Key sign....

Hello Everyone!  Happy Thursday!  I want to show you one of the signs I made recently.  I didn't take a before picture.  It was the bottom portion of a bar swing door.  I cut it off and sanded it down.  Then painted it grey, then black and sanded the outer frame but left the recessed portion a more solid black except for the raised edge of the panel.  Then I hand painted the sign on.

I really liked how it turned out.  It looks so much better in person than it does in the pictures.  Thanks for stopping by.

Sign remake completed...

Hi Everyone!  Happy Wednesday.  I wanted to show you what I did with the sign that my mother gave me that I couldn't figure out what to do.  Here are the before pictures so you can see what I started out with.

 And here it is after I painted it with Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint in Old White.

And in case you want to read the original post where I couldn't figure out what to do with it, click here Sign  Remake.

It finally spoke to me.  And this is what I did with it.  I painted that second molding black.  Which looks a whole lot better.

 And then I painted in red and black, one of my favorite sayings.

I was very happy with how it turned out.  I took it to the craft fair in Red Oak (I'll show you pictures from that fair soon) and it sold.  It went to a lady that was giving it as a gift.  So hopefully they will like it.  I think my mom wanted it back after she saw what I did to it.  I told her she could have it, but she decided to wait and see if it sold.  It if didn't sell, I was going to give it back to her, but it sold.  I'll have to make her something similar to it...maybe for Christmas...or as a thank you for the work she's done on my bench cushions or for helping me out at the Craft Fair.  We'll just have to see.  Thanks for stopping by.

First fair of the season....

Hi Everyone!  Happy Tuesday!  I hope everyone is having a great week.  It's Inventory time at work this week.  Fun!  So no days off this week.  I'll have to hit it really hard this weekend getting ready for the next craft fair which is October 15th in Clarinda.  It's the largest one I go to.  It is in five different buildings across town and it's almost too much for one day.  But it's the one that my things do the best at.  Hopefully that holds true this year.  I neglected to share with you pictures from my first craft fair, it was the one on Labor Day.  I did okay at it.  I like this one because I don't have to take any time off of work for it and because I generally have help from my brother setting up and then my cousins hang out until the end and help me put it all away.  So the extra help is wonderful!  I'll let you look at the pictures.  They aren't the best pictures because they were snapped in a hurry before the traffic started.

 

I don't take as much stuff to Labor Day as I do to the other craft fairs since it's outside and I don't expect people to carry it around all day or have to hang on to it at the parade.  Plus it's outside and some things just don't do as well in this setting.  Well, thanks for stopping by!

A painted outhouse.....?

Hi Everyone!  Happy Monday!  I know I've been missing for a little more than a week and I want to apologize for not posting anything new.  I had two back to back craft fairs that I was getting ready for and once the second one was over (more on the craft fairs coming soon, I promise), I had to work on the float at work for the ShenFest parade.  I work as a bookkeeper for a local plumbing company and they decided they wanted to enter an actual float in the parade and asked me to paint an outhouse for it.  So by the time I worked on that at work, I didn't want to do anything else at night.  But I thought I'd share the finished product of my outhouse with you.  It was made from the box for a water heater.

I painted the entire box a weathered brown color, then painted black lines on it to designate the boards and the black dots are knot holes.  Then I started painting different colored lines to indicate wood grain.  Keep in mind that it had to "show" from a distance so the lines had to be over dramatic.

 I painted the moon on instead of cutting it out.  And I painted on the Closed for Repairs sign.

I added this because it's the name of the founder of the company and his wife.  I wanted it to look like John had carved it into the wood of the outhouse.

 I painted the roof to look like weathered shingles.

And I put this on one side as a tribute to one of the former plumbers that used to work there that passed away.  It seemed like something he would have done in his younger years.

So there you have it.  That's one of the things I've been up to this past week.  The parade was Saturday and unfortunately, they didn't win anything for the float, but we had a good time anyway.  The outhouse now sits in the front showroom of the store on display until they get sick of it.  Well, thanks for stopping by.

Storage bench...

Hi Everyone.  Do you remember the storage bench that my nephew and I made while he was here this summer? 

It called out to me wanting to be red.

 So here it is out in the shop after getting it's first coat of red.

 And here it is after getting it's second coat of red.  I used a very pretty red called Colonial Red in Satin by Rustoleum.

Here it is on display at the Essex Labor Day Market.

And here is Quinton sitting on it at the craft fair.  There was a lot of interest in the storage bench but it didn't sell.  The owner of the beauty shop where I have my items on display is wanting to have it in the shop so that she can make payments on it.  I'm going to take it to the craft fair this Saturday and if I have to bring it home once again, then I will take it to the beauty shop and strike a deal with her.  Well, thanks for stopping by.

Fall Wreath....

Hi Everyone!  I wanted to show you the fall wreath I made.  I took it to the Essex Labor Day Market, but it didn't sell.  So I'll be taking it this weekend to the craft fair.  I made it to show off the wreath stands I made.  I have found that if you have a wreath stand and no wreath on it, people just don't know what to do with it.  I always try to make sure and have at least one wreath.  So this is the one I made.

 I used a grapevine wreath as my base.  And added a multi-colored pip berry garland to it.  But it seemed a bit dark.  So I added some 12" pip berry picks that had some of the same colors as the multi-colored ones but also had cream ones in it to lighten it up.

 Then I added these rusty metal maple leaf picks to it.

 And painted this metal welcome sign and wired it on.

 Next I took this rusty metal dragonfly.  It too was a bit dark so I added a touch of red to the wings and face to help it stand out.

 And I added some pine cones and the burlap to hang the wreath by.

 And a group of acorns.

And there you have it.  A simple fall wreath.  And if it doesn't sell, I'll be perfectly happy to hang it on my door.  Well, thanks for stopping by.

Ethan Allen bench completed....

Hi Everyone!  Happy Monday!  I hope you all had a nice weekend.  I was busy finishing several benches and handpainted signs trying to get ready for the craft fair this coming Saturday.  I wanted to share with you the bench I finished for the Labor Day craft fair which was actually purchased by a friend of mine.

It is the Ethan Allen bed that I almost felt guilty for cutting apart (almost).  Doesn't it make a nice bench?

 Here it is in the shop just after I painted it.  I used Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint in Graphite.

 Then I sanded it and waxed it using both clear and dark wax.

 In certain lights it really looks grey and in others it has a blue tint.

 I used a stencil to add the saying to it.  I got this stencil several years ago and have used it so many times on so many signs and benches.  It's the perfect saying for a bench.  And since I have the stencil, there's no reason to hand paint the sign on this bench.

 This is just after we got things set up at the Essex Labor Day Market. 

There was a lot of interest in the bench and it sold to a friend that I used to work with.  He let me keep it in the space until after the Labor Day Parade and then a couple of football kids came and took it away.  I did get an order for another bench so now I'm on the hunt for more headboards since my inventory has been greatly depleted over the last month.  Thanks for stopping by.

Remembering 9/11...

Hi Everyone!  It's hard to believe it's been 10 years since the 9/11 attacks.  I was working as a Manager for a Telecom Company and I was sitting in a training class when news of the first tower came to us via our pagers.  We had telephone equipment in the towers and some employees working there.  My manager paged me that I should just stay in class and they would page us if we were needed.  It was difficult to know that things were happening and to be out of the loop.  When class was over and I headed back to my office building, the security was higher already and my employees were very glad to have me back in the office.

By the time I got home from work, all I could do was sit in front of the television and watch playback of the things I'd missed learning about while I was in class.  It was strange to be alone in my apartment, watching it all  unfold.  It seemed like a horrible movie that wouldn't end.  I talked with my parents several times that night and was thankful we were all safe even though we weren't together.  I'm still amazed at the stories of heroic measures and patriotism that came out of that tragedy.  I am honored to be an American.  Here's to those that lost their lives that day, to the first responders that ran into the building to help, and to the troops that fight for our freedom.  Thank you!

Another Queen Anne chair....

Hi Everyone!  I hope you are all having a great weekend.  I've been busy getting ready for my second craft fair of the season that will happen a week from today.  But first I want to show you one of the chairs I took to the Essex Labor Day Market this past Monday.  It is one of the chairs that my Aunt Nancy gave to me.  Here's what it looked like when I pulled it out of storage.

A bit too dark for my taste.

 And here's how she turned out.  I used Annie Sloan's Chalk Paint in Country Grey.

 Then I sanded it and waxed it using clear wax.

 And I recovered the seat in my Mom's favorite fabric that I've used on a lot of my bench cushions.

I'm really happy with the way it turned out.  I have four more of this style to redo, but a few of them need a little TLC first.  I took this and the arm chair to the Essex Labor Day Market, but they didn't sell.  There was a lot of interest in them and one lady really wanted them, but her husband told her they were too fancy for them.  She almost looked heartbroken.  I guess it just wasn't meant to be.  Thanks for stopping by!

The ironing board companion piece...

Hi Everyone!  Happy Wednesday!  Do you remember the wedding dress art I did on the antique ironing board? 

Well, I decided to do a companion piece to go along with the wedding dress.  I found an antique ironing board without legs for $5 at the local antique shop.  Sorry I forgot to take a picture of just the board before I started working on it.

 I drew this tux onto the board free hand and then painted it.  In this picture it looks blue, but I used Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Graphite so it's actually grey.  I did the details in black.  Then added Tailor to the top.

 I used the same logo on this one as I did on the wedding dress but didn't get a close up of it.  Then I waxed the whole board in dark wax.  Here is the logo from the wedding dress ironing board.

And here they are together at the Craft Fair.  Sorry for the bad picture.  We were in a hurry to get some pictures snapped and I didn't get more than one picture of anything.

Well, thanks for stopping by.