Hidden in plain sight.

In the last post I showed you how to make your own water proof coasters. Since I made those sets (12 in all) for my living room I wanted to have a container for them. In the process of figuring out how I wanted to contain them I made a set of 6 for my bedroom, so I wouldn't ruin my bedroom furniture.

I found a wood box that fit the coasters perfectly and has a magnetic closure. I didn't want it to be plain so I sanded it down and picked out a color that fit each rooms's themes. (yes I have themes for my rooms)

Since my living room has a country irish theme I went with green. I painted the box, but it look boring just painted. So I found a wood flower detail accent and painted that as well. I also painted a coat of glaze on the box and the detail accent to seal the paint color.

Once the glaze dried I worked on my other box that would hold my bedroom coasters. My bedroom has a vintage french royal theme, so I went a little more classic. I painted the wood accent in a metallic sky blue. Those also got a coat of glaze to seal the colors.

Once they were both dried I sprayed them with my Mod Podge acrlyic sealer to protect it even more.

I didn't paint the inside, but it still looks great to me. The coasters fit great, event the 12 I made for the living room. (No I do NOT need that many, but I was testing out this project, so I did a basic pattern and then did a group of coasters in the theme I wanted. Why waste them?)

Birdcage Decorations

When I had my own place *sigh...* I was just starting to work on decorating the bathroom. I had almost completely finished decorating my bedroom and kitchen, so I moved on to something else. I have this lovely shower curtain (that ironically my mom found at the ARC store) that looks like a pastel waterfall.

I was going to do a nature/garden design. I want to hang bird cut outs and cages around the bathroom and put flowers around or in the cages. Luckily I just happened to find some bird and birdcage cut outs at Michaels.

I painted them in light pastel colors to go with the ribbon colors. I painted both sides, so that when I hang it from the ceiling I can look at both sides.

I painted the cage cut outs in silver glitter. Once I had painted them it looked just bland, so I decided that I would paint the bird inside the cage a pastel color too.

These will have to hang near the mirror, I think, but relatively low to really be visible.

Now if I just had a bathroom of my own to decorate!

Updated for the season

I foudn this great wood wreath at the ARC store for $0.35 and I "reface" it every season. I will add the pictures of the other versions once I find them!

I wanted something that was airy and matched the color/theme of the room as my Mom had it set up. Before I showed up... I think its pretty and a little fun.

Completed version

Used  some medium white flowers, asmall bunch of light blue and white mix, with another small bunch of dark blue flowers.

I think the mix brings out the "beach side" feel in the bedroom.

The ribbon I used around the whole wreath. I think its so cute, fun and lively.

Full completed wreath. I think the mixes work really well together. What do you think?

Scissor holder

I had an old wood coat rack that I had no use for (as I already had one), so I decided to re-vamp it into a holder for my design craft scissors. It would be going into my room and so I wanted it to match the theme in my bedroom. Here are the steps I took. You can modify them based on the design you want.

Supplies:
wooden coat rack
stencil
paint for stencil and for remaining surface
sandpaper
clean cloth
paint tarp (to protect work surface)
paint brush
stencil brush
stencil adhesive (or other kind of adhesive)


I lightly sand the surface to clean and smooth the wood, because it was not painted at all. If painted sand thoroughly to remove paint. This may take several hours. Then I wiped down with a clean cloth to remove any dust.
Since I wanted to create an age look I chose to do the stenciling first. I sprayed the adhesive to my stencil to keep it in place. Then I positioned the stencil on my coat rack. I painted using a stencil brush in desired stencil frame. (best if done in repeative straigh down dabs) My stencil was a fur-de-lei. I let the paint dry for a few minutes before removing the stencil and repositioning again, as I wanted multiple stencils. Once I had finished all my stencils I let it sit for about 30 minutes to make sure the paint was fully dry. (see paint directions for specific time frames) This is what my project looked like at this point.

Since I wanted a more aged look I painted a fine coat of light gold metallic paint over the entire coat rack.

Once I had finished my one and only coat (again I wanted a real fine coat of paint) I let it sit for about an hour this time as more paint was used. After it had finished drying I took my sandpaper and started to rub the paint off in random locations, like the corners and along the knobs. This gave it a more worn and aged look. Once I had sanded it to my content I wiped it down again with my cloth.

Here is my finished project:

It comes in very handy. I have it positioned right above my desk and its holding about 11 scissors right now, with room for a few more.

Easy way to take an item that is not being used into something useful again. Much better than just giving it away to the A.R.C. store, which is what I was going to do with it at first.

K