DIY Vintage coasters

If you have old embroidered pieces, combine them with old fabric and burlap to make vintage feel coasters. These are cross stitch pieces I dis a while ago and have been repurposed here.

Here is a look at the material you will need - the embroidered patch or edging, burlap, old fabric, fuse bonding paper and threads in different colour.

Cut fuse bonding paper to the size of the embroidered piece.

Iron it on to the burlap or old fabric cut to size.

Finish with a running stitch in a contrasting colour.

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Fixing magnets on glass without glue

Attach attractive  magnets to glass without fuss or mess. All you need are the magnets and basic magnets which look like donuts.

Clean the glass well, hold the basic magnet on one side of the glass and the fridge magnet on the other. That's it! 

Here you see magnets on both sides of the glass. Since like poles repel in magnets, if you find the magnet pulling away from the glass turn it round. The other side will move towards the magnet on the other side of the glass.

 To hold heavier magnets, even clip ones like below, stack two or three magnets together, opposite sides facing and put the magnet clip on the other side.

Tip

For this to work, the glass cannot be very thick and the magnets cannot be super heavy. 

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Relocation and such

Hi there!

Yes I have been missing for long, long time ...apologies for letting life overwhelm me but that's me I guess.  So much to do. I have to redo my home tour page and even revamp the look of the blog..well for now I am into door charms,  since we have a few more doors and windows in our new house. They just add a little colour and sound to our home and of course take me back to the places from where I bought the pieces or the whole!

Here is the first one - old buttons, the lovely heart from a shop now closed; takes me back to that delightful place bursting to the gills with ribbons, beads and baubles... and of course that endless roll of ribbon... this is one from my craft basket...

Love the sound the metal flower makes when the wind teases it.  I hear it first thing in the morning, followed by birdsong. Metal art from the South east Asia..

This last one is inspired by a  lovely sleek one I saw at a learning centre. Of course it was sleek and well done. My copy is ...well ...rustic shall I say! So it is Bastar bell meets cow bell from hardware store (of all places!)

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Add a touch of fun to your cupboard knobs

I have put up masks and still have a few on the walls of my home. Could,t resist picking up a couple on my recent trip to Bali but I was determined to find another way of displaying it. After more than a month, I found an interesting way to do this

Before I hung the mask on the cupboard knob, I hung a golden tassel which looks like a sort of Golden neck ornament or beard even... 

I like decor which puts a smile on my face every time...

And I tug gently at the tassel to open that shelf which is not opened every day.. so how do you like my take on decor? Write in and tell me

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Art + bamboo tablemats = cupboard decor

Hello there! Long time no see. Work got the better of me I guess but here I am with another post.. I finally managed to start clearing my books and craft cupboard and dug out some stuff... here is a look at what I assembled with a vague idea of wanting to cover up parts of the cupboard which looks like a storm hit it ever so frequently.

So here is the stuff, some beautiful Vietnamese embroidery which they sell roughly pinned on hard card, some handmade paper sourced long ago from the local speciality stationer and bright colourful bamboo mats from Vietnam. So I set out to put them together as only I can - in a complete freewheeling style where imperfection rules because I am not patient and find it difficult to hold the ruler exactly straight. Happily the embroidered patterns were all of different sizes and the use which I had in mind is quite forgiving! You will see what I mean at the end of the post.

I used some bonding paper (therma web from Micheal's is great for this) to stick the picture on the mat and 

finished with the handmade paper of similar or contrasting colour depending on what I had... I have five of these and left a couple with edges unfinished for certain uses while  finished three of them which I put up in the said cupboard. As you can see it hides quite a bit of the mess and leaves quite a bit in plain sight. Well I must get on with the clean up and make everything visible easy on the eye.. quite a task if you ask me

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Integrating tribal artforms in everyday life

I picked up a few pictures done in Indian tribal style at the local exhibitions.Gond is a type of tribal art with origins in one of the largest indigenous communities in Central India.  Well to cut a long story short, I picked up a drawing I liked from the Gond artists at the Dastkar Mela. I was not keen on framing it since there isn't much wall space left in our house anyway. So I waited till I had an idea of where to put it so that we would all see it often and I must say that we all look at our family scrap book often. It had a rather ugle cover so I wrapped it in pretty grey paper

Such a pretty work of art...  I just worked the tiniest pair of scissors I could find on this picture and cut it out so that I could forever preserve it on my scrapbook cover and here it is

Well this is my ode to some of the best works of art that our country has and there are quite a few art forms that need to be preserved.

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