Chalk Paint Refinishes

    Over the summer, while visiting my sister-in-law, I was introduced to the art of chalk paint refinishes.  My sister-in-law had done several pieces in her home and they were simply gorgeous!  She walked my through the steps and encouraged me to give it a try.  We visited a shop there that specializes in refinishing furniture for people and selling pieces.  The cost difference in purchasing a finished product and finishing your own is at least 4X's less DIY.  It is a little time consuming, but definitely worth every minute.

   My oldest son had this small dresser that was my husband's when he was a kid.  My son liked it but asked if we could paint it blue.  We found the perfect color at the shop in Colorado and purchased the other supplies needed.

The items you'll need are:

• Chalk Paint (Annie Sloan is the brand we used.  It is about $40 a quart, but it goes a long way.  There are also several tutorials on making your own if you google it, but I haven't tried this so can't give any tips!)
• Light or Dark soft wax (depends on the finish you are wanting.  You can purchase a dark Finishing Wax from Home Depot or Lowe's for about $10.00.  The light wax can be found from any Annie Sloan distributors.)

         

• A large stippling brush
• Regular size paint brush
• Small paint brush
• Cheese cloth
• Acrylic Paint
• Petroleum Jelly
• Fine sand paper
• Something to refinish

Here is the dresser my son wanted to have painted blue.  It has nice markings on the drawers and lots of scratches and dings to give it lots of character.

1.  Remove all of the hardware.

2.  This next step can just be skipped if you like the wood color and that is the color you want exposed.  If you would like a lighter or darker choose an acrylic paint to suit your taste.  Use a smaller paint brush to apply the acrylic paint to anywhere you think you might want to expose off after the chalk paint is applied.  Good places would be the edges, gouges and scratches, and carvings.  Remember, just because you put the acrylic paint there, it doesn't mean you will be exposing all of it, only some will come through with the sanding.  You will want to apply 2-3 coats of the acrylic paint to make sure it is covered well enough.

3.  After you have all of the acrylic paint on, use the petroleum jelly and apply a layer on each area you want exposed.  You don't want this very think but thick enough that it will allow the chalk  paint to come off.  If you put it on too thick, it will strip much more of the chalk paint than you want off. 

4.  Apply a layer of the chalk paint.  Let the paint dry and then apply a second coat.  Let it set for about 12-24 hours.

5.  Once the paint is completely dry, use your sand paper to remove some of the paint distressing it a bit.  You will be able to see glossy areas where the vaseline areas are.  Focus the sand paper on these to show the color underneath.  Expose as much or as little as you like, just don't make it uniform.

6.  Once everything is exposed you want, use your stippling brush to apply the soft wax back and forth over the painted areas until everything is covered.  Let it sit for about 30 minutes then use about 12 inches of the cheese cloth to rub the wax until smooth.  Apply a second coat of the wax and repeat with the cheese cloth.

7.  Reapply the hardware and display proudly.

~Stacy~

More FUN Christmas Decorations

    There are just so many adorable Christmas Decorations out there, it is a shame not to be able to put all of them into one post.  We have just a few of our favorites for this year we wanted to share.

Fabric Trees

   The first one is something our mom made for us a few years back.  They are so cute and can go anywhere so of course they go out every year.  They are really simple and inexpensive to make too.
   For this little project all you need are 2X4's cut about 4 inches long, dowels in 3 different sizes, 3 different colors of fabrics, raffia and a drill and wood glue.

** For the fabric, we would suggest Christmasy colors, but not necessarily Christmas patterned material.  Example, reds, greens, golds, blues.    You can choose solids or something with a mild print like a star or plaid.  If you get about 1/2 yard per color, you should have plenty to cover your tree.

** For the dowels, you really can choose how long you want to cut them (or have them cut when you purchase them if they offer that service--Home Depot or Lowe's would).  Ours are 13", 16" and 19" and that seems to be a perfect length.

1.  You will start by drilling a hole in the center of the 2X4" piece (sitting flat, it will be a 4X4" by 2" height).  Drill it about 1/2 to 3/4" down.  Add a little wood glue and stick your dowel into it.  Allow this to dry.

2.  Next,  cut several strips of the fabric into 1" strips.  The length of these will vary, depending on which tree they are for.  The smaller ones will be about 6-7 inches long, the medium tree 7-8 inches, and the larger tree 8-10 inches.  Cut one strip the length you think will work and actually tie it on to see if that is how long you want it before cutting all of them!

3.  After you have the strips cut into the lengths you desire, start at the bottom of the dowel and just start tying the strips onto the dowel, one by one.  You will want to tie them at different spots (rotating the dowel around) so the loose edges go all around the tree.  Continue until you get to the top.  The final 4-5 pieces you will tie just a little differently.  Lay one or two over the top of the dowel, then tie 2-3 more around the dowel, over the top of the material you just laid down.  This will cover the end of the dowel and finish it off.

4.  Final step is to tie a long raffia ribbon around the top with the long ends touching the ground and maybe +2 inches!

Shop More Sister Stuff!

We have worked really hard this year to get a BUNCH of Christmas decorations into our shop for this season.  We decorate our homes with these fun items and hopefully you will find something you want in your home too!  Some of the things we have available in our shop this year are also linked below and you should be able to see the rest from there!

Vinyl Platters

Apothecary Style Candy Jar Sets

Christmas Greetings Blocks

Ho Ho Ho

Merry Christmas

Snowflake Stitching Picture

Christmas Glass Blocks

Day 1   Day 2   Day 3   Day 4   Day 6   Day 7   Day 8   Day 9   Day 10   Day 11   Day 12

Halloween Decoration Ideas

  I have said before, Halloween is one of my favorite holidays to decorate for.  I really don't like the creepy skeletons, bloody hands or things like that , but I love the cute pumpkins, witches, and ghosts.  I really do try to add to my collection every year.  I have gotten with my sisters to see what ideas they have for decorations this year and this is what we have come up with!

Let's Get Batty!!

My friend had done this on her front door a couple of years ago and I fell in love!  She gave me her template and I finally got the bats made this year.  I just used cardstock and taped them to my front door windows.

Pumpkin Patch

Arizona is really big on recycling, which is nice and it also helped to spark this idea.  As I was throwing away multiple glass bottles, such as spaghetti and pickle jars, I got an idea to save them and use them as pumpkin decorations.  I just painted the outsides of the jars orange.  I painted the lids and  the little pumpkin segment lines brown.  One of the pumpkins I painted over the orange with a beige color, leaving the pumpkin segment lines orange.  I used a sharpie marker to draw on each pumpkins face and finished it with some raffia or Hemp String around the lids.  My kiddos really like them too!

Trick-or-Treaters

Here is a picture of my little Trick-or-Treater group!  I wish I could say I made all of them, but just the little girl with the ghost head is my contribution.  (You can buy one of them in our store if you like her too!)

Gliding Ghosts (and a bat)

Another one of the kids favorite is our flying glow-in-the-dark ghosts.  We have a bat amongst them (my oldest son made in 1st grade a couple of years ago).  The glow in the dark ghosts can also be found in our store or on the blog as a tutorial!  I attached these by using fishing string and hooks in the wall.  I put them up as high as I could reach and just tied slip knots on either end of the fishing string.  Then I attached fishing string to the heads and bottoms of the ghosts and bat (2 strings each) and did a slip knot for each string onto the string strung across the room.  I hope that makes sense!  I think it turned out pretty cool.  (I, Stacy, really shouldn't be taking credit for hanging them though because Michelle actually did it for me!  Thanks so much!!!)

Here is a close up of the bat.  It is just made from a black nylon hose with the end stuffed with cotton.  Tie it off at the length you want your bat.  On black cardstock, draw the bats wings, head and ears and then hot glue it onto the bats back.  You can also add additional googly eyes if you want!

~Stacy~

Witches Hat Garland

This is a project Michelle is going to be doing this week.  It is this really cute Mini Witch Hat Garland.  Click on the link for the tutorial!  I believe Michelle is making the hats garland!

~Michelle~

Halloween Garland

Here is Rachel's Garland she made from scraps of black, white and orange material.  It was a quick and easy project she did with her kids this weekend.  Rachel is also going to make some cute little witches hats for some center pieces at her Witches Night Out Party.

~Rachel~

Glow in the Dark, Halloween Ghosts

I love Halloween and I am trying every year to add cute decorations to my collection.  These are the cutest ghosts!  I am so excited to add them this year.  I know it is a little early for Halloween, but why not get prepared early.

This is a fun project to do with your kids.  For the project you will need a 3' X 36" cheesecloth pack, fabric stiffener, glow in the dark paint (in the craft section), a 2 L bottle, 2- 16oz bottles, a 3" Styrofoam ball, and E-6000 glue.

1.  First you will take the cheesecloth out and unfold it all the way out.  Next, fold it into thirds.
2.  In a medium sized bowl, mix 8 oz of fabric Stiffener, and 4 oz of the glow in the darkFill paint together in the bowl.  Crumple up the cheesecloth into a ball and stick it in the mixture.  Stir it around until the cloth is completely covered.  Let it set for 30 minutes.
3.  Take the 2-L bottle and cut 2- 1 1/2 inch ovals in the front towards the middle.  (You will attach the arms there so cut them where you think the arms would look the best).  One will be at 10" up and the other at 9".
4.  Attach the 2- 16 oz bottles into the holes and secure with hot glue.
5.  Fill the 2-L bottle about a 1/3 of the way with water.  Attach the styrofoam ball on top of the bottle.
6.  After 30 minutes, squeeze the cheesecloth out as much as you can.  Spread it out and on top of the plastic bottles.  Move the cloth around the arms and head so you can see some definition.  Also spread the bottom out so it will be able to stand on it's own once dry.  Allow to dry over night or several hours.
7.  Using black or dark card stock, cut out 2 oval eyes.  Attach on the inside of the ghosts head using E-6000 glue.
8.  Light it up or leave it under the lights for a little bit and then turn off your lights and let it glow!!!

We will also have these listed in our More Sister Stuff Shop, if you would rather just buy a finished product!

~Stacy~

How to fix a Bowed Shelf

  Maybe this is a weird thing to post about, I am not sure, but maybe it will be useful to someone else!  I had this shelf I had purchased from a furniture store that I absolutely LOVE.  It is a beautiful cherry wood color, simple but beautifully crafted, at least in my opinion.  It was perfect except that within the first few months of having it with my books on it, the shelves all started to sag.  I don't know if it was just my luck or not because the store had the exact same shelf with lots of heavy books decorating it and they were not sagging, so who knows.  Anyhow, it has been like this for a few years because I was just not completely sure how to fix it, but I knew I wanted to fix it and not throw it away.  So with a little inspiration from my mother-in-law and some help from my friends at the local Home Depot, I have FINALLY been able to fix my shelf and it is working AMAZINGLY well.

I don't know if you can see the bowing in this top picture as accurately but it was the best one I could find with books on the shelves.  It was from about 5 years ago, right after we got it.  The picture down below is one of the shelves turned upside down and you can really see how badly it is bowed.  It should be lying flat on the ground!

Here are the steps I took to fix my shelf:

****I am going to make this note right here and it goes for all of the pieces you need.  Whether you purchase your wood from a Home Depot, Lowes, or other wood supply store, if YOU do NOT have a saw at home, just ask them to cut the pieces to the length you need.  They are SUPER nice and willing to help like that!  Just bring your measurements with you!  Make sure to measure at least 2x's to get it right!

1.  I measured underneath each shelf from side to side, inside the framing and purchased 1" X 2" boards that would be the supports on the inside, back of the bookcase, underneath the shelf.  As you can see, I also had to purchase 1/4" X 2" piece of wood also that is a little shorter than the 1" X 2" because of the way the framing is, otherwise there would have been a 1/4" gap between the back and my support piece of wood.  You may or may not need this additional piece.  

  a.  If you DO need this piece, mark on your 1" X 2" the left and right sides of the framing that are vertical so you know where to attach the 1/4" piece.  For example, on my bottom shelf, the left side vertical piece was 2 1/4" in but the right side was only 2".  I marked those lines so I could glue and attach my wood right there.  Once it was dried, the piece fit into the back perfectly!

    b.  Once your sides are marked, (I would also mark L and R just to keep them straight, and mark both pieces of wood for which shelf they belong to) apply wood glue to the 2" part of one of the pieces of wood and put the two together.  (Make sure the 1/4" is on the back side with L on the left side and R on the right side!)  

     c.  Then you will C-clamp the pieces tightly together using a piece of cardboard or something similar to protect the wood from indentations.  

      d.  Once C-clamped, screw together using FLAT head, 1/2", wood screws.  Let it sit overnight or several hours until the glue is nice and set, then move on to the next one.

2.  For this step, you will want a nice firm 1" X 2" pine or hard wood.  Something that should be very stable for it.  This one does not have to be the exact length of the shelf. Mine was about 2" short of the entire shelf length.  

I took the piece I made in step one, and one of the pieces of Pine I had cut and on the BACK, UNDER side, I lined this up to match the indents of the shelf with the PINE piece in the FRONT.  It should be about  1" short on either side of the piece from Step 1.  

   a.  Put wood glue (in small dabs) on the 1" side (facing the shelf) of the PINE piece and put back in place.

   b.  Put your cardboard piece on the top part of the shelf (the part touching the ground) and start attaching the C-clamp just to the PINE piece while making sure to keep everything lined up.  The wood piece from step 1 should remain flush with the shelf at all times or you will need to readjust.  If you let it dry overlapping the edge, it will not fit into the bookcase.

   c.  Once you have the first side C-clamped, C-clamp the second side and you will start to see the curving straighten out.  

d.  Wipe off any glue that got smeared or squished out and remove the piece from Step 1.

3.  Turn the shelf over and measure how far from the end your piece of wood is now glued.  For example: my Step 1 piece brought my Step 2 piece out 1 1/4".  If I measure between 1 1/2" and 1 3/4" in, my screw will be attached great.  Do the same from the side end and mark where they cross.

b.  Once you have both ends marked, measure the distance between those 2 marks and divide it by 3.  Mine came out to 11 inches, so I marked the 2 middles screws 11" from the 1st and last screws, 1 1/2" from the back end.  Screw these in with 1 1/4" FLAT head, wood screws.

c.  Again, let this set over night or several hours until the wood is good and dry!

4.  This step has 2 options.  If you don't care about appearances on the front, don't follow this part.  If you don't care about appearances on the back, follow this step!  Take your Step 1 piece to the bookshelf and fit it to the framing.  Turn it sideways so you can see the screws and the back of the bookshelf.  Mark 4 spots (similar to Step 2) where you can screw all 3 pieces through the back.  Approximately 2" from the L side and R side, and then 2 evenly in the middle.  Just make sure you will not be hitting the screws in the board of Step 1.  (this is why you are turning it sideways).  Once marked, drill a small pilot hole through the back of the bookshelf.

5.  Once you have screwed the Step 2 piece to the shelf, you can put the Step 1 piece back into the bookcase framing.  Line it up with the side framing where the shelf will go.  It doesn't have to be perfect yet!

6.  Once you have completed Step 3 and your shelf is dry, and you have completed Step 5, place the shelf back onto it's support frame with the new one in place.  Once it is in there, look underneath.  If your Step 1 piece is not flush with the bottom of the Step 2 piece, either take a scrap piece of wood or a hammer and GENTLY tap it into place.

b.  Do this with all of the shelves.

7.  Move the bookcase out so you can screw your finishing screws into the backside.  You will use 1 1/2" FLAT head, wood screws for this.  Just line them up with the pilot holes you already drilled and you are set. Sorry that I am messing up the back of your shelf but they are usually against a wall, right?  You can always cover them with the little plastic covers if you want.

a.  Second option if you do not want to go through the back, just go ahead and drill your 4 support screws through the front side, going through the PINE wood first.  Again, you can always cover with the plastic screw covers or the wood plugs.

8.  Finally, find a stain that matches your shelf color and stain away.  I just used a little foam brush and it worked great.  The front side required about 3 coats, but it dried really quickly.

  It was kind of a long process because I only had 2 C-clamps, but I definitely think it was worth it!  My shelves are perfectly lined up and my books actually go straight across now!

~Stacy~

Baby Toy Tutorial

This Christmas our family is on a bit of a budget, who isn't, right?  Because of this, and the fact that I love to sew/craft, most of our gifts are going to be homemade.  I have been crocheting beanies, sewing neck pillows and pj pants for everyone.  I decided that although I have a brand new tiny little baby that cares nothing about Christmas right now, I probably better do something for her (besides the stinkin' cute pj pants!!) or the other kids will think I don't like her.  :)  When we moved this last time I gave away ALL my baby things, and since I no longer have any toys I thought that would be something fun.  My babies have always loved those squishy balls with ribbons coming out of them that make noise, or the little books that sound like there plastic in them when you crinkle the pages.  I combined these two ideas and made one crunchy sounding blankie with ribbons sticking out all over.

Materials I used:

Flannel (Scraps I had leftover from baby blanket)

Ribbon, lots of colors, widths, and textures

Packaging for wipes (or maybe even diapers)

Now to get to work.  Because my scraps were on the small side I cut my fabric and wipes packaging to 

6" x 6".  You can adjust this to any size you would like.  Then cut as many ribbons as you prefer, I cut 13, but you can have as many as you would like.  The ribbon needs to be 5" long.  

Now, place one piece of fabric right side up.  Fold each ribbon in half and pin this to the fabric in the order you would like.  Keep them at least a 1/2" away from the corners.  Once all the ribbons are pinned in place, take your other piece of fabric and lay it right side down.  Both of the right sides (or patterned sides) should be touching the ribbon.  

Now you will need to pin the plastic to the wrong side of the material on one side.  I carefully took the pins off the ribbon and pinned it through all four layers.  

You will  need to sew all around the outside of the fabric, leaving a 2-3" opening to turn the blankie right side out.  After you sew all around turn it the right way, using a dowel or chopsticks or something like that to push the corners out. In order to make it so there is not a big opening in the blankie you will sew a finishing stitch all around the edge.  I always start on the side that I have the opening.  Sew about 1/4" from the edge.

You are done!  I hope that this was a helpful tutorial, and if there is ever something that does not make sense please leave a comment or shoot me an email.    

~Rachel~

Family Birthday Boards Tutorial

I did a project for Christmas for one of my best friends from college. I thought it turned out so cute!! So now  we've decided we are doing the same thing for our mom for Christmas. So I thought I would include a tutorial for those of you who has someone in mind...it's perfect for Grandmas! If you don't have the time to do it we have it in our shop.

**What you need:

**A Piece of wood 24x6" (Home Depot...I got an extra piece of scrap wood they had for .51)

**Stars or circles for the names(Hobby Lobby 2.99 for 20)

**Drill & 1/16 Drill Bit (Wal-Mart 1.98)

**Sander

**Jump Ring 9mm (Hobby Lobby 4.99)

**Acrilic Paint (Hobby Lobby or Walmart $2 bottle)

**5/8 Cup Hooks (Home Depot 4.99)

**Vinyl...I do it myself so for me it was free :)

**Picture Hangers for the back (2.99 Walmart)

This is what they all look like:

I sanded the board down and Painted it. Then, in the little circles I drilled a hole in each end as close to the end as I could. Be careful I hear some people have a problem with it breaking the wood easily. Then I painted the little circles. We decided to go with males one colors and females another. I've seen some cute ones where they've done each family a different color, or you can just do them all the same...all are cute.

Apply the vinyl. Then I put the hooks in the bottom of the wood. This was pretty time consuming and found it was A LOT easier to drill a hole where your going to put the hook in and you can screw it in a lot easier. Also, another tip is to have pliers to have screw them in all of the way. I just got a measuring tape a measured it all out on the bottom and marked the spots so that I did them straight. It's a lot better if your vinyl is already on so you make sure to get them right under the month.

Then I took the little jump rings and opened them a little, after a while I used the pliers again because my fingers were getting raw. But I figured out the best way to do it was to put on ring between the two circles. This is why you want to get your holes as close to the edge as you can or the ring won't be able to go through the two. 

Having one ring is the only way to have the line lay flat against the wall. On top of the first person of the month, you'll want to add one more little ring that you will connect to your cup hooks, or once again it'll try to flip to the side. 

On the back I added the picture hanging hooks, one on each side so it would be sturdy. I did them two inches from the edges and one inch from the top.

It is pretty time consuming, but I loved the way it turned out!

--Michelle--

My newly refinished table!

Oh how excited I am to do this post! I have lived in Utah now for just over a month and finally have a kitchen table to sit down to eat our meals at now.  Oh joy! So my brother and sister in-law got a new, lovely, kitchen table and gave us their old one.  Here is what it looked like when we got it--

Since we have had it, I went and bought some paint at a place called Four Chairs Furniture in Lindon.  We spent about fifty dollars on the paint and finish.  While I was there, she gave me some tips on how to do the look I wanted.  She first told me to sand it down to the wood and make sure to get it to that point, or the paint won't stick as well.  So I sanded it down.  My sweet husband did the chairs while I was at work one day, and apparently it took a lot longer than my job on the table.  It was nice of him! Once all of the sanding was done, it was time to paint! My plan for the table was white underneath and a black top.  I wanted it to have the distressed look, so when I started it I painted black all over-3 coats.  Another tip I was given, was get paraffin wax and put it on the black coat where I wanted to distress it.  I did this, and am still unsure on if I like it or not.  Why I say this is because when I sanded the white to get to the black, it just rubbed right off and did more distressing in some places than I wanted.  Anyways, after the wax, I painted 3 coats of white paint on the bottom of the table.  I gave it a day or two to dry (only so long because I was busy with other stuff, but one day is plenty).  After I was done painting the table, I did the finish coat.  Again, she told me to paint a coat, let it dry, and then sand it with a brown paper bag.  Do this between each coat, and there will be three coats of finish also.  Sounds weird, but I did it anyways.  Once the table was done, I painted the chairs completely black and our bar stools black top with white underneath.  I also coated those in the finish.  I let them dry and put them all back where they go, and now we actually eat at our kitchen table! Here is the finished product!

A closer look at the bottom so you can see the distressing--

And the stools--

There is my project that has been consuming my time for the past month! Hope you enjoyed!
-Melanie