January 2013 | Vintage, Paint and more...

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

January Chill

 
 
Good morning my friends.
How is your morning going so far/
I have to say I am cold
and
I mean cold.
I am not supposed to be cold living at the beach!
I not cold, cold, cold
like
frozen cold, like I was two years ago
before the beach
when this is where I lived...
 
 
The year we got between 4-6 inches of snow,
then 2 inches of ice,
then another 4+ inches of snow
so we had
10 - 12 inches of yuck on the ground.
And,
we were house bound for three days,
in the middle of the city!
The winter we decided we had had enough
and
it was time to go somewhere warm.
But,
Mother Nature has played a trick on us
and
it is cold enough all I want to do is
HIBERNATE.
 
I want this....
 
 
and this....
 
 
my garden overflowing with flowers
and warmth
and hummingbirds.
I am so ready to start planting
and so
ready for spring.
I have no motivation to do anything
thus,
no projects happening right now.
 
Our older granddaughters spent the weekend with us
and
we did do a Pinterest project..
 
 
 

Wouldn't the kids love these!
Wouldn't the kids love these!

 
Aren't these cute?
 
We did ours a little different....
 
 
We just dipped Oreo cookies in almond bark
and
added some sprinkles.
Then they got a little more creative
and
 
 
Put marshmallows on sticks
and
dipped and sprinkled them.
It made for a fun afternoon and some sweet eating....
Right up our alley
on a cloudy, dreary day....
Then it was movie time....
Even though we had a lot of fun
bundled up in blankets, eating popcorn, hot chocolate
and enjoying the time
I still wish
 
 
Our beach would get back to normal!!!
 
It's time for the sun, flowers, and warm breezes!!
 
How is your winter going? 
Are you so ready for Spring like me?
 
Have a great week and keep warm...
 
 
Cathy
 
 



Friday, January 25, 2013

Faux Sea Glass Painting





Good day my bloggie friends.
Hope you are having a great day...
I have accomplished so much today-
organizing and cleaning the kitchen cupboards....
A not so fun but necessary job.
 
When I posted about my winter mantle I realized I had never
posted about the painted glass
we did last summer.
 
Mix Elmer's glue with food coloring to paint onto anything glass to create a seaglass effect when dry. Now that's just cool.
 
Isn't it beautiful.
I first saw this on Pinterest and then my sister did.  
I knew I had to try it.
( I do not know the original source of the pin-
I tried to trace it back and came to a dead end.
So, if this is your original idea
let me know and I will be glad to give you credit.)
 
So, after I saw what my sister created I had to do some.
 
All you need is some food coloring,
Elmer's glue, and clear glass objects.
 
I put some glue in a paper bowl
and
then added food coloring to the shade of whatever color wanted.
Here, you can see I tried some blue.
This becomes fairly translucent when it dries so,
I found that we had to add quite a bit of food coloring to get the deeper colors.
 
This project is quite simple
and
I actually made it an afternoon grand kids project.
 
As you can see we gathered every piece of clear glass
we could find to paint.
we even did mason jars, bottles, candlesticks,
vases, small apothecary jars
whatever we could find.
It becomes quite addictive painting these
and
you will find yourself perusing your house for
anything you can possibly paint.
 
We mixed several colors of paint-
blue, green, pink and made a purple by mixing red and blue together.
You are only limited by your imagination. 
 
The youngest to the oldest can do this.
Here, Miss A is really concentrating on a small
apothecary jar she is doing in her favorite color - pink....
 
Even our guy got in on this fun project.
 
 
Here are a few of the pieces as they are drying.
The candlestick actually dried that very light blue.
It so resembles sea glass.
The only down side to this craft is -
you cannot wash these or get them wet.
The glue comes right off.
 
Here is a Dollar Tree vase I did that I have used constantly
since last July when we did them.
I love it.
The possibilities are limitless
( just think of all those jars, bottles, plain clear candlesticks you have sitting around)
and
the project is quick, budget friendly, easy and most of all fun.
My grand kids loved it.
They put all their glass projects to use in their rooms.
 
Think I have some jars I put away in the closet 
that could use a transformation.
May have to go check that out and get out all that food coloring
I found while cleaning out those cupboards.
You have a great day
and
get out there and create something awesome.
 
 
Cathy
 
 
 
 
 
 
 


Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Winter Mantle


Vintage, Paint and more... book page crafts, diy decor from Dollar Tree glass ware, diy cone trees and thrifted items make a beautiful winter mantel

Good day blogger friends,
Hope this is finding you all in good health and enjoying this lovely chilly weather -  wherever you are...
I thought I would show you our winter mantel.
I know it's a little late in the season
but, I have been a bit under the weather
and unable to bring it to you before now.

Vintage, Paint and more... diy book page crafts including a book page wreath used to make a winter mantel decor

As you can see  blue and white prevailed for my wintry decor.  Of course it doesn't hurt that blue is my favorite color either.  Every thing is either thrifted, handmade or I already had it.  Nothing was purchased for this little bit of prettiness.


Vintage, Paint and more... diy winter mantel decor of crafted cone trees, thrifted items

The trees I made for our Christmas center piece for the dining room table.  ( You can find that post here )  They are all sitting on thrifted candlesticks.  The stack of books are thrifted books I tore the covers off of and tied with raffia.  The little blue bird - a favorite piece of my Mother's.  The candle came from Dollar Tree.  And the snow ball is a Styrofoam ball ( 3 for a dollar at Dollar Tree) that has been wrapped with white yarn.


Vintage, Paint and more... antique blue glass bird for winter mantel decor

I love this little blue bird - he makes me smile every time I look at him.  And that would be several times a day.



Vintage, Paint and more... diy mantel decor from books and dollar store glass ware

On the other side is another stack of thrifted books and two more snowballs.


Vintage, Paint and more... diy faux sea glass vase

The blue vase is a Dollar Tree find that I painted with glue and food coloring - I  wrote a post about that project hereI tied raffia around it and filled it with sticks from the yard.  Then I hung a snowflake ornament on it. 

Vintage, Paint and more... diy book page snowman and styrofoam yarn wrapped snowballs

The snowman is made from a thrifted paperback book.  I love making these book page art crafts.  But then I love anything with script on it.  These are so simple to make just like the pillars and pumpkins that are all over blog land and I have a tutorial here you just have to draw a half snowman shape and place it in the crack of the book, trace the shape and cut out.  Then proceed as the tutorial explains.  Then I added a blue fleece scarf - just a 1" x 12" length and cut small fringe at each end. I made the top hat out of black card stock - two circles - one larger than the other and a strip that is taped to make a cylinder.  Add the circles on either end of the cylinder and you have a hat.
Very simple and
Oh So Cute....


Vintage, Paint and more... diy painted winter canvas

The picture I painted.  It's a flat canvas from Michael's that I painted with leftover paints and craft paints I already had.

Vintage, Paint and more... painted winter canvas

The base color is a sample pot of Valspar's Nordic Blue that my neighbor gave me.  I then used blues, white, and grey dry brushed over it to mimic a winter sky.  Took all of maybe 10 minutes.  When it was dry I wrote the word winter on with a Sharpie white paint pen.  I first wrote the word on a piece of scrap paper the way I wanted it to appear.  Then I covered the back of the paper completely with chalkboard chalk. ( I read this tip on Pinterest - didn't pin it )  Then I traced the word onto the canvas.  It leaves a faint line that can be written over with the paint pens.  When the paint dried I went over that with a glitter glue.  The two snowflakes are a couple of ornaments that I never used.  I just outlined them with glitter glue.  I glued two lengths of sheer blue ribbon on the canvas with hot glue and then glued the snow flakes on.  I then added a few little freehand snowflakes here and there.
And I have my winter art.


Vintage, Paint and more... winter mantel decor with thrifted and diy crafts from books, paint and cone trees

The book page wreath has been hanging there since I made it.  We all love it and it may be in it's permanent spot at this time.   I don't foresee a move for it in the future.  I have written a tutorial for it here


Vintage, Paint and more... winter mantel done with book page crafts, diy cone trees and painted canvas

I really love this mantel it reminds of snow and the winters we used to have.  Living here at the beach we rarely get snow and the temps are usually fairly temperate.  I'm not complaining - that's why we moved here - to get away from that stuff.  But as long as I don't have to mess with it I'm okay.  I just love to look at it.   This mantel will probably remain for a few more days and then if I get real motivated  I may do a Valentine mantel.  I am working on other things right now and Valentine's is on the back burner.  We just don't do too much for Valentine's Day.

So, how is your winter going?  Did you do a winter mantel or
did  you just move right on to Valentine's?

Thanks for stopping by - have a great rest of the week.....



Click here to see the parties I am linking to this week.
Please visit them and see all the great projects and inspiration found there.... 




Saturday, January 5, 2013

Ana White Shelf Unit



Good Morning and Happy 2013 everyone.....

This is my first post of the new year.I took a couple of weeks off over the holiday and did a little bit of traveling.  But, now I am back and ready to hit it ...
Today I am going to show you a "little" project that the whole family worked on together.

Vintage, Paint and more... diy'd beach inspired rustic x shelf unit painted and distressed using Ana White's plans