HP Craftalong ~Summer Semester 2012~ *CLOSED*

[Naantje]

I've totally been beaten by the beater challenge 

We bought a second hand table when we moved in together, and it was quite damaged: the colour had faded in some places, there were scratches, ... We bought it voor €10, so it was really cheap, and we figured we'd just paint it and we'd have a really nice table. We used it for about 1,5 years as it was, but past saturday, I had had enough and told my boyfriend: that is it, we're buying an electric sander, we'll take the table apart and we'll sand it down and paint it! And so we did. We sanded the thing down on saturday, cleaned away all the dust and I gave it its first coat of black paint. It was looking nice and smooth and glossy, but it definitely needed a second coat of paint since coverage wasn't all that even. So yesterday I put on the second layer and we left it to harden for the time they said.

I was quite disappointed: with the second coat, you could kind of see the marks from the roller and it wasn't really very smooth at all. I think this is maybe because I use a shorter roller, as something inside the longer roller had broken off and it wouldn't stay put on the handle... We reassembled the table today, forgot to take a picture, and had dinner around 9. And dang it, there's scratches in the paint already! And not just minor scratches, but really bad ones. I'm SOOOOOOOOO frustrated, this was supposed to be (according to the can) good covering paint that was very durable, fit for indoor ánd outdoor use. But it didn't even survive one meal!

I'm not sure if I should post this project, I do have progress pictures, and I'll have a picture of our once-again damaged table. I do feel proud for finally beating procrastination ánd for trying out something new and intimidating, but I just wished it turned out to be better. (To top it all off: our SD card became corrupted, so I nearly lost all of our pictures on the card, including the progress pictures! I did manage to recover them though, I did the quick format as my computer told me I would need to do, and then used recuva and got all my precious photo's back!)

[Ant Bee]

Naanjte, How frustrating! Good for you for giving it a try, tho.

The challenge says to "Try something new" so I think this definitely counts toward the challenge so go ahead and post a pic if you like. A big part of crafting is the stuff we try and discover we don't like, or it doesn't work the way we want it to- that doesn't mean those crafts weren't worth-while. Professor Pinkleo will ell you whether it counts or not in the end.  It's good you tried it.

[rossie]

Class: Quidditch, Cheering/Spirit
House: Slytherin
Project: Snake hair bow
Description:

Both my kids like getting all girly, so hair pretties are in demand.  This is a simple chiffon bow made by gathering two rectangles of fabric and slapping a satin strip around the middle to hold everything in.  

I chose the olive green because it reminds me of taipans, which are common in this part of the world, and what Slytherin doesn't have a little bit of snake in them?  Mwahaha!







    

[Ant Bee]

Challenge:Quidditch Keeper
House: Slytherin
Project Name:Premie/newborn pumpkin hat
Charity: This will probably go to the local NICU, or perhaps to the drive that Debbie Macomber does called "Knit 1 Bless 2"


(The long green string will be cut the minute I find my goshdang scissors.  I blame Nargles.)

[Ant Bee]

Rossie, that look great!  Go Slytherin!

[special_occasion]

Slytherin is coming up with some very nice things!

[Icekibby]

Class: Quidditch, Broomstick
House: Slytherin
Project: besom bookmark
Description: This is a scan from prior to rounding the corners and adding a tassel. The image is micron pen and watercolour on watercolour paper, backed with dark blue scrapbook paper. I'm adding one of our temple's besom chants to the back in white gel pen. It's going to be for a grimoire page trade.

I have something made for a charity auction, just need to get a photo of it!

[rossie]

Class: Quidditch, Keeper
House: Slytherin
Project Name: Toiletry Bags
Description:  For my Keeper project, I am crafting for a charity that collects handmade things and bundles them up for recipients in need.  They also distribute personal care items like toothpaste, brushes, etc., and need toiletry bags for all these bits and pieces.  I made two this afternoon, and will try and get some more done over the week  





 

[Naantje]

Class: Quidditch, Beater
House: Slytherin
Project Name: The table that loved its scratches
Description:
When my boyfriend and I moved in together, we bought a €10 second hand table that needed some TLC to become a rocking piece of furniture once more. It was heavily scratched and the colours had faded in many a spot, but the piece of furniture itself was heavy duty. We had the table for 1,5 years and used it in its damaged state all that time, but last weekend I had had enough of our procrastination!

We took it apart and sanded it down and realised that in our newly found enthousiasm, we'd forgotten to take a before shot! Here's the "during":


As you can see, our cat is wondering what has happened to our table

We emptied out our shed to create space for painting: it was nice enough weather for painting outside on saturday, but heavy rainfall was expected in the evening. It was a good call, because rain started pouring from the sky about 5 minutes before I finished off the table top, and then I still needed to do the legs. See how smooth and mirror-like the surface was after the first coat! Unfortunately, the table wasn't coated very evenly and there were still some brownish spots...


Sunday brought the second coat of paint, and on Monday, when the paint had dried as long as the can said it would need to, we reassembled the table and moved it back inside.


As you can sort of see (it's more telling in real life!) the table top misses that smooth, glossy quality. You can really tell the marks from the roller

And this, depressingly, is what the table top looked like after just one meal (though the flash did wash out the black a bit):

Apparently the paint is not quite so strong, heavy duty, durable paint as the can wanted us to believe... Or maybe our table had been in a scratched and stunted state for such a long time that it couldn't go through life looking smooth and glossy. Maybe it liked its scratches and scars, and its angry at us for mending them. After all, I do fear that we did not give our patient a say in this procedure.

I did try something new, but I think that when it comes to painting furniture, I'll invite my mother over for a couple of days and delegate the task to her. She's quite often achieved amazing results with some paint to revive old and damaged furniture, so I'll leave that to her, and stick to painting walls mysellf. Non-glossy paint is a lot more forgiving!

[SootBerry]

..Is it okay to join while the Quidditch challenge is on? I don't want to upset any numbers or averages or anything. (Team Ravenclaw ftw!  )

I've been lurking on craftster & checking in on this thread for what seems like forever and I don't think I can hold myself back from joining in much longer.