New Projects!

For Valentine's Day, my husband brought these home. The chair was one that I had been talking about earlier in the week, bugged that I didn't buy it, and he went out sneakily and found just the one I was talking about. He also found this great little vanity- so excited when I finally have time to work on them! Any ideas?

The New Guest Room...

I spent a few days this last week redoing our guest room- nothing huge on changes, but I used new bedding, and made a great new headboard. I found the books at thrift stores, and glued them to a thin board. It took a bit to get them in the right placement, but it was maybe a few hours total of work. (The rest was waiting for the glue to dry.) 

I found the original idea here: http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-a-book-headboard/

Another quick sign...

I made this one for my Mom for Christmas. It is hanging in their cabin, right in the front room. Total cost: $3 for the board from Home Depot. (They even cut it to the right length for me.)

The quote is by President Thomas S. Monson, Prophet of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Here is the link to the talk that this is from, even if you are not religious, it is a great article.

(And just as a bit of a brag, my Mom painted that picture of the Wise Man in the background...that's some talent.) :)

Last Minute Holiday Shirt...

Today was "holiday shirt" day at school. I thought Michael would be good with just wearing a red or green shirt, but he wasn't. So, instead of rushing to the store to buy a shirt, I used one of the Savers purchases ($2) and painted it with regular craft acrylics. I only painted the basic outline of the snowman, and Michael did almost all of the rest. Pretty cute and easy.

Trash to Treasure...

When I found this guy on the side of the road, my niece asked my son why I was picking it up. He simply said, "My mom likes garbage. She's an artist." I'd like to defend it by saying that I KNEW it wasn't garbage...at least not to me. :)

So here's what he looked like when I got him off the side of the road. Bird poop, dirt, basically gross. I could see the potential though, especially loving the eaten away parts of the mirror. I've been wanting to make something similar to these, and this was the perfect opportunity.

I started off with a good wash.  This is not super fun for me, because of the location of our hose knob. See how creepy Indiana Jones-ish it is? Every time I turn it on, I think of that part where she has to stick her hand in that big hole full of bugs. Gross. :) ANYWAY, back to the redo...

 I picked this fabric because of the muted-but-still-bold floral print, and I loved the gray background, even though I wouldn't be using much of the gray. I cut out each "bunch" of flowers, piecing them together on the back of the mirror.

Enter the Mod Podge...

 I did one thick layer on the back of the mirror, laying the fabric on top and smoothing it flat.

And then one good thick layer on top of the fabric.

When I flipped it over, I got a little nervous...it looked gross.

Dispite the disappointing first glance, I kept on with the repairs. I used some wood filler for a few holes and cracks, and then used some great chair glue on the side pieces that were pulling apart a bit.

If you do much furniture repair, I'd highly recommend this glue for chairs. You can use the syringe to get it down into cracks and it really holds well. I used it for all of my dining room chairs that were really lose and wobbly, and they are nice and sturdy now.

Now comes in the paint. I got a little impatient on this part- trying to paint around the clamps. I wouldn't recommend it.

Here I took a little break on the mirror to refinish this hope chest my mom gave me. It was hers before my dad and she got married- close to 50 years old. :)

Now it matches my kitchen cabinets, and will sit by the entryway as a bench.

All nice and red (Cherry Cobbler by BEHR) I did a bit of sanding/distressing here, not too much, but enough to notice.

In comes the glaze. This isn't my usual glaze, but I ran out and this is what I had on hand. I mixed it so it was a light gray color.

Once everything was all finished. I still have a varnish coat to add, but overall it's finished. I love it. Not so trashy anymore, wouldn't you agree? :) Total cost for this project: $3.23 for the fabric. Everything else I had already. Always fun to do cheap projects!

*Notice this little bat flying in the tree in the last picture? Yeah, that's from Halloween- he's all tangled up there, so I think it'll be up there for a while. :)

Painting a Quote...

I thought this might be a useful tutorial for some of you out there that are into the whole DIY thing. Maybe about 5 years ago, when I was deep into my painting business, I told my husband that I would paint a quote for him. It took until his birthday this year to get it done.

Here's how to get started. First of all, find a board. I bought this old cabinet door from the Habitat for Humanity ReStore. (Check out if you have one in your area- they are great for misc. home things.) Also, think about your final product. I bought this one because I wanted it to look like it had a "frame." If I were doing something different, I might prefer a simple board without a border. (Apologies for the iPhone photos- I couldn't find my camera for the first few pictures.)

 Paint it whatever base color you prefer. Because this will eventually end up in the "Man Cave," I wanted to it to be nice and manly. Black and cream were the colors I used. Also, this base doesn't have to be this high-gloss, it's just what I already had on hand. I was actually going to just use some craft paint left over, but thought this might "distress" a bit better.

Next, print out the quote that you want in whatever font you like. This gets a little tricky, but it's basically tracing with a paint brush. I use carbon paper and transfer an outline of the letters to the board. You can see that my letters aren't exactly like the font, but close enough to look unified. (And if you look closely, you'll notice a typo that I made- but I fixed it in the end.) :) This is just a regular craft acrylic, nothing fancy.

Now, once the nice board is all finished, take it out to the garage, grab your sand paper and go to town. I really thought that I was ruining this thing with how distressed it was getting, but I just kept going. I also used a hammer, wire brush, razor cutter, nail punch, and steel wool. Yep. Distressed. :)

This is how I presented it to him, thinking that it was great and perfect, but those little sandpaper lines over the text really bothered me, as did the difference in finish (some shiny parts, some flat)

So, I finished it off with one coat of water based satin finish poly. (Minwax Polycrylic is my favorite) This will also help it last years and years. (Maybe by then I'll find more time to make another one.) :)

Total price for this gift? A whopping $1 for the cabinet door.

My last two paid orders...

Kids Room Creations is officially in retirement. :) I was able to finish and package 5 orders before we left for Thanksgiving break. So relieved to be finished with that part of my life. I love painting though, and have MANY projects in mind. Just not of the nursery letter sort. :)