New chair

This chair was in danger of finding it's final resting place in the local trash dump.

But I saw beyond the outward appearance and recognized the potential.

With a little love, a lot of staples and paint, the once abandoned chair has found a new home in my living room!

I choose the fabric in honor of Africa! Plus. I think I heard animal print is so in right now!!

Vanity Re-Do

"This vanity was red,

and now it's blue

But in between

it was 5 other colors too"

I had this really cool vanity that I got a while back. On a whim, I painted it red one day and didn't really bother to do it the right way. I didn't even put poly on it. Not a good idea! In about a month, the paint was chipping and the top was stained from all my mineral makeup! I never really liked the red anyways, so I decided to re-do it again.

I started by priming the bottom half, I knew I just wanted to paint it anyways. Kilz primer is awesome!!! It only took one coat to cover over all that red!

I then used a stripping formula on the top part. The red came off pretty easy, and the white underneath (the color it was when I got it) took some elbow grease, but it wasn't too bad either. What I wasn't prepared for was the 4 other layers of paint and stain under that. It seems whoever had this before me took my original approach to re-furnishing. Just paint over it and get on with life!

It took about 3 more applications of stripper and a lot of sanding, but I finally got it down to the bare wood. There were a few pesky places that didn't want to come up, but that actually made it look kind of cool.

Once I got it down to the bare wood, I stained it with a Dark Walnut stain and then put 2 layers of poly on it! Now the top is nice and smooth!

For the rest all I did was spray paint the bottom half with this fun Valspar color and then distress and glaze it to give it a shabby look!

I really like the way it came out and I think it will hold up this time! I am glad I took the time to do it the right way!

Linking to:
http://www.reinventedkb.com/2010/05/trash-to-treasure-tuesday_24.html

http://somedaycrafts.blogspot.com/2010/05/whatever-goes-wednesday-14.html

http://www.somewhatsimple.com/

Versatile Shutter decoration

Old houses come with some interesting issues.

One of mine happens to be this long, narrow bathroom with amazing pink tile and only one outlet !!!
It also has this big white wall that I have yet to figure out what to do there.

Until now!

I have had this old shutter for awhile. Originally I just had it standing in a corner, but I figured I could do something more creative with it!

With some paint, a little glaze, and the use of my new Jig Saw

(thanks Dad)

I was able to turn it into this....

Hobby Lobby had their knobs on sale so I added those and figured I could use them for jewelry...

For towels...

Or for something else yet to be discovered!

I think it works!

Easy flower arrangement knock-off

I saw this in my Real Simple magazine this month and thought it was pretty cool.

What wasn't cool was the price tag...

That's three hundred sixty five big ones if you missed it!

I figured I could make a smaller version for a fraction of the cost.

Off to the local Ikea I went and found these bud vases for $3 each.

I just used gorilla glue to put them together and voila!

Doesn't it make the flowers look awesome!

One day I may get around to putting the whole thing on a plate or even painting the vases a different color, but I was in a hurry. I could also add more vases to it if I wanted, but our table is so small, anything more would be a little overpowering!

Do you like it?

Beaded Wire Cross

Here's a fun and easy craft...

All you need is a mix of fun beads, some beading wire, a couple of markers/pencils/dow rods or any thing that shape will do!

Start by making a cross with the markers or pencils. Depending on how big you want the cross is how you decide which to use. The one below was made with crayola markers.

Wrap some wire around the center of the cross to secure it, but not too tight because eventually you will want to remove them.
Once the middle is secure, just wrap wire around the rest of it. until you have a good base. Once you have a good foundation, you can begin just adding beads as you wrap.

Once your cross looks like you want it to, push the markers out of the holes at the top and there you have it. In some cases you could leave them, as long as it can't be seen through the wire.

Use left over wire to make a hanger. Now that I look at it, I should probably use a ribbon to hang it- wouldn't that be pretty!



This is a great way to use all those left over beads from various projects!
Enjoy!

Cake Eggs!

I've posted this before, but with Easter around the corner again, I figured I would repost! Happy Easter everyone!

Have you had Cake balls before? How about cake eggs?
I made these for an Eastger brunch! They were a big hit and really fun to make.
The Pioneer Woman has a good step-by-step recipie on her site, I just modified it to fit the holiday!

Metal Art

This project can be time consuming, but it is easy and really makes a great gift.
All you need is a roll of soft metal found at Hobby Lobby and comes in sliver, copper and gold (I like the copper myself), a paint pen (the thin ones usually work best for script) and an embossing tool- not sure on the technical name for this

Begin by cutting your metal to fit a chosen frame, then print out a copy of a favorite scripture, quote or picture that would fit on the metal.

Tape the copy over the metal and then use the embossing tool to trace over the letters. You have to press down pretty hard. Depending on the font you use, it can take awhile! I also put a piece or 2 of craft foam behind the metal to give it some cushion.

Once you have traced the letters, remove the paper. You should be able to see the writing pressed into the metal. At this point, go over the letters with your paint pen. If you mess up, you can use paint thinner or mineral spirits to erase the paint, it shoudn't stain the metal.

I then place the metal in a frame. This is a great way to use those frames that are oddly sized or too overpowering for an actual picture. Most of the time I put the glass behind the metal before I put the back on to give the metal some stability.

Here are a few examples of other ones I have done. Sorry about the poor quality of the pictures. One day I will have an awesome camera!