Skip to main content

Red Crutches!

Six weeks is a long time to be on crutches, to make it a little better I decided to decorate them!

I started by searching Pinterest and Google for ideas. Mostly duct tape crutches came up, I took them into consideration, but I also found colored crutches that you could order online. They were a bit more than I wanted to spend, but I liked the way they looked a lot better than the duct tape ones. Finally I found a way to get the look I wanted myself. I found alcohol ink! It is awesome and can stain metal.

Soon I ordered alcohol ink, an applicator for the ink, and zebra print crutch covers on amazon.

I started by taking my standard crutches and taking the adjustable part out and unscrewing the handles. I wish I had taken a picture of them at this point to show what I mean but totally forgot.

Next out comes the ink! It comes in three packs, each bottle only has half an ounce, which made me nervous, but I ended up using only a quarter of one bottle for both crutches.

The applicator comes with pieces of felt that velcro on, so I velcro-ed a piece on and squirted some ink on to it, I choose the watermelon colored ink. Then I got to work.

I started with the bottom piece of the crutches (the adjustable part I had removed), then moved on to the rest. After I covered the majority of the crutches I took the felt piece off of the applicator and just used my hands to squeeze it into some of the nooks and cranies. 

Next I put them back together.

Up close, see how it still retains it's metal shine.
Next it was time for the crutch cover, because zebra print always makes things look better (ok not ALWAYS, but a lot).
The Finished Product
I think this is about as good as crutches get, considering they are still crutches.

Update: The red was rubbing off a little so I covered them with modge podge, which sealed the color better. I put the modge podge on using a sponge, and it is important to pat it on and not swipe. If you swipe/rub it on the red will come off.






Comments

  1. ElizabethJanuary 26, 2013 at 11:15 PM

    Those are brilliant!! I would never have thought of the alcohol ink.

    ReplyDelete
  2. life with a flareJanuary 27, 2013 at 8:41 AM

    Me neither! Until I found it on google I had never even heard of it,

    ReplyDelete
  3. anettoApril 11, 2013 at 6:22 PM

    Great idea and a new to me technique also. I'll remember that for the future

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The Swollen Wrist

This morning I woke up to a red painful swollen wrist. My right wrist was not happy or useable for the better part of the morning. Of course my mom wanted to make a rheumatologist appointment for this week but I really did not think it is worth it. Since I am now in the 2 week period before my hip surgery I can not take anything but Tylenol anyway (no voltaren or fancy cream), so there is not a whole lot that can be done. We finally settled on me going to my GP (for the 2nd time in one week as I had a pre-op appointment with him on Monday), and I took a picture so I can show my rheumy at my next appointment. I managed to get an appointment at 11AM because my GP was in the office this Saturday. By the time of the appointment my wrist looked pretty normal, although I had the picture so he could see something was up. He had it x-rayed just to rule out any issues non rheumatology related, and as we both guessed the x-rays came out normal. My Lovely Wrist this Morning I was left wit...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Perfect Body?

Today I am going to write about a taboo subject- body image, and how living with chronic illness/pain has affected it. I get told how great my body is a lot, I am tall and fairly skinny. Not to be egotistic but I look pretty good in a bikini. I should love how I look. I should be confident of my body, after all I just bought a pair of size 2 jeans. Yet I still struggle with loving my body. My New Jeans! In middle school I thought my legs were fat, that was when I had muscles from horseback riding, today I miss my muscular legs. My thighs tend to be two different sizes, the left one is almost always smaller. The reason for this is simple, my left quad has atrophied from months of limping and being on crutches when I was 15/16, at one point it was so bad my doctor measured it and the difference was a good 2 cm in circumference. Today they are almost the same size, and probably look the same to anyone else, but to me they still look different. If you haven't guessed it yet, ...
4 comments
Read more

I Am Still Me

In the past two years it seems like my medical issues have become part of my identity. I am the girl always on crutches or limping, the one who doesn't participate in gym. No one asks where I am if I am not it class, they know I was probably at a doctor's appointment or if I come in a period or two late my friends know my shoulders are probably having a bad day so I had to take a bath to get rid of morning stiffness. I am not sure when it happened but people are now more surprised when I can walk then when I can't.  Sometimes it is really hard for me to move past the medical parts of my life, because it does affect all the others, but it is important that I do. I try to do everything I used to do, which is hard but aside from athletic activities I have done a pretty good job managing. I can't always do everything I want to but I prioritize.  There are a couple things I refuse to let my health affect. Debate is something I don't let get affected, since I have ...
3 comments
Read more