Truly Trash to Treasure

The other day I was on my way to work and passed something I saw dumped at the side of the road. Of course I had to turn around and check it out. I took it home to see if I could do something with it. It had a bent leg and another bent piece in back but I can't pass up free!
Here it is:

I walked it around the house setting it down in this place or that to see if it would work somewhere and decided that it should go on my front porch. Besides my pool area in back, my porch is one of my favorite spots to relax.

Now it was time to fix up the cart and my milk can which I have been meaning to paint for a while.
I found an old board in the garage, cut it to size with my trusty circular saw.

I got the idea here Ask Anna to make the design for my board.

I painted the board an ivory color with some brown accents. Then I burnt the edges of my paper to age it. Be careful if you try this. I wet my kitchen sink and light it with a bbq lighter a little piece of the edge at a time over the sink. Then I modpodged the paper to the board and added a bit of the brown paint on the paper. I put a coat of modpodge on it and then after it was dry, I sprayed some polyurethane over it for protection since it was going to be outside.
Here is the finished board on the cart:

 Next it was time to paint the cart and milk can. I used Krylon flat black paint

While they were drying I worked on making a stencil for my milk can. I designed and printed out our address on a piece of paper

I grabbed some contact paper I keep on hand. I found that I could see the design under the contact paper, so I used a marker to trace the design and an exacto knife to cut out a stencil.

I stuck it on the can and used the ivory paint to stencil the number on the can.

Here are the finished projects.

Did I mention that I love my porch?

I think the cart is a nice added touch. Best of all it only cost 10 bucks! Four dollars for a can of spray paint and six dollars for flowers. From the side of the road Wednesday, to my front porch today!

Tailgate Table Time (with apologies to my Georgia friends and family)

So we have always been Mizzou and Georgia football fans. My daughter, her husband all live in Athens, home of the Georgia Bulldogs. She frequently has bought us Georgia apparel. Now Mizzou and Georgia are in the same SEC division. While this is exciting, it puts me in the middle. Now I am a Mizzou fan, but I do have a small spot in my heart for my daughters home team, Anyway, today is the BIG MIZZOU/Georgia game and we have tickets! We will be leaving to go up to Columbia in an hour. I was getting tailgating supplies together and realized we never have a table to just set our drinks or dips on. So I grabbed this old TV tray I have had and decided I should paint it.

 Got out some old black spray paint

Found me a nice pic

Then I used my trusty ModPodge and glued it to the tray and put two coats over it.

I sprayed it with two coats of poly:

Looks good!

Well, gotta go! Off to Columbia. GO TIGERS!

DIY Weekend

Love when I have a long weekend to get some projects finished. I was able to make 3 canvases and some curtains for the bathroom which I will post later. This project was an afterthought today. It was pretty quick and easy to do. As I said before, I am in the process of working on my master bath. I had this old chair that I bought at a garage sale years ago. It was originally a maple color and I used the crackle paint technique on it and the vanity that I had since I was a little girl. It looked fine when the bath was yellow, green and blue but I figured I would be covering the seat sometime since I painted the room in the brown with turquoise accessories.

 I taped the edges. I first used some gesso paint to give it a nice surface to paint:

I got busy outside with the grandkids at the pool and forgot to take the next few pics, but I then painted the seat with a nice ivory paint and used brown to paint the piping on the edge. I then went to my new favorite blog site for graphics and grabbed this one from "The Graphics Fairy?"  http://graphicsfairy.blogspot.com/ 

I used my scapbook software to reverse the image. I printed it on freezer paper. I got the instructions for this at this blog site: http://home-frosting.blogspot.com/2011/08/transfer-using-freezer-paper.html
I carefully put it on like she said by getting my surface wet, but it just smeared, so I wiped  the graphic off the freezer paper and tried again without wetting my chair. It went on still a little blurry, but I want it to look old anyway. After everything dried I used a waterbase acrylic varnish to give it a protective coat. Here is my finished product:

I really like it and think it goes well with my bread box graphic project I did a few weeks ago. I figure if it does not hold up, I can always go back to my original plan and recover the chair!

Bread Box Makeover

I bought this bread box over a year ago and knew it would come in handy for something. (For some reason I have this thing for containers).

Well, after seeing the makeover from "30 Handmade Days" I knew what I wanted to do.
http://www.thirtyhandmadedays.com/2012/08/upcycled-bread-box/
So I had my handy dandy neighbor, Kraig cut a hole in the back.

I painted the top and sides with brown acrylic paint doing a stain like effect using a rag. The front  was painted with an ivory color. I used an acrylic varnish I had to give the brown a slight sheen.

I went to a really great site to get graphic images called, "The Graphics Fairy"
http://graphicsfairy.blogspot.com/2011/04/vintage-clip-art-beautiful-french.html

At first I thought I might print it on tissue and put it on the box like a tattoo, but then I decided that I would print on an ivory colored paper and burn the edges to make it destressed. Be careful when burning by burning only a couple inches at one time, blowing out the flame then doing the next few until you get the desired size and edging. I then "painted" it with coffee to make it look old.

 I got out my trusty Mod Podge and glued the paper to the front of my box and after drying, I put two coats of Mod Podge over the top. Here is the result:

My bathroom has only one outlet and my hubby and I fight over it with my hair dryer that is plugged in (it is a hotel style I found at a sale) and his hair cutter. This is a perfect solution! I put a power strip inside and plugged in my hair dryer along with his cutter.

So practical, yet so pretty! Don't you agree?

Next on the list is a painted granite counter!

 

 





 

IPAD Case

I babysit my grandsons quite a bit. When they come over they bring their Ipad.

 It makes me nervous because they just carry it in just as it is. So I decided they needed an Ipad case to hold and protect it. I started with duct tape and cardboard:

Then I measured the cardboard so to be just a bit larger than the Ipad.

I needed something to give it some padding so I found bubble wrap!

I cut and taped it to the inside of the cardboard.

Then I cut strips and added them to the inside and outside.

Here is the inside view:

I made and taped tabs on each side:

For the handle I used a shoestring and covered it with duct tape:

It needed a closure on top, so I grabbed some velcro and put it on front

Had I decided on a closure ahead of time I would have put on the back strap before I covered the cardboard with the tape, but it is still okay. I think it turned out fine.

 And Cole seems to like it!

 

Garage sale to Baby gift!

For a long time now I have wanted to make the subway type canvases with birth information that I have seen on Pinterest. I needed 12 x 12 canvas but did not want to pay a big price. I scored these "lovely" pictures at a garage sale for a dollar each and knew they would be perfect!

I used my Creative Memories scrap book software to design my template. I added the baby information for some friends who recently had babies. I sent the pictures I created off to be printed. (I use Costco printing)   I painted the canvas white, painted Mod Podge on it and set the pictures on the top. After it was stuck the way I wanted, I painted the side of the canvas and a little on the top as a border with a matching color. When dry, I used  Mod Podge on the picture to give it a more matted effect. I love them and I am sure the recipients of the baby gifts will too!

Let me know if you need a baby gift and I will make one for you. Your choice of designs and colors. The possibilities are endless!

Master Bath Redo, Part 1

Pool season is upon us so it is hard believe I even had time for redecorating and blogging, but here I am! We had a rainy day last week so I decided to finish painting my master bath.
I forgot to take a picture before it was tore up, but here is the color of the wall before:

 (I know bright right?)

 So, I decided to change the decor to chocolate brown with turquoise accents. I had been collecting items that I found at garage sales or Goodwill to use. 

  The towel holder is a wine bottle holder I got for 2 dollars.

  I already had the little lamp on the vanity and the jar and letter D on the shelf as well as the tin on the wall, I bought the towels on sale and with a 30% off at Kohl's I love what new towels do to a room!
and last is my trash to treasure chandelier that I redid hanging above the tub below:

I still have some work to do, new floor, shower doors, painting the counter, figuring out what to do about the gigantic mirror and making roman shades from a tip I saw on Pinterest! But the pool awaits so it will all have to wait until pool season comes to an end.....