Bedside table or two

I have finally finished painting and waxing the bedside table.  It would be so lonely on its own I had to find a mate.

# 1 - the three draw was white melamine

 

# 2 - the two drawer was dark stained timber

 

Both the cabinets are Queen Anne style so although not a matching pair they won't look out of place either side of the bed especially after being introduced to Provence!

 

 

 

 

Hello, I see a door

This is what happens when you get bored with your front door and you know about Annie Sloane Chalk Paint, thanks to Sparrow and Jack Interiors.

Said door has given faithful service for the last 27 years but it was looking a bit worn.

BEFORE

 

and, drumrolllllll please

 

AFTER.

 

 

Hope it doesn't make you feel dizzy.  My dear sweet husband hates it but didn't stop me doing it. 

 

Not quite like the gorgeous old doors we saw in Paris but I am painting the outside too.  Just not quite finished yet.

 

 



TRUNK JUNK

Guess who's been kerb diving? 

Yes me, (slightly ashamed) but I couldn't help myself.  I drove past this little beauty on my way to my mum's and when I came home it was still there.  I had to do some tricky driving, u-turns, negotiate driveways on roundabouts and busy traffic but I have to say it was worth it. 

Here is what I scored.

This little beauty has seen time in New Zealand, India and Australia so is a well travelled trunk.  It is a little battered and rusty but nothing that can't be fixed with a couple of coats of Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint.  Mmmmm, what colour shall I choose, I'm like a kid in a lollie shop as I decide. 

I thought they would find it useful so I tried offering it to my newly married son and daughter-in-law but they don't have room.  My daughter and her fiance are building a new house so maybe it will find a home there.

I bet they will both be after it when I have finished the makeover, some people just cant see the beauty in things.  I'm thinking French Linen and Graphite.  The fiance likes Napoleonic Blue and I love Emperor's Silk, I have been a red girl from way back.

I like the colours on this trunk and will use if for inspiration.  My trunk doesn't have the neat ribbing patterns like this one so I'll have to create some patterns of my own with paint.

Maybe I'll use the  New York taxi for my inspiration and paint my trunk Arles and Graphite - Laura and Mark love New York, they got engaged there.

YOU GOT SERVED

The little wooden tray I've been painting has turned out quite nice. 

I like the way the dark wax highlights all the swirly grooves. 

Here is the before picture.

SPARROW AND JACK INTERIORS

Yay, Chalk Paint - Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint to be exact.  After doing the workshop yesterday with Catherine at Sparrow and Jack.  My mind is scrabbling madly thinking about all the items I would like to paint.  I do however have my first victim to practise and play with. 

Enter the white mellamine bedside drawers costing a whole total of $30 at the op shop.  (I couldn't wait for a freebie to turn up on the verge)  Not sure how they will turn out, probably wasting good quality paint on trashy drawers, but the style is quite cute.

The paint samples on the top are courtesy of Bunnings but I'm using the Annie Sloan colour called Provence and hopefully looking at this colour will transport me away to the countryside in France, Provence to be exact.

As I don't want to wait for my paint to dry in this cool weather, I've only applied a very light coat and will add a thicker coat later - also I don't know how the mellamine will take the paint. 

(have been using the hairdryer but that's too much like waiting for paint to dry - hehe.  May resort to the fan heater in the bathroom :)

So far - it's not looking too bad.  The top is customwood and I may be able to sand back the edges lightly to expose a slightly woody colour which will help achieve the distressed look.  The legs are plastic so unfortunatley no distressing happening there. 

At the end of the day, it will make a nice little bedside cabinet for the spare bedroom and I'm sure it will look lovely next to my little radio chair.

Another before and after project using Provence paint.

New paint colour and the start of dark wax application.  As you can see, this little wooden tray has lots of lovely grooves for the waxy goodness to hide in.

VIDEO KILLED THE RADIO CHAIR

I found this little gem a month ago, it had my name on it.  She had a big floral skirt over the top of her original fabric.  It was a well constructed cover that was easy to remove.  I was impressed at it's construction and don't know if I would have had the patience to sew on the huge amount of hooks and eyes.  Here she is at the upholstery shop waiting for her new clothes

 

 

This chair is probably 1930's, 1940's vintage and known as a radio chair.  All four legs have ceramic castors and the chair bounces up and down similar to a rocking chair when you sit on it.

 

It's a great little chair that suits a short person like me as most armchairs leave my legs swinging in the air like a little child.

 

I was going to try re-upholstering it myself but then I looked at the springs and webbing and ticking and thought, nup, off you go to the professionals.

 

Here she is,  all in her new glory

 

 

 

 

NAPPY TRIKE

My soon to be niece-in-law makes these baby gifts and they are so cute.  She has a business page on facebook called Binkey Designs.

This was made for my niece who's baby is due in June.  We had a My Little Pony themed baby shower for her yesterday and she received some lovely gifts.  It was a very pleasant afternoon.  My daughter and I made her a monster nappy cake.  It's a bit hard to find My Little Pony in the shops but we did manage to find some pony themed items.

MORE INKY PINKIES

Yes, dirty cards and dirty fingers, distressed and grungy isn't everyone's cup of tea but I love it. 

A chance to have another play with my Stampin Up Swallowtail butterfly.

 

This tag has quite an apricot tone, it  wasn't planned but I like the way it turned out and I was able to use the small butterfly postage stamp from the pack I bought at Spotlight.  Lovely little vintage embelishments mostly with a cream undertones that don't always suit my tags.  They remind me of those old fashioned floral cards from the 50's.



ON YER TRIKE

I saw it, fell in love with it, just had to have it.  It was RED.

 

 

My favourite uncle bought me the picture of the lady in the red dress years ago and I've used red accents in this room ever since, red rug, red cushions and red chair.  So naturally when I recovered my old carver chair it had to be red.  I call it the "hot seat" or "the ring of fire". 

 

It's dry felted on my embellishing machine from merino wool, felt scraps, an onion bag, the flowers are scraps of silk fabric and there's some free motion stitching too.

 



LET THEM EAT CAKE

Crumb Cake that is.  Crumb Cake and Baja Breeze, two of my favourite colours.  I've always been attracted to cards made with this combination, add a bit of brown and a few birds even better.

On these tags I started out by smearing Crumb Cake on my craft mat which I then sprayed with a good amount of water.  Mop it up a la Tim Holtz Distress Ink style and dry in between with your heat gun.  Add as much or little of the colour as you like but leave some bits blank so you can sponge the next colour.  Add the Baja Breeze and start with a light hand, you can always add more colour if it looks a bit pale. 

I've used some randoms for the words as I don't have any SU ones than make any impact, mmm maybe that's something they can look in the future.  Stamps can be used in full ink or the stamp off method for a paler print and a combination of both looks good.  I always have a scrap piece to do a test stamp first, it's better than messing up a good tag and somtimes the scrap piece ends up looking pretty good too.  Other colours I've used are Basic Grey and Soft Suede. 

This is how my tags start out.  I created the one on the left first  with Baja Breeze then used the piece on the right to mop up.  I didn't realize there was another colour on the craft mat but that's ok, why waste it!

I was using my Stamp-it set when I remembered I had yet to christen  Established Elegance.  Stamp images are white embossed and I've also added Marina Mist and Perfect Plum to the mix.  I was a bit heavy handed with the Perfect Plum but never mind I can always cover that up with an embellishment later.

I do have a thing for Paris and dressmaker's mannequins and I was lucky to find this one in Melbourne last year.

Didn't realize at the time she was a bit grubby but so would you be if you'd been around as long as she - I wonder what stories she could tell?

SWEET BIRD

Love this picture from this site
http://www.howdoesshe.com/room-by-room-decorating-secrets/

UNG DRILL WHITE NO LONGER

I bought an Ung Drill frame from Ikea a week or so ago to use as a chalkboard.

It's plastic and white but I wanted mine blue, turquoise actually.  I wasn't sure how the paint would hold but decided to bite the bullet and paint it with acrylic craft paint.   It painted up surprisingly well and after two coats I distressed it with white again.  I painted the cardboard insert and put it back in the frame minus the glass.  At some stage I'll replace it with 3mm board but for now the cardboard works ok.

 

 

I like the solid blue one below better so I may add another coat of turquoise to cover over the white distressing on mine. 

 

 

 

 





THE BIRD AND A SWALLOWTAIL

Time to christen some new stamps - and there are many to christen:D
I blame it all on Sarah my Stampin Up lady.

 



 

Loved the Swallowtail the first time I saw it, had to have it but then wasn't sure what to do with it, it's a big stamp!

 

Tags on white cardstock - a good way to experiment.  Butterfly oh flutterby, waterwashed background in Sahara Sand and gaps sponged with Perfect Plum.  Back stamped with maidenhair fern from Papaya Collage in full strength Sahara Sand and swirl from Elements of Style in Basic Grey.  Swallowtail stamped with Soft Suede and stencil corner sponged with Perfect Plum.  Life is a matter of moments (so true) from Elements of Style.  3 flowers are serrated centre from the Fun Flowers Bigz L die - colour both sides, cut the petals and glue in place then fluff them up. Distressed (tool) and dirtied with Soft Suede.

 

Birdy and Rose

 

White emboss maidenhair fern from Papaya Collage. Waterwashed background in Certainly Celery and gaps sponged with Marina Mist.  Stamp the birds in Soft Suede first and then back stamp with rose in Black and swirl from Elements of Style in full strength Basic Grey along with small centre from Daydream Medallions.  Dirty with Basic Grey instead of the usual Soft Suede.  Sponged scalloped trim in Certainly Celery and torn strip in Marina Mist.  Random button and string bow.  Stamp Happy Birthday in white on black cardstock.  I didn't read my SU catalogue properly and when my order of neutral ink pads arrived there was no white.  I used an old white ink but it's very faint. I did use one random stamp on this tag to reverse the bird.

 

Stamps: Papaya Collage, Elements of Style, Daydream Medallions

Ink: Certainly Celery, Marina Mist, Basic Grey, Black, Soft Suede

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

INK PINK

Well my last post was a long time ago!

I'm now a Stampin' Up Demonstrator, well a hobby one at least, and have started buying inks in all the colours of the rainbow. I can see some firm favourites emerging. 

Putting them through their paces with me was my trusty non stick craft mat and water spray bottle.

First cabs off the rank - the Pinks - I love Rich Razzleberry.  Not so sure about the lighter pinks as they can sometimes appear to have a yellow undertone.  Probably didn't help that I was using manilla coloured cardstock, but it was cheaper than my SU cardstock which is reserved for making cards, and not to be wasted on experimentation.  Note to self - try lighter pinks on white card.

 

 

Base tags started out with Pink Pirouette water wash which was a bit light so I touched it up with Pretty in Pink and added Certainly Celery . 

L/H tag - Background stamping with Basic Grey works quite well and you can stamp off for a more subtle effect. Scalloped trim was created by heavily sponging white card, I'm still building up my supply of SU cardstock.  Nothing was safe, if it was on the table it got inked.  The bow is made from seam binding ribbon inked with Certainly Celery - I love seam binding ribbon and have a 10 yard roll of cream that can be coloured to suit any project.  Big Shot Butterfly courtesy of my last SU delivery box and a Lucky Limeade brad.

R/H tag - Background stamped with Basic Grey.  The machine stitched heart scrap is old book page, left over from an engagement card I made recently.  Cotton lace trim, purchased mini tag, little pink heart is Hearts a Flutter die. All distressed with Soft Suede, yes I like my cards dirty.

Stamps:  French Flourish, Papillion Potpourri, Postage Due and other randoms.
Ink: Pink Pirouette, Pretty in Pink, Certainly Celery, Basic Grey, Soft Suede, Rich Razzleberry and Black.