Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Reindeer Names

I finally got to work on the Christmas project I bought supplies for on Monday. I bought a polka dot stencil from Hobby Lobby on clearance for $1.79 & one of the little acrylic paints I bought is Pearl Finish. The acrylic paints were 30% off when I went, so supplies for this project were CHEAP CHEAP :)

I used an old cabinet door that we took out of our kitchen years ago when we needed to make room for a dishwasher. It had kind of a shiny finish to it, so I primed it with a gallon of primer I had in the basement. The red paint I used is the same red paint I used on my shutter. I only did one coat of red so that the white primer showed through a little bit. For The reindeer names I typed them up in word in a font & size I liked & printed them out. I used a tracing transfer method I had read about online somewhere to get the names onto my board. Heavily trace the backside of the names 1st, then flip it over and heavily trace the front of the names on the board where you want them. It worked well & gave it the look I was going for. I finished up by adding a coat of my acrylic pearl paint. I also used the pearl paint for my polka dots.

It still needed a little something, so I added the raffia bow.
I also roughed up the edges a bit.
This little cutie is now in my dining room. It needed some Christmas cheer!!

Found my inspiration here at Tattered & Inked.

How are your Christmas projects going??

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Monday, November 28, 2011

My Rescued Tree

I had such a fun day today....I went to the doctor with my younger sister who is 9 months pregnant. I am so darn excited to be an aunt again!! No progress since last week, but we should for sure have a new baby by the 13th of December. So, anyway, while we were in town we thought we better do some shopping. I did Black Friday shop, but that was more like running a marathon than retail therapy if you ask me ;) We hit JCPenney's, JoAnn's, Carlos O' Kelley's (oh wait, that's not shopping), Claire's, Payless, Hobby Lobby & Goodwill. Now that I name all the places we were it seems like a lot, but we were bummed because we were on a limited amount of time and didn't get to stop EVERYWHERE we wanted. Like Big Lots, Target or Kohl's!! I looked at Hobby Lobby & JoAnn's for the Martha Stewart stencils & paints I have been seeing people use on blogs, but couldn't find them anywhere, so I settled for some non-Martha Stewart paint & stencils for a future Christmas project I can't wait to get started on :)

On to my rescued tree:

Isn't it darling!?!?

When I found this sweet little tree at the dump it had non-working lights on it & no base. I cut the old lights off & added a new strand of 50 white lights & made a base out of styrofoam. I covered the base with a scrap of burlap tied on with some jute twine & wa-lah!! A cute little tree was born!!

And I cut a strip of burlap for a bow on top!!

The front of the December Ballard Designs magazine has a tree like this on the cover :)

Keep checking back for more Christmas posts!!!!

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Saturday, November 26, 2011

You Take My Breath Away.......

We put our Christmas tree up on Tuesday & the kids and I spent the whole day Wednesday decorating the rest of the house. We had company coming to stay with us, so we were busy!! I hope everyone out there had a wonderful Thanksgiving. My family and I spent this holiday & weekend with family & our very good friends from Nebraska. We had such a good time eating, shopping & catching up!! I miss them already....back to reality and blogging of course ;)

Like so many other people out there, I am totally inspired by Pinterest....I love it when I see something and am able to re-create it using what I have. This is one of those times when I stumbled upon something & just happened to have exactly what I needed in my garage & basement. THAT makes me soooooo happy!! You can see my inspiration photo here if you would like :) But, here is my version:



Breathtakingly Beautiful

To truly be able to appreciate the beauty of this mirror I think you need to see the BEFORE shots.

From the dump
Battered & broken
Covered in stickers
YUCK!!

I scraped off all the stickers with a razor blade & cleaned it up. The mirror frame was falling apart so my husband helped me wood glue it back together. I spray painted it & reassembled it. I wanted this done so bad I had to spray paint and then bring it inside to dry since it was too cold for my paint to dry outside.


This is the same color I used on my cabinet door  project.

The details.....

I had the tree, so just had my daughter help me make a paper chain out of some old thrift store sheet music.
AFTER

Another easy project with no money out of my pocket!!

Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Cookie Cutter Christmas Tree

I have been so excited this year anticipating Christmas time....I don't know what it is, but I can hardly contain myself!! My husband has his mind made up that the tree does not go up until AFTER Thanksgiving. I don't like to overshadow Thanksgiving with Christmas by any means, but in my mind, having the Christmas tree up during Thanksgiving could only make it a more joyful holiday ;) Who's with me here!!??  Anyway, to keep peace in my household I agreed, we wait on the tree. But, one little eensy weensy tree on the kitchen table couldn't hurt could it??

This sad little tree was at the thrift store & I snatched it up. It needed a new look.
I removed the red bow & hung cookie cutters with some jute twine.
I {love} cookie cutters
Star cookie cutter tree topper ;)
It was still missing something.....
Ahhhhhhh, lights!! Much better!!

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!
More Christmas posts to come........

Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Ornament Makeover-A 10 minute project

I came across these cute cone shaped tree ornaments at a thrift store last year and even thoough they didn't match my decor I knew they would be a fun, easy project.

BEFORE
And AFTER I wrapped them in sheet music. I secured the paper with hot glue.

I added some burlap strips & rosettes.
This was a super cheap, easy, 10 minute project!!

Many more Christmas projects to come in the next few days :)

Sunday, November 20, 2011

Not Your Ordinary Shutter

I have had a love for shutters for a long time now, new ones, old ones, used to compliment windows, etc. But, my absolute favorite shutters are those used to decorate with, painted, fancied up & used in unordinary ways :)

Here is my before... ORDINARY shutter

And here is the AFTER
Painted with leftover red paint I had in my basement.
I didn't prime & only did one coat so it has that dark wood bleeding through.
This is what I will be using my shutter for. Christmas cards & old Christmas photos of my kiddos!!
This is not your ORDINARY shutter anymore :)

Saturday, November 19, 2011

My Beautiful Mirror

On a visit to my Grandma & Grandpa's house one weekend my grandpa told me he had a mirror in the basement that I could have if I had any interest in it. I said "Sure, I will take a look at it!!" After all, I rarely pass up something free ;) Here is what I saw:

Be still my heart!! I could just imagine how gorgeous this thing could be!!!!
Here it is after my white spray paint had it's way with it......
I simply love it!!
What's even better is that I actually remember this mirror hanging on the wall in my Grandma's house for years when I was a kid.
I hung it in my bedroom & it makes me happy every morning when I wake up & see it :)

**Be sure to check back in the next couple days I will be blogging my Christmas Projects I have been working on!!

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Trash to Treasure Transformation

I have a secret obsession with the Free Barn at our dump. It is a building where people can leave things that are not neccessarily trash. It is open to the public to come take whatever they wish for FREE :) I have found so many treasures there!! I picked up this little rack there on Monday & couldn't wait to paint it.

Isn't it sad!!??
I chose to paint it pink :)
I spray painted it chocolate brown 1st so that when I dry brushed it, brown would show through & not the brassy color it was.
It's lovely....

I have it on my bathroom counter for now & threw some wash cloths on it for the photo, but I am just not sure what I will put on it. I kinda like to sit something up & live with it for a while until the perfect solution comes to me outta no where ;)

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

A Little Bit of Turquoise ;)

I have seen this beautiful turquoise color of spray paint for a while now & I just couldn't figure out what I could paint with it. I eventually found an ugly old cabinet door at a thrift store for $1.00.

Smitten with this color.....
I sanded it a bit.
For now it's hanging in my laundry room above the coat hooks.
I think I need to add some hooks or vinyl or something to it, but not sure what to do yet. So, for now it will just hang & look pretty.

Sunday, November 13, 2011

Thanksgiving Decor

I have had my "fall" decor out since the end of September. I added the Halloween decor around the 1st of October & went back to just the "fall" stuff around the 1st of November. I was kind of getting tired of the "fall" decor so I spiced it up a bit with some thrift store pumpkins.

Here they are, in all their glory, taped off READY TO PAINT!! There was NO WAY these ugly boogers were sitting on my mantle ;)

{I LOVE SPRAY PAINT}
Just enough change to make me smile again :)
I used Antique White paint. It looks nice on the black furniture.

This change has me satisfied for now, BUT I am still aching to drag out my Christmas tree.....

Saturday, November 12, 2011

Headboard BEFORE & AFTER

I had been searching EVERYWHERE for a full size bed frame for my daughter...thrift stores, facebook, garage sales, craigslist & even the free barn!!!!! Well, I finally came across one on a Facebook sight that was less than appealing, but I could see the potential in this beauty :)

This is not the true before photo (because as always, I painted before taking photos!!) BUT, it was exactly like this.

I primed with an oil based spray primer from Sherwin Williams and added 2 coats of Satin White walmart paint.





BONUS: It came with a footboard :)
We left the little door off. We thought it looked better without it.

My daughter & I are both happy with the way it turned out. And, for only $40, I think it was a fabulous deal!!

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Vintage Wanna Bee