You know I’ve been a busy beaver when there have been no new posts from me in quite some time! Sorry! I’m half way through this incredibly busy season and wanted to share some of my most recent display projects with you! Inspiration comes from all over the place! And I always say anyone can have great ideas but it takes talent to actually execute them. This is something I pride myself on as well as my manual dexterity and ability to overcome the challenges of working with really tight budgets. My number one goal is to inspire others and I hope you enjoy these…

I made these trees for the last show and decided to re-use them again! They were made out of a foundation of tubes cut to fit and taped to each other. I then covered them with some single faced corrugated cardboard (notice my awesome ghetto nails from Atlanta?). We have this adorable bright new pattern called Sofia that we really wanted to push so I decided to make apples out of some of the napkins! I made the pattern myself which is super easy to cut and sew. And I used pinking shears for the leaves serrated edges. The old wooden ladder I picked up out of someones back yard that offered it on Freecycle. Overall this display was extremely economical and quite effective. The mitts and potholders were also “growing” on these trees.

Inspired by another one of our new designs for kids called Big Top, I decided why not make a larger than life circus tent?! Haha. It all started by finding a really great deal on a 24″ diameter by 8 foot long Sono Tube on Craigslist (which was being sold by a really cute young architect; swooooon). These tubes are great and can be used in so many diverse display concepts. I had to make a total of three of these!!! I worked very closely with our new and amazingly talented graphic artist, who had to do some serious calculations to determine the height of the roof. Once we worked that out I went to work on the structure and she plugged away at the graphics for print. We made a small prototype to make sure everything was good to go before sealing the deal. Everything came together like a charm! Then I added some bunting and a flag up top as the final touches! Inside there is a cute little surprise of the showtime that I illuminated with a simple string of LED’s I bought on sale after Christmas at Ikea. The priciest part of this project was the printing but you can’t really skimp out on graphics as they make such an impact and when it’s “faked out” it is easily noticed. Almost forgot to mention that I also came up with a clever solution for displaying the kids bibs and smocks… I cut out a whole family of foam core silhouettes that I then pasted graphics on and an easel backing! Textiles are really challenging because they tend to be so flat but this way it gives them a bit of life

Ok, what next? Well… last year I came upon a bunch of glass blocks for really cheap off of Craigslist. I wanted to re-use these in a different capacity this time around. I’ve dabbled a bit with lighting things and wanted to give it another go. I was inspired by some of the fancy projects people have done with LED’s whether it’s behind a bar or versions of a re-created 50′s diner. Backlighting is extremely effective and was pretty easy to fake out. It’s important to have a reflective background to amplify the brightness of the lights; copper flashing is recommended but around here I take the DIY theory to a whole new level. So I already scored with the cheap glass blocks, I then figured out my orientation for the display. I wanted a cascading staircase if you will; the different levels create more interest. I built a super simple casing out of primed MDF boards and cut out a piece of foam core to fit the shape. I then covered the foam core backing with tin foil (ohhhh cheap shiny stuff). And thankfully it was beginning of January so you know what that means?! Christmas decor is on sale!!! Yeah! So I scored some cheap LED rope lights from Canadian Tire. And voila! DIY back lit glass blocks! I like how fluid the blocks look and used these to display some of our jugs, which I was also able to re-use the awesome fake ice cubes in that I made last show! I basically bought a big slab of clear rubber from a movie special effects house that I then scoured into cubes. Yes fake ice cubes exist, but guess what? They are made out of acrylic and that stuff sinks!!! Jeez I’m just too clever sometimes My favourite part about these guys is that they bounce! I don’t know what it is but seeing ice cubes bounce is quite hilarious!

We have this super cute line of items to make quick pops from (basically DIY Popsicles but minus the trademarked brand name). So when life hands you a bunch of fake quick pops, what do you do? Make a quick pop rainbow of course! Ha.

Probably one of my favourite custom props that I’ve made would be my 3D letters covered in maps! Unfortunately we weren’t able to show these but they have a nice little spot in my office to be admired. Super simple and fairly easy to make just a little time consuming, but maybe that’s because I’m a Virgo and that means I’m a perfectionist. I became BFF’s with foam core after this project. I cut out letters and also strips for the sides that I had to scour little ditches into in order for them to be flexible and take shape. All pieces of the puzzle were easily pinned together. One of our reps was kind enough to donate a bunch of his old, unused maps that I cut up and covered the letters with! These were a lot of fun!!!

Speaking of letters… I forgot to mention this other nifty simple idea I did for the kids display in our Atlanta showroom… I was scavenging around Value Village one day and found this big bag of old children’s play blocks. I started seeing if there were enough letters to spell anything out with and low and behold there were! Awww cute!

Another genius project I worked on closely with our new and super talented graphic designer was this 3D facet display! When you can take something that is flat and super boring and can bring it to life and in your face, it’s so much more exciting! She cleverly whipped up a pattern to create 3D pyramids from and I had help cut and paste about 80 of these together before the show. On site they were placed together in a random, asymmetrical layout!

Last show I made these super neat and colourful frames! Each frame used one strip of decorative moulding that was cut at just the right angle to create a frame that was then painted with some really bright colours. I bought sheets of metal that I painted white that were then attached to the back of the frames. The metal is magnetic so it creates a super fun and easy surface to display whatever you’d like!

Another simple display solution I came up with was these rope wood ladders. 1″ x 4″‘s are pretty cheap and as long as you can drill a whole and tie a knot, bam! You too can make one!

Ok one last photo before I sign off… A lot of people often ask me where I find such neat props. Well the truth is I find them on street corners and in dumpsters. Seriously. Maybe it’s because I live in Chinatown, but there are sooo many items out there waiting for you to find them and re-purpose into something fantastic! My best scores for this time around were this pretty purple vanity chair and super cool rusty pink retro ironing board! Guess what? The ironing board is magnetic too! It took quite a bit of elbow grease to remove the rusty pin from the legs but anything you struggle for is often worth it, right? So I took apart the legs and kept only half of them so the board could stand up on it’s nose creating a triangle.

One man’s trash will always be my treasure. Don’t call Hoarders on me please

Here are the photos from our most recent shoot!!!

Here are the first shots of my new venture into off-figure, prop styling! I love the challenge and can’t wait to share more with you!