A little Love

Hey guys! It's been so long...I've missed ya! So my life got a little crazy in October with the birth of my daughter...which was to be expected. I found a little time this weekend to work on a project finally. Here's the video: 

Also, if you haven't already, check out these posts for free printables to create more 

Valentine's Day decor.

Thanks for stopping by!

Decoupage Bird

I recently went to Michael's craft store and had a mini shopping spree. One of the things I purchased was an unfinished wooden bird. Here's a video on how I stained and decoupaged it.

Here's how my final bird came out. I used some berries and leaves from a pick I purchased awhile back and glimmer misted a Prima flower and hot glued them into place. 

Pinspiration Sunday: Lacey Table Top

I bought a coffee table last summer from a yard sale for $10. I bought it knowing that I wanted to re-do it. It has this inlet that I was planning to fill in with tile or something…however, my lil’ tot likes using this table to hold his snacks….and my husband liked it too. So on to plan B. I got this idea from the ladies over at A Beautiful Mess…once again, I’m in love with their creativity! But this table having the center set down in made it a little tricky…but I think it turned out okay anyways. 

Here’s what I used:

Wooden coffee table ($10 yard sale find)

Electric sander (already owned)

Windex and paper towels (cleaning supplies)

White primer

2 different sized paint brushes and a small paint roller

Cream colored spray paint (got at Lowe’s for less than $4)

Brown latex paint (had from when we moved into our house and painted)

Sealant (already had from other projects)

Tape

Lace (25 cents from yard sale)

So first thing first….time to sand this table down…well at least the parts that could fit the sander.

Then I cleaned it with Windex and paper towels…somewhere on the internet I read that you should clean it with Windex.

Next I primed the entire table and allowed it to dry.

Then I painted just the inside top brown and allowed it to dry.

Then it was time for the lace…it was hard to pull the lace taught so I had to not only tape around the top edge but I had to make doughnuts along the inside edge to keep the lace as close to the surface I wanted painted. 

Then I spray painted over the entire lace covered area.

 I took the lace off immediately after I sprayed so that it wouldn’t stick to the table.

When you look closer at the table you can see that the edges are kind of fuzzy…like out of focus, that’s because the lace wasn't as close to the table surface…but I kind of like that effect.

Next came time to paint the rest of the table.  I used a roller for most of it to get a nice, smooth, even finish. I used a small brush in the corners and in areas where there were gaps in the wood pieces.

I allowed it to dry overnight. The next morning I applied a spray sealant and allowed that to dry…and it was done!

     

As always, thank you so much for stopping by!

White Washed Wood

At work one night I came out of my exam room to find this brown, wooden box in the housekeeping trash can. I did not dumpster dive for this, it literally was just setting on top of a giant trash bin. And so...I ask if it was trash. Cathy, our lovely Rad. Dept. "environmental service" member assured me that no one wanted it...and so........I took it! It's FREE! My favorite 4 letter F-word. But she made me promise to share with her what I made with it. And I'm not just going to share with her...I'm going to share with all of you! This is my new nightstand!

So I took this old box-like thing...sanded it by hand and cleaned it off...

Next I mixed some latex white paint with water...made it pretty runny (I figured the runnier the better...you can always add layers).Then I dipped a washcloth in the watered down paint and brushed the box, using the same direction for each stroke. I ended up doing 2 coats and allowed them to dry in between (which happened pretty quickly because I did it on my back porch with the 90 degree sun beating down on me).

After it was completely dried, I sanded the edges (cause I like that look).

Finally I sprayed a sealant all over and allowed that to dry. Then I attached it to my wall about nightstand height using shelf brackets (bought from Lowe's) that we had left from a shelf we were using prior to our bedroom makeover.

This was a VERY easy and quick project. I hope it gave you an idea for some trash to treasure projects. Thanks for stopping by!

Pinspiration Sunday: Pallet Shelf

A while back I pinned an idea for a pallet shelf. So with our bedroom makeover I told my husband I wanted to make one. We talked about where we could get the pallet for FREE (there is that four letter word again)! During our discussion of where we could check, my neighbor, Mark, who owns a painting business, received a delivery on none-other-than...you guessed it, A PALLET! This gave me very high hopes! So the next time I saw Mark I asked if we could have the pallet as long as he didn't need it for anything...The next day he had it propped up against our fence...YAY! But there was a catch...this was a VERY LARGE pallet...which honestly wasn't a problem because we have HUGE, blank walls in out bedroom, but this pallet was not set up like the one I had pinned so I had to do some work. Here's what it looked like when we received it.

But this is what my original pin looked like from Amanda Carver Designs:

For a free pallet, mine was in great condition. Unfortunately for me, I wanted it to look old and I needed it rearranged with some shelving within it because I wanted it to hang horizontally on our wall, not vertically...we actually have plenty of space to do a ginormously tall shelf but...I want what I want...ugh...I had my work cut out for me. Now it was time to get busy taking the boards off one side. I used a hammer and pry bar thing (don't you love my terminology?) to carefully remove the boards...but man, those things were on there good...for the most part I managed to keep the boards in pretty good condition...my husband on the other hand wanted to give it a try and just destroyed a piece...I took back over after that...men. Once the boards were off one side, I took two and reattached one to each end to form a top and bottom.

Next came time to age the wood. I search for ideas and kept finding the same thing...vinegar and steel wool. So I went on a quest to find steel wool. Turns out it's near painting supplies (I totally Googled it while wandering Wal-Mart). I came home, poured the vinegar in a bowl, popped in a few steel wool pads put some gloves on (because I hate the smell of vinegar) and got to rubbing.This is what it looked like in the end of the aging process:

Next came placement of the shelves. There was another partial pallet we had from a long ago project that we needed to cut and fit into this shelf. My husband thought I would cut my fingers off if I used the saw wanted to help out so he handled the saw and attached the shelves. I finished up by attaching some spare pieces to the front. And this is what it looked like when we finished:

Now it's on our wall! YAY!

I'm so proud of this project because it was large and took some hard work and I did almost all of it myself. I've been working on all kinds of projects for our new bedroom. You see those roman shades and that nightstand/shelf in the back corner.? I made 'em! So check back to see those projects posted very soon!