Plaster Paint Co. Projects

Good morning! A few Saturdays ago my friend Christi W. and I took an all-day furniture painting workshop at The Plaster Paint Company in Catoosa, OK. (You can click HERE to read about the mother-daughter team that started this company, as well as check out their fantastic products and projects.)

Christi and I started out with old pieces of furniture that we picked up at local thrift shops...I brought a chair:

Christi brought a side table:

We began by selecting the Plaster Paint colors for our projects. I chose the color "Jewel" for my chair, and Christi chose the color "Dahlia" for her table. The beauty of Plaster Paint is that there is no prep work on the piece you are painting...so we were able to dive right in to painting our projects:

I debated on whether to paint the cane work on the seat of my chair. The cane was in great condition, which is kinda rare when you find an old chair, but I decided that I wanted to paint and age/distress the whole chair, so away I went with painting the cane:

Here are our projects with the first of two coats of paint. You can see how nicely the Plaster Paint covers the previous finishes. While our paint dried, we enjoyed a catered lunch from The Olive Garden - yummy!!

After lunch we added a second coat of paint, and once it had dried we lightly sanded/distressed our pieces, added dark glazes to antique the pieces, and then applied a couple of coats of liquid wax. Here's how our finished projects came out looking:

I LOVE how these pieces look now!! Christi put the side table in her guest room where her colors are grey and yellow-gold. I put my chair next to the whirlpool tub in my master bathroom to hold a basket of bath goodies:

I purchased some additional colors of Plaster Paint, and I am currently working on turning an old drawer into a cute and comfy dog bed for my sweet little Tony:

I know!! He's such a cutie, right?!?!?! Anyhoo...stay tuned for the upcoming post of the drawer dog bed that I am making for him!

Have a FANTASTIC week!!

Country-Style Towel Holder

Happy Monday, friends! This weekend I worked on a project for my pal Robbi R., and it turned out so cute that I just had to share it with you!

A while back Robbi purchased a rustic, country towel holder that was made from an old cutting board and a pastry blender. She showed it to me and told me that she was planning on giving it to her oldest daughter for Christmas. I mentioned to her that I thought it would be really cute to attach a handwritten recipe card to the upper portion of the cutting board, and that using one of her mom's handwritten recipes would be a nice touch! She agreed, and I offered to add this embellishment to the gift for her.

First off I scanned the original recipe card, printed it onto cardstock and cut it out. I then used a fun, vintage looking piece of scrapbook paper and coordinating cardstock to mat the recipe onto:

Using Mod Podge, I carefully adhered each layer of the mats and recipe card to one another:

I then used Mod Podge to attach the matted recipe card to the cutting board. I really love how cute this turned out, and now I am on the lookout for an old cutting board an pastry blender so that I can make one of these for myself!

Thanks for dropping by my blog today! Wishing you a SUPER week ahead!

Blessings,

From Picket Fence Scraps to Shabby Chic Photo Frames

Hello!! I promise that I had every good intention to get this post up on Monday, but time got away from me and I'm just now able to sit down with my laptop to show you a trash-to-treasure project that I've been working on:

A while back my hubby was working on a fence project, and had several scrap pieces of the fence lumber left over. He was tossing them into the trash, (silly man!!), and I rescued the pieces because I knew that I would eventually create something with the scraps. I ended up using a few of them to create a cute, shabby-chic photo frames, so I thought you'd like to see how I made them.

I started out with several scraps of fencing, some Elmer's school glue, acrylic paint and a couple of sponge brushes:

I wanted to give the paint a crackle finish, so to do that inexpensively I first applied a coat of Elmer's glue to the wood, using a sponge brush to coat the glue evenly across the wood:





I let the glue set for about 5 minutes, then I applied a quick coat of acrylic paint with another sponge brush. It's important to only put a quick coat of paint over the glue; don't keep painting over the glue or you won't get the desired crackle finish that you're wanting. The paint application doesn't have to be perfect...after all, you're wanting an aged/distressed finish in the end. :)

 

As the paint dries, you'll begin to see the crackling finish appear. (Note: if you want more crackle in your paint, once everything is completely dry, repeat the steps above until you've achieved the finish that you like.)

While the paint is drying, I painted a paint stir stick in the same color. It will be used as a base on the photo display:

Here's a photo of the crackle finish on a couple of the wood scraps...I just love how amazingly simple this technique is and how fantastic the results are!

Now to decorate and assemble the frame display...

I purchased several little burlap flowers at Hobby Lobby, which just so happened to be on sale for 50% off. I thought they were a pretty good deal at just $1.00 each. I cut the wire stem off of the back. (Don't throw those away yet, though, as you'll see how I used the stems in this project...)

I wrapped and tied some jute twine around the base of each of the painted wood pieces, using a little dab of glue on the backside to keep it in place:

Next up, using some E6000 I attached the burlap flower to one corner and a small, painted clothes pin to the other corner. I set these aside until they were completely dry:

Once the embellishments were completely dry, I laid the painted stir stick at the base of the lined up fence pieces, and marked off with pencil on the stir stick exactly where I wanted each fence piece to go. Using more E6000 on the bottoms of the fence pieces, I attached them to the stir stick and then allowed everything to dry thoroughly. Here's another photo of the finished product:

Oh! I almost forgot! The wire pieces that I cut off of the bottoms of the burlap flowers have now become curly-vine accents to the flowers. I twisted the pieces around a toothpick; then carefully slid them off and used a dot of glue to attach them. I also added some pearl-head corsage pins for a little extra detail.

Here's a photo of the display with pictures of my great niece Kayle and 2 of my great nephews, Jack and Ian. (Aren't they just so cute??)

I then got a little more creative and decided to make a few more of these photo display frames...

This one is for a single photo and uses a little metal clip, instead of a clothes pin, to hold a photo in place. I also added a couple of old wooden spools, buttons and tiny silk flowers as embellishment on the outer edge of a paint stick that was cut in half for the base. (Once again, I used E6000 adhesive to hold everything in place.)

I also made one using a tiny little bird nest with artificial eggs as an embellishment:

I REALLY LOVE how cute these turned out! I've got several more wood scraps from Mike's fence project, so I'll be making some more fun projects like this one, for sure!

Thanks so much for dropping by my blog today to check out what I've been up to. Wishing you a wonderful week ahead!

Blessings,

Masculine Cards...

Hello! Just a quick post today to show you a couple of masculine cards that I whipped up using scraps from my supply stash...

Fist off is a birthday card that I made by trimming up the background paper that was in a frame that I purchased. The background paper in the frame had images of three antique hardware pieces for a door, so I simply incorporated one of those images into the card. I tied a scrap piece of muslin into a decorative knot and included a piece of burlap paper, a piece of decorative paper and a tiny little key tied up with jute twine for added detail:

I used another one of the door hardware images from the background paper in the frame as a nice decorative element in this card as well. I used a piece of denim paper for the background, and then added some plaid paper, cardstock, burlap, a button and a key tied up with jute twine, and a clock image that I cut off of a box that held a clock that I recently bought. (Be sure to always look at the packaging of items that you purchase...you just might be able to cut out the interesting images on the packaging to turn into a "trash-to-treasure" projects like I've done with these cards!)

Here's a close-up photo of the little sentiment tag that I made and attached to the burlap scrap and button tied with jute:

Thanks for dropping by today...the weekend is almost here!! :)

From Spaghetti Sauce Jar to Shabby-Chic Vase...

I am a big believer in "nice matters". I think that a little bit of niceness goes a long way in today's harsh and self-centered/self-indulgent society. I love to share the crafty things that I make, yummy things that I bake and produce/flowers from my garden with my friends, so I decided to made these flower arrangements to brighten the desks of the three girls that I work with:

Most people think that you have to spend money to do something nice for someone, but in all honesty, that's just not the case at all. Sadly, most kiddos today think that unless money is spent on them, rather than time, then they aren't "loved". I think that society is failing children by allowing them to believe that money and things equate love. I am very fortunate to have grown up with parents and grandparents who valued time above money, and I have such fond memories of the time and activities that we did together. I am blessed to have been able to pass these values on to my son, and I hope someday to have grandchildren to share these same values with.

Now on to an inexpensive, trash-to-treasure project for you to share with someone in your life!! I think that the vases that I made from washed out spaghetti sauce jars turned out so cute, so I thought that I'd show you how I made them. These come together really fast...the part that takes the longest is waiting for the glue to completely dry. (But if you live in the south like me, pour yourself a nice glass of sweet iced tea and grab a magazine to thumb through while the glue dries - problem solved - lol!)

Begin with empty and clean spaghetti sauce jars. Cut a piece of burlap to fit around the circumference of the jar:

Put a large piece of paper or newspaper down to protect your surface from glue. Squeeze Elmer's glue around the outside of the jar:



Wrap the pieces of burlap around the glue covered areas of the jars, so that the ends slightly overlap. Be sure to secure the overlapped ends with a fine bead of glue, then set jars aside to allow the glue to dry:

While the glue is drying you can make the paper doily flowers to embellish your vases. Begin with a small paper doily as shown:

Fold the doily in half:

Unfold the doily, and fold it in half again in the opposite direction to make an "X" in the center:

Now start scrunching up the doily; folding, creasing, twisting until you've created a flower shape that you're happy with. Remember...there is no right or wrong way to do this, and I think the more scrunchy and wrinkled the flower is, the better it looks!

Use a dot of Elmer's glue to hold down the center of the flower so that it keeps it keeps it shape. Add a nice sized dot of glue to the burlap seam on your jar, and then place your paper doily flower on the glue:

Gather up some fun buttons for the flower centers and some twine to make a fluffy bow for the flower center as well:

You can click HERE to go to the post where I did a tutorial on how to create these simple, fluffy bows. (In the tutorial I used narrow satin ribbon, but you can apply this method to just about any kind of ribbon or twine.)

Once you've created your bows, squirt a good sized glop of glue onto the center of the doily and place the center of the twine bow into the glue:

The buttons that I used had shanks on the back, so using some wire cutters I nipped those off so that my buttons would lie flat. I squirted a large glop of glue onto the knot of the twine bow, and then nestled the button into the glue to create the center of the flower:

Once the glue had completely dried, I put water in the vases and then added cut flowers from my garden. I love the shabby-chic look of these, and I think they would make lovely, low cost table decorations for bridal showers, weddings, receptions, birthdays, or just to give to friends like I did. :)

Take a minute today to do something unexpectedly nice for someone...and remember, nice really does matter!!

Blessings,