Little Guitar

I made a tiny guitar! My secret?

A novelty ice cube tray.

I was gifted this ice cube tray many years ago and only used it a few times. It came with plastic stirrers in the shape of guitar necks and then the ice is the body of the guitar.

Anyway, I thought this would be a perfect plaster mould so I tried it out.  

I mixed up some plaster and, not very neatly, put it in the mould. Once it had started setting I put a pen in the middle to make the hole in the guitar.

Getting the plaster out of the mould was not very easy. As you can see the neck was very brittle.

Using a trick I learned at a model making course I fixed the neck by sticking the bits together with super glue and sprinkling on bicarbonate of soda which makes the glue dry immediately and bulks it out.

After I painted the whole thing and added a painted cardboard fret board I stuck a tiny wooden peg to the back of the guitar head...

...making it into a photo holder!

Love photo holders as much as I do? Check out this dog, cat, tortoise, owl, another dog, an elf and Taylor Swift.

Guitar Makeover 2

Remember the guitar I got given by my friend and made over? Well her brother was throwing out another guitar (I don't know how he gets through them so quickly) and I happily took it off his hands. And made it pretty.

I didn't want to completely paint over the guitar like last time as I like the original ombre colouring so I decided to draw on it with a white paint pen. I bought this one from Amazon.

What's good about it is it can be wiped off with a damp cloth so I could easily erase any mistakes I made when drawing.

I'd made a rough design on brown paper which I'd cut to the exact shape of the guitar. I googled a lot of mandala images to use as inspiration and incorporated elements of them into my design.

I free-handed the drawing on the guitar and don't mind the odd wonky line or not quite symmetrical parts. I started off copying my design but then improvised the rest based on the space left.

I also drew on the head of the guitar which was completed improvised with no design first.

Since the paint pen was so easy to wipe off I knew I had to seal it. I tried applying clear varnish to a small test spot on the head but this started wiping away the paint.

Then I started thinking about spray varnish and my Mum saw that there was some on sale at B&Q. I bought a can for £3. I had wanted a matt varnish but they only had gloss, but for £3 I'm not too bothered. It sure is stinky though.

After 3 or 4 coats of varnish the paint was sealed.

Then all I had to do was re-string the guitar, with help from this guy, making it left-handed of course.

Pin it!

Jewellery display

I'm at home at the moment and I bought some of my things back from uni so I don't have to move out in one big go.

It turns out I have a lot of stuff.

This resulted in my desk looking like this.

But now it looks like this.

Aw yeah.

As much as I like my branch that I painted white and hung my jewellery on, it was time for a change.

Cue the pile of guitar bits I got from my friend last year.

You can see what I did with the whole guitar here.

I got one of the broken guitar necks and drilled holes into the fret board, along the front and on the bottom edge.

My Dad helped a lot. Thanks Papi!

Then I screwed little hooks into the holes.

To attach the guitar neck to the wall I needed to add a piece of wood to the head of the guitar so it was equal with the other end.

Then we (mostly my Dad) used those hook platey things to put it on the wall, which was not easy but we (...my Dad) got there eventually.

It's a good job I'm short because the necklaces hang just above my head.

Perfect.

And for those of you who are slightly newer to my blog, you can see more of my bedroom, in miniature form, here.

Guitar make-over

Who likes my new guitar?

I do, I do!

A few months ago, around Easter in fact, I came home from hanging out with my friends carrying this lot. My friend Robyn and her brother were throwing them out so I offered to give them a better home.

And give them a new look.

Starting with the whole guitar.

The first things to do was sand down the guitar so that I could paint it.

After a whole afternoon of using sandpaper and getting a very achey arm with little progress I was informed that my Grandad probably had a power tool for the job.

He did, and this is me using it. 

Sanding done, it was on to the painting.

I started with a coat of primer which was an off white colour as that was what was in the garage.

Then I applied a few coats of white emulsion, again whatever I found in the garage.

Next I used acrylic paint to add some decoration to my guitar in the form of lovely pink flowers.

Then I varnished the whole thing twice using clear varnish that I found in, you guessed it, the garage.

The only thing I spent money on for this project was a set of nylon strings so that the guitar would be playable. I strung the guitar with the help of my Dad and some guy on youtube.

And now it's ready to play!