the crocodile suitcase.

Published on by Quandie24 Comments

I’ve had this faux crocodile suitcase in my stash for quite some time.

As you can see in the lower left corner, it’s a little beat up.  It’s also one of those cases that are tapered, so it doesn’t lend itself to stacking because it becomes an angled surface when you lay it flat.

So I couldn’t really add it to my stack of vintage cases.

So I decided to paint it up to include at my occasional sale this summer.

After giving it a good cleaning, I applied two coats of Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth.  I painted the handle as well, but not the rest of the hardware.

Then I went through my stash of transfers to see what I could add.  I ended up choosing the I.O.D. Flora Parisiensis transfer.

I had to cut it up and rearrange it a bit, overlapping some of the elements, to fit my suitcase.

But that wasn’t difficult.

Once I had the transfer on, I went over it gently with one of Dixie Belle’s 220 grit sanding sponges to both distress the transfer and to bring back a little bit of that crocodile texture.

I finished everything off with some of DB’s clear wax.

This suitcase would be perfect for extra storage of things like Christmas decorations, or even off-season clothing because it does not have a musty fabric lining.

This interior is easy to wipe clean.

I have to admit, using a $30+ transfer was probably not a wise investment for a vintage suitcase that I plan to sell.  It’s unlikely that I can charge more than $45 or so for it.  In other words, I’m not expecting to make much of a profit, if any at all.

But I have an embarrassingly large stash of unused transfers that I’ve had on hand for a while.  Many of them are several years old or more.  At this point I think it’s wise to just go ahead and use them.  It’s not like I’m making any money on them sitting in my cupboard.

What I really should do is quit buying more!  But I can’t seem to help myself.  However, if I enjoy revamping items with them, and in the end I’m not actually losing money, I count that as a win.  For those of you who may actually have to make a living at this, then this probably isn’t a good idea for the use of an expensive transfer.

I also used this transfer on a tackle box last year, and I didn’t regret it one bit.

So if you’re just creating for your own enjoyment, I say go for it!

I think this suitcase turned out lovely, but I think whether or not it’s an improvement will be a matter of personal preference.  I’m sure some of you may prefer the original faux crocodile look over this floral one.

What do you think?

a harbinger of spring.

Published on by Quandie6 Comments

Good morning from the garden!

Actually, as I mentioned on Friday, I’m not really in my garden this morning.  I’m out visiting my mom.  But I just had to get some photos of the first flowers of spring before I left town so I whipped up this quick post for you before I left.

OK, OK, it’s still quite early for a Minnesota garden, but my scilla (Scilla siberica or Siberian squill) are blooming like crazy.

I have two different varieties of scilla, the bright blue one shown above and a white one with blue streaks.

Personally, I love this early harbinger of spring.  But some people consider it invasive and I even read one blog where the author called it ‘nasty’!  That feels a bit extreme to me.

But, I do get it.  This stuff will spread everywhere, and even into your lawn.

I will admit, I do have them popping up everywhere.

But I don’t mind, and in fact, I actually rather like it.  They die back down to the ground quite early in the season and then it’s like they were never there.

And I absolutely adore the carpet of color that I get just outside my kitchen window every April while other plants are barely even popping out of the ground.

This spot in particular is full of hostas, which are notoriously late breaking dormancy.  By the time the hostas start coming up, the scilla will be done.  By mid-May, this section of garden will look like this …

If you look closely, you can see the foliage of the scilla is starting to die back.  However, my other plants surrounding it, like brunnera and primrose are filling in.

By July you’ll never even know the scilla was there.

As for the scilla in the lawn, that gets mowed over with the first mowing of grass and after a couple of weeks you don’t even see them there anymore either.

I do see two problems with the scilla takeover.  First, it is a little bit of a chore to pull out the yellowed foliage if that’s what you want to do (and I usually do because it is a bit unsightly at that point).  Second, if you are trying to cultivate other very early native spring plants the scilla will compete with them for space.

To me they are worth it for their early spring show though.

Some years they even start to bloom before the snow melts.

Fortunately that was not the case this year!

I hope to find some daffodils blooming by the time I get home from my mom’s house, but as for the tulips, those darn deer are at them again this year.

When will I learn?  When fall bulb planting season arrives again this year, someone needs to remind me ‘no more tulips!’

As much as I love the look of them …

they aren’t worth the headache of trying to protect them from deer.

Last fall I planted some leucojum (a.k.a. summer snowflake), which are new to me.  They are deer resistant and should bloom around the same time as tulips.  I’m looking forward to seeing if they do well for me or not.  If I like them, I’ll put more of those in the ground this fall instead of tulips.  I’ll be sure to keep you posted.

In the meantime, I hope you are enjoying some spring blooms in your garden today!

 

when will I learn?

Published on by Quandie9 Comments

I can’t even begin to tell you guys how often I make the same mistake more than once.

You’d think I’d learn from my mistakes the first time around, but that is definitely not always the case.  Today’s project is a good example.

I think I found this flower bucket at the Goodwill.  Or maybe it was a garage sale.  I really don’t remember.

It’s a nice solid galvanized metal (not the flimsy ‘new’ sort of stuff).  I knew it could benefit from a paint job though.

So after giving it a good cleaning, I painted it with Dixie Belle’s Dried Sage.  Over time I have learned that chalk style paint is your best bet over metal like this.  It really doesn’t need any extra primer to help it stick.

Once I had the paint on I went through my embellishments to decide what to add.

I considered using a simple transfer, like I did on this flower bucket.

Or the one I just brought home from thrifting …

Or this one …

But as I was going through my stash I remembered the gorgeous paint inlay from the I.O.D. Melange set that I used on the trunk on our front porch last summer.

It looked like the perfect fit, and I’d only used it the one time so I should have been able to get a 2nd use out of it (like I did on the wooden box I shared earlier this week).  I knew it would be a bit more faint the 2nd time around, but I forgot to factor in whether or not it would work well over the Dried Sage paint, which is a bit on the darker side.

I do think this could have worked over a lighter shade, like Drop Cloth.  But it was really just too faint over the darker color.

That being said, other than the very faded look of it, I loved this design on the bucket.  And I just happened to have a 2nd set of the Melange inlay on hand.

So I scuff sanded over the faint inlay just to smooth out any texture, added another two coats of the Dried Sage, and then tried again with the fresh new inlay.

Ahhhh, so much better!

I just love it.

I did save the used paint inlay …

and maybe next time I’ll remember to use it over Drop Cloth!

Once the flower bucket was dry, I gave it a quick spray with some Rust-Oleum matte spray sealer to seal the inlay.  Once that dried, I went over it again with some clear wax.

I filled it up with some old paint brushes and some vintage wooden rulers for my photos.

But I really think it would be perfect for some dried hydrangeas.  Unfortunately, I didn’t harvest any this past fall because at the time I couldn’t think what I would use them for.

I guess that makes two lessons learned from this project.  First, don’t re-use a paint inlay over a darker color and second, always dry your hydrangeas, you never know when you’ll find a use for them!

In other news, my sister and I are off to visit our mom again.  But this time around I have some blog posts pre-scheduled to keep you entertained while I’m gone.  So be sure to stay tuned!

better safe than sorry.

Published on by Quandie11 Comments

Today I’m bringing you a wooden box makeover.  Actually, two wooden box makeovers.

These two have been waiting patiently all winter for a makeover and I’m finally getting around to them.  The box on the top is a small recipe card holder and the bottom box is one of those cedar Lane boxes that were given away to girls graduating from high school from the 1930’s through the 1980’s (read all about that here).

After giving both boxes a scuff sanding and good cleaning, I gave each two coats of Dixie Belle’s clear B.O.S.S.  They were both pretty orange in color and I was worried about the potential for bleed-thru.  I’ve run into bleeding boxes before, so ‘better safe than sorry’ so I simply started with the B.O.S.S.

Next up I painted the smaller box in Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth, and then I applied a section from the I.O.D. Melange paint inlay.  This was my 2nd use of this section of the inlay, I first used it on a similar recipe box back in December.  Here’s a picture showing that first use of the inlay for comparison purposes …

I.O.D. says you can re-use their paint inlays 2 to 3 times, although the image will get more and more faint with each use.  I have experimented with that with mixed results (more on that here), but I thought I’d give it a go again.

It’s definitely more faint.  Also, the inlay ended up tearing quite a bit when I removed it, so I won’t be getting a 3rd use out of it (and that has happened to me nearly every time I’ve used an inlay twice).  But that being said, I still think it worked out nicely for this 2nd use.

After sealing the inlay with some Rust-Oleum matte spray sealer to make sure it wouldn’t smear, I pulled out some scraps from the I.O.D. Floral Anthology transfer to apply to the box.

I love being able to use up these bits and pieces!

I think the recipe box turned out pretty sweet.

Next up I painted the Lane box in Dixie Belle’s Guacamole.  Once dry, I added some transfers from the I.O.D. Lover of Flowers set.

It wasn’t until I had the florals applied to the box that I realized there was a flaw in the transfer.

Do you see it?  Here, let me give you a close up.

There is a white shadow around the florals that is not supposed to be there.  I’m guessing that the transfer wasn’t lined up properly during the printing process.  I think they must print a white base first, and then add the color image over that.  Maybe?  I don’t really know how that process works.  But that white shadow is not the look I was going for.  It’s also definitely not how the transfer is supposed to look.

So far this seems to be the only page from my set that was effected, so that’s good.  Also, as I mentioned in a previous post, I did order two sets of Lover of Flowers and this same image in the 2nd set seems to be fine.

I purchased my transfers online from Vonda at The Painted Heirloom.  So I emailed her to ask about this.  She agreed that there was a flaw in the transfer and then sent me a replacement at no charge.  So if this ever happens to you, you should be sure to reach out to the retailer that sold you your transfer.  And I highly recommend The Painted Heirloom if you’re ordering online, she always ships orders super fast (I usually get them within 3 or 4 days), and clearly her customer service is excellent.

Unfortunately, if, like me, you already have your transfer in place before you notice a problem, you’re stuck with either living with it ‘as is’ or sanding the entire piece down and starting over which could be a bit of a bummer on a piece that is larger than this box.

Therefore, I would advise all of you to check your transfers over for this flaw before you apply them.  It can be hard to see since the transfer comes on a white backing sheet, but ‘better safe than sorry’ definitely applies here too.

I’ve decided to go ahead and try to sell my box ‘as is’, so I’m putting it in the pile for my occasional sale.  If it doesn’t go I may have to sand it down and start over again, we’ll see.

But in the meantime, let me know which of these is your favorite.  I’m not gonna lie, I much prefer the smaller box.  Hopefully someone out there will love the more saturated colors on the Lane box, but if not, I can always go back to the drawing board.

the day for metals.

Published on by Quandie15 Comments

My friend opK and I hit the thrift shops last week and I came home with a nice little pile of things to makeover.

I’m always looking for wooden items to paint, but somehow I ended up with mostly metal items this time around starting with this trash can.

This is made out of heavy duty galvanized metal, the foot petal still works perfectly and it just needs a good cleaning.  I did a quick online search and found this exact trash can for sale on Wayfair for $81.99.  But I’m wondering, should I paint mine?  The one on Wayfair almost looks like it has a bit of a wash over the metal …

and I also see some rusty spots.  What do you think, leave a comment and let me know, add a wash or leave it alone?

Next up is this little group of items.

The little bird on a cage is already perfectly rusty and fabulous, and he’s going to fit on the urn in the front.  But first I’m going to rusty up that urn with some of the Dixie Belle Patina paint.  In fact, I’m going to rusty up all three of those other items.

Next up are a couple of buckets.

The tall one was a simple makeover.  After cleaning it up, I gave it a couple of coats of Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth and then added an I.O.D. transfer from the Brocante set.

It already had a nice black rolled rim, and I’ve painted a couple of similar pieces in the past that ended up looking like enamelware.

As for the smaller bucket, it had some strange textural flaws.

I don’t know what that is, but I couldn’t sand it down so I decided to just work with it.  I mixed some of Dixie Belle’s Sea Spray texture additive with some of their Dried Sage paint and then stippled it onto the bucket with a chip brush.

Once dry I sanded it lightly to knock back some of the peaks.  Then I added a coat of Drop Cloth over it, and once dry, sanded again.  Finally I added another of the Brocante transfers.

Now that it has an overall texture, the drippy looking clumps don’t stand out at all.

I love the end result on both buckets.

I did manage to find a couple of non-metal items while out thrifting that day.

I’ll admit that I was a bit hesitant about the chalkboard.  I think the chalkboard phase might be over.  But it’s one of those more authentic vintage chalkboards with a little wooden rail to hold the chalk.

So I thought I’d take a chance on it.

After giving it a good cleaning, I refreshed the wooden frame with some brown wax and then I simply added a little different wording to it.

Now we’ll see whether or not it sells.

As for the other item, it’s a cookbook holder.

Someone had decoupaged it to within an inch of its life.  That’s three layers of torn paper, all decoupaged into place.  It took me forever to get those off.  It involved lots of soaking with water, scraping with a razor blade and finally some sanding.

I wanted to give it a far more subtle look so after painting it with Dixie Belle’s Dried Sage, I simply added a paint inlay from the I.O.D. Melange set.

Those artichokes seemed like the right touch for a cookbook holder.

While opK and I were heading from one thrift store to another, she spotted an estate sale sign so we hit the brakes to check it out.  It ended up being the estate of some serious antique collectors.  They had collections of antique crocks and stoneware jugs, old glass bottles, vintage soda pop bottles, and interestingly enough, mortar and pestle sets.  I bet there were at least 20 or more of those.

As can often be the case at professionally run estate sales, most of the prices were too high for me.  But I did come home with a couple of things.

I couldn’t resist the little enamelware pot.  It was $18, so a little steep for me but not outrageous.

After washing it up, I decided to add an I.O.D. transfer to it.

I’m sure that antique purists will be horrified by that.  But the transfer could be easily removed down the road when I get tired of it, or if I eventually sell it on to someone who doesn’t like it.

But for now I’m planning to keep this little pot and use it as a vase.  And I think that transfer made it just a little more special.

As for the other items, they are hose guards.  At least I’m fairly sure that’s what they are.

If you aren’t familiar with hose guards, you put them at the edge of a garden bed to prevent your garden hose from dragging through the plants.  I purchased some plastic hose guards last summer and they didn’t even last through one season.

These are super heavy, maybe cast iron?  I’m not sure what material they are made out of, but I think they’ll be far superior to the plastic ones.  And at only $5 for all 5 of them, they were definitely a bargain.

So overall it was a successful day of thrifting.  Which of my finds is your favorite?  And what about that trash can, would you add a wash?  Leave a comment and let me know.

champagne taste on a beer budget.

Published on by Quandie12 Comments

I went to a fantastic vintage sale recently with my friend opK (it was Haupt Antiek Market for any of you locals who may be familiar).  They had several really lovely, and authentic, French blue enamelware pitchers.  At $98 each, they were a bit out of my price range though.

However, when I got back home I remembered that last summer a good friend of Mr. Q’s offered me a trio of metal French style pitchers.

Unfortunately, they weren’t the authentic French enamelware kind.  But even though these are inexpensive knock-offs, I thought it would be fun to try to give them an authentic look using paint.

The first pitcher to get a makeover was this one.

I initially planned to give this one a rusty look with the Dixie Belle Patina paint.  So after cleaning it and then giving it a base coat of Dixie Belle’s Midnight Sky chalk paint, I gave it the rusty treatment using their Iron paint and Green spray (for full instructions on this process, check out this how-to post).

While it did turn out exactly as expected, it feels a bit boring to me (more on that in a minute).

I then moved on to the next pitcher.

After cleaning, I gave it two coats of Dixie Belle’s Drop Cloth.  Then I added a transfer from the I.O.D. Brocante collection.

I then gave it a spotty rust treatment.

I’d recently seen a YouTube video by The Provincial Farmhouse where she used the Dixie Belle Iron paint and Green activator spray to add some rust to a metal tray that she was painting to look like faux enamelware.  So I decided to give that a go on this pitcher.

Basically I just dabbed some of the Iron paint onto my pitcher here and there and then used a brush to dab the spray over the wet Iron paint (spraying it wouldn’t have given me enough control).

Over time that rust will continue to develop and look more authentic.

I love the sense of age that this added to what otherwise looked like a rather freshly painted pitcher.

After being inspired by those authentic French pitchers at Haupt Antiek Market, I pulled out the Miss Mustard Seed milk paint in French Enamel for the third pitcher.

It had a very shiny factory paint job both inside and out, so after giving it a good cleaning, I painted it with a base coat of Dixie Belle’s Dried Sage.  I knew the milk paint wouldn’t stick to that shiny original paint.  The chalk paint will adhere nicely to it though, and the milk paint will adhere nicely to the chalk paint.

Once I had the French Enamel paint on, I gave this one some spotty rust as well.

And as you can see in that photo, I did get a few small chippy spots.

I added a topcoat of Dixie Belle’s clear wax to this one.

I loved the end result, and I especially loved the French Enamel color, so I brought my somewhat boring rusty pitcher back out and painted over the rust with the rest of my already mixed milk paint.

I noticed that the milk paint was getting a little chippy, and then I remembered that I had added a dark wax to a couple of spots on this pitcher.

So those waxed spots were resisting the milk paint, while it adhered fairly well in the non-waxed areas.

I wanted to preserve that chippy look but still prevent more paint from flaking off, so I gave the pitcher a quick spray with some Rust-Oleum matte spray sealer.  Once that was dry, I followed it up with another two coats of Dixie Belle’s flat clear coat.

And with that, all three pitchers have been transformed.

Now, I fully realize that none of these are going to pass as authentic French enamelware.  But rather than a price tag of $98, I’ll probably mark mine somewhere in the $18 range instead.  So for those of us with champagne taste on a beer budget, these would probably do just fine.

What do you think?

forget me not.

Published on by Quandie2 Comments

I pulled this galvanized box out of my stash the other day.

I thought I could dress it up with some paint and more of the new I.O.D. Lover of Flowers transfers.  I went through the transfers and decided the forget-me-nots would be lovely on it, so that led me to then chose Dixie Belle’s Serenity Silk paint for the box.

It’s a really lovely shade of blue-green that leans a little towards grey, and it works beautifully with the colors in the forget-me-nots.

I scuff sanded my box, then washed it up with Dawn dish soap and hot water.  The Silk paint then went on as smooth as … well … silk.

But I forgot one little, bitty thing.  The Silk paint is an acrylic paint.  And I find that it does not adhere to smooth metal as well as chalk paint.  It tends to be more prone to scratching, and more importantly, prone to pulling away from your surface when you try to apply a transfer.  You can see where that began to happen as I was applying the typography portion of the transfer …

There are a couple of things I could have done differently.  First up, I could have used the Bonding Boss first to improve the adhesion of my paint.  But I didn’t.  Second, I could have let my paint dry for at least 24 hours before adding the transfer.  But I didn’t.  Third, I could have just used a chalk paint since I was painting over a slick surface.  But, I didn’t do that either.

After struggling to get the first portion of the transfer down, and finding that my paint was pulling away.  I put everything aside and let my paint dry until the next day.  I was then able to carefully apply the rest of the transfer successfully.

I should point out that I purchased two sets of the Lover of Flowers transfer.  I knew I would be able to use it on lots of small projects, and I also knew that I.O.D. new releases tend to sell out quickly so I stocked up.

I used the forget-me-not poem from one set, and the floral swags from both sets to decorate this box.

I cut both of the swags apart to create one swag that was twice as wide.  I wanted to fill the entire space on the front of my box.

I finished up with a coat of clear wax over the entire box.  Although the Silk paint has a built in topcoat, the transfer does need to be sealed.

Although I originally just filled it with books for my photos, I also think it would make a great container for some flowering houseplants.

As a sidebar, the plant on the right is the Streptocarpus Ladyslippers™ Deep Blue Vein from my front window box that I decided to try overwintering in the house this year.  It has had lots of lush green foliage all winter, but it only recently started putting out blooms again.  On the right is a potted azalea that some friends gifted me with the other day.

I’m not going to keep this one though, I’ll be adding it to the pile of stuff I’ve set aside for a potential occasional sale this summer, unless one of you locals wants to snatch it up first!

fresh as a daisy.

Published on by Quandie21 Comments

When I first saw the new I.O.D. Lover of Flowers transfers I just knew I had to have it (along with a couple of other new ones).

I love that it has a combination of both florals and typography to go with them.

There are 8 pages of designs, and I will get at least 10 or more small projects out of one pack.  So at $22 for the set, I think that’s a bargain.

When I was ordering this I was really drawn to the roses, and the pretty blue forget-me-nots.  But after meeting the mailman at my door for my package and ripping it open, I just knew I had to find a use for the daisies.

So I went to my stash and pulled out this simple lockbox.

It was the perfect candidate for a ‘fresh as a daisy’ makeover.

After giving it a light scuff sanding, and then a good wash with some Dawn dish soap and hot water, I gave it a coat of Dixie Belle’s clear B.O.S.S.  Once that was dry, I painted the inside in DB’s Guacamole and the outside in my favorite Drop Cloth.

Then came the fun part of adding the transfers.  I cut up the different elements on this page of the transfer …

and then started laying them out on my box.

I wasn’t initially planning to use the Laburnum floral, but in the end I felt like I needed a little bit more than just the daisies.

I messed up the poem slightly by putting the lower half of it on the top of the box, and then the upper half on the front, but I don’t think anyone is going to notice that.

I absolutely love the muted colors of these florals in combination with the Drop Cloth.  So sweet.

I didn’t forget about the inside.  There was another page of the transfer with just a single Marguerite Daisy image, so I added that to the inside lid.

By the way, if you’re wondering what all of that white stuff is outside the window in the background of that photo … yes, that is snow.  I took these photos during our recent snowstorm.  Mother Nature seems to be playing a cruel trick on us.  After a brown Christmas, and a mostly brown winter, and even gardening weather in early March, she decided to bombard us with nearly a foot of snow at the end of March.  Just when I thought spring was here!

Anyway, back to the box.  I finished it off with a couple of coats of Dixie Belle’s flat clear coat both inside and out to seal it up nicely.

What do you think of it?

Of course this box is for sale locally, so if any of my local readers are interested be sure to check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page.  Otherwise, I’ll likely eventually bring it into the shop.

Thank you to Dixie Belle Paint Co for providing the B.O.S.S., paint and sealer used on this project.

the barn makeover.

Published on by Quandie20 Comments

You’ll remember the mini barn that I purchased at my local Goodwill.

It was missing a bit of trim, and a section of wall between the two doors, so I sent it over to Ken’s workshop for some repairs.

He replaced that section of wall, the trim on six of the windows, and one of the little door latches …

and he also added a little trim to the loft opening.

Next up I gave the entire barn a scuff sanding, and after wiping it down I gave it two coats of Dixie Belle’s B.O.S.S. in grey.  I didn’t really need to block any stains, but I thought it would be easier to cover that red and green if I had a grey primer down first.

In hindsight, I wish I had painted the entire barn in a dark color such as DB’s Coffee Bean first so that I could have distressed my final paint back to the darker color.  In the end, I could see both the grey B.O.S.S. and the green when I later attempted to distress the roof.  Rookie mistake.

Next up I painted the roof and the interior of the barn in Dixie Belle’s Dried Sage, and the exterior walls in their Drop Cloth.  It still took two coats of paint to cover the grey primer, so again, I would have been just as well off with a darker paint.  Once my paint was dry, I experimented with some different colors on the window trim.  I tried a bright white (DB’s Fluff) first, which was distinguishable from the Drop Cloth, but I didn’t like it.  I tried Coffee Bean, but I didn’t like that either.  I even considered just painting them with the Drop Cloth, but ultimately I decided to go with the Dried Sage.

After a bit of sanding to distress them, I think they look good.

Next up I pulled out Dixie Belle’s Farmhouse silkscreen stencils

I especially thought the Fresh Eggs one would be perfect on the side of the barn.

I cut up the one with the chicken and just used the typography on both the other side …

and the front of the barn.

Once all of my paint was dry, I gave everything a coat of Dixie Belle’s clear wax.

And that brings me to the lights.

As I was working on this project I kept thinking how fun it would be to have some barn lights over the doors.  So I went on Etsy just to see what was available out there.  I ended up finding the perfect lights at Miniature Crush (although I ordered them through Etsy, you can also order items directly from Miniature Crush, and as a bonus for me, they are also located in Minnesota).

They came in a matte black color that was rather one dimensional though.

I wanted them to look galvanized so I pulled out some of Dixie Belle’s Gilding Wax.  I started with the Zinc, but it was too dark and barely showed up over the black.  So then I tried the Silver, which looked pretty good but was maybe just a bit too bright.  I went back and added a bit of the Zinc over the Silver, and I still didn’t love it.

It doesn’t quite look authentic to me.

So then I pulled out the Dixie Belle Patina Paint in Copper, along with the Green activating spray.  I first removed as much of the Gilding Wax as I could with a q tip dipped in mineral spirits.  Then I painted over the lights with the Copper paint, and followed that up by dabbing the activating spray over the wet paint using a small brush.

Eureka!  So much better.  The totally look legit now.

One quick note about these lights.  They are battery operated, and they have a little switch on the side to turn them on and off.

To get to the battery (which is replaceable) you have to screw off the back part of the base.  So you can’t really glue these lights in place permanently.  Instead they come with a tiny adhesive magnet on the back.  You apply the adhesive side of the magnet to your item, then the light fixture hangs onto the magnet.  Here’s the thing, that means they come away pretty easily.  And that makes this item unsafe for small children who could pull them off and choke on them.  So they would have to be removed if you wanted this to be a child’s toy.

In addition, the lights were $19.99 each!  So now I have an additional $40 invested in this makeover.  I’m not sure that was a wise decision, especially since I plan to try and sell this one.

But all of that being said, I sure do love how they look!  And maybe someone else will as well.

I initially thought I would stop here, but then I was at Hobby Lobby and I came across a miniature weathervane.

And at only $2.99, it was so much cheaper than the lights!  So how could I resist?

I gave it the same treatment as the lights using the Copper patina paint.

The verdigris patina develops pretty quickly with the Copper paint.  And doesn’t the weathervane also look so much more authentic now?

I had to drill a hole in the roof of the barn to attach it, but that was fairly simple.

And with that, my barn makeover is complete.

How cute is that?  I much prefer my toned down neutrals to the red and green.

What do you think?

If any of you locals just can’t resist adding this adorable barn to your decor, check out my ‘available for local sale‘ page for more details.

preventing rusty bleed thru.

Published on by Quandie14 Comments

When I paint rusty toolboxes, I always try to mention that I start with a coat of Dixie Belle’s B.O.S.S. to prevent existing rust from bleeding through my paint.

Today I thought I’d elaborate on that a bit.

First up, let me start by saying that I used the word ‘prevent,’ but that might not be entirely precise.  I don’t want to say that the B.O.S.S. will completely eliminate any possibility of future rust bleed-thru.  However, it will definitely mitigate most of the problem.

Also, I should clarify that Dixie Belle has replaced the original B.O.S.S. (shown above) with their new Bonding Boss.  In addition to blocking stains and odors, the Bonding Boss also improves the adhesion of your paint.

But either of these products will work to reduce bleed thru, so if you have the older version you can continue to use it for this purpose.

This rusty, crusty metal tool caddy is a great example of what happens when you don’t use a blocking primer over rust.

It had been out in my stash for ages.  I’m not even sure how long, or where I picked it up.  As you can see, it started out with some pretty significant rust.

I’d pulled it out of the stash sometime last year thinking that I could paint it black and add the I.O.D. Rose Chintz paint inlay.  At the time I figured I didn’t need to worry about blocking the rust because it was going to be black, so it wouldn’t show too much (which I’m sure would not have worked out).  But for some reason, after I had it painted black, I really didn’t love it.  So I shoved it back in the ‘future project pile’.

Then I pulled it out again a few months later and decided to give it a coat of Dixie Belle’s Dried Sage.  Why?  I honestly don’t even remember.  But really, I didn’t love that color on it either, so back in the pile it went again.

I also had forgotten that I didn’t give this one a coat of B.O.S.S. to block the rust before adding the black paint.  So here we are another six months or so later, and now the rust had definitely bled thru both the coat of Midnight Sky, and two coats of Dried Sage.

Whoops!  Anyone who has experienced any kind of bleed thru knows that paint alone won’t block it, no matter how many coats you apply.

Just look at all of that rust coming through!

Fast forward to last week when I once again pulled it out of the pile.  This time I gave it not just one, but two coats of Dixie Belle’s B.O.S.S.  I’ll admit, unless a toolbox is especially rusty, I usually only give them one coat of B.O.S.S., but the instructions for this product do say to use two coats for the best results.  This is true if you’re trying to block other sorts of stains as well like tannin bleed thru, or the ink from a Sharpie.

So I gave it two coats, allowing both to dry fully before moving on to the next.  I then gave the final coat of B.O.S.S. 24 hours to dry fully

I followed that up with one of Dixie Belle’s new National Park Collection colors from their Silk line called Everglades.

It only took what I like to call one and a half coats of Everglades to get good coverage.  In other words, I painted one full coat of paint, and then just had to go back and touch up a couple of spots that needed a little bit more.

I know not everyone is going to love this sort of pea green color, but I am really drawn to it.  If you prefer a chalk style paint over an acrylic (the Silk is acrylic), then Dixie Belle’s Guacamole is a good option.

It’s not quite as bright as the Everglades, but it’s a fabulous avocado shade.

Once the Everglades was dry, I pulled out the Floral Anthology transfer from I.O.D. and added a few florals.

If you haven’t heard, I.O.D. has come out with some new designs for spring and I couldn’t stop myself from ordering a few of them.  So while I wait for those to arrive, I was trying to use up some of my older transfers.

I also added some wording from the Classic Vintage Labels transfer from re.design with prima.

The Dixie Belle Silk line of paint has a built in topcoat, so I didn’t need to add a topcoat to the paint.  However, the transfers do need a topcoat to protect them over time, so I added a coat of Dixie Belle’s clear wax over the entire caddy (yes, you can wax over the Silk paint).

So far, so good.  But I’ve only had this painted for about a week.

I definitely need to hang onto this tool caddy for a few months more to be sure that the rust really isn’t going to bleed thru.  So this one is now going into my newly created ‘stuff I’m accumulating for a potential occasional sale at my house’ pile.  I’ll keep you posted on the results, so be sure to stay tuned!