Tutorial Tuesday: Gilded Lace Crowns

These pretty crowns are great for costumes (Halloween princess, anyone?), fairy house decorations, and the tiny ones could be cute tree ornaments. They are deceptively easy to make, and could be a fun project to do with little ones.

Materials:
Lace, modpodge, gold acrylic paint, gold leafing powder.
Tools:
scissors, paintbrushes, wax paper, optional hair dryer

1) Take your lace and make a crown shape.

The laces I used have one flat side. That really helps the structure.
The width of the lace and the pattern will help you determine the size of your crown.

2) Trim lace to size with a 1/2 inch or more overlap, matching pattern.

3) Paint with gold acrylic paint. Be sure to cover all surfaces.
Paint both sides of the lace.Let dry.
You may want to do more coats of gold paint.
I mixed an iridescent gold and a flakier gold for a
deeper look.

4) Place on wax paper.

5) Coat with ModPodge until well saturated.
I recommend you seal with, at least, 3 more coats of Modpodge.
Move it around while its really wet,
to keep the holes in the lace from becoming windows

6) Enhance the color with gold leafing powder
dabbed onto wet Modpodge with dry brush.
You can skip this step, but I really think it makes all the difference.

7) Dry completely flat. A hair dryer can speed the process.
Brush dry crown with a dry brush to remove excess leafing powder.
Peel off of the wax paper.

8) After all of ModPodge dries,
use craft glue to attach the ends of the lace together
to form the crown.

8.5)Pinch ends with fingers until set, wait overnight, until dry.

If this crown will see heavy use,
some stitches on a sewing machine might also be a good idea.

9) Place crown on head and have fun storming the castle.

Made It Myself Monday: 13 means Sushi

Well, the accidentally big blog break at the beginning of the month had a bit to do with the fact that the first half of October is fraught with Birthday's around here.

Saturday, the wunderkind had his 13th. The theme was Sushi featuring Rock Band Karaoke and it was our first official Boy-Girl Party. It was great, the kids came and all the neighbors crashed the party as well. There isn't a scrap of food left in the house.

My main contribution was the cake.

oh yeah, and the birthday boy, but at 13, I guess I still consider him a WIP.

Happy Birthday Kid, I love you more than I could ever say... now, go do your homework.

I really want to say a big thanks to all the folks who stopped by from Today's Creative Blog too.
And to the delightful Kim for her really great article. So Very Kind!!



That was such a wonderful birthday present to get all the lovely feedback on the western shirt.
I just started a Wild Western Shirt Flickr group for all you folks looking to make your own!

I think it will be so fun to see all the variations!

I hope I get my next western shirt cut out today. So many things to sew, so little time.

Oh, and I did make a special 40th Birthday New Vintage Party Dress... Stay tuned. It will be posted as soon as I get that photo shoot done. Which will be after my photographer finishes his homework.

What Turning 40 Looks Like

my sisters

self portrait on public transport

cupcake

cupcake

cupcake

Beautiful Ladies who came out to play

and gifted me with vintage fabric

and dark chocolate espresso caramels.
Thanks so Much !!

And dinner just for grown ups

I had the best time.

I'll get to Portland someday soon.
But this day was fun and sweet, even staying close to home.