10 Mosaic Projects Using a Variety of Ordinary Everyday Items

I'm a big fan of mosaic tile work and am always on the lookout for furniture pieces that will work for my purposes.  A quick Pinterest search revealed many more applications.  Take a look at ten fabulous projects I found that use a variety of base materials.

1.  Wood furniture pieces are ideal and top my list of things to look for.  You could mosaic the top, drawer fronts or go for the gusto and cover the whole piece.  A great way to update a piece of furniture and give it new life.

countryliving.com

12 Creative Crafts that Take Broken China from Trash to Treasure

2.  I love beautiful metal trays and have bought quite a few over the years but never thought to mosaic them.  What a cute project. 

From Reclaimed Designs on Etsy

3.  Chairs make wonderful mosaic projects.  I've seen them covered in marbles, buttons, paper mosaic and the like.  All are fabulous.  

from mosaicodelsole

  Check out her site, lots of great glass mosaic project ideas.

4.  Wood is a wonderful base.  Look for trays, boxes, lengths of any kind.  Love how they added hooks to these.  

Found on Pinterst

5.  I can't help but love these.  Always plenty of tools lying around, we break a multitude of shovels with all the projects we take on... glue them babies back together and give them a mosaic treatment. 

Don't mind me, I'm just raiding the shed for broken shovels!

from Pinterest

6.  Never would of thought to do this but I love the end result.  Such a cute piece.

Adorable Mosaic Teapot found on  Pinterest

7.  This is fabulous.  Take a wood or metal box, drawer, trough... whatever and give it a mosaic treatment with teacups added for extra storage.  What a cute idea!

 From Pinterest

8.  Doors and windows make great mediums for mosaic.  You can get as creative as you'd like and personalize a piece in a variety of ways.  Just beautiful.

Gorgeous Mosaic Window by LeAnn Christian... on Flickr

9.  I bought a guitar (a couple years ago mind you... it's a sickness) for this purpose and have yet to get started.  It's on my "someday" list.  Right next to about 100 other things that I may or may not get to "someday". 

Isn't that adorable?

From ehow.com with a tutorial

10.  Lots of glass bottles and jars are just waiting to become unique works of art... what are you waiting for? 

 From Inspiration Sandwich

Mosaic is an easy project anyone can do that'll transform simple, everyday items into unique, creative art pieces for your home.  With a quick "how to" search using google or Pinterest you'll find everything you ever wanted to know, and then some, about mosaic work.

 I've got plans for a variety of projects here at the shop.... "someday"!  Here's a peek at a couple of the things I'd like to do here at #TheFrog:

ptlincolnproject

I bought a wicker couch and chair at Goodwill years ago that I would like to turn into concrete sculpture.  Big plans, now I just need the time to work on a new project.

midwestliving.com

I'm hoping to work on the landscaping out front this fall and am planning to add a little personality and funk with the yard art.   

Have you done any mosaic work?  I have dabbled a bit and love it.  Would love to see some of your work, feel free to share.

Pattern Fun

I have done my fair share of sewing but patterns have never been my strong point.  It's like reading a foreign language sometimes.  I'm much better at taking the patterns and using them in different ways.  Here's a look at a few of my favorite repurpose ideas.

DECOUPAGE

I tried decoupage a couple years ago and gotta say, I'm hooked.   Here's just a few great projects using sewing patterns:

This would be adorable in a sewing room.  

cool things to do with sewing patterns

Love the suitcases and the mannequin head.  Adorable!

Decoupaged Suitcases

 

Such a cute idea!

Joyworks Decoupaged Mannequin... isn't she cute!

So many great light fixture applications. 

Found on Instagram

JOURNALS

You know I can't ignore journaling and the many great things you can do with patterns.  Here's just a few of my favorites....

How cute is this idea, add a stronger paper on the back and edge your pages.  So cute.

Altered Book Project by Sandra Pearce

Flower embellishments for a journal page or card.  So many things you could do with these.

Flower Embellishments on Etsy

Here's a you-tube video to help you make your own journal using patterns.  Could be fun.

You-Tube Video with directions.

MAGNETS & BUTTONS

Great little magnets made from patterns.   

Found on Pinterest

Sewing Pattern Magnets on Etsy

ARTWORK

I adore Mixed Media, pattern pieces work great in a lot of different projects.

Pattern Mixed Media Project

This piece is one I completed here at the shop.  The background is book pages but wouldn't pattern pieces look fabulous?

A variety of artwork options.  How simple, a piece of fabric or paper with a cute pattern attached.  Frame it and you've got beautiful artwork, perfect for a sewing room.

sewretrothebook.com

Last but not least....

FLOWERS

from Burlap and Denim

From SadieSeasongoods.com

Have you done anything interesting with patterns?

Would love to see what you've done.

History of Pencils

I don't know about you but I've never given a second thought to where pencils come from. Who really cares, right?  I'm finding as I grow older (becoming a bit of history myself) that    history is becoming more interesting with each passing day and I'm starting to care... who'd of thunk!

The oldest known pencil in the world, from the early 17th century, on display at the Faber-Castell castle near Nuremberg, Germany.  History of the Pencil

We have a great group of dealers here at #TheFrog but one of my favorites (I know, favorites are bad) is a gentleman with cases who comes in every couple weeks to change things around and add new goodies.  He's 90 years young and always has interesting items with lots of History to share.  It's thru this dealer that my love affair with pencils... well, pencil boxes really, began.

Trying to find anything on pencil boxes has been a nightmare, all I could find out is that older ones (1800's) were made of precious metals or ivory and were for the affluent, to hold their expensive pencils of course.  Many were not rectangular as we've come to see but rounded in shape.

Boxes like what you see here were first patented in 1946 and have become the zippered pencil cases you see today.

Here's a peek at a few styles of pencil boxes we've got in the shop today:

Single Hinged Pencil Case

Top swings out from one side to reveal storage underneath.

Roll top... can't believe any of these have survived.  If this was mine as a kid it wouldn't have lasted very long.

Double Layer Slide Top Pencil Case

The top slides open revealing a space for an eraser and slots for pencils.

The top swings outward on a hinge of some sort to reveal a second layer of storage.

Extra Wide Single Layer Slide top Box

Well used....

Single Hinged Top with Lock

Lock no longer works.

Love the pencil storage.  The "eraser" pops off.

Don't see a business name on this one but a town.  Cute

There were a couple triple deckers but they sold fairly quickly.  Still kicking myself for not scooping one of them up.

Here's a few articles with some interesting history about pencils and other items you'd find in a pencil box:

Vintage Pencils
What's In My Pencil Box?
How The Humble Pencil Conquered The World

Any pencil collectors out there?