Author: Quandie

a magical combination.

Published on by Quandie113 Comments

Welcome back for day 8 of my 12 days of giveaways!

Over the past couple of years I’ve grown to love the combination of mid mod furniture and Fusion’s Park Bench green.

This has been an absolutely magical combination for me.

I’ve practically lost count of how many pieces I’ve done in this color.

It’s rather comical almost.

At first glance you might not realize that all of these photos are of different pieces of furniture, but they are.

This gorgeous green just makes pieces fly off the shelf.  I really should do even more of them, but I get bored doing the same look over and over.  And I’m sure you guys would get bored seeing the same look over and over.

But periodically I see a piece for sale on Craigslist or Facebook Marketplace and I know it will look amazing in Park Bench so I snatch it up.

The frosting on the cake is adding gold hardware.  In some cases I just purchase new hardware, some of my favorites include these knobs and pulls from Hobby Lobby …

But if at all possible I prefer to keep the original hardware and just spruce it up with some gold wax from Prima Marketing.

I love using this stuff on hardware.  It dries hard and once dry can be buffed to add a little more sheen.  I can’t really say that it holds up perfectly to years of hard use, but I do feel that it wears more gracefully than spray paint.

For day 8 I’m giving away a 16.9 oz jar of Fusion paint in Park Bench and a 1.69 oz container of Prima Marketing’s Decor Wax in Eternal, so the lucky winner can recreate this look.  Then, just to round things out I’m also throwing in a 16.9 oz jar of my other favorite Fusion paint color called Laurentien plus a fabulous Staalmeester brush.

Thank you to Fusion Mineral Paint for sponsoring this giveaway by providing the paint and the Staalmeester brush, and to Prima Marketing for providing the Decor Wax.

The rules:  to be eligible to win today’s prize leave a comment on this blog post.  If you can’t think of anything to say, just tell me, when it comes to mid-mod are you a fan or does it give you bad flashbacks to your childhood?  Your comment must be left on the blog, not on Facebook or Instagram.  You are not required to follow my blog, although it would be awesome if you did!

I will randomly draw the name of a winner for today’s prize from all of the comments left on this post by Sunday, December 15, 2019 at the stroke of midnight (U.S. Central time).

The fine print: no purchase necessary, you must be 18 years of age or older to win, void where prohibited by law, the number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning, approximate retail value of prize is $65, if the prize is not claimed by Tuesday, December 17, another name will be drawn at random to win, blah, blah, blah.

Good luck!

getting rusty.

Published on by Quandie64 Comments

It feels like it has been so long since I’ve painted an actual piece of furniture that my skills are getting rusty.  Although I suppose kid-size chairs and sleds sort of count, but they’re not like ‘real’ furniture!  Not to worry though, I’ve been working on a piece that I’m going to share next Monday.  It will have one of re.design with Prima’s newest transfers on it.  Official reveal date for those is December 16, so I’m planning to post it then.  Be sure to stay tuned.

In the meantime, speaking of rusty, it’s time for giveaway no. 7!

I’m sure that you all know by now that I am a fan of rust.  Whenever possible I try to retain an original rusty finish like the one on my front window box shown above.

But sometimes life doesn’t give you authentic rusty goodness so you have to fake it.  That’s where Dixie Belle’s Patina Collection comes in.

One of my favorite projects with the patina kit was the makeover of a plaster pedestal for the garden.

In case you’re wondering how this stuff holds up, I painted the pedestal in July 2018 and it held up perfectly well outside all summer.  I stored it for the winter and then last summer I decided to add the Patina Guard top coat to it just to test out that product.

In the end, I preferred the look of the faux rust more without the Patina Guard.  However, if you’re working on a piece of furniture or something that will come into contact with clothing, you will want to add a top coat to prevent the rust from rubbing off onto things.

Last summer I also used the rusty patina on a pair of garden urns.

This time I opted to allow them to weather without a top coat.  I’m also leaving them out all winter, so we’ll see how that goes.

So far, so good though.  They still look awesome and as you can see they are experiencing some challenging conditions.  And yes, I do believe the sign hanging over my door may seem a tad ironic in this photo 😉

If you want to learn more about how to use this stuff, check out my how-to post here.

I should also mention that I use the Iron paint and the Green spray to create my rusty looks.  The Copper and Bronze paints with the Blue spray will create more of a verdigris effect.

Now, it’s confession time.  I accidentally neglected to order the Green spray for my giveaway.  Drat!  What was I thinking?  So I apologize, the winner is not actually going to get everything needed to create a rusty finish.  However, they are going to get a great prize package that includes the Iron paint, the Copper paint, the Prime Start, the Patina Guard and the Blue Spray.  Hopefully that will be enough to create some awesome patina’s, but you’ll have to order some of the Green spray if you want to create rust.

Thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co for sponsoring this giveaway by providing the Patina Collection.

The rules:  to be eligible to win today’s prize leave a comment on this blog post.  If you can’t think of anything to say, just tell me how you would use a faux patina.  Your comment must be left on the blog, not on Facebook or Instagram.  You are not required to follow my blog, although it would be awesome if you did!

I will randomly draw the name of a winner for today’s prize from all of the comments left on this post by Friday, December 13, 2019 at the stroke of midnight (U.S. Central time).

The fine print: no purchase necessary, you must be 18 years of age or older to win, void where prohibited by law, the number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning, approximate retail value of prize is $90, if the prize is not claimed by Sunday, December 15, another name will be drawn at random to win, blah, blah, blah.

Good luck!

one size fits all.

Published on by Quandie119 Comments

Welcome to day 6 of my 12 days of giveaways!  Gosh, how is it possible that we are already halfway through?

Before we proceed, congrats to Kim Moran the winner of day 3 and Jennifer Knopf the winner of day 4 (check out Jennifer’s shop here).

Each year I try to come up with a new idea for wrapping my Christmas gifts.

Last year was one of my favorites.  I had visited a workshop in Venice last November that made the most beautiful velvet …

And that inspired me to create some gift boxes and wrapping paper using paint and stencils.

In 2017 I went with a pretty in pink theme.

I painted boxes using Fusion’s English Rose and Little Piggy, then I used their Transfer Gel to add some Twelve Days of Christmas Graphics.

In 2016 I went with a more elegant approach using Fusion’s Studio Metallics paint in Copper combined with some old rolls of player piano music.

After painting the toolbox that I shared last week, this year I was inspired to try a rather muted neutral color scheme.  I pulled out some cardboard boxes and some brown paper gift bags.  Then I grabbed one of my Christmas stencils from Maison de Stencils, my Deer transfers from re.design with Prima Marketing and some Dixie Belle paint.

I started out simply by stenciling a grain sack stripe down the middle of the first box and then adding part of the Santa Claus & Co feedsack stencil in black.

I also used part of the stencil on some gift bags.

I have to confess, I flubbed up on stenciling the next box.  My stencil moved and I didn’t notice it until it was too late.  That’s what I get for not taping it down (remember, do as I say, not as I do).  So to salvage the box I pulled out my Dixie Belle paint in Putty and painted over the messed up stencil.

Then, rather than stenciling again, I decided to add a section of the Deer transfer.

I also added some deer to a couple of other boxes.

I have to admit, that one with the ‘fang-like canine’ is a little on the creepy side.  Maybe more suitable for a Halloween decoration, right?  It looks a little like Dracula Bambi.

My initial plan was to use some plain shipping tags as my gift tags, but I should have known I wouldn’t be able to just leave them plain.  When I found my box of shipping tags, there were a few photocopies of old photos nearby.

I also came across some rubber stamps that I forgot I had.

Next thing I knew I had totally fallen down a rabbit hole and was whipping up some gift tags to go on my packages.

Does this ever happen to you?  I completely lose track of time and forget about what I was planning to do (which was paint a dresser, coming soon).  Next thing I know I have made a huge mess and two hours have gone by in a creative haze.

I used some Tim Holtz rubber stamps on my tags  and the metal charms are also from Tim Holtz.  You can find his stuff at both Hobby Lobby and Michaels (at least that was true the last time I checked), and of course online too.

I know most people aren’t going to spend this much time on gift wrapping, and usually folks just throw away (or hopefully recycle) the boxes that their gifts came in.  But I hope my boxes inspire people to hang onto them and reuse them (less for the landfill).

Now, for the part you’ve all been waiting for, today’s giveaway.

Not only does the winner get a reindeer gift box and one of my tags, but you’ll also get a 10 oz. jar of Dixie Belle’s Big Mama’s Butta in the Orange Grove scent and a 10 oz. jar of their Clear Best Dang Wax.

But wait, that’s not all (said in my best game show host voice), you’ll also get a 4 oz. jar of each of Dixie Belle’s colored waxes.

So, if you’ve always wanted to try a colored wax but haven’t had a chance yet, this one is going to be perfect for you.

Thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co for sponsoring this giveaway by providing the waxes.

The rules:  to be eligible to win today’s prize leave a comment on this blog post.  If you can’t think of anything to say, just tell me whether you wrap your presents ahead of time or do you want until Christmas Eve and then scramble to get them all wrapped?  Your comment must be left on the blog, not on Facebook or Instagram.  You are not required to follow my blog, although it would be awesome if you did!

I will randomly draw the name of a winner for today’s prize from all of the comments left on this post by Wednesday, December 11, 2019 at the stroke of midnight (U.S. Central time).

The fine print: no purchase necessary, you must be 18 years of age or older to win, void where prohibited by law, the number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning, approximate retail value of prize is $100, if the prize is not claimed by Friday, December 13, another name will be drawn at random to win, blah, blah, blah.

Good luck!

my new favorite holiday stencils.

Published on by Quandie126 Comments

Welcome to day no. 5 of my 12 days of giveaways!

Way back last summer I ordered two new holiday stencils for myself from Maison de Stencils.  I had a feeling I would get a fair amount of use out of them when the holiday season arrived, and turns out I was right.

I used them on chairs …

And on sleds …

And on signs …

When my sister saw the Christmas Farm stencil …

she mentioned that she’d like to have a throw pillow with that design on it.

So I dug through my stash and pulled out a couple of pillow covers from re.design with Prima Marketing.

Their 18″ x 18″ pillow case is made with a nice and thick 100% cotton fabric that accepts paint beautifully and they have a zipper closure.

So I grabbed my stencils, some acrylic craft paint and a couple of re.design with Prima Marketing stencil brushes and got to work.

I started with the easier of the two designs.   I say ‘easier’ simply because I stuck with one color of paint which made it a quick stencil job.  First I placed a piece of thin hardboard inside the empty pillow case to give me a nice firm surface to stencil on and also to prevent my paint from bleeding through to the back of the pillow case.  Then I just taped my stencil in place and went at it with the red paint.

I love the graphic punch of the red on the white pillow form.

I know my sister is going to prefer the 2nd pillow though, and I’ll be giving this one to her for Christmas.  I warned her not to read my blog today, so hopefully I’m not ruining the surprise.

This one took just a little bit longer to do since I had to tape off the different areas for the three colors I used.  First the black, then the red, then the green.  It’s not hard to do, but you do need to wait a little in between each color to let the paint dry.

I loved both of these stencils so much that I reached out to Maison de Stencils and asked them if they’d be willing to send another of each that I could give away as part of my 12 days of giveaways.  And yee haw, they agreed!  Not only that, but they gave me a couple more to give away in the next two weeks, plus a couple for me to use myself on some upcoming furniture projects.

  Today I’m giving away both of the Christmas stencils plus  1″ and 2″ stencil brushes from re.design with Prima Marketing.

The larger 2″ brush makes quick work of larger stenciling projects, while the 1″ brush is better for more detailed work.

Thank you to both Maison de Stencils and Prima Marketing for sponsoring this giveaway by providing the stencils and the brushes.

The rules:  to be eligible to win today’s prize leave a comment on this blog post.  If you can’t think of anything to say, just tell me which stencil is your favorite.  Your comment must be left on the blog, not on Facebook or Instagram.  You are not required to follow my blog, although it would be awesome if you did!

I will randomly draw the name of a winner for today’s prize from all of the comments left on this post by Sunday, December 8, 2019 at the stroke of midnight (U.S. Central time).

The fine print: no purchase necessary, you must be 18 years of age or older to win, void where prohibited by law, the number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning, approximate retail value of prize is $65, if the prize is not claimed by Wednesday, December 11, another name will be drawn at random to win, blah, blah, blah.

Good luck!

oh deer.

Published on by Quandie138 Comments

Congrats to Laura Hopwood, the winner of the day no. 2 prize.  I’ll be drawing a name for the winner of the day no. 3 prize tomorrow (is this getting confusing for you guys too?  I’m doing my best to keep track of it all), if you haven’t commented on that post you have until midnight tonight!

In the meantime, today is day 4 of my 12 days of giveaways, and I’m first sharing the transformation of this adorable (if I do say so myself) metal toolbox.

This toolbox started out looking like this …

My picker, Sue, found this for me.  She always grabs metal toolboxes when she sees them.  She knows I love to give these a new life with some paint.

To begin with I washed the toolbox using Dawn dish washing soap to cut any grease that might have been left behind by the former owner.  Next I added a coat of Miss Mustard Seed’s Tough Coat Sealer to prevent the rust from coming through my paint.

Today’s q tip:  Keep in mind that the Tough Coat Sealer does not block stain from bleeding thru (try the Dixie Belle BOSS for that), but I have found that it works well as a protective coat over rust.  It also works well as a top coat for a rusty piece when you want to retain the rusty look.

Next I pulled out a couple of new Dixie Belle paint colors, Sawmill Gravy and French Linen.  I can tell you now, both of these colors will be making their way onto my list of favorite neutrals.

I first painted the entire toolbox in two coats of the Sawmill Gravy.  Once dry, I taped off a wide stripe down the middle and painted it in the French Linen.  After that dried, I sanded the box lightly and then added a few sections from re.design with Prima’s Deer transfer.

I have to say, I totally underestimated the cuteness factor of this transfer!  When I first saw it I thought it was only going to be good for some sort of man-cave or hunting shack item.  But then I looked a little closer and realized it had a reindeer on it.

Seriously!  How cute is that?

If you have a few men in your life and you are looking for something that’s not feminine and flowery, be sure to check out the Deer transfer.  And if you really do need to dress something up for the hunting shack, this transfer would still be perfect for that too 😉

Now, for today’s giveaway.  I wish I had a spare Deer transfer, but unfortunately I don’t.  I do, however, have some Sawmill Gravy and French Linen to give away.  I also thought, why not give them away along with the toolbox itself?  They fit perfectly inside.

Thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co for sponsoring this giveaway by providing the paint, and to Prima Marketing for providing the Deer transfer that I used on the tool box.

The rules:  to be eligible to win today’s prize leave a comment on this blog post.  If you can’t think of anything to say, just tell me what you would keep in this toolbox.  Your comment must be left on the blog, not on Facebook or Instagram.  You are not required to follow my blog, although it would be awesome if you did!

I will randomly draw the name of a winner for today’s prize from all of the comments left on this post by Friday, December 6, 2019 at the stroke of midnight (U.S. Central time).

The fine print: no purchase necessary, you must be 18 years of age or older to win, void where prohibited by law, the number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning, approximate retail value of prize is $65, if the prize is not claimed by Sunday, December 8, another name will be drawn at random to win, blah, blah, blah.

Good luck!

me and Switzerland.

Published on by Quandie143 Comments

It’s day 3 of my 12 days of giveaways, and today I’m giving away a couple of my favorite shades of Dixie Belle Paint.  But first, congrats to Susan Williams who won the day 1 prize.  Last night at midnight was the cut off to be eligible for the day 2 prize so I haven’t drawn that name yet but I’ll get on it this morning.

I go through two Dixie Belle colors like there’s no tomorrow.  I have to say that, like Switzerland, I tend to stay neutral.  Partially because I find that neutral shades sell really well for me, but also simply because personally I currently prefer them in my own home too.

Drop Cloth is probably the color I use most often these days.

Drop Cloth is a warm, creamy white with a slightly greige undertone.  It’s not a yellow-ish cream, and it’s definitely not a bright white.

It’s my white of choice because I feel like you can bring this color into any room and it will play well with your other shades of white.  It won’t make any of them look dingy, although it may make some of your brighter whites look brighter.

My 2nd favorite neutral Dixie Belle color is Midnight Sky.  I originally favored their Caviar, and I do still love that color, but as I’ve been living with both of these shades of black I’ve realized that I prefer the Midnight Sky.  It’s just a hair lighter and leans more towards a deep, dark charcoal.

Because this color is slightly … well, for lack of a better description … less black than the Caviar I think it tends to be more forgiving when it comes to dust or smudges.

I used this color on my piano and quite honestly, I rarely dust.  So I need a dark color that is more forgiving 😉

The brush that I tend to reach for the most these days when using the Dixie Belle paint is their Flat Medium Synthetic brush.  It holds a nice amount of paint and I find that the shape of the handle makes it really comfortable to hold in my hand.  It’s also the perfect size to fit into even the smallest Dixie Belle paint jar without catching on the lip.  I know you aren’t supposed to paint straight out of the jar, but I do it all the time (maybe you guys should do as I say, not as I do on this one).  It may be my imagination, but somehow this brush also seems easier to clean that my Purdy brushes.  I have no idea why that would be, maybe the type of bristle?

Anyway, today’s giveaway is for all of you fellow neutral lovers out there.  It includes a 16 oz. jar of Drop Cloth, a 16 oz. jar of Midnight Sky and the Flat Medium Synthetic Brush.

Thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co for sponsoring this giveaway by providing these products.

The rules:  to be eligible to win today’s prize leave a comment on this blog post.  If you can’t think of anything to say, just tell me whether you’re a fellow lover of neutrals or you prefer lots of color in your world.  Your comment must be left on the blog, not on Facebook or Instagram.  You are not required to follow my blog, although it would be awesome if you did!

I will randomly draw the name of a winner for today’s prize from all of the comments left on this post by Wednesday, December 4, 2019 at the stroke of midnight (U.S. Central time).

The fine print: no purchase necessary, you must be 18 years of age or older to win, void where prohibited by law, the number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning, approximate retail value of prize is $65, if the prize is not claimed by Sunday, December 8, another name will be drawn at random to win, blah, blah, blah.

Good luck!

problem solvers.

Published on by Quandie94 Comments

Welcome back for day 2 of my 12 days of giveaways!

Today I want to talk about problem solvers.  When you’ve been refurbishing furniture as long as I have (25+ years), you know that running into problems is a given.  It’s rare to find a piece of furniture that just needs a coat of paint slapped on and it’s good to go.  More often, it has other problems that need to be solved first.

Luckily I have some help in that area in the form of my neighbor/handyman and number 1 problem solver, Ken.

Ken is a fixer.  He gets great satisfaction out of finding creative ways to fix things.  One of his favorite fix-it successes was the Humpty Dumpty dresser.  It was named that for obvious reasons.  All of the king’s horses and all of the king’s men may not have been able to put it together again, but Ken did.

After taking a fall off of the horses (the saw horse kind, not the kind the king’s men had), the Humpty Dumpty dresser looked like this …

But after a few days in Ken’s workshop, it looked like this …

To this day Ken still talks about how much he enjoyed rebuilding this dresser.  Sometimes I’m tempted to look for more pieces that are totally falling apart just to give Ken a puzzle to work on.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t think of a way to give away a ‘Ken’ today, but I can give away a couple of great products that help me deal with smaller problems.  The first problem being the dreaded bleed thru.

It’s always such a bummer when you realize your piece has stain that bleeds thru paint.  No matter how many coats of paint you put over this stain, the stain will just keep coming through.  But there’s a great fix for that though, Dixie Belle’s BOSS.  The drawers shown above are a great example.  They had some serious bleed thru issues as you can see on the top drawer, but the lower drawer shows how beautifully the BOSS worked to block the stain.

Another problem I run into fairly often is when a piece of furniture is missing just one drawer pull.  I always joke about this because if a piece is missing just one, it might as well be missing them all, right?

This washstand is a good example.  It was missing just one drawer pull, and I would have had a difficult time finding an exact match as a replacement.

So instead, I filled the holes for the original drawer pulls and added centered knobs to the drawers rather than pulls.

My favorite product for filling holes is Dixie Belle’s Mud, and I apply it using their little plastic spatula.

Today’s giveaway consists of these two problem solvers; Dixie Belle’s BOSS and Mud.

Plus a chip brush and the plastic spatula that works great with the Mud.

Thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co for sponsoring this giveaway by providing these products.

The rules:  to be eligible to win today’s prize leave a comment on this blog post.  If you can’t think of anything to say, just tell me what problem you run into most often while DIY’ing.  Your comment must be left on the blog, not on Facebook or Instagram.  You are not required to follow my blog, although it would be awesome if you did!

I will randomly draw the name of a winner for today’s prize from all of the comments left on this post by Sunday, December 1, 2019 at the stroke of midnight (U.S. Central time).

The fine print: no purchase necessary, you must be 18 years of age or older to win, void where prohibited by law, the number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning, approximate retail value of prize is $40, if the prize is not claimed by Tuesday, December 3, another name will be drawn at random to win, blah, blah, blah.

Good luck!

12 days of giveaways.

Published on by Quandie136 Comments

Here in the U.S. tomorrow is Thanksgiving.  If any of you have been following me since the beginning you may remember that I started my blog on Thanksgiving weekend 2013.  So yep, that makes this my six year blogiversary!  Well, technically speaking, it was yesterday.  But close enough.

Quite honestly, I never thought I’d make it past five years.

I also never thought I’d make it past 25 followers.

While I haven’t ‘gone viral’ and I don’t seem to have made it into the inner circle of ‘cool kids’ (just like in high school), today I’m feeling incredibly grateful for all of the amazing things this blog has brought my way.  But I’m especially thankful for all of you.  Without you, there would be no q is for quandie.  So thank you for following, commenting, sharing and otherwise supporting my blog.

Now it’s time to celebrate with 12 days of giveaways!

Starting today and running every Monday, Wednesday & Friday until December 23, I’m going to post a giveaway here on the blog.  That’s four weeks of giveaways!!  Woo hoo!

So let’s get this ball rolling, shall we?

I know it’s a little like picking my favorite child, and we aren’t supposed to do that, but I have to confess that Re.design with Prima Marketing is one of my favorite sponsors.  I feel incredibly honored to be included on their Design Team.

I get so excited when they have a new release and they send me a box of stuff.  The latest box even literally arrived on my birthday, what a treat!  And I can’t share any of it with you today.  The official reveal date of this latest release is December 16, so I have to sit here, all alone, drooling over these new designs until then.

In the meantime, today I’m giving away their Fresh Flowers transfer.  Last summer I used half of the transfer on this drop leaf table.

Here is the full design.

I’m still hanging on to that upper portion waiting for just the right project to come along.  But the lower portion was perfect for the table.

And of course, I am giving away the entire transfer (not just my unused portion, that would be tacky, right?)

Just to add a little something more to this giveaway, I’m also including the Queen Bee clay pot that I used for staging that piece.

I painted the pot using Miss Mustard Seed milk paint, and then used Fusion Transfer Gel to add the graphic (check out this post for all of the details).  Not all of my pots turned out that day, but this one is my favorite of the bunch.

Thank you to Re.design with Prima Marketing for sponsoring this giveaway by providing the transfer.

The rules:  to be eligible to win today’s prize leave a comment on this blog post.  If you can’t think of anything to say, just tell me what your favorite fresh flower is.  Your comment must be left on the blog, not on Facebook or Instagram.  You are not required to follow my blog, although it would be awesome if you did!

I will randomly draw the name of a winner for today’s prize from all of the comments left on this post by Friday, November 29, 2019 at the stroke of midnight (U.S. Central time).

The fine print: no purchase necessary, you must be 18 years of age or older to win, void where prohibited by law, the number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning, approximate retail value of prize is $40, if the prize is not claimed by Sunday, December 1, another name will be drawn at random to win, blah, blah, blah.

Good luck!

full service is our rule.

Published on by Quandie23 Comments

A while back one of my fellow Reclaiming Beautiful vendors stopped by and she happened to admire the yardstick shelves that I have in my living room.

After she left I realized that it had been a while since Ken and I teamed up to make these shelves.  So I dug through my stash out in the carriage house and I found six random yardsticks (I tend to grab them when I see them at garage sales).

I thought both the red one and the one with the green writing would be perfect for Christmas.  But the other ones needed a little something more, they didn’t have any color or that aged patina that I love so much.

So I decided to fake it with a little stain.

I just used an old t-shirt to wipe on a little Early American stain, and voila!  Aged patina.

Next I sent the yardsticks over to Ken to be added to some old bead boards to make shelves.  I shared all of the details on constructing these back in this post …

So be sure to go back and check that out if you want to make some for yourself.

Once the shelves were made up, I was trying to decide what sorts of things could go on the red shelf to give it a holiday look.  Santa and some green bottle brush trees give it a traditional look.

Then I remembered the really cool clock that my sister purchased at last year’s Holly Jolly Market.  I decided that I could replicate it using my Cricut machine, some red vinyl and one of my own vintage alarm clocks.

I want to reiterate that this clever idea is not my own.  I wish I had gotten the name of the vendor that my sister purchased her clock from so that I could give them credit, but I neglected to do that.

But I love the Christmas clock paired with the red yardstick shelf.  What a unique, vintage look for Christmas decor right?

Since I had the Cricut out, I decided to make up a 2nd clock to bring to Reclaiming Beautiful.

If you’re not so into red for Christmas, the plain yardstick shelves can also be dressed up for the holidays.

This monochromatic look is a little more ‘me’.  I purchased these little houses at my local Bachman’s store a couple of years ago.  They look great paired up with some bleached bottle brush trees.  I was hoping to add another to my non-collection (because I swear I don’t collect anything) this year, but when my sister and I stopped in there on Saturday all we could find were much bigger, more elaborate (and more expensive) ones.  So I guess I’ll just stick with the three that I already have.

I love the clever little sayings on some of the yardsticks like the “Full Service is our Rule” above.  These must have been fun customer giveaways back in the day.  And now they make unique shelves for displaying your non-collections!

I’m planning to head in to Reclaiming Beautiful this week with the clock, the shelves and a few more Christmas goodies that I threw together yesterday (unless our weather decides not to cooperate).  If any of you locals want to do some shopping over Thanksgiving weekend, please note that they are closed on Thursday but will be open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday & Saturday, and Sunday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m.

old school sign making.

Published on by Quandie18 Comments

Remember the foot board that I purchased at the St. Anthony Park sales last summer?

There it is peeking out from behind the little cupboard.

The sellers said they were using the headboard that matched this piece, but they had no use for the foot board.  I think I paid around $5 for it.  I’m sure when they put it out they wondered if anyone in their right mind would purchase a lone foot board.

My initial plan was to either add a shelf (like I did here) or turn it into a chalkboard (like I did here).  But if you’ve read my blog for very long you are probably beginning to realize that I rarely stick with my initial plan.

Instead I decided to turn it into a Christmas themed sign, adding hooks across the bottom for hanging stockings.

I started by painting the foot board in Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth.  Next I had to go back to my sign making roots.  I dug out my alphabet stencils to use as a guide, but rather than stenciling each letter I just traced them with pencil …

then went back and painted them in by hand.

I have been totally spoiled with the larger scale furniture transfers from Prima Marketing.  Those are so easy to apply and usually go on pretty quickly.  Hand painting letters is a bit trickier, and I’m never fully satisfied with my work.

But I reminded myself that a rustic, hand painted look was what I was going for so it didn’t have to be perfect.

Once I had the lettering painted I decided to fill in the rest of the space with some sections from the Christmas Farm stencil that I’ve been using on lots of projects this year (FYI – last I checked this stencil was on sale for $11 at Maison de Stencils).

I doctored it up a little this time using a “25” on the truck door rather than the wreath that comes on the stencil.  I also just flipped it over to have the truck facing the other way on one side of my sign.

I pick up old hooks whenever I see them at garage sales, so I dug into my stash and found 4 that were similar.  I painted them using Miss Mustard Seed’s milk paint in Boxwood that was leftover from the chair that I’m going to share in just a minute.

As you can see, they got pretty chippy.  But I’m a fan of chippy.  So I knocked off all of the loose paint and then sprayed them with a shellac type sealer so they wouldn’t be leaving chips of paint everywhere.

I didn’t actually have 4 matching Christmas stockings to hang from the hooks so I experimented with a pitcher and towel for some of my photos …

but then I decided to hang a kid-sized chair from two hooks to see how that would look.

Speaking of which, remember the trio of holiday chairs I shared two weeks ago?  Well, they sold like hotcakes at Reclaiming Beautiful so I found another set of 4 on Facebook Marketplace, picked them up last weekend, painted them, and brought them to the shop on Wednesday.

Three of them got painted in the Dixie Belle Drop Cloth with the Christmas Farm stencil, similar to this one …

I figured those weren’t worth sharing here on the blog since they are basically just a repeat of the ones I shared two weeks ago.

But I decided to try a different look with the 4th one.  I painted it in Miss Mustard Seed’s Boxwood milk paint.  I should back up a minute and mention that these chairs had already been painted multiple times when I got them (in the close up photo below you can see blue and white peeking out beneath the green).  I always do more prep work when painting over existing paint.  In this case I sanded them very thoroughly and then cleaned them with TSP substitute.  I also opted to use the bonding agent in my milk paint because it’s always dicey whether or not milk paint will stick to a previously painted surface.

Normally I wouldn’t choose milk paint for a previously painted piece, but I really wanted this particular shade of green so I went with it.

I painted the chair back using the Dixie Belle Drop Cloth and added a section of the Prima Marketing Gingham Red transfer over that.  Finally, I stenciled the seat using a warm white craft paint.

Adding the stencil totally made this one work.  I used Dixie Belle’s Big Mama’s Butta as a final finish over everything including the transfer.

My friend, and fellow Reclaiming Beautiful vendor, Lisa, gave me the pitcher.  She’d been planning to sell it, but it has a crack in it.  She thought it would work well for photo shoots though, and I have to agree.  It was perfect for this one.

The battery operated lights came from Target last year.  I’m not sure if they have them again this year.

I’m really enjoying working on these smaller holiday projects lately.  I’m not sure when I’ll get back to painting ‘real’ pieces of furniture, it may not be until after the new year.  It’s always good to take a little bit of a break before coming back with fresh ideas, right?

As always, thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co and Redesign with Prima Marketing for supplying the products used in these projects.