Decoupaged Plant Stand

So. I don't consider myself a paint genius. Not at all.

I spray paint.

That's what I do.

But something in me lately has gotten me to start 'painting' more.

I'm not sure...maybe I have sustained too much unknown damage from all the spray paint fumes and my subconscious is telling me to go easy on the spray painting.

Anyway.

So I found this beaut at the thrift store.

It was $10.

I'm not sure why I paid that much for it.

And I'm still not sure.

But what's past is past.

Maybe I was drawn to the nice oak color, gold accents and emerald marble.

Hmmm. No.

I think I bought it because I was excited about the possibilities!

So here's where my no-paint-expertise comes into play.

I went to home depot.

Bought some paint that I liked.

Thought that it was just like the other paint I had been using but a different color.

Huh. No. No, my friend.

Not all paint is created the same.

I somehow found myself with enamel.

Enamel??

I put on the first coat and am looking at it like, why the heck isn't it covering very much?

Twenty minutes later.

Why the heck is this not dry yet?

Why is it all sticky?

What is going on?

That's when I look at the paint can.

Ugh. Yeah. Enamel.

I have no idea what this stuff is used for.

But its definitely not to be used if you are an impatient person like me.

So. My poor body has now sustained more unknown damage from the spray paint fumes due to my lack of not looking...and reading carefully...before you buy paint saga.

(Side note: I'm pretty sure I'm really not sustaining any damage, just in case you guys are concerned).

So. I got this baby spray painted (cuz I had no idea how enamel worked, so I went with what I knew would work) and gussied it all up.

I'm not quite a fan of marble or green marble for that fact.

But I am a fan of decoupage and pretty paper with pretty flowers :)

Which is now the new top.

I haven't quite decided what to put on it yet.

But at least I have a place for it.

So. Question.

Do any of you use enamel? If so, what do you use it on? Cuz now I have a whole paint can full of it.

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Quick Lamp Transformation

Okay. So you guys should know by now that I have an obsession with lamps. Well an obsession with pillows, candles, and lamps.

But this post is about lamps. Well A lamp.

You wouldn't believe what this looked like before:

Are ya ready?

Okay. Here it was:

Striped lamp shade? Brass base?

WHAT???

I'm still trying to figure out what the room must have looked like with this 'beaut' in it.

But I don't want to know, because it was probably a decorating h-e-double-hockey-sticks.

Anyway.

I looked beyond the obvious and saw that I could totally use this baby in my front room.

So I rescued it.

I used the same technique I did with my other lamps.

Pretty simple.

Clean. Spray paint. Recover lampshade with fabric, ribbon, and a little bit of spray adhesive and live happily ever after.

I'm trying.....trying so desperately hard... to not buy any more lamps.

But it is like totally impossible....anybody with me? Or am I just a crazed woman with a weird obsession?

I went to the thrift store the other day....and of course, found myself meandering near the lamps.

I found like 10 I wanted.

Yes. 10.

There were two with humongous drum shades for $5!!! They were like 4 feet tall!

Be still my heart.

Long story short. My husband was there.

The end.

No lamps for me.

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Drab to Fab Storage Crate

Hey everyone! I hope you all enjoyed your weekend.

Sorry I haven't posted in awhile...I've been uber busy with work, but it took me to Las Vegas, so can't complain now can I?

So, those of you who read my ramblings probably know that we had a dumbo builder who decided to skip out on the closets when building our house.

We don't have ANYclosets except the ones in the bedrooms.

So I have like no place to put half my stuff....zero zilch nada storage.

I can go on and on at how much better my life would be with at least ONE linen closet or coat closet, but I won't.

So, usually where the blankets should go, they don't go, cuz there isn't one.

So they usually end up stashed in a corner somewhere.

But then....

I found this old milk crate (I think its a milk crate?) for $2.

And now I have some cute storage for the blankets!

Yay!

It use to look like this~

I liked the white already and how it kind of looked old and used. And I was lazy and didn't want to go through the process of painting it :) Truth be told. Cuz I was just going to paint it white anyway.

Then I took some rope I found for a buck fifty and wrapped the pretty little thing up.

I just hot glued the ends on both sides so they would stay. I loooove how it looks on the side:

I used my Cricut to cut this out with vinyl. I'm thinking I might put some more on the side....if I ever get around to it. But for now....

I'm happy that my blankets aren't in a pile in the corner somewhere...they have a place to live :)

Linked Parties:

Reinvented

A Soft Place To Land

Beyond the Picket Fence

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Retro Lamp ReViVaL

Happy Wednesday everyone! Don't you just love Wednesday? Especially when its like 5:00pm Wednesday and your getting off of work, ....it means you only have two more days to the weekend! Yay :)

I am soooo looking forward to that 5:00.

So, I decided the other day that I think the world is against me.

I have spent months and months trying to find THE perfect lamp to redo. It had to have good lines, be cheap, and ....well... be cheap. I couldn't find anything, forever. I'm pretty sure the thrift stores around me think they are Neiman Marcus or something...they are always sooo over priced. I totally don't get it.

Anyway....so for months I couldn't find a lamp.

And then....I finally found one, which you can see the makeover here. It wasn't the best looking one and it was only $8 (more than I wanted to spend but I was desperate to get my craft on), so I bought it and redid it.

I was happy. But still not satisfied.

Then I went to a different thrift store. And found a lamp for $4! And then another one, and another one and oh so many more every time I go there! I mean.....I didn't have any lamps for months and now I wanted like 20 in a week.

But thank goodness I have a hubs that would KILL me if I brought home more than two lamps (although I did bring home three so far and am still not dead) I have self control.

So, here's my 3rd one....totally redone :)

(Way better than the 2nd, thats why it hasn't found its place onto my blog yet)

This pretty puppy was well.....quite retro before it got into my hands:

I mean, the lamp shade was flipp'n awesome...who doesn't love a huge shade? :)

But the brass had to go.

And the whole thing kind of looked a little 70s.

And knowing that it had been around for over 30 years had me dying to cover the lamp shade that was surely packed-full of mutt.

But....perhaps I made it a little more retro with the redo?

I don't know....but I love it :)

Thank goodness the lamp shade was completely round with no tapering because the before mentioned lamp was not fun to try to add ribbon to to hide the edges.

(wow...thats a lot of 'to's)

See here.....this was so simple :)

And I'm really bad at not checking to see if the lamps work before I buy them...I don't necessarily like going by all the grimy, grungy men that are usually checking out to see if the 20 year old jute box still works just to see if my $4 lamp will light up....and there's never a light bulb lying around anyway..

So....3 out of 3 times so far, I have been blessed, and the lamp still lights up:

Happy day!

Anyways....Here's how I had my room before with the old....now frightingly small lamp:

And after :)

Happy creating everyone!!

Lets get these parties started:

 Someday Crafts

Reinvented

A Soft Place To Land

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Decorative Bowls

Here is a super quick, cheap and easy project. I think the thing that took the longest was waiting for the paint to dry....and even in that case, I'm so impatient I can't wait 10 minutes for it to dry. And on that note, I absolutely hate when I have to do another coat...and yet another coat. I think that's why me and white paint have a love-hate relationship. It always turns out beautiful....but it takes stinkin' forever to get there...'know what I mean?

Anyway. I'm sure you thrifty girls see these kind of things all the time at the thrift store:

They are fine by themselves, I guess, but together....they are Beautiful and Wonderful and will actually find a place in your house.

Just spray paint the two pieces to your hearts desire, and superglue the candle stand to the bottom of the bowl. Its just as easy as that. Told ya'. (unless you want to try the stenciling, that'll take your patience Right Out the door)

And here's another one (just in case you need a little more inspiration)

This is half a before picture because the plate I was going to use is no longer with us. It met its demise while I was scrubbing the darn thing...yep, split right in two. But it was for the best, because then I found something better :)

An awesomely large bowl for $1!!!

I did the same steps as above...spray painted, attached the stand:

Added a little old world charm:

And voila!

I'm already on to making cake stands using this same method. Its just so easy and super cheap. Both decorative bowls cost me only $2 to do. Can't beat that.

Happy Creating!!!

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Vintage Embellished Books

I love books, I don't always love how they look. But I think books are perfect for decorating, either in a book shelf, on free floating shelves, on tables, under lamps, etc. and for reading of course.

They are just wonderful :)But, what do you do when you don't have pretty books and you want to display them somehow? Cover them up of course. You may remember these books that I recovered.

Well, here's another option. Decoupage them. Yep. Works beautifully. Here's what you need:

• Books (of course)
•  Decoupage medium
• cutter 
• coordinating paper
•  any accessories you may want to add to them at the end.

Cut the paper to size of the book. Make sure the top is your priority for that is going to be the side that people see, you'll more than likely run out of paper because not all books are 6 inches on each side and 12 inches long.

On both top books I had to add an extra little strip of paper on the back, and on the big bottom one, I had to outline the book with a coordinating solid color then add the original paper I chose so it would fit.

FYI, If you want the distressed look, sand the paper on the edges before you decoupage the paper to the book, it works a lot better than trying to sand through the decoupage medium.

After you have the books covered and dried, embellish to your heart's desire. I used some drawer pulls and a little scrapbooking embellishments on mine.

Pretty huh? Totally better than the before. If you wish, you can also paint the book pages to match!

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Burlap Covered Lampshade and Updated Lamp

So, I have concluded two things after finishing this project. One~spray adhesive and burlap do not go well together...you get wooly mammoth hands.

Two~Next lamp shade I redo is not going to be round, its half near impossible to wrap thick ribbon on the inside of it.

So, on to my project...

Yay! I.Found.A.Lamp!!! (oh, did I already give that away?). Finally!

Its been like forever in the making, but finally, here's my lamp redo :)

So, here was how it started out.

Nice, beautiful, $8, and very seventies....oh and totally not my style.

So, the base got the scrub down, the sanding, and the spraypaint.

The shade got beautified.

The nasty outdated seventies shade got ripped off.

I used the outer layer of the shade as my stencil on the burlap that was going to replace it.

Next, I used some spray adhesive to attach to the burlap.(ugh...worst thing ever...aka. wooly mammoth hands...not.fun,not.fun.at.all)

Finished off the edge with some jute, wrapped some ribbon around it and attached a few embellishments.

As for the base ~painted it white, although I'm still not sure if I should distress it or not. But after putting the shade on the base, I knew it definitely needed something else, I mean...this thing was soooo ugly not even a fresh coat of paint could really help it.

So, I decided to girl it up :)

I attached a cute little ribbon and a pertiful flower.

Although the hubs may disagree (he still hates the thing), I loooove it :)

And it has found a nice little place in our living room.....permanently (sorry babe)

And guess what! The light actually works :) woohoo!

So, I need to still clean up the inside a little bit if I choose to actually keep this on....but still, the darn thing works! Yay!

So after my million years months of searching for a decent, cute, and cheap lamp. I found one :) And it turned out beautifully.

Happy Creating!

And don't forget to join:

Jane at Finding Fabulous for her Frugalicious Friday Giveaway

Kimba at A Soft Place To Land

Kimm at Reinvented

Diana at The Girl Creative

Tip Junkie

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