Wednesday, May 19, 2010

One more sign


I had to make one more sign.   These are so simple and fun to make.  This one is for Little Miss K's room.  I made it the same as I did in THIS tutorial.
This sign was done on the same kind of old grey wood.  Painted white with some black crackling.  I made the stencil using the cricut machine and the SCAL program.  I LOOOOOVE this program.  If you have a Cricut machine you have. to. get. this. program!  You will not regret it.  It is awesome.

This picture has wonky lighting, but it shows the wood detail and also how it is sanded to look distressed.  Well thanks for taking the time to look.  This probably won't be the last sign you see here :)  I love these things.
P.S.  See the scalloped shelf?  I totally made that.  Cute Huh!?! I know!  I know!  The curtains DEFINITELY need to be replaced.

I am linking to House of Hepworth and Frugal and Fabulous  so go check out all the great craftiness.

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Sign tutorial

This weather has been fantastic.  I have been outside spray painting something every day this week.  I LOVE IT!!!   I promised I would do a mini tutorial for you, so here it is. 



I have wanted an "Old sign"  over my kitchen sink as a window treatment for a while now but have not been lucky enough to find one.  So I set out to make one.  V and Co. has a great tutorial HERE of how to recreate these signs.  So starting with that info, I went ahead and tweaked it a little.

First thing, my sweet hubby brought home some old wood.  After picking the perfect piece, I cut it to a size to fit the window.  Mine measures about 9 1/2" X 50". 

My wood was a really great old Grey color so I didn't want to mess with the color to much.  I did dry brush some thin white paint over the front of the wood.

Then I cut my design out of vinyl using my Cricut Machine (I didn't get any pics of this process sorry, you gotta use your imagination). 

Next, using the NEGATIVE part of your image, decide on your placement and adhere the vinyl to the front of the wood.

Next, using the vinyl as a stencil, I brushed on a dark brown for the wording (I used a metallic vinyl which is why there is such a bad glare in the photo)
Once the paint is dry peel off the vinyl.  Then, using the stencil brush and the same dark brown paint, I added some "distressing".  I just "dirtied it up" where ever it would be dirty or worn, around the edges and in the cracks of the wood.  When I got the paint where I like it I took it outside and started to sand it.  I didn't want to lose the natural Grey weathering on the wood so I didn't sand very hard.  Just enough to take off the top couple of paint layers.

I continued to sand and add paint until I got the look that I wanted.  That is it!  This was a very simple project and I love the results.  To hang it I just screwed through the wood right into the wall (my husband will love that :)  Here are the final pictures of it all hung up.  Sorry about the bad lighting :( The dark areas are where I added the brown paint then sanded it off a little. I like how it brings out the detail of the wood.

Thanks for stopping by.  I hope you like it.  I love it, and by the way it says  'the house of chocolate' hee hee Love it!  It makes me smile every time I go in there.

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Some things I have been working on

I could spend my entire day creating and fixing things up.  I wish I could make a living doing it.  That really would be my dream job.  Anyway, I have had a couple of projects that I have wanted to get finished and with the good weather (FINALLY!) I have been able to grab the spray paint and head outside.   My first project I didn't get any before pictures.  I was so excited to get started that I totally forgot.

This is my headboard bench.  As you can see it is not quite finished (I need to add the arm rests) but I think it turned out pretty good.  Ignore the ugly hose, pretend there is a beautiful pot filled with flowers right there :)


 For my next projects, this is what I had to work with.

I've decided I really like other peoples junk.  I love to change it and make it look good again.  The burlap I ended up making into a pillow that now has a home on my new bench, so scroll back up and take a peek.


As for that big brown blah thingy.....


 This is what it looks like now.  Pretty good, Huh?!?  I haven't decided where this is going to go yet, but I know I will find somewhere good.


Finally, and probably my favorite, the candle stick and the cheese dome. I have seen this project all over blogland and was finally lucky enough to find a cheese dome at the DI the other day  Woo Hoo!



DRUMROLL......







I LOOOOOOVE how this turned out.  I am sure I will be filling this full of all sorts of crap all year long.

So that is a few of the things I have been working on.  I have some more that I will post soon.  In fact stop back by tomorrow.  I have a mini tutorial on a project I finished for my kitchen.  Thanks for stopping by!






I am linking these projects  to House of Hepworth.