovered another product called Shapecrete, which takes the shaping and molding of cement’s ability one step further. It seemed I could only get it online, so I couldn’t try it for this project. But the quick-set worked wonders, and I only needed half of a 10 lb. bucket for this project, so I have enough saved for another project. I still waited for 20-24 hours to unmold it and paint it, and it does take about a month to FULLY cure, so keep that in mind when planning this project. I worked on it now so come garden planting time, my birdbath will be ready.

There is something fulfilling about working with cement-as a woman, I guess. I grew up with my father being a cement mason and a contractor/business owner. I always equated cement with material that was too messy, too labor intensive and too hard to use for “meek women”. So when I get my gloves on and mix cement, and make it work for ME, I feel pretty damn proud of myself. So you go get ’em, tiger. Make the cement work for you, too. It is pretty versatile, and its strength can work really hard for us in our gardens and yards. The sky is the limit for cement garden creations.

I have a how-to video below for you, but here is a list of supplies:

Quickrete Quick-Set Cement, about half a 10 lb. tub for this size leaf

A large leaf with heavy veining on the back

Sand

Cardboard to cover your work surface

Plast garbage bag cut in half, you will use both

vaseline or cooking spray

Mixing sticks

Tub for cement mixing

Cement acrylic fortifier

Water and plastic cup for measuring

Gloves

Plastic Knife

Outdoor Acrylic paint or cement paint

Chip brush

AFTER CURING

Sealer to be put on after it is fully cured (optional)

Baking soda and cider vinegar for rinsing down before allowing wildlife on it (after sealer is cured, if using)

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CRAFTS: Make A Holiday Wreath Using Found Twigs and Branches VIDEO

Flora Caputo — Sun, 09 Dec 2018 00:17:00 +0000

I’ve been trying to purge and simplify our lives, little by little. I am tackling a closet a week, and a room a month. I try to clean out, give away, sell, and reorganize each pile of flotsam. It’s a great feeling-but fair warning, it’s often darkest before the dawn. My closet and bedroom are still in chaos after a major purge this month. I just mailed in a big THREDUP bag today, and I just can’t seem to make headway. Just when I get things under control, a holiday comes along to create a cluttered

mess again.

And now, enter Christmas.

I decided to not put all my decorations out and started throwing away stuff that I found broken or too shabby out of the storage bins in an effort to keep the clutter down. I also decided that to replace thrown out things I would try and use found objects or repurpose what I already had to be more thrifty and green. Fortunately, Mother Nature seemed to be keen on the idea and gave me a plethora of broken twigs and branches after a big wind storm this month. The mess inspired me to use them in outdoor holiday decor this year. Boy, was that the thrifty way to go! I created woodland topiary decor in my two urns, and a matching wreath with all the branches I salvaged. I am so pleased how it turned out, and so is my pocketbook!

Give it a try! And next time you feel the need to go to the store for some decorations, I urge you to take a look around your house first and see if it sparks any creativity. It’s very rewarding, I assure you!

Here is a picture of the urns. Pretty fancy for found branches! I had the plastic holly in a bin that I hadn’t used in years.

Here is a very lean supply list for the wreath with a video tutorial. Stop by the youtube channel and subscribe to stay up on all the shenanigans at the homestead!

Supplies:

Found twigs and branches, varied widths and 2-3 feet in length, about 20-30

wire cutters

1-2 wire hangars

bendable floral wire

decor for wreath; ribbons, dried berries, leaves, pine cones, beads

Possible hot glue gun

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CRAFTS: How to Make Mosaic Wall Art with a Fish Design

Flora Caputo — Sat, 04 Aug 2018 01:39:00 +0000

Mosaics are a big thing around here. If I suddenly get inspired and can glue ceramic pieces to a surface, watch out, it’s getting some mosaics. When Fathers day rolled around, I finally decided to make my husband a gift of a brown trout out made out of mosaics to hang on our deck wall outside. It’s a project I’ve been meaning to do for him, and needless to say, he was very surprised.

To start the project, I neede a decent sized base. One day at the thrift store, I saw a giant metal plate. I thought it would be perfect for this piece. For outdoor pieces, I recommend metal or stone bases. Wood tends to not weather well, causing a lot of cracking in the grout on top of it. The issue with metal is its slick surface. So you need to rough up the surface with some steel wool and use silicone glue for adhering your pieces. As far as what I used as mosaics, I did a combo of broken plates, traditional square mosaic bits, jewelry beads (especially for the dots on the brown trout fish) and leftover stained glass scraps a friend of mine gave me. Beads are great fun, and you can find some great inspiration in the clearance bins at the craft stores.

You can use anything, really, to mosaic an outdoor piece, as long as it isn’t porous. Wooden beads would not work, but glass, plastic and ceramic work great.

Below is a how-to video I created so you can create some mosaic wall art for your favorite person! I have a few mosaic projects on my youtube channel so check them out. I really want to teach others how easy and creative this craft can be. It really makes your outdoor space quite unique. And when you offer one as a gift, it’s something that comes from the heart and lasts a long time.

So go get that hammer and start breaking some plates!

It’s cheaper than therapy.

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CRAFTS: Make a Mosaic Garden Planter for Succulents using Broken China

Flora Caputo — Tue, 22 May 2018 23:06:00 +0000

It’s garden time! I have spent any warm dry day I can in the garden beds this month. It has been a late spring, so we have to pack in a lot of chores in a very truncated time frame. It’s been a ton of work, but I have been so happy doing it. I can really get my creative juices flowing and get a good arm workout too.

I have been hoping this year to work more with succulents, especially succulents that can come back year after year. Our cottage in MI needs some low maintenance garden love, and I think succulents are just the ticket in select areas. One of my ideas is to use a variety of deep, interesting container pots holding some unique succulents set up on display sitting on some existing decking around trees on the slope of my yard. I decided to use mosaics to add color and interest to what would normally be a boring area of the yard. Container pots can get expensive, and so can mosaic tiles. And, well, my budget is tight this year so my solution has been…..thrifting!

Yup. I found this deep metal pot or umbrella stand (above) at the Goodwill, and also found dollar plates to add to my mosaic supplies which I break with a hammer under some throwaway towels (wearing goggles). The pot was 6 dollars. Usually deep, large pots are in the double digits at the big box stores. Thrift shops are a cheap and creative way to get some unique planting pots for your yard. I’ve used colanders, watering cans, bird cages. Don’t be shy, and have fun with it.

This planter needed drain holes, so keep that in mind if you thrift something to use that is not typically a plant pot. And you have to know what surface you are working with when mosaicing your pot. To glue mosaics on to metal you need silicone glue. If this was a terra cotta or stone pot, you can use bathroom tile adhesive.

The step by step how-to is below! Give you garden splashes of color with mosaics and cool upcycled pots-and you will be the talk of your next garden walk. I promise.

Also, if you like this video, I update my channel every Friday with either a kitchen basic or a lengthier recipe or craft project. Please subscribe to my channel. The ad dollars help support the blog and provide the supplies I need to keep sharing the “homestead love”.

Peace!

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CRAFTS: How to Easily Make Cement Mosaic Stepping Stones for your Garden

Flora Caputo — Mon, 30 Apr 2018 18:24:00 +0000

SCREEEEEECH! (in glee)

It’s 70 degrees today in Chicago! 70!

I have my seedlings out hardening, I took my power walk this morning w/o a winter coat, my hubby was prepping our veggie garden, my Magnolia tree is beginning to bloom!

Good lord this winter seemed like forever. And I have been itching to get in the yard and one of the things I did when garden planning, while it snowed outside, was started some garden projects. One big one was these mosaic stepping stones. Many people make these just for decor, but I really need to create a walkway through our garden at the cottage in MI. I need them to actually do their job, but I figured, why not make them pretty? The area is on a steep slope and currently chalk full of poison ivy. I need to make about 10 of these guys, so on a blustery, slightly chilly day, my sister and I got started. The brightly colored bits of porcelain and beads we used chased away the grey and the chill. These are very easy to make, the how-to video is below.

One thing I found, concrete is hard to mix. I have a new found appreciation for my father-a cement mason. We used a 60 lb bag of Quickcrete (and ladies, get your strong man in the hood to help you pull it out of your car, I pulled my back when doing this! Fair warning.) and we divided it as we mixed it. I think when doing that, you don’t have an even amount of materials for the right cement consistency-meaning sand to rock. SO do the whole bag and move fast, or find another product (which I will be researching). But cement challenges aside, I am very pleased with how these turned out. You can use any old mold…cake pans, plastic dish tubs. The key is to not shake them too much to get the cement to settle, otherwise, cement gets under the pieces that you place upside down on the bottom. You need to “grease up” your mold, too. I used generic vaseline, but I read WD-40 or even cooking spray can work. You’ll need contact paper for the bottom to do your piecework, and lots of tiles, broken plates, beads, colored glass, even buttons will give you enough to work with. And don’t forget hardware cloth-or you can use chicken wire too. You place it halfway up to act as “rebar” for your piece-so it won’t crack with pressure or changing temperatures.

Well, 3 down, 7 more to go! I need to get my hammer out and break some more old plates.

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CRAFTS: Chalk Paint and Wax Salvaged Cabinet Make Over

Flora Caputo — Thu, 15 Mar 2018 14:23:00 +0000

I’ve lived in the city of Chicago for years, and I am not ashamed to say I am a dumpster diver. I am very selective of what will pull me out of my car in an alley to pull some treasure out of someone’s garbage or back gate, but if you have a good eye and are fast, you can find some great furniture for nothing!

Case in point:

My neighbor has been slowly cleaning out her house to move, and I had been eyeing her back gate for antique, well-worn furniture that I could makeover for weeks. My patience rewarded me one day when I saw a worn out, scratched up cabinet. But the “bones” were strong and the cabinet door needed some simple woodworking repair to make right. I totally wanted to grab it. I was with my teen daughter, taking her to school, and I know she would have been mortified if I jumped out and threw it in my trunk. So I said to myself, if it is still there when I get back home, it’ll be kismet. I’ll grab it. You have to move fast in the city. You are fighting with other crafters, not to mention the metal scavengers with their ramshackle pickups that troll the alleys for stuff. They are fast. Once one of the members of my staff was spray painting a metal cabinet downtown for our office makeover in the alley behind our building. The guy painting it ran upstairs to get something-just for a minute. By the time he ran back down he saw the cabinet on the move on the back of someone’s scavenger truck, with the spray can still on top. REALLY!

So when I came back home from school drop off and the cabinet was still there, I grabbed it. I had been looking for a replacement for our end table that we bought cheaply at Target, with a lot of water damage on top. This was going to be perfect, and once I painted it the Tuscan red I was using as accents in the living room, it was going to be fantastic.

Some wood glue, chalk paint, elbow grease, and furniture wax later, VOILA. Hubby loved it. We use the cabinet to store books, notebooks, and magazines. I think it used to hold vinyl records. I kept the vintage hardware on it, but feel free to look for new hardware to spruce up your salvaged piece. There is such fun hardware out there, from Anthropologie, Joanne Fabrics, or Wayfair.

Here is a how-to video on restoring and making over an old antique table/cabinet. Don’t be afraid of throwing treasures in YOUR trunk. It keeps stuff out of landfills and saves money.

Just do it for the good stuff! You can leave the junk for the metal scavenger trucks.

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CRAFTING: Old Lamp Makeover with Chalk Paint and Embroidered Lamp Shade (how-to video)

Flora Caputo — Mon, 19 Feb 2018 16:32:00 +0000

Old Lamp Makeover

Anybody that has growing children knows that kids grow out of stuff, and not just clothes; but toys, interests, and room decor. When my daughter’s age went into the double digits, she wanted to trade the pastel blues and greens of her bedroom (with Hello Kitty mural hand-painted by yours truly) for an edgy black, white, and orange teen room. Sadly that meant I had to retire some really nice Pottery Barn decor, including a charming lamp.

I resisted putting it on eBay, and it was taking up room in my closet. So when we bought our cottage lake home fixer-upper, I decided to pull out that forgotten lamp and give it a makeover for the cottage guest room so it would match. I chalk painted the base and bought an inexpensive shade at Target. I added flair by doing some embroidery right on the shade to give it some floral favor to match the guest room bedding. It turned out beautifully and took just a weekend to finish.

If you ever find a great lamp base at a thrift store but it looks dated-don’t fret. With a coat of paint and a new shade and you can have some great lighting on a budget!

Check out my how-to video below, complete with some embroidery stitching tutorials. And if you want to stay up on my crafting and upcycling projects, subscribe to my youtube channel. I update bigger projects on Fridays and do kitchen basic videos midweek. Subscribing helps to get more eyeballs on my stuff and support my efforts so I can keep on sharing digital love.

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CRAFTS: Easily Up-cycle and Reupholster an Old $8 Thrift Store Chair (VIDEO)

Flora Caputo — Tue, 17 Oct 2017 15:25:00 +0000

Have you shopped for chairs lately? Geeze-a-loo! They are a couple hundred bucks a chair! If you want to seat at least 6 people, then add a nice sized table with leaves, you are looking at a lot of money. Add to the fact that sometimes these pieces of furniture aren’t even real wood, it just adds insult to injury. That is why I often by vintage, thrift, second-hand Craig’s list or antique fairs for furniture. In the rare case, we have enough money to buy good furniture, we try and buy it rarely and from good stores. Our bed we bought at Marshall Fields (Yeah, I am dating myself) and it is a stunning 4 poster bed made of real mahogany. That bed will outlast both of us.

Thrift stores are great for accent chairs. It is rare you can actually find a set of 4, let alone more, to fill a dining room, but it can happen. You just need to know which ones get them more regularly. This chair I purchased for $8 at a Salvation Army. The wood was solid, and the seat was disgusting but I was going to recover it anyway. Always look on the bottom to make sure the seats can easily get unscrewed and popped out for recovering. Also, looking at the bottom to detect any cracks, marks or defects on the legs of the frame is important. I was so excited by this find. I had been wanting a pretty accent chair to sit in my bay window area of our bedroom.

Your next two stops after purchasing a chair like this are the hardware store and the fabric store.

Measure your seat for fabric, imagine an overhang to fold under, and if you plan on adding more cushion with fiberfill, add a few more inches. You may be able to get away with a piece from the scrap bin, depending, so check there first. If using fiberfill, get the appropriate amount. If using upholstery seating foam, measure the right size to fit the seat and get it cut by a clerk.

Next off to the hardware store. I get “restore a finish” found in the paint section, and it is a great brew to shine up and revive old varnished wood to their original glory. Only use this if you are happy enough with the wood condition and color of your piece. Also, if your seat is missing any screws on the bottom, be sure to get more. Also on your shopping list, make sure you have enough carpenter staples for your staple gun.

That’s it. After that, you are ready to rock. Honestly, you can get this project done in a couple of hours. I think all said and done, this chair cost me 25 bucks? A far cry from $200. And it’s real wood with a vintage charm all it’s own.

To see the step by step how to, here is my “Fridays with Flora” video installment. If this project is pretty cool and you don’t want to miss anymore, subscribe to my youtube channel. I update a “Fridays with Flora” episode weekly, and also pepper in some other fun stuff throughout the month depending on what is going on at the homestead!

Here ya go!

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CRAFTING: How-To Chalk Paint an Old Mirror using Clear Wax and Brown Wax (VIDEO)

Flora Caputo — Wed, 23 Aug 2017 20:43:00 +0000

If you have visited the blog often enough, or follow my Instagram or Pinterest boards, you will see my new found crafting obsession is chalk paint. It’s opened up a whole other world for me as it relates to furnishing my home and finding thrifting treasures. Chalk paint is a super easy way to upcycle decor and furniture. No sanding or stripping is necessary. So that 5 dollar dresser painted 70’s orange can be yours with some new hardware, a few coats of chalk paint and a waxing. The same holds true for wooden or laminate lamp bases, magazine racks, shelves..and of course…mirrors.

This mirror was found in the back of a closet at our lake cabin, completely out of place and filthy. Also on the back of the mirror, I found handwriting that said: “stolen from Mr. Pacente.” Now you know there is a story behind this old mirror!

Crazy, right? Who knows how long this mirror was in the closet?

Well, the mirror was heavy, and seemed valuable and well made, but did not go with any decor of my rooms. So a coating of antique lace with clear and brown wax (to age it) did the trick. It’s not hard. Just watch the video and see!

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