Thursday, June 19, 2014

DIY Craft: A Few of my Favorite Things

 

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After a very involved painting, I still wanted to use what time I had left to create something else.  Still had that itch, you know, but didn’t have the time to get too involved.  I like those involved pieces, but sometimes, “simple” is nice.

This took less than an hour and I think I’ll just keep it for myself.

2 pieces of barn wood

2 mending plates

White acrylic paint

Tropical Blue acrylic paint

Paper doily from  a wedding or cake baking isle

Paper butterfly stencil

copper nails

2 wood strips (paint sticks will do fine)

If you’d like to construct this yourself, here’s how---

Lay the boards together, the sides that fit the best.  Turn them over and nail the wood strips to each side to keep them together.

Turn the boards over and lay the paper doily on top of the boards, positioning it where you like.  Dabbing your brush in the white acrylic paint, stencil on the doily pattern.

Using the tropical blue paint, watered down a bit, paint the inside circle of the doily.  You might rather use another color depending on your preferences.  Then paint the mending plates with a light coat of this color too, preferably not watered down.

Lay the butterfly doily inside the doily circle you just painted and stencil the butterfly on with the white paint.

Nail the mending plates on, one toward the top and one at the bottom connecting the two boards.

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With the copper nails, nail around the inside circle of the doily.

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I wanted to put more nails and more butterflies, but I tend to over work things.  I was trying to keep this project simple and light.

Don’t forget to put a hanger on the back.  I knew I’d have to stress about something and I can’t decide if I want a burlap bow or just a wire.  So there you go.  If you have no problems making those types of decisions then just hang it and enjoy.

Happy crafting!

Tuesday, June 3, 2014

DIY Craft: Decorate an old End Table

 

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It took about 4 hours to give this little table new life.  Some may not like it, but I do, simply because it has a butterfly or two on it and a lacey look.  It did look like this………………….

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1.  Just lightly sand the shine off with very fine sand paper.

2.  Next give it a white wash over the top of the dark stain with Apple Barrel White Acrylic Paint by Plaid.

3.  Using paper rush or twisted paper some may call it, decide what areas of the table you’d like to wrap.  I chose the legs.  Using a small nail, find a spot on the back of the leg where the tack won’t show and use it to secure the paper rush.  Then begin wrapping covering up the nail as you go.  No need to measure the strand you are wrapping with, when you come to the end, just secure it with another nail in an inconspicuous spot and begin again til you have the area covered you want.

4.  If you want to paint your paper rush you can do that too.  Once you have completed the wrapping, use water and acrylic paint, whatever color you choose and paint with a brush.

5.  I also used the same color paint and a small tip brush to put little scroll designs and flowers all around the table.

6.  For the top, instead of making it a solid color, I chose to just put a little.  But you can completely cover it, it’s up to you.  I used butterfly stencils and paper lace doilies for my stencils.

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The hardest application and the one that also took the longest was the wrapping.  Everything else went quickly.  Acrylic paint dries fast and the finish was almost already gone on this old table so the sanding was a breeze too.

I have another table just like this.  What would you suggest I do to it?  What would you like to see?  Give me some ideas.

The top might need a sealer, I’m going to try it with out one just to see how well the acrylic paint holds up.  It doesn’t scratch off, I tried.  Just can’t understand why people are buying milk paint and other expensive things when the paint we have had around for years does just as well.

Oh and here’s a tip:  If your item is dark and you want it some color besides white, you will probably have to mix your color with white or white wash your piece first for it to show up good.

One more view……………………

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Happy Crafting!