Christmas Crafts

Merry Christmas

I saw this cute idea for Christmas Gifts on someones blog and thought I would try it out. Glass paint pens and porcelain paint pens on different items. Some items I free handed and most of them I used transfer paper and traced them on. The glasses shown above and below I did free hand.

Pictured below are the pens I used I purchased them from Michael's they are from Pebeo. Once you finish writing on them you have to let it dry for 24 hours. Then you bake them in the oven on 325 for 40 minutes for the glass pieces and 300 for 35 minutes for the porcelain pieces.

Here are some pictures of the thing's I've completed.

My favorite furniture re-do!

This project was not my first furniture re-do and certainly not my last, but it's my favorite piece of furniture in the house. I pondered and shopped many log hours deciding what piece of furniture I wanted in my entry way until I just decided I would go flea marketing and re-do something myself. I was looking for something with storage and little bit of character. I found my piece at my local Flea Market for $97.00. It was in great condition and really only needed a little paint.

Here is a couple of before pictures listed below

I felt the piece had charm and character. At first I had planned to paint it red and leave the top as is. I also planned to remove the bottom four drawers and use baskets. I started painting it red and realized I wanted it to be lighter and blue would be the color. Here is how I transformed it.

1. I lightly sanded it so the paint would stick.

2. I painted the piece with a turquoise Behr paint color with two coats.

3. I light sanded it again to give it a little distressing.

4. I used a Warm Chocolate glaze that they mixed up for me at Sherwin Williams. I used this in the lines on the piece and some around the edges. I use a regular paint brush to put the glaze on with and I use a wet cloth to wipe off the excess that I don't want. I usually wipe of the excess about ten minutes after I put it on. If you wait longer it doesn't come up as easily.

5. I used a small amount of a tea stained glaze by Ralph Lauren that I got from Home Depot on the whole piece to get the antiqued look.

6. I used a iridescent glaze from Valspar to give it a little shine.

7. Lastly, I sealed it with Polycrylic.

Below are pictures of the products I used.

Merry Christmas and Decorating

Merry Christmas To All!

This is my first try at the whole blogging thing so bear with me!! I decided to start this blog to tell everyone about all of my renovations, furniture re-do's and crafts! I thought it would be fun to start with Christmas! I love to decorate with lime green for Christmas!! I have decorated in lime green and red in my kitchen and living room. In my other rooms I've tried to decorate with similar colors of the rooms. This year I also tried to find natural things to decorate with such as cranberries, pine cones and sticks. I like to think that my taste are eclectic because I'm inspired by a lot of things I see! I love things that sparkle especially at Christmas time.
The above picture is obviously my tree and I have red and lime ornaments with a few personal ornaments. I went all sparkly for my tree because it really shines.

This is my entry way. The blue jug which is my favorite I found at the Flea Market. I put cranberries in the bottle and used branches from my yard as well. I sprayed the branches with a little fake snow and some glitter. The candlesticks with the green puff was a napkin craft I stole from someones blog. The wreath with the H was just a recreation of something I saw in a Ballard Design's catalog. In Ballard Designs they had the monogram covered with Christmas tree branches. I wasn't quite sure how to pull that one off so I decided to improvise. The wreath was a $2.00 Hobby Lobby purchase and the monogram was a $5.00 Hobby Lobby purchase. The H was actually gold and I decided to spray it white. The ribbon on the wreath is the same ribbon I have on my tree! I also used pine cones from my yard in the brown tray and spray them with snow and glitter as well. As you can tell I love to decorate with Christmas Balls!!

This is a couple of shots from my table I used the same snow pine cones and Christmas Balls along with tree branches. The Christmas ball arrangement was just something I kept playing with until I found something I liked. My table is my second favorite thing to decorate I love layering different things on it!

For my plates I found lime green chargers at target and then placed my clear glass plates on top. I really wanted to some cute desert/accent plates for the top but I just couldn't find any that I really liked. So, I decided to make my own. I will explain more in another post on Christmas crafts how I made them. I also painted my wine glasses too! I bought the white plates from the dollar tree. It was a fun project.

My lime green sparkly branches!

Merry Christmas Everyone!!