Easy Stencil

My coffee table has seen better days so I pulled it out to the garage and gave it a coat of heirloom white and dressed it up a bit with a simple stencil design all the while handing out treats to the costumed kids. My neighborhood is crazy, 6 bags of candy in 2 hours! I love to hand paint but when you want to give something a little extra with minimal work and time involved stenciling is sometimes the way to go.

An hour of painting in the garage passing out candy.

And an hour while watching the World Series to stencil.

There really are touches of green in the scrap book paper, I swear I am capable of matching.

 Instead of using mod podge, I used spray adhesive to secure the paper and then podged over the paper. Not a one bubble. I saw this in blog land but I visit so many of you I forgot who this awesome idea came from. She used fabric on her redo. If you know who she is please drop me an email so I  can give credit where credit is due :) OK update, I found her the "adhesive girl" ....Kim @ Second Time Furniture. Thanks Kim!

Linking up here...

Garbage Pickins' at the Neighbors

Grabbed this from my next door neighbors trash...how convenient for me?? I have to admit though when I moseyed on over and grabbed it, I was praying no one would see me hauling it back to my garage. My name is Sue and I am garbage stalker!

                 I primed it and painted it with the left over paint from this side table because I loved the color and there was just enough left to do this piece.

 Then distressed and glazed it. Thanks neighbor George!!

Linking up here...

http://primitiveandproper.blogspot.com/2010/11/piece-of-work-wednesday-link-party.html


 

http://shabbynest.blogspot.com/2010/10/frugal-friday_28.html

My Sister's Mailbox

Every year my financially savvy sister does my tax return for me and in exchange I paint something for her. I have been a bit of a slacker...6 months later but who's counting? 

 I went to HD and picked up your standard mailbox and painted this for her, my sister, who is amazing at lowering your tax liability the legal way. That is her motto. She is in the Dallas area and does taxes for a very reasonable price given her knowledge. Contact me for her email addy if you would like to speak with her. New clients are always welcome and in this tough economy who wouldn't embrace a tax consultant who will bring you your highest return possible.

Standard Mailbox

My Sister's Mailbox

Linking up here...

Antique Side Table Redo

Found this at a garage sale a couple of weeks back. One of the legs had a big chunk of wood missing but nothing that a little epoxy couldn't fix...thanks BF. The pulls were missing but the girl having the sale happily told me they were in the drawer. In the drawer? Found out later one was bent. No biggie really, I was able to use pliers to reshape it.

The little purple thing is a clamp holding the veneer to the wood with some wood glue. OHH and notice the "new" leg?

My paint choices were limited so what's a "cheap mom" to do? I pulled out the leftover creamy white paint from this project. I added a bit of blue and some gray from my craft paint collection going for a subtle blue/gray.

Oh and I added a little something to the top. I drew out a design on tracing paper and used graphite paper to trace it on to the table top. I used a #5 round artist brush to form the comma strokes and the back of the brush to make the circles.

Finally glazed it and sprayed the now undistorted pulls, Krylon's Satin Nickle. Love it!

I love how so many of you line the drawers w/ paper. So, I hemmed and hawwed at Michael's debating which paper would be best. Should have brought the drawer w/ me. Went with this first.but thought maybe it was too "fun" and didn't really go with the look I was after.

Then after summonsing my reluctant kids for their input. Yes, I'm desperate. They unanimously voted on this mind you after I had already mod podged the loser in place.

Linking up to ...


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http://primitiveandproper.blogspot.com/2010/10/piece-of-work-wednesday-link-party_19.html

and of course here...
http://romantichome.blogspot.com/2010/10/show-and-tell-friday_21.html

Remember This?

If you follow you might remember this, if not you can see it here. I loved this piece but wasn't 100% crazy happy about how it turned out. So, I sprayed the hardware ORB and skim coated the surface w/ wood filler. Instead of spraying, I brush painted w/ heirloom white and was able to get rid of the streaky finish. Thanks to all of you who gave your input :)Here it is now, new and improved, at least I think so...

Thrift Store Find!

I'm new to "thrifting" thanks to all of you and lucky for me there are quite a few in my area...who new? So when the weather gets too cold for my beloved flea market that is where you will find me. Found this unique candle sconce and I just loved the glass balls and all the sparkling prisms and crystals.The color, not so much.

                         

 I removed all the glitzy stuff w/ needle nose pliers and was pleasantly surprised to find the whole entire thing was held together with one long screw, yay me!! No taping off required. Sprayed it with Krylon's Aqua and glazed it with a mix of Delta's Prussian Blue and Charcoal Gray. Happy I remembered the before pics because I never would have been able to put this back together again. I've put this up for sale :( on my web site:
http://www.uniquelychicmosaics.com/

Linking up here...
http://romantichome.blogspot.com/2010/10/show-and-tell-friday_14.html


and here

Brass Chandelier Goes Girly

I love seeing how everyone changes up these easy to find and inexpensive brass, builders special chandeliers. When I stumbled on this one I couldn't wait to make it pretty.  

 I wiped it down, taped off the electrical components and then spray primed it. Here is what it looked like before, not exactly since I forgot to take a pic but you get the idea.  

       I sprayed it with Krylon's Ballet Slipper Pink and hit Michaels for some shiny pearls and sparkly iridescent beads and lastly to Joanne's fabrics for material to make a cord cover. The cover was so easy to make and that is coming from someone who doesn't sew.

I strung the beads on to jewelry beading wire which we had hanging around from my daughters short lived jewelry making days. I did most of the beading in the car on the way up to Giants Stadium. Gotta love a girl who can craft on the go! FYI, I did not bead while tailgating although it did cross my mind more than once but the BF would not allow it :( What a killjoy, HA!

 I attempted to drill through the brass to secure the beads but that just wasn't happening. So, I adhered them with E-6000 and held them in place with little clamps I had hiding in the back of the junk drawer from the days of the dreaded toothpick bridge project.  Bringing back awful memories that are best left tucked away  in my brain never to resurface again. As I was doing this, I was thinkin' clothes pins would be perfect to accomplish the same thing.

I didn't feel much like wiring it up to have the lights working so here it is hanging from our parakeets, Lucy and Charlie's cage hook. I think I'll add some little shades to it. A project for the upcoming weekend :)

 

A few months later, with not a one project waiting for me, I decided to jazz and bling this up a little more.

I added some french cut prisms and dressed up the candelabra bulb holders with different yet coordinating fabric.

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