Category: quick and easy.

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!

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?

I spent part of last week digging out my carriage house workshop after the long winter.

For those of you who aren’t familiar, this is my carriage house.  I park my car on one side in the winter and store future projects on the other side.  In summer, I paint out there.

Awww, it looks so pretty in pictures.  Especially winter pictures when the red pops against the white snow.  Now don’t be confused, it really isn’t still winter here in Minnesota, I just didn’t have a summer photo of the carriage house handy.

But the reality behind the pretty photo is that the carriage house is not at all weather or critter proof.  In the winter I mostly just shove stuff in there to store it until spring because it’s far too cold to spend any time at all out there.  When the weather starts warming up again I have to sort through all of that stuff and get my workshop situated so I can bring my painting supplies back out and resume painting out there.

While doing that this spring I encountered a possum, a chipmunk and a robin inside the carriage house.  Eeeeeek!  I’m telling you, it’s not critter proof at all.  And clearly my cat Lucy is not doing her job properly.

Well, the critters will soon figure out that I am taking back my workshop and hopefully find somewhere less busy to hang out.

In addition to the possum, I also came across a stash of clipboards that I’d been acquiring over the course of last summer’s garage sale season.

At the time I thought it would be fun to paint these up and use them as ‘frames’ for some prints but I never got around to it last year.

The vintage book of Audubon bird prints I found at the Tangletown sales had some perfect candidates for the clipboards though, so I decided to whip something up.

Since the prints had a lot of shades of green in them, I decided to go with green on my clipboards.

I pulled out an old jar of Little Billy Goat chalk paint in a color called Porch Swing.  A couple of years ago Little Billy Goat sponsored a few projects with me and sent me some of their paint to try.  I loved most of it, but I was quickly reminded that I didn’t love the Porch Swing while working on this project.  For some reason the Porch Swing ends up looking weirdly splotchy for me once I add a top coat.  The first time I used it I painted an entire dresser, and ending up having to paint it over again with something else when I got this splotchy look.

In the case of the clipboards, I tried to use Miss Mustard Seed wax on the first one and it looked terrible (sorry, I neglected to get a photo).  I tried Miss Mustard Seed hemp oil on the next two and got better results, although still slightly splotchy.  So I repainted the first one (after using mineral spirits and a green scrubbing pad to remove the wax) and then used hemp oil on it also so that all three would match.

Next I added some Tim Holtz rub-on numbers to the clips.

Then I just simply added my Audubon prints and they were good to go.

These would be perfect for hanging above your potting bench.

Or maybe just hanging on the wall in a sunroom.

What a simple, inexpensive way to add some interest to your walls!

You may remember the recipe box that I painted last fall.  It started out looking like this …

Then I painted it with a sample of Miss Mustard Seed’s Bergere, added an IOD rub-on transfer and a metal key-hole escutcheon.

But I have to admit, that shade of blue just wasn’t doing it for me so I decided to start over.

I took my inspiration from the stool I painted when I first sampled the Dixie Belle chalk paint …

I repainted the box with the same Dixie Belle paint in Drop Cloth, with grain sack stripes painted in Dixie Belle’s Yankee Blue.  I even added a smaller version of the same Milk and Cream graphic using Fusion’s Transfer Gel.

I used some Tim Holtz rub-on numbers to add the “1953” to the front of the box.  This was to become a birthday present for my friend Terri, and I think you can all now guess what year she was born.  Then, instead of putting the key-hole escutcheon back on, I decided to add a little clasp to the front of the box.

I debated spinning a yarn here about how I found this old rusty hardware in a coffee can full of rusty bits and pieces that I picked up at an estate sale held in a big ol’ red barn out in the countryside, and I bet you guys would have believed it, right?  That would have been an awesome story.

But the real story is that I purchased a pack of 3 of these at Hobby Lobby for $2.50 during a half off sale and they were a sort of ugly ‘antique gold’.

So I used the Dixie Belle Patina Collection to add some rusty goodness.

I used the Prime Start first again since this little clasp is made out of metal.  Then I painted it with the Iron paint, followed by a spritz of the Green Patina spray (for more detailed instructions on using these products check out this post).  And now the little clasp looks like this …

I love that I can take something new and make it look old and rusty with this stuff!

Yep, I am much happier with the outcome this time and I’m pretty sure Terri liked it too!

It’s been a while since I’ve painted some books.  Unless you’ve followed me from the beginning, or gone back and read to the beginning, you probably haven’t seen my painted books.

The first batch I painted were all done in Miss Mustard Seed milk paint in Typewriter, then stenciled in a pale grey acrylic craft paint and finished with some hemp oil.

Then I branched out and added some grey books (painted in Miss Mustard Seed’s Trophy)…

and some pale minty green books.

For a while now I’ve been thinking it would be nice to have some white painted books.

So I pulled out some old hardcover books (find them at your local thrift store for as little as .15 ea when they are having a sale) and started by painting the covers with Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth and sealing them with The Real Milk Paint Co’s Dead Flat.

Then I pulled out a bunch of my stencils.

Don’t worry about the stencils being larger than the books.  I think it just adds to the look to have the design running over the edges.

This is a great way to get a bunch of decorative books to fill up some shelves on a budget.  Displaying things en masse always has more impact.

It seems that the Drop Cloth goes particularly nicely with some old ironstone.

The painted books also make great props for furniture photo shoots.

If nothing else, it’s just a fun project for a cold winter day!

Happy Valentine’s Day everyone!

I don’t have a pretty, frilly pink or red filled post for you today.  Valentine’s Day just isn’t a holiday that I decorate for.  I’m pretty much heartless, at least when it comes to decor.

A while back my thrifting friend Meggan and I were at our local favorite thrift store (Arc Value Village on White Bear Ave, for those of you locals who might be curious) and I was laughing over the plethora of items with hearts on them.  I pointed them out to Meggan, and we both agreed that hearts are pretty much out these days from a home decor point of view (thus they end up in thrift stores by the dozens).  I mentioned to Meggan that I have a couple of tricks for dealing with them though and she suggested that would be a great idea for a blog post.  So I filled my cart with some hearts …

The easiest way to get rid of a heart is to just simply cover it up.  That’s what I did with the heart cut out on this little wall shelf.

But first I transformed the shelf with Dixie Belle’s Patina Collection.  You may remember that they sent me some of their Iron paint and Patina Spray to play around with a couple of weeks ago.  At the time I mentioned that I wanted to try this stuff on wood to see how it looked, so this shelf was the perfect candidate for a little experimentation.

Since the shelf is made of wood, you don’t need to use the special Prime Start primer (you just need that if you are painting over metal).  Instead you can just start with a layer of any color paint.  I used Dixie Belle’s Gravel Road since I happened to have it close by, but the color really doesn’t matter since you’ll be covering it up entirely.  Once that dried I added a coat of the Iron paint and allowed that to dry.  Then I added a second coat of the Iron paint and while it was still wet, I sprayed it with the Patina spray.

Next I just dug through my stash of random bits and pieces and found this back plate to a drawer pull.  It was already rusting on its own, plus it was just the right size, so I thought it was the perfect cover up.

Both Meggan and I simply couldn’t resist this next item.

It’s got both a heart and a cow … a classic.

And actually, in the end I didn’t get rid of the heart cut out, just the cow with her heart shaped face and the country welcome.

I removed the glued on words, sanded the entire thing down and then painted it in Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth.  I added the grain sack stripe in Dixie Belle’s Driftwood.

Then I added an Iron Orchid Designs rub-on from one of the French Pots collections.

A vast improvement, even if it isn’t totally heartless.

Unfortunately I ran out of steam (and straight into that cold that I’m still getting over) before I could get to the rest of those heartfelt pieces from the thrift store.  I may have to hang onto them until next year.

But to prove that perhaps I’m not entirely heartless after all, I couldn’t leave the thrift store without this sweet Dinner for Two cookbook.

It has some great illustrations …

A candlelit dinner for two served on a gondola in Venice would be my idea of the perfect Valentine’s celebration.

So sweet.  This is much closer to my idea of a little Valentine decor.

How about you?  Valentine’s Day decorating, yeah or nay?