We Made Our Own Polishes!! Hugely Picture Heavy Post.

Whoop! This is so exciting. My mother and I managed to get hold of some suspension base, and glitters, pigments, micas, dyes. And. We. Went. To. Town.

It was so much fun, setting up testers, finding out what worked and what didn’t, jumping around in excitement when we took the polishes with holographic shimmers and glitters outside into the sunshine. (hah, what am I saying? Almost all of them had some type of holo shimmer, glitter, or Spectraflair!). These are the four we liked the best – two from each of our tests. We made two bottles of each colour, one bottle for each of us 😀 So, very picture heavy post!

Green Opal. Two thick coats on it’s own. It’s sheer, and subtle, but very pretty with the green shimmer and holo glitters.

Two coats – indirect light. Sorry about the yellow nails, that’s me not the polish! Wear base coats with green polish, people.

Slow dry time, esp without top coat.

Under light – shows the green pearl sheen nicely 🙂

One coat of Green Opal over One coat of Kleancolor White (which was streaky in every layering mani, self-levels like a one-legged tripod. Sigh.)

Two coats of Green Opal over White. very pretty, still very subtle – but hides the streaks in the white, nicely.

One thick coat of Green Opal over Kleancolor Black. WOW, look at that change!

Full hand photo, to show what it looks like at arms length 🙂

Because our hands are, most often, at arms length, right?!

Then, to see what these did over a variety of colours: one coat of each of these.

from left to right: Cairuo 22, Color Club Yum Gum, Kleancolor Sea Ice, Mode Say Cheese.

One coat of Green Opal over all of the above.

Topper. Like the name? We suck at names.

This was made to be a linear holographic top coat that won’t interfere too much with the colour underneath. Yeah, yeah, done a million times, right? So, add flakies… which tend to pop out in the shade, whereas the holo rainbows dance in the sun. Versatility! Something for every light 🙂
One coat over bare nail… eek. Sorry. Just to show you how sheer it is, and yet still holo and flakie (though the one flake on that nail has disappeared in the vague light).

Look, I said I was sorry, ok?! Just look at the rainbow! 😀

One coat of Kleancolor White, two coats of Topper. This looks pale silver and speckled with the occasional iridescent flake in the shade…

Click to enlarge to see the flakies in this indirect light photo 🙂

and holo in the sun. Moderately quick dry too, thanks to the Spectraflair holographic!

Sunlight wasn’t available. This is kitchen light. Still has rainbows… what does it MEAN?! 😀

One coat of Topper over one coat of Kleancolor Black. Really, really, liked this. in the shade it shows the flakes…

Light to show the rainbow…

And blurry to show ALL THE RAINBOW! Wheee!

One coat of Topper over the same skittles as previous.

Nebula: This is another sheer polish, more sheer than Green Opal. Two coats here, just adds a wash of purple and holo silver glitter to the nails. Quite slow drying, no top coat. Obviously, with a quick dry top coat this would be smoother, and dry, well, quicker :). Two coats indirect light:

In the kitchen light:

One coat of Nebula over one coat of Kleancolour White:

Two coats Nebula over White: Very delicate and pretty lilac with the silver holo glitter. This would need a top coat in real life 🙂

One thick coat of Nebula over Kleancolor Black: Look at the rich BLUE!

Love the extreme colour change of this and Green Opal, it really adds versatility, which I’m a BIG fan of in nail polish, and in life 😀

Over the same skittles as before:

Interesting result, huh? And isn’t it super ugly over the yellow? We do these tests so you don’t have to 😉

And Purple Velvet. Misnamed, like them all, I think. This is blue AND purple, but not blurple. The colours take turns, its a little duochrome-ish. This is two coats on it’s own, no undies, no top coat.

Indirect light

Excuse the mess, I was a leetle tired by this stage, and missing spots during cleanup.

Kitchen light, two coats:

And three coats on its own, no undies, no top coat.

Indirect sunlight

Whole hand photo

 

Again, this is designed to have an effect in every light (except no light, it doesn’t glow,  though that’d be fun!).

Kitchen light, shows the shine nicely here

It has a purple flick in the shade, and the flakies show. In the light the scattered holo shimmer shows, and also a varied purple/red/blue shimmer.

And now it’s purple…

And under a yellow light, which shows the inky depth of it quite nicely…

Strangely enough, although its not colour accurate for my fingers, it’s pretty accurate for the polish in that lighting 🙂

This is very shiny without topcoat, and dries average – fast.

We had a tiny spot of real sunshine this morning, so I took a photo of my least battered fingernails to see if I could get that holo shimmer dancing:

Back to blue! 🙂

What do you think of our polishes? Be honest, but please be nice!

Have an awesome creative day
Ami 🙂

New Nail Polish Rack!

I am so happy about this! Yesterday I built a new nail polish rack – I used pulled apart pallet wood and two right-angled bits of wood, pulled all the staples and nails out of it, laid it all out and then Mr Husband Man and I drilled holes and screwed together all the bits. And LOOK! It holds all my polishes! Ok, this isn’t all of them, but it’s MOST of them – and I’ve still built in a space for polish remover and the stickers/bling/nail files etc that go with it.

I love this. I gaze at it and sigh happily. I’ve organised by colour shelf, then on those shelves alphabetically by brand name, and within those groups by shade – light to dark, left to right. I know I don’t have a huge range of polishes compared to a lot of people, but there’s plenty for me 😀 The bottom shelf is uneven along the bottom, so it looks bowed, but hey it still works so I’m haaapppppyyyy!

I made that photo huge – so if you click on it you can see all the details 😀

Have a great day!

Things to do with nail polish if you don’t want to paint your nails…

Ok, strange title, I know. But not as strange as this! Some previous homeowner of this house decided to put tiles in the middle of our benches. Small tiles. And grout in between. Badly. Oh, grout gets stained and you can’t get it looking clean? Didn’t think about that, huh?! Well, thanks.
But… brainwave! My husband, through much elbow grease and Magic White Sponge useage (I really should tell you guys about the Magic Sponges one day) got these clean. To this level. I.e. they ARE clean, but don’t look it. And that’s pretty disheartening.

And I thought… ooh NAIL POLISH! Which, yes, I do frequently. But for the bench this time.

Here’s what I did. Painted a couple of coats of white nail polish over all the grout.

Put some glittery silvery white in the places where the ingrained stainage was still peeking through.

A layer of sparse silver holographic polish, and a final coat of varnish/sealer.

Why? Because enamel should seal the grout, and keep it easy to wipe down. The varnish should seal the polish. White looks clean. I love glitter and holographic bling, and it’s my kitchen too 😀

Close ups! Before…

White…

Silver…

teeny bottle, and why I couldn’t use much of it – it would have been nice to use loads of this, I think. Shinier…

Finished.

So, there you go! House detailing with nail products. Just another reason to have them around…

Another Caravan Update!

Well folks, it’s getting there! I actually moved a chair out there in the weekend. That’s right. Furnished. 😀

Here’s some photos!

Welcome to my caravan! Take a seat 🙂

Still to do: Lots. The cracked side window held together by the stick on plastic will be replaced like the front one was, and the two cloudy cracked plastic front windows I will make look like fake stained glass. Starting on that soon. I’d love to have doors for the cabinets here too, but I can’t see that happening, so will make do with putting pretty things in it. Like craft supplies .*beams*

The to-be-replaced window is on the right side, tucked behind that cabinet that needs to be anchored up by the ceiling 🙂 Thats the wooden bowl I’m lampshading, and it’s a bit messy still…

Ceiling needs a few stencils – I’m thinking of dragonflies and waterlilies. Why? Because they don’t fit with anything else, and I like that.

Printers tray is going to go on the black wall too – for trinkets and treasures alive alive o!

I need handles for the drawers, but thats no big deal. I’ll modge podge the table tops (thanks to Three Blind Wives for the Modge Podge Mania, the inspiration filtered through to me when I needed it!). I have covered the hole in the ceiling and created a ‘lampshade’ from a wallpaper covered wooden fruit bowl – I’ll post photos, I know you’ll need them.

Cupboard which needs a paint along the front.

I do have to paint the front of the cupboard around the door, and then trim – and I forgot to put the trim by the floor along the front by the door, I’ll do that tomorrow. That trim? That looks frilly? It’s a crepe paper streamer. Cut to size, attached with wallpaper glue. Funny, huh. Looks alright, and I’m happy with it 🙂

The good thing is, you can take this tour from your seat. Glad you took it, yet? It’s comfy… 😀

I don’t think I’ll bother with curtains – I do need a new door at some stage, and many other things that I currently don’t remember. Still, I think it’s looking a lot better now…  here’s the link to the first post, if you’re curious! When I’m all in there I’ll do a proper before and after.. 😀

And some of the done list: Painted the ceiling with more blue, and sponged on the silver and gold. Wallpapered all the walls. Covered the edges and gaps with crepe paper streamer (when the walls move away from the wallpaper, gaps appear. HIGHLY annoying.). Paint cleaned off the floor. Doesn’t sound like much… but it kinda was. I’m pretty happy with it, though!

Another Caravan Update – phew!

So, mostly photos today – I’m very tired. BUT lookie! We put up some wallpaper, and have done more work on the ugly green ceiling and the cupboard!

If you want to see the in-between photos, that link is here.

So..ceiling: I sponged on the blue, and I ran out before I was finished. I only had a test pot, and a whole caravan ceiling.. and in attempting to make the paint go the distance, and trying to see my handiwork past the reflection of the Green Ugly Ceiling, I’ve done a wee bit of damage to my neck. Ah well, muscles heal.  I’ll need another test pot, so will sponge some more randomly around, and brighten the blue a bit.

Then I dabbed on a bit of gold – must say it wasn’t the effect I hoped for, but it’s liveable with, and I’ll be able to add more over time until I’m content. This is MUCH better than the green, I think.

Kinda hippyish. But still a work in progress.

And Mr Husband put up a wall of wallpaper! This is the black I used for the jewellery hangers, and there was only just enough for the wall. Still, doesn’t it look awesome?

Made me the happy!

And I put another type of wallpaper on the shelves of the cupboard, and one I got as a free sample because I thought it was art – thats hiding the scribbles. I’ll make something frame-ish for that, and call it done methinks.

the flowers are raised, and fluffy. So not only pretty (in a small strip, I cant imagine it as a whole wall/room) its really nice to touch, as well as look at.

Yay!

Quick Caravan Update – Ceiling and Cupboard Progress. Ish.

I’ve done some more! Ok, only a bit, but seeing as Daniél asked so nicely for me to get a wriggle on and do some more, it really did help me do just that.

The weekend just past saw me start to paint the ceiling, and do some work on the interior of the cupboard.

Cupboard – this was what it looked like after I had removed the pump and misc things that didn’t work, but before painting it cream (which I think I may do something else with soon).

This is how it looked with the paint…

 

and now I’ve added some shelves. My children added the scribble on the door. If only they hadn’t lost and/or eaten my eraser I would have got that off the door already. (You can click on any of these photos to make them bigger, if you so desire!)

 

Look, there’s mess in it already! 😀

 

 

The ceiling was unpainted wood, with lovely ripples in it.

shows some of the ceiling…

Those ripples remain; there’s nothing up in the ceiling to attach the wood to in order to straighten it out, so I’ll love it wibbles and all. I put two rough coats of white paint over it first to seal the chipboard… and quite liked the effect, but I can’t keep it white, as it won’t work at all with the wallpaper I bought!

So then I’ve added two coats of a INCREDIBLY glossy deep green paint. YUCK.

Well, I can always paint it white again, right?!! Argh!

Right about now I’m hoping that my ideas for the ceiling work, because I don’t like this at all. And no, none of these are finished, but I’m making some progress and thought I’d show ya 😉  This is a fun project, but very tricky for me because we have no money for it, basically. The paint I’m using is either a 30ml test pot, or a $3 garage sale find – hence high gloss green. It’s possibly more fun this way though, all my concepts are having to evolve to deal with what I can get my hands on, which is quite good for my brain, if not my sanity 😀

I’ve also got some ideas about what to do with the Mickey Mouse head shaped hole in the ceiling, and hopefully I can do something about that as soon as the paint is done.

Fingers and toes crossed I’ll be able to do some more work this weekend. And start on papering the walls…exciting 🙂

Removing Pen Art From Walls.

My children. They are artistes. My youngest child, especially, is a artiste with pen, and pencil, and paper, and walls.

I love most of the things in that sentence, can you pick the one I’m not crazy about? Betcha can. Mr Husband and I spent quite some time and $ repainting our living areas over summer. If only we had spent MORE time, we’d have finished. As it was, this particular wall has three coats of paint, and needed another to even it all up and cover the beige underneath. And then my youngest son drew ALL over it with pen. Biro pen. Ink.

 

I couldn’t scrub it off, no matter how I tried, so I just ignored it, until the lovely lady at the Resene shop in Feilding suggested hairspray.

Hairspray? I have some of that! A 10 year old bottle that I use maybe once a year. Heaps left, no worries.

Here is  a before photo of the patch of wall I was testing the hairspray  on:

The effect of the hairspray (after one spray, you have to move quite fast to mop up!)

And the aftermath.

So, yes, hairspray definitely works.  I’d spray it on, the rub it off with a clean cloth. But the ink ran, and you need a LOT of hairspray. It doesn’t damage the paint on the wall though, which is good. But I’m impatient, so I thought, well, what else could work? How about… nail polish remover!!

Test spot…

The nail polish remover…

Aftermath…

Gone!

 

OOOH now, that works, and it works quicker with less effort. I used cotton balls as the removal agent, I put some remover on the cotton balls then wiped it, gently and quickly, over the pen marks. And the pen marks came off immediately.

Some of the pen was embedded in the wall with the force of the artistic expression, so I scrubbed a bit harder on those. And the wall paint came off.

the yellow is the paint underneath the cream paint we put on this summer…

In some places the paint came off, and the pen remained. That was a bit annoying.

Whoooops.

However, it was significantly quicker and easier than hairspray, so I just kept going.

And the after!

I can paint over this, and it shouldn’t be visible. I know from experience that I’ve put 5 layers of paint over pen scribble before, and the scribble is still quite visible. I thought I was going to have to sand this whole wall back to Gib board and start again, so I’m happy with this alternative. It didn’t use much polish remover either!

Does anyone else have any tips for getting evil substances off or out of things (carpet, walls, curtains?) 🙂

Easy DIY Jewellery Hanging Rack Thingies

I’ve been meaning to make these for awhile, as I like to have my jewellery (and, well, everything but mostly that isn’t allowed to happen anymore sob sob) organised and available. I have a earring stand, and a necklace rack, but wanted to make one for bangles and bracelets, and another for rings.My neighbour gave me a bit of wood (this is thick MDF), and I saw her wallpaper a stand last night, so the idea was born. I have wallpaper! I HATE painting MDF! Aha! Eureka! (thanks, neighbour N. You are creatively inspirational, AND you rock.)

So, here, broken down into many superflous steps: jewellery hanging thingies.

wallpaper, PVA glue, wood.

Get your wood,and your wall paper. Also glue, and tape (because I saw that the glue doesn’t stick straight away), and scissors. Cut out how much paper you’ll need. Because I have this wallpaper for my caravan, I was as stingy with it as I could be, and thats why I needed to have two bits for the longer (bracelet) bit of wood.

Paper, wood, scissors – scissors WINS!

Glue the wood on front and long sides, and the overlap around the back. I found it easiest to pull the paper tight, then tack it down with a bit of tape. Have tape ready cut and waiting, as you’ll only have one hand to tape with. Then tape down the other side, pulling tight across the front, minimise the bubblies. Good thing with textured paper? Can’t see them so much…

Tape to hold down the paper until the glue grabs it

On the short edges, cut down all four corners. Then cut the back bits off… glue along the wood, fold the sides in, then the front back over and tape along the back. Rinse, repeat.

Because I had two pieces for the bracelet board, I tried to make it look a bit more matched up – it’s never going to be exact with this pattern, but it definitely looked better this way up. With the longer board I had to tape the whole of one side to the back, then the other – the paper was long enough to have enough weight to peel the tape off, so go for gold to hold it down until the glue starts working.

I DO have fingers,and I’m NOT at a rock concert. I just.. do weird things with my hands while I’m working, ok?! 😀

To tidy up the edges, I just used more tape (of course! I love the stuff!). A small square over the edges, fold down the shorter side on the 45 degree angle, then fold the remnant straight down. Because it’s longer, there is a tacky edge which holds the lot in place. I’m not fussy, you can probably tell. If it looks alright, and it’s serving it’s purpose, I’m just fine with that.

Folded over two of the corners.. hah, you may have a fingerprint, but you’ll still need a retina scan to access the Master System of Destruction!!!

Then, in this case, fold the  the top side of the sticky tape down..

And then the side remaining tape just folds over neatly into place. Supposedly.

 

Ta da!

Then.. lots of nails. I even tried to use a ruler to keep my bracelet side nails straight. Ahahaha. I can’t cut straight, or rule a line straight, no matter how hard I try. I did deliberately leave the other side much wider spaced, you’ll see why soon enough.

The nails I used, and the concept for hanging the bangles. Does anyone else have pot luck nails like this? Drives me crazy, but hey. I guess hide-and-seek for the right nails never hurt anyone…

The ring hanger. I gave up on Mr Ruler by this stage. Can you tell?

And here is the bracelet holder on my wall.. wow, terrible photo. It didn’t like the light in that room! I tied the string (it’s silver, you can’t tell here, but I’ll get a better photo when we get some sun) onto the nail, then tied a loop at the other end. Then you can just pop the string through the bangle, and loop it back up to the nail – takes up much less space and doesn’t allow the jewellery to fire randomly off into the room. Always a bonus.

How to make a similar earring holder – in case anyone wants to know – just take the back and glass out of a picture frame, then staple a double layer of mesh up along the back. Done!

The ring holder.. and the top of my necklace holder. Thats the same concept as these, just painted instead. I made this years ago, and used pins rather than nails – little nails are much better.

So, there you go! I’ve finally able to get it all organised, and clear out the space where they were. I have a few more bits to repair and then they can go up on the hangers, and then I’m all organised. Of course my bedroom looks like a jewellery bazaar… but… I’m SO okay with that 😉

 

Caravan Update

No, it’s not finished yet 😦

But I thought I’d put up some photos now that I’ve put more walls up, and given the cabinets a quick coat of paint. They need another few coats, and obviously the walls need a bit more fixing and then papering, but we’re getting there!

Original post was here

 

the front - with walls and flooring 🙂

the back - painted cabinets, wall, and child helping out. Fixed the top of the cabinet to a lift-top as well 🙂

Project Caravan – Creating a Creative Space (fingers crossed!)

My lovely neighbour the artiste had a caravan for her studio for quite some time. I had envy. Sometimes I feel like I am going mad for lack of a little bit of space to call my own – to create things, and to be called away in the middle of them and then be able to go back, knowing it won’t be ruined. Well, neighbour/friend N is in the process of creating a studio from their garage, and so gave me her caravan. I know, RIGHT?! (hehehe, that ones for you, N!)

And here it is!

"Pink caravan, no crushed velvet seats, riding nowhere at all, going down no streets..."

I love this, in all its glory. I LOVE the pink. I will change it, because I’m still not that much of a pink person, but man I love it – so unashamedly female – yelling ‘this is MY SPACE!’ to the world.

And now I’m in the process of doing it up a bit, before I move my craft and arty stuff (and possibly myself hehehe no, probably wont be allowed) out there. Here are some photos!

These, by the way, aren’t – strictly speaking – before photos.

the front - and the perspex window we put in.

My lovely husband put in a snap-together wood floor, and we’ve swapped one broken window for a perspex window. I have also cleaned up some surfaces, and changed the cupboards (that had a sink) into a lift-top storage space. That work aside, I still have a lot left to do. I am also really impatient, and want it done yesterday. But, we don’t have a lot of money, so we’ll do bits as we can.

The back - since this photo I attached the counter top with hinges, so it lifts up 🙂

I have plans for this caravan, oh yes I do. I’ll post more photos as things happen!

There was a little fridge (broken) in the top right hand corner, I'm going to put up a little cupboard when the walls are done.