Category: quick and easy.

After painting the petite buffet with MMS Ironstone milk paint, I had a little paint left in my jar.  Waste not, want not.  So, I decided to paint a few clay pots.

Here are the tools of the trade.  Some MMS milkpaint in Ironstone, some 7 gypsies and Tim Holtz rub-ons, and let’s just pretend those pots aren’t painted yet 😉

I needed 3 coats of paint to get solid coverage, which is what I wanted.  But this paint dries so fast you can do 3 coats in no time.  I’d paint a coat, go fold a load of laundry, paint another coat, go surf pinterest, paint a 3rd coat, pour a glass of wine.  You get the idea, just multi-task while your paint dries

I did not, however, take time to take photos during the process, so you’ll just have to use your imagination.

Once the paint was dried, I sanded the pots down a little, to give them a distressed look.  Then I just added the rub-ons.  Who doesn’t love a good rub-on?  You can find the Tim Holtz brand at Michaels and Hobby Lobby.

After making sure the rub-on was adhered properly, I went over the entire pot with just a little MMS furniture wax.And voila.  Some sweet little painted pots.

I love a quick 20 minute transformation.  In this case, it’s the mirror from the Linden Hills dresser.  I knew I didn’t want to put it back on the dresser.  It’s very heavy, and it wasn’t stable on the dresser.  Also, I think the dresser is the perfect size to hold a widescreen TV, so no mirror necessary.  I decided to practice one of the techniques I learned at MMS training on it, a hemp oil resist.

Here it is before.

And here it is after.

This is MMS Luckett’s Green.  I love the way it chipped, and I encouraged that with the hemp oil resist.

Want to learn about hemp oil resist?  We’ll be teaching an advanced techniques class at the Round Barn soon and it will include this technique and some others.  Hope you can join us.

I picked up a bag of MMS milkpaint in Trophy the other day.  I wanted to experiment with it to see what shades of grey I could get out of it.  I find that looking at colors on the computer or even on swatches from the paint store is just not the same thing as testing them out live.

So, I pulled out some old vintage suitcases.  They were OK, but nothing special, which made them the perfect candidates for a paint job.  I grabbed a couple of my favorite stencils and some supplies and was ready to go.

On the larger suitcase, I started with Trophy straight up.  I knew I didn’t want it to go too dark, so for my top coat I used the MMS furniture wax instead of hemp oil.  I used Martha Stewart craft paint in Lake Fog for the stencil.  I find that Martha’s paint has a good consistency for stenciling.

The Trophy is very nice on its own, but I know I want a lighter grey for my next project.  So for the slightly smaller suitcase, I used 1/2 Trophy mixed with 1/2 Ironstone.  I stenciled with Adirondack acrylic paint in Mushroom.  I finished that with the MMS furniture wax as well.

I ended up with a lovely pair of painted suitcases, plus a better feel for what paint and top coat I’ll need for my next piece of furniture.

With this set of fabulous luggage, I need to head to Paris.  Or perhaps just to retailer training for Miss Mustard Seed milk paint in Madison, Wisconsin!  I’ll be there next Monday along with Lori from the Round Barn.  I’m looking forward to learning some new tricks.  Watch for MMS milk paint workshops at the Round Barn beginning in March!

If something isn’t painted, I tend to paint it.  I just can’t help myself.  I love the transformative power of paint.  Recently my friend Cathy gave me a wooden tool caddy in a dark stained wood.  I was in the middle of painting a dresser with Miss Mustard Seed’s “Luckett’s Green” and I had a little left over.  I figured it was just enough for the toolbox.

I wish I had thought to take a ‘before’ picture.  I’m sure I’ll get better at that as I go.  Right?  Right.

So, a couple of coats of Luckett’s Green, then some sanding, followed by a quick rub-down with Hemp Oil and voila!  I also added a fab metal number plate that just happened to match perfectly.  I’ll display this for the holiday season with one of my fav holiday decorating books and some of my vintage ornaments, but it will likely eventually end up at my next occasional sale.