Category: quick and easy.

It’s official, today I can reveal the brand new re.design with prima transfers coming out for Spring 2020.

The transfer I’m using for today’s project is called Vintage Seed and it’s perfect for spring.  It’s basically a collage of vintage canning labels.  It has some gorgeous colors in it, and a mix of floral and fruit images.

Also, here’s a great new feature on the re.design with prima packaging …

Specific sizing information!  This will make it so much easier to determine whether or not a transfer will fit nicely on your piece.  I don’t know about you guys, but I’m rather particular about that.

You could use this full transfer on a piece of furniture, maybe on the door fronts of a hoosier style cupboard or something like that.  But I decided to cut mine up and thus get a lot more use out of it.

My first project was dressing up some of the glass canisters that I use for storing my craft supplies.

It was super simple to cut the labels out and apply them to the glass.

Aren’t the colors on these gorgeous?

I also recently dressed up a mirror that I removed from a dresser.  I have a stash of these mirrors out in the carriage house from dressers that I have painted over the years.

I started out by painting the frame in Sweet Pickins milk paint’s In a Pickle, which turned out perfectly chippy.

Then I added a section from the Spring Flowers transfer to the mirror.

You have to be very careful when applying a transfer to glass, whether it’s mirror glass or clear glass canisters.  It will be drawn to the glass like a magnet, and once it connects, it is stuck in that spot.  So be sure you have it aligned exactly where you want it before you allow it to come in contact with the glass.

Now, I haven’t had a lot of experience with washing these items yet.  However, I would recommend cleaning the mirror by spraying glass cleaner on a paper towel (not directly onto the transfer), and then wipe the mirror gently.  For the canisters, I would not submerge them in soapy water.  Instead, clean the insides and lids with soapy water on a cloth and then gently wipe the transfer.

The transfers can be removed from glass completely using a razor blade, if you should ever grow tired of them and want to switch them out for something else.

Be sure to check back next week to see the other projects I’ve been using the new transfers on including an actual piece of furniture that I’ll be sharing on Monday!

As always, thanks to re.design with prima for providing the transfers I used on these projects.

If you are wondering where to buy re.design with prima products you can search for online stores here and  retail stores here.

 

I continued to work on several fun projects over the weekend using the new, not yet released, re.design with prima transfers.  So unfortunately, I can’t share any of those with you today.  The official reveal date for the new transfers is this Friday and the new molds can’t be revealed until June 1.

So I had to dig deep to find a project to whip up that didn’t involve any of the new items so that I would have something to share with you guys today.  I’m going to admit up front that as a result, today’s post is not terribly exciting.  But it was a satisfying little project.

I purchased this old (dare I call it vintage?) tape dispenser while out thrifting last year.

I have the tackiest burgundy plastic tape dispenser on my desk at the day job, so I thought it would be nice to have something a little bit more my style.

And I knew I could dress this one up a bit.

So I sanded it lightly, washed it with soapy water, and then painted it with two coats of Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth.  Once totally dry, I sanded lightly to distress.  Next I added a small section from one of the Classic Vintage Labels transfers from re.design with prima.

But I couldn’t just stop there, I also added a few more transfers from Tim Holtz and 7gypsies.

Once the rub-on’s were applied, I added a coat of clear wax over the entire surface to protect it.

My original plan was to put the plain Scotch tape back in, but then a little light bulb went off in my head.  Why not load it with some fun washi tape instead?

Sure enough, the washi tape fit perfectly on the little plastic wheel that holds the tape.  What luck!

By the way, if you aren’t familiar with washi tape, it’s sort of a flimsier version of masking tape that’s not quite as sticky.  The Tim Holtz brand washi tapes are acid free, making them safe to use in scrapbooks because they won’t damage your photos over the years.  And he has some gorgeous designs …Now I’m no longer sure I want to take this tape dispenser in to my office at the day job after all.  Maybe I’ll just keep it at home as a handy dispenser for washi tape.

Maybe now it’s just way too cool to hold plain ol’ clear tape.

What do you think?

TGIF!

This has been a crazy week, I’m sure most of you can relate.  As many of you know, I have a day job working in municipal government.  I don’t share much about that here because that’s part of my boring, 9 to 5, accountant persona.  It’s not terribly exciting to share, but I do love my work there.

Here in Minnesota, our governor has finally issued an order for non-essential workers to Stay at Home starting tonight at midnight.  We were anticipating that he would do so, so I spent most of the week preparing for the possibility that I would have to work from home.  I won’t be able to do all of my work from home, but I can do a good portion of it here.

So this week has been spent scrambling to put things in place in preparation for the Stay at Home order over the next two weeks.  It has been a strange combination, being really busy at the day job and then going home and feeling like I had absolutely nothing to do.  Even though not all of our businesses have been closed yet, I’ve been trying to avoid public contact whenever possible so Mr. Q and I have been staying in and binge watching M.A.S.H.

I’ve also been at a loss for a good blog post for today.  All I worked on this week was a simple pair of candlesticks from the thrift store.

I purchased these because I liked the beefy size of them.  They weren’t horribly ugly or anything, maybe just a tad boring.

I decided they might look pretty fab with a rusty finish, so I pulled out some Dixie Belle products.

I started by painting them with a base coat of Dixie Belle’s Caviar, a basic black.  Once that dried, I added two coats of the Iron paint from their Patina Collection.  Before the 2nd coat of the Iron paint had a chance to dry, I sprayed them with the Green spray.

After waiting about 24 hours, they had developed some rusty patina.

It’s definitely an improvement, but I wanted a little bit more rust.

But I have found that when using these products, the rust continues to develop over time.  So last night I checked them out to see if they had gotten any rustier since last weekend.

They look a little rustier for sure.

I’m debating putting them outside to encourage even more rusting, like I got with the planters I painted last summer.

Hmmm, watching candlesticks turn rusty … seems like ‘a tad boring’ is a bit of theme today.

How about you?  How are you coping with the pandemic?  Working from home?  Having to close your business entirely?  Missing your family?  Running out of toilet paper?  Got any great ideas for relieving the boredom?

As always, thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co for providing the Patina products used for today’s project.  You can find their products here.

 

A couple of weekends ago, before the world shut down, my sister and I hit up the thrift shops again.  We didn’t find much.  Debbie found some colorful plastic drinking glasses for using on the patio this summer, and I brought home just a handful of things.

I always pick up the glass canisters when I see them at a good price.  I love using them to store my craft supplies.

The fact that you can see what’s in them makes it so much easier to locate the item you need.

I’ve already added a Classic Vintage Label transfer from re.design with prima to the little galvanized bucket.

It’s perfect for a small plant, but also works great for holding paint brushes … if you happen to have a lot of them, which I do.

I’ll be painting the candlesticks eventually, but didn’t get to them in time for this post.

But my favorite find was the mid-mod desk lamp.

It was a little beat up, and the felt bottom had seen better days.  But I checked it at the store and it still worked.  I’m not sure about every Goodwill store, but the one we were at had a strip of outlets near the electrical goods so that you can plug something in to make sure it works.  Handy.

The first thing I did after cleaning the lamp was rip off the grungy old felt bottom and replace it with some new felt.  I simply cut it to fit and stuck it in place with spray adhesive.

Next I wanted to spruce up the gold finish on the lamp just a bit, so I pulled out a selection of metallic waxes to see which one would best match the existing color of the lamp.

The Bronze Age (bottom), which is one of my favorites, was clearly too brown.  The Eternal (middle), also a favorite, was a bit too bright.  But the Vintage Gold (top) was just right.

I used a piece of cloth to apply the wax all over the lamp.  It was pretty much a perfect match, and it helped even out some dings and other imperfections.

If you’ve never used this wax before, I’ll tell you that a little goes a long way.  It comes in a rather small container, but look how much I still have left in mine and I’ve used it on countless projects including this lamp …

I will let the wax cure for a full 30 days before using the lamp just to avoid melting it with the heat from the bulb.

I really wanted to add just a bit of an industrial vibe to the lamp to finish it off, so I pulled out the Everyday Farmhouse transfer from re.design with prima and added a little wording to the base of the lamp.

Adding just a little graphic punch to something always makes me happy.

I’m really loving the mid-mod vibe of this lamp, how about you?

Once the wax is cured and life has gone back to normal, I’m sure I’ll be bringing this one in to Reclaiming Beautiful to sell because I don’t have a spot for it myself.

As always, thank you to re.design with prima for providing the Vintage Gold wax and the Everyday Farmhouse transfer used on this project.

If you’re looking for re.design with prima products you can find local retailers here, or online sources here.

Today I’m sharing yet another item drawn from the pile in the carriage house.  I have to confess that I don’t exactly remember where this one even came from, but I think my picker, Sue, found it for me.

It’s just an old wooden fruit crate, and at some point someone replaced the bottom with new wood.

So I decided to see if I could use some Dixie Belle No Pain Gel Stains to create a faux finish that would age those boards just a bit.

As soon as I opened the can of Weathered Gray I knew it was going to be too light on its own.  It would be perfect for giving fresh wood a pickled or lime waxed look, but it was too light to match the rest of my crate.

So I decided to start by darkening up the wood with a coat of Walnut.

Once again, much like the last time I used this stain on some dresser knobs, I forgot that I wasn’t working with a quick dry, water based product.  So I tried to add the Weathered Gray before the Walnut was fully dry.  That just ended up blending the colors together, and I wanted a more layered look.  So I stopped working for the day and left the Walnut to dry for 24 hours.

The next day I used an old t-shirt to add some Weathered Gray over the Walnut.

It’s not a perfect match, but it certainly looks less like a brand new bottom on an old wooden crate.

Once I had that finished I decided to add one of the re.design with prima’s Sweet Apricot transfers to the blank side of the crate.

If you aren’t familiar with this transfer, it comes with 9 different fruit labels.  Each one is approximately 6.5″ x 9.25″.

I chose the one on the upper right and applied it, and then lightly sanded it to give it a more weathered look.

After I had the crate finished, I was trying to brain storm a way to stage it for photos.  I thought of filling it with clay pots and maybe a plant or two.  But then I thought, hey, wouldn’t this be a great way to corral your toilet paper supply!

Especially since apparently everyone else has stocked up with a year’s supply of toilet paper … except us.

It was at this point that I discovered we only had 3 rolls on hand.  So Mr. Q went off to the grocery store, only to return saying that they literally had no t.p. on the shelves.

Seriously you guys, has the world gone mad?

I confess I thought it was pretty ridiculous when I heard that people were stocking up on t.p.  Why in the world would you be worried about running out of such a simple and readily available commodity?  In fact, we even purposely did not buy t.p. a week ago because we didn’t want to contribute to the ‘panic buying’ problem and we didn’t need it then.

So now here we are one week later, rationing our remaining 3 rolls of t.p.

Well … not really.  Fortunately both my sister and our neighbor nnK are stocker uppers.  We have a standing joke with nnK that in the event of a zombie apocalypse or some other catastrophe, we’ll be heading to her house because she has enough food stocked up for all three of us.  Both Debbie and nnK have a healthy supply of tp and have offered to share.  So maybe we don’t have to ration it after all.

How about you?  Are you rationing the tp?

As always, thanks to Dixie Belle Paint Co for providing the No Pain Gel Stains I used on this project, and to re.design with prima for supplying the transfer.  I also especially want to thank Debbie and nnK for providing us with toilet paper.

If you’re looking for Dixie Belle products you can find them here.

If you’re looking for re.design with prima products you can find local retailers here, or online sources here.

Do any of you guys remember when I participated in the Index Card Art Project?  It was one year ago yesterday that I posted about it, gosh time flies.

Instead of oil painting or drawing, my artistic medium of choice is scrapbooking.  In this case, I used photos from the Adriatic Explorer cruise that Mr. Q and I had taken back in November 2018.

At the time I mentioned that I was going to be on the lookout for the perfect vintage recipe box to keep my cards in.

Now normally, it seems like these sort of boxes are a dime a dozen and I see them everywhere.  But of course, once I specifically wanted one I couldn’t seem to find one.

Then last week my picker, Sue, brought me a few goodies from an estate sale she went to including this box …

Eureka!  The perfect box to contain my index card art!

But oh, shoot!

My cards are too big for the box.  Drat!

I even thought for a moment that maybe I could cut the cards down to fit, but I had gone all the way to edge on most of them …

I’m glad I checked that before I started work on the box.  Had I been keeping this box to store my cards I would have given it a travel theme.  Although I don’t have a specific plan for pulling that off yet, I know I’ll come up with something when the right box comes along.

But in the meantime, I went ahead and gave this box a makeover anyway.

I started by painting it in Dixie Belle’s Sea Glass.  Then I sanded the edges and added one of re.design with prima’s Classic Vintage Label transfers to the front.

Once I had that in place I felt like the top needed just a little something too.  That’s when I noticed that I had this portion of another Classic Vintage Label …

I had cut out the center of this one to use on something else.  Coincidentally that made this leftover part perfect for this box.  Seriously, what are the chances?

It turned out so darn cute …

that now I’m doubly disappointed that my cards don’t fit 😉

Well, it’s back to the drawing board for something to store my index cards in.  Now I just have to decide if I’ll keep this box for something else, or send it in to Reclaiming Beautiful to sell.

In the meantime, as always, thank you to Dixie Belle Paint for for supplying the Sea Glass paint and to re.design with prima for supplying the Classic Vintage Labels transfer for this project.

If you’re looking for Dixie Belle products you can find them here.

If you’re looking for re.design with prima products you can find local retailers here, or online sources here.