Blogwatch: Blogs I am loving

At times, I check over to my sitemeter to see who's been lurking and not leaving comments (you know who you are ;) )! Just kidding!  Really though, I pop over there  because I love finding new blogs to read and adding them to my Bloglines. I have over 200 between Bloglines and Google reader (I know, I'm an addict.). 

A few I have found that I think you should check out are

Villa Vintage. The picture's are amazing! It's Polish(Thanks goodness there is a Google translator on there, though with the pictures you don't need it!), which, though my grandparent's are from  just outside of Warsaw, and I can eat pierogi's with the best of them, I do not speak one word except a  few unmentionable swears.... The photo's are luxurious and very magazine worthy.... you have to 

see the decoupaged refrigerator! 

I am also loving To a Pretty Life. She has great pictures and lots of neat little projects!

And have you been over to Watch the wind blow by? Lovely lovely lovely projects! And

 how could you not love a blog that does thrift and furniture make overs ;) ! And because I don't like posts without pictures, I'll leave you with this one~

~Jen

This garland is "tulle" spooky

I am starting to get into the Halloween spirit now that September is almost over.With the Pretty your pumpkin party coming up I wanted to start decorating.... I have been admiring the ragamuffin garland's I have been seeing around blogland and wanted to do one Halloween style. Wheel's a-turning, I went to the fabric store and bought 5 yards of black tulle ( with a %40 off coupon.) and 6 feet of ribbon. At the Dollar store (of course) I found these tiny,little skeleton heads I thought were soo cute when I bought them, but I wasn't sure what to do with them. There were nine in a bag..... After  a little bit of brainstorming while doing the dishes(I always get the best idea mid-suds!) I came up with this (please ignore my ugly temporary curtain while I wait for my new ones...).... 

And I couldn't let the skulls just be skulls, the girls needed some fancier attire.... 

one hot glue gun, some vintage jewelry findings, and fake flowers later...

I love this one. It's a vintage necklace clasp that looks like a crown... To make the garland I just made a loop on both ends, and tied strips of tulle onto the ribbon. The skulls are just HGG to some thinner ribbons and tied on. It was so easy~ and cheap too.

~Jen

Painted Patterns 101

I've been asked by a few people how to do patterns on furniture to make it more high-end.. so I am going to divulge a few secrets on this post just for you ;)

The first thing is, I do mostly make my own patterns, stencils and decorations, but if you don't find you are much of an experienced draw-er (technical term ;) ...) anything from a book, wall paper, fabric or card works. Black and white clip art with solid lines is the next best thing for beginners. Copy-right free clip art is all over the web. If you have Microsoft office, they have  a great on-line supply. Also, Dover has some great stuff but those you have to pay for. For best results, think bold clean lines such as these. 

You are welcome to copy these. I found them somewhere on-line. I wish I could remember where...

Besides clip art or a design you'll need:

*large sheets of paper

*regular pencil

*a ball point pen

*gacky crayon

*scissors

*a watercolor pencil

*tape

* a bit of time

Once you have your image ( I am drawing a wheat motif here for an example), set that aside.

 Go to your piece of furniture next. This is important especially on curved surfaces.I use large sheets of thin drawing paper, like the kind that is super cheap and comes in big rolls that the kids draw on.  Ikea is good for that. Take one of your kids old gacky crayons and do a grave-rubbing style impression of the edge. This will help you set up you pattern so you know exactly how it will lay on your furniture. I do this for odd-shaped door fronts and curved surfaces a lot. A square edge is much easier to work with.

Cut it out in the exact shape. If your piece of furniture is bigger than the paper, tape sheets together.. 

Then..... on a large window or sliding door, tape your initial printed pattern to the door. 

Then place  your furniture template over the top, the window will act as a light box so you can see your pattern from underneath.

 Trace over the top with a pencil. Once you trace the entire thing. reposition your paper to how you would like the pattern to repeat.

Trace that and move it again. You don't have to do a single repeating pattern either. You can layer your images how ever you like. And don't just think edges, but edges, middles, doors drawers, sideways, frontways, upside down and backwards :).....  I thought it better to start simply.

Once your pattern is completely done on your template, step back, look at it, see if there is anything you would like to change or add. After this step if you run out of time -because life goes on and sometimes they don't nap long enough!-. It's a good spot to take  a break and pick it up again later..

 Then with a WATERCOLOR pencil (a special pencil watercolor artists use, it pretty much dissolves in water) rub the entire back side of the a pattern with a shade close to your paint color, but bold enough to see. Press hard, you want it to be thick enough on there to transfer to the surface. You can get these pencils an any art supply store for about a dollar. They are amazing and have many uses besides just art. I like to make my nail holes to hang things because they pretty much wash off the walls. 

Once you finish going over the reverse side of the pattern (you may have to re- sharpen several times.) flip it over and tape it securely to your surface.

Trace the entire pattern with a pen with a roller tip. It will be very light. Lift a tiny flap while you are doing it very carefully to make sure you are pressing hard enough. 

If you need to, go over it once the entire thing is traced again with your watercolor pencil.

Then, the hard part is finished (another good stopping point). You are ready to paint, Just follow your lines!

If you have any questions or if something doesn't make sense, feel free to ask! I hope this helps!  I'll go over  improving on plain pattern soon too!

~Jen

Old desk re-do, what's old is new-old again.

A friend gave me an antique desk she was getting rid of. I think it dates from around the 1940's. This is actually the desk ( and my junk)I have that is very similar, because I forgot to take  a before picture of  the one I painted!

I wanted to do an antique green finish to update it and make it more of a show piece.

First a coat of  paint I bought for $4 at the Habitat for Humanity ReStore.

Someone asked me a while ago what color green paint I normally use and it's Ben Moore Pear Green 2028-40.. but I do age  a lot of things which mutes it,so if some one was going for straight green, Wales Green which is right before it on the same strip. It is really pretty and apple-y too. 

Here's a picture after the art but before I aged it. I took some pictures in natural light so you could see the true color. It's amazing how much the flash changes colors and makes them look so much colder than in person.... And here is after the aging. 

With flash

Natural light and closer to true color

Normally I change the knobs out, but I actually put the old ones back on; they just seemed to fit. I promised a while ago I was going to do a tutorial on making patterns for furniture and I still am! Stay tuned :)!

~Jen

Hand painted tea towels

One of the things I love to make for the boutique that I sell out of is custom tea towels. This is a great project because it is pretty in expensive and can get a really high end look. This is something even a beginning crafter can do with fantastic  results....

This works best with %100 cotton towels.

I like to use Tulip soft fabric paint in matte. You can use regular acrylic paint and fabric medium as well. If you use straight acrylic paint, it gets hard and cracks, or as  a good friend of mine likes to say "crunchy".

After you've figured out your design; lightly pounce the paint onto the stamp with one of those black foam brushes.Once it's loaded with paint but not dripping, push firmly on your towel. If you are doing this for the first time, a test towel wouldn't be  a bad idea.

Once you've stamped out your images, let the paint dry and then iron to heat set the paint.

Attach your fringe or trim  with either hot glue or fabric glue. I really like Fabri-tac fabric glue, but my bottle always seems to dry out before the next time I need it and the hot glue gun is always ready. As long as you wash with cold water and lay flat to dry, the glue doesn't come apart.

Then enjoy your new tea towel! These are also great gifts! And if you like a more aged look, the cotton tea/coffee dyes really well, just do it before painting. You can do any kind of designs and with Halloween coming around, maybe a boo or two would be appropriate.

~Jen

Tassels, fringe, beads and all of that fun, sparkly stuff...

Did you know you can put tassels and fringe on just about anything with a hot glue gun?

Really. :)

~Jen 

Watch your pennies and the dollars will take care of them selves....

 

I had blogged about this change jar on my old blog and how my Gram had them stashed all over the house.She called them her "Bingo money". When we moved her out we found them in heating ducts and shoved way deep in closets behind huge boxes.

Manuela at The Pleasures of Homemaking  had been talking about how she budgets and believe me, is an amazing budgeter! I am  not any where near as skilled as she is, but I have always had  a change jar for the "extras" around the house..."extras".... meaning unnecessary decorating projects. The best thing  is that change jar half full normally holds about $70! It doesn't take much and It really only takes a few months to fill...so now I am on a new mission. I really want 2 new living room chairs and two new lamps for our bedroom...

So now my old change jar has  a new friend! I have a feeling I'll have the lamps before the chairs; but with a few extra dollars thrown in here and there.. you never know!

~Jen

Stopping to smell the roses...

For once, I am not going to blog about something crafty. We had  a good family friend pass away this week and I started really thinking about my own family. How lucky and blessed my husband and are every day. I have been spending the evening going back through some of the baby pictures and it just makes me so filled with joy that I have this wonderful family.

 I think sometimes I get caught up in the material things I don't really need. 

Or really want, but I think I do at the time. 

It makes me realize that God really does give us what we need even if we don't think so. And as a mother, I need to stop more and enjoy where I am in life.  It goes fast.  I can hardly tell sometimes which  picture belongs to who...I mean none of them even really look like their baby photos any more.

People tell me to "Enjoy it now while they are young, while it's easy."  and when they say that, all I can think is.. it gets harder????

!!!AAAAHH! Especially when there are days I feel so overwhelmed already.

But it's all relative, isn't it? To remember to stop and look where we are and to smell the roses while it's still spring.

For Jeri P. 1943 -2008

Need a little retail therapy?

The boutique I sell out of  in Evanston, Stella, is having a retail therapy night on September 25th from 5 to 8 p.m. along with a bunch of other shops on the block. It's very cool because all  of the shops are very hip and trendy. I am going to be a featured artist with  my things! If any one feels like stopping in and saying hi to me, grab a girlfriend and come on over! I'd love to meet more of my blogging buddies!

I am making some special pieces for the night too.  This set of six 12 x 12 canvases named "The Ladies"

Hope to see you there!  :)

~Jen

Did you guess correctly?

 It's the bottom portion of what's known as a chafing dish (spray painted black of course :) ), normally used to keep covered food's warm. There's actually a lid and glass bowl and burner that should be with it. The thing is, I see these all of the time with just the metal stand part at the thrift stores. I bought these 2 for $1.99 each at Goodwill. The rectangle one I haven't decided what to do with yet...Some of you guessed that these were other things like a plant stand or candleholder and these could be totally used for that! They have a ton of potential.

Here's where the "happy accident" comes in. 

I had recently bought  a 18 ft. light kit from Ikea (Hemma) for $4.oo, not sure what I was going to do with it. When I realized that the hole for the chafing dish burner was just the right side enough that the light kit fit in there perfectly.It even came with hooks to hang it with. I couldn't resist! I added glass crystals and instant chandelier! 

I had already had the crystals,in fact most of them were on-sale Christmas ornaments! If I added up the cost to make it it was well under $10!

I started looking for other antique chafing dishes on-line and here's what I found.

Think of the possibilities! All of the chafing dishes have a hole in the bottom for the burner. 

Look at these others...

 How cool would those be for chandeliers?!  Spray painted white for a cottage look? What about pink with crystals for a little girls room? And so cheap, and to think I have always passed them up at the thrift stores!

~Jen

Guess the light fixture...

I  wanted something fun and different in my kitchen until I could get my actual chandelier rewired. So I made this "crown" light fixture with a repurposed item . It was a totally "happy accident".....

Can you guess what it was in it's former life??????