Lamp Makeover

I LOVE a good makeover! Knowing this, a few months back my teenager decided she wanted her room made over...in a Moroccan theme. So bright, colorful and lots of DIY projects! I pinned everything I thought would be perfect to accent her room: 

Follow Kate Norris's board Cammi's Room Redo on Pinterest.

As you can see, as time went on she decided she wanted a "cheer" themed room. Not bad because cheerleaders a colorful, just like a Moroccan theme so it has all worked out!

I am all about up-cycling so we tried to use what we had on hand along with our extensive craft collection to make all of her decorations.

First up was this lamp...

Supplies:

• A lamp (mine is a full lamp, I just couldn't get a nice picture with the top of it in there)
• Some Aleen's jewel-it (I found this worked best, it is most like cement)
• A bag full of multi-colored jewels

Process:

1. Make a circle of glue around the base, just a small circle because it dries fairly quickly and you don't want to waste it.
2. Lay down some jewels, like this
   
3. Continue until you have the base covered!

Finished product:

You may be asking, "why didn't she do the top of the lamp?" Well boys and girls, I didn't do the top because that lamp gets really, really warm. I was afraid if I did the top it would get warm, heat the glue and all the gems would fall off! That would be embarrassing right?! 

So, there we have it a cute and simple project! It only took a wee bit over an hour to complete. This was done back in September, it is now March and she still talks about how cute it is! 

Do you upcycle?? What is your favorite upcycled project you've completed?

DIY: Glitter Electric Tea Lights Tutorial

In recent years I have been seeing electric tea lights become a growing trend, especially in the crafting community. Many people love to use them this time of year to put in their plastic pumpkins or put on their Christmas trees. I'd yet to invest in any for two reasons: 

1. I never really had a use for them 

2. They were expensive 

It just so happens that two events came into play that finally had me investing in some of these electric tea lights:

1. I have a long tea light holder that holds 6 lights, the hubs and the teenager almost lit themselves on fire forgetting there was live fire in this candle holder and reached over it to put stuff in the sink. 

2. I was at Dollar Tree and found they were selling two electric tea lights to a pack for $1.25CAD!!! I thought that was pretty good considering at other craft stores they are sold in packs where each one is about $1.50 CAD.

When I got home I proudly put them in my candle holder:

Personally, I didn't think this looked all that fantastic. It was ok, but definitely not what I was looking for!!

After thinking on it for a minute I decided the #1 thing the candle holder needs is SPARKLE!!!!!

So, this is what I did to get them sparkly:

Supplies:

-How ever many tea lights you would like to make (6 in my case)

-Newspaper

-Tape

-Sponge paint brush

-Liquid school glue

-One large jar of glitter, or if you pick it up from the dollar tree grab 3-4 packs

-Hairspray

Lay news paper down to protect your work surface. Lay tea lights out on newspaper.

Carefully cover the "flame" of each tea light in tape.  Like above. This is honestly the easiest way to make sure your "flame" doesn't wind up covered in glitter too! 

Then, paint a layer of glue on each lights and liberally sprinkle with glitter. The glitter that falls on the newspaper, "roll" the side of the lights in it to get them covered. Repeat this which each light. Let dry for a few hours (at least 3). 

Then, take the hairspray & holding it about 8-10 inches from the light (seriously, don't hold it any closer or you will spray the glitter off lol), and over your newspaper spray the hairspray to coat the glitter so it doesn't flake off and get everywhere!

Then, remove the tape from the flame. The easiest way I found to do this was to use the scissors to cut a little slit in the top and carefully peel it off.

This will be the final product:

This is what the whole thing looks like:

Isn't it adorable?! The whole thing cost me less than $10 and I couldn't be happier!