A favor request…

Do you remember these fun little lifesaver napkin rings? This is a craft I shared in the Country Living July/August 2011 issue. I would sincerely appreciate your time in re-Pinning this project over on Country Living’s Pinterest Board for favorite craft demo requests at the Country Living Fair in New York. Thank you!!

Disclosure: I am a paid blogger for SC Johnson

The hardest thing to get used to is leaving an iron down on the ironing board when in use, rather than lifting it upright while adjusting fabric on your board. Maybe your ironing board cover is like my old one, decorated with large, triangular-shaped scorch marks from trying your best to keep the iron hot and steaming while adjusting things on the board. The amazing technology of the Oliso Smart Irons allow them to remain in a down position and ready to use without damaging your project or cover. From the Oliso website: The Oliso® TG1600 Pro features Oliso’s patented iTouch® technology. Simply touch the handle and the iron lowers, ready to work. Take your hand off and the patented scorchguards lift the iron off the board preventing scorches, burns, and tipping. Less strain and 30% time savings are added benefits to this Smart Iron’s 1800 watts of power and horizontal or vertical bursts of steam. The TG1600 Pro features a 30-minute extended auto-shut off for sewers and quilters, a 12.7 oz side fill tank, a beadblast stainless steel soleplate, flat pressing surface, detailer tip, and a 12-foot cord for full range of motion.

This is the perfect iron for the textile professional or crafter and it’s just so fun to work with. My favorite features of this particular iron are the extra long 12-foot cord, the easy fill XL water tank, and of course the iTouch® technology- it’s space-age. The fact that the color of this iron coordinates with my yellow sewing nook, well, that’s just a bonus!

I keep my Oliso Pro Smart Iron in the studio, so naturally, I needed a cute vintage ironing board to use it on since my studio is filled with vintage & vintage-style furnishings. After shopping around a bit, I snagged one up for under $30. I stripped off the old covering and instead of creating a drawstring cover, I upholstered a new cover directly to the board. Upholstering the board avoids the gathering and puckering of fabric and batting along the edge of the board, not to mention, it’s faster and easier. The recommendation from Oliso is that the firmer or thinner your ironing board cover is, the better the scorch guard will work. So I lined my wood board with two thin layers of Warm & Natural Needled Cotton Batting cut from a roll at my local fabric store. I laid the board onto the batting, outlined the board, then trimmed 3-inches away from the outline.Using my electric staple gun, I stapled the batting edges nice and snug around the board’s underside.For the fabric cover, I chose Flora (red/circles) by Lauren + Jessi Jung for Moda, trimming to fit and stapling a folded edge all around the underside. I didn’t staple the batting and the fabric at the same time with the same staples so that should I want to only replace the fabric in the future I won’t pull up the batting. Folding the edge before stapling keeps the fabric from pulling loose along a raw edge.Here’s my sweet vintage ironing board, newly covered, and my awesome new Oliso Pro.I came across another vintage wooden ironing board priced just right and much wider, so of course, I covered that too, and it now hangs in my sewing nook.

THE OLISO PRO SMART IRON GIVEAWAY!

The generous folks at Oliso are giving a Oliso Pro Smart Iron to one lucky JSIM reader- a $199 Value!

TO ENTER: Leave a nice, relevant comment on this post. US residents only. One comment per person, please. (If you inadvertently leave two, please remove one to keep things fair.) Though not required, follow Oliso on Facebook to keep up with all things fun and fabricy and technilologicly cool!

ENTRY DEADLINE: Enter by Midnight, Saturday, May 11, 2013. The winner will be notified, announced and posted here on Mother’s Day!

CONGRATULATIONS to (-randomly chosen-) ENTRY NO. 227- maybaby (aka: Kristi Pohl). Thanks everyone for your awesome comment entries! As always, more fun giveaways to come.

Disclosure: I am a paid blogger for SC Johnson

The inspiration for my first project came from this little bit of vintage signage (below) that I found at an antique shop a few years back: DELIVERED FRESH DAILY that likely went with another sign such as FRESH EGGS or BAKED GOODS. This vintage wording begged for accompanying text, and now that I had my new Moto-Saw tool, I was ready to create it. However, for a first timer, this project was a bit ambitious. And if I had to do it over again, I would have chosen solid pine wood, rather than the craft plywood I had on hand, (better left for small construction projects,) as it was a very hard wood and a bit tough to work with.

To begin, I typed out my lettering to size (4 1/2-inches high) on my computer, in outlined text to save on ink, and moved it about a letter-size layout to print every letter. I created a flat edge for every round bottom letter in order for them to ultimately stand on their own without falling over.

Once all letters were printed and roughly trimmed out, lightly I coated the backs of each with spray adhesive and placed letters about the wood, aligning the bottoms of every letter along an existing straight edge of the wood board. I wasn’t confident enough to think I could cut good straight lines the first time out the gate, so this worked well. And it paid off, because as I mentioned, working with this hard wood was indeed challenging.The Moto-Saw comes with a vacuum attachment for collecting dust as you cut. However, I chose to work outside rather than in my studio. This ornate typeface was a bit trickier to work with than if it were a simple sans serif font. There were a few points where I painted myself into a corner and needed to carefully back my blade out. I learned to cut from smaller sections of wood rather than try to fit a large piece in as ultimately you can run into the back metal arm. For tight areas and letter cut-outs, I first drilled a hole to allow for removing and replacing the blade. After all letters were cut, I used my cordless Dremel Rotary Tool to lightly sand and soften the edges.I painted the surface of letters a very thin coat of white and positioned them on top of a piece of baseboard trim.The letters stood fine on their own with their flat bottoms, but I used a bit of hot glue at the back base of each to keep them from toppling from any Northern California tremor, or the occasional slamming of a door. This will work great should I ever decide to trick the letters out at a later time with decorative paper or paint, or choose to hang them individually on a wall, they can be very easily removed from the baseboard.For now, they sit atop my giant studio apothecary cabinet! (Sorry, bigger studio reveal under wraps for a while!)I’m pretty pleased with my first go at crafting with this great little tool.You can purchase the Dremel Moto-Saw Variable Speed Compact Scroll Saw Kit on Amazon.com for only $99! Here are some Moto-Saw craft ideas from Dremel.

My next Dremel Moto-Saw project: Tabletop wooden people-photo cut-outs!

What would you make?

From the unfinished wood section of Michaels, I picked up four turned-wood candlesticks and a large, French corner wooden plaque the width of my table.

On to the floral department, I snagged up these thick and heavy, 5-inch square glass containers.

Over in what I call the Tim Holtz aisle, I spied this Non-Stick Craft Sheet by Ranger. I didn’t even know this stuff existed- and it’s perfect for my hot glue station project!I also picked up some acrylic craft paint in three colors.

I began my project by creating a pedestal to add to the top of my side table by attaching the candlesticks to the bottom of the wood plaque. I pre-drilled pilot holes through the plaque and top centers of the candlesticks to avoid splitting of any wood. I used a larger drill bit to drill down a very small amount into the surface of the plaque in order to recess the screws. I screwed in long wood screws, filled the recessed holes with wood putty and lightly sanded smooth once the putty dried. I then turned the piece over, placed the side-table upside down and into position atop the base of the candlesticks. I again pre-drilled pilot holes through the table and connected to the candlestick bases with screws.That was if for the construction end of things.I mixed three different colors of acrylic craft paint together to come up with a turquoise- similar to the color of the legs of my workshop tables- and painted the entire piece. Once dry, I lightly distressed some edges of the piece with fine grit sandpaper.I added the non-stick craft sheet, cut to shape, to the surface of the pedestal using mounting adhesive. This will protect the top from any hot glue damage and make for very easy clean-up.The glass containers fit perfectly into the magazine rack area and now hold two lengths of hot glue sticks, and several bottles of Beacon adhesives.Under the pedestal sits my new hot glue pot. To the side sits a Surebonder Glue Gun Pad that I use a lot with hot glue projects in many different ways to manipulate cooling glue. Atop the pad is where I will store my hot glue gun.Here is my new hot glue station!(Finished just in time for working on another upcoming blog project!)I’d love to know what you think of my Michaels Re-Loved It project! Be sure to check out lots of other Re-Loved It projects in the Michaels Look Book.

Disclosure: I am a paid blogger for SC Johnson.

I scanned the card and Photoshopped the image to create blank designs now available in three different label configurations, FREE to you, courtesy of WorldLabel.com!  You can view and download those editable/fillable files over on WorldLabel.com’s blog.

The labels would be just right for party favors, address labels & seals, store stickers, food packaging, and gift labels. Enjoy!

Disclosure: I am a paid blogger for SC Johnson