atomic – Melodrama

DIY No-Sew Retro Atomic Space Age Tree Skirt

Published on December 12, 2018 by Krys10 Comments

One of my favorite things to do each year is make new no-sew felt tree skirts. They’re super easy and fun to make and don’t require any skills except being able to use scissors and glue. You can see past tutorials with measurements and instructions here and here.

This year I needed something to match my office’s retro space age theme, so I used flying saucers and atomic shapes like boomerangs and starbursts.

I used the method detailed here to cut my skirt out of green felt. Then I cut my shapes out of sheets of different colored felts. I used silver metallic rick rack to add rays to my flying saucers and shiny snowflake starburst buttons for a little extra shine. I finished off the edges with silver metallic fringe! I always use standard craft glue to adhere all of it.

Here are the shapes I used to make your felt cutting life a little easier! Print on a standard piece of paper. (Opt to scale to fit paper on your print settings if possible.)

Tada!

Make sure to tag @melodrama or use the hashtag #krysmasgram on Instagram to show me your creations!

DIY Retro Inspired Christmas Space Age Reindeer

Published on December 12, 2018December 15, 2018 by Krys12 Comments

As you saw from my previous post I went full on atomic space age for my home office. I had to do a few DIYs to make it exactly what I wanted it to be, but my favorite is probably this astrodeer!

This project required some Frankenstein style surgery, but I’m really thrilled with the way it turned out. Here’s what I did!

Supplies

Paper Mache Deer
6.5″ Round Glass Terrarium
Aluminum Foil Tape
Utility Blade
Hot Glue
Craft Glue
Silver Tinsel Garland
Silver Tinsel Stems
Craft paper or paper bags

Ok I’m going to admit right now I didn’t take process photos because I’m the worst and I wasn’t even sure it was going to work, BUT luckily it’s a pretty straight forward process. (Note: I’m going to make one for a friend so I’ll try to update this post with photos when I do!)

In order to get the deer’s head into the terrarium, but still have the helmet in the position I wanted, I had to make cuts on the points shown below.

I added paper ears and eyes and placed the head in the terrarium. Once the head was in the terrarium (from here on known as the helmet) I reattached the bottom part of the antlers, and the upper part of the neck with craft glue and used chopsticks to help get where I had trouble reaching. Once it was dry, I used wet strips of paper bag and glue to cover the cut seams.

Then I used hot glue to attach the rest of the antler to the top of the helmet, and the helmet to body. I used a black sharpie to draw on the hooves and a nose, then I covered the body in foil tape, and covered all the glue joints with tinsel wire and garlands.

There it is! My new spacey pet. Isn’t he a cutie?

Retro Mid-Century Atomic Space Age Christmas Decor Theme

Published on December 10, 2018December 12, 2018 by Krys18 Comments

Ahhh I am so excited to show you our home office’s Christmas theme!! I’ve had this retro sci-fi idea floating around in my mind forever and I’m so glad I was able to pull it all together. I was in a pretty serious car accident in November, so for a moment I didn’t think I’d be able to rally in time to make this happen, but I was able to work it out and I’m super happy with the result.

I was inspired by the atomic and space age depictions of Christmas popular in the mid 20th century. Think Christmas cards with Santa riding a rocket, flying saucer shaped Shiny Brites, and even movies like Santa Claus Conquers the Martians. Unfortunately, it was a difficult task finding the appropriate items to deck my halls in this theme, aside from one or two retro style ornaments I found at Michael’s. Fortunately I was able to craft my way through enough projects to make it pretty much exactly what I had in mind.

I’ll be following this post up with others detailing the DIY crafts I did with links to materials, so stay tuned for that. For now let me take you on a little tour of the room!

Since it’s a small room I needed a tree that wouldn’t overwhelm the space. I went with this slim white tree from Treetopia which fits nicely. It has white lights, but my vintage Norelco color wheel adds some festive color to it as well.

One of my favorite Christmas crafts to do each year is to make custom no-sew tree skirts. You can see examples of that here and here. This year was no exception! For this one I used ufos, boomerang shapes, and starbursts, finished off with silver metallic fringe.

To decorate the tree I used blue and gold star wired garland and a variety of starburst ornaments I’ve collected over the years.

Of course I used some of my vintage reflector ornaments and threaded ball fringe comets.I found a few fitting ornaments at Michaels like a flying saucer, rocket Santa, and an aluminum tray TV dinner (space age technology!).I also made colorful sputnik ornaments (look for those in an upcoming post!)

And I even added a space helmet (an empty craft ornament) to Frosty!

I found an astronaut nutcracker and gave him an aluminum tree to decorate. This is just three craft cones of different sizes covered in foil tape and stacked!Another rocket Santa! Made out of a bird feeder, metallic tape, and mini ornaments.

And my new pet, my favorite Christmas creation of all time, my space deer! He’s made out of a papier mache deer and a round terrarium.

Over on the shelves we’ve got some spacey aluminum and vintage Shiny Brites.

I found this vintage space Santa image and had it enlarged and printed. It even has space reindeer!

Looks pretty good over by our 1960 Philco Predicta.

And there it is! I hope you liked the tour!

Stay tuned for a followup post of details on the DIYs and all the resources.

Our Pink, Gold, and Green Atomic Meets Glam Inspired Bedroom Reveal

Published on November 1, 2017 by Krys10 Comments

I finaallllyyyy get to show you guys our bedroom before and after reveal! Yay!

I didn’t think it would turn out to be my favorite room in our apartment, but I think it totally is. I was inspired by mid-century atomic and glam styles, and used green, pinks, and lots of gold elements as my palette.

Here’s what it looked like before:

Here’s after!

Putting a bed in front of a window like this can look a little awkward, so the first thing I did was hung wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling shimmery coral-pink curtains and sheers from Target to frame the bed and disguise the window, while still letting tons of light in.

I used a fabric in a similar color to do a wall treatment in the vanity nook. I changed the built-in’s hardware to a vintage 1950/60s set that I found on Etsy and also changed the light to a beautiful brass Sputnik from Lucent Lightshop. The vanity chair is from Nate Berkus for Target.

I installed a beautiful metallic gold and white wallpaper from Tempaper (the same brand I used in my bathroom)! It’s so easy to work with and adds a lot of shine and pattern to the room, but isn’t overwhelming.Lamps are a vintage find from Etsy! Shades are from the Project 62 line at Target. Our bed frame is from Joybird. You know I love me some Joybird. We had our tv mounted in front of the bed for our viewing pleasure. To jazz up the boring closet doors I used metallic gold tape and changed the knobs out to starburst ones from Etsy. The oval starburst mirror is also from Joybird.