In a “vintage” 1994 television ad from Eclectic Products, a Godzilla-like mega monster attacks a Japanese city. What better to put it back together than Amazing GOOP?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fF-ymRJok_A&rel=0&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&feature=player_profilepage&fs=1]
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Joanna Gallo is another winner of our giveaway at Cut Out + Keep. We wanted to highlight one of her crafts here on An Eclectic Blog. Please visit her blog, go ahead and snicker, which includes information about crafts, local travels, recipes, entertainment, and more.
Baby Name Art Canvas
You will need:
-12 x 16 inch pre-stretched art canvas
-12 x 12 inch scrapbook paper
-Vintage wrapping paper or other paper with scenes
-Acrylic paint
-Wood letters
-Sand paper
-Mod Podge
-Tube of E-6000
-Bottle of Amazing EcoGlue
-Ribbon
-Ric rac
Step 1 – Begin by prepping the wood letters. Some wood letters may require a quick sanding. Once the letters are smooth, apply a coat of white acrylic paint as the base. Set the letters aside on a sheet of wax paper or a baking rack to dry.
Step 2 – While the letters dry, start working on the canvas. Gather two pieces of scrapbook paper to cover the front of the canvas. Trim one piece of paper to fit the canvas, leaving a 1/2 inch border of white around the edge. If the paper has a pattern, line up the second piece of paper with the edge of the cut side to be sure the pattern matches. Trim the second piece of paper to fit the remaining exposed canvas.
Step 3 – Make a tiny mark at each corner of the paper with a pencil. Apply Amazing EcoGlue to one piece of paper. Line up the paper with the pencil marks and rub over the entire surface. Repeat this step with the other piece, making sure to line up the pattern.
Cut out scenes from the wrapping paper.
Step 4 – Cut out the scenes from the wrapping paper. Decide on the placement and mark the corners with a pencil. Place a light amount of Amazing EcoGlue on the back of each scene and line them up with the pencil marks. Rub over the entire surface, making sure edges are sealed.
*If you can’t find vintage wrapping paper, click here to borrow some from Joanna.
Step 5 – By now the base coat on the wood letters should be dry. Apply a coat of color to the wooden letters with acrylic paint. Set them aside to dry.
Step 6 – Once the letters are dry, embellish them with various details such as sponge painting, borders, and more. Once the embellishments dry, seal the letters with glossy Mod Podge or any other sealant.
Add embellishments to the wood letters.
Step 7 – Meanwhile, start embellishing the canvas. For example, trim each scene with a bit of ribbon and ric rac using E-6000.
*Quick tip: To keep the edges of ribbon or ric rac from fraying, dip them in clear nail polish.
Step 8 – Once everything is dry, attach the letters to the canvas with E-6000.
Any new mother will appreciate such a thoughtful gift.
Gretchen Demitroff won our giveaway at Cut Out + Keep. We wanted to highlight one of her crafts here on An Eclectic Blog. Please visit her blog, Angry Pincushion, for more info and detailed descriptions of the medium and large size “mushrooms.”
Mosaic Mushroom Garden
-Two Terra Cotta Pots, One 1 1/2 inch pot (pretty tiny) and one 3 inch pot
-One 4 inch Terra Cotta saucer
-Flat glass marbles
-Polished pebbles or stones
-Two colors of Acrylic paint in shades of tan or creme
-Paint brush and sponge
-Tube of Amazing EcoGlue or Amazing GOOP Lawn & Garden
-Clear Acrylic Gloss (or Matte), Water Resistant Spray Coat
Step 1- To make the base, or the stem of the mushroom take the smaller of the two terra cotta pots (make sure it’s clean first!) and using EcoGlue or Amazing GOOP, glue it onto the larger pot (just like you were stacking them together ). Let dry for 24 hours.
Step 2- After the pots dry for 24hrs, paint the mushroom “stem” with acrylic paint. I used a tan base coat, let that dry then applied a lighter creme or tan color. Using a dry sponge I dragged the lighter shade down the sides for a layered effect, it makes it look more like a real mushroom stem. Let paint dry.
Step 3- After paint is fully dry, affix the terra cotta saucer, for the mushroom cap, to the base pots with a liberal amount of adhesive, let dry for 24hrs again.
Step 4- Now using EcoGlue or Amazing GOOP, begin applying the flat marbles and pebbles on to the top of the saucer or “mushroom cap”, and down the sides of the saucer, in whatever pattern or colors you wish. You can substitute more flat marbles for the pebbles if you wish. When you begin affixing the marbles and pebbles to the sides of the saucer, they might slide a little, so sometimes you have to hold each marble or pebble in place for a few seconds until it sticks by itself. Let dry for 24 hrs again.
Step 5- Using grout on the mushroom’s cap is optional, I chose not to, but if you like that look go for it! If you plan on putting your mushroom outside make sure to spray it using a water resistant clear gloss, or matte spray coat.
Congratulations! You are now the proud parent of a beautiful baby garden mushroom 
Hurricane season is approaching and weather agencies anticipate several named hurricanes in 2009.
Many areas of the country are still rebuilding and repairing damaged buildings and properties from the recent ruthless hurricane seasons. Preparation, however, can make a tremendous difference in protecting your home.
Prepare your roof for hurricane-force winds, which can tear away roofing materials. Well-installed roofs also will prevent the damage from changing pressures caused by hurricanes.
Ray Rosewell, CEO of DaVinci Roofscapes says pressure that escapes into the home through the roof can cause walls and windows of a home to actually blow out. Hurricane winds also cause damage by lifting shingles from the roof and hurling various debris onto the roof. Experts recommend high wind roofing materials for hurricane inflicted areas.
Broken windows and doors can also allow hurricane winds to rip through your home. Similar to roof leaks, the high winds that come through doors and windows cause a build-up of pressure, which can blow out the roof and walls of a home.
Impact resistant windows will help prevent these blow-outs. Many impact resistant windows are built with reinforced glass and are designed to withstand flying debris. Storm shutters and shades also offer protection against hurricane winds.
Companies such as Wayne-Dalton introduced Fabric Shield storm panels. Hurricane fabrics are durable and can be used several times without replacement.
Protect valuable items in the home with watertight products. Products such as Pelican Cases are polycarbonate cases designed to resist weights up to 5,000 pounds. Protect electronic documents by backing them up on external hard drives and other data storage devices and storing them outside the home.
If you’re in hurricane-prone areas, arm yourself with a tube of EcoGlue Extreme, to make on-the-spot fixes of damaged or broken fixtures around the exterior or interior of your home. Check for loose siding, tiles, window or door jambs, for example, and glue them in place.
For more information about hurricane preparation, please visit:
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Choosing a good contractor is a topic we’ve discussed before. With a majority of Internet users searching for information online to help make decisions about everything from shoes to medical care to home improvement products and professionals, referral websites can substitute or complement personal referrals.
You’ll find two types of referral Web sites: homeowner-to-homeowner and professional-to-homeowner.
The Queen of the homeowner-to-homeowner sites is Angie’s List. Members of Angie’s List pay a fee of about $50 a year to have access to reviews and ratings from fellow homeowners. Since 1995, when it launched, the site has grown to more than 300 categories. Providers are “graded” with letter grades on areas such as price, quality of work and professionalism.
As a member, you can search for a professional by zip code and check out ratings from other homeowners and read about their experiences. Angie’s List users take the responsibility of their contributions seriously. Everyone understands that the community depends on each member reviewing their experiences.
Angie’s list does not allow contractors to buy a place on the site or be featured above another.
A professional-to-homeowner site like Contractors.com provides a more traditi0nal referral service, but really serve a complementary role to a site like Angie’s List. On Contractors.com you submit a project and a team of former contractors reviews it for accuracy. The team then submits to licensed and insured contractors in your area.
Within about 24 hours, you’ll hear from up to three contractors interested in bidding on your project. This service is free to homeowners, it’s the contractors that pay the fees. Contractors pay for leads and can also pay for premium listings. Contractors.com also includes homeowner-generated reviews.
Regardless of which site you use to help make decisions about your home, we have a few general tips to consider.
This Old House has a terrific article on the topic of using contractor referral sites. If you have experience with one of these services (or another), please let us know!
Before throwing out that scrap wood, worn out piece of furniture or leftover DIY project materials, consider reusing them. We found some clever projects that do just that.
Bring an old table or chair back to life by refinishing it. Home improvement guru Danny Lipford gives directions on how to refinish.*
In the same vein as refinishing, you can also save furniture by creating a mosaic table top. Using recycled glass, beads or tiles, you can create a work of art. E-How has great directions for making mosaics.
Deep Fried Kudzu has directions for creating this cool swirly marble mosaic table top (left). Simple, yet stunning. A great way to make a generic or tired table your own.
We’ve found EcoGlue works well for mosaic projects.
You can do lots of amazing things with old suitcases from creating anything from filing cabinets to end tables. You might have some old hard-side suitcases in your garage; if not, it’s likely your local thrift store does.
I thought these suitcase cat beds were pretty clever. Maybe if I had one, my cat wouldn’t sleep on my laundry.
The legs can even be glued on (no fancy power tools necessary) with something like EcoGlue Extreme or Amazing GOOP.
If you’re a woodworker of any manner, you have piles of scrap wood. You can create a country chic wall decoration that doubles as a place to hang bags, coats and keys. You can glue the “tree branches” together with EcoGlue Premium Wood and then nail it to the wall in just a few places (rather than peppering your wall with nails for each piece).
You can also see how professional designers are doing amazing things with furniture and style with reused and repurposed items at Design Blog.
What have you done to turn trash to treasure? Leave your tips in the comments.
*Note that product recommendations are our own, and not from the original directions. But we’re still sure they’ll work.
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What were your favorite backyard games as a kid? Mine usually involved making something up from scratch. Sometimes we would play hide and go seek for hours. Other times my siblings and I would put on a play for our (very patient) parents. But our favorite backyard activities involved building a fort, creating a new club and keeping the boys at bay.
The important part, of course, is to find a way to have fun together. We put together some ideas for celebrating National Backyard Games Week (May 18 – 25) and a tutorial for a simple picnic table project:
Water games! The weather is warming up, kids are counting down to the final days of class… what’s better than a water balloon fight? If you prefer more “structure” to your water games, you might try water balloon badminton (the directions call for a balloon filled with air, but water balloons are so much cooler).
Don’t Need a Single Supply to Play! Red Light, Green Light and Simon Says take nothing more than a group of silly kids and some imagination. Mix in a little Mother, May I and Red Rover, and you’ve got hours of (free) fun.
Creating New Family Traditions! With some inexpensive and easy-to-find supplies, you can rediscover old favorites like Lawn Darts or Croquet and even learn some new games like Bocce Ball. (Yes, I realize Bocce Ball is not even remotely a “new” game, but it’s new to me… and it looks like fun.)
Don’t Need a Backyard! What if you live in an apartment? Don’t worry about it! Find your favorites from the list above, many can be easily taken in to public places, like your local park, and enjoyed together.
Finally, if you want a backyard space more situated for family fun, we found a few simple picnic table tutorials. And remember, when building things for your kids to enjoy, think about the materials used. Repurpose some old wood (either your own, or buy it at a building recycling center) and choose adhesives with low or no volatile organic compounds.
Picnic Table Plan (with video) from Handymanwire.com
Classic Picnic Table from Popular Mechanics
Refresh an Old Picnic Table from Learning to Step Lightly
Enjoy!
E-6000 is a favorite of crafters and jewelry makers. We came across some lovely spring projects that use one of our most popular products.
From CraftStylish: Soda Can Brooch
From ZakkaLife: Seed Bead Ring
Jessica doesn’t use E-6000 specifically in this project. I think it would work really well, just be cautious of things like ventilation especially if crafting with your child.
From Dollar Store Crafts: Make Cute Rings
We might have theme with the kids’ stuff here. This project doesn’t specifically call for E-6000, but the blogger uses another of our craft glues: QuickHOLD. Either will work.
Small Magazine: Small Projects – Spring Dragonflies
The directions for these adorable dragonflies call for using a hot glue gun, but E-6000 or QuickHOLD would work, too.
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However, with a little attention, you can be ready for outdoor entertaining season. Here are our favorite tips:
Happy Spring! If you have any other tips (or questions), please leave them in the comments.
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Going green doesn’t have to cost a lot of green. We’ve done some research and found plenty of ways that you can go green around the house and not spend a lot. In fact, going green will often save you money, primarily in energy costs.
Lower your water heater to 120 degrees Fahrenheit. Even a 10 degree reduction can save you 5 percent in energy costs and there’s no reason to have your hot water any higher.
Replace your incandescent bulbs with compact florescents. 
According to the US Department of Energy:
“If every American home replaced one light bulb with an Energy Star qualified bulb, we would save enough energy to light more than three million homes for a year, more than $600 million in annual energy costs, and prevent greenhouse gases equivalent to the emissions of more than 800,000 cars.”
Seal the gaps. Doors and windows give away their air leaks and drafts because you can feel them. Two simple steps can help seal the leaks, lower your energy bills and keep you more comfortable. The first is weather stripping.
From ACME How-to:
Weather stripping should be installed along the sides and top of the door and a door sweep or similar device should be installed on the bottom of the door. Old weather stripping should be periodically replaced.
An all-purpose sealant will close the leaks around the outside of the doors and windows (the jambs, sills and moldings, particularly). This method works well for sealing around door and window frames, around plumbing fixtures and for small gaps. Using a low VOC adhesive like EcoGlue Extreme gives you instant grab and its completely water-based. It bonds to most any substrate instantly and can be painted after 24 hours.
Make sure your attic, basement and crawl spaces are well-insulated. These areas are notorious for letting heat and cooling escape.
Plant more trees on your property. Evergreen trees on the north and west sides of the house protect against winter winds and leafy trees on the south and west shade from the summer sun.
For more info:
Tips to Increase Your Home’s Energy Efficiency (Easy tips that anyone can do)
Green Home Tips (particularly helpful for historic homes, but lots of relevant tips)
Five Ways to Build Affordable, Energy Star Rated Houses (from BUILDER Magazine)
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Jim Johnson: We use your RV Goop in our motor home and at our home in Oregon. Than...
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Mackenzie: Thanks for reposting this guys :) I use my purse all the time!...
Ariane: Excellent post once again. Thank you ;)...
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