Knock-off Archives • Vintage Revivals

Faux Taxidermy Part 1

Mandi — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 17:30:00 +0000

So we all are loving the antler/animal head trend right now right? I love it enough that I used antlers in my Christmas tree. This is taking it just a weeeeee bit further

Since I am sort of famous for my Anthro knockoffs you guys know that I could not pass up all of this awesomeness:

Now here is my disclaimer.
I have NEVER done anything like this before. So please be kind. I FREAKING LOVE how this all turned out…..
Here is what I did.

Really. That’s all you are going to get. I was learning as I went and so I don’t really feel qualified to write a tutorial on it. I started out with the front horn and snout and just sort of added to it. Maybe if I get lots of questions I can rebuild one….?

Next I mixed up a batch of paper mache. The trick is to make the paste thick like pancake batter. Tear your strips of newspaper (don’t cut them they leave harsh lines) and then go to town. I put about 3 layers on and then let it dry for a couple of days.
Once my Rhino was dry I Podged the crap out of it. I used pages from an old Readers Digest.

Now for the Mirror Mosaic.
I bought a 2×2 piece of wood at Home Depot for around $6.00. I used mirror that I had on hand and after a little bit of trial and error this is the best way that I have found to break the mirror without ending up with just shards.

Use a towel folded in half. Stick your mirror on it.

Fold your towel over and using something that has an edge (I used a candlestick) hit it hard enough to break it but not like its your neighbor whose cat keeps peeing on your back door. (that really has never happened to me, it would make me really mad though)

*The key is to use something that has an edge. A hammer will give you shards. Shards are bad. Shards are not your friend. Shards are your neighbors cat.

I am pointing to where I am going to attempt to hit the mirror. I don’t have a great aim, it’s a good thing that I am a girl…just sayin. (and yes my nails are nasty. get over it.)

Ba-BAM!

Then you piece it together. Like this:

And then you grout. Which I totally sucked at. FYI. Basically read the instructions and when it says to use a putty knife to float it. Just do it mmmmkay.

So what do you think?

Tomorrow I am going to be posting about how to make your own Antlers with Paper Mache Clay.

Did you notice my NEW Board and Batten?….

Don’t forget to watch Studio 5 tomorrow at 11 for you Utahns. And for you non-utahns I will post the clip as soon as I can!

P.S. When I opened my laptop I saw that my 7 year old Googled
“Math Second Grade 9-6-3=what”
Someone pray for me.

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87,592 Of These Fellows…..

Mandi — Sun, 28 Nov 2010 05:27:00 +0000

So what have you been doing today? Me…? Oh just some of this:

And more of this:

Oh and dont forget this:

The things we do for an AWESOME Tree!

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DIY Faux Fireplace

Mandi — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 07:04:00 +0000

WE ARE THE CRAFTING WITH THE STARS SEASON 1 CHAMPIONS!

I just need to start this post with a BIG FAT THANK YOU!

First of all to {Tam @ Sew Dang Cute Crafts} for coming up with the ingenious concept of Crafting With The Stars. I am so grateful that I had the chance to participate.

Second to {Becca @ Blue Cricket Design} for being the BEST Star partner that a girl could ask for.

Third to the other contestants for bringing your crazy skills and making me step up my creativity.

And fourth and MOST IMPORTANTLY….You! Thanks for cheering me on and voting! For all of your kind words and still liking my blog when there hasn’t been too many “Meaty” Posts. You are the best virtual friends that I could ask for! Now on to the Tutorial!

Mantle Surround:

So when I was trying to figure out what I could submit for the Christmas round at CWTS it took me a day or two to figure out exactly what I wanted to do. I was looking at blogs that inspire the crap out of me and {Ms. Funky Junk Donna} has been on my mind lately. Originally I was going to build the entire fireplace with pallet wood but….that just wasn’t {Thrift Shop Glam} enough.

As I was looking around my house for inspiration I saw {these} and it hit me like a ton of bricks. Cabinet Doors would be perfect! Now to find some….. Of course they didn’t have any at the thrift store. So I called a few cabinet shops to see if they had any left over from an uninstall or anything. One did. Drew’s Cabinets, they were so nice and I got 9 cabinet doors for $30.00. (If you live in St. George they still had some more.)

You will need 4 doors that are the same size and one smaller one to connect them.

I started off by washing them and priming them with Kilz Spray Primer. Then I used the only kind of spray paint that I will use Krylon. In Classic White.

Their nozzle is by far the best. Their coverage is by far the best. Their true-ness to cap colors are by far the best. Their price is….well you know where this is going. After a couple of coats and adequate drying time I glazed them with my BPF (Best Paining Friend) Ralph Lauren Faux Glaze in Black Silk. I used my {Flat Surface Glazing Technique} and this is what they looked like:

Now is the fun part. I went to Home Depot and bought some L brackets and Straps (I think that’s what they are called) Then….ALL.BY.MYSELF without my husband I used 2 of the doors and had them meet at a right angle. I put the edge of the back piece on the backside of the front. Then all I did next was screw 3 L brackets on each corner (top, middle, bottom) and then I did it to the other side. (Sorry no pics.)

Once they were securely in place I laid them down with the front sides on the ground and put my middle piece in between. I used the metal straps (4) and secured the center piece to each of the side pieces. Stand her up and she now looks like this:

Pallet Hearth:

At about this time Macho was getting home from work….hee hee hee. So outside we went to work on the pallet wood hearth. Before he got home I sanded the crap out of it so that little toesies wouldn’t get slivers. I put his muscles to work pulling the pieces off the back and by the time I got back with my camera he was already to this point:

Good job honey! I decided that I wanted the hearth to be about 4 inches longer on each side than the mantle surround and it magically worked out that way with the wood. Some things are just meant to be I think. Long story short, he cut down the long support boards, nailed the short boards between the ones that were on the top side already, and put a short board on each end. I need to do something to the wood to make it look finished but not new, so I went to Home Depot and got Minwax Paste Finishing Wax ($9.00). Its basically, well, wax that you rub onto the wood with a soft cloth, It kind of brightens it up without making it look unnatural. Its perfect for pieces that you want raw wood.

Painting The Background:

So whilst Macho was slaving away in the cold night I was nice and warm in the house painting the silver and white harlequin background.

Get your gear. I LOVE Americana Gloss Enamels Paints. They are really thick and glossy and don’t have that uber matte finish that regular acrylic paints have. I just dry brushed it onto my board so that it was streaky and oldish.

There are quite a few different techniques on painting Harlequin Diamonds…most include math. Not happening on Vintage Revivals. So I cut a diamond shape out of some plastic folders I had left over from my {Seizure Wall} and used Krylon Easy-Tack Spray Adhesive to hold it in place.

Then I stenciled Deco Art Dazzling Silver around the edges of the diamond:

(The white is where the pattern was, you can see on the top row how its only covering the edges, once all 4 edges were painted on I filled in the center) Looking back I should have drawn lines to vertically line the diamonds up….but I didn’t and they ended up getting a little wonky the last row…. no big deal to me but to those who might be a perfectionist, potential melt down moment.

Mantle Shelf:

This is where Donna @ Funky Junk comes into play. Have you seen her {mantle}? It is awesome! I knew I wanted the chunkified-ness and rusticallity (not a real words) of hers.

For the top of the mantle I used some super old 4×4’s that I got from my husbands Grandma. We (meaning Macho) cut them so they were 3″ longer than the cabinet doors on each side. Then we used L brackets and straps to mount them to the cabinet doors and to the studs in the wall.

How many of you have husbands that flat out say they dont like something? In normal circumstances mine is very open about his opinions but when it comes to my “decorating skills” he just repeats the same things like for the mantle top he just kept saying “its really thick.” and then I would say “I love it, its perfect!” and then he would say “ya but its really thick….” LOL oh husbands they are just the best, right?

To light it up I just put 2 bunches of white Christmas lights in the corners, so simple and so pretty. I have plans to put something on the sides of the background connecting it to the front of the fireplace but I have too much going on to do it this week. When I do I will post an update.

Check back tomorrow for a full tutorial on how to make a {Miss Mustard Seed} inspired book page garland!

UPDATE: Here is the link for the {Book Page Lighted Garland}

Linking Up at the parties on my sidebar and the DIY Club Nov. project party

worth $1,500! Bring your projects too!

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Anthropologie Acid Mirror

Mandi — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 15:03:00 +0000

There have been a few versions floating around blogland of how to make mirrors like this:

This was my inspiration:

The issue that I have with most of the tutorials are the mirrors are just completely gone in spots. Theres no color variation, no depth. This is the difference:

This mirror was done using oven cleaner:

See how ALL of the reflective coating is gone?

These are what some done with acid look like:

Much better right?

So heres how to do it.

You will need:

Neoprene Gloves
Jasco Brand Paint and Epoxy Remover
Muratic Acid
Old Shirt or Carpet (So that your mirror doesnt get scratched)
Possibly a scraper.

Ok so first you want to lay your mirrors out face down on a surface that cant be damaged by the paint remover.

PUT ON YOUR GLOVES!!!

Pour some of the psint remover onto the back of the mirror and with your hand gently spread it around so that the entire surface is covered.

Wait 15 minutes.

In an ideal world every mirror would do this:

and that would turn into this:

but it doesnt always work that way. If your paint doesnt bubble then you will have to scrape it off. I use a floor scraper (I think thats what its called) with a razor blade on the end. I hold the mirror still and my husband Macho slowly scrapes the paint off. This will work just as well but it will take a little more work.

Once you have taken the paint off the back take your mirrors somewhere that you can wash them off with the hose (empty lots next door work great or the curb.) Then dry it off. The back will look pretty much like the front of the mirror.

WASH OFF YOUR GLOVES, BUT STILL KEEP THEM ON!

Next you are going to bust out the Muratic acid. If you do not have any at your house you can get it at Home Depot. It is a chemical that they use to clean swimming pools so it will be by that stuff. As far as I know you can only buy it in boxes with (2) 1 gallon jugs. Its about $11.00.

Pour some acid into a spray bottle and spray around the edges of your mirror. IMPORTANT! Each mirror is different! If you have compromised (scratched) the surface of the reflective coating then the acid will work faster so be prepared!

After 10 seconds wash off the acid with your hose and see if it has started to work. If it hasnt put more on and wait a little longer, keep doing this until you get the style that you like. If it has make sure that it is the effect that you want. There was one mirror that I did for this project and the acid worked instantly and pretty much ate all of the reflective coating away (its the small rectangular red one on the left side). If your acid isnt working then you can gently take a piece of sand paper and sand the coating a little. If you do it too much then it will look scratchy and not eaten. Basically dont be afraid to wash the acid off and let it work slowly. You can always take more off but you cant get it back! You will notice after the first time you wash it off what is going to happen. If it comes off in big reflective flakes when you put water on it but didnt seem to be doing anything until you rinsed it off BEWARE it will be gone extremely fast. If you can start to see it eating away at the coating before you rinse it but it hasnt made it through all of it let it sit a little longer and you will get a mirror with more color variation.

This is a mirror that the acid slowly ate away. You can see parts where the stripes from the stool are starting to show through.

A great way to see what it looks like is to lay it on the grass. You can see the places that are gone really well.

Once you have done this the rest is CAKE!

Use your favorite spray adhesive on the back of the mirror and lay your fabric right side down on top of it. Cut it to shape and put it in your frame.

Hope this makes sense!

Feel free to leave a comment or email me with any questions!

UPDATE:
A reader just informed me that mirrors that are made before 1941 can have mercury in them. 90% of the mirrors that I do have to be cut for the frames, so I dont worry about it too much BUT if for any reason you think that your mirror might be close that that era. DO NOT RISK IT. Just have another piece cut. You and I will both sleep better at night!

{To see the best glazing technique ever click here}

To see part 2 of this project click here

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Awesome-fied Desk and Mirrors

Mandi — Tue, 02 Nov 2010 15:03:00 +0000

I hope that everybody had a chance to go and check out the Crafting With The Stars entries this round. They were in a word INSANE! Every.single.one of them. This was my entry:

This is a little desk area in my 7 year old daughters room. I found the desk at the DI for $5.00. I peed a little when they told me that’s how much it was……cause I was so excited!

It needed a TON of work though.

There were HUGE gouges in the top and the veneer was peeling off of the drawers. But I thought she was Beautiful!!

Kind of sick right?

I started by peeling off the veneer on the places where is was chipping (the arch at the bottom of the drawers and the middle drawer) Then I used drywall putty and covered the entire spot. Once that was dry I lightly sanded the entire desk down.

And then I sanded the top more heavily with an electric sander to remove some of the scratches. (don’t forget to leave some character ladies!)

Once all of the sanding was finished I wiped it down with a wet rag and primed it with Kilz Spray Primer. (It took 1 and 1/4 cans) Then I went to bed. (which is why there are no pics)

The color I used is my favorite red ever. Its Krylon Banner Red. It has more of a orange undertone than pink. The best advice that I can give regarding spray paint is make sure (especially on the first coat) that its light. There is no way that you should even attempt to cover everything in one or 2 coats, you will just get a drippy mess.

Next comes the LOVE of my life (besides my hubs) Ralph Lauren Faux Glaze in Black Silk. You can see my glazing technique {here}and {here}

Glazing is really easy to do on heavily carved pieces, because there are lots of nooks and crannies to stick to. A piece like this desk is a little harder because its almost 100% flat. So I am going to show you my technique to glaze a flat surface.

Get your gear! I use an old t shirt with 1/2 of it wet. My glaze and one of the $.99 crappy brushes from Home Depot.

Start by putting the glaze in whatever crack you do have.

now here is the tricky part. Wipe it in the opposite direction from your edge ONLY! No swirling, no wiping back and forth, no down the crack, nothin. It will just pull all of your glaze out and you will have to start over. Like this:

It will leave glaze in your minute crevice. Here is another example:

For the drawers I spread a small amount of glaze on the whole surface (concentrating on places that had cracks and dings.) Then I really lightly wipe it off. (picture the way the the 4th grade lunchroom workers would wipe a table off)

I loved the tarnished brass handles but the drawers needed a little updating so I moved them from the middle of the drawer to the top. Its a simple change but I think made a huge difference!

And there you go!

Now if you want to learn the {Anthropologie Acid Mirror Technique Click Here!}

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Anthropologie Teapot Lamp

Mandi — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 06:05:00 +0000

So for Crafting With The Stars this week I knew I was going to have to make my own Anthro Lamp. I love this “One Lump or Two” fellow. The teacups and teapot are so whimsical and totally my style! My knockoff turned out WAY better than the original. So heres how to do it yourself!Ok people, when I saw this lamp a few months back on Anthropologie I knew I was going to have to bust it out.

Apparently, I needed a special occasion. Enter “Crafting With The Stars”.

The Anthro version retails for $198.00, the grand total for mine? $31.99 and most of that was for the drill bit.

Any knick knack that you have will work, you can have a crazy awesome lamp for FREE. It’s genius I tell you….. GENIUS!! Muah haha ha ha (lightning bolts crashing and me with crazy hair, cause you know that I haven’t changed my ponytail for 2 days.)

OK so how many of you knew that this project from “Crafting With The Stars” was mine?

Do you love it? Do you want to make your own completely interchangeable lamp? Well good cause I am going to teach you!

So you need to start by rounding up a bunch of dishes, knick knacks, basically random stuff that YOU LOVE! This is a lamp that you are designing, so make it yours!

FIGURING OUT YOUR LAYOUT

I tried about 87 thousand ways before I knew exactly how I wanted my lamp layout to be. Here are some that didn’t fly:

Once you get it figured its time to start drilling!

DRILLING YOUR JUNK

The type of drill bit that you need is one like this:

I got mine at Homie D’s for $18.00 (EXPENSIVE! I almost slapped the guy when he suggested it…..but so worth it) Mine is only the 1/2″ bit.

DO NOT BUY ONE LIKE THIS: This is what I originally bought but it wore out after 1 plate.

SO SO SO IMPORTANT!

You MUST use water to keep your drill bit cool while you are drilling. Otherwise it will ruin your bit. For instance I put as much water as the underside of each dish would hold. You can also pour it on as you are drilling if it is on a surface that wont hold any water.

Also, don’t put a ton of pressure on the item that you are drilling, let the drill just grind through it. If you put too much pressure when it goes through the other side you most likely will break something….:(

Start with your drill bit as parallel as possible to your surface:

Slowly start drilling while firmly holding the drill in place (cause its going to start to dance like Derek Hough) Once it gets through the hardened glaze it will not move and you can drill at full speed.) It will start to look like this:

Keep drilling and SLOWLY while you are drilling move your drill into a perpendicular position with your surface (the way you would drill into anything normally)

At this point your hole should look like this:

Just keep drilling and move your drill into a normal drilling position. You can kind of start to feel when its getting close to breaking through the other side, it will catch a little and BAM your through. So that I didn’t damage the surface that I was drilling on I used a teacup underneath to catch all of the water, and the core that you are drilling out. Also it protects your surface:

And this is where you will end up:

Also you may have notices in the teacup of remains larger bits of cuteness. When you are drilling through the tops of lids (mine were on my Teapot and Sugar Bowl) make sure that you drill from the underside and it will just take most if not all of the handle. If not I bet you could just “sand” it on your concrete or something.

REVAMPING

Sometimes whilst thrifting you find something that has major potential but needs a little love. This is what I did:

I found this Teapot at TJ Maxx for $9.99, Its not bad at all but it needed a little Vintage Revivals Jazz.

I used this vinyl tree branch:

And stuck it on my Teapot. Its not perfect but as long as the edges were sealed I wasn’t too concerned.

I think that its kind of cute just like that. Then I took it outside and sprayed it with Krylon Classic Gray. Then I took a razor blade and carefully traced it along all of the edges. You have to be super careful while you are peeling it off because paint will come off ceramic pretty easily. I found also that if you start at the tips and peel toward the center it works much more smoothly….

Originally I was going to Gorilla Glue everything together but as I was disassembling a lamp that I just put a new lamp kit on I decided to use its innards.

ASSEMBLING YOUR LAMP

You will need a lamp kit (about $5.99 @ Wally’s)

A threaded rod which can be found at Home Depot, and some washers.

Get your gear:

(The top of the rod is cut off in his picture)

Start by feeding your wiring through your base (bowl):

**In these pictures I used a lamp weight. You DO NOT need this. I actually took mine off the lamp. Thought I should clear that up since its in the pictures….

Next you will feed it through the hole at the bottom of your rod:

Feed it all the way through so that it comes out the top:

Now feed your bowl onto the rod and make sure that its all good underneath:

Now stack your dishes or whatever you are putting on your lamp. You need to make sure that when its all stacked up it is tall enough that it will pull the weights to the top of your base so that it is all held in tightly. (You will have to hold the weights up with your hand until you get your socket screwed on.)

Most light kits come with different size rubber washers. You can use them if you need a filler to hold your weights up. I didn’t have to use them on mine but they would be awesome.

Before you put your light socket on make sure you but the harp holder on….not that I did it in the wrong order or anything…..

Assemble your wiring according to the manufacturers instructions.

When you pick up your lamp it should be tight and not move. If it does then you need to add one of the rubber washers that came with your lamp or change out some of your junk to make it taller. Make sense?

Tada! You have just made an AWESOME Anthropologie Knock Off Lamp! Congrats!

Now here is the genius part.

Because you didn’t glue anything together EVERYTHING is interchangeable! How cute would it be to have a Halloween themed one with pumpkins, some spell books, a jar of candy, and a little witch hat at the top? Or one that is made out of birds? This is a variation that I made with some things that I had around my house:

p.s. I am addicted to skeleton shades right now.

Here are a few more pictures:

If you make a lamp PLEASE let me know I would LOVE to Feature you!

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Teacup Clock

Mandi — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 18:55:00 +0000

This has been the longest project of my life. I have been working on it off and on since april. It just wasn’t ever right.
Do you brilliant minds ever have stuff like this?
But finally it got done. I wish I could say that I as the creative genius behind it but alas I am not. Erika @ Retropolitan Hip is. Her blog is awesome and she is my partner in crime in many an idea/business venture. She is probably the funniest person that I know and I love her so much! The inspiration piece:

Cute right? Its like $400.00 from Umbra

This lovely is Erika’s version:

And this is mine:

The teacups were all found at antique stores, thrift stores, or TJ Maxx.

So do you want to make one too? Here are the steps:

1. FIND A CRAPLOAD OF CUPS! I have probably 6 more sets that I didn’t use. You have to play with them and get them in the right spots so that it flows. It would be much easier if you were only doing a few colors but who likes to do things the easy way???! pfssh not this girl. After you have it set up the way you want number them!!! That way you wont forget!!

2. I got the wood at Homie D’s. It was months ago so I don’t remember how much I spent. Its just particle board. I stuck a pin in the board and attached a string and pencil to it and drew a circle. Then I had Macho cut it out for me.

3. I modpodged paper onto it. I hated it. So then I modpodged tissue paper onto it. eeeh. So then I painted it white. Much better.

4. Of course I covered the center mark. Awesome. I had to rediscover the center so I measured the width and marked the center point at a few different angles and it looked like this:

Then Macho drilled a hole for the clock mechanism. I just used one off a clock that I already had but I am sure you can buy stuff if you want to go the “expensive” route…ha ha ha.

5. I used Gorilla Glue Epoxy to epoxy all of the teacups to the saucers and then the saucers to the wood. Seriously this is the strongest stuff on earth. period. end of story. Dont even try to use something else…you may regret it.

6. Then I had Macho mount it to the wall. This thing is freakin heavy. I was kind of worried about it falling off and killing someone so I had him screw it directly through the clock face into a stud. Then I painted the screw and you cant even tell.

There you have it! This treasure cost less than $50.00 and I LOVE it!

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