Changing Table -Turned Dog Bed

A couple of weeks ago, I ran across a beat up, run down changing table on the side of the road. It was no longer safe to put a baby on. It was missing two shelves, and was super rickety. Because it was made of real wood and had interesting spindles, I felt the need to bring it home and make something out of it.

The hubs was obviously unhappy that I was bringing more junk home;o) Story of our lives, right?

Anyway, I thought it would make a perfect pet bed.

 This is how it started out. 

I used an electric hand saw and chopped the legs off. That was definitely an experience. Note to self...use a sharp blade next time. I was literally shaking so hard that I had blurred vision while cutting this piece because the blade wouldn't cut through the wood:o) 

I sanded down the feet to get a nice edge.

I then ripped the safety buckles off of the bottom.

And then spray painted it.

The cushion is made from painters' canvas and two large pillows from my couch in the bonus room.

I made the cover removable by adding a zipper to the back. That way when it gets dirty, I can just throw it in the wash.

Not bad for a roadside rescue?

Coffee Table Redo-Part3

Our coffee table serves many purposes. It's the place where the kids do homework, make crafts, sometimes eat their dinners. It's also a foot rest, and occasionally used in pillow/blanket forts.

It's used A LOT, and had been showing lots of wear here lately.

This coffee table has gone through a couple of transformations.

To see the actual before, you can go here.

I had not been planning on re-doing the coffee table. It sort of just struck me last Friday that I needed to strip all of the nasty paint off of it. 

This was part two...the center is chalkboard paint. I had found some inspiration on Mrs. Mustard Seed's blog with some chalkboard tables she had created. At the time of the second re-do, my children had a nasty habit of writing on furniture. I came up with what I thought was an ingenious idea to paint chalkboard paint on the top of the coffee table; that way they could have at least one piece of furniture in the house to write on with out mommy fussing.

Well, it's been a few years and the kids are past the graffiti-on-my-furniture phase, thankfully. However, this table has been put through the ringer.

 As you can see there are tons of nicks, and scratches all over the top. There was also this weird film that developed...not exactly sure if it was from the chalkboard paint, or if we're just that nasty.

Regardless, it needed to come off. 

After two coats of paint stripper and a little bit of sanding, I was able to restore the wood to it's natural state.

 I applied the same stain I used for the old bench.

I let the stain sit for 15 minutes before wiping it off. I'm not one for waiting hours to reapply coats of stain to get what I think is basically the same result.

And this is the finished result. A beautiful stained wood top.

A much needed improvement.

I haven't applied the coats of poly yet. We had way too much going on over the weekend to get that done.

I love my big coffee table, and love that it serves so many purposes. Styling it, is an issue all on it's own. Because it has so many jobs, leaving things on it isn't an option.

But, the kids and the hubs are away, so mommy gets to play around with some fun styling:o)

 I love these old Bibles. I think they are so beautiful. The thicker ones belonged to the hubs' grandfather. The smaller one was my mother's cousin's Bible that was given to him when he was fighting in the war. They were to put them in their pocket to figuratively and literally protect their hearts.

Definitely a treasure.

 I can't get enough of these old blue mason jars either.

I have them scatted throughout the whole house. 

I have three more projects that I am in the process of finishing. I can't wait to share them with you all!!

Bicycle Art

It seems like ages ago I told you that I would have a fun little art project for S.R.'s room. Well, I finally got around to making one.

I just needed the right inspiration!

I wanted to do something with a bike, but just wasn't sure what. I came across this really cute vinyl cruiser on Etsy , and knew it was exactly what I needed.

Source

And this is what I came up with.

FrogTape makes a chevron painter's tape. Crazy! I know!

 It's super easy to use! 

I found some at Lowes the other day, but you can also purchase it from Amazon. 

Click the link below and it will take you directly to Amazon.

                               

The tape isn't recommended for use on textured surfaces...says so right on the box. As you can see below, my canvas is a textured surface. I went with it anyway because sometimes you can bend the rules a bit in the crafting world. 

I used a scrap piece of tape to keep my lines even.

Once all of the tape was down on my canvas board, I smoothed out all of the edges, painted, and promptly removed the tape.

After letting the paint dry for about 30 minutes, I placed the vinyl bike on top of the painting.

You have to be patient with vinyl. It can tear easily, and can stick together if you don't follow the instructions.

Once in place, I smoothed it out to make sure there weren't any bubbles.

I had the large frame on hand. I was actually using the frame as a Christmas card holder. However, last year, the cards never made it to the frame. 

So I figured I would make good use out of it, paint it purple, and hang it in S.R.'s room.

I don't normally do anything with colors this bright or go with things that are this contemporary because it's not my style. I'm more of a classic style kind of girl.

However, it is S.R.'s style...so I'm goin' with it;o)

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Disclosure: This post contains Amazon affiliate links. By clicking on said links, you help me make money. It wouldn't hurt my feelings a bit if you decided to click and buy;o)

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Craftionary

The Jenny Evolution

Painting a Pillow

Is anyone else being hammered by hot temperatures right now? Even though it's blazing hot here in the South, it hasn't deterred me from working away on Fall decor. I'm so glad you are back here today with me. I have a little tutorial on how to spruce up a plain burlap pillow using stencils and fabric paint.

 I found this image on Pinterest. 

I fell in love with the pillow and thought "how fun would that be on my new bench". 

If anyone knows the source of this photo, please let me know so I can give them credit. Thanks!!

So I gathered all the supplies I needed. 

A pillow form(purchased), burlap(purchased), stencils, black fabric paint, and paint brush. 

 I made the pillow cover, and added a zipper. I am really into adding zippers to pillows because it makes it easier to clean the covers. If you are able to do it, I would highly recommend it!!

After the pillow cover was made, I taped some paper to the width of the cover and traced the letters on the paper to see what it would look like on the pillow.

One word...dumb.

These are the only letter stencils I have, and they were waaay too big for the pillow, and waaay too swirly. I could barely read what they said. So I nixed the "Fall Greetings" idea and searched through other stencils I had.

 I found this one in the stash. Obviously it's been used before, but I can't quite remember for what..oh well:o)

I centered and taped the stencil to the burlap cover and painted away making sure not to push the paint under the stencil. If you have some spray adhesive for stencils, that would work great, but we don't use that fancy stuff around here...we just stick to the trusty old Scotch tape:o) 

Here is the finished stencil. Now you should wait until the paint dries before inserting the pillow form...or be like me and go ahead and put it in anyway:o)

And here is my new pillow on my new bench. The hubs keeps telling me I need to bring the bench back inside because it's too nice to be outside..he's so sweet. It's staying put for now:o)

I plan on sprucing this little area up some more with mums and pumpkins...can't wait to finish that up and share the final reveal.

On another note, say a little prayer for me. I go tomorrow to have a scan on my gallbladder. It's been acting wonky, and I have been feeling sub-par for the last 3 weeks. I'm hoping the doctors will find that it's only the gallbladder and get that sucker out of me. I'm ready to feel normal again!

Old Bench Makeover

I started playing around with picmonkey.com today...yep, I know I am behind the times. 

I'm going to have lots of fun with this new-to-me site! Notice the B & A collage picture...well it's more like A & B because I'm new to this collage making business. I'll get the hang of it...eventually.

Anywhoodles, today I am sharing a little bench makeover. 

This little guy was a yard sale find. It belonged to a little old man, and he used it as his work bench. As you can tell from the top, it got lots and lots of use. He passed away, and his wife had no use for it, so she sold it to me for $1. 

I'm really digging the painted furniture with the wooden tops, so this bench seemed like the perfect piece to try out that technique.

The top & sides of the bench seat had a thin veneer surrounding MDF. The seat had to go because, well, just look at it. It has seen better days. The 90's ivy green paint was definitely an eye sore as well. 

But there were good bones, and lots of hidden potential.

 Since I wanted the base to be white, I primed it with Valspar Primer from Lowes. Between coats, I had to rush the bench back inside because the humidity in the South is at 1000% right now. Terrible conditions for spray painting.

After the primer dried, I sprayed 2 coats of Valspar flat white paint. The reason I used flat was because that was what was sitting in the spray paint basket:o)

While the paint was drying, I worked on the bench seat. We had some leftover 2x6's from a previous project, and I cut them down to size. 

Then I used pressure treated 1x2's to brace the underside of the seat. No reason for pressure treat..just had that in the scrap stash.

The top was stained with a walnut stain. 

To keep from having to apply multiple coats of stain and waiting 3-4 hours in between coats, I let the stain sit on the boards for about 5 minutes before wiping away the excess.

That technique worked perfectly for me. I've never been known for my patience;o)

Once the stain had dried, I attached the base to the new seat. The power drill wouldn't reach inside the tiny holes for the screws, so I HAND screwed it to the seat....good thing I don't have carpal tunnel...yeesh!

I'm so pleased with the results, and I love how the wood grain pops on the seat. 

This bench will reside on our very miniature front porch. I can't wait to dress it up for fall. I have some really fun decorating projects in the works for fall decorating. 

Here's a sneak peak of one of. Make sure to come back to get inspired for your fall decorating!

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Basketball Picture Frame

This year the hubs and I coached E's Upward Basketball team. It was filled with lots of surprises, and it was a lot of hard work, but all 5 boys seemed to have a great time playing.

We had the awards night this week, and I wanted to give them something special. I'm not a fan of trophies, and at this age, the trophies usually are broken to bits within the first few days of receiving them.

After our very last game, I got a candid shot of the boys. 

I decided that I would make picture frames for the boys as their gift.

I found all of the items at Hobby Lobby.

-Picture Frame

-Purple Spray Paint

-Wooden Basketball Cut-out

-Hot Glue Gun(had on hand)

I laid the frames(minus the glass and backing) on a cardboard box outside where there was plenty of ventilation.

 

I sprayed 3 coats of purple Krylon paint on the frames..waiting 10 minutes between each coat.

Once they were dry, I glued the little basketball guy to the corner of the frame making sure not to let it hang too low across the bottom. 

Now they will have something to look back on and smile about...it's not a faceless trophy, but a keepsake to help them remember the friendships that they developed in their very first basketball season.

Patina Monogram Tutorial-Sisterbug Monograms Product

My friend Kera, from Sisterbug Monograms asked me a few weeks ago if I would be willing to get creative with some wooden monograms. I always jump at the chance to get my craft on, so of course I said YES!

So then, I had to come up with the perfect finish....what's a girl to do? 

A couple of years ago, before Pinterest(WHAT? There was a time before Pinterest?), I ran across this really awesome tutorial at Brassy Apple on how to do an aged paint technique.

I knew that this would be the perfect paint treatment for my gi-normous "Dub-Yuh."  

Today, I am showing you the step-by-step process that I went through. 

The monograms come in a natural finish..or to us country folk, "not done up".;o)

 So because they are un-finished, you need supplies to make it even more awesome.

For your supply list, you will need:

-Acrylic paints, I used 4 in all

-Sponge Paint Brushes

-Dove Bar Soap

-Sand Paper

-Blow Dryer(to make the paint dry quicker) &

-Paper Towels

The four colors I chose were Metallic Red, Turquoise, Mustard Yellow, and Brown.

I chose the metallic red as my base coat. 

After painting the entire letter, sides and all, I used my blow dryer to speed the drying process. A great trick for those of us who are extremely impatient...of course, I have never heard of anyone who actually enjoyed watching paint dry:o)

Once the paint was dry, I rubbed the bar soap in random places. These are the spots where the red will shine through.

The next step is to paint with your second color. I chose turquoise. 

I used the blow dryer once again to dry the paint.

And then I sanded the areas where the soap was applied. You can see where the soap is, even though it's been painted over. If by chance you can't, you can just run the sand paper over the entire letter, and the paint will pull up really easy where the soap is.

Now, I thought about leaving things as is. It looked fine with just the red and turquoise, and some of you are probably saying, "Girl, you should have left well enough alone." But, I decided to add in my third color, mustard.

 I rubbed more soap on the turquoise areas, and then painted the mustard yellow around all of the red.

 Here is a closer view of what I am talking about. It doesn't look all that fantastic, which is perfectly fine, since this is supposed to be an aged painting technique:o)

 After the yellow dried, I sanded once again. 

The colors were still a little too stark for me, so I decided to continue the aging process.

 That's where the brown came in. I simply dabbed a paper towel into some brown paint rubbed it on, and then immediately rubbed it off.

 In this picture, you can see that the left side has been "dirtied up" a bit, and the right side has not.

 And here is the final product. An aged "W" or dub-yuh, as they say down here in the south.

 To give you a little perspective on how enormous this thing is, here is a picture of our front porch.

I also had one made with my Fussy Monkey Business logo. 

I used a stencil on this one.

I dirtied it up a bit too, but it's hard to tell in this picture.

 I didn't get a picture of Kera's finished monogram, but here she is hard at work on hers...she's probably going to kill me because she didn't know I was snapping pictures of her as well:o)

So swing on over to Sisterbug Monograms, and place your order for a fantastic wooden monogram. They range in size from 8 inches all the way up to 36 inches. It's never too early to start Christmas shopping!!

A big thank you to Kera for giving me a chance to get creative, and thanks to Brassy Apple for the inspiration and  fantastic tutorial!!