My local Wal-Mart is selling Shade Cloth, "Coolaroo" Brand, available as either 70% or 90% shade shade factor. Coolaroo claims at least 10 years of UV resistance. I believe that Coolaroo is mostly an Aussie brand (manufactured in China and sold worldwide), so it is usually promoted as protecting people from excessive UV exposure. I really don't understand why Aussies worry about skin cancer; I just thought that Crocadile Dundee would just pull out his 12 inch knife and, all by himself, dig out any funny looking moles saying, "Ah melanoma, no big deal."! The late Crocadile Hunter (may God have mercy on his soul) would just hold out his kid in front of a crock saying "Here crocky, here crocky, bite out that melanoma, that's a good crocky, that' it". And any suburban Aussie, would just rub their pet toxic cane toad above any melanoma. Oops, I digress from the topic of this post. Sorry for the American stereotypes of Aussies. The Coolaroo display box also sells accessories, such as a sewing kit with a roll of black UV-resistant (my assumption) cord plus a special sewing needle. Shade cloth is available in two forms: woven or knitted; the Coolaroo product is knitted and does not fall apart if you cut it. I purchased a roll of green 90% shade. I attempted two methods of fabrication: sewing or silicone glue (caulking). Using the Coolaroo sewing kit with their 90% shade cloth is quite difficult. Both their cord and needle are just too big; in contrast, their needle and cord should be fine for the 70% shade cloth. Sewing the 90% shade with a smaller needle and a more light weight cord, or using an aluminum wire, are alternatives that may work. Using sticks of hot glue melt may work; but the sticks carried by Wal-Mart are not resistant to UV, as far as I know; I have not tried them for that reason. I also fabricated cylinders by pumping 1 or 2 strips of silicone caulking onto a two inch wide strip of the fabric, and pulling the fabric around over the silicone caulking and pushing down to form a 2 inch wide glued seam. There was plastic film underneath the seam to protect the garage floor from silicone. I pushed a seam roller (ie., those used for wall paper) over the glued joint. The pressure from the seam roller causes the caulk to ooze out from both layers of shade cloth- the two strips of plastic film intercept this ooze to form a thin layer of silicone on both outer surfaces of the seam. I soon remove the top plastic film so that air will induce the silicone caulk to cure. Once the silicone caulk cures, I remove the second roll of protective plastic film. Note that silicone does not glue the polyethylene (or polypropylene) shade cloth per se. Rather, as the silicone oozes around the plastic threads, a continuous matrix of cured silicone forms a mechanical layer that physically traps the two layers of shade cloth together. Gee... I'm going to have to photograph this gluing process to explain it. Be careful with the silicone. Some tubes, especially those for bathtubs, contain a biocide to kill mildew; who knows what that will do to plants or those that eat the plants. Silicone, as far as I know, is inherently resistant to mold; but silicone is not inherently toxic to mold, so mold can grow on top of silicone. Nothing prevents mold from growing on top of silicone in a bathtub, unless controlled release biocide is added. Silicone for aquariums would be best, but may be pricey. Since Wal-Mart didn't have the Aquarium Silicone; I bought the "all purpose" tube for $2.65, and a cheap caulking gun. The silicone method is the easiest method of fabricating cylinders of shade cloth from pieces cut from the roll. Now I have to figure out how to fold one end of the cylinder into a bottom of the pot. Either that, I cut out a circle and attach it to one end of the cylinder. Stay tuned for further adventures with shade cloth.

Many make their own mosaics use tissue paper on the top with a water soluble glue rather than fiberglass mesh on the back. When the tiles are set solidly in the thinset, the paper is moistened and then removed. You can't really have plastic protective film on the face and then grout unless they are pretty large tiles, and if they are that large, then installing them individually is the way to go, not mosaiced together. The damage doesn't occur so much during install as grouting and you can't grout at all with an intact plastic sheet in place on top of mosaic tiles. If the tiles are small and fragile, narrow up the spacing enough to use unsanded grout and forget about surface film. Peeling thousands of 3/4" tiles individually isn't a realistic idea even if you DIY and your labor is free.

No I did not remove the tile except around the sink to remove the old sink. I built forms from wood but the wood on the front was removed after the concrete set for a couple hours and the wood underneath removed the next day. Here is a photo of the concrete in the pass through window after I removed the front mold part. I left the wood underneath to support the overhang until the concrete reached near full strength the next day. You can see some leakage on the right I had to chisel away later. If you do this, I highly recommend caulking all the molds - I only did some areas because I thought I had screwed the soft wood tight enough but I was wrong, the resulting leaks caused all my problem areas. I should have caulked all the seams on the wood molds and I would not have had the problem. The counters still look great after months of use, BTW! here are some pics of the molds: Big mess caused by leak- made painting the cabinets later a lot more work to sand off all that gunk. The leaks also created air gaps in the mold area I couldn't see until the concrete was set, I later had to hand trowel a thick mixture on those areas to repair it. It will never look as smooth as the mold-formed areas. My plan for next spring is to tile the backsplash if budget allows - the beadboard wallpaper is serving its purpose for now but tile will look nicer.

if you are looking for stamps you could use the alphabet stamps that go with wood burners or just by looking in the scrapbook section of your local craft store they are use to emboss metal or paper, and there is also leather stamps they could serve the same purpose , stone stamps, & do not forget you can make your own stamps out off polymer clay. these Ideas are what I use as you can tell I must have a messy craft area!!!!! I use a 50% coupon to buy my polymer clay supplies so you could always get you pasta machine cheaper sign up for the michaels online newsletters & coupons. also here are some websites I go to to buy things http://www.acmoore.com/p-32167-easy-to-do-series-stamp-set-alphabet-14.aspx http://www.polymerclaycentral.com/claystamps.html http://www.polyclayplay.com/Products/PolyPresses/ProdStoneStamps.htm :(sorry could only figure out how to post one site!): I am a Polymer clay artist who is hopefully going to get to do real mosaics soon I have my supplies just need the time & work area to get me going!! I am a member of the poly clay club which is a fun club that does polymer clay challenges, letters of love for sick children, artist trading cards, & monthly projects. They have free projects on their site!! But this month I'm excited about the challenge because it involves polymer clay mosaics. Mosaics are Definitely something I've always wanted to do but did not have the time but my children & getting bigger now so if there are any tips on getting started with real mosaics? Besides keeping my fingers because I'm accident prone!!!:) please tell me!! Abby Here is a link that might be useful: This is the challenge any Ideas for doing mosaic would help! I want to win!!! Thanks