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Sheet Music Paper Sculpture



I have a vintage paper obsession.  I've been collecting vintage paper (old books, wrapping paper, sheet music, etc.) for years and when my closet started to resemble a very special edition of "Hoarders," I decided I had to come up with projects or get rid of all of it.

First project - Sheet Music Paper Sculpture

I saw something similar to this on Pinterest, but with construction paper instead of sheet music. 

Materials needed:
Sheet music, cut into strips
Yarn, ribbon, twine or something similar
Glue gun
Weight for the bottom of the sculpture (I used an acrylic crystal)


Use a glue gun to attach the ends of the strips together to form teardrop shapes




You can also form circles and figure 8s.




Make a loop on one end of your string and hang it from something high enough that allows you to work.  The length should be however long you want your sculpture to be.  Tie your weight onto the bottom of the string.





. Put hot glue on one of your shapes and press it against another one of your shapes, keeping the string in the middle of both shapes and in the middle of the glue. Add circles, figure 8s and teardrops down the string and to paper that has already been glued to the string until you come up with something like this:




I embellished this sculpture with paper butterflies...





...and deer moss with vintage millinery flowers...




...and hung it in the window to brighten my day...








Self Promotion Saturday (Something Blue)


Everyone around me smells like sunscreen, so I'm feeling inspired by ocean things this week:

1.) Swim with whale sharks! Apparently you can swim or scuba dive with whale sharks at the Georgia Aquarium.  Because my husband and I have a gazillion dogs and an equal amount of businesses, we can pretty much only take a 2 or 3 day vacation and this is exactly what we want to do.  So we're spending the remainder of the summer getting certified for open water diving, and in December we're going to swim with whale sharks.  Also, YOU CAN SWIM WITH WHALE SHARKS.


Awesome.


2.) After you're scuba certified and you've gone swimming with whale sharks, you should probably dive somewhere that has one of these amazing underwater sculptures by Jason DeCaires Taylor. (I wrote about these before here)



When you're done exploring the bottom of the ocean, you're probably going to be starving and you're going to want to go out to eat.  You should wear this headband:



(via my Etsy shop. If you like this, but want something slightly different, let me know. I make stuff all day, every day)


Also, this dress would look stunning on you:



(Vintage! via SloppyJos)


And these are delicate and lovely:


(Via ShopSomethingBlue.  Handmade, and she does custom orders!)


And finally, a gigantic recycled, eco friendly, seahorse necklace for people who like a big, bold, statement piece:



(via Me again!)


Next week I'm looking for mossy, forest, woodland creature inspired things.  If you have something that you think would fit, let me know by linking in the comments - I'd love to feature you! 

Have a great week!


80's Party

In addition to Hey Lola, my husband and I also own a small tavern and in this small tavern, I throw the occasional theme party.

I love a theme party more than cake, and I love cake a whole lot.

We recently had an 80's themed party which was surprisingly more difficult to decorate than I had thought it would be.  Eventually, we pulled it together with cassette tape streamers, Pop Rocks and Fun Dip, neon animal print bandannas and hats, jelly bracelets, Rubik's Cubes, vinyl records hanging everywhere and the best decoration ever - Pac-Man Garland.  Here's how I made the garland:

Supplies needed:
String
Cardstock (different colors)
Hot glue
Black Marker
Scissors
Circle punch or template



Cut yellow circles out of construction paper or cardstock.  I used the roll of ribbon to trace my circles - the size was perfect.


Perfect circles!



I'm an equal opportunity crafter, so Miss Pac-Man was invited.




I used the same roll of ribbon to trace the top of the ghosts and then cut the bottom freehand.  I also cut small white ovals for their eyeballs, filling them in with black marker.



This paper punch cut out the perfect size for Pac-Man Pellets.



I used blue string and attached everything with a glue gun.  Everything is double sided, so basically glue the back side of one piece, put the string in the middle and glue an identical piece to the other side.

We strung it all over our tavern and when the party was over, we decided to leave it up.  People comment on it all of the time.

If you have any questions about how I made this or if you made it and are willing to share, let me know in the comments!



Paper Dress Project

In addition to crafting my face off at the store, I also sell vintage clothing. Once upon a time a really nice lady brought me every item of clothing from what I'm pretty sure was a magical attic. Unfortunately, two of the most gorgeous fifties prom dresses were pretty much destroyed beyond repair...so I covered them in paper and used them as window displays (thanks to Pinterest and Anthropologie for all of the inspiration!)




First I made these circles out of thrifted sheet music and I cut them halfway through.




Then I did this...





Then I did this... (and added some hot glue)




And I ended up with a bunch of these...





So then I made a bunch of these...



And some of these...



Then I did this...




And this... (The dress is actually fitted onto an old vintage bathroom shaving mirror - cheap and easy mannequin")




And added some giant bursts of color like this...

And ended up with these:




I painted the frames of the chalkboards lime green to go with the paper "flowers."  The chalkboards were $12.00 each, I think the chalk was around $2.00, the pack of colored cardstock was $20.00 (in addition to what I already had) and the hot glue was around $5.00.  It took me about a day and a half to do this and the total cost was around $50.00.  However, the response I get for my windows is priceless.  People love them! (And when these come down, all of the paper will be composted in our worm bin!)

I'm obsessed with with window displays - feel free to share your favorites with me!



Make your own mannequins/jewelry displays

When I first opened my store, I had a budget for fixtures of somewhere close to 27 cents. 

Maybe a little bit more, but it was definitely a very limited budget.  I wanted to invest in some jewelry displays, but I didn't like most of them and the mannequins that I wanted didn't work with that tiny budget that I mentioned.  I did some research and decided to try making some of my own and am actually really happy with the results!  Here's how I did it:

Supplies needed:

A person, dress form or mannequin torso
plastic wrap or grocery bags
masking tape
cardboard
old newspaper
brown paper bags
White glue (I bought a gallon at Lowes for around $13.00)
Paintbrush
Large bowl


I used a display torso that I already had, but you can also use a dress form or even a person! I tried to recycle as many materials as possible for this project, so I used grocery bags to cover the mannequin torso.  If you use a person as your base, plastic wrap might be easier.



I used masking tape to tape the bags together.


Once the torso was covered, I used masking tape to cover the torso.  You can wrap the waist and the neck by just going around the torso, but the breast area seemed to work best when done in a criss cross pattern.  You'll have to play around a little to get it just right.  Make sure every part of the torso is covered, leaving the bottom and the top f the neck open.


Some websites recommended duct tape.  I played around with it but in the end decided that for the cost and the desired end result, that masking tape was a better choice. 


When the torso is completely covered, cut a straight line through the back with a pair of scissors.


Peel the "shell" away from the torso carefully.


When you've removed the shell, pull the seam back together, put your hand inside and press against the seam and use your other hand to press a line of masking tape against the seam to "sew" your shell back together.


You'll then have a very flimsy mannequin/jewelry display.  I stuffed mine with old newspapers until it felt firm.


I traced the base of the torso on a piece of a cardboard box and cut it out.  I used an old candle holder that I had as the stand. I did use duct tape to secure the base to the form and to the candle holder, as I wanted it to be secure.  


Once the stands and the bases were secure, I decoupaged each form.  I happen to have a huge stash of grocery bags that were overstock from our other business, so that's what I used.  I tore each bag into strips and soaked the strips in water.  I filled another bowl with the white glue and painted each torso, a small section at a time.  I wrung the paper strips out like a sponge and applied them to the torsos.  I went over the strips with the glue after they were applied, repeating the process until each torso was completely covered.




These are the finished results! I made the edges of each display rough and uneven, as I felt it looked better.  I also painted some of the candle holders and glued moss on to others. I do still need to go over each one with some really fine grit sandpaper, but overall, I'm happy!  Plus, the whole project cost me about $25, which is over $200 cheaper than the displays I was originally looking at.

To see how someone else created their own dress form using a person as their model, check out this post at Verily Magazine.

If you tried this, I'd love to see your results!