CHALKBOARD EASEL

My girlfriends daughter is turning 2 today and we were invited to her birthday party yesterday. So when Saturday came around and I still didn’t have a gift I decided to get my thinking cap on. My girlfriend told me she needed nothing so that didn’t give me a lot to go on. I decided to help bring out this little girls artistic side! I came up with the idea to make a chalkboard easel. I was going to make it from scratch and then I got looking in my attic and found an easel I wasn’t using anymore. I then got thinking I could reuse this easel and attach a framed chalkboard. Once I came up with the gift, I then had to go out and gather a few supplies. I went to the local thrift store and picked up a picture of a lovely framed landscape picture. It was $15 and I liked the shape and size of the frame. I then went to Walmart for some girly decals and the hardware store for some chalkboard paint. When I got home this is what I had:

(My son came along for the ride!)

The first thing I did was take the frame apart and sand the landscape picture down till it was smooth.

Once the board was smooth, I gave it a coat of chalkboard paint with a foam roller.

While the first coat of paint was drying, I took the frame outside and gave it a coat of white with spray paint. I then went inside and started working on the easel. The easel was a little bit wobbly so I tightened all the screws.

I then gave the easel a coat of paint (left over from another project.)

After 2 hours, I gave the board another coat of paint and then allowed it to dry over night. The next morning I brought the frame in and rubbed some dark brown glaze in all the little nook’s and cranny’s. To give the frame an antique finish.

When the frame was dry, I put the chalkboard back in the frame and fastened it with a couple of nails and then some liquid nail. (Actually, my husband helped me with this step!)

When the liquid nail dried, I painted the back of the frame white.

It didn’t take the paint very long to dry, which was good because I was dying to see the frame on the easel! I held the frame and my husband screwed the frame in place from the back of the easel.

The last thing I did was hot glue gunned some cute little flower decals on around the frame.

And here it is, my vision came to life!

I would say this project cost me:

easel – free

paint – free

chalkboard paint – $10 (but I have half a can left for another project!)

picture frame – $15

decal and spray paint – $5

Grand Total – $30

another artistic future blogger – priceless!!!

HOMEMADE CHRISTMAS TREES

I went to my Grandmas last week for a visit. This usually entails eating (A LOT) and going through stuff! My grandma has a big old farmhouse full of STUFF. Lately she tells me that it is time for her to start cleaning things out or we will have to do it (which I don’t want to think about). Good news for me though is that I can usually find some great STUFF. My husband must have thought I was crazy when I packed the truck with four boxes of Christmas things and like 10 wreaths. When I got home I kept thinking about what I was going to do with all my STUFF.

The flyers for the week came in the mail (I love looking at flyers) and I came across the Canadian Tire flyer. I noticed the 3′ christmas trees were on sale for $20 each. I’ve been keeping my eye on them because I really wanted some for my earns by my front door. I really do not want to spend $40 for a pair of tiny trees. Then it came to me:) I brought home this:

*please excuse the mess, we are renovating this room

So like I was saying I brought this piece of wood home and like 10 wreaths so I decided I would make my own trees!

My first step was to take a saw and cut this piece of wood into two pieces of wood.

I will not say how long it took me to saw my way through this wood! 20 mins. at least

I decided that the trunk should be a darker shade of brown so I got out my brown acrylic paint and watered it down. I then painted the 2 trunks with my dark brown paint.

I didn’t even wait for the paint to dry before I started cutting branches from the wreaths. Using wire cutters I cut a few branches and them all by myself I changed the bit on my husbands drill:) (WHOO!!) I had a moment of girl power! I then drilled holes into the wood, starting at the top. I put glue in the holes and stuck the branches in:

I waited for the glue to dry before I worked with the shape of the branches. I continued down the truck and then on to the next tree. When I was finished I had this:

I used some left over lumber from another project and my husbands miter saw to cut them into the right size. I then screwed them into the bottom of the truck and viola! I have a stand.

I added a few pine cones, berries and vine bows off the old wreaths. I then dug out the dead plants from my urns and put my trees in. I covered the stand with dirt and placed a few left over red bulbs at the base of the trees. Here is what the trees look like with a fresh snow fall in all!

LOVELY!

And did I mention that I made these two gorgeous trees for FREE!!!!!!

Thank You Grandma:)

DECORATIVE LIGHT SWITCH COVERS

I am trying to finish up my mud room or at least make it look like it could be finished! When I painted this room I took of the all the switch and outlet covers. They were UGLY and cream. My husband thought this could be our scheme for our entire house and all I could do was just say NO. I then went to Home Depot and other hardware stores in search of affordable and cute covers. I have some outlets that have three switches which seamed to make it hard to find what I was looking for. I left and was disappointed and just hoped that I could find something online. Well I found some beautiful covers but they were not affordable. I then decided that I could make these covers cute myself. I went to Walmart and picked up some beautiful paper, mod podge and some spray sealer. When I got home I gathered all the items I would need for this project:

Once I had all my materials, I cut the paper to the size I needed to cover the surface of the COVER! I cut an extra inch around the cover so that I will have enough paper to fold up. I then used my glue and adhered the paper to the cover:

I then flipped the cover back over and used my exact-o-knife to cut the holes for the switches:

I then glued the tiny little flaps (this part wasn’t so much fun!!) When I had all my covers for this room finished I took them outside and sprayed them with light coats of the satin sealer. I let them dry over night and here is the finished product:

I’m pretty happy with the end result. I plan on working from room to room until all of my covers coordinate with each room.

BURLAP FRAME ART

Since painting my living room, I have left my walls bare. When I sit in this room I just stare at the walls trying to decide what I should put up on them. I decided on the wall above my couch I would use some burlap. While searching many sites in blog land, I came across a few sites that used burlap in a number of different ways. I had begun to appreciate BURLAP! Now that I have a new love for burlap and I discovered how cheap it was at my local fabric store, I just had to find a project for this fabric. One day while staring at this particular wall I decided to get some different size and shape frames and cover them with burlap and I would hang them on this sad lonely wall.

Here is a picture of the materials needed for this project:

I measured and cut out each section of burlap to cover the frame. Once I had my sections cut I started gluing each section one at a time until the frame was covered.

I covered all my frames and then I laid them out on the floor to find the pattern I wanted hung up on the wall. I then hung them up and viola, my wall was no longer lonely!

Here is how my wall looks now. I seem to still stare at the frames on my wall as if something is missing. I’m wondering if I should paint an accent colour behind the frames to make them pop?????