70's end table turns British Invasion!!!

My British Invasion End Table Project

I found a brown 70's end table for $5.00. (Again forgot to take the before photo.) Picture brown, brown, brown, with the rustic darker dents...kind of appropriate for that gold and avocado green era. I'm sure there are some microscopic shag carpet fibers underneath.

Some people see ugly brown beat up end table with jam splotches on it. I see British Invasion! The door on the front reminded me of a British phone booth for some reason. So I painted the whole thing colonial blue. Then I taped off the British flag and painted each color. I just freehanded it with the tape. Yeah baby, that's what I'm talking about!!!

I used this great green painters tape that is awesome. It prevents the paint from bleeding through. I just used acrylic paint for the flag as I will eventually varnish over it to protect it.

I bought a big clock knob for the door, as it reminded me of big ben.

Next I will add some kind of British symbol on the shelf. Haven't decided yet. There is glass that goes on the top but I put it somewhere to protect it while I'm working on it. (Can't remember where I put it now...it's really safe now as I'll probably never find it.)

So that's it so far...still a work in progress.

 

Here are the before photos.

 

 

Here's a link to my blog entry where I finally finish the 70's British End Table!

Frightening Halloween Jars and Potions

I purchased some scary apothecary jar labels on etsy and collected some jars to put them on.

I printed out the labels on cardstock. Then I put clear packing tape over them to laminate them. Then I cut them out. Then I ran them through a xyron sticker maker to put adhesive on the back of the labels. Then I stuck them on the jars. I like to seal around the label edges with some glitter fabric paint. On some I used glue around the label and sprinkled on some embellishments. These jars are frightening, especially under the eerie glow of the "cow candle".

 

 

 I filled them with scary candy. Kids that came trick-or-treating were afraid of the jars, so I had to take the candy out and give it to them. 

BOO!

Button-eyed Crazy Pumpkins and Slash the Snowman

I love these pumpkins. I crocheted them from a free pumpkin pattern from Planet June!

But of course I had to give them some faces I could love and here they are. I keep them up year-round.

I need to make some more of these!!!

I also made a snowman version using the same pattern. I found a crochet hat and carrot pattern somewhere and added the hat on the snowman.

I named the snowman "Slash", because he looks kind of like the "Guns N Roses" slash with the hat...well if you are not seeing the resemblence, then you have not been crocheting long enough!!!

I spend a few minutes crocheting something strange during my lunch-hour sometimes.

I need to make some more of these. I love coming up with the faces.

Spooky Halloween Owls, creepy beaded spiders, and scary apothacary jars

Here are the owls I painted for Halloween from Crafty Wood Cutouts.

I put scrapbook paper on the front. I used some buttons I had for the eyes.

Scary beaded spiders!!!

There are tutorials all over the internet on how to make these. My friend at work made some and inspired me to make some. Here they are.

Here are some scary bottles I made

 

The corks are made from potpourri items that looked the right size. I just drew a jack skellington face on a gourd from a bag of potpourri. I stuck a wire in the gourd and glued in into the cork.  The orange jar is topped with something from the potpourri bag that was the right size. Don't know what kind of plant/seed pod it is. I still need to fill them with something. The clear jar is a vinegar bottle and I got the orange jar at hobby lobby. I print the lables on my ink-jet printer, then cover the label with clear packing tape to laminate it. Then I run it through a xyron sticker maker to put adhesive on the back, then I stick the label on. I usually seal the edges with some fabric paint or glossy accents to make the label more water resistant. (You can't put them in the dishwasher, they are only water-resistant.)

Happy Halloween!

Flea-market table Makeover for Baby's Room Project

Here is the table project for the new grand-baby! It was a thrift store table that started off kind of an orange-oak color and was pretty beat up. I stripped the top of the table and then painted the rest.

The baby's room is bright and colorful. I used Behr bright colored paint (the good stuff with the primer in it) and a glossy varnish.The top of the table was pretty after I stripped off the old orange color, so I left it natural.

 

All ready for baby!

Designer Bibs for Baby Tessie

I made these designer bibs for the grandbaby girl due this August!!! I got a little carried away with my old scraps of fabric and made 17 bibs! I got the pattern from a shop on etsy called GrammysBabies. 

I like the pattern as you can piece it together so you can use smaller pieces of fabric you may already have. The bibs have a velcro closure. I purchased some babyville velcro in bright colors that I was able to find at JoAnns. It comes on large rolls. It will last forever as the bibs don't use very much.

I made some out of flannel and some out of cotton. It's a fun pattern to have around as you can make a few to have available for baby shower gifts.

Here they are all wrapped up ready for the baby shower! What says it better than I love Grandma on your bib!!!

The Country Band Scrapbook Wall Art

I never really understood country music until my son was in a Country Band one summer that played at all the local city festivals around my state. So we went "on tour" with them for many Saturdays during the summer. It was tons of fun. We made it a point to sample at least 1 strange food item from a vendor booth at each festival.

I learned to appreciate country music and found the tunes to be very catchy!

I made this "tribute" to the summer fun we had "on tour" with the country band! It's a scrapbook on wood with a clear coating of Epoxy Resin - Envirotex lite.

My son is a guitarist. Here's a link to the new band they are currently in, Artie Hemphill and the Iron Horse Band.
Here's link to Drew Williams Music who was the keyboard / singer.

 This was an interesting project. I used a "tile board". It's a board with some raised square areas so when you glue photos on, they look like raised tile. Here's a link to someone that sells them on etsy. I got mine a a local craft store that used to carry them. Once I had all the photos I decoupaged them onto the wood, making sure to also cover the fronts of all the images with decoupage glue as well. Then I glued embellishments all over the board. Make sure to seal all paper with decoupage glue for the next step.

After everything was thoroughly dry...it takes a few days to dry completely, then I put the whole thing up on some wooded blocks to raise it from a table surface. On the table surface a put a cookie sheet I didn't care about covered in lots of tin foil and paper to catch the mess.

That's because you next pour epoxy resin over the whole thing. It will dribble over the sides and make a large mess, but luckily there is a cookie sheet and lots of paper underneath to absorb the mess. You have to make sure the entire surface is sealed with decopauge glue so you won't get any bubbles. If you see some bubbles surfacing, you can get a straw and lightly blow air through the straw towards the bubbled area. Since I had sealed my surface with decoupage glue first and it was completely dry, I didn't get any bubbles.

It turned out great and I love looking at it and remembering the fun summer we had touring with "the band". I saw many events at the various city fairs around the state while waiting for the band performance. I saw a chain-saw cutting competition, a show-dog jumping competition, a demolition derby, a rodeo, many prize animals, lots of exhibits of fair items like the worlds most organized jar of bottled carrots. There were prize-winning ribs, fried items on sticks, those cinnamon almonds that I loved. One time there was even a mighty micro-burst storm that demolished all the portable canopies at the fair and luckily the stage was a permanent structure so it all worked out as we all hung onto the canopy over the sound equipment. These are all things I would have never experienced if not for that summer of Americana.

I saw lots of great families enjoying the time together and grew very fond of this slice of Americana and have vowed to get a big buckle!

Maybe something like this:

Here's a link to a great tutorial that does a good job of explaining the basic process. It's for making coasters on tile, but the process is the same. Yee-haw!!!!