Crate Organizaton

See what I did there? Crate - great. Ah, yeah, I'm not that funny. Moving on.

A little organization to kick off the new year. I needed a solution for my school books and folders which I just piled up next to the bed last semester. I could put them downstairs, but I'm lazy and usually do my homework upstairs.

Over the summer, I snagged this crate from the side of the road.

It was pretty rough, but I wanted to keep the weathered quality. So, first I used my palm sander and smoothed out the rough, splintery parts. But I avoided the end with the cool stamped letters.

Then I took a very light grey paint -- so light grey it looks white -- and dry brushed the crate. What is dry brushing? Well, you take a brush that is dry (not wet down or anything), dip it in your paint, and then wipe off the paint as much as possible, so there is very little paint left, then you brush it on your surface.

With dry brushing you have to take care to brush exactly the direction you want to show because of the streaky quality. It's really very easy.

So, once I finished it, I set it up next to my nightstand and loaded it up.

That's actually just stuff from last semester, so I'll still have to reorganize once I get all my new books. 

I put the stamped end up so it still shows.

Gotta love a super simple project that gets clutter off the floor!

This post may be linked at the following parties (for their Blog Buttons see my Link Love page): (M) C.R.A.F.T., Amaze Me Monday, Sumo's Sweet Stuff,  (T) A Little Birdie Told Me  Stories of A to Z, The Blackberry Vine, How To's Day , Type A, Amaze Me August, , Show Me What Ya Got,  (W) Wow Me,  Blue Cricket Design, What I Whipped Up, Wicked Awesome Wednesday, Sweet Peas & Bumblebees (TH) The ArtsyGirl Connection,  Creative Juice, Thrifty 101 , Smilemonsters , Everything But the Kitchen Sink, Shabby Chic Cottage, Thrifty Thursdays, House of Hepworth's,  (F) Fingerprints on the Fridge, Furniture Feature Friday,  Lovely Crafty Weekend , Remodelaholic, For the Kids Fridays, , Craft Goodies, (Sat) Tatertots and Jello , Anything Goes , Funky Junk Interiors (Sun) Creative Blog & Hop, Sundae Scoop, Under the Table and Dreaming

Peppermint Wreath

I started this one in November so that I could give you the tutorial ahead of time. You may notice the date. Yeah, didn't get this done as quickly as I meant to. Sorry about that. Just store this idea for next year.

I wanted a wreath that was different and thought candy would be great. I started with a styrofoam wreath and wrapped it in white ribbon.

Then I got a 3.5 pound bag of peppermints and had to unwrap them. This part was a bit of a pain. Just tedious and boring.

I used hot glue to adhere the peppermints.

This was also kind of boring so I just unwrapped some and glued them and then took a break and did something else. 

Which is the real reason it took so long -- I kept getting distracted by more interesting things. With more discipline, I could have done the whole thing in an afternoon.
 

Now, you don't want to decorate with food and just leave it exposed to the air. So you need spray lacquer.

Lacquer will completely seal it. It sprays on just like spray paint, but you want to be well ventilated. (Trust me, it would be better to freeze in the garage than do this inside the house; not that I would know from experience or anything - wink, wink.)

Once that was dry, I had to attach my ribbon and hang. I should have made the bow a little bigger, but I was in a rush to get it up. I fix it next year.

I think it's festive.

This post may be linked at the following parties (for their Blog Buttons see my Link Love page): (M) C.R.A.F.T., Amaze Me Monday, Sumo's Sweet Stuff,  (T) A Little Birdie Told Me  Stories of A to Z, The Blackberry Vine, How To's Day , Type A, Amaze Me August, , Show Me What Ya Got,  (W) Wow Me,  Blue Cricket Design, What I Whipped Up, Wicked Awesome Wednesday, Sweet Peas & Bumblebees (TH) The ArtsyGirl Connection,  Creative Juice, Thrifty 101 , Smilemonsters , Everything But the Kitchen Sink, Shabby Chic Cottage, Thrifty Thursdays, House of Hepworth's,  (F) Fingerprints on the Fridge, Furniture Feature Friday,  Lovely Crafty Weekend , Remodelaholic, For the Kids Fridays, , Craft Goodies, (Sat) Tatertots and Jello , Anything Goes , Funky Junk Interiors (Sun) Creative Blog & Hop, Sundae Scoop, Under the Table and Dreaming

Art Adventure: Color Field

This is another master artist lesson. 

Mark Rothko was an American painter that worked in a famous circle of artists in the 1940s in New York City. This group consisted mostly of surrealist or abstract expressionist painters. His later work is characterized by large floating rectangles of color. These became known as Color Field paintings.

The National Gallery of Art has a great little introduction to Rothko if you care to check it out.

You can see, even in the picture, that there is a lot of depth within the colors. It is even more expressive in person. Rothko, and other contemporaries of his, believed in the power of color to affect and elicit emotion.

Color Field Pictures

Supplies:

• tissue paper (2 or 3 colors)
• one piece white cardstock
• glue
• paint brush
• scissors

Instead of using paint, we will use translucent tissue paper to build up the subtle layers of color. When picking color remember that the colors will show through and effect each other, so pick colors that will blend well. Any colors you normally mix together to make another (red, blue, and yellow) will definitely work.

Mix glue with water so you have a thin, brushable glue.

Start with one color for the whole piece of cardstock. Using the paintbrush, cover the whole piece of cardstock and lay a sheet of tissue paper down, smooth out the art bubbles, but don't worry too much about wrinkles. We'll have wrinkles.

Then begin to build up layers. You do not want to tear your tissue paper into tiny pieces, but you can either cut or tear the paper.

Here we have a second layer of yellow on the bottom half only to get variety.

Start creating floating rectangles of color. Overlapping in different places will create that depth found in Rothko's paintings.

 

If a color seems too bold or bright, try overlapping it with the background color.

You will not always need to brush on more glue, only use it when the paper is not wet enough for the new layer to cling. You can put the glue on top rather than under as well.

It's okay to go off the edges. When finished and while wet, you can carefully fold the edges to the back. Or you can wait for it to dry and trim with scissors.

If you get super impatient waiting for it to dry, you can use a hairdryer; just use sweeping even motions across the whole paper. 

This post may be linked at the following parties (for their Blog Buttons see my Link Love page): (M) C.R.A.F.T., Amaze Me Monday, Sumo's Sweet Stuff,  (T) A Little Birdie Told Me  Stories of A to Z, The Blackberry Vine, How To's Day , Type A, Amaze Me August, , Show Me What Ya Got,  (W) Wow Me,  Blue Cricket Design, What I Whipped Up, Wicked Awesome Wednesday, Sweet Peas & Bumblebees (TH) The ArtsyGirl Connection,  Creative Juice, Thrifty 101 , Smilemonsters , Everything But the Kitchen Sink, Shabby Chic Cottage, Thrifty Thursdays, House of Hepworth's,  (F) Fingerprints on the Fridge, Furniture Feature Friday,  Lovely Crafty Weekend , Remodelaholic, For the Kids Fridays, , Craft Goodies, (Sat) Tatertots and Jello , Anything Goes , Funky Junk Interiors (Sun) Creative Blog & Hop, Sundae Scoop, Under the Table and Dreaming

T'was the Month Before Christmas

I've been a bit more bah humbug than ho, ho, ho this year. Why? I can't quite put my finger on it. Lack of snow? *shrug* I had big plans for decking the halls this year, but it kind of fell by the wayside and now it's too close to worry about doing much more.

Though I was thinking maybe we need to switch back to old English customs and not deck the halls until Christmas Eve and have the big party and feasting on 12th Night with Lord Misrule and Queen of the Feast. I mean seriously, these old customs are awesome. Why did we ever do away with them?


Anyways. We put up the tree in a rush and I forgot two of my garlands. How? I don't know. But I'm not taking the ornaments down to redo it. We don't do a fancy theme tree. The kids get a new ornament each year and that's what we decorate with.

My parents did the same thing and it was so fun each year to remember which ornament was from which year.

Overall, things are simple this year. I made wreath out of peppermints, fixed up a Santa Key, and apparently according to Pinterest, I scored when I inherited this vintage Christmas tree from my great-aunt. Didn't realize I was so cool. ;)

Isn't that the darned cutest nativity ever? I'm partial to the shepherd and sheep.

The stocking were hung by the chimney on the wall with care. The boys visited Santa at his special Santa House which is decked out like a toy workshop and the lighting in there was very red. And the cinnamon rolls are baked and in the freezer, ready for Christmas morning.


The cinnamon rolls are so great. I got the recipe from The Pioneer Woman. Gabe literally shed tears when I said he had to wait to eat one.

Just thinking about these little details makes me feel less like the big gestures were needed. I am a little more ho, ho, ho now. :)

I believe we've already discussed how well family photos turn out.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from our family to yours!


Linked at The Nester.

Santa Key Redux

I finally got a Santa Key because we don't have a fireplace. The kids were uber excited about it, so Malachi tried his best to jam it in the lock when I wasn't looking and broke it. Grrr.

After a perusal, I don't even know what it's made of, I managed with no effort to snap a second part off. So, I got to work to fix up a better Santa Key.

I have some skeleton keys I picked up at a flea market last summer, so I selected one that fit the Santa face from the original key.

I had to make them match. I decided to go with gold. I love gold at Christmas. I used gold Rub n' Buff.

I used a paint brush so I could get it in all the little crevices, but either with a brush or finger, you just rub it on and let it set for a bit to dry. 

Then buff it with a paper towel. I overzealously buffed (or possibly didn't wait long enough) and had to reapply.

I used epoxy to adhere the Santa to the skeleton key.

So then more waiting to let it dry. I'm not good at waiting.

Tied a ribbon through and hung it on the door. 

This one is much sturdier so even if the kids attempt to use it again, I doubt it would break.

This post may be linked at the following parties (for their Blog Buttons see my Link Love page): (M) C.R.A.F.T., Amaze Me Monday, Sumo's Sweet Stuff,  (T) A Little Birdie Told Me  Stories of A to Z, The Blackberry Vine, How To's Day , Type A, Amaze Me August, , Show Me What Ya Got,  (W) Wow Me,  Blue Cricket Design, What I Whipped Up, Wicked Awesome Wednesday, Sweet Peas & Bumblebees (TH)   Creative Juice, Thrifty 101 , Smilemonsters , Everything But the Kitchen Sink, Shabby Chic Cottage, Thrifty Thursdays, House of Hepworth's,  (F) Fingerprints on the Fridge, Furniture Feature Friday,  Lovely Crafty Weekend , Remodelaholic, For the Kids Fridays, , Craft Goodies, (Sat) Tatertots and Jello , Anything Goes , Funky Junk Interiors (Sun) Creative Blog & Hop, Sundae Scoop, Under the Table and Dreaming

Art Adventure: Snowflake Prints

Normally we have a white Christmas, but so far it's not looking promising. So, we made our own snow pictures.

Snowflake Prints

Supplies:

• paper
• scissors
• cardstock or heavy art paper
• blue watercolor paint
• sponge

The first step is to make some paper snowflakes. Chi's not ready for this, so I did it for him. Had Gabe been around for this one, he would have loved making the snowflakes.

Just fold the paper multiple times 

and cut out simple shapes. Lots of openings are ideal for this project.

Open up and you have a snowflake. 

Now, you can stop there and hang these and enjoy, but you can also use them to make prints.

You will see that I used artist quality watercolors, but you don't need to! 

I just didn't have any of the kids' watercolor pans on hand because we have used ours all up. (I have some more for stocking stuffers, so they will have to wait!) If you use the regular kids kind, just wet (damp not sopping) the sponge and wet the paint and dip the sponge just like you would a paint brush.

So, dip the sponge in the paint and dab all over the snowflake.

Lift up and reveal the snowflake on your paper.

Keep going and you can overlap them.

Pretty snow pictures.

Doesn't Chi's kind of look like a map of the world?

 

New "Old" Sign

I've wanted an "old" sign for my kitchen forever. Just now got around to it.

Remember when we redid our deck steps? Well, I used a plank from the old steps that we took off since it's a good size and already perfectly weathered.

I experimented to see if I could get the inkjet printer ink to transfer, but no go. All the techniques call for a laser printer.

Since that didn't work, this called for a stencil. So, I printed my words and then cut them out, careful to keep the outline intact because that's the part I needed.

It took several pieces of paper, so I made sure to line everything back up and then taped it all in place on my wood plank.

Because I had to line the letters up properly, I printed the word smaller so I knew what it should look like.

I mixed black acrylic paint with water to make it very thin and then painted the letters. Because I just used paper, I did not slop paint on the edges much so that I did not have to worry about bleeding too much.

I peeled off the stencil and let it dry. I definitely looked weathered, but it didn't quite pop enough. 

This is a really awkward angle. I hope you aren't getting dizzy!

Now, I don't know why, but I really didn't want color on this one. Finally, I decided to use the black like a shadow, and paint the letters again with watered down white paint.

I just free-handed it, but you could put your stencil back down. I brushed the white very thin in some places and let it pool and soak into the wood in others. I hoped this would create a uneven weathered look.

It is thick, so we hung it by screwing four really long screws back into the holes that used to hold down as a step.

Why MI cherries? I like cherries and I thought that font would work well with the word cherries. 

This post may be linked at the following parties (for their Blog Buttons see my Link Love page): (M) C.R.A.F.T., Amaze Me Monday, Sumo's Sweet Stuff,  (T) A Little Birdie Told Me  Stories of A to Z, The Blackberry Vine, How To's Day , Type A, Amaze Me August, , Show Me What Ya Got,  (W) Wow Me,  Blue Cricket Design, What I Whipped Up, Wicked Awesome Wednesday, Sweet Peas & Bumblebees (TH)   Creative Juice, Thrifty 101 , Smilemonsters , Everything But the Kitchen Sink, Shabby Chic Cottage, Thrifty Thursdays, House of Hepworth's,  (F) Fingerprints on the Fridge, Furniture Feature Friday,  Lovely Crafty Weekend , Remodelaholic, For the Kids Fridays, , Craft Goodies, (Sat) Tatertots and Jello , Anything Goes , Funky Junk Interiors (Sun) Creative Blog & Hop, Sundae Scoop, Under the Table and Dreaming