Furniture Update with Stencil

I had this piece of furniture for a long time, and it needed a little update. I painted it a brown color a while back, and one day I walked by and had this idea to add some hydrangea's to the doors. I already had the stencils and paint. There are some many choices out there. You can go to the craft store and use a coupon and pick up a design that you like!

First, you want to make sure your surface is clean and free from dust. Choose your design and get your paints ready. I use a tint, but you can use any craft paint or stencil paint.

The idea is to really remove as much of the paint as you can from your brush. The best way to do this is with a cotton rag. Pour a small amount of paint to a plate. Gently dip the tip of your stencil brush into the paint. A stencil brush works best just because of the stiffness of the bristles

and it keeps it's shape.

Here is what my rag looks like as I am removing paint from the brush...this could almost be art in itself! :~)

After you are sure that you have removed most of the paint, I test it out on my wrist. Yes, I said wrist. This is just one last test to make sure that the paint is removed.

The point here is that we are just "floating" in the color. This is different than the traditionally way to stencil.

Here you see the stencil up. For some reason at the time I did not have blue tape. A girls gotta do what a girls gotta do! Anyways, start from the edge of the design. You want to "hug" you the opening of the stencil. Do not stamp! I make a gentle figure eight when I stencil. Going from the outside to the inside of the design. Remember that a lot of your color is off the brush. You can get a much softer

look with the technique.

For the top of my door, I did not want the whole flower, so I taped off what I did not want. Again, hug and swirl that color in. This gives you a chance to add other

colors within the design.

Here is what the finished flower looks like. I did use a metallic paint on the flower, so it's hard to get a good picture of it.

Again, it's better in person. There are different shades of green on the leaf and different colors on the petals....just hard to get all of that with the camera. There are a million places that you could do this. Headboards, cupboards, tables, all kinds of possibilities!

Dollar Store Halloween

I just LOVE the dollar store. If you don't shop there, you should start! When you are walking around, have an open mind to the endless possibilities! I am not a big fan of going crazy for Halloween, but I do like the vintage look that you can create. Take these pumpkins! Now, they are not perfect, because I had the help of a lovely 3 year old assistant. So, I decided that I needed to get over it begin perfect, and let her have some fun with glitter! Who does not love glitter!

Here is the pumpkin...with my little helper. It was orange, but I hit it with some black spray paint. You could use craft paint too. It was actually blackboard paint...that was all I had. I thought it would be fun to use chalk on it, but then that bottle of glitter was just calling out my name.

We used a glue stick here. I was trying to get perfect circles. You could use glue dots too! The glitter is from Hobby Lobby. They have it in a ton of different colors too. It's not as fine as the Martha Stewart glitter from Michael's, but I think this works great for this project! Plus, it's a much better price!

The second pumpkin we did some stripes on. Pretty fun!

I am working on my display, so when I get that all done,

I will post more pictures.

Score! At a garage sale!

I am always on the look-out for books for our office-library. We have shelves that wrap around the office. Though we have filled it with lots of books, there are still empty spaces. I have checked out Goodwill, and other thrift stores, but they are just too pricey for my taste, even for used books!

Look at this garden book I got today for .50!

It was $30.00 book!

Another option for used books is the Library! I got a whole set of black/hard covered TimeLife books. They are all on different locations around the US. But the best part is that they are black. The librarian even bargained with my on the price! Oh yeah!

A treat for those closet doors!

I just can't leave closet doors with nothing on them!

I see a blank canvas!

I ordered these damask expressions from my Upper Case Living expressions. The best part is that it's not permanent. I know for sure that my hubby was not going to go for painting my daughters closet doors.

It's in Chocolate Brown...and so divine!

Now, it came with 4 large and 4 small designs. I really went back and fourth on what to do with the smaller ones. I thought about cutting them in half, and placing them all over the doors for one large pattern.

But, I then just decided to leave them plain.

So, now what to do with my left-over pieces...

My window treatment above my bathtub! I had a friend that gave me this left-over.

She had a customer that changed their mind about the treatment. Yeah for me!

So I added the trim with a hot glue gun. And then I used the extra damask to fill in the shade!

Check out my site at:

http://tamarag.uppercaseliving.net

I heart CraigsList

Here is why I love CraigsList...not for the dog and the kids. I had those already! But for the bedroom set!

I have been looking for weeks and weeks for a set for her. I tried the furniture stores, but I just don't want to spend a ton of money of a new bedroom set. Plus, it just does not make since to spend $350 just on a nightstand. And I love the idea of up-cycle! I had really wanted  a 4-poster bed. But everyone thought that it would take up too much space. We have high ceilings, so I thought it would work. I just did not want to take away from the rest of her room's design. And her room is pretty small, so I did not have a ton of room

for a whole set of furniture.

Que that angles singing! I found this gem at 9 am...it was listed at 8:35. I called ASAP! Please save this for me till I get there. It was love at first sight. It needed some cleaning up and a little touch-up. I was really hoping that she would go down on the price, but she already had six people waiting in the wings in case I did not take it.

My mom quilted the pillows and put them together. And the bedspread is from when I was a girl. How my mother had the patience to crochet that whole thing is beyond me! I never imaged in my wildest dreams that my little girl would be using it someday. When her birthday comes, I will get her a set for the winter. But this work great for the summer.

How cute is the dresser with the mirror? So what did this set me back? $250...I know. I was wishing that I could get it for $200 or less. Do you ever notice that at either garage sales, craigslist, even the thrift store, you turn into a total tight-wade? I do. What the heck? Do I think that I can get it for free? You bet...but in the meantime, this was meant to be for her! She LOVES it! And I think that this will last us a long time!

Sort-of Thrifty Table

Well, this table was just crying for some help. I did not get it at a thrift store, but my niece was going to throw it out, so I cried foul! And ask to save it. Beauty is on the eye of the beholder, and I saw some prettiness!

My DH had to first cut some wood to fit in the bottom. I tried all kinds of things to get those darn legs to stay put, but it really needed that wood there. So we had some scrapes that did the trick!

So I first had to take the sander to it.

Notice that I am inside...yep, it was like 150 degrees outside and I just was not in the mood to deal with the heat. Nothing that a vacuum could not take care of.



After I sanded and cleaned it off with a cloth, I gave it a couple of coats of a cream paint. Now this paint I got as a free sample. So I am still a free so far!



After the cream color was dry, I went over the table with a stain, but the I realized that I did not have enough product...what to do? I used some pure tint from Home Depot. This is a product that you would use to tint off your glaze or paint. So I gave it a whirl and it worked great. I let it sit for just a minute and then I took an old tee-shirt and took off all the stain/tint.



This is the percent table for my kiddos to sit books on and play games...now what to do with that piece of plywood at the bottom...

I got some 12x12 scrapbook paper and mod pode the heck out of it! I just did not think that the look of painted plywood was going to go with the table. I could have used fabric too, but this works great! And I only spent $1.50 on the paper!

So here it was it looks like when it is done! Presto!

Ta-Da!!!

Black and White Baby Quilt
This is a baby quilt that I made for my neighbor! She loves black and white! This was so much fun to make!

The pattern is "turning 21" and is pretty easy to make! This costs about $35...depending on the fabric that you choose.

These are great to toss on the floor and let the baby discover her world!













Don't you love the patterns?

HomeDepot Craftness~FREE

So, do you ever take your kids to Home Depot to do the free crafts once a month?
Well, if you don't, you should! It's the 1st Saturday of every month in the morning.
They start at 9 and I would get there as soon as you can, because they run out fast!
And, they are always unfinished wood. Which is fine, unless you are a little girl that loves pink!

All I did with this was paint it pink and found some scrapbook paper that I liked. I cute it out and Mod Podge it, and there you go! She loves it and put all kinds of things in it!

Baker's Delight!

We were invited to a friends 3 year old daughter's birthday. I wanted to do something different for her...and pow! The idea just came to me! What little one does not like to help in the kitchen? I remember seeing these hand towels at my Fry's grocery store, and I ran with the idea!
I love this cupcake pattern!

                                       Open the towel up and cut it in half.

Now it's ready for a hem at the top! The rest of the towel needs NO sewing! Love that!

Quick hem....

For the next step, I added some ribbon. Now, I would have like to use pink, but I wanted to use what I already had, and I had some other lime green things to go with the gift. Find the center of about 1 1/2 yards of ribbon and pin it to the top of the towel.

I went with a zig-zag stitch...for cuteness and to make sure that it stayed on with lot's of washings.

I ran 3 rows of stitching on the ribbon...and it's done!

One more thing...it needs just a touch!

I added a hot pink button in the middle of the apron. Super cute!

 I LOVE hot pink and lime green together!

Finish off your ribbon ends with a nice cut. I was to lazy to find the Fray Check, so I took a lighter to the ends. But be careful! You don't want to catch your ribbon on fire!

Close-up of the button action! I just hand-sewed that on...tried it on the machine, and it was not going so well. I am sure there is a correct way to do that, but sometimes it's good to do things the old-fashion way!

Here it is all put together!

Here's what's in it!

Mixer bowl ($1 store)

Lime green spatula ($1 store)

Whisk ($1 store)

Pretty filler...$1 store again!

Oven mitt and matching "custom made kids apron" Fry's...on sale

Cake Mix

Muffin tray and liners with cupcakes on them.

"If you give a pig a party" book that got from my son's Scholastic program

I tied it off the utensils with curing ribbon from the Dollar Store too.

Here is the finished gift! I hope she likes it!

Think outside the box for all of these birthday parties that we get invited to in life! Let them be creative!

Oh So Rosey Purse!

Here is a purse that I made for my little princess!

It's SOOO easy! And cheap! Just the way I like to make things!

I actually saw this on another blog a long time ago, except she used a back-pack. I tried to find on that was cheap...like from the Dollar Store, but at the time they did not have them.

Then I remembered that I had this old purse that I did not use anymore. Perfect!

All you need is to go to the Dollar Store and pick up a bag of these petals. They are in the wedding section. I have only seen them in pink and white, but I am sure that they will add more colors. You can get these at craft stores too! Use your 40% off coupon!

Supplies:

1. 1 Bag of loose rose petals
2. Hot glue gun with a few sticks to spare
3. Fun little gems and ribbon if you want

Start at the bottom of the bag and add a dab of hot glue to the end of the petal and glue it to the bag.

Continue to do this all the way across the bottom in a row.

Once that row is done, go to where the next row above would be and glue.

Make sure that you cover the row bellow where the glue is. You don't want that to show,

Go all the way up the bag until you are finished.

When I got to the top row of this bag, I folded them in half and dabbed them with a little bit of hot glue to make and even line where the zipper was.

When they are all done...and you have jumped up and down numerous times because of hot glue gun burns ( I have a high-melt, need to change that one of these days and get a low-melt) then you can add some ribbon and blig if you want.

Now the only problem that I have had with this is that some of the petals have fallen off. But that has to do with they way my 3 year old handles this purse...flings it, fills it with dolls, rocks, and lot's of other things.

I think that it may have to do with the material of my purse. Yep, it's pleather.

So pay attention to your bag. Maybe E6000 might work better.

Run Away Tights!

These are some tights that I made for Shelby...notice how she is running away and won't let me take her picture. Lovely! Ahhh, the life of a 3 year old!

OK, I finally got her to stand still!

For these, I cut off a pair of her tights that no longer fit. I sewed some elastic on them and added some pink ribbon that I put a ruffle in. They are really cute and you could just go crazy making all kinds of these to match outfits!

(Yes, I made the larger-than-life hair bows too, but we will save that for a rainy day!)