Summer Outdoor Fun... Continued!

Okay, so I never said there would be a continuation of my previous blog post but it has been so amazing out at the front of our wee cottage since we knocked down the old vestibule/porch. We kept putting it off for so long thinking about what to replace it with when BAM... It hit us! (Well, hubby really though he claims it was my idea.) WHY REPLACE IT AT ALL?

Mind = blown. 

Moving on! We have basically now got a vintage-styled cottage garden at the front and are still reaping the benefits of having spent so much time on the back garden... Literally the best of both worlds! :) happy! 

Soooo, it hit me earlier that the back is the result of hard work and money, with a few exceptions on both counts. The front, however, is recycled, upcycled, thrifted, handmade JOY! And it's the most peaceful place ever to sit, too.

This blogpost will focus more in the individual decorative elements we made rather than the whole effect. We're still working on that! :) 

Here are some bottles I had collected. I love the Buddha ones as they were green (brand: lucky beer) but I really wanted them matt or shiny so the detail stood out. Cue a trip to halfords and the purchase of purple and oyster champagne spray paint. (We already had the silver.)

Next up was an old footstool I had in the spare room and we hadn't used for a while. It's got the perfect cushion cover to stencil or paint onto as it's a really thick and usefully neutral material. I used bright red fabric paint (just had a tiny jar, didn't need much!) and pritt-sticked the matryoshka stencils I bought in hobbycraft. The pritt stick is ok on fabric but you'll need to go slow and dab the paint while holding it a bit taut, rather than crazy brushing. 

Excuse the finger on the middle photo! :) 

Also, but massively not lastly, hubby made a table in a morning. Seriously, literally from 9.30 am until it was finished at 1! He had spare wood in the garage (insert own double entendre here...) and set about it. Needless to say his new table saw played a part in the construction. Happy hubby! :)

Summer Outdoor Fun!

Happy hot days, people! It's finally bursting out summer all over the place here in Scotland. Yay and also phew! Myself and my mr have been very busy in the garden clearing stuff away. He even found time to knock down our old, crumbling porch and it has just opened up the front so much. We almost need sunglasses to look at the white cottage walls! As usual, he does the practical stuff and I make it prettier! Ha Ha!

I've been painting old dining chairs and have nearly finished. I also use some - guess what? - chalkboard paint on some metal garden pots. Fun! 

And my summer feeeet! 

Wash Tape Fun!

I had a craft extravaganza this weekend. A craft-travaganza, if you will. :) I had been pinning and liking lots of things on Pinterest and decided to stop pinning and get crafting! I tried my hand at stripe colour-blocking and thought I'd decorate a thick cardboard cd box I got from Hobbycraft a while back. It was on sale and has a cute chalkboard paint bit at the front. CDs?! Pah... Sewing stash, more like! 

I used some washi tape to create areas I didn't want the paint on and quickly covered the lid in coral-coloured acrylic paint like so:

Then came the fun peeling bit... 

It's a bit like a Pinterest post I saw about making wall canvases from old shoebox lids but I resisted the temptation to stick it on the wall!

I added some measuring tape patterned washi tape round the edge of the box like so:

And here's the finished box, complete with handmade-by-me resin chrysanthemum glued on the front. What do you think?!

Card-spiration!

With the beautiful spring weather finally making its long-awaited arrival, it's time to get cracking and crafting! I've been reorganising my craft to-do list to make it easy and accessible and make it work for me. I'll blog about that later but meantime, I had two cards to make and I planned my time thanks to my new system!

The first is a card for a colleague who just had a baby boy. It's a different friend from my previous posts about handmade baby gifts but it sure was a cute coincidence they both had baby boys within a week or so of each other!

The second is an RSVP (as you can see!) to an evening wedding reception. I just wanted to keep it simple.

Both cards feature some lovely craft tape I got in the Pound Shop of all places. I got three rolls for guess how much?! Clue's in the title! ;)

And to the pictures...