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August 23, 2013

If you've been reading my blog at all for the past 8.5 years that I've been writing it, you know that our #1 grandson Caleb has always factored heavily into our day-to-day lives. I just looked back to the first page of this blog and sure enough, there he is :-) I kind of fell off the map in the blogging world for the past year because I had brought him home for his 6th grade education. (I mentioned it in this post and this post, pretty much the only other times I blogged this year!). I had sincere intentions about making it work for Caleb and homeschooling, but all things considered and long story short-- we both decided he should go give the public arena another try. Today at noon I dropped him off at his new middle school for orientation to 7th grade, and Monday he will officially start. I watched him walk from my car into a large crowd of seemingly unknown kids and within seconds he had joined a group of boys he recognized who were patting him on the back--happy to see him. It wasn't until then that I choked back a tear, which I must assume was a 'happy tear', so I feel certain that All Will Be Well. 

In my attempt to start blogging about creativity again, I thought I'd share a couple recent things I've done. 

I saw this skirt in a thrift shop not long ago

It was a large size (at least 18) so not surprisingly; hadn't ever really been worn. I was drawn to the sweet pink flowers as well as the ruffle on the bottom. With very little sewing I turned it into this cute jumper;

I'm always hunting the skirt aisle at the thrift stores now. Do you remember when I used a new size 14 mini skirt to make a whole quilt top? (say! I still like that. I should go find it and have it finished ;) ) 

Found a good organizational tip on Pinterest--my favorite time suck of the day! Use magazine boards to wrap yardage on.

Here's my fabric closet before (that's an IKEA Expedit shelving system)

And here's the after:

I won't say that wrapping them and standing as opposed to stacking saves or wastes any room, but you know fabric is HEAVY and thumbing through the stacks before was difficult if not impossible. I do so love the new system. I also emptied a six drawer cart full of ribbon bolts by wrapping them, too (mainly because I wanted to use this cute little cubby I found at a thrift shop.)

That's all I can think to share today. It's almost time to go back for the parent orientation and to pick up Caleb so I better get ready for that. Hope all is well in your world!

August 15, 2013

I'm in full force furniture painting mode lately...recently I took a break from rehabbing things I want to sell at the November Fig Twig Market and refinished some pieces for granddaughter Madison's room. She's starting Kindergarten next week! 

I might not be so inclined to share the results if the before pictures weren't so hideous! 

Here's the bed before.

Specifically, the headboard. It has a matching footboard. You can imagine Melissa's face when I drug this to her garage a year or so ago for Maddie's bedroom. "Uh, no thanks Mom!" ;)

Here is the nightstand.

Pretty ugly, huh? I painted it to match my daughter Melissa's bedroom 10 years ago--it seemed to work with the decor at the time (you'll just have to take my word). This nightstand has been with Melissa most of her life so it seemed apropo that we continue it's use with her own little girl.  

And finally, here's the dresser.

This came in a build-it-yourself box from KMart when Maddie was first born almost 6 years ago. The handles broke within the first year and since they weren't a standard/easy to replace size I just made do and replaced them with ribbon. (Hey--It worked for nearly 5 years!)

So that was a whole bunch of ugly I had piled up in the garage, waiting to be transformed, huh? Guess I better hurry up and show the 'afters'

 

(The white Avon bunnies collection belonged to Melissa when she was a little girl in the 80s)

I used Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Pure White and then went over pretty heavily with dark wax.

I also used the method of embossing a design that I wrote about here a few years ago.  You'll see it in the center of the headboard and again on the bottom two drawers of the dresser. 

I'm pretty pleased with how it all turned out. When I was dark waxing the drawers in the garage I was putting them back into the dresser and John happened to pull in and remark how striking the dark drawers in the white 'box' were. It made me look closer and I realized it really did need to stay that way, for contrast as opposed to ALL the pieces being ALL distressed dark.

I'm glad that happened because he was right and I may very well not have figured it out on my own.

I have a couple of tips to share re the Annie Sloan painting and waxing. Specifically as it relates to the cost and the availability.

Ace Hardware now puts out an all in one paint/primer called Clark+Kensington. The last two Saturdays they've actually been giving away a free quart in your choice of color to whoever walks in and asks. (Like Ace on Facebook and you'll be notified when it happens again). It's about $15/qt as opposed to $39 for the ASCP, so I use the cheaper Ace paint as the first coat and then the AS as the top coat (I like the way the ASCP takes up the wax). The AS waxes are said to last *forever* but my can of the clear wax didn't last long at all. There are no Annie Sloan stockists within a 200 mile radius even if I DID want to pay the high price..and I was in the middle of a project! So I did a google search for a replacement and found people mentioning Minwax rubbing paste. I went to the local hardware store and bought a can and it was SO HARD that I could only use a fork to get crumbles out. Certainly not a nice replacement for what I had gotten used to. So I grabbed some Howard's Feed and Wax from under the kitchen sink, swirled some over the Minwax chunks and crumbs in a bowl, and started mashing it all together with the back of a fork (like making refried beans, or mashed potatoes without a mixer) and I am pleased with the results. So most of these pieces were first gone over with a coat of my homemade wax, then gone over again with the AS dark wax. Saved $$ on both the paint AND the wax, but got the same results as if I'd used all AS products. yay!

I still have a small mountain of furniture pieces waiting to be transformed, so for now I better get back on schedule. :-)

til next time...

 

August 5, 2013

Hello! After years of attempting to do image transfers with only so-so results using the glued down paper and water technique, I hit upon 2 or 3 helpful hints yesterday that I was compelled to come on here and share with anyone who may happen upon my poor ol' neglected blog. :)

I'll start by showing the finished product.

In case there's still one or two of you out there that don't know about this, Karen at The Graphics Fairy has been generously posting free images for anyone to use for years now. Even if you just check out the French Typography section, I'm sure you'll find something that sparks your creativity. You can see that's where I found this Paris Apartment sign that I used.

So I started out like I always have--painted it, got my print sized correctly and printed out backwards (mirror image) and trimmed, glued it face down, waited a few hours to dry, and started wetting and rubbing off the paper with my hand. But after it had been wet for a while the paint started to peel up, then I started to wash down some of the text, too. I had already anticipated loss of text so had bought a couple of paint pens to fill in like I always had to do, but this time it seemed all of the paint was wanting to peel off! In case nothing I just said makes sense, here's a step by step that shows closest to the way I've always done it.  Somehow she ended up with near perfect results, but I never did. Until now!

First tip...paint the entire surface that you'll be transferring onto (the table top) with a coat of Mod Podge. Let dry completely. This acts as a sealant for the paint. Now when you begin the normal process of laying a (second) coat of Mod Podge, there will be a resistant coat between all your watery rubbing and the painted wood. 

Second tip...Don't trim around the paper image you will be transferring (like she did in the above linked tutorial) because it's really quite difficult to get rid of the demarcation line between the transferred image and the rest of the painted item. Have the image printed onto a sheet of paper that will cover the entire surface. (more rubbing off of paper, yes; but also a more overall even appearance.)

Most of the imperfections in this finished project come from having attempted it in my old usual way the first time, and quickly washing *most* (not al) of it off and starting again the new and improved way. All the improvement ideas came at me so fast I just had to DO IT! But I'm okay with the way it looks...I usually have a hard time achieving the old and worn look so it helped ;)

Third tip...Send your image to Staples (or similar in your area)copy and print services..either upload it online or bring your image into the store on an sd card. They have a category called Engineering Prints which produced an 18"x24" b&w print on thinnish paper (handy when it comes to getting it wet and having to rub it all off) for only $1.79!!

OH. And a fourth thing that I'd never tried before but it worked well enough that I want to pass it on; I let the first coat of water sit on the paper for a good twenty minutes. It got so soft that I could actually use a wide blade putty knife to gently push off the first coat of paper in a long, wet strips. Saved a LOT of rubbing by hand, but be careful not to gouge into the paint. (the pic below is whitened from sun glare in the photo).

Maybe you already guessed this used to be a sewing machine table. From underneath I screwed the top surface down so that it can't be folded over. I think the little tool drawer is just as handy for pens and pencils when using it now as a writing desk. 

The padded seat lifts off for more storage inside. By adding a scrap of folded ribbon, now I can just grab and pull it rather than having to dig my fingernails into both sides of the seat every time I want to lift it up. I remembered having that harlequin in my stash and felt it would be a good fit, but the white was TOO white, so always remember a nice tea bath to tone things down a tad if necessary.

Well, I think that's about it for all my discoveries and good ideas this weekend. I hope something in this post helped someone somehow!