New life of an old sofa

It is always dilemma: throw away things or try to renew them and give them new life. Is it worth of effort or is it easier to buy something new? I usually prefer to renew my furniture and make something original or personalized. This sofa is one of the pieces I am very proud of.

This is how it looked like. I bought new fabric and sew covers, added pillows and made completely new sofa for our summer house on the Adriatic sea coast - that's why I apply nautical touch.

Some additional photos I took:

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Decoupage with iron

Yesterday I was so desperate, but today I am thrilled. Few days ago decided to refurbish an old table using decoupage technique. It is  50 years old kitchen table,  in rather good condition, but the surface was covered with an old fashion plastic. It is the piece I will put on terase, in the garden, and buying special primer for plastic plus paint  of course, seemed too expensive. I thought that decoupaging would be cheaper and faster. So, I surfed a little bit to see available papers I could find here (didn't want to order on-line to wait for a few days for delivery). And here is the decoupage story.

Decoupage with ironing

Finally, I bought two types of paper: Easy decoupage paper (really excellent for work) and Decopatch one that gave me so much trouble. Additionally, just to mention, you will need special glue for decoupage, brushes and cotton rag.

I saw the flyer in the shop declaring it as an  thin but firm, the colors and patterns were beautiful and I bought it. What a disappointment! I needed paper suitable for larger surface, not small pieces to combine together.

This is the table before refurbishment.

Fortunately, based on previous experience, started to work on less visible part, using usual decoupage technique - glue the surface and put the paper on. And it was fiasco - so many wrinkles and bubbles, I scraped paper off the table. Decopatch paper was just like napkin - very fragile, susceptible to wrinkles.

What to do? To buy another paper or to try something else? I was so dissapointed but out of the desperation  remembered another technique - ironing.  And this turned out to be  fabulous.

Steps for decoupage ironing

Step 1: glue the surface and let it dry a little bit (for a couple of minutes) (before that I marked the line on the table to now where to put the paper).

Step 2: Put the paper on the glued surface, tap it with cotton rag or dry brush (I preffer cotton rag) and put baking paper on it. This paper is rather transparent enabling control over the napkin or Decopatch paper in this case.

Step 3: Warm the iron on the low temperature  and iron over the baking paper. Napkin will be glued without wrinkles - it was miracle for me, after the disappointment the day before.
After the first table side, improved technique - cut the smaller paper pieces (up to 20 cm long) to better control the gluing.

Step 4: Seal the paper with the transparent varnish (or special decoupage glue).

Hints: Never touch the napkin (or paper) with fingers - use dry brush or cotton rag.


Easy decoupage paper (the flowered one) was really very easy to glue. First, of course, soaked it in water and then dried with tissue paper, glue the surface and put it on. It didn't wrinkled and I could tune it easily.

The table is still not completely finished, some details are planned and I will blog how I painted it next week.

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Vertical garden journey - update

A month ago I started this project - set up a box to be my vertical garden and planted suculents. Last four weeks i was watering and spraying it and now it looks good, plants are in good condition, BUT I am so impatient, I would like to have a small 'jungle' immediately. So, need to continue nurish the garden and wait until the plants spread across the box.
See how I started in this post.

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Labels and tags for jars

While the nature is flurishing around us, it is time to think on the cold part of the year. I started to make marmelade, first on my list is currant, apricot time (my favourit) is in two to three weeks. But, besides preparing jam and marmelade, I enjoy to decorate jars. I always make more than we need and  give them as a gift to my friend and family - for Christmas, birthday or just for love.

Below find some photos and links to stickers and labels you can download and customize.

This is nice site, labels are simple but beautiful.

On the Wordlabel.com you can find number of customizable labels.

For romantic souls, vintage labels.

Or, you could make your own stickers - this is example how just with text, no pictures, labels could look cool.

Tips and tricks for printing stickers

There are number of ways to print labels or stickers and put them on jars. Sometimes I just print them on usual paper and glue them on jar or tie them as tags. Recently I got plain white stickers on A4 paper. After strugling with tuning (although first on the plain A4 paper), found that Microsoft Publisher (comes with MS Office) is very usefull and has built in feature for labels (in Templates). In Microsoft Word I am using tables to adjust  labels position.

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Decorate magnets

  Few plain magnets, a little bit of paint and creativity and you have personalized jewels on your (magnetic) board or fridge.  Too many things to remember, I decided at first to make a chalk board, then improved the idea and made magnetic chalk board (applied magnetic chalk board paint). Of course, needed magnets. The ones I had were just blue and unattractive, so needed to embellish them.

 Tutorial how I decorate magnets

Hints: 

You can paint  magnets with any paint or even nail polish, but if you would like to use napkins for decoration, it should be bright color.

I used two components resin to get depth and brilliance. Read product instructions carefully.

My  magnets photos

Board and my 'office' corner

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Preserve the beauty, press flowers

While the nature flourish it is good to recall the winter and preserve its beauty, especially when it doesn't take much time and effort. It is very  easy to press flowers or leaves.

Today I cut some flowers in my garden and few ginkgo leaves, I planted small tree few years ago.

Thin, flat flowers are the best for pressing. Place absorbent paper ( paper towel or tissue paper) in the middle of some heavy book and arrange the flowers blossoms. Cover with another piece of paper, close the book, put another one on the top of it for weight and forget for a few weeks (or few month in my case).

I also have some roses and pressed their petals.

That's it, now I'll have memories and variety of pressed flowers for my projects. 

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Vertical garden project journey - phase 1

Finally,  stars have set up properly for my vertical garden project. I found in the garage wooden box that  seems to be perfect. This is project that takes at least a month or two to be quite ready for the wall and I will regularly update photos. I am so eager to see how it will turn out. But, prior to planting, some preparations need to be done to protect wood and avoid wood decay.

Tutorial (and journey) to set up vertical garden

This is box 'before'. It looks pretty good and the  baffles could be removed. It might sound silly, but I discovered in the  last moment that this could be done (and was delighted, as this made my job much easier).

I cleaned it, sanded a little bit and then 'wax' with an old candle.

Applied one coat of white acrylic paint, left 20 minutes to dry and sanded again to distress it.

I also painted back of the box, I always take care about the sides that are not visible, as well.

To protect the wood from water and moisture, applied coat of transparent satin varnish for boats (I already had it on hand). Applied it inside and outside the box and left to dry - this is oil paint and it took almost  24 hours to dry.

And the protection efforts were not finished. I decided to use transparent adhesive foil for additional protection and incase the whole box. The foil I also already had, originaly it was bough for school books protection. I love the grid on the paper side, it is so much easier to measure and cut the foil.

So, I measured to foil and cut the corners (to 'create' the box  an put it inside the box.
Protected the buffles as well.

Box is now prepared and protected. More exciting part to follow.

Although this is going to be a vertical garden, I put some grit on the bottom for a drainage. First  couple of month (or until the plants spread around) the box will stay in horizontal position.

As planned to plant succulents, prepared a mix of 1/3 sand and 2/3 usual soil for flowers.

The box is now filled with soil. 

To avoid the soil to drift away, I fasten the metallic net onto the box.

Now, the best part - planting. I already have a lot of succulents - chose the smaller ones and planted them. I think I'll buy some additional on the green market, may be reddish or variegated.

What I learned? The meshes of the net were rather small, I had to use wooden stick for planting. It is better to use net with the bigger meshes. Some people used moss, may be this is even better, don't know.

At end, added soil and water sprayed my garden.

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