A New Boy Bike

 When you have 4 children and try to be frugal and not buy new stuff for each child  that last child sometimes get the dregs.  That is what has happened with this little tricycle.  It had seen it's day about 2 kids ago.  I've been talking about painting it and my boy and  has been obsessed with the idea.  "Mommy, today we going to paint my bike?"  So when we lost power this morning for 4 hrs I decided to go and spray paint the bike.  Here it is looking so fine.

 I taped all the plastic parts and wheels.

and then spray painted it hammered black from Rust-o-leum

 Then I pulled out my trusty Sharpie oil pens (red and gold) and had some fun making the bike more boyish and fun.  My son loves it.  He calls it his Lightning McQueen Bike.  Total Cost $0.  I love leftover paint.

 I know that McQueen doesn't say, "POW", but "KA-CHOW" just was not going to fit.

 It not cold enough here for shoes (yet) so I don't  wear them (even when I'm outside).

I think we'll go try out the NEW wheels.

linking to
carolynshomework
myuncommonsliceofsuburbia
domestically-speaking
bluecricketdesign
frommyfrontporchtoyours
beyondthepicketfence
houseofhepworths
theshabbycreekcottage

Weather Warning

Well I just looked at the weather for the upcoming week and it's going to be...................... beautiful.  So this week I need to kick my painting projects into high gear.  Living in Canada you know that weather can change quickly and the cold snap/snow could threaten at any moment, leaving us stranded in our homes, huddling together sharing body heat.

    

snow

OK, it's not that bad, but you can't paint outside if the temperature is below 10C and there are some mornings already that I've had to wait until the afternoon so that the air is warm enough.

Here are some projects that I'm working on:

a croquet set

secretary desk

An oval coffee table

(no before picture yet)

Sets for the play ANNIE

and last, but definitely not least

wait for it....

a PIANO

(I'm so excited for this one, it's got great details)

Mirror Makeover

When we moved into our home a couple of years ago, 90% of the house was covered in wallpaper...not the new cool kind either.  It also had a ton of mirrors from the 70's like this one, which has this etched crossing branches on it.

 I have never like it so I decided it was time for a makeover.  Here it is with it's new updated look.

Here's what I did:

I first gathered my supplies, which include Martha Stewart's stencil pack.  Martha Stewart stencil brushes. Martha Stewart Craft paint called Wedding Cake.  I picked MSC paint because it says it can be used on glass as long as you clean it with alcohol (I robbed the emergency kit for some alcohol wipes...oops).  The other colours were craft smart Robin's Egg Blue and Dark Grey.  I also needed painters tape, a ruler and exacto knife to make my lines as clean/even as possible.

 I taped off the part I wanted to paint (I had to go quite big for a border so that that etching would be covered).

Then I painted it MSC wedding cake (aka White).

 I stenciled the Robin's Egg Blue followed by Dark Grey (I used two different stencils to add interest).

I did get some bleed under the stencil on the edges because the mirror had a slight bevel, but I took a small paint brush and touched up that with the white.

I liked it a lot and almost stopped, but I'm glad I stuck to my vision and painted a grey rectangle around the mirror opening and then stencilled white on top, using the same pattern I used on the edge.

This was such a fun project as I haven't stencilled in years.  I do love my new mirror.

I entered

at
firefliesandjellybeans
also linking with
bluecricketdesign
domestically-speaking
houseofhepworths
restoreinteriors
theshabbycreekcottage
chiconashoestringdecorating

New Clock

So I found this older brass clock at a garage sale for 25 cents. 

It had a nice patina in some areas and looked totally dirty in others.  So I spray painted it RUSTOLEUM oil rubbed bronze and than added a geometric pattern, cutting a cereal box into a tiny rectangle, and then tracing around it with my lovely SHARPIE paint (oil) pen in gold.  I love it now.

This is my entry in a contest called

hosted by

sewdangcutecrafts

Bird Bandwagon

.....say that 5 times fast.  Well I finally jump onto the bird bandwagon and picked me up a little statue at a garage sale for 25 cents.

don't be jealous I know it's pretty HOT.

I primed and then painted it turquoise.

Better

but wait.....did I mention that I'm addicted to drawing with my new Sharpie oil paint pens.  So I added some swirls to mimic grass on the bottom.  So fun.

Here's the back.

You can make the drawing as opaque as you would like, you just need it to dry in between layers.
Here she is all pretty on my table.

Another Freebie

OK, I was going to title this, "MY FIRST AND LAST BLACK PIECE", but I thought that sounded too negative.  Well to say the least this next project was a KILLER.  I picked up this HUGE and very HEAVY dresser for free from a very nice lady who told me that she had wanted to paint the piece for her bedroom, but quickly got discouraged and gave up.  (This should have been my clue to not take the dresser!!)

Here it is in the stage where she stopped.

She had taken off all the hardware and had it just loose in one of the drawers....ugh, not another gong show with putting them back on please. 

(So I took the time to organize them after I sprayed them RUSTOLEUM hammered bronze to make sure I had them all)

Here's a conundrum:

why is there 3 hanging drawer pulls and only 2 drawers that need them?

also, there is 7 of the others pulls, but I needed only 6

and 5 doohickeys when I only need 4

???

She also had removed the two front doors....and I hoped that they would go back on easy.  Once bitten, twice shy. That sounds negative.  Anyways....

One GOOD thing is that this piece is solid with dove tail drawers and very well made.  See I can be positive.  So I started with lightly sanding everything and priming with KILZ, so far so GOOD.  I then decided to paint the piece black because the detail on the drawers are raised more than they are recessed and the glazing process that I usually use wouldn't work as good, but sanding the edges would make them pop and look GOOD.   I then painted with black KRYLON satin finish.  It looked GOOD.  See how I keep using the word GOOD........well, it doesn't last.  Then I chose to sand, STOP, if I could go back I wouldn't have sanded.  As I sanded it started to dull the black paint and boy that didn't look GOOD.  So I thought I would glaze it with a clear glaze.  STOP.  The glaze dried cloudy/streaky and I had to buff the whole thing, respray with black the really bad areas and then spray with KRYLON acrylic crystal clear to give it a uniform finish (which took many coats).

Here it is in all it's glory.

I thought I would add a little hidden treasure and used the SHARPIE paint pen (oil) and drew on some quatrefoil.

(this was fun and slightly addictive)

Done in 5 days instead of 3, but it looks GOOD.....and done thankfully.

*side note* 

When I was going through all the hardware I found out that there were 13 of these.

I think they are beautiful and I can't wait to find the next project that they could work with.

Linking:

findingfabulous

missmustardseed

http://www.houseofhepworths.com/

thirtysixthavenue

chiconashoestringdecorating

perfectlyimperfectblog

restoreinteriors

I was UGLIEST

....and that's OK.  I just wanted to thank u-createcrafts for having my lamp makeover on her site, it's so fun to see!!!