Feature showcase

Well this is a tad awkward! I'm so busy outside while the weather is so mild that I haven't had a chance to get my crafty on (insert sad face). So what's a girl to do when she has followers that she wants to keep but has no crafty goodness to offer? Should I recycle an old post? Well initially it did sound like a good thought but then that just feels naughty and like I'm making no effort. So instead I am going to showcase some crafty goodies that are floating around the blogosphere at the moment that I think are inspirational or just down right dandy.


First up is Julie from 'belle maison'. Julies blog is full of inspirational DIY & furniture makeovers ranging from some fabulous chic red chairs to an entertainment armour transformed to a home office.
Seriously Julies blog is full of inspiration and with plenty of giveaways thrown into the mix, however if there is one item that I am totally and utterly head over heels for it has to be the headboard and footboard she transformed into a loveseat - this is so not my usual 'thing' but I want this

How gorgeous is that!  Take a trip over to 'belle maison' you will not be disappointed.



Kristen over at 'Farmstyle studio'  describes herself as "completely self taught and constantly striving to implement new techniques and looks to keep with current design trends" and her furniture revivals are completely up my street.
Take a look at this Beechwood dresser

I adore this and this is exactly what I wish I had the imagination to achieve. But basically I don't!



Finally I just had to include 'How to recycle'.
'How to recycle' state that their mission is "to assure safe and sanitary disposal of solid waste in every community and to reduce reusable or renewable wastes from entering landfills."
This is what initially caught my eye 

How cool is that - a wine cork chair! certainly better than going to landfill.
They also have recycled vehicles, paper and egg cartons. Go take a look and be inspired to recycle some weird stuff! 


I promise there will be some crafty goodies of my very own on here soon but for now I hope those were tantalising enough for you guys.


 

Noel

So for the first time in god only knows how many years we have decided to get the tree and decs up now rather that 3 days before xmas day. The reason? Well we're kind of settled in our new home now and have so much more room than we've been used to these past 8 years so we figured it will be nice to make a bit more of the holiday season and spirit. Heck even hubby has done all his shopping! Not only that but he's wrapped everything too! Not bad considering he normally leaves it till xmas eve eh! His wrapping would be rushed and a disaster and if he bothered to put a tag on it it would simply say 'Linda'. Not very inspiring is it! Hence why I am very impressed with him this year, though I do draw the line at putting the pressies under the tree - I'm left alone here far too much to resist that temptation!

Look at that, I've managed to digress from a xmas tree to my pressies!

Anyway like I said I've been putting up the tree and decs today and what would normally have taken me a few hours has so far taken me the best part of a day and they're still not finished.

What I have managed to get finished though are some xmas blocks I recently made. They're not brilliant I'll admit because although I have the lettering down (finally) I'm not too hot on adding embellishments.
Here's the Noel blocks:

These were so easy to make. I simply cut out square blocks from any scrap wood, sanded the edges and corners and then lightly sanded the fronts and backs.
2 of the blocks were painted using Laura Ashleys 'Summer Pudding' and the other 2 were painted with Crowns Metallic 'Striking'. All 4 were given a good 2 coats.
Next is the bit I always look forward to and enjoy - the lettering.
I always seem to prefer opening up CS5 (though you could use any word document) and then typing the letters and playing with the fonts.
Once I have the font I want and have stretched it to the size I want I trace them onto paper from the laptop using the backlight as a sort of lightbox. I only do this because I'm having printer problems but I find it pretty easy and quick.
Once I had them on paper I turned the paper over and traced the image on the back from the front and then it's just a case of lining each letter up correctly on the block and scribbling over the letter to produce a vague outline to follow later.
With that done I nicked my daughters Calligraphy ink again (Eek) in Black and using one of her artists brushes I traced over the N & E outlines and filled in where needed.
The O & L were traced and filled in with a gold Pilot pen.
Finally I added a bow (albeit tacky one) and some strands to the N & E, glueing them on using a hot glue gun.
For the O & L I attempted to replicate snow but it kinda went wrong!

Next I finished these blocks:

These were mega easy to make also, using the exact same method as above.
The only difference is that I traced the letters from a book I have and the Black & Gold are both calligraphy inks and were used with a glass calligraphy pen (it's more of a glass stick TBH).
The top of these ones are simply some fake Holly leaves I found with some fake berries attached, hot glued on with some squirly ribbon.
Like I said, neither are perfect but still look pretty cool!

So thanks for taking a look. I'll be posting wreaths etc I've made soon and I've been enjoying checking out all your own Xmas crafts.
Happy Xmas crafting y'all.



Linked to:

'Finding Fabulous Frugalicious Friday
'Shabby Nest'
'Sassy sites' 
'youngancrafty' 
'I heart Nap Time' 
'Fingerprints on the fridge' 
'Not just a housewife' 
'Cherished Bliss' 
'Sugar Bee Crafts' 
'The Southern Institute' 
'Marvelously Messy' 
'Craft junkie too'

Bon Appetit!

I've finally managed to finish one of my smaller projects yay!
I'm not sure where the inspiration for this piece came from because originally I wanted to use 'Bon Appetit!' in vinyl letters above a shelf with my cookbooks in the kitchen.
But me being me changed things as I went along and I decided to mount the words on a board. I was a bit concerned that vinyl letters may not adhere very well on silk Kitchen wall paint and had the same concerns about a Sharpie going directly on to the wall. Plus, I figured something moveable would be better because the kitchen is still a work in progress and knowing me I'd put it exactly where I don't want it. I'm clever like that!

So here's the finished product:

Least the towel is new!

Excuse the staging. A ruddy Yellow TeaTowel and a Tin of Biscuits! Most people would probably have staged it with fresh rolls and herbs but not me, I go for a Yellow towel and a tin of Biscuits - hmmmm wonder what Freud would say about that!

Anyway to make this little piece I cut myself a few pieces (4 to be exact) of scrap timber and attached them to a smaller piece of hardboard - glued and nailed on of course!

The back.

The front.

Then it had a good sand to get rid of rough edges and to reduce any varnish.
Then comes the best part - painting!
I used one coat of primer / undercoat mix but only because I have no other white paint left.
Once dried it was followed by a nice Red by Laura Ashley - I bought a tester pot for £3 (rip off I know). The Red was to match the Red accessories in my kitchen as much as possible.
Next I sanded it down to let the White colour through and to age the corners and edges etc - I looooove sanding!
Next came the real exciting part - the lettering. I used my laptop again as I did in 'THIS' post to trace the lettering because my printer is playing up and I keep having to heat the cartridge up before getting ink from it - so annoying!
I traced the letters on as usual by scribbling over the letters onto the board and then used a white 'Pilot' pen to trace over the lettering.
I have to say at this point that the Pilot pen was amazing, so much easier than the Sharpie and didn't fail on me once (unlike the Sharpie). The only downside is that the fluid is slightly thin so you may need to go over it a couple of times if you'rre wanting a solid letter.
I, on the other hand would be sanding it anyway so wasn't too bothered:

Cool Pilot pen

Sanded edges

Then one coat of varnish using a brush as thick as each board to help reduce brush strokes and voila!

The finished look.

It's not even in its final resting place yet because I haven't quite decided where it's going to go.
I know it looks like a Coca Cola advert and the Bon looks like Ben but I like it anyway!
Thanks for taking a look, hope you enjoy.



Linked to:

'The Shabby Nest'
'Craft Junkie Too' 
'Sassy Sites' 
'Chic on a Shoestring Decorating' 
'Joyful Stamper' 
'The Shabby Creek Cottage' 
'Organise and Decorate Everything' 
'Funky Junk Interiors'
'Over the big moon' 
'Ginger snap crafts' 
'Crafts keep me sane' 
'You had me at crafts' 
'Making the world cuter' 
 'My daily photo journey'
'Cherished Bliss'

Shabby Shelf

Projects have been a tad slow for me over the last wee while. I have loads of ideas and inspiration jingling around in my head but it tends to get to the point where I have so many projects going on that none of them actually get finished - how many others suffer from this infliction I wonder?

Anyways I've had a project for the hallway planned for ages. I wanted to make a pinboard from an old frame, a shabby shelf with hooks and some kind of table for underneath.
The pinboard idea has changed numerous times and is now nothing like a pinboard nor is it finished.
The table for underneath the shelf is still sitting in the shed and still looks exactly like what it is - a pine chest of drawers.

The Shabby shelf however is complete - Tada!

This entire shelf started out in life as a drawer - yep a drawer! A drawer that came from the pine chest I was given and the remainder of which will make a nice little table for below the shelf.

Basically I took 2 drawers apart, took the pine knobs off the front and used the fronts as the shelf ledge.
The first one I did I painted 'Patio Brick' and then went over with 'Oyster' from Laura Ashley paints (I picked up a tester pot for 50p).
Unfortunately when I sanded it down for that shabby look it ended up looking pink - so not the look I was going for. I'm not sure if it was the sanding down that created the Pink hint or the Laura Ashley paint having a pinkish tinge to it, either way - Urghhhh!
So I sidelined that shelf and then made another one, this time painting it 'Cloud White' and 'Oyster' and then sanded it down for that shabby look.

For the corbels I got the idea from a fabulous website called 'Not just a Housewife'. I'd bookmarked those corbels intending to make them just like Stacy but for the life of me I could not get one to resemble the other and lost patience. In the end I decided to use them as end brackets instead.
I cut these corbels from scrap wood with my trusty Dewalt jigsaw after I made a template by drawing the shape on paper first, cutting it out and using these to draw round.  They then got the same treatment and paint colours as the shelf top.

The back board was the back board from the drawer I took apart and made the shelf with.

Next I painted 3 of the pine knobs from the drawers in 'Patio Brick' and sanded them back a tad before fitting them to the back board.
During this process I came up with a simple idea for holding the knobs while painting them. Up until now I would awkwardly hold them, drop them more often than not and have to paint or spray them in sections.
So I drilled 3 extra long screws all the way through a piece of scrap wood (the sides of the drawers) and then screwed the knobs on making it super duper easy to paint and not having to sit on anything while they dried. Seemples!

 

Remember the shelf I first did that turned out Pink?  Well I didn't want to just waste it so I joined it back to back with the new shelf top and it gave the ledge that chunkier look - score!

So there you have it, my new shabby shelf.

Thanks for taking a look.



This post is linked to:

'Finding Fabulous'
'The Shabby Nest'
'Miss Mustard Seed'
'Craft Junkie Too'
'Thirty Handmade Days'
'Remodelaholic'
'Craft Envy'
'Nifty Thrifty Things'
'My 1929 Charmer'
'A world of crafts'
'Craftomaniac'
'Keeping it simple'
'The southern institute'
'Ginger Snaps Craft'
'DIY by Design'
'Under the table and dreaming'
'Not Just a Housewife'
'Sassy Sites'
'Funky Junk Interiors'

Age that coat rack

I officially love the shabby chic look now, it's taken me an age to appreciate it but I got there eventually.
I've only done a couple of small projects so far, the first one being 'these' letters for the bathroom and my latest finished one being these coat hooks.

I bought these coat hooks a few weeks back because they were only 99p each otherwise I wouldn't have bothered as they're not really the style I was looking for. But, can't pass up a bargain right!

So next I had to figure out what I was going to do to them - enter my new found passion of all things shabby!
Basically I aged them the way I did with the bathroom letters i.e 1 coat of 'Patio Paint' in Wrought Iron Black, 1 coat of Cloud White and 1 coat of Daisy Cream.
I then had at them with sandpaper until I achieved the look I wanted.

This is how they turned out

Sorry there's no picture of them in their final positions but one of them isn't finished yet as I'm going to mount it onto another piece of wood and add some lettering.
The actual finished one is on the bathroom door but TBH I'm not 100% happy with how it looks in position, hence no picture.

Thanks for stopping by and taking a quick looksee.



Linked to:

'Craft Junkie Too'
'Crafts keep me sane'
'Craft-o-maniac'
'The Southern Institute'
'A world of crafts'
'EasyPeasy Grandma'
Funky Junk Interiors' 
'Craft Envy'

Old aged letters

I never really got the 'shabby chic' look, it all seemed such a waste of time to me. After all why would anyone want to go to all that trouble of lovingly painting furniture to then just rough it up, sand it down and make it look old again?
It just seemed so ... well....pointless!

But then during one of my 'visit as many random blogs as possible' moments I happened across the most amazing gorgeous 'shabby' 'aged' 'distressed' (whatever you wanna call it) project on an amazingly inspirational blog and I was hooked.
The project in question was a wall sign and the blog I was loving was 'eleven-o-one creations' Not just fabulous signs either, just check out the 'Furniture Portfolio' of 'eleven-o-one creations', it's Amazing.
Once I'd seen the signs that Fran had created I was determined to create my own however no matter how much I searched the net I just couldn't find a tutorial that seemed to result in the same look as Frans' creations and as I've never done these paint effects before I wasn't confident that I could pull it off without some form of guidance (I'm not patient enough to spend days practising till I figure it all out).
So I contacted Fran to ask if she knew of a decent tutorial and I was so chuffed when Fran took the time to get right back to me with a tutorial all of her own. Thank you Fran.

Although ultimately I want a couple of signs for my upstairs bathroom I decided I would learn the technique on some wooden blocks that I wanted to letter for the same bathroom. I wanted to create the word 'Relax' in wooden blocks.
One of the reasons I wanted to start there was because I have recently updated my craft stamps and have unmounted them from their wooden blocks, mounted them on UMount and filed them away in files to save on storage.
But I was left with numerous blocks like these

I knew they'd come in handy for something though and figured they'd be great for the bathroom letters.
That is some super tacky glue they use to mount the stamps to the blocks though and it took me a fair while to scrape it all off. The sanding down was a breeze however and I kinda didn't want to stop!

That's them all sanded and ready to go.
Usually I like symmetry and wouldn't go for the different sizes but I decided to be adventurous here.

Fran had told me in her tutorial the paints she would normally use but me being the most impatient person alive I couldn't wait for a paint supply to arrive and so I figured I'd try using 'Patio Paints' and see how they worked.
While I'd been researching the 'Milk Paint' that Fran mentioned I noticed on their website a series of colour layers that resulted is a finish similar to Frans so I used the 'Patio Paints' as close to those colours as I could.
The first 2 layers were 'Wrought Iron Black' followed by 1 layer of 'Cloud White' and finally 1 coat of 'Daisy cream'.
The hardest part of the project was the drying time for each layer, like I said I'm not terribly patient!
While they were drying though I opened up 'Photoshop' on the puter, created the letters I needed in a calligraphy font and printed them out onto regular paper.
Next I went back to the now dried out blocks and went at them with P80 electro coated sandpaper. This was a real fun part but be warned, you have to know when to stop! It's sooooooo easy to get carried away and then you end with something that just looks wrong!
At this stage I stopped the 'roughing up' just short of finished as I figured there'd be more to do once the letters were on, after all solid, new looking letters would look a bit naff on a weathered piece of wood.
The look I wanted was Black edges with the corners and a few other areas sanded down to the bare wood. I also like the White showing through before the Black, it gives it a more weathered look.
Next I transferred those letters to each block by tracing the letter on the reverse of the paper before laying it on the block (original side up obviously) and tracing - ok scribbling - over the top.

You're then left with a fine outline on the actual block which you need to go over with your choice of pen or paint.
On my first attempt I used a 'sharpie' pen. The 'Sharpie' is much easier to use than a paintbrush and the edges are much more defined

However 'Sharpie' has a tendency to smudge or bleed with some varnishes so if you intend to varnish the project use a paint - I learned that one the hard way and I ended up having to sand the whole lot down, front and back and start again.
Next time round I used the 'Wrought Iron Black' 'Patio Paints' and cut down an artist brush so it was small enough to use - this is not ideal though and TBH I'm not 100% pleased with the result.
Once the lettering was dry I gave it another sand down and then gave it just the 1 coat of floor varnish.

The finished result

They are a bit mored weathered and aged than is showing on the photo.
I'm actually quite chuffed with them and am loving this look now. I can see many many future projects being lovingly painted just to be roughed up and sanded down to look old again. lol.

I'm dedicating this post to fran of 'eleven-o-one creations'. Thank you Fran for taking the time to help me out and for your inspirational blog.



Linked to:

'Today's Creative Blog'
'Reasons to skip the Housework'
'Ginger snap crafts'
'Nightowl Crafting'
'Lil Luna'
'Delightful Order'
'Bear rabbit bear'
'Not just a housewife'
'Happy Hour Projects'
'Miss Mustard seed - Furniture Feature Friday'
'The Shabby Nest'
'You had me at craft'
'Restore Interiors'
'sew can do'
'Delightful Order'
'My1929charmer'