Wednesday, September 29, 2010

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!

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

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.

Saturday, September 25, 2010

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!

Friday, September 24, 2010

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!
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Thursday, September 16, 2010

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!


Tuesday, September 14, 2010

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!!!

Monday, September 13, 2010

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?