White Spray Paint

By Rachel Scarlett

Spring has definitely sprung around here!! We've got daffodils blooming, trees full of color, and warmer weather! To help match the cheerful blooms outside, plus with Easter approaching, I decided to refresh a few area's in my house. Hopefully they will give you a little inspiration.

When realizing it was time for an update, I thought about several different ways to decorate for Easter. I had a hard time thinking of anything and came to the conclusion that there are a few things I don't like as far as decorations go. Bunnies, eggs, or pastel colors. Hmmmm. So I decided to go with the spring approach instead: birds, bright green, and plants. I also realized that white, while not literally 'colorful', is an excellent way to brighten up an area. I think having white spray paint was the key to this look... with a side of bottles, old frames, and scrapbook paper.

I didn't have to buy anything for this crafting adventure, but I also always save my glass bottle/jars, have a little stash of scrapbook paper, and always ALWAYS have spray paint. I removed the labels off the bottles and spray painted them white. The frames are a light blue, only because I ran out of white. And then I picked 'springy' looking scrapbook pages to put in the frames. The cute little glass birds I found a while back in Goodwill, I think I got them all for 30 cents. If you don't have anything like this, they have bird figurines at the Dollar Store that would look pretty cool spray painted white. Or even white bunnies... if you're into that sort of thing ;)

That square bottle above from balsamic vinegar, and the pickle jar to the right is filled with freshly cut greens. You can never go wrong with something freshly cut! The square, painted container below is from a floral arrangement, can you tell what I put in it? That's just plain old grass, folks. I dug up some grass from outside and made a potted plant out of it. Pretty redneck huh? I don't know, I think it looks pretty fresh ;)

The arrangement below is on my kitchen counter. The cake dome stays out for baked goodies, the cutting boards are used occasionally, and that fun print in the background is from a calendar. Overall this was a fun and simple little update. I hope it inspires you!

Thanks for reading!

Faux Leather with a Touch of Paint

By Rachel Scarlett

Hello there,

Often while working on bigger projects, I will pause to work on a smaller, faster one to keep my creativity alive. This bigger project I'm working on is a type of floor/mat mobile for my daughter's entertainment. The creativity has already been spent and now I just have to execute those plans... Which is the hardest part about bigger projects! It also involves a bit of sewing - not something that comes naturally to me - but more practice will help with that. (Practice.... also not always in my creative patience). I like to do things once and be done; on to the next project!! But if you want to make something quality, like a baby toy, practice and patience need to be nailed down! BUT I hit pause for an afternoon and did something else. So onward to reckless imagination!

I found a new purse at the Goodwill, leather and in pretty good shape (~$1.50). It's pretty nice but I thought it needed a little keychain for some personality. So I pulled out my scraps of faux leather, rummaged in my junk drawer, and drew out some ideas. This craft is made of cutting, painting, and basically stapling.

I cut these shapes with extra long 'necks' in order to make a loop for the key ring. The bigger rectangle off to the side with cuts on one side, is the piece for the tassel.

I used an eraser to stamp circles.

And a small paint brush to paint some simple geometric shapes.

Above you can see that I used wire to create a kind of staple. I first made the holes with a large sewing needle and then used my pliers to bend the backs over once the staple was in place. If you don't have wire, a large stitch with thread would work great right there as well!

I decided to make a tassel by cutting strips along one edge of the leather then rolling the whole piece up. I secured the roll with a piece of  wire, first piercing it with the needle. This is a little tricky because you have to make sure all the layers are aligned. After the wire is through, I just wrapped it around until I was satisfied with the look, and made an extra loop at the top for the key ring.

This was a happy and simple little project. A little effort ending in great results! I bet it would look pretty cool to do these keychains in different colors of faux leather, I'm sure they sell all different kinds. 

Thanks for reading!!!

Mini Mantel Upgrade

By Rachel Scarlett

Although February is almost over and spring is almost here, I have to share a quick post about our mini mantel upgrade. It was a fun and simple project and now I have a little extra shelf room! Our fireplace was a little sad looking and considering we are renters we came up with a non-permanent way to make a mantel.

Sad fireplace.

If you are a carpenter, save yourself some time and don't read how we did this, it was a quick fix and probably does not meet your standards. For this same reason I'm not going to explain this that much.

My husband and I stopped by Lowe's to get a 2x4, some cheap molding, spray paint, and wood glue. This cost somewhere under 20 bucks (I can't find the receipt), not to mention we now have black spray paint and wood glue to spare.

Our little girl learning how to pick out a 2x4 ;)

 We measured and cut the wood and molding down to size, did a little sanding, and as you can see used our high tech plastic clamps and rubber bands to hold the glued pieces together. I then used glossy black spray paint to finish it up. I chose glossy to make dusting easier.

While the finished product is not perfect, it does great things for our fireplace! We thought we would have to use a tiny amount of glue to keep it in place but it is actually just resting on the top ledge of the brick. The width of the ledge is the same as the 2x4. It doesn't slide easy and there's no reason it should come out of place. 

   

  

January was our anniversary month so I still have that decor up; a few wedding pictures and the wooden hearts was our cake topper.

I hope you got a little inspiration out of this, especially if you're a renter!

Thanks for reading!

Denim and Paint for an Upgrade

By Rachel Scarlett

Good Day! This last weekend I used a medium that I love and is therapeutic for me- paint. It doesn't really matter what I do with paint, it's always picks me up and clears my head. In this particular project I used paint on some old material to upgrade my living room bench/stool to something that fit it's surroundings.  

In recovering this bench, I must say that my methods may not always be correct. When I want to accomplish something I usually just go for it without researching the how-to's. If I tried to do everything perfect- I would accomplish nothing. I would never create if my results had to be exact. I have found that I learn more by just going for it on 10 projects in the amount of time that it would take me to do a single one perfectly. That being said, I both paint fabric and use it to reupholster in this project and I really don't have experience with either. SO my tutorial is going to skip over some spots.

I knew I wanted to recover the bench below. I had already recovered it once with this hot pink fabric while I was in college; before that it had been white- and a little dingy as it was a hand-me-down. The pink worked to bring some color to my apartment but it was not so great in the married life ;). I believe it used to belong to a vanity set a long time ago...

To properly do this, I'm sure if you google 'reupholstering' you'll find some helpful videos. There are usually screws holding on the top, I unscrewed them to detach the top which is a board covered in padding and fabric. I forgot to get a picture but I actually never took off the original padding and cover, it was easier for me to just recover and staple over the original (like I said- not perfect).

I traced the rectangle of the board on my denim and to get enough fabric I cut 2 to 3 inches beyond that, all the way around. I used the old pink cover to make sure I had enough.

This denim was given to me at a fashion show when I was in 4-H. I won it for my sewing project that year, a whopping 6 yards of it. I was probably around 11 years old and for one who's attracted to color, it was so not exciting for me (oh cool, a washed out piece of denim... that will come in handy NEVER). Well let me tell you folks, it has come in handy. I knew it would work well for this project because of it's durability and neutral-ish color. I thought I could also paint it to get a pattern that would work best for me. 

The inspiration for my pattern came from my living room blanket (above). As you may have read before, I love southwestern art including the Native American designs. I have shown this when I made Thanksgiving votives and in my painting on the wall of Anne's nursery. I decided to replicate part of the pattern on my blanket. That way I can still have a fun pattern, but it won't compete with the blanket.

To get started I drew out the lines with a pencil on the denim using a yardstick and used a stencil brush. This brush is a little firmer and will let me work the paint into the fabric. I used acrylic paint. If you don't have a brush like this they are cheap, but I'm sure another kind could work as well. 

Fabric can take up a lot of paint because it's absorbent, so every time I reloaded the brush with paint, I slightly dipped the tip in water to help the paint go farther. Making the paint slightly thinner with the water and not having such a thick layer of paint should also be good for durability - it will be more sunk into the fabric and won't just chip off. I also love that it gave the paint a watercolor look. To keep the paint in the lines, I used a piece of cardboard to paint up against. Make sure you use hardly any water, too much will bleed.

Once I painted all the stripes, I started working on the overlaid design. While painting this part, I just used a normal brush and didn't add water. I made sure the paint wasn't applied too thick. Using wax paper, I cut out some shapes to work as stencils.

Once I was done painting I stapled the piece on the board and replaced the screws.

And just like that, you've got yourself a new and interesting piece that accents the living room. Not too shabby.

Because our living room is a little too small for a coffee table or an end table, this little bench works great to move around to where we need it. Whether we play cards, put our feet up, need a place to set our popcorn, or even need an extra seat, we use this bench ALL the time. It can also be tucked away in the corner if we need more space (this usually happens when one of my daughter's contraptions is out). I believe the paint will hold up well also. I have heard acrylic paint described as 'liquid plastic' so I don't think it will wear off and if we spill anything on it the stain should wipe off fairly easily, and soap won't take off the paint. If it doesn't hold up I'll just have another fun project in the future!

Thanks for reading!