Category: quick and easy.

A couple of months ago my friend Sue found this old black leather bag for me.

It doesn’t look like much in that photo, but I knew I could dress it up with a stencil.

The trick with stenciling something like this is being able to provide some support behind the surface you are stenciling.  In this case I laid the case on its side and filled it up with a stack of large books so that I would have a firm, flat surface for stenciling.

I stenciled it with Ceramcoat acrylic craft paint in Deep Taupe.  I know it appears white next to the black, but trust me.  It’s this color …

This is one of my favorite tricks for stenciling on black.  If you use a white paint the contrast will be much more stark.

I used just the lower portion of a stencil that I purchased from Maison de Stencils (and I noticed it just happens to be on sale at the moment).

Sue tells me that the person selling this bag said it was actually used as a doctor’s bag.  It is quite old, but unfortunately not in the greatest of shape.  You wouldn’t be able to use it as a bag anymore.  The zipper is broken and the leather handles are starting to give way.

But it works perfectly if you just want to use it as decor.

I filled it with crumpled paper to give it some shape and then I stitched the opening closed since the zipper wasn’t functional.

It looks great on a stack of vintage suitcases …

It has a bit of a spooky feel which is perfect for this time of year.

Adding a quick stencil is a super easy way to give something just a little more interest, don’t you think?

Remember the bed bench that my handyman Ken made out of a headboard and foot board?

When I posted about it, I mentioned that he didn’t use the entire foot board.  He cut a chunk out of the middle because we only wanted the bench to be about 20″ deep, so we only needed about 21″ off each end.

He was going to just toss that middle section, but he always checks with me first before he throws any excess pieces in the trash because he knows me pretty well.  He knows how much I enjoy salvaging things.  It’s so much fun to take something that seemed like trash and turn it into something new.  After all, waste not, want not, right?

So I took a look at the chunk of foot board that was left and and then asked Ken to add some trim pieces onto the sides for me, and here’s what he came up with.

And just coincidentally, it happened to be about the perfect size for one of the new transfers that Prima Marketing sent my way from their Always Fresh set.

 

I painted the piece using Fusion’s Plaster first.  I think Plaster is an underappreciated color in the Fusion line.  I feel like I hardly ever see anyone using it, but I love it.  It’s the perfect cream.

Once the paint was dry, I lightly distressed the edges and then added the transfer.

These solid transfers are incredibly easy to apply.

I also painted some wooden knobs in Plaster, and then added some of the Farm Fresh knob transfers from the Re.Design line.

And it was that simple to take a piece that would have been thrown away and turn it into an adorable Farm Fresh sign.

I hung it on the door to my photo cottage to get some photos.

That actually does seem somewhat appropriate since our property was originally a dairy farm until suburbia grew up around it.

I’m not at all sure how well these transfers would hold up to outdoor use though, so I don’t want to give the impression that this could be hung outdoors.  I’m planning to do a bit of an experiment on that down the road though, so I’ll be sure to keep you posted.

But in the meantime, I took the sign to Reclaiming Beautiful on Wednesday and hopefully it will go to a new home soon!

It’s official, I have a picker!  What’s a picker, you ask?

Here’s the official definition.

The first is this cute little stool.

I started by sanding it down, especially trying to remove all of those paint drips.  If you don’t get all of those off of there, they will come back to haunt you when you later sand to distress your paint job as you may notice in my ‘after’ photos below.

Next I mixed up the same custom color of milk paint that I used on the bookcase I shared on Monday.  Mostly Homestead House’s Craftsman with a little of Homestead House’s Loyalist mixed in.

After two coats of paint, I sanded it well to distress, then wiped the dust off and added my favorite Prima Marketing transfer.  This is the small version of the Seeds transfer.

For you hosta lovers out there, that one on the upper left is called Lakeside Dragonfly.  It’s perfect for the front of the garden because it doesn’t get huge.

 By the way, I had to cut the transfer in half to space it around the handle opening and I didn’t use the entire thing.  I’m sure I’ll find somewhere to use the rest of the transfer.

After the transfer was applied, I lightly sanded over the whole top again and then added a top coat of the Real Milk Paint Co’s Dead Flat Finishing Cream.

I really do love using this finish over milk paint.  It’s so easy to apply and it provides a little more protection than wax or hemp oil.  It has a thick gel-like consistency, so you don’t have to worry about drips.  It will also provide plenty of protection for the transfer.

Sue also found a simple wooden tote (or toolbox if you prefer) for me.  I neglected to get a ‘before’ photo of it though.  Drat.  But it was made out of fresh, new wood and had never been painted.

So I added a couple of coats of different colored paints to give it a little fake history.  First a coat of Fusion’s Laurentien, then a coat of Miss Mustard Seed’s French Enamel, and finally a coat of Homestead House milk paint in Raw Silk.

I sanded the edges to distress down to some of those other layers of color.

Initially I was going to stencil this tote, but the stencil I had in mind didn’t fit so I used a remnant of another one of my Prima Marketing transfers instead, this time the large Seeds transfer.  I’d already used the rest of this transfer on a dresser.

That’s one of the things I love about these Prima Marketing transfers, you can cut them up and create several masterpieces with just one of them.

I originally filled the tote with books for the photos, but then I thought ‘what the heck, it’s summer, let’s fill it with greenery instead.’

Plus, I used a portion of the transfer on both sides of the tote so I wanted to show the other side anyway.

By the way, that gorgeous purple flower is a purple astilbe.  It just started blooming last week.

Since both sides of this tote have a design, one could easily use it in the center of the dining room table.

In case you are wondering what in the world I do with all of this smaller stuff after I transform it, the answer is that I take it to Reclaiming Beautiful (a shop in nearby Stillwater) to sell on consignment.

The stool is already sold, but this week I’ll be bringing in the tote along with a few other fun things I’ve finished up lately.

Some stenciled buckets …

The blue bucket is painted with Miss Mustard Seed milk paint in French Enamel.  As I’ve mentioned before, milk paint works beautifully over dull galvanized metal (it may chip more if the metal has a shiny coating over it).

A vibrant aqua toy truck …

Yes, I painted it this color.  It had also been painted by the previous owner, so I wasn’t defacing a collectible toy or anything.  This is Cece Caldwell chalk paint in Santa Fe Turquoise.  Just for fun I also added a small rub-on transfer to the hood too.

My sister picked up that truck for me at a garage sale one of her neighbor’s was having, so technically I guess I have two pickers!

I also have another painted wood tote (this one I found at a garage sale myself).  It’s also painted in Miss Mustard Seed’s French Enamel and then stenciled with a warm white acrylic craft paint.

So if you’re local, be sure to swing by Reclaiming Beautiful this weekend to see what other fab items they have in stock (open Thursday – Sunday only).

I’m pretty much in love with using signs as décor.  I have a few in my own home, but let’s not add up how many because it might sound excessive.  OK?  Let’s just call it another non-collection.

That being said, genuine vintage signs are pretty pricey.  And these days even buying a newly made sign in a shop can be a bit expensive.  Especially if you want something with a bit of size to it.

So I recommend a DIY approach.

There are lots of different methods out there for achieving this including; using stencils (which aren’t cost effective if you want to make just one item with the stencil, their value lies in repetitive use), hand lettering (which never really looks good for me), transferring a graphic using a gel (which involves printing a graphic the size of your sign, so unless you use a printing service then size is limited) or using a cutting machine like a Cricut or Silhouette to cut vinyl and apply it like a sign (the machines are expensive, there is a bit of a learning curve for using them, and again size is an issue).

All of these methods have their place, but they all have their limitations too.

That brings me to the fab new transfers available from Prima Marketing’s re.design line.  There are several that are perfect for making your own large sign.  I tried it out myself using their Market transfer (transfer provided by Prima Marketing).

This is a large transfer.  I want to point out here that the dimensions listed on the packaging are off.  They say 27.5″ x 24″.  I have no idea what those dimensions are meant to represent, but the actual size of the word ‘MARKET’ is 10″ tall by 47″ wide.  It does come in two separate pieces, one with ‘MAR’ and one with ‘KET’.  Still, those dimensions on the packaging make little sense.  The tube itself is only 13″ tall.

Nonetheless, I had the perfect piece to turn into a sign with this large transfer.  It’s an old closet door!  You might recognize it because I posted about it once before.  Who remembers the door to nowhere?

I thought it turned out pretty fab and would look great just leaning on the wall in someone’s home.  But apparently no one agreed with me on that because it sat unsold at Reclaiming Beautiful.  So a while back I decided to go back to the drawing board on this one.  I brought it home from the shop and realized it would be the perfect size to turn into a jumbo sign using the Market transfer.

But first, the door had suffered a bit of damage over time and I wanted to eliminate the stenciled “1918” because that wouldn’t work for my sign.  So I sanded the door down and added two coats of Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth, a lovely warm white.

This next step could not have been any easier, and it was definitely faster than most of the other options for making your own sign.

I simply placed the transfer sheet onto my door where I wanted it, taped it in place and then rubbed over the design using the little black wooden stick they supply with the transfer.

Carefully peel the shiny plastic off and ta da!

One large Market sign.

As you can see it just barely fit in my photo cottage (and yes, those are roses from Arlene’s garden).  The sign (ie. door) itself is 77″ wide and 16″ tall.

Of course I realize that not everyone happens to have a vintage door that is exactly the right size for a Market sign, but as I reminded you on Monday these transfers can also be applied directly to the wall.

Try to think of a creative way that you could use one of these in your home.  I can see it applied vertically directly to a pantry door.  It would also look cool applied across the front of a sideboard or buffet.

For those of you wondering where you can purchase the Prima Marketing re.design products, check out their “Where To Buy” page.

But now it’s your chance to win one of three Prima Marketing re.design transfers that would make great signs; Farmers Market, Market and Farm Fresh.

To be eligible to win one of these transfers all you have to do is leave a comment on this blog post by Friday, June 29, 2018 at midnight (U.S. central).  I’ll draw three names at random and each winner will get one transfer.

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 $25, if the prize is not claimed by Friday, July 6, 2018 another name will be drawn at random to win, blah, blah, blah.

And by the way, my Market sign is also for sale locally.  If you live near the Twin Cities and happen to need a large sign to hang in your house, be sure to check out my ‘available for local sale’ page.

You’ll remember the dress form that I purchased at a garage sale a week or so ago.

Her knit jersey outfit had certainly seen better days.  Not only did it have some holes, but it was really filthy dirty.

So first things first, I stripped her down.

Her fabric was glued along all of the edges of each piece, but on the inside not the visible outside.  So it was fairly easy to cut most of the fabric off and then just rip the edges from where they were glued.  This worked for most of it, but there were a few spots where I had to use a razor blade to cut away the fabric.

Her shiny chrome topper was a bit too shiny and modern for me and I knew I wanted to swap out the knob part for something else with a little more detail.  So this past weekend while garage saling (in the rain again) I was on the lookout for some type of wooden finial that I could paint.  When I came across this pair I thought one of them might just be perfect for the job

I started with having Ken cut the unpainted one down a bit because it was obviously too tall.  Then I painted it with Dixie Belle’s Caviar.  I also painted the chrome that remained behind with the Caviar.

Once the Caviar was dry, I sanded the finial to distress it and added some of Fusion’s Espresso wax to it.

As for the remaining chrome around her neck, I added some of Prima Marketing’s Metallique wax in Bronze Age over the Caviar paint.

I simply used a q-tip to apply the wax all over the painted metal.  Then I immediately blended it by rubbing it lightly with a paper towel.  I usually wait until the wax has dried to buff it with a soft cloth, but since I was working with a larger, flatter surface this time I found that it worked better to immediately smooth it out.

The Bronze Age wax worked perfectly to make the metal look more like old aged bronze rather than shiny modern chrome.  Having the black paint underneath helped give some depth to the bronze and to make sure none of the chrome would be peeking through the wax.

If you’ll remember back, Prima Marketing sent me several of their metallic waxes to try out and I have found them to be indispensable.  They are great for sprucing up old drawer pulls and knobs, they work beautifully on old ornate frames, and now I’ve used them for this project as well.  Also, as you can see in my photo of the wax itself, a little goes a long way.  I’ve used very little of the wax so far, and I’ve completed several projects with it.

Once all of that was done, I had one of those ‘light bulb going off’ moments.  I really can’t even say how this idea came to me, but I thought to myself what if I put a Prima Marketing rub-on transfer right on the cardboard dress form?  That could potentially look amazing.

But first I thought it might be wise to test a portion of a transfer on the back just in case it went horribly wrong.  So I pulled out a left-over section from a transfer and I added it to the dress form’s behind.

And it worked beautifully!  If anything, it went on even easier than it does on furniture and walls.

So I pulled out the full Prima Marketing Catalogue transfer.  I cut it up into various pieces and sections based on where they would fit best on the dress form.

You guys, I honestly think this might be one of the coolest things I’ve ever concocted.

I absolutely love how it turned out.

Seriously, how frickin’ amazing is that thing?

Since the transfer I used is written in French, I decided my dress form needed a french name.  So thus, Collette it is.

If you happen to have one of these dress forms lying around you should be running out to get your own Catalogue transfer right now.  Just google ‘Prima Marketing Catalogue transfer’ and you’ll find multiple options for purchasing one on line.

As for that dresser, I’ll be sharing that on Wednesday so be sure to stay tuned!

Linking up with the Vintage Charm Party at My Thrift Store Addiction.

I think it’s possible that I have crafting attention deficit disorder (a.d.d.).

On a rainy day during my staycation last week I decided to organize the q branch, and most especially my giant English cupboard.

It hasn’t looked that neat and tidy since I first brought it into the room.

I started going through my supplies and deciding what to keep and what to throw.  I came across a couple of scraps of vintage wallpaper from past projects and decided to toss them.  I was trying to be merciless about getting rid of stuff I’ll never use.

But then I also noticed a couple of my scrapbooking punches that needed to be put away.

And I had a thought.

Why not create a little vintage wallpaper flag banner for my pretty green birdcage?

That would be so much more fun than continuing to organize my cupboard!

So I punched some flag shapes out of the wallpaper scraps …

Then I punched some holes in them and strung them up on some pink and white butcher’s string.

Easy peasy.

I started out with a banner that had two sizes and shapes of flags …

But after studying it for a bit, I realized I didn’t like the larger flags so I swapped them out for all small.

Ahhhh … much better.

I never really did finish organizing that cupboard.  That’s just how it goes when you are afflicted with crafting a.d.d.  Anybody else out there with this condition?