sunshine canvas with sticks!

So spring break is officially over.

Physics at nine in the morning. ugh.

But look at this beauty I made:

Makes you forget about phsyics, huh?

Oh wait... that's just me. :)

So me and little man were outside playing and there are sticks everywhere.

You have to understand... I grew up on a big plot of land that had pretty much NO trees. The ones we did have were Cedars... no leaves, no sticks. You didn't really notice them.

When I moved into town after getting married we have massive amounts of TREES.

You should have seen me during fall.

There were leaves everywhere.

Seriously... I about had a cow.

My husband just laughed and laughed.

Our driveway was covered... they got tracked into the house and I had to pick up a rake for the first time.

Ack.

So I digress...

regardless... we never had sticks either so I was quite inspired.

It might not be your cup of tea but my little man wanted a sun and we love the song 'you are my sunshine' so this was born.

Materials:

*canvas (I used one I had on hand)

*Hot glue gun

*Leftover scrap of fabric or twine

*phrase of some sort

*lots and lots of sticks

I washed my sticks before just to make sure no bugs decided to live with us forever :)

I had a canvas on hand that was from a project forever ago... the color is not the right blue and I've been using it to check out techniques of other stuff so I decided to give it a makeover.

I grabbed several colors of paint because I wanted a streaky color... not just one bright yellow.

I mixed browns and tans into the yellow until I got it how I liked it:

Doesn't it make you smile?

I scuffed the edges up a bit and even streaked a little blue in there :)

Then... (shame on me for no pictures) I laid out the sticks in the arrangement I liked. It took me several tries but finally ended up with this:

I just put some hot glue on the back of each and went around in my little circle.

Then I tied some twine and fabric in a little bow and glued in the middle :)

I decided I wanted a phrase on it so I made my own rub-on on the computer (love rub-ons!)

I scuffed it up to make it look old and worn.

and voila!

Easy easy.

and it brightens up my hallway!

I brushed a little blue paint over the sticks to make them stand out a little :)

I LOVE how the colors turned out.

So I'm pretty much in love.

Bring on the sun, arkansas.

....but not toooo too much. :)

5$ Canvas Art

I was at TJ Maxx the other day and found these really fun placemats. I had no idea what to use them for but knew they could be SOMETHING.

So I grabbed them. They were a set of four for 3.50.

Well I've been looking for easy, cheap ways to put some finishing touches on my living room (where my blue TV table went) and had an IDEA.

Here's what one of those fun placemats ended up helping me make:

So easy! So perfect!

So here goes:

I used:

*canvas (I got for a dollar at Big Lots)

*1 Placemat

*Spraypaint (Mediterrean and Copper)

Here's the placemat-- isn't it fun?

First I painted the canvas with my favorite Mediterrean Blue

After that dried, I merely laid the placemat over it... be careful to NOT bump it while spraying or your pattern will get messed up.

I sprayed a couple light coats of the copper, being careful it got into each opening. I was afraid the paint would leak under the placemat but it didn't!

I pulled it carefully off and...

Isn't that unbelievably easy?

People ask me if I painted it...

and I did... well sort of. :)

I pooled some of the copper spraypaint and mixed it with brown acrylic paint to paint the sides.

I made sure to let some of the paint on the edge come a little onto the front. It makes it pop more that way.

After that dried, I took a piece of sandpaper and distressed the entire thing.

The finished result once more:

I love how it turned out.

Easy, cheap and beautiful. Gotta love that!

Linked to:

**This project was featured on One Crafty Mommy's blog! Check it out to see tons of fun ideas!**

End Table Redo

So I"m officially in love with redoing furniture.

My husband thinks I'm crazy (but he secretly loves it)

Here is my most recent piece to take on:

Me and my husband picked this up at our church garage sale last summer when we were in desperate need of things for our house. I was NOT in live with it then...

but now... well I see things differently!

I'd have to say that with how it turned out... it may just be my favorite piece we have now :)

Funny how things change like that.

It's got the most gorgeous details. I couldn't wait to get it done.

First I took the hardware off and gave it a good rub-down.

I primed it with Kilz spraypaint to help the color adhere to the glossy surface better.

Then I took Valspar Mediterrean blue and gave it a good coat.

I am so so so in love with this color. It was perfect.

I kept making my husband and his friend come out and look at it. I was so happy :)

Let me tell you... this Valspar spray paint was AMAZING compared to the Krylon I used on my last table. I like the Krylon brand but you could tell a HUGE difference in how it went on with Valspar. I paid like .47 cents more for the Valspar at Lowes. Absolutely worth it.

Look at my amazing little helper:

After it dried, I took my new friend

and had way too much fun glazing it. The glaze made those fabulous details on the doors pop right out.

Isn't it gorgeous??

I probably could have put more glaze on it to let it stand out even more but I love love it!!

Again?

I left the hardware the way it was... I loved the vintage-y look of it.

So I decided after looking over my living room and having other projects in mind, that I wanted to make this our tv cabinet. We have just an old box tv with the VCR and Nintendo and cords laying out everywhere.

The way this table is shaped is perfect for all of that. The tv sat on top (with felt under it to protect my lovely table) then the VCR and all other loose things fit perfectly in it. With it's octogon shape it had room behind the VCR to store an extension cord with everything plugged into it. So I had to figure out a way to get the cords out the back so things could plug into the tv...

this is what my amazing husband did for me:

Yes... he scratched it... :/ Oh well.

And see my little man's fingers? He loves this table.

So the cord comes out all nice and neat and no one see its :)

Once again...

Isn't it wonderful?

I quite like it.

Oh and while I had my Valspar Mediterrean out, I sprayed down this little trinket:

It's going on my white end table here

Happy Thursday everyone!

Linking to:

Featured!

I was featured!

Can you tell that I'm excited??!! It's my first feature so thank you thank you Oopsey Daisy!!

Head on over and check her out, she has amazing things to show you... and take a little peak at my cabinet door feature while you're at it! :)

Happy Wednesday everyone... I can't believe we're already halfway through the week.

 **I just realized that I was featured TWICE today!!** One Crafty Mommy featured my cabinet door project as well from Super Crafty Saturday. So while you're blog-browsing today, take a look at One Crafty Mommy as well!! Amazing stuff (plus I just love her name!) 

Burlap and Yarn Wreath

So I told you I had a lot of projects going on this week since it's Spring Break for me :)

And even more so now that I stole a quick shopping trip to Goodwill. Like I needed more things... but they were perrrrfect.

So this wreath is a combination of all kinds of ideas... I'm so in love with burlap thanks to Tatertots and Jello's fabulous blog. And I loved the idea of wrapping a form in yarn so here is my take:

 

All you need is:

*wreath form (I got it at the Dollar Store)

*Yarn- I used two different colors

*scraps of burlap

*other fabric scraps

*various large buttons

*hot glue gun

*ribbon (I used lace) to hang from

First gather your supplies:

Then take your hot glue gun and the yarn you want to be your base and start wrapping around the wreath form. Use the hot glue gun to secure as you go. I found that cutting pieces of yarn and wrapping large chunks were easier than wrapping it all without cutting it. Just secure each end with the hot glue gun.

It's okay to overlap the yarn to make sure to cover up the green form.

Or you can take burlap or scrap fabric and cover the form before wrapping the yarn

Secure as you go... make sure it's tight enough not to see through

Next, I took the lighter yarn and just wrapped around to make a contrasting stripe.

Then take your burlap and fabric scraps and start cutting circles... they don't have to be perfect, I liked the rough edges.

 

Stack the circles in whatever arrangement you want to make flowers... then hot glue a button into the middle.

Aren't they pretty?

Hot glue onto the wreath form. I gathered them all into one area.

Loop your ribbon and secure with a knot to hang... and hang in a spot needing a spot of spring!

 

Linking to:

My first furniture redo!

So I am incredibly excited to show you the project I've been working on.

I've been dying to get my hands on it and finally have a finished product!

You know how I love finding things on the side of the road, right? Well, ok, my husband usually finds them.

But this time it was all ME!!

I was so excited that I literally looked around me to see if anyone was going to snatch it away from me off the curb.

Here it is:

Doens't look like much, huh? But I saw enormous potential.

 I have been so inspired from other blogs that I just had to get my hands dirty with redoing some furniture.

I've got lots going on at the moment already :) But more about that later.

So here the lovely is again:

I don't know if someone tried to replace the top or just really messed it up somehow but the top was the only thing really wrong with it. It was scratched and faded and the edges were peeling something awful.

So the first thing I did was grab my birthday present:

I love my little mouse sander :)

and I sanded the mess out of that thing- all those peeled edges... OFF!

Then I primed the whole thing with Krylon Primer Spraypaint- love this stuff.

I did find out, however, that when you shake it and little primer spots get on the wood, the base color doesn't necessarily cover up those spots :/

Oh look at my sweet companion that kept me company during the beautiful day:

This is Chaos... I wish he were ours. My husbands family went out of town and left him with us for a few days. He's too sweet and uber adorable.

Alrighty... back to the project.

Next I used Krylon Ivory and put a couple coats on:

Looking better already, huh?

I had a heck of a time getting the hardware off the drawer to spraypaint it... they screwd it in then glued the pieces together. My husband had to handle that one. :)

I had a frustration point with paint dripping but I just learned to take it slow and easy.

I tend to rush things. Whoops.

Next, I took Valspar Translucent Color Glaze:

and brushed several coats on to give it that antiqu-ey look I love.

I also spraypainted the hardware on the drawer with oil-rubbed bronze. Then stuck all the pieces back together...

Look at how beautiful she turned out!

I was jumping up and down!

My husband gave me a funny look.

But LOOK what I did for the FIRST time!

You're excited for me, right??

one more time...

and just as a reminder... here's the before and after!

I am so in love with this!

Keep watching... my spring break is filled with FUN projects!

Happy Monday everyone!