Valentine's Day Heart

Celebrate Valentines Day by decorating your home with a hanging wall heart that you decorated yourself.

To make one like mine you'll need...

A wooden heart shaped plaque
Some ribbon
Decorative roses
Butterfly motif
A napkin of choice
Glue gun

First of all paint your heart white, so that your napkin découpage has a neutral base to go onto.  When dry découpage with your napkin (or paper if you prefer), leave to dry and then give it a coat or two of satin/matte varnish to protect the découpage.

Add your hanging-ribbon and glue on the decorative roses and the butterfly motif.

That's it - simple!

Now you have a beautiful decoration that can be used the whole year through, not just on Valentine's Day.

Wishing You all a Wonderful Valentine's Day

By for now

Christmas Decoration Sets

Hello guys,

As we are nearing the end of the Christmas decoration-making season I thought I'd post some pics of a few of the Christmas Decoration sets that I made this year  I and I hope you like them as much as I enjoyed making them.  They are a wonderful Christmas present idea for someone special as you can make each set in a different style and uniqueness for each person.  You can adapt this idea to make gifts for birthdays and other special occasions during the year too.  I do hope that you will join me again soon when I will be talking about journaling and showing you some photos of my recent journal making.  Don't forget that February brings St. Valentine's Day and I will also be posting soon with some great gift ideas for your loved one. So make sure to stop by and check out my posts.

Bye for now

Handmade Gift Tags

Hi Guys,

Today I'm going to show you the first of this year's Christmas Gift Tags - yep, I know, Halloween is just over and already we're taking Christmas!  Better to be organised early though as the weeks just fly in from now.

These were super-easy to make and this time I made them using left over scraps of rice paper and napkins from other projects which quite honestly I had never thought of until I watched a tutorial from Erica over at CottageChicClub recently.  I thought this was a great idea and more interesting than just using one paper or napkin for the job - so don't throw away those scraps people, keep them for your small projects!

I will say however that I found it a little bit more challenging using the scraps rather than using just one paper or napkin, I actually had to think about colour, placement, background, matching etc. so it does bring out your crafty side in a big way - and in a good way, ideas kept coming as I kept working.

I've made a short video of the first few tags to give you a more clear view of how they look.  I will be posting a tutorial on this later for anyone who's interested in trying to do their own, as I said, they're easy to do and will give your gifts a more unique and stylish look for Christmas.  See video below:

Thanks for watching, and remember you can contact me by email by using the form on the right or here at Funky-Junk Email  if you have any questions at all, I'm always happy to help.

Bye for now

Ideas Please - Pine Bedside Locker for Revamp

Hi Guys,

Today I'm looking for inspiration.  I just bought this orange-pine bedside locker for the bargain price of €20 and I am looking to you Funky-Junkers to help me decide what to do with it.

I'm thinking of painting it grey as the main colour but would love to hear some of your suggestions.  Should I add some découpage?  What can I do with the drawer pulls?  What do you guys think?

Don't be shy and give me a shout with your great ideas!

You can contact me in the usual way by sending me a message by filling in the short form on the right hand side of this page or by commenting at the bottom of this post.

Don't forget you can follow my projects and be first to get my posts by filling in your email address at the top left of this page.

Cardboard Box to Jewellery Box Transformation

Hi Folks, it's Gwen here from Funky-Junk, I hope you're all feeling good now that Summer is finally here and that you're ready for some more découpage.  Back in October, some of you will remember I posted about how to make a pretty jewellery box from old bracelet and watch boxes. You can see the post here .  Today, I am going to show you how to make another beautiful travel sized jewellery box from a plain cardboard one using some chalk paint and a napkin. These little boxes work great as travel jewellery boxes for when you're going on holidays.  Below is the most recent addition to my collection and if you scroll down you will also see the original box before decoration:

To do this you will need the following items:

A box
Découpage paper/napkin
Découpage glue
Découpage varnish
Chalk Paint
Wax Paper
An iron

First, paint the box in a colour of your choice using chalk paint (2 coats).  When dry, paint on a layer of découpage glue and let dry.

Place your découpage paper in the position that you want it on the box and cover with wax paper.  Iron over the wax paper with no steam setting on low heat.  Remove the wax paper.

Give the box two coats of découpage glue letting each coat dry before the next is applied.  When fully dry, give it a coat of varnish (or two).  That's it!  Now you have a cute little travel jewellery box.  As you can see from my photos, I choose to paint the interior of my box in a different colour to give contrast, you can paint yours in a colour of your choice or you can découpage the base in a paper that matches the exterior of the box.

Pretty and easy!  Thanks for stopping by, don't forget, as usual, if you have any questions you can contact me using the email form on this page or by leaving a comment below, it's always great to get your feedback.

Bye for now

Découpaged Tray

Découpage never fails to please and this time the subject matter was an inexpensive wooden tray which I had been looking out for for some time.  I hit pay dirt in a city centre Euro store for the bargain sum of €6,99 which just made  this project all the sweeter.

I used napkins for this découpage job - 4 to be exact.  First, painted the tray with a couple of coats of cream coloured chalk paint.  I then stuck on the napkins using some découpage glue and matching up the design where necessary.  Care is needed when matching the design up, it's a bit like wall papering on a smaller scale.  I also stuck some cut out flowers from the napkin to the outside edges of the tray to complete the look. Once dry, I added a coat of découpage glue and when the glue was dry, I sanded it lightly with a fine sandpaper to smooth out any wrinkles before applying a second coat of glue. When the this coat was dry, I finished up with two coats of gloss varnish to protect the surface, as this tray will be used regularly. You may prefer to use a matt finish but for this particular project I thought the gloss would look better.

As this tray is so pretty, I've decided to hang it in my kitchen rather than hiding it in a cabinet - it will also be more accessible for regular use and doubles up as wall decor! See photos below.  Click on photos to make bigger.

Découpaged Tray 1

Découpaged Tray 2

Tray Hanging on Wall

Tray (Before)

I hope you enjoyed reading about my little découpage project, if you would like to ask any questions you can do so by emailing me at funkyjunkinfo@gmail.com or through the contact form on this page and I will be happy to answer you.  You can also let me know what you think by leaving a comment below.

By for now