Mini Picture Frames

Ok, so this is just phase 1 of a 2-phase project...*hopefully*. I'm not quite sure yet if phase 2 will pan out, but I sure am keeping my fingers crossed! Anyway, I started out with some little (as in like, 3x3 inch) frames from the dollar section of Michael's. I love the detail, but the color?...Not so much. *UPDATE: I checked my receipt and they were really only 50 cents each!

In comes my Behr Lucky Bamboo paint. Yay, now I love the detail *and* the color!

But of course they needed some character so I whipped out my trustee Minwax Early American wood stain to give them some age spots (ew, that sounds so gross!).

Ok, so you can't really see it that well in the picture, but I assure you it's there!

I decided that I wanted to print some numbers out to frame in these little beauties, but there was no way I was going to print them on boring white printer paper. Nope, I'd rather print them on boring brown packaging paper...just a tad bit snazzier than the white. Just a word of advice for anyone who tries this at home - you have to help guide the paper into the printer or else you will end up with something like this:

But I guess it probably didn't help that I cut the paper crooked and jagged =)

Another word of advice - make sure you leave plenty of space surrounding each number. Yeah, the first time I printed the numbers there was not enough space and the second time I printed...well, see pic above.

Next step is pretty straightforward. Just cut out the numbers and put them in the frames. I tore the cardboard backing off so that they would lay flush and I just used regular ol' tape to keep them in place. I just realized the picture above looks like it's crooked, but it's really just an optical illusion. Hmmm.  Anyway, here they are, waiting for phase 2 of the project.

And yes, I realize the numbers are not centered, hehehe. Oh, and you might be wondering why I printed a number 4 and the reason is because I was hoping to find another frame at Michael's, but they were all gone by the time I went back.

Stay tuned for the possible phase 2, which by the way, won't happen for a few months if at all.

I'm linking up to Funky Junk Interiors.

Ballard Designs Knockoff - Rope Knot Doorstop

My sis and I were out shopping the other day (really it started out as window shopping because I knew I *wasn't* going to buy anything) and my sis pointed something out to me that was in the back of the bottom shelf.  I was *so* excited when I looked down into the cavernous depth of the shelf and saw this little guy peeking out of the shadows.

And the price of this bad boy?

For anyone out there who hasn't seen this $39 version in the Ballards catalog, here it is.

Besides the droopy handle and softer texture of mine, I would have to say they're a pretty darn close match...oh, except mine cost $31 less!!

Don't you just love finding a Ballard or PB knockoff for so cheap?

I know I'm gonna hear an earful about this purchase...something like, "What is that?! It holds a door open? When are we ever going to use that?".  Oh, silly men - they just don't get it!

Lamp Revamp

I was out shopping at Home Goods the other day (I have no idea why I go there when I am trying to save money for moving because I ALWAYS find something I *need*!) and I found this lamp.

But in my defense, it was only $16...$16 folks!!

That's quite a bargain  when you consider this Ikea lamp for $39.99.

Or this Pottery Barn lamp for a whopping $119!

I'm sure we can all agree that the Ikea and Pottery Barn lamps look *much* better though.  I mean, the shape of my bargain lamp is pretty similar, but the color is hideous! And if you look closely, you can see some weird lines that I think were meant to give it an aged look, but really it just looks like faux gone wrong.

It's kind of funny though because the lady at the cash register was going on about how it was such a great lamp and she loved the color, especially the cord. Barf! Little did she know, that was soon going to change. I didn't take pictures of the process because it was pretty straightforward - a little bit of primer, some matte black paint, and some matte finish spray paint - but the end result is drastically different. I absolutely LOVE how it turned out! For about $20 (the lamp plus some paint), I have a brand new, expensive-looking lamp!

Map Clothespins

I was trying to think of a way to display some postcards the other day when I remembered about some old wire office trays I acquired from my grandparent's house. I heart old metal, ahhh. Anyway, I figured I could clip them on with some good ol' clothespins, but honestly I'm not a fan of the light wood look, so cue the trumpets and welcome the stain!

It's *so* much easier if you just dip each half in the stain rather than applying it with a cloth. I know, I know, sounds pretty obvious, but I generally do things the hard way and don't think of the easy way until *after* I finish a project!

So once the stain was nice and dry, I looked at my little clothespins and knew they needed more. Cue the trumpets and now welcome a map of the Sacramento area! Hey, I need something to remind me of California when I move to New Jersey =) I made sure to include some areas that have significance to me, like the city I currently live in and even my street.

My favorite method of sticking things together is using spray adhesive. I have used it on many design projects in school and it really holds things together...I mean *really*! As in you don't want to spray it anywhere except the items you want to stick together.

After spraying the spray adhesive on the map I held the map up to the light with the side I wanted showing facing down toward me, then I put the clothespin on top of the map where the spray adhesive was. That helped me to get the words placed exactly where I wanted them to be. After letting them dry, I tried 2 different method of cutting the excess map: tearing and cutting with scissors.

I ended cutting all of them to get a nice clean look and then I went over the edges with sandpaper and this is what I ended up with.

But of course I couldn't leave them looking so clean, so I decided to expirement with using wood stain over the maps. I learned a very valuable lesson when doing this. I figured it would work just like wood where you apply the stain, wait a minute, then wipe it off, but it doesn't work quite that way with paper ::blush::

You can tell by the above picture that I gradually learned that less is more. It's best to get stain on your rag, then wipe most of it off, then lightly apply the stain to your paper.  I think I'll probably make a few more to get the lighter look since you can barely see the map on the dark clothespins.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with the results and I know they will bring me good memories and make me smile on those cold New Jersey days.

Ballard Designs Medallion Wall Plaque Knockoff

I was looking through a Ballard Designs catalog several months ago and fell in love with these medallion wall plaques.

But at $199 for the 3, I knew I would have to recreate it on my own.  I decided to make just one and chose the middle plaque because I love how it looks like a flower.  Now, before I really get into this post, I have to say this was very challenging for me - not because it's a super complicated design or that the color combiniation is hard - but because I usually do refined, polished paintings, which these are *so* not!

Here is an upclose picture I blew up on my computer to use as inspiration. You can really see how unrefined it is.

So, the first step was to figure out dimensions. I decided on an 11x17 inch piece of pine. Instead of painting the decorative part at the bottom, I chose to buy a wood applique to make it a little easier.  The applique was 8" long so I knew that the 'flower' would need to be 8" wide.  After priming the pieces, I placed the applique on the wood to make sure it was what I wanted.

Now, the tricky part is to get the shape of the flower. I used the picture I printed as inspiration and adjusted my drawing as needed to get the right dimensions.  Since it's a symmetrical shape, you could probably even fold a piece of paper several times and draw 1 petal and then cut it out to get a uniform look.

I chose to use a beautiful blue as a basecoat and a dark chocolate brown for the flower.

I also painted the applique brown with the intention of painting the blue on top then sanding some off so that the brown would show through...buuuut, it didn't quite end up that way!

On to the flower. Like I said, this was *very* difficult for me since it's not my usual type of painting. I had to keep reminding myself of something an art teacher told me once which is to not see the object for what it is (a flower), but to see it as a shape (not quite the exact wording, but something like that!). So if you are reading this, Patricia Wood from American River College, thank you because that's what got me through this project!  I have to admit that my heart was racing as I painted this because it looked so horrible and I kept wondering to myself how on earth I could ruin such a good idea.  Sounds dramatic, but you'll see why when you look at the picture below.

Um yeah, quite a far cry from the Ballard Designs plaque!  Fortunately, I am not usually one to give up when I have an idea, so next I decided to use a lighter shade of brown to highlight certain areas. The paint was called Trail Tan, but it was anything but tan! It looked more peach and that's when I *really* started freaking out! I kinda sorta forgot to take a picture of what it looked like at that point. Ok, not really. I didn't *want* to take a picture of it because it was so horrible! But once again, I couldn't just give up, so I decided I would paint over the peach and use white as a highlight instead. And while I was at it, I also used some dark brown, almost black, paint to do some lowlights, and this is what I ended up with.

I honestly wasn't sold on it at this point. I just kept thinking it looked so sloppy, but then reminded myself yet again that it isn't my usual style, and that to grow, I need to venture outside my comfort zone. And I also kept singing a song in my head from The Frog and the Princess...the part where Tiana checks out the place where her future restaurant will be and she sings the song, "Almost There".  I didn't even realize for a while that I was humming that song in my head, but I think it was my subconscious way of pushing myself. That, and my son watches that movie EV.ERY.DAY! He loves the 'fwoggies' and 'algator' =).

Anyway, throughout the time I spent painting the flower, I was also working on the applique. It went from brown to this. (As I'm typing this, my son is looking at the picture and saying 'weird painting', so I guess he doesn't like this look either!).

When I had sanded it, it went straight to the primer even though I did a very light sanding. Plus, it blended in with the blue of the background a little too much. Next, I thought I would paint it mostly brown and just leave the cracks blue.

Hmmm, not liking that either. I finally took a cue from the flower and decided to highlight it with white and it turned out like this.

That's a little bit better, but I wanted more depth so I added just a smidgeon of brown paint and lightly sanded it again.

Much better! Next, I set it on the plaque to make sure it looked good, and I was pretty happy with it.

Then it came time to paint the dashed line and the random numbers, like on the original plaque (do this *before* attaching the applique so it doesn't get in the way).  I used painter's tape to make a horizontal line and 2 vertical lines.

This step is *not* neccessary at all, but the perfectionist in me wanted to have the lines the same thickness. To keep it from being too 'perfect' looking, I varied the length of the lines and the spacing between them. I used a stencil that I already had to write '314' at the top and '0.100' between the dashed lines.

The next part kinda stunk because I didn't have a super small paintbrush so I used the other end of a paintbrush (the rounded plastic part) and a paintbrush on the bigger areas. It was far from perfect, but I was actually glad that it was kind of sloppy to match the look of the flower.

Once that was finished and dry, I painted some cardboard (aka a frozen pizza box that I cut open) with the colors of the plaque and tested out some wood stains to give it an aged look.

On the left is Minwax Early American and on the right is Minwax Dark Walnut.  I thought the Dark Walnut was too dark for this project, but I honestly wasn't sure the Early American made a difference, so I held the plaque up to the samples.

Oh yeah, there's a difference! And just the right amount.  So after I applied the applique with epoxy, I stained the whole thing with Early American then attached a picture hanger on the back when it was dry.

Here's the final product.

And the inspiration picture again.

(source)

I am happy to report that it has finally grown on me. In fact, I'm really diggin' it! Oh yeah, and the total cost of the project (the wood applique and 2 bottles of paint were all I had to buy) was a total of around $6!!! Although you have to buy the Ballard Designs version as a set for $199, *if* you could buy an individual plaque, it would cost $66! I'll take $6 over $66 anyday!

I'm linking up to

Candlestick Pedestal

So, this project is all over blogland and is definitely not original, but here is my take. I got a silver tray and a candlestick for $1 each at the thrift store.

I have to admit there was quite a struggle going on in my brain about the candlestick because I LOVED the patina. It's kind of hard to see in the picture, but it had a tinge of red which made it look kind of rusty. I *seriously* took several days to decide if I should paint it or not, but in the end the candlestick lost the battle.  I loved the shape and knew it would be perfect for my project.

So I took a deep breath and primed it then painted it a glossy white. No turning back!

After waiting for the paint to dry and giving the tray a nice little scrub, I attached the two with some epoxy and voila!

Project total: $2!!!!