Diy 15 foot faux pine garland costs $4

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Ahhhh....Back In My Happy Place!

I found my new place, and knew that I was moving on September 2nd, I began packing the next day and moved 3 weeks later. Since then I've even unpacking and preparing for the  week long visit from my British friend . .. I had a lot to do, and no time for art, or any creative fun. I did squeeze in a few hours to begin a new painting one day...to me, that's like a drop of water for a desperately thirsty person . And of course, Shirley and I created the Tuscan Bottles while she was here.

Shirley returned to the UK on Tuesday and I went into a full cleaning and organizing frenzy after she  was gone, determined to complete all of the half finished things I'd left undone before she arrived. I went room by room, and was done yesterday with everything, including cabinets,  my closet , laundry, and even outdoor areas.
That meant today I was free to create!
My mind, body and soul just feel complete and full of peace and joy when I create...it doesn't matter what kind of creating I'm doing-- but I  feel happiest when I'm free to completely do my own thing with no pattern, rules, or preconceived concept . When my creativity can just flow unfettered, I feel like I could fly!
I put music on...and away I go...to my happy place...to where my soul soars, and my heart heals... and I seldom really am aware of much else until I return of the real world. It's just art, music, me and my muse there... thank God I get to go there often, it's my happy, happy place.
I hope you find yours too.

Beautiful Tuscan Bottles- Glass Bottle Upcycle

This week I've had a very close friend visiting from the UK. We have known one another for about 5 years, we met on Facebook; but we've never met in person until now. It's been great, we've talked and talked,cooked and eaten, went out for my Domestic Violence Awareness art event, laughed so much, shared many stories,tomorrow we're spending the day out shopping and going to lunch. I invited her to do a creative project with me. I thought it'd be nice for us to do a project together, then we'd each have a tangible object to look at to remember this time we shared...Something we made together.

For this you'll need :
A glass bottle, jar, or vase with a lid
white glue
acrylic paints of your choice--in light and dark colors.
paint brushes
twine or jute
plastic dishes for paint and glue
single screw drawer pulls of your choice
Pliers
Optional:
sponges
drywall filler and putty knife
beads, rhinestones, etc

Start with a clean dry bottle or jar with a lid. If you want it textured, cover the bottle with the drywall. You can use the putty knife to apply it and create textured designs as you go, or use the dampened sponge for another texture.
Let dry, for faster drying, use a hair dryer.
Once the drywall filler is dry, or if not using it--- paint your bottle with a dark colored paint---leaving  random areas open. Brush paint on lightly, no need to cover thickly or cover all of the bottle or all of the drywall filler. Let dry. You can dry with hair dryer to speed this up.
Once the darker color is COMPLETELY dry, brush on a good layer of white glue. Elmer's glue is fine. Cover the whole bottle.
Wait only 2-3 mins, then begin applying the lighter paint color over the glue, quickly. Use a large brush, and wide strokes to apply as fast as possible. It is not important to cover every little spot, or to be perfect.
Let dry. Drying with the hair dryer now, will give you a more crackled look and more rustic look. If that's what you want, use the hair dryer.
When dry, measure your twine or jute by wrapping around the neck of the bottle, then cut to size. Apply glue to bottle neck with brush, then wrap twine, and brush glue over top of it to adhere.
Repeat with bottom of bottle.
Let dry.

For corks or bottle/jar tops:
Take apart drawer pulls so that you have only long screw with handle left together. Use a long wood screw and begin a hole in the cork, then screw it into the cork as far as you can. After a bit, you'll need to use some pliers to turn it the rest of the way. Unscrew it and remove it. Replace the screw in the cork with the end of your drawer pull, screw it into your cork, slowly. It will go, but you;ll need the pliers to go all the way to the end. Be sure to go straight through your cork or top.
Once in your top, thread drawer pull hardware back on and tighten. For corks, tightened pulls need no hardware,discard these pieces.

You can decorate your bottles anyway you'd like. Add additional embellishments....beads, coins, ribbon, stamp art, fabric, etc but now you know that your jars and bottles can be beautiful art!

Have fun and I'll see you again, real soon!

Combining Art And Upcycling

I posted a photo of a piece I repurposed last winter, in a group on Facebook and got a huge number favorable responses-- and one request for lessons.

My reply was my link to this blog, so here goes. 

Now, if you've been paying attention you know I do things as frugally as possible, and I have huge creativity.  My style is rustic, leaning toward shabby chic. ..but I can go just about anywhere when it comes to style. Usually I see something in a piece. I don't know how,  I just look at anything and know what it could be instead. Gift or curse, who's to say? I love saving things that would have been trash. ..or worse...relegated to a boring life. Gift for sure.

So, here's today's project.  I will post before and after photos. 

It began it's life as a boring ,plain, varnished, pine gun cabinet.  It had red velveteen inside. Yuck! And the usual rack to hold the barrels of rifles. Nothing to see here, keep moving. 

What I saw,  were it's lines.  The simple, but beautiful edges, grooves and layers of trim that made it humble, yet proud. This was a farmer dressed in his best for church on Sunday. 

That's what I saw in this cabinet, and I took it home, to make it mine -- to give that hardworking farmer a reason to sing a bit louder in church.

This was my very first Diy project.  I had no idea what I was going to do or how. I knew I needed shelves in it,  and that was about all I had for a beginning plan.

I tore everything out of the inside, washed it out well, then measured, cut and put in shelves. Two coats of paint later and the inside was completed. 

I then painted the outside, after sanding lightly to scuff the varnish,  so paint would stick.  I used an acrylic latex satin finish paint. It's water base, no odor  and super great on wood, metal,  wicker, etc. It costs about $10 a quart and goes a long ways. Two coats, I removed the door at the hinges to paint. Much easier. Any holes I  filled with drywall filler. It works fine for this  and can be purchased at the dollar stores for a buck. I filled and sanded those before painting.

Once the paint was totally dry, overnight at least, I used 80 grit sandpaper  and roughed the edges by hand.  Taking off some if the paint in places where it would normally be worn away. Then I sanded over those areas again with 150 grit sandpaper,  to smooth some of the lines from the 80 grit. Then I put the door back on.

Using a dry erase marker, draw your design on the OUTSIDE  of your windows.  Then paint on the inside, following your drawn design. When you're done simply wipe the dry erase marker away!

If you choose you can seal your piece with a water base poly.  I like the rustic look so I rarely use poly. 

If you don't want to use poly. 

You are now done, stand back and admire your work and, as always. .. don't forget to share a photo with me.

Enjoy!

Love That Old Thing Anew

Tonight I  want to share this super easy and very frugal furniture upcycle project with you.
It's fun and I love the uniqueness of its look and the fact that when you use the materials on different surfaces, you get a totally different look. So versatility and price are huge plusses in this redo.
This piece had louvered doors. I found them ugly, dated and not at all right for my taste. So i purchased black foam boards at the Dollar Tree cut them to size to cover the louvered parts --- then applied the texture technique.
The textured part is extremely simple:
#1 Coat your surface in mod podge  (homemade mod podge is 1/2 water and 1/2 white glue).

#2 Crinkle white tissue paper up in your hands. Roll it into a ball. Open it back up, but do not smooth. Lay it on your mod podge area, and brush another coat of mod podge over it, covering completely. Repeat until your whole area is covered with tissue paper.

#3 When you have covered the entire area with one layer, repeat. You'll want at least 2 layers of paper.

#4 Once your tissue paper layers are done, let them dry, then apply 2 more layers of mod podge, drying between coats.

Done!

I used white tissue paper...I see no reason why you can't use other colors..so experiment and have fun.post your pics and show me your projects, I'd love to see them!
Another item I used this for is below.


Enjoy

Welcome

I created this blog to share my tips on making something out of almost nothing ..whether it's a meal, updating an old piece of furniture, making a new piece of furniture from something else, or artistic projects - i can show you many ways of doing all of these things that are beautiful and very frugal.
Stop back often, I'll be adding new posts about every other day, uploading pics and sharing some great ideas with you.
So bring a cup of coffee and relax, we're going to hsve a great time together, making something out of almost nothing.
See you soon!
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