Old Door Headboard

Ever since we upgraded to a king size bed we have not gotten a headboard.  First off I am not sure why they are sooooooooooooo much more expensive than queen size ones.  They are not that much wider.  Anyway, a while back I had originally planned on making an upholstered headboard.  I bought fabric and batting but holy smokes the foam was so expensive, I kept putting it off.  I have seen many DIY headboards out of old doors and after looking into we decided that was the way to go.  We bought an old door and some molding and then Chris got to work.  

He sanded down the door, cut it down some, attached the molding and then primed it with black primer.  I then painted it with the leftover paint from our coffee table and added a deeper blue and added calcium carbonate to make it chalk paint.  First I took an old candle and rubbed it along a lot of the edges so I could distress it better. After 2 coats of paint had dried, i first started sanding with a brown paper bag, then I went through with fine, medium, and course grit sandpaper in random areas so that the distressing did not look too uniform.  After I was done sanding I glazed the heck out of it so that it would really get into the cracks.  We finished it with Annie Sloan wax and it turned out perfect!

We mounted it to the wall and that was a little tricky cause the window sills were in the way, but it makes a huge impact in our room.  Now our mismatched lamps and nightstands look crappy... i se another project in our future:)

Ok, enough with the jibjab here are some pics.

I unfortunately don't have a before pic. It was a dirty white door.

This is after I finished sanding.

A close up of the molding after sanding.

This is after it was glazed.

A close up, Glazed and waxed

Mounted on the wall in our room:)

Coffee Table Redo!

So like almost every redo I forgot to take greta pics before or even during.  I bought this coffee table at a shop solid wood for like $80 bucks 3 years ago.  It has been a great table but it just need that something extra.  With all the stuff I do for my Salty Sisters Junk Business you would think I would have a really great house... Wrong... I feel like its very vanilla... so this is the table top.

and this is the base... I think it is some mexican antique reproduction thing, but it was solid wood and very sturdy.

I made chalk paint in turquoise... Now this isn't chalkboard paint, this stuff just has a nice chalky finish and it distresses very well.  1 part calcium Carbonate, 2 parts paint and a dash of water.  This is after i sanded the edges.

This is after glazing with a dark glaze.

Chris staining the boards that he thoroughly distressed 

Boards drying

close up of the details

It turned out great and we are so excited about our joint masterpiece!

It still need waxing and sealing.

Just a note on the wood.  We did not go cheap on the lumber cause we wanted to showcase it so the table top wood cost about $50 from a specialty lumber yard.

Enjoy!  now onto our headboard project:)

Funky Paper Angels

Ok now for a project that does work and that is sooo easy that anyone can do it and would be fun to have people make for themselves at a party even.

I ended up making them for a friend to take to her tree trimming party.  And everyone liked them so much I thought the kids in my family would get a kick out of them, but then they were just so funny I mad one for every family member.  And then they were so easy I made them for all of my friends and passed them out at a party I had this weekend.

Huge Hit!

My cousin and brother Are kind of towards the top and theirs are hysterical cause my cousin looks like he has a mullet and has a weird face and my brothers got his big ole tongue hangin out!

I also like how my grand parent's turned out using old black and white pics!  I might have to redo my other grandparents angels, I have a great picture of my grandfather in the army with a cig in his mouth that would probably turn out pretty funny!

So here is what you do.  I got the pictures and cropped it down to everyone's faces, then in publisher I laid them all out onto a page and tried to make everyone's head size about the same.  Then I just printed it out on a piece of card stock and cut them out.  The goofier the picture the funnier the angel.

Then I took a ton of scraps of scrapbook paper and free hand cut triangles for the body and then I used a contrasting paper for the wings and free hand cut them as well.  Using scrap book glue I glued them all together.

I cut silver tinsel piper cleaners into threes and hot glued them to the backs of the heads and when they were dry I curled the pipe cleaners down into halos.

If I had thought of making these earlier and had some more time I could have decorated them a bit and the possibilities are endless!  I tried to match up paper patterns to fit personalities.  

I plan on using these instead of gift tags to Identify everyone's presents.

Some tips:  It would be great to laminate them before adding the halos or use sturdier paper for the bodies and wings.

Enjoy!

Christmas Carol Art

I fell in love with this pic on Pinterest and decided to make an attempt on a smaller scale for my home.

http://pinterest.com/pin/196821446184586110/

And this is how it turned out.  Not too bad, although I like the white on charcoal better, but it was easier to do the black on white to try for the first time.

 I added some gold and silver glitter to accent the letters and give it a twinkling effect.

I have 2 ornaments that I will be sharing with y'all this weekend.  Nothin like some last minute crafting:)

Halloween Wrap-Up

This was another successful Halloween!  Being one of my favorite holidays I try not to spare any details:)  But alas it is over and time to move on to new projects.

Esmeralda was a hit this year and even had a fellow witch, Mandy, to conjure with!  She brought her own broom and has the best witch laugh!

So here are some pics of the night!!

 This is my neighbor, The Beautiful Mia, as a jellyfish!

Let's stop for a second and talk about Mia's awesomeness! I helped her assemble her umbrella, we used a clear umbrella, cut even strips of bubble wrap, used clear and iridescent plastic gift wrap shreds, and this really awesome silver decomesh tubing.  With some super hot, hot glue, we stuck it all together.

What really makes the outfit is Mia's fabulous gagaesque twist!  The white wig and the glittery mask were so fun.  Her dress was from a bargain bin at a theatrical shop, and the chiffon was so pretty flowing as she walked!  Best costume hands down!

Of course we did get a little inspiration from Martha:)

I love this picture so I edited it 3 times!  Why is dry ice so darn cool?  I have no idea but it sure gave off the impression that I had real magic! hahaha!

This night time version shows how the cauldron looks lit up in the dark.

You take grape vine wreaths, and set a glass bowl inside filled with orange Halloween lights, and then stuff yellow tissue paper in the cracks.  It was pretty great.

 The table was pretty difficult to shoot with my standard camera, there is just so much going on it's difficult to show all the details.

But, I can kinda list how I put a lot of it together.

There are 2 card tables with a black plastic Halloween themed table cloth.  Then I put Halloween orange lights on the table and then draped gray creepy cloth over everything.  The tower is just a metal home decor accent that I covered with orange lights and gray and black creepy cloth and hung a skeleton.  I have a black wire tree with caged crow lights,  a stack of old books, skulls of varying sizes a bird cage with crows, potted green plants, spiders, rats, and silver pumpkins.  I used old wine and liquor bottles stuffed with corks and rags with moss and stuff, and I printed some free labels from the internet.  And I have a couple of glass jars and bottles that I stacked around.  I made a faux candy apple and put it in a cloche and made a tag that said poison apple.  I used candle sticks to give height to skulls and other props and I shoved spanish moss all around.

Then of Course you cant have a witch's potion table without some real live ingredients.

Eyeballs:  Plasic eyes and grapes with a splash of water

Bullfrog kidneys:  Kidney beans

Ogre snot: slime mad from glue water and borax

Zombie brains:  cold sticky linguine

Shrunken head soup: mini skulls in water

Crusty Scabs:  Craisins

 Brains and Ogre snot

I lay a piece of cheese cloth over the bowls and then I rip holes,  the cloth is transparent so you can kinda see through it, but it's not as obvious.

I have all the kids put their hands in each bowl and then I pause for a minute before I bring out a cauldron of candy.  If they don't want to touch the goo I have them scream as loud as they can for their candy.

My script runs along the lines of 'I need little children's fingers to mix the ingredients for my potions!"

When I hear them coming I proclaim " I smell children, they smell delicious.. I mean so lovely"

When They are hesitant I say things like " don't worry I don't actually eat children on Halloween Night!"

When they don't want to touch the ogre snot I say "oh but it's fabulous for your skin!"

And when they don't want to touch the crusty scabs I say "oh come on!  Everybody picks their own scabs!"

It's all pretty gross but the kids really love it!  The parent's enjoy it too!

Until next year my pretties!

Super Easy Tree Skirt Tutorial Part 1

I am not great at sewing.  I am sure that if I applied myself and really concentrated, I would get better, but I just don't have a lot of time for that.

Last few years I have been using some fabric wrapped loosely around the bottom of my tree.  So I did some research and realized making a tree skirt isn't so hard and so I decided to give it a shot.

If you are capable of sewing well, then choose whatever fabric you please.  If you are like me I recommend fleece or burlap, and to expect a shabby chic look!

I chose burlap.  Here we go!

1.  Spread fabric out on the floor and find the spot you would like for your middle,  I measured the width and divided it by half and used that as my middle.

2. Tie a marker to a string and tape the other end to your center spot.

3.  Draw a circle with your marker

 4.  Cut your fabric along the marked line.  I cut along the inside of the maker line so that it was cut off.  Although you can see where I messed u a little.  You can flip over the fabric if that happens.  If you are using Fleece you will have a nice clean line that wont fray.

5.  I decided to add a ruffle using burlap ribbon.  Making ruffles with burlap is sooo easy.  At the edge of your strip you can just pull a string of the burlap the runs along the top and it gathers right away.

6.  I did run a loose stitch through the ruffle to sew it to the skirt.  It was nice and sloppy because I plan on covering it up.  It could look cool to use red embroidery floss to run a thick craft stitch along the top.

7.  This will be in part 2 of the tutorial which I will post in a couple of weeks.  I plan on bordering the entire ruffle with these rosettes made from Muslin.  I will show a tutorial for the rosettes this week!

I hope this was informative and inspires you to make one for yourself!!

Photo Transfer Tutorial

Came across this great photo tutorial at Delia Creates and I decided to try it out myself.  Please go to Delia Creates to get more detailed instructions but here's a little run down of how it goes.

Supplies:

8x10 Picture (Printed off your laser jet printer)

Artist Gel Medium

8x10 Canvas

Spray bottle with water

Paint optional

Here's what you do...

If you want a colored background, paint the canvas your color and let it dry... if not, skip this step.

With a paint brush or a foam brush cover the canvas with the gel medium.

While it is still wet carefully place your picture face down on the canvas.

Rub the paper picture until you have removed all the air bubbles.

Wait for gel to completely dry this could take 4 hours or more so be patient.

When everything is dry spray the paper with the water and start to rub off all the paper.  This is REALLY messy, wet paper chunks everywhere!

Keep rubbing until all the paper is gone and only the image remains.  Try not to rub to long in one spot or you will take off the image too.

This image was done without painting the background

This one was painted blue before transferring the image 

This technique leaves a great distressed finish.

Enjoy!

These boots were made for walkin!

I saw these lane boots at Keys Country, a local boutique nearby with really fabulous stuff!

I absolutely adore the turquoise soles!

These are my boots

I wear the crap out of these things and I love them to death...

So I figured with  a little turquoise paint, a little bit of gold, and some antiquing glaze I could get a similar look Like the lane boots.

Oh ya!! Looks good enough for me!!!  I put a coat of polycrylic on and hopefully that will keep the paint from rubbing completely off:)

I'll keep y'all posted!