This Weekend's Crafts

Hi y'all! Hope you are having a lovely weekend! I've worked on a few little projects this weekend that I thought I'd share. First, more string blocks... I've received 6 blocks from my friends in the Bee Vintage group and I've made 6 blocks. Half-way there!

I also made this little pennant banner with some of my favorite prints. I wanted something to dress up my plain white window valance in my sewing room. This was a fast little project and I am happy with how it turned out. (The Inspire word art was a gift from my husband a few years ago - purchased from Pier 1). 

I also started a project for Christmas. Christmas? Yes, Christmas. I saw an idea on Pinterest that used a house key as an ornament. I found our first key to the forever house we finished this Summer. This was the first key we were given by the builder. I painted it gold and then covered it in gold glitter nail polish. I have more plans for it, I'll share once it's complete. The lightbulb may or may not actually end up on our tree. It's just a burnt out nightlight bulb that happened to be on the kitchen counter when I started painting the key. 

Can you believe it? 99 days until the end of the year!

Fun with Spray Paint

I've never spray painted before, but I have a long(ish) list of things I wanted to spray paint. I asked for my husband to teach me how, but he has been super busy. After talking with a friend, I decided to just go for it. What's the worst that could happen?

I started with the jar lids for my rainbow of buttons. They were a bunch of mismatched jam, baby food, and store-bought jars. I hoped a coat (or three!) of white spray paint would unite them. And it did!

 Some of the baby food expiration dates bled through every layer of paint. This is like 5 layers before I gave up! Luckily I had enough blank lids for the colors of the rainbow and these stamped ones can be used for something else. In person, it's actually pretty light and only noticeable up close.

And this cabinet. I bought this at Mervyn's sometime in the 1990's. I think it was about $25. It's cheap wood, but actually pretty sturdy and has lasted well over the years. We've used it for a bunch of different rooms for different purposes. In the new house, I think I'd like to use it as bathroom storage. Since our cabinets are a dark walnut, I wanted a white cabinet in there. And this one was showing some age, so it didn't seem like it would be offended with a fresh coat of paint.

I also have a bunch of other furniture similar to this - wood veneer-type material. I figured this little cabinet would be a good "trial run" to see how the spray paint turned out before committing to larger, more sentimental furniture.

I started by lightly sanding the "wood" to rough it up. Then I went to town. I did very light coats because I wasn't sure how heavy I could go before it would drip. It ended up being 4 light coats, but since it's a small cabinet it went very quickly and dried quickly in between.

Here's the result! 

Because I couldn't find any tape, I didn't bother. Again, this is a cheap-o little cabinet. It actually worked out quite nicely... it's a soft feathered look inside the drawer and cabinet doors. 

The inside remains the original wood color. And unless someone goes snooping in my bathroom, no one will ever know.   ; )

I also sprayed some keys (some new, some old) for another project I have in mind. Spray painting keys is the way to go... so much faster than painting them with a brush like I did for my framed keys project. 

More on the keys coming soon (I hope!). 

Crafting a Few

I've made a few things this week - including this antique key artwork. I was inspired by an image on Pinterest, but I made mine a little differently. I used a shadow box (purchased at Jo-Ann's) and scrapbook paper as the background. Then I simply painted the keys and hot-glued them to the paper and framed it. Easy and I love it!

It took about 3 coats of paint to cover the keys. I used an acrylic paint that I already had - probably not the best choice, but since I planned to have the keys behind a glass frame, I'm not too concerned about the paint chipping off.

I used "Caribbean Blue."

I also attempted to paint a picture. Our house is getting close to completion, and I've been dreaming about a hydrangea-inspired bathroom. I can't decide if I want to enlarge some photographs or have some art on canvas. So I made a "first attempt" at painting on canvas. Still haven't decided, although I do love the swirls of color in the petals.

And, speaking of the house, we are inching closer! Here is a recent photo... and we now have drywall, too. It's very exciting to see our 5+ years of planning become something real and tangible. And then idea that we will be actually living there soon is very exciting. Even more? I will have a dedicated sewing & craft room in this space. Yahoo!

More coming soon... I actually am working on two QUILTS. My first in a very long time!