A 'Starburst' of inspiration

After hours, days and weeks of trying to find home furnishing in Cyprus I'm beat. Everything is all sleek and modern and as I've got older I'm definitely not sleek and modern. So what is a girl to do? . . . the answer is to spend hours on Pinterest looking for inspiration.

Back in the UK I have a wonderful Starburst mirror from Laura Ashley which takes pride of place in my livingroom. Sadly it was took big to fit in our air freight boxes so was left behind.

I struck gold on Pinterest and found this as an alternative. Who would have thought you could make a mirror surround from paper?

I did bring with me a cheap white mirror I purchased from The Range for less that £5.00 that I was going to use in the master bedroom. So this was going to be perfect to build onto.

I started by using the mirror as a template and on thick cardboard I drew round the mirror. This is what I would attach the starburst to.

I needed to find something suitable to make the starburst and I knew Crafters companion Centura Pearl card would be perfect. I played about for a while deciding on the length, width and angle of the points for the starburst and decided on three different shapes that I would use. 

Once all measured and drawn onto the Centura Pearl, I cut out, scored and attached to the cardboard circle with Collal Tacky Glue.

Adding a layer at a time. 

To be completely honest I was blown away with how it looked, I never imagined it would look so good.

Although I loved it in the basic white, and the mirror surround was white, I wants to add some colour. The room that it is going in is very large, bright and airy with loads of Cyprus sunlight flooding in. I was afraid it might just disappear once on the wall.

The colour scheme of the room is going to be grey and white with hints of heather. So grey was the obvious colour. Before spray painting it grey I thought best to give the card starbursts a light coat of mod Podge. I done this as I thought the wetness of the spray paint might soak into then Centura Pearl and warp.

Once Mod Podge was dry I have it a couple of light coats along with the white mirror and left to dry over night.

I attached the mirror to the surround with a very strong bonding agent and left for at least 24 hours.

Once hung on the wall above the fireplace I left it for a few days. I wasn't sure if I liked it in flat grey or if it needed some definition, in the way of paint effects.

After a fee days of living with it and seeing it in different lighting I decided it definitely needed to be "attacked" with some paints and inks. So I set about attacking it firstly with some dry brushing of white acrylic paint on the purchased mirror surround.

Then with my Pebeo Prism paints, Moonstone and Eggshell White I added paint to the pointed ends of the starbursts and to the purchased mirror. I also dry brushed some Tim Hotlz Vintage  Photo for some depth and it was finished...

I'm so delighted with how it has worked out and will defiantly make a great substitute for the real thing...well until we move all our stuff over that is.

Hope you like x

Day 20

Well it's been an age since I posted and even longer since I crafted. We arrived safe and well on the 8th January 2014 in sunny Cyprus. It's going to be an amazing year and the days are passing so so quickly already...been here 20 days.

Delighted to say all our stuff arrived safe and well a day earlier than scheduled. Cannot say how much of a relief that was. Box number 10 was the last to be unpacked...my scaled down crafty stash. Was so hard deciding what to bring as craft shops are so thin on the ground here.

Last year I concentrated my crafty efforts on card making, which I will return to soon, but I wanted to take this opportunity to try other crafts. I'm not the biggest fan of Cypriot decor, they like the sleek modern Italian look when it come to interiors and me not so much. So I set out with a list of thinks that make a house a home and I'm going to 'try' and see what I come up with.

So what did I start with? Tie back for the living room. I loved the lace curtains I had in my craft hut in Scotland, lace ones from Ikea which checking online the Nicossia store stocked them, yey. In my local Hobbycraft Store back in Scotland I purchased enough of these wooden love heart to act as embellishments for the tie backs.

I would normally have sanded them but loved the rough and raw edges created when they where cut. First coat of paint was slate great, left to dry and then the white coat was applied. 

Once white top coat dry I lightly sanded the edges and surface just enough to let the grey undercoat show through.

I wanted the love heart shape to have a pretty design on it and knew instantly which if my stamps would be perfect.

The shape of the love heart would make it difficult to stamp the design directly onto the heart. So I stamped the design in London Fog on to bog standard white tissue paper and left to dry over night. 

Now you are ready to attach the stamped design to your heart. Carefully trim off the excess tissue paper with scissors. Apply a light coat of Mod Podge and lay your stamped image onto the heart. Do to worry if your design is to big for the snap, I just trimmed off the excess. With your fingers gently work out the creases and leave to dry. Once dry apply a coat of Mod Podge over the entire surface of the heart, including the tissue paper. Again leave to dry.

I made my own tie back cord using good old fashioned garden twine which I braided. The love hearts where attached to the tie backs again with garden twine. To decorate the heart further I tied a double knot from garden twine and attached with silicon glue.

I have fallen in love with this gorgeous stamp design and I think the pattern will definitely be featured in my new grey, white and cream colour scheme. I have another make using the image which I'll post tomorrow.

Bye for now x x