Funky Turned Beauty

Boy have I got a makeover for you! Are you ready for this before? It's kinda extreme.

Right?! Wow. Speechless! A friend of mine gave this to me thinking I might be able to do something with it. It sat in my garage for a few weeks until I had just the right plan. By then I had dubbed it "Funky Dresser".  And over the last week (yes, a whole freaking week!!) she got beautified!

Before:

Love the back. Such a good bones and a nice old piece.

It all started with me thinking I could just sand off a bunch of layers... little elbow grease and wa la! Magic! But wait... no magic here. Just more funk.

At that point I knew I had to get my paint on. Two coats of paint should do me. I was not sure if I would distress but in the end my motto pushed through: Distress, because you know your kids will.

Oh and did I forget to mention a little decoupage action went on too! This is old wallpaper from our first house. I loved and miss that dining room and still have a few rolls and scraps of my all time favorite wallpaper.

After all the painting and papering it did not jive with me. So I mixed up some glaze and slapped it on. The dents and dings in this piece looked soooooo much prettier when they were accentuated with the glaze.

I have not quite decided what to do with this little funky turned beauty dresser. I thought about sticking into a craft corner in my playroom or possibly trying to sell it. For now I'll try her out and see what I think. I actually quite love it in my dining room.

Linking up at these great blogs:
Not Just a Housewife

Ivy and Elephants

AKA Design

Week in review; July 13-27

Boy have I been busy! This weekend I am doing my first ever flea market set up! They are having a Christmas in July weekend so I thought this might be the perfect opportunity to make a little cash. 

 

You saw another of these baby block sets last week. But here is one that was ordered. And I have a few more sets in the works.

Now check these out! I think I'll call them something along the lines of "Think Outside the Frame... frames". Okay, that still needs some thought. :)

I'm so in love. Those handsome little men really help to sweeten the photo's.

And I almost forgot these two little cuties.

And in my spare time I've been doing this...

Yes, that's a toy chest. No plans, just my from my head. And my mind has been so crowded that this is the first picture I have taken. I've got a few more hours of work left.  

Busy times! Hope you all have a great weekend! I'll probably be scarce for the next two weeks as I prepare for my husband's vacation by finishing up a lot of little things. Take care!

Linking up at AKA Designs DIY Link Party #41. Great blog, take a look!

Decoupage for Baby

Hey guys! I am keeping busy working on a few different builds plus now I am working on some crafts for a local Christmas In July sale. Exciting! Here is one of the things I have been working on.

Isn't it precious!? My cousin just had her first baby and I was excited to try this out. It is a twist on my Decoupage Post (which is insanely popular. Thank you Pinterest.) This time I added lettering, easy as that! Oh and I did get the distress ink. It is costly but neat and it comes in many different colors. The one I used here is called Tea Dye.  I am hoping these ink pads don't dry up fast. Here is a photo of the blocks before I added the letting. You can notice the distress ink more here. I added the ink before I applied it to the wood (letting it dry for a few minutes first).

So I will be working on a few more of these plus some other ideas that use Mod Podge too. These will soon be for sale!

$15 for two names (first and middle or first and last).

$20 for two names plus birth stats.

The blog post is linking up here:

 My Repurposed Life

Decoupage Decoupage Decoupage!!!

**New Decoupage post added here.**

I have spent the past two days teaching myself a new skill. You guessed it... DECOUPAGE (proud that I can spell the word now BTW) I had done a lot of Google searches for scrap paper wall art and I really loved it. This was trial and error and it really was not too bad. BUT I did have one pretty big fail, read on for the details (there will not be pics posted of my fail).

Here's my step by step!

I bought 2 4 foot 1x12's. You can use whatever size you want or need. I then cut them into 8 equal pieces and sanded them just enough to clean them up and wear down  the edges.



Next up I put a coat of stain on the sides and around the edges. I went ahead and filled in the centers just for fun but probably won't worry about that next time. You could also use paint in a color that coordinates with your paper.

 

After you wipe them clean it's time for your Mod Podge. This stuff is kind of expensive and did not go as far as I thought. Boo. BUT just make sure to stock up when it's on sale like I will be.  So, you put a thick coat on your surface and your paper. When you apply the paper to your surface try REALLY hard not to leave bubbles or wrinkles. I used an old credit card then switched to a small rolling pin. Either way works, just work carefully and slowly and work from the inside out!! Wipe up glue that comes out of the edges.

Here is what it should look like once your paper is on and smooth.

Next up, it is VERY important to wait 15-20 minutes before you put another coat on top. Set your timer. The waiting helps to lessen wrinkles... so wait! You can apply 1 or 2 or 3 more layers if you'd like. Some people use 0000 steel wool between coats. I did not but might in the future. This step would be needed if you want to reduce brush strokes but using a foam brush would also help with that problem. I thought that I would like the brush strokes, and do. It gives it more of a canvas feel.

This is after two top coats have dried.





Now, you could stop there if you'd like and pop these guys on your wall.

But I went a little further.  The blogosphere will tell you to use "distress ink" but really, I forgot to buy it. So I used some watered down black paint. I smudged it on in the corners and around the outsides. Then blotted it with a paper towel. In my opinion it turned out great on the black paper but not so great on the lighter papers (see image below). (I will try distress ink in the future just for fun).



So, since I was not O.M.G. in love with the lighter ones I went one step further. I printed off 2 8x8 black and white photos and after doing a color bleeding test I went ahead and Mod Podged them on. BAD IDEA! My test had lied to me. Once dried it ended up looking very green and ugly. So I ended up spritzing it with water and gently peeling off the paper image. It worked! I did have to do some light sanding to get the last bits of the bad picture off. But the layers I had done on the original part was still good.

Moving on! After that I decided to get into my photos and find some shots that would mesh well. Now, I am not set on these images sizes (really wanted a square) so for this reason I just placed the pictures on. I gotta say, I am pretty O.M.G. over my handsome little men on these! And the shot with the flowers would look really pretty with a larger square picture.

 

So there it is. Two days of trial and error and a few hits and a miss. I will be finding larger square pictures to add permanently. And I do plan on doing more. What do you think? I have grand dreams of spending my winter months doing decoupage. :)