Category: Life Hack

Craft fair

On By CarynIn Life Hack

You would think I haven’t been able to go to a craft fair in years… oh wait. The high school theater group put on a craft fair and I did my part to support the theater and the craftspeople that set up their booths (and also scouted out what I might set up for next year). My favorite find? A hand-painted bakery sign! Yup. Hand-painted. Not stenciled, not cut vinyl, not printed, not laser burned. Hand-painted by someone who has been pin-striping and lettering for over 20 years. I have the utmost respect for good pin-stripe artists! The artist gave me $2 off because the hook on the back fell off, which was a solid deal. When I got it home, rather than put another sawtooth hanger in the soft wood, I took my rotary tool and a small router bit and cut a channel in the bottom of the wood block. It works perfectly with the monkey hooks I like to use in dry wall.

Channel cut in the bottom of the wood block on the back of the sign to accommodate the monkey hook (yeah, there is an extra hole in the wall. Oops.)
Prized craft fair sign, hand-painted by a professional

Music hack

On By CarynIn Life Hack

We needed another modification to my youngest’s coronet case. She was carrying around her lesson book because it wouldn’t fit in the case. So we used command strips to attach a plastic pouch to the outside. Now the music stays with the instrument, but if we need to remove the pouch, the command strips should allow it to come off cleanly.

Plastic pouch attached to a coronet case with command strips

Aging paper just a little

On By CarynIn Craft, Life Hack

My eldest needs a journal as a prop for a play. The play is set in the 1920s and we didn’t want bright white crisp paper in the leather bound journal (I’ll get to the assembly of the journal in another post). I searched the internet and only came up with tea and coffee stains (and one that recommended burying the paper in the ground for two weeks). I needed eighteen sheets of paper aged; and the paper won’t hold up to handling when wet (we tried the tea method, no go). We also tried using a flame to slightly singe the paper, which was also time consuming with spotty (literally) results. I remembered a science experiment with invisible ink made from lemon juice. Could that work to slightly brown the paper? Yes, yes it can.

Aged paper folded into signatures (left) versus original paper (far right)

The method I found that worked best was to heat the oven to 350 degrees F, put a large cookie sheet in the oven, lay one piece of paper on the cookie sheet and mist it with a 50/50 mixture of lemon juice and water, and leave it in the oven for 3 minutes. I then flipped the paper over, misted again, and baked for 3 more minutes. An eye cleaner spray bottle works great for mist. The technique also wrinkles up the paper, so I needed to give the sheets a quick iron to get it to lay a little more flat. The results were exactly as I hoped! Now to finish the cover so I can assemble the journal.

Jar candle hack

On By CarynIn Life Hack

I don’t let my jar candle burn for very long; mostly just long enough to seal the end of cut ribbons. Because the wax doesn’t have a chance to volatilize much, the wicks get lower and lower. I tried running the molten wax along the edge to get it away from the wick, but that just made deep holes around the wicks. Then I had an experiment that needed flame for a little longer and the melted wax enveloped the wick and put out the flame! Oops. So to fix it, I buried birthday candles down into the soft wax. Not only did I have flame again, but the wick from the birthday candle could draw wax from the jar candle when it was low enough. Two new wicks rather than throwing out the candle! And quicker than melting the wax and re-pouring the candle.

Birthday candles buried in the melted wax of a jar candle to replace the wicks that were too short

Blocking holes

On By CarynIn Craft, Life Hack

My youngest has taken up the coronet in band. Her case for the instrument is well made, but has a mysterious hole under the instrument that devours small items. Once a bottle of valve oil slips into the depths, it is really hard to retrieve. The hole is big enough to hold music, but the angle of access prevents putting a lesson book in. Truly mysterious. So I plugged it. I made a small pillow from black fabric in my stash and stuffed it into the hole. At first I tried a stuffed tube, but it didn’t hold well, so tried a rectangular pillow the length of the hole and about four inches wide, then stuffed it to get an inch and a half of depth. It is removable, does no damage, and keeps the case from eating tubes of slide grease.

Home made block for hole in coronet case
Block installed flush

Hm. I think I may have figured out the purpose of the hole. When the block is installed, and the case is carried, the small items end up all around the coronet. So the hole is a catch to keep small things from banging against the instrument. Ok, well, it is still too deep. So I pushed the pillow farther in, to make a shallow hole just deep enough to catch the bottles. The same effect could be accomplished with a small folded towel, I suppose, but little pillows are easy to make.