Tag Archives: chalk-type paint

A Rustic Riser

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I’ve been seeing risers made from blocks of scrap wood so thought I’d make one, too. My 3.5” x 1.5” square block of scrap wood had one end that was painted green. I didn’t want to cut it off so I just made it the front of my project.

I did sand the block well, including the green part and that lightened it up a bit.

I like to work on this lazy susan. I bought 100 disposable shower caps on Amazon and stretched one over the lazy susan to protect it. These work great and I just throw them away when finished.

I gathered up my supplies and got started.

Step 1: I used black ink and stamped flowers and bees on the green side of my block. I put it aside to dry.

Step 2: I purchased wood peg dolls from Amazon to use as feet. I watered down a bit of our Missouri Limestone Paint Company chalk-style paint (Coal Shovel) and covered the feet I would be attaching to the block. This will give them a rustic look similar to the block. I wiped the excess away and put them aside to dry.

Step 3: I wrapped the block with a paper towel only leaving the green inked part exposed. I sprayed that part with the Krylon spray matte sealer. I believe I got it at Lowes. This sealed the ink to make sure it wouldn’t smear when I applied wax to it later.

Step 4: It was time to glue on the legs. I used a combination of E6000 for permanent hold and hot glue for immediate hold.

Step 5: Once the hot glue set up, I applied Wise Owl Salve (ordered from a retailer) to the whole piece.

My rustic riser was now complete. I added a small painted terra cotta pot I had applied Dollar Tree rub on transfers to, added faux flowers, and displayed it on my rustic wood block riser.

I love how it now looks like the whole riser has been outside in the weather for years!

A Framed Redesign with Prima Transfer

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For today’s project I am up-cycling an old gold frame and adding a Redesign with Prima transfer from the Floral Collection. The transfer is applied to a unique background – a piece of one of Dollar Tree’s storage bins.

Cutting apart a Dollar Tree storage bin

The material is kind of a paper/fabric with cardboard in between layers. I cut off a piece to use as background for the transfer.

I cut the cardboard to fit the frame.

I used a glue stick to glue the material onto the cardboard.

I then trimmed the material to the size of the cardboard.

It was time to paint the frame. I mixed a little baking soda with a littler chalk paint to achieve the texture of stone.

It took two coats. On the first coat I used a brush to pounce the paint/baking soda mixture on so I didn’t get brush strokes. For the second coat I used a foam dauber. I love the distressed shading this technique produced. I set it aside to dry well.

Once dry, I gave it two coats of Mod Podge Pearlized Glaze Spray to seal it.

It was then time to apply the transfer to the material I had adhered to the piece of cardboard. I didn’t seal it as it is a decor piece and will not be handled much.

The sheet underneath is a silicone baking sheet I use to work on. Paint does not adhere well to silicone, so it is easy to clean after I finish a project.

I added the transfer to the frame. You could add the glass back in but I did not use the glass.

The final reveal – The material under the transfer looks almost like a piece of linen. It makes a very nice background.

4 Awesome Projects from Thrifting Finds This Week

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#1 – I have a French Country look going on in this first thrifted find – a bird cage item which needed some repair and a metal basket. I painted a Dollar Tree peat pot and decoupaged with tissue paper.

The metal finial on the birdcage was just hot glued on and popped right off after I got it home. Not only was hot glue alone not good idea but there was hardly any surface area for gluing. I used E6000 and hot glue to attach a small wood round to the birdcage and I painted it white. Then I used E6000 and hot glue to attach the finial. I added jute around the wood round where I had glued it together. I also stuck my hot glue inside and upside down dropped some hot glue along the inside. It is on for good now.

The birch round came from a fallen branch and that cute bird I found in a thrift store. The faux flowers came with the birdcage.

I love putting this kind of thrifting together.

#2 – Next up is this awesome cutting board/serving board. I love cutting and charcuterie boards. When I found this wine bottle shaped bamboo cutting board, I knew immediately that I wanted to add a stencil to one side for decor purposes. The other side could still be used as a cutting board or both sides could be a specialty charcuterie tray that would make a beautiful cheese and fruit spread serving board.

I stenciled just a part of the board and then seasoned both sides with food safe Howard Cutting Board 0il.

Dimensions approx. 21″ x 7″ x 1/2”

#3 – I like thrifting, but I really like it when I find something just for me. I don’t have a lot of storage space in my pantry so things like cereal and crackers and chips, etc. always seem to end up on top of the refrigerator.

I found these awesome Harry and David copper colored metal baskets at Goodwill yesterday for $7.87 each. I knew they would go perfectly with the copper colored tin on the wall behind them. The one on the left holds snacks and the one on the right, cereal and crackers.

I saw them listed online anywhere from $14 – $46 each so these were a pretty good price. Yay!

#4 My final thrifted item project for the week came about because of the stalk of dried wheat I found at Goodwill. They had just put out several bunches of these. I only bought one bunch but now wish I had gotten more. I used several pieces in this beautiful tall vase a friend gave me. It will be going on the floor next to my fireplace. I do have enough left over for several future projects. so that’s good.

That’s all for now. I thrifted more things, but haven’t decided yet how I will use them. So keep checking back. I will be sharing when the inspiration comes.

Working on an Art Deco Dresser

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We’ve been working on an Art Deco dresser. Danny has taken it all apart and is rebuilding it. It is going to be beautiful! The detail is so pretty! But the drawer pulls are spectacular! They were so worn and discolored but still all in one piece. The red Bakelite inserts are in perfect shape and by themselves are valuable. I cleaned them, scrubbed them with Bar Keepers Friend, then waxed them and applied gold leaf RubnBuff. They are amazing!

The dresser had been painted in an earlier life. The only thing now is to decide what color to paint it. My thought right now is to paint it a bluish green color with our Missouri Limestone Paint Company chalk paint color we named “Something Blue”. Then highlight the details on the front, the trim on the back of the top, and the feet with gold leaf RubnBuff.

We Refurbished This Oak Dresser

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The oak dresser we’ve had for several years in storage is now refurbished. When we bought it, the base literally fell apart as we were loading it, but that mirror was so worth all the work it was going to take to bring it back to life. The mirror is beveled and has just a bit of aged patina.

Researching it, we found the company Estey Furniture produced it in the late 1800s or early 1900s. The original handles were a bail type handle, but were replaced at some point by these Depression knobs from the 1930s.

Danny took the dresser completely apart. He loaded the base into our SUV and took it to a grands babysitting gig and stripped it. A few weeks ago, he loaded it again and when we were babysitting another grand in another city, sanded it, and put it back together.

We had completely forgotten what the mirror looked like. Wow! It changed my whole idea of how I wanted to refinish it. I decided a whitewash look would bring out the grain detail and take away the orangeish look oak raw oak sometimes has. The drawers were not pretty on the inside and sides so I stained the insides and stenciled a pattern on the outside.

This is the difference between the whitewashed look and raw wood after stripping and sanding. After whitewashing everything, I gave the base and mirror 3 coats of water-based Crystal clear Varathane Polyurethane in satin finish and 5 coats on the top of the dresser.

I couldn’t wait to take pics. I used an app called ProKnockOut to remove the mirror reflection and change it out to a new image of a bedroom I found on pixels.com and to cut out the dresser itself and to apply a plain background.

It already has a new home. This piece ranks right up there as one of my favorite pieces we have ever refurbished.

Olaf Found His Head!

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This is why I seem to never get anything other than crafting done. Lol

I made this Olaf out of wood slices last year and still had him. One of my favorite enablers, sent me this inspiration Olaf this morning.

I knew I could adapt him to hold up his head with his little arms after he lost it, so I did. Lol

My Olaf now belongs to her. 🤪

Stenciled Cutting But add Book Stand

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Another morning project. I paid more than I usually do for a thrifted item, but this piece was in perfect condition.

This book stand is perfect for propping your phone, your iPad, the book you are reading, or an old fashioned cookbook.

I added the Dollar Tree stencil, using a light gray chalk paint. One trick for getting crisp lines with no bleeding is to use a clear sealer first. Let that dry and then paint over the stencil with your color of choice. The front is sealed with Wise Owl Salve.

What Grandparents are for….

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What Grandparents are for….

Today we will drive to St. Genevieve, MO (about 2 hours one way) to give Grandson Ben’s mom some sample bottles of paint. She’s at the bank there today so we don’t have to drive all the way to their house. Because, of course, he needs it by tomorrow. Lol

5th grade Middle School and Ben has an Entrepreneur class. 😳

He was to create a business and will sell items in the school store. Of course he chose to sell paint. 😂 He said his teacher approved of it. We will see. 😬 At least we seal the bottles so hopefully they won’t open them at school. 🙏

He plans to donate 1/2 of his profit to charity and keep the rest. This boy is smart. He knew we would give him the paint so he will have more profit. 😂 The other part of his business is that he will have a donation box where people will drop off broken items and he will try to fix them and sell them. He has learned a lot from his PopPop. Lol

But no problem. We will thrift shop on the way there and back.

Of course, I made him a display for his paint. I had a half of an old globe. It fit perfectly into a Dollar Tree hanging basket. I added a bunch of shredded paper my sister-in-law gave me. Instant display.

Ben also knows once he is in middle school we will pay $5 for any As each grandchild gets per semester. He needed a clarification on that the other day as he got all As this first quarter. He was hoping it was every quarter. Lol He’s a planner. He says he needs a new laptop so…..

Farmhouse Animals w/Rub on Transfers

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I had a bit of a brainstorm this morning. I was inspired by a YouTube video where someone decoupaged napkins on animal cut outs.

I had these cool pig and rooster wood cut outs. They stand alone. The rooster is 4 3/4“ tall x 4 1/2” w. The pig is 4” tall x 5 3/4” w.

I also had a sheet of Dollar Tree rub on transfers with farmhouse images.

So….. I gave them a coat of white paint so the transfers would stand out and then applied the transfers as they were on the sheet and filled in where needed. They are protected with Mod Podge matte spray. Sorry, forgot to get a pic of spraying them.

I love how they turned out!