Part 2 of Setting Up Your Blogging Space- Decorating
Dec 28, 2009 by Violet
I’ve had a lot of questions about the mechanics of blogging lately so I’ve decided to make a series of posts with tips on setting up a your blogging space ^_^
Before I get into today’s post I just want to let you all know that I’ve started a second Twitter account called Violet’s Cuties which will basically be me posting cute things that I’ve found along my internet travels. I’ll be posting pretty much anything I think is adorable from clothes to puppies to Hello Kitty shaped sushi makers. Click here to follow me if you’re interested :)
| Part 1- Tutorial on making an inspiration boardPart 2- Tutorial on decorating a mirror and lamp
Part 3- Putting it all together and what else do you need? So today is Part 2- Decorating a Mirror and LampOk so now you’ve got an inspiration board to look at, you are going to need a few other things to reach optimum blogging potential :P I’ll show you the rest in the next post but today we’ll focus on 2 very important parts: 1. A cute mirror and 2. a really good, cute light source. Let’s start with the mirror. You’re probably wondering why you need a mirror, well you want to look good for all the photos you’re going to be posting right? Well having one next in your blogging space is very handy when you’re doing a last minute post or twittering photos. Now you won’t have the problem of taking 109281 photos trying to get your hair right etc. Also useful for taking self portrait photos so you can see if you are in frame and watching tv in the reflection if your desk doesn’t face it!
Materials:
My mirror has a thin plastic frame around it so I’m going to glue to that but if yours doesn’t then just glue straight to the glass. Ok starting with one end of your lace (the rufflier the better in my opinion) put a spot of glue in the middle of the bottom edge of the mirror frame. Don’t start at the corners otherwise you will have one corner that is slightly different from the others… and that would bother me.
Slowly continue gluing the lace until you reach a corner, glue right up to the edge like the picture below.
Now put a little dot of glue on top of the lace right on the corner.
While it’s still wet fold the lace over so it forms a right angle, it should look like below. Please be very careful when you do this, the glue is very hot and if you touch it it will burn you!
Keep going until you’ve done every side!
Now if you want you could leave it like this but I like over the top things so I want more lace! Flat lace works best for the next step. With this part it’s best to start at the corner because the pattern in the lace makes it easy to hide corners. Before deciding to start in the middle/corner check your own lace and see how it looks as some work better than others. You can use ribbon for this step if you prefer or put a strip of ribbon at the bottom etc. What are you waiting for? Be creative and get gluing!
Aaaaaand you’re done!
Time to test it out :P
Now part 2 of this! Decorating a lamp! This is what I ended up with:
Lighting is super important plain and simple. If you don’t have good lighting you can ruin your eyes trying to squint and read tiny fonts online. When you look for a lamp (as well as being cute) you should look for something with an easily replaceable bulb, variable brightnesses and the ability to adjust which way it’s facing. Being so adjustable means you can not only use it for reading online but also for different lighting effects in photos. A while ago I was sent this lamp from Buyster which was exactly what I was looking for (being very adjustable etc) but it was quite plain. So It was time to start decorating! Materials:
Before you start test how hot your lamp gets when left on for a long time, if it get very hot in some places it’s best not to decorate there.
I decided to stick to a flowery theme and not go too over the top because James wanted to use the lamp too XD First roughly lay out what you want to do with your lamp, using epoxy glue means you only get one shot at the final product because once it’s stuck it’s not going anywhere. I decided to put lace around the bottom of the lamp.
After gluing my lace I added some large pink diamantes and pre-made ribbon bows.
Using a match stick with some old blue tack I dipped the back of each in glue and placed them. Be careful to hold them in place for a few minutes otherwise the glue will just run off and you’ll have a bunch of diamantes all over your lace.
I decided to cover where the neck and base meet with flowers. Because this part bends it’s not a good idea to use glue in this area so instead it’s better to thread a needle and sew the flowers in a circle around it.
Taadaa flowers…
As a bit of an after thought I added some diamantes to the top part. This part gets *very* hot if you leave it on for a while so my original idea of turning it into a gigantic hungry face of diamantes went out the window.
And there you have it, finished lamp! If you want to make one exactly like mine you can get this kind of lamp here.
Hope this was kind of helpful and stay tuned next time for Part 3- Putting it all together and what else do you need? As always let me know if you have any tips for setting up your blogging space! |
I never thought of putting a mirror in your blogging room!
If you post a lot of self portraits a mirror is definitely a must have :D
Your lamp is adorable! I recently braved a sweets deco for a box (total fail… I piped my cream on it and then I DROPPED it and holy crap that was bad and I had to salvage the non-dusty dirty cream and ugh… i’ll still post it.) so maybe I will brave a sweets deco for my lamp! My boyfriend’s going to laugh so hard when he sees my lamp if I do it.
Merry belated Christmas by the way! I had capped internet for the past few days so I haven’t been keeping up but thankfully I haven’t missed much. And your comment about your mum figuring out texting – mum’s just figured it out too lol! She can’t turn off caps and her English isn’t that great so she sends me stuff like GOOD NIGHT MY SWEET from upstairs lol. And COME UP STAIRS COMP BROKEN. And i’m like that took you half an hour to type, you couldn’t just come downstairs to get me lol.
Okok comment getting essay like, i’ll be leaving now. And when I figure out how to follow twitter i’ll add your cute tweets – they sound interesting.
I looove sweet deco, I’ve actually got an upcoming tutorial on a false eyelash holding bow that looks like a yummy cake! Omg dropping freshly done cream sounds like something I would totally do >_<
Oh I can't wait to see what you do t your lamp! Just be careful of the heat, it might not be good for the icing. Merry Christmas to you too! I totally know the feeling of capped internet it sucks! Heehee your Mum's texts sound adorable! Thanks for the awesome comment!
ur life seems so fun, just making everything pretty around you! haha
a little late but merry christmas violet!
Merry Christmas to you too! Better late than never ^_^ Ha I wish my life was this much fun, it’s more like 90% working and then rushing to make something like this to post. One day I’ll do this full time, haha I wish! Hope you’re having fun in Japan <3
Hey Violet, I’ve thought of decorating my nail desk work lamp and UV lamp! However I’ve not deco anything before except on my nails haha! Both your mirror and lamp looks so cute! Will I be able to buy the glue you’ve mentioned from places like spotlight and bunnings?
Thanks Jin! You can buy Epoxy glue at Bunnings but I’m not sure about Spotlight. When you go to Bunnings, make sure you check the drying time of the glue and the temperature because lamps get very hot. The glue comes in 2 tubes which you get a bit from each and mix them up into glue paste. Good luck and I can’t wait to see what you do :D
Adorable ideas! I really love the lamp, it looks so cute. I’ve been accumulating deco supplies, I’m probably going to go crazy with them when I finally find something to deco XD
Oh you should! I’m obsessed with it, I will glue jewels to anything I own if it sits still long enough!
I TOTALLY LOVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE UR WEBSITE!!!!!
=D and I LOVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE VIOLET!!!!!!!^^
Aww thanks Avril! Thanks for visiting, I hope you come back soon <3
Oh, that is just adorable! I do my blogging on the loungeroom floor at a coffee table (blush). I have a small studio for crafting far away from the kiddies, but it never really occurred to me to have a blogging space. Maybe my new studio at the new house should have a blog space? Now you’ve got me thinking!
Haha you are lucky to have a coffee table! At the moment I’m doing it in bed on a tray table because we don’t have a second desk for me while we live with James’ parents. Sucks! Definitely make room in your studio, that’s what I’m going to do! Oh I have news too, I’m off to write you an email!
Hopefully you won’t be blogging in bed for too long, you poor thing! Will check my email:)
Haha it’s not too bad, I can’t complain too much, not many people get to work int heir pajamas ;)
Haha awesome! I partake in a little bit of decoden here and there so on my desk (unfortunately all my crafts share the same desk as my computer ;P) sits my cheap-ugly lamp, I never thought to decorate IT but I’m going to rummage up some pieces today and get cracking! Thank you for the awesome Idea! Also Brisbane rocks!
Hi Lauren! Thanks for commenting :D Yay for another Brisbane girl! Oh you should totally give this a go, it’s really easy! If you give it a go make sure to send me some pics and I’ll add them to the Reader’s Gallery ^_^