Inspiration: The Laura Ashley floral fever

Source: flickr.com via Karboojeh on Pinterest

When I was a teenager (a few years ago, hehehe), I grew up with a few Laura Ashley skirts and floral accessories, and up until this day I continue to associate pretty pastel florals to this wonderful brand. Florals are now witnessing a big come back thanks to the school of ‘vintage-chic,’ which is celebrating everything beautiful my generation has seen the last drops of. We’ve been through the ‘ugly’ eighties, but we’ve captured the last offerings of the glorious 70’s, and florals seem to have managed to make their way into our lives up until the early 90’s.

The above pic shows a few Laura Ashley floral fabrics. They go together so well, although the motifs are different.

Below is a vintage-style bedroom with a country, yet contemporary, twist. The chest of drawers is from Laura Ashley as well as the vintage-style floral patterned accessories.

Source: housetohome.co.uk via Karboojeh on Pinterest

For more Laura Ashley accessories, I picked this floral mug  for you…

Source: lauraashley.com via Karboojeh on Pinterest

The vintage-chic style is probably the most among other trends that is celebrating florals in a big way. Vintage-chic stylists and bloggers are showing us ways to mix and match, and stack up on  florals upon florals in one location, in one room, which is exactly what I am liking recently. Look at this…

Source: flickr.com via Karboojeh on Pinterest

Source: poppytalk.blogspot.com via Karboojeh on Pinterest

Source: poppytalk.blogspot.com via Karboojeh on Pinterest

Source: housetohome.co.uk via Karboojeh on Pinterest

Florals, which are a staple of the British aesthetic and the prairie trend, have also seen a come back into fashion lately. Belts and little floral details have appeared in this year’s spring/summer clothes and accessories.

Another brand name that celebrates full throttle florals is  Cath Kidston, whose take on florals is a bit different than the classic Laura Ashley line, but all the same I love them both (I did mention this earlier in a previous post). Here is an example of Kidston’s accessories.

Source: gottohaveit.co.uk via Karboojeh on Pinterest

I also found florals from other brands,  such as this mug, which ultimately reminds us of Laura Ashley’s style.

Source: gottohaveit.co.uk via Karboojeh on Pinterest

Finally, this is my biggest floral crush… vintage floral cards. Yum.

Source: georgiahousepublishing.com via Karboojeh on Pinterest

And this one here….

Source: umla.tumblr.com via Karboojeh on Pinterest

Ok, then, I’ll leave you with a flowery and sunny day, hopefully, and see you next time,

K

Crafty DIY: How to paint a romantic basket

I finally came around to update this basket! I’ve had this basket for years: I love the shape and the wicker, but the oil stains always bothered me so much, even if they hid under a doily or a cloth.

So, I decided to update my cute little basket/tray, and my inspiration came from a mixture of “shabby chic,” French romantic,” “vintage romantic,” and floral prints by Laura Ashley & Cath Kidston.

The tools I needed were:

• Wicker tray/basket
• Acrylic paints in pastels and cool hues
• White glue (or varnish) to seal the work. You can of course use Mod Podge to seal the work
• Brushes
• Water to clean the brushes in between colors

So, what I did was basically the following:

• I wiped the basket clean with a wet cloth
• Applied a coat or more of white acrylic paint, and I deliberately made an imperfect job,  hoping to achieve a “shabby chic” effect
• Painted little rosettes with pink and white acrylic paints, and I used a vintage green for the leaves
• Once the paint was dry, I sealed the work surface with white wood glue.

And that’s it, basically.

I’m planning to post a tutorial soon on how to paint those lovely rosettes. It’s a mind-blowing-ly simple technique, you’ll feel like a master of arts when you get the hang of it.

Ok, folks, I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Cheers

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This post participated in this link party:

Tip Jinkie :: Homemade Projects – Linky party – 14/8/2012

Home Decor DIY: Rustic-Looking Chicken Wire Lamp

I love the idea of up-cycling vintage home accents & accessories; it’s budget friendly, creative, and it gives you instant gratification. Rummaging through mom’s storage room, I came out with a broken ceramic table lamp, and a vintage wooden pitcher that has this beautiful rustic look. By marrying the two, I re-created this lampshade.

The chicken wire is just a fantasy of mine, but it’s not practical once you turned the lights on. I decided that I will leave it the way it is, though. I just love the way it looks, besides, I can always change the lampshade if I wanted to.

The lamp base

The ingredients for this lamp are:

• A broken lampshade: … so I would use the lamp’s wired candlestick & bottle adapter (this is what they call’em apparently) – I didn’t take a photo of the original lamp, but you can see the lamp candlestick on the far right side of the above pic.
• A shade riser: I totally DIYed mine using the metallic ring you see in the pic, and some wire to create a middle ring and tripod to help me attach the shade to the lamp skeleton.
• Chicken wire
• Scissors or Wire cutter.
• Some skill in wiring and rewiring lamps. Well… that’s my husband’s domain.
• Newspapers or sponge.

What you basically do is ask the electrician to insert the lamp’s cord through the nozzle of the vintage wooden pitcher you have and to keep the switch close by.

Insert the pipe that comes at the tail of the lamp skeleton inside the vase (the vase should be deep enough to accommodate it). To keep the lamp from moving, and to be able to change your mind later on, try to stabilize it by squishing in some crumbled newspapers, or sponge, or whatever that can just keep the lamp in place.

The lampshade

Now, if you have a shade riser then all you need to do is just cut the chicken wire to size and attach it to the shade riser.

But if you don’t have one, just use an old round ring, and using craft wire, you can create your own shade riser.

Watch out for your fingers when you cut the chicken wire. You can use the loose wire ends from the chicken wire to attach it to the ring.

Anyhow, with this kind of base, you can amplify the rustic look by using a basket as your lampshade. The effect it gives once you turned the lamp on is so cool. You can run your own lamp fashion show and try different lampshades until you finally find your beat. The important thing to remember is that imagining what a final product looks like has nothing to do with actually trying to make it & seeing for your self. A DIY looks much better in reality!

Cheers,

Karboojeh

 

 

Inspiration Board: DIY Shelves using Baskets & Crates

I just stumbled upon this beautiful photo by IKEA‘s DIY blog. Baskets turned into shelves; what a great idea! So, I thought I might share more DIY shelving ideas using old worn-out crates and such.

Here is a nice arrangement of crates from my Pinterest collection. I love the bohemian way these shelves fall together.

Source: imgspark.com via Karboojeh on Pinterest

 

This one (below) is a basic crate shelving unit. With a bit of DIY skill, this can be pulled off easily.

Source: cgi.ebay.com.au via Karboojeh on Pinterest

 

A simple shelving system in the kitchen can be made using wooden planks from left-over pallets and crates. I did read, however, that pallets are not quite advisable for indoor use, seeing the amount of chemicals used in treating them to withstand humidity and all kinds of harsh shipping conditions.

Source: ahappyhaven.blogspot.com via Karboojeh on Pinterest

 

And here’s another idea I just spotted on Sugar & Cloth. Office clamps are used here to secure the boxes together; brilliant idea!

Source: sugarandcloth.com via Karboojeh on Pinterest

Cheers,

Karboojeh

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• DIY Prettier Magazine Files
• Organizing 101: Ideas for pretty storage

 

Handmade jewelry display 101: Karboojeh’s journey in the world of craft shows

To see mini tutorial for making this chalkboard sign go to: "Chalkboard DIY: Display sign from an artists palette" - on karboojeh.tumblr.com

I am grateful! Yesterday (Dec 4, 2011) was a special day. I took part in my first-ever bazaar experience. The display design I made was totally DIY, and a lot of recycling, up-cycling, and improvising went in there.

Start-up logo among the grands!

Karboojeh as Sponsor: Karboojeh was a sponsor among well known brands – at the Italian Charity event… with brands like Benetton, DHL, Lavazza, Ferrero Rocher, Nutella, Paris Hilton, Hyundai, The Four Seasons Hotel, and other Italian & international trademarks… which is quite funny. Seeing Karboojeh’s logo in the middle of it all made me smile.

It is the day. Karboojeh Handmade Jewelry made its first-ever bazaar appearance on a completely DIY-ed table set – that I created using different materials, like cardboard, burlap, a hot-glued rope basket and handmade chicken-wire baskets. I also made two chalkboard announcement boards using recycled materials (one of them was actually a cardboard cake plate that came from a patisserie store; I used chalkboard spray paint and rope to create a rustic look – after prepping with primer & sanding the clean surface).

The look I was going for was a mix of rustic, French romance & shabby chic, interrupted by a sharp contrast of eye-grabbing fun colors. I didn’t want a too serious French romance look, so I used small touches of lace and whites just for fun. Burlap and earth hues took the backdrop of the display work, while colorful packaging and jewelry rested on two burlap-covered cardboard planks, cork, and similar-colored props.

Karboojeh: Recycle, DIY & create!

In the pictures above, some of the Karboojeh DIY things  you see are:

• Chalkboard: This used to be a bamboo painter’s palette, which I spray-painted with chalkboard paint without priming it, since it looked it had a good amount of sealing varnish on it. See mini tutorial here.
• Redecorated Samples Tree: This used to be a stainless steel mug holder for the kitchen, which I dressed up with white shimmery sequins, while not forgetting to add a handmade sign made out of feather trim, cardboard, rhinestones, and other embellishments.
• Beaded Christmas ornaments: There is a post about those, here.
  
• Beaded Napkin Rings: The fork & spoon… Aren’t they cute? … I sketched those on cardboard and cut them to size to display the handmade napkin rings.
• Handmade Heart Magnets: I hand-stitched those using linen and stuffing, then hot-glued a piece of magnet to the back.

Technically this is my first-ever craft show, since the British School Bazaar, mentioned in a previous post, is in a different country, where only jewelry items are participating, inshAllah.

Piece of advice?

Quit your day job and start learning crochet, or invest in the talent you already have (which means also investing time, money and effort in developing it). Craft shows are the best kind of work you will ever have. I had a career in media and a parallel one in music, and one was more hectic than the other. I found complete sweetness in indulging in craft-time, and creating things with love!