Bare Wood Wall Decorations

I'm so happy with my new wall decorations. I sliced up a stick of wood into pieces. Then I painted the centers with some aqua paint. I gave each of my children a piece of the wood to draw
anything they wanted to. These are the resulting masterpieces ;)

Tessa 10: Love Bird

Aaron 8: Wild Bunny

Jonah 4: Daddy, Mommy and Jonah all tucked into their beds.

Jakob 12: Flower craze (this one suprised me ;))

I drilled a hole in the each of the wood pieces and then strung them all together with a lenth of twine.
A personal snapshot of my kiddos art in a matter of minutes. :)
Have a great week!

Paisley Stencil Kitchen Table Makeover

So, this is pretty much the best picture I have of my kitchen table before. We were having our Back To School Sundaes!! I despised the grooves in this table which collected all the crumbs and food that a family of six can tend to leave behind while EATING! Sheesh.
We ended up getting a loaner table while we worked this one over.
Travis began my completely planing off the top layer of the table, making sure to leave no grooves and just a flat surface. Jakob helped by sanding it smooth.
Next, I used a tack cloth to remove any extra saw dust or dirt.

Smooth smoothy smoothness (sorry for the blurry pic) but it is smooth. :)

I then created a paisley cut image with my Silhouette and cut it out of a stencil blank I purchased at Hobby Lobby. I think it ended up costing about 3 dollars or you could purchase a larger stencil online for $50 or so. 

I rolled on the Heirloom White painted with a foam roller. I had to stop about 2/3 of the way through and pick off all the paint that had collected on the stencil as it wasn't letting the paint through the smaller holes in the design. 

While that dried for a while I painted the table legs and sides. When the top was completely dry I painted on Minwax Dark Walnut stain and then rubbed off the excess with a cloth. I did two coats and let dry and added a coat of Wipe on Polycrylic. I let that dry overnight. 

In the morning I added a second coat of Wipe On Polycrylic. Food wipes off like a dream even though it doesn't have a thick coat of polyurethane.

I'm really happy with the way it came out...Now to paint the chairs.

Have a super day!

Thrifty FRIDAY is Here Again

What can I say? I was a tad busy yesterday and had no time to post my most recent project.

Apparently I had no time to take a "real" before pic either. I had already started priming this girl before I remembered to get a good shot.

 

Yeah, she was pretty sad as is the fact that I don't yet have a garage to do these kinds of projects in yet ;).
The end result was worth my time in the sweltering sun though.

I'm pretty happy with the way it came out. I know the kids will beat on her but she will do for now :)
I used the Martha Stewart double ring stencil with a gray acrylic paint from Folk Art on the top. I finished it off with a few coats of wipe on polycrylic.

I think my table is a happy little table now :)

Especially with my craiglist couch find :)

Hope you have a scrappy, happy, thrifty kinda day!

Thrifty Thursday, er um...Friday!

I purchased this cute little frame from my local SA a while back. I hung it on my wall where I wanted my photo collage to go and there it sat...for months I tell ya. Until, finally, I was issued a challenge and I actually scrapped a photo!!! It's been way too long and I thouroughly enjoyed myself.
I began by painting the picture frame Heirloom White by Rustoleum.

I removed the picture of the li'l country bumpkin and traced it onto a piece of white cardstock. Then I created my sunburst background in yellows and grays.

I added the family photo and the "love is spoken here" silhouette cut, a little washi, a doily and some enamel dots and called it good.

Here's a side by sid comparison of the before and after. I'm pretty happy with it.

And here it is in it's place of honor on my living room wall.

I think it's found it's happy home. Thank you for stopping by. Hope you have a great day.
I get to celebrate with one of the most amazing people in my life, my beautiful daughter is turning TEN!!

Vintage Remake Ruffle Collar Dress

Hello FRUMPMEISTER! Yes, my mother laughed at me when she saw me pick up this black beauty. I probably look like I could be a sister wife in this get up or Carrie's mother (scary, I know).

But a few snips here and there and she was ready for a night on the town or rather a three hour church service ;)

How 'bout an uncropped photo for ya! I guess I don't pay my photographers enough.

I love the round collar and the awesome thing is the ruffle is detachable so if I want to kick this dress up a notch with a cool necklace I totally can in a snap-or a few buttons ;).
Dress, Vintage: $1.00
Shoes, Isaac Mizrahi: $1.00
Belt: $1.00
Earrings: Target $3.00
OUTFIT TOTAL: $6.00

Thrifty Thursday: Refashionista

I was thrifting at the Salvation Army with my mom recently and came across this vintage beauty. My mama thought I was nuts, but I think the "after" has persuaded her that you can upcycle many a vintage dud. For a dollar why not try?!?!

Check out my sweet pumps! Yup one whole dollar, but the lace is black not navy :*(

Here it is with some sandals. I got the cherry red vintage necklace at a different thrift store for dollar. Belt was .50 cents at the SA. Sandals were a dollar or cheaper?

OUTFIT TOTAL $3.50

Thrifty Thursday REVEAL: Ye Old Stereo Cabinet

It's time...da da da daaaa...da da da daaaa to reveal the TRANSFORMATION of "Ye old Stereo Cabinet". I'm a huge fan of the blog BETTER AFTER. After seeing all of the wonderful transformations taking place over there I was completely inspired to begin my own redo.
If you remember last Thursday in this POST I told you I bought this beautiful girl for $20.00 and it was high time she had a makeover...well, today's the day... she's finally finished.

Unfortunately this is about the best picture I have of it before I started her makeover. I had previously added the paisley fabric because of the unsightly orange speaker covers and left it at that. Don't get me wrong, I love orange but these were ratty and a bit too retro for me. After I refinished the mirror she was looking old and dreary. Solid wood and in awesome condition.

UPDATE: I remembered I had a non digital photo in an old scrapbook and scanned it in...forgive the plaid and the plethora of pictures. I was newly married and my decorating sense had yet to be refined. :)

So here she is all primed and painted with Heirloom White satin finish paint. I let the primer dry for a full week before beginning to roll on the paint. I also needed a small brush to get into the thin molded lines.

The hardware was brass and that just wasn't going to work here so I took these puppies out back, primed them and shined them up with a coat of Satin Nickle Finish

The last part was the hardest...deciding wether to put my paintable wall paper in the speaker panels or this lovely fabric I found at Joann's??!? Such a hard decision, but I like the blue on white and I'm glad I went for little drama :)

All beautified and ready to get handprints and milk splatters all over her. My hubby keeps telling me I'm asking for trouble painting something white with four kiddos in the house. I like to live dangerously like that :)

Mirror and companion stereo cabinet. So happy together.

And since fall is just around the corner I pulled out my lovelies and decorated her up.

Lastly, I added that hoot owl trivet. I spray painted him so I don't think he's useful for hot dishes any more.
Have a great day and I'd love it if you'd share some of your thrifted or upcylced items with me!!
Linking up to Finding Fabulous for less Frugalicious Friday.
http://kammyskorner.blogspot.com/2011/10/trash-to-treasure-tuesday-link-party-1.html

Cheese Dome to Cloche

Yes, it's been done a million times before...but I wanted one too! I made this back in May but am finally getting around to posting it. Two thrifted pieces combined to make one lovely piece.

I spray painted both pieces with Heirloom white and then used E6000 to bind them together.

A few birdies and som spanish moss and it's totally chic!

I think that birdy wants out!
Have a great day. Don't forget give away at 15,000 hits!

Butterfly... Walk On By

A few days ago I was at one of our local thrift stores and happened upon these filigree butterfly beauties. I almost walked straight on by...but I stopped and for 50 cents a piece and a bit of spray paint I thought I could exact a mighty change in them.

Here's what this corner has looked like for the last nine years or so...well...except there used to be a bunch of dead roses in the pale green thing. I finally got rid of those dust catchers last week.

Butterflies painted and hung...still missing something.

I also had a chrome serving tray which happened to be magnetic. Threw a quick coat of spray paint on the pretty lady and she was ready to join her butterfly friends.

I ended up covering a few button molds with fabric and gluing magnets to the back. Added a picture of the flamingos we saw at the zoo last Saturday to give it a pop of color.

Hope you all have a great weekend!