One long planned project this weekend, and one impulse project. Neither of them complicated, but mentally absorbing like you want good craft to be.
Firstly, the Stamp Box. Yonks ago I bought a set of 6 Vintage Blue Mountains postcards on ebay – and they were in a bulk lot which included some random banknotes and a couple of hundred Australian postage stamps. Now quite some time ago I made a stamp covered box for my cousin, and with all these stamps on hand I thought it was about bloody time I made one for myself.
It really is as simple as slapping some paint and glue around on a box. Also not a bad idea to spray on some sealer (or brush it on). This one is not particularly elegant, but it’s bright and contains stamps I either remember being in circulation or with really nifty design. I still have a ton of stamps left over (and have ordered another 600 from the same guy for very cheap as they’re so interesting) and some more subtle ideas up my sleeve. This box is not lined as I intend to store rubber stamps in it, and want the inside to end up all inky and loved looking.
The second project was inspired by an impulse buy at the hardware where I got the box while cashing in a gift certificate. It was “The Little Pot of Horrors” - a small pot containing both venus fly trap and pitcher plants. They enjoy, according to the tag, having wet feet and the pot they came in didn’t have a water base thing. So while at the Reject Shop for something else which I don’t actually remember (my god, sometimes reading this must be like talking to your great-great Grandmother) I picked up a plain brown pot with a built on saucer and some string.
You know the whole “Put a bird on it” thing from Portlandia? Yeah well in my case it’s “Wrap it with string” because I’m stupidly in love with how string looks wrapped around things. I don’t know why, texture I suspect (and that hessian-y smell of the stuff). So I present to you the string wrapped pot, with bonus wrapped stone as a feature.. uh.. feature.
Made with joy and a metric shitton of hot glue. Yay for hot glue I say!
I’m aware proper bloggers would have removed the aircon remote, tweezers and rubber snake from the background of that photo, but I like to keep it real, yo. Besides, there’s a frame around it. A frame means I’m practically an expert.
Wrapping a pot really is just a case of “glue string, wrap, cover join with something”. All the ends are held in place (under the stone) with the aforementioned hot glue, while double sided tape in strategic places around the pot keeps the string in place while wrapping. I’m rather pleased with it – it looks a tiny bit designer and only cost about $4.50 ($4 for the pot and 50cents worth of string). I also enjoy the fact that the pitcher plants look like they’re all either singing or shouting at each other. Or both.