Paring Down: July 2010

7/28/10

Shabby Chic Cottage Giveaway!

Hi, everyone.

Before I begin, let me say how excited I was to be featured on Today's Creative Blog! So exciting - a great place to see awesome projects and really creative folks.

Secondly, this giveaway has been in the works since I hit 150 followers. I'm sticking to that so I can have ANOTHER giveaway for 200 followers right around the corner.

Without further adieu, let me introduce my wonderfully encouraging friend Gina, from Shabby Chic Cottage. You probably already know her if you like cute and inspired creations!

Gina's blog is wonderful - I've gotten a lot of inspiration from her cool features, like

- including Gina's own contribution - starfish ornaments! This is SO CUTE!!!

Here's another of my favorite tutorials - she makes it look EASY!

So Gina has been kind enough to help me celebrate 150 followers with a ... drum roll, please ...

$50 gift certificate to her Shabby Chic Etsy Shop!

She has her items grouped into several categories - maybe one, or all, of them fit your style:

Are you coastal cottage? country cottage? Paris apartment? urban farmhouse? shabby attic? the conservancy? the nest (love that)?

Here are some of my favorites:

I. want. these. starfish. wands. Seriously.

This reminds me of my cute beach cruiser, Coco. She wants me to ride her. Today!

Cream and black toile. What else is there to say?

I HEART birds. And I didn't even show you the bees. Gina has bees, too!

I love the black Paris postmark on this little white pot. My pencils want to live here.

So how do you enter? Here's the drill:

1) MANDATORY: please go to Gina's shop and tell me how you would spend your $50 gift certificate.

2) Follow me on Google Friend Connect and leave a comment telling me you did (or you are).

3) Follow me on Twitter and leave a comment telling me you did with your twitter name in it.

4) Heart (favorite) Gina's Shabby Chic Etsy shop and leave a comment telling me you did.

5) Follow Gina on Google Friend Connect and leave me a comment telling me did (or you are).

This giveaway will run through midnight on August 5, when my beautiful daughter turns 25 in New York with me there to celebrate with her. I'll announce the lucky winner on August 6. Good luck, everyone!

7/27/10

Old Road Sign Tutorial

My daughter is finding out about the lease on a Brooklyn apartment TODAY! To celebrate - and in anticipation of driving up there to help her move - I've been making some fun crafts and repurposing some things she left behind.

Meyerland is an area in Houston where my wonderful son-in-law Ben grew up. He is a screenwriter among other talents, and Meyerland is the name of the screenplay he and his friend Blake have written. They will be filming in October and want to screen it at the Sundance Film Festival next year. COOL!!!

My daughter loves greens, whites, creams, and lots of texture (and mid-century modern furniture - a girl can dream, right?). I thought this sign would be a fun addition to their new home.

EASY TO MAKE!!! Here's how I did it:

I bought a piece of balsa wood at Michaels for less than $4. The piece is maybe 4 inches wide by about 2 and a half feet long (GUESSTIMATE). I just picked a board that felt long enough. So scientific!

Then I banged up the board to "age" it. I used a hammer to gently knock some dents in it, a Phillips head screwdriver to make a few gouges, and I scraped some horizontal lines in it with a flat head screwdriver. I took it outside to bang the edges on some rough cement and ended up splitting the end. It wasn't bad enough to glue.

After that I slopped on a coat of dark brown acrylic paint and caught the edges with it too. The back is still plain balsa wood.

I used these chipboard letters, which I LOVE, from Hobby Lobby, because they have the simple shape of roadsign letters.

I wanted to trace the letters and make them even as well, so this was my solution. Regular tape is low tack and easy to move around while I was trying to make the letters spread out evenly.

Once I got the letters spaced out, I traced around each one with a pencil and used a cream (antique white) acrylic paint to fill in the letters. The easiest way to do this for me is to use a small flat artist brush. I dipped the brush in the paint, turned it sideways, and brushed inward from the pencil edge to the center of the letter. I turned the sign upside down to paint the other half of the letter.

DON'T WORRY if the letters aren't absolutely perfect - mine aren't either. My favorite grandma saying is "IT WON'T BE NOTICED ON A GALLOPING HORSE."

After I painted the letters, I went back over the brown with a dark avocado green. I left some brown showing around some of the letters because I didn't want to be perfect on them.

Next step: blurry sanding. I used a few sheets of sandpaper and sanded the heck out of the wood. I should have put a wood block or something inside the sandpaper; I was rubbing so hard my fingers were burning (TWSS). I wanted to sand enough paint off to show the brown paint through the green and cream.

Almost done! I wiped off the sandpaper with a damp paper towel, and then I applied some antiquing glaze. Love this stuff!

I brushed it on quickly, not worrying if I got it on every single centimeter.

I then learned how difficult it is to take an action shot by yourself. This is the end of the board after I wiped the glaze with a damp paper towel. I only left the glaze on a couple of minutes while I went to get the damp paper towel. It filled in the cracks nicely.

At this point you could coat it with a sealant to protect it. I would make it matte to keep the antique look. You could do this with any color combination, including, say gray and white (or aqua and red, yum!)