Pink Wood Desk

Talk about an ugly desk that should have been destined for the dump.

But it is so well made and  has great storage I just couldn't do it.

    This one took some major sanding.  I don't know what they had used to keep the old handles on or what they had drawn flowers with but it sure did not want to come off.  But with some good old persistence and lots of sand paper I finally won the war.  

                                                         

I decided to step out of my comfort zone with the paint on this one.  I had never done a bright pink piece of furniture before but am so glad that I did. 

To compliment the pink I decided to paint the insides and the drawer knobs dark brown.  I also made sure and painted the sides and interior of the drawers to match.

Once the top was sanded smooth there was a beautiful grain so I just stained it dark walnut (I think that's what color it was) to pull it all together.

And for the finishing touch I stenciled fleur de lis on the cabinets.

If I do say so myself I think this turned out extremely well.

This desk is for sale for only $175. and I believe it should be able to ship Greyhound.  I have not shipped a large item before but from what I have checked into should be not problem.  If you are interested please contact me and I'll get a quote for you.

Baby Changing Table redo

Here is a picture of a very boring changing table I picked up at a local auction.  I couldn't decide what I wanted to do with it I had many ideas like a potting table or bar. But my adopted grand daughter had other plans, she decided to have a baby.

This was really a simple redo just took quite a bit of time because of all the different pieces.  It originally had a varnish on most of it which had to be sanded off.  Again more of a process than I expected.

I wanted to paint it to match the crib set so I picked a light blue, navy blue and dark brown.

For an added touch I took dark blue scrap booking letters and decoupaged them on the back. 

There was no pad on the table so I decided to make one instead of buying it.  I purchased 1" foam and a waterproof material to make the pad.  I then wanted a removable cover so it could easily be washed.  I sewed the cover just like a pillow case and added 3 Velcro pieces to keep it closed.

She had no idea I was doing this for her and was so excited when I showed up unannounced.  Just took her a couple hours to have it filled with diapers and clothes.  I think it was a good choice.

Beach themed Antique Side Table

This is a picture of a side table (minus the drawer) that I picked up at a local auction.  It was very plain but extremely well build and I loved the look of it but knew it could be so much more.

I had been seeing post using the flat glass stones on furniture and that just seemed to be the right idea to match with the dresser I had just finished.  I already had plenty of the stones, left over paint from the dresser and an extra box of resin so this project cost me very little.

Sorry I forgot to take pictures as I went so I'll just have to explain.  All I did was sand the piece down and applied the light blue oops paint we got from our local hardware store.  To get the beach feel I dry brushed some white acrylic paint on the drawer front and bottom shelf. 

We purchased some thin door trim and cut a frame to go around the top and nailed it in place.  Almost forgot, we placed caulking around the inside edges of the frame to keep the resin from oozing out and let it dry. It was already white so I just had to touch it up a little bit from the nail holes.

I love using resin, and have on several projects in the past, that I will share later.  One thing I learned from a past mistake is that you need to make sure the stones are embedded in glue, or in this case resin, not on the dry wood.  If you don't you will get air bubbles underneath, which some people seem to like according to response I've gotten from my bathroom vanity.  You can stand there and pretend your at the psychiatrist office playing the ink blot game :)

I did a dry run with the stones to make sure how many I needed and where to place them.  This was not as easy as it sounded :)  Once I was happy with the placement I took contact paper and placed over the top.  On top of this I put a piece of thin wood and had my husband help me flip the whole thing over the and keep the stones somewhat in place.

Once the table was flipped right side up I poured enough resin to cover the inside of the frame and then had to carefully put the stones and the contact paper back in place.  Sounded easy but... I still had a lot of re positioning to do after taking the contact paper off, but it worked out great.  Don't forget while your resin is drying you need to take a small straw and blow the air bubble off that float to the top.  If you don't small bubbles turn to large bubbles and will ruin the look.  After that it was just a matter of filling with the resin and letting it dry. Turned out great and sold right away at the antique mall where we have a booth.

If you have any questions about the resin please feel free to ask.  Like I said, I have used it on many projects and have learned a lot the hard way.

Yard Mannequin part 1

I have seen several beautiful floral yard mannequins with flowers growing on the skirt and mosaic designs on the bodice and thought I can do that!  Little easier said than done.  This is the first part describing how I am attempting to complete one.  Of course I didn't read any of the other directions but for some reason decided to do it my own way.  Oops, that sounded like a man who won't ask for directions.  I say attempting because I used to have a corner of my craft room filled with projects that did not work the way I thought they should so they got set aside never to be touched again.  I finally cleaned them out and am starting fresh determined not to let the projects defeat me. 

This post also includes one major "don't", this is very important so pay attention :)

I have a dress form that hasn't been used in years and that seemed like a good place to start.  I wanted to have plenty of room for decorating so I adjusted her as large as she would go which made quite a gap at her waist.  To solve that problem I just took some paper and taped over it so the gap wouldn't show in the final product.  I didn't want to ruin my form, just in case I decided to start sewing again, so I completely covered her with plastic wrap.

My husband decided she needed bigger boobs (no surprise there) so I took a styrofoam ball I had laying around and cut it in half.   To kept her enhanced figure in place I just wrapped them with more plastic wrap.  I have to give him credit I think it was a great idea.

 Now we needed to figure out what to make the mold out of.  I had a good supply of Rigid Wrap I purchased at Michael's a few years ago when they had some on clearance so figured this would work perfect.  If you have never used Rigid Wrap it's actually pretty fun, but it can be messy so have your area covered with plenty of newspaper and a wet rag close by.  Plastic gloves would probably be a good idea but I just can't stand them.  This is basically the same stuff they make you wear when you break a bone.

Hopefully you have a good friend you want to spend some time with because now would be the time to call her in.  Make sure she likes to get messy and  enjoys a cold beverage or two because this next step will take you some time, and is a lot more fun if your laughing and sharing it with someone.

The Rigid Wrap comes in rolls so you need to cut them in manageable lengths, say 6" to 12".  Longer seems like it would be easier but depending on what container you use for the water they can actually be more difficult to handle.  I use a plastic shoe box with water to wet each piece and have found it works better if you wet the piece then run it between your fingers to really get the plaster ready for use.  You will need to add several overlapping layers to make sure she is sturdy enough, once you think your done grab another cold one and keep going.

Now it was time for what I thought would be the hardest part of the whole project, walk away and let her dry.  You'll find out later that was not the hardest part :)  Make sure she is completely dry before removing or she will fall apart.  Be patient and start another project for a couple days, or heaven forbid clean the house!

I forgot to take a picture, but I put two pieces of flat metal the same length as her sides underneath the Rigid Wrap and again secured with plastic.  I wanted to make sure I would not cut the dress form when I sawed her in two, you know just in case I decide to sew again.

Once I was sure she was completely dry I used an electric saw with a cut off wheel and ran down each side.

Before I started filling her I again wrapped more plastic completely covering the mold.  If the Rigid Wrap gets wet it will fall apart, just like your leg cast would have.

I then duct taped the two pieces back together.  Again, this is a good time to ask for some help, any excuse for good company and a cold one, because you need to get them as tight and perfectly lined up as possible.  Before filling her we sat her on a piece of flat metal laying around so the filling would hopefully stay inside.

Next we had to decide what to make the final sculpture out of.  I originally wanted to use cement but my husband thought this would make her too top heavy, and again, I have to admit he was right.  Ouch that hurt, twice in one post :)  So we decided spray foam would be the best.  Light weight, easy to use (when filling cracks) and pretty inexpensive.  Seemed like the perfect solution.  This is what the mold looked like immediately after filling her.  Looked to me like this was going pretty well, a little smoothing when she was dry and we'd be ready to decorate.  HA!

Here comes the part I mentioned earlier about what not to do.  DO NOT use 7 cans of spray foam in one human sized torso!!! You would think we had been drinking when we made that decision but I have to admit it was a decision made with no added influences.   I don't know how much experience you have using this product but obviously we did not have enough.  

Remember how great she was looking as soon as we finished with the 7th can?  When they say this stuff expands they aren't kidding.  Here's what she looked like within a couple hours. She's growing and .....

growing,

and growing.

If I make another one I think we will put one can in and let it expand most of the way before adding another.  If I had to guess, I'm pretty sure 3 cans would be more than enough.  Another tip I learned the hard way, we were standing there pretty much watching her grow and my husband so kindly reminded me not to touch.  Guess I had a major gray moment because my hand automatically reached out and, you guessed it.  Believe me this stuff is sticky until dry and a nightmare to try and get off.  Oh no, was that a 3rd time in one post that he was right!!

After very impatiently waiting a few days to remove the mold, we thought she was dry.  She looked pretty good and I was excited.  Decided to let her sit a while longer just to make sure and guess what, she started leaking from a spot towards the bottom of her back that was not completely dry.  I won't share with you what a friend suggested this looked like, just use your imagination :)

A couple more days of being patient and doing a little trimming on the top this is what we ended up with.  Still have to use the electric knife and do a little plastic surgery, more on that to come later.

 By now I am a little frustrated but refusing to give up.  She will be finished and placed in the yard by fall.  Luckily I live in Phoenix so I think the first of November is my goal.

For now I'm taking a break and working on a simple project, moving my office and completely redoing the room to turn it into our Li'l Redneck Casino!!!  That sounds like a much easier project :)

Hope you enjoyed this post and I look forward to sharing the second part with you.  I debated on even posting this but realized it would be a good motivator for me to finish.  She doesn't deserve to be thrown in the corner.