Patterns

Monday 26 May 2014

Super Mario Coat Hanger/ Key Rack



Hello everyone, today I would like to share the tutorial for the Super Mario coat hanger/ key rack. The rack I used I bought for £1 in Poundworld, so if you already have most of the materials that you need, it is cheap as chips to make this. I'll tell you know what materials you need, so you can tick what you already have.

-The wooden hanger. The one from poundland already comes with the hooks attached to it.
- Acrylic paint.
- Paint brush.
- Hama beads & Peg board. I used the ones from Ikea you can find HERE and you can also pick up the peg boards there and you can find those HERE. They are cheaper than the real Hama beads and have all the colors in the tub that you need to make the shapes, except for the skin color for Mario. That's the only color you would have to buy seperately. Alternatively, you could make another shape like the green 1 up mushroom. To save yourself from spending extra money. 
- greaseproof paper
- Iron
- Glue Gun with glue sticks.
- a black Sharpie or another waterproof felt pen.
- a screwdriver.
- a pencil

To start with, you unscrew the hooks off the wooden plank, which will make it much easier to paint. At this point you can decide whether you want to paint little drawings on the hanger, or if you don't fancy that you can also just paint it one color. I done that previously with a Zelda one and that looks nice too. If you do want the little drawings on them, start with drawing the shapes out with a pencil. Obviously I am not a pro drawer, but they are only simple shapes. This is how I drew them out.


























Also draw a line on the bottom using a ruler. This will be the ground. Once that's done, you are ready to paint. You can see on the picture of the finished hanger the colors you can use. Try to be as tidy as you can, but I know it's hard with a paint brush. Don't worry if you go out of the lines a bit, as we make that dissapear in the end when we use the Sharpie for the outlining.  While the paint is drying we can move on to the Hama bead part. Don't use the Sharpie yet, wait until the paint is dry. It will be much easier then. This is how mine looked after painting it.





To make the hama bead characters, you simply take your peg board and start putting the beads on there. Just copy the ones I made, the photos are below.




Once you have finished those, heat up your iron. Once it's heated up, you put the greaseproof paper on top of your beads like this.
 


Keep moving the iron over the paper. You can just go round and round. Don't keep it on the same place or it will melt your pegboard and you won't be able to use it again. After about ten seconds it should be done. To check this, lift up the paper and check if the beads are all attached to each other. Especially on the sides, you don't want anything to come off. Once it is done you can take the shape off you peg board. It's best to turn the shape upside down, put the grease paper on it again and go over it with the iron a couple of times again. You don't have to put it back on the peg board to do that. Just to make it a little bit more sturdy.

By now the paint has probably dried and you are ready to give it the finishing touch with the Sharpie. Draw around the shapes you drew before, make shadows behind the blocks, make the lines a bit thicker at the places where you went out the lines with the paint. Also draw the line of the ground and make little 'z' like shape in the ground, to make it look similar like the game.

Almost done now!  Turn on your glue gun and wait for it to be heated up. Once it is heated up, put glue on the back of the shape and stick it on the hanger. Do the same to the other two shapes. You will glue one shape on the left, one in the middle and one on the right. 
The last thing left to do is attach the two hooks back onto the hanger and you are done!



I hope you enjoyed this tutorial and that is was helpful to you. Please let me know what you think and I would love to see your finished result. If you have any requests let me know and I'll see if I can make a tutorial on it :-)

Siri

Monday 19 May 2014

Upcycle your old table tutorial






What you'll need:

-A table (or any object you would like to decorate, almost everything works!) I used THIS one. 
-Mod Podge or Decopatch glue. (Not very cheap, but they go a long way, so it's well worth it.
-A paint brush.
-Paper. Any decoupage paper will do. You could do it all in the same colour, or like me choose different colours that go well together and mix 'm up.
-(Optional) varnish, which makes the table look just a little more shinier and also offers more protection. If you choose not to use varnish that is fine, since the Mod Podge or glue you use will already give it protection.
-(Optional) sand paper to sand down the surface of the object you are decorating.



I started by sanding down the table to take the layer of paint off. This is optional. I just find the paper stick nicer to the surface then.


As a preparation you take your decoupage paper and start 
tearing them into small pieces. ( I know that hurts, since the
paper is a bit pricey, but it will be well worth it in the end 
trust me ;))



Dip your paint brush in the glue and apply it to the table. Then pick up a piece of paper with your pencil (in that case you don't get your hands dirty) and stick it to the glue you just applied on the table. Once it's stuck on there, go with your brush over the paper and make sure it is nice and smooth with no bumps or lumps underneath the paper. Once you've done that, apply a little bit of glue on the table next to you first piece of paper and pick up another piece of paper and stick it on. Make sure it overlaps the first piece of paper a little bit, so you won't have any gaps. Repeat this until the whole object is covered. 
For the sides of the table I use the edges of the paper, because they are already perfectly straight and therefore will fit perfectly on the edges. 





Once the whole table is covered, put another layer of glue over the paper your applied to the table. Once this is dry it will form a protection. It dries pretty quick, so your table can be used within a couple of hours of making it. If you want to put an extra layer of varnish over it, make sure you let it first dry properly and then just use your paint brush to cover the table with a layer of varnish. This will also have to dry again. Once it's dry, you can use your new table!
Hope this was useful for you and please show me the result of your decoupage project!

Siri