Pink Robot Geeky and Vintage Skirts!

I have decided to develop and refine Pink Robot as a brand, by launching my first proper product. I have always been a "butterfly crafter"- I blame Pinterest and wonderful publications like Mollie Makes!- so my plan is to start with one product and expand. 

One project I've really enjoyed is making cute little unusual skirts for my girls. I have never really chosen to dress them in traditional "baby pink" clothes, so I love the reaction they get from people. The skirts are nothing like the ones available on the High Street. It's great to know that nobody else will have the same one, making it special and unique. 

I have 2 ranges- one range crafted from modern fabrics (which are unusual and largely geeky!) and another range made from reclaimed vintage and retro fabrics. 

Records, from the original range

Here is a selection from the vintage & retro range: 

Amazing Return of the Jedi vintage Star Wars fabric

Roland Rat- a blast from the past! 

Who doesn't love Postman Pat?!

Beautiful, bright Care Bears fabric for all you 80s children!

Hollie Hobbie- cosy for winter

People have been asking if I will branch out to making other items along the same geeky/ vintage theme. The answer is yes- eventually. I want to establish Pink Robot through making customers happy with my skirts first, then I'll move on to include other products in my range.

Click here to visit Pink Robot on Facebook! 

There is a giveaway on the page at the moment, to win a skirt PLUS one for a friend. Enter now! Competition closes on Sunday 12th October. 

My First Craftivism Experience

Scotland feels alive at the moment. Tens of thousands of people are engaged in politics for the very first time, and people are individually becoming more socially responsible. In the last couple of months, I've found myself taking part in marches and rallies, signing petitions and spending spare time researching current issues. 

While looking online, I discovered a form of activism which appealed to me immensely... craftivism. Craftivism (craft + activism) is a term coined by Betsy Greer in 2003, and the movement of quietly protesting through craft is moving throughout the world. I loved the idea of being able to send a message to people in my local community, by other methods than shouting loudly. Inspired by Sarah Corbett of Craftivist Collective, in her book- A Little Book of Craftivism, I embarked upon my first craftivist challenge.

My first mini protest banner!

In the run-up to the Referendum, "Bairns Not Bombs" was a favourite message of mine, and a reason why I supported Scottish independence. It seemed crazy to me to spend a ridiculous sum of money on renewing Trident (which incidentally is situated around 30 miles from Glasgow... eek) instead of investing money in things such as childcare. 

A burst of colour in the bushes

Here is my little cheerful-looking banner, tied to local railings. I hope that my little act of craftivism will provoke thought and discussion in anyone who happens to stroll past and see it. There are so many possible craftivism projects, and I look forward to starting my next one. 

Kawaii Craft Swap: September

I've been absent from the #dicraftswap for the last two months, so I was very excited to discover that September's theme is Kawaii! Regular readers will know all about my love for all things Japanese, and the bright, cute trend of Kawaii is no exception. When exploring this theme on Etsy and Pinterest, I found that the possibilities stretched far beyond what I already knew about, and I am now slightly obsessed by adding a face to everything! 

My recipient was Jenny, who writes the lovely blog Pretty Column and runs an Etsy shop under the same name. I wanted to go all out with the Kawaii theme, so I thought, why not make the receptacle Kawaii too? Jenny said that she loves Studio Ghibli, and especially My Neighbour Totoro... so here is my Totoro shoebox!

Kawaii shoebox- Totoro

When signing up to the #DICraftSwap, Hannah asked us all what the word Kawaii meant to us. Jenny said that Kawaii to her meant cute things, so I set on a mission to create a box of cute Japanese treats for her. She mentioned that making a non-cute item into something cute appealed to her, so I crafted this little watermelon pincushion from felt. I also made a happy toadstool brooch from felt. 

Adorable watermelon pincushion

Happy toadstool brooch

One of the first things I thought of was a little set of greetings cards, with Kawaii figures made from pretty wrapping paper. As a blogger, Jenny obviously enjoys writing! Oversized heads, tiny bodies and stylised "Kawaii" faces led to this little collection: 

Set of 4 Kawaii greetings cards

Jenny writes about her love for crafting and geekery, so I wanted to include some useful items in the box for her, which would tie into these passions. I chose bright, cheerful buttons and made her a peg set- I thought they would help her display or keep together ideas for her next crochet and knitting projects.  For similar reasons, I made her a bookmark featuring a very cute Japanese girl charm. I put together a collection of Kawaii beads and buttons for her (who can have enough beads and buttons?!) and added some cute Matryoshka post-its. 

Cute bright button pegs

Cute bookmark

A kawaii collection of beads and buttons for future crafts

Awww! Matryoshka post-its

I spotted these earrings in my collection of things I had already made to sell at craft fairs, under my crafty name of Pink Robot. The bright orange bubble-style beads fitted right in with the Kawaii theme, so into the box they went. 

Kawaii orange bubble beaded earrings

One thing that comes across very clearly from Jenny's tweets and the content of her Etsy shop is that she is head over heels in love with amigurumi! Well, after scouring the Internet looking at the crocheted cuties, so am I! Unfortunately, my craft skills do not yet extend to crochet, so for my "bought" gift, I chose this little dragon, by My Little Beasties! I really wanted to keep him for myself... isn't he adorable?

My "bought" gift... dragon amigurumi!

I was very excited to receive my Kawaii parcel from Rhiannon, who writes her blog, The Sparkly Panda. She sent me these very cute little crocheted stars, which I can sew backs on to and make into anything! In my package, I also got some sparkly kawaii stickers, post it notes and a "to do list" pad. All very kawaii indeed!! 

My lovely kawaii package

Craft room/ guest room transformation!

A few months ago, I wrote about a "junk room" in my house which I hoped to transform into a craft room/ guest room. I'm delighted to say that it's now almost finished, and what a difference! 

Before... eeeeek!

The room was completely unloved- broken, squeaky floorboards, badly-fitted and damaged

skirting, holes in the walls and ceiling. No wonder we ended up filling it with all our junk, and making it "the box room". However, I was desperate for a proper space to create things in. Somewhere I could keep my sewing machine out and functional, and store all my crafty bits and pieces neatly and logically. With a new baby, we also needed a guest room- and somewhere to escape to without waking our daughter if our new addition was rather noisy in the middle of the night! 

So here it is! Getting the floorboards fixed, walls plastered and skirting replaced used up almost all our budget... so the rest of the transformation was well and truly frugally done. 

Presenting my functional guest/ craft room

I chose this striking colour scheme in contrast to the darker hues in the study next door. It's a very small room, and I feel that the yellow combined with the light carpet really brighten the space and make it feel bigger. The sofa bed folds out to make it a functional guest room, but looks pretty as a comfy sofa in the meantime. The room is full of bargains and thrifty finds. The bedside tables were old pine ones we had in storage, painted to tie in with grey chalk paint. I found the tripod lamps in an Argos clearance sale for only £5.99 each. I have admired almost identical lamps from other retailers for upwards of £20, and I think these could certainly pass for more expensive. 

Well, I do love tea!

The pictures I chose are from various places. I want all my wall décor to be original, and not just the generic, mass-produced art which adorns many walls. I love this quote from J.M. Barrie's Peter Pan, and I bought it from a graphic designer called Abbie Imagine, on Etsy. The sewing machine print was free, printed at home (read about my favourite printable websites here) and I found the typewriter advert a couple of years ago at an antique fair for only £2. 

A great philosophy!

This cute little antique plate was upcycled by Heart Vintage, and I bought it from her Etsy store. I love the wartime "Make Do and Mend" philosophy, and it's one I do try to stick to. Where better to display this than next to my sewing machine? I thought this antique advert for Tootal sheets was totally appropriate in my guest room, and I found it on eBay for a couple of pounds. There are loads of vintage and antique adverts to be snapped up for next to nothing on eBay, if you know what theme you are looking for.  

Antique Tootal advert

Of course, I still have work to do! Here is my work station at the moment. The old pine desk needs painted to tie in with the rest of the room, although I did re-upholster the seat using a scrap of fabric from my stash. Shelves need to go up to house my growing vintage fabric collection, and I still have a few pieces of art ready for the wall. Nevertheless, I love my room, and already I've spent far too many wonderful hours crafting away in it. 

Still a bit of work to be done!

6 ways with wallpaper samples

Wallpaper samples are one of the most cost-effective, versatile craft materials. It's fairly easy to get your hands on some beautiful ones for free- listen out for local retailers throwing away old sample books, or ask your friends and family to save their samples for you once they have finished with them. There are countless ways you can make use of your samples, and here are 5 of my favourites. 

Create unique furniture pieces- Decoupage is a very effective and striking craft technique, which involves pasting a design to a piece of furniture, then protecting it with layers of varnish. you can paste any flat image, from wallpaper, wrapping paper, magazine pages and even napkins.  I found these projects on Pinterest, for inspiration:

Decoupage side table

Gorgeous patterned coat hooks

Unique dresser

Frame them- much like my fabric DIY wall art, this is an easy and thrifty way to dress your walls. Simply choose the pattern you like, and frame it. Voila- a unique piece of art which ties in perfectly with your room's decor. It's also a great way to use amazing, expensive designer wallpaper in your room, when you can't afford to do a whole wall!

Wrapping paper and gift tags- I've previously written about how wrapping a gift well can really add to its perceived value, and make the recipient feel like you have made a huge effort. Using wallpaper instead of wrapping paper is an easy way to add luxury- it's typically thicker, with a more sumptuous texture. Look at these cute gift tags, made for next to nothing! 

Gorgeous, and thrifty!

Beautify your drawers- An easy, quick way to add luxury to your desk or dressing table is to line your drawers with gorgeous wallpaper. It makes them look extra fancy and expensive. Just cut your wallpaper sample to size, and pop in the bottom of your drawer. 

Revamp a lampshade- You can pick up old lampshades in almost any charity shop for pennies, so why not give one a makeover using fancy wallpaper? I love these pretty floral vintage designs, and it looks fairly straightforward to do. 

Funky retro lampshades

Make new (recycled!) storage- Old boxes, bottles and cans covered in wallpaper can make for unusual and beautiful storage solutions. Tie them into the décor of a room, or make them a feature! I've seen this done with old formula cans, and I think they would be the perfect size for storing stationery. 

I'd love this for my craft room!

You would never guess these were plain boxes and wallpaper!

I've started collecting and hoarding wallpaper samples, so now I need to find a cute way to store them! If you have any other good ideas for using wallpaper creatively, I'd love to hear them. 

A New Name

I have decided to rename my blog to Pink Robot. 

I started out writing Make Thrift Love Life as a separate hobby to my crafting and Etsy shop. As my blogging experience has developed and evolved, I have found myself writing a lot about my craft projects, and using Twitter under the name of Pink Robot. I realised that it makes perfect sense to have my brand name consistent across all social media. 

I will be changing the blog's URL in a couple of days, giving my regular readers a chance to bookmark the new URL. It will become: 

http://pinkrobotcraft.blogspot.co.uk

5 Newbie Tips When Using Chalk Paint Powder

When money is too tight to buy new furniture, it's amazing what paint can do to transform your existing pieces. Painted wood furniture is so fashionable just now, it's easy and it's cheap. Right up my street! Totally inspired by the latest series of Kirstie's Fill Your House For Free, I thought I'd give it a go. 

After a little research, I knew that chalk paint would adhere to wood much better than ordinary paint, and needed much less prep and priming (I'm impatient when it comes to crafts- I just want to get to the good bits!) Annie Sloan appeared to be the most popular brand of paint for this type of project, but when I went online to order some, I baulked at the price. Yes- the colours were beautiful, and yes- the reviews were excellent, but I couldn't justify spending that amount of money on one colour of paint, for one project. Back to the drawing board. 

Pine lamp table transformed!

I stumbled upon a solution- chalk paint powder, added to regular emulsion. Great- this meant I could use up all my old paint as well! Since I love a feature wall, I actually do have loads of tins of paint sitting in the basement. I opted for a 300g tub of chalk paint powder, from Molly's Paintbrush, for £5.95. There are several sellers out there, but I found Molly to be really helpful and knowledgeable when I was asking my "newbie" questions. 300g is about the right amount for 1 litre of paint, but can be mixed up in smaller amounts for smaller jobs. 

Chalk paint powder

I have found it to be incredibly easy to use, and have successfully painted a few of my existing pieces of furniture so far. Here are my top 5 tips for complete beginners: 

1. Only mix up the amount you need. Even leaving the mix overnight can result in little tiny hard lumps in the paint, which are a complete pain to smooth out.
2. Do not attempt to paint MDF/ flat pack furniture! The finish is flat, and the paint scratches off quite easily. I tried primer underneath, but it's still not great. I love how you can still see the wood grain underneath chalk paint, and this is missing from MDF. 
3. Work in small areas at a time, making sure the finish is smooth before moving on. 
4. Lightly sand between coats. It makes a big difference! 
5. Remember to add water to the chalk powder before adding it to the paint. I forgot to do this the first time, and ended up with a lumpy mixture. 

I definitely think that using chalk paint powder is a better alternative to buying ready-made chalk paint. It's cheaper, and gives you the opportunity to use up your old emulsion. Bonus!