Sharpie pen decorating

I'm a bit late jumping on this bandwagon (I think people did this a few years ago). I saw this on pinterest whilst browsing for ideas for something to do, using Sharpie pens to decorate plain plates. They make for nice personalised gifts if you are short of cash!

All you need are some white plates, a range of sharpie permanent markers in a range of colours and an oven to bake the plates in.

I bought some white plates from a charity shop, give them a wash and dry before you start.

I used pencil to sketch out a design on to the plates. Have some wet wipes/baby wipes handy to scrub out any pencil that shows up after you pen in your design.

Once you are happy with the design, bake them in the oven for 30 mins at gas mark 4 (180 Celsius, 350 Fahrenheit). 

The finished result!

I'm not entirely happy with the final result, but I guess its not too bad for a first attempt...

Upcycling - Jewellery box

We moved into our new house last summer and the previous owner of the property left a few things behind. Most of the stuff was outdated old junk, and we took most of it to the local dump. There were a few kids’ things that I ended up keeping, one of which was an old jewellery box. I had been thinking of buying a jewellery box for Affie (she has been given lots of jewellery already from friends and relatives). So I thought I would use this as an opportunity to have a go at upcycling (inspired by Kirstie Allsop’s programme).

The old jewellery box

The 'upcycled' jewellery box

I started off by using plastikote in flat white. It covered the majority of the box but it was pretty thin, so I used the Wilkinson’s own brand (in satin white) which worked out so much better! I used some left over lace to get the pattern on the edge of the drawers. 

It didn’t turn out as crisp as what I would have liked but it’s still ok. I also used Plastikote in Sky blue. Not too bad for a first attempt at upcycling I suppose…