Curious Country Creations Crafty Life

Hollywood is redoing the RoboCop series from the 80s again. 

Say you have a Robotic Cop that needs to have a battle in a rice patty field.  Where are you going to find some real life like rice in Canada at the wrong time of the growing year? This kind of problem with movies we help out with almost everyday now.  I’m sure the rice will look good as building a set with the real thing is much easier than CGI most of the time.  We are very excited about getting to help with this new Robocop movie.  You can see a little video of some of the highlights so far below.

Movie Summary:

In RoboCop, the year is 2028 and multinational conglomerate OmniCorp is at the center of robot technology. Their drones are winning American wars around the globe and now they want to bring this technology to the home front. Alex Murphy (Kinnaman) is a loving husband, father and good cop doing his best to stem the tide of crime and corruption in Detroit. After he is critically injured in the line of duty, OmniCorp utilizes their remarkable science of robotics to save Alex’s life. He returns to the streets of his beloved city with amazing new abilities, but with issues a regular man has never had to face before.

I love all the fun things you can do with tumbleweeds and this is no exception.  We just overnighted a tumbleweed to Indiana for the 2013 Indianapolis 500 indy car race. They are going to roll it across the track at some point, hopefully when the cars are going and we can see what happens to it when a race car at 200 miles hits it.   Probably not, but it is going to be in a commercial and on the race track.  Who knows where it will end up?

They need to throw the tumbleweed over the fence right about now to have it hit the track when the race is going on.  Just warn the drivers not to swerve for tumbleweeds.

Anyway I don’t know a lot about the details but make sure to watch the race and let us know what happens.  I’ll update this post when I know more.  It might end up being a commercial, a publicity stunt, or maybe something bigger but it should be fun if you see a tumbleweed.

In the comments let us know what you think about this and what they should do with it or what you have done with a tumbleweed.

Several months ago CuriousCountryCreations.com was contacted by one of the set designers working on the movie “The Host” based on the book of the same name by Stephenie Meyers (Author of the best selling Twilight Series.) The movie stars actors Saoirse Ronan, Diane Kruger, Max Irons, Jake Abel, William Hurt, Frances Fisher, Chandler Canterbury and others.

The designer wanted to recreate a wheat field.  He was planning on making a small wheat field and using computer animation to complete the scene.  We sent several boxes of Dried Wheat to Louisiana where the filming was taking place.

Not too long after that we got another phone call from the movie studio.  They liked the wheat so much that they wanted to build the entire wheat field from real wheat, not use computer graphics.  We gladly sent several pallets of wheat to the set.  We waited several months for the release of the movie, and on March 29, 2013 it came to the movie theaters.

The staff of CuriousCountryCreations.com attended the movie together and when the wheat field came into view we cheered!  And then we were pleasantly surprised by how much of the movie took place in the field (fifteen minutes or more!).  The actors walked through the field, carried stalks of wheat around, and cut the wheat with scythes.  The set designers did a wonderful job of making the wheat field look so natural.  But of course, it was the dried wheat stalks from CuriousCountryCreations.com that really made it happen!

Here are some photos from the movie “The Host” from scenes in the wheat field.

Many cast members working in the wheat field.

The character “Ian”

The character “Wanda/Melanie”

“Wanda/Melanie”, “Maggie”, and “Ian”

“Uncle Jeb”

“Wanda/Melanie” and “Uncle Jeb”

Since the release of the movie “The Host” we have gotten phone calls from other movie set designers requesting dried plants for upcoming projects.  We asked how they found CuriousCountryCreations.com and were told that they called the producer of “The Host” to find out where they got the wheat.  We love word of mouth referrals!

If you have a decorating project, whether it’s as big as recreating an entire wheat field in a sci-fi cave, or simply adding an arrangement of dried flowers or dried branches to your living room, give us a call!

Better Homes and Gardens featured our Blond Wheat Wreath in their November 2012 Magazine. Check it out on page 27 or see our scans of the magazine below.

They used our blond wheat wreath and painted it with metallic gold spray paint.  Here are their description and instructions below:

“GATHER ‘ROUND
Between informal soup suppers and one big dinner, the
front door sees a lot of action this month. Hang a festive
wreath to welcome guests—and the season.

Bring luster to a traditional harvest wreath
with metallic spray paint. Divide one bunch
of dried wheat into three groups. Use a light
touch to paint each group a different finish
(we used gold, copper, and brass). Tuck the
stalks into a purchased wheat wreath and
hang. For more ways to add glimmer to your
home, turn to page 40.
Wreath and loose wheat stalks, CuriousCountryCreations.com”

And on page 42 it shows our blond wheat wreath on the wall. Here is wheat they say:
“Metallic spray paints
give a wheat wreath
its subtle sparkle.”

We were excited to say the least.  We remember helping them in the spring with this project,
but did not remember it much in November when the magazine came out.  It turned out great and
we have had a lot of customers purchase this wreath for this very purpose.
It has been a great experience for everyone.

A few weeks ago I was making TShirts for a group of teenage girls for their summer camp.  I had very little budget and knew it needed to be a do-it-yourself project rather than just order screenprinting.  I looked into making a silk screen or even borrowing a friends Yudu machine to do it, but was worried about the cost for the emulsions and cleaning chemicals and ink.

Then I had a brilliant idea!  (ok, not really, but it sure solved this problem!)  I have a Cricut and software that allows me to cut anything I want.  I used Corel Paintshop Pro software to make my black and white image, being careful to connect all the pieces that I needed to to make it a stencil.  I uploaded it to my Cricut and waited anxiously for it to cut.

I took out some regular acrylic paint and an old shirt and experimented with the first one… it turned out great!  I realized that I needed to change a few things with the image so the insides of letters would stay open, so I edited it, cut it again (just using cardstock for the stencil– it held up with the paint, even after 15 shirts!), and went for it.

The shirt says “We Seek for Treasure” with a big pirate ship and compass on it.  I’m still waiting to get a photo of all 15 girls together from another camera, but you get the idea!

The tricky part of using this method for DIY T-shirt printing is that while you are painting on the stencil you have to hold it very still and dab the paint on rather than brush.  I touched up any areas that needed it and closed in the letters using a toothpick.  Doing this final step made it look like I hadn’t used a stencil at all!

I finished a dozen backpacks with one design, and 15 Tshirts with a slight variation.  It really only took about 5 minutes per design… and the cost?  $3 in paint, sponge brushes I already had on hand.  Here’s a photo of one of the backpacks– just a slightly smaller version with different text.

Meanwhile my husband was about to run the Wasatch Back Ragnar Relay (192 miles!) and needed a costume.  He was going to be running as the Big Bad Wolf.  So, I picked him up some blank shirts at the craft store (on sale!), found a wolf head image and designed his shirt.  I made a stencil and painted it on.  Easy as that!  His shirt says “Big Bad Wolf” then the picture, and below, “I Eat Little Pigs for Breakfast!”

Of course I couldn’t stop there– our kids needed to be the cheerleading squad for their Daddy at the finish line, so I made them each a personalized tee as well.  They turned out adorable!  Each Little Pig is different, and their shirts say “My Daddy Eats Little Pigs for Breakfast!”

Even though it is just acrylic paint on fabric it has actually held up well in the laundry and is comfortable to wear.  If you try this just make sure that you put a layer of cardboard inside the shirt before you paint to prevent bleeding through.

Here’s a family photo– my shirt says “I Love the Big Bad Wolf”  So proud of my man– his team ran 192 miles in 30 hours!!

It may not be totally professional, but being able to make 20 custom shirts for a total cost of $3 (plus the shirts, but I got those on sale) was just what I needed!

My second baby boy recently turned 5 years old. Holy smokes, when did that happen?!?!? He requested a tractor themed birthday party. The fun started with these invitations that I made using my Cricut Expression and Sure Cuts a Lot 2 software (LOVE it– you can upload any black and white picture or font that you want and it will cut it!).

The wheels have brads in the centers so they can really turn. All the party info shows up in the cutouts on the back wheel. My little cowboy thought they were pretty cool!

We planned for a party at the park just across from our front door. Unfortunately the weather didn’t cooperate and it was too windy to put up the yellow and green streamers and balloons that we had all ready, but the kids were so excited just to be there that it really didn’t matter. Everyone got a bandana to get in the cowboy mood, and the birthday boy (and his siblings, cuz that’s how we roll) had cowboy/cowgirl hats.

I made a tractor cake using donuts (mini and regular) for the wheels, Twix for the rails on the trailer, and hard candies for the lights. My favorite are the haystack of cupcakes in the back of the trailer, and the little farm animals made from mini cupcakes.

The kids did galloping races, danced like cowboys, played stick-pull, played a hot potato version of “Moosical” chairs, and (our favorite) ate slop like little piggies. The slop was chocolate pudding with marshmallows mixed in.

Then the sky opened and it started POURING down rain… we quickly moved the party inside and ate cake and ice cream. The final event was a cow pinata. For once we were very happy that our basement is unfinished! (The cow pinata was purchased at a party store– it’s pictured at the top of this post.)

If tractors, cowboys or farms are your little boy’s favorite, I highly recommend throwing a fun party like this!

Alright, I have been showing you bits and pieces of my bathroom makeover as I made them… now it is done so it is time for the great reveal!

Here is the half bathroom before the makeover:

It doesn’t look too bad, but it was boring and didn’t have a finished look.  I started out last week by taking a tiny paintbrush and making all of the corner and ceiling lines and the baseboards perfect.  What a huge difference that made!  I was surprised by how unfinished just taping those walls left them– so now I’m happy that I finally fixed them!

Here is the Makeover:

I had a shelf just sitting unused in my closet since we moved a year ago and I thought it was high time that it got put back up.  The decorations are all re-used, re-painted items that were given to me.  See my previous posts about the Anchor Upcycle, Salt Cedar Vase, and Bird Re-Do project.  The bottles on the shelf I got at a thrift store.  I just filled one with small polished rocks (Dollar Store!) and tied both with twine.

My husband and I bought the painting of the San Fransisco skyline from a street artist when we visited there two years ago.  Can you believe that’s spray paint?

My all time favorite upgrade to the bathroom though was framing the mirror!  Super easy project, didn’t cost much at all, and made such a huge difference in finishing the space!  I went to Home Depot and picked up some molding and Liquid Nails.  Everything else I already had on hand.  My fabulous husband cut the trim to the right size with his Miter Saw (I won wife points last Father’s Day!).  I painted the trim with three coats of black semi-gloss paint, then used sandpaper to distress it.  After that I just sealed it with a coat of glossy mod podge.  I was a little nervous about getting the frame in place but it turned out to be super easy!  We just put some Liquid Nails on the back of each piece of the frame (starting with the bottom), stuck it on the mirror, adjusted it to be level and straight, and held it in place until it was set.  The whole thing took my husband and I less than 10 minutes!!

Total cost of this Bathroom Makeover: $13.  Love it!!

Next change to happen to this bathroom will be a new light fixture, faucet and sink… but that’s for another day!

Linked up to these parties:

Here’s another decoration given to me by my sister that just didn’t quite go with the look I’m trying to create in my bathroom…. so, do I throw it away?  NOPE!  I get out my paint!

Here is the picture of the bird before:

First I painted the head, back and wings black with two coats.  I painted the beak orange.  The rest of the bird I painted cream colored.  When all the paint was dry I covered the orange beak with yellow, and all the black with cream.  When that paint was dry I got out some sandpaper and distressed the wings, tail and head until quite a bit of the black was showing through, and very very lightly sanded the bird’s back.  I also took off most of the yellow on the beak to expose the orange underneath.

I also painted the stand black to match the rest of the bathroom decor.

After that was done I got out my favorite thing ever– Mod Podge (glossy)– and put a nice coat of it over everything.

Here’s the finished look:

What do you think?  I love it now!

My sister had a woman give her a bunch of unwanted beach-themed decorations… which my sister didn’t want either.  So, lucky me!!  Knowing that I am decorating my house in that theme my sister saved the decorations for me.  This is one of the items:

I said “oooh, I really like it!  But I’m going to paint it black!”  In case you can’t tell from the picture, it was a really light aqua color, not white.  I took off the rope (it was just stapled to the back), washed the sticky residue off of the wood, then painted it with three coats of black paint.  I didn’t want it to just be solid boring black though, so I got out some sandpaper and distressed the high spots and the edges.

Then my dilemma…. what to use as a glaze to finish off the distressed parts?  Should I leave them white?  Brown?  Reddish to look like rust?  Hmmmm.  Then in my stash of paints I saw a metallic bronze.  Perfect!  I mixed some of the metallic paint with water, brushed it over the distressed areas, let it sit for about 30 seconds, then dabbed it off with paper towel.  I let that all dry and then covered it all with a coat of Mod Podge because really, everything’s better with Mod Podge!  I put the rope back on, this time securing it with trusty hot glue.

Here’s the finished look– so excited for the new bathroom!

I love the beach.  I love digging my toes into the sand, splashing in the waves, hunting seashells with my kids, chasing seagulls…  I love the sound of the ocean and could listen to waves crashing for hours.  Reality check: I live in land locked Utah.  *sigh*  To make up for lack of proximity to my favorite vacation destination I have been adding some beach-themed decor to my house so I can enjoy it every day.  A girl can dream, right?

I am still working on the paint job in our main floor half bath, so I’ll have to reveal the whole makeover soon, but here is the first element.

I took a simple square glass vase, wrapped some sheer fabric around it and secured it with hot glue.  Then I wrapped twine around it, using a dab of hot glue on the backside of the vase after every wrap to hold it in place, and tied a simple knot to finish it off.

I found these branches and they reminded me so much of the twigs and grasses that grow in the salty ocean air… no wonder, because they are called Salt Cedar!  A couple of bunches (5 to be exact) of those placed in the vase=perfect!

Can’t wait to show you the whole bathroom makeover!