When You Wish Upon A Tray...

Welcome to those visiting from :







I keep finding trays. Doesn't it seem like when you find something to re-purpose, you keep finding more of that thing wherever you go? I found an old tray with a glass bottom at an antique store and initially, I thought I would reverse decoupage the glass part because it looked pretty bad. But once I got it cleaned up, it looked pretty good so another idea came to mind.

It had a beat up finish but was kind of "70's brown". Taped off the glass part, painted it black acrylic paint, dry brushed it with darker brown, didn't like it, glazed it with black and glazing medium and then finally went randomly over it w/ silver Rub N Buff  which really made the handles pop.

In one of my scavenging visits to JoAnn's, I'd picked up a package of "Hip In A Hurry" vinyl that was 70% off that I thought would be perfect for this project:

The best part is there are 4 sheets in the package and I only used one for this, so 3 more projects..yeah!
 You can guess from my play on words in the title which one I used? No? OK here:

When You WISH Upon A Tray

And despite my earlier statement that "more is more" and I really thought I was going to do more on this, I decided that simpler was better. That won't be a habit! To finish it off, I used two Prima paper flowers I'd picked up while on vacation.

Now, if I could only find a cheese dome!

Linking Up At:

 

 

Time In A Bottle

I'm no Michelangelo, who saw things in a block of marble, but when my husband finished off a bottle of his favorite adult beverage, I saw this idea in the bottle. No, I hadn't been helping him finish it off when I started seeing things!

 

I've been intrigued by bottles and this one was both old looking and had a great shape and made a fun backdrop. Keeping with the "time" thing ( which is perfect since Mr. Chocolate loves watches and clocks so "time" is a theme in our house). 

I started out with the bottle, Mod Podged some sheet music and painter's masking tape around it:

You know how you get into a project and then you forget to take pictures? Yep. I went looking in my stash o stickers and found a sheet of time themed ones by Kelly Panacci, one of which I used for the focal and then fought with, I mean super glued, the copper K&CO frame to it. A couple of weeks ago, I bought a jar full of chandelier crystals at an antique shop ( used some of them on my bird cage) and made a "stopper" from one. Wrapped the top of the bottle w/ twine and a muslin scrap ( this is usually the kind of thing Mr. Chocolate asks "What made you do that?" and I answer "No clue, next question").

A couple of months ago I picked up a magical bag of watch parts so I pulled one out and glued it to one of the containers I picked up at the same time, and then glued that to the front of the bottle. I took another piece from the bag, put it in a bottle cap, filled it with "Diamond Glaze"  and once dry, glued that to the bottle. Last but not least, I inked a vellum tag with black and linen ink, used some more of the "time" stickers, and glued some small keys to the tag, attached a bead and tied it to the bottle

Now the funny part. I picked up the most recent copy of "Somerset Studio" and lo and behold, what do they have featured? A "Time In A Bottle" project. So clearly I'm not the only one with visions of time and bottles :)

Linking Up At:

"Fourth" Project #2

Welcome to those stopping in from









 I hope you'll look around and make yourself at home. Virtual chocolates are calorie free!



Told you I didn't buy only one of the table leg / post thingys I used in my first project. I like things in twos I guess...they don't have to match, but coordinate. So I started with another bare one and added a wood ball to the top of this one:

Painted this one cream and dry brushed with gold. I also went around the raised edges with a gold paint pen. I decided I wanted this one to hold an image so I Mod Podged a piece of cardboard that was an insert for a vinyl monogram (re-use, recycle!) with the blue star scrapbook paper and I had some gold paint left on my brush so I went around all four sides with it because....because I did.  I was feeling a vintage vibe and found a piece of clipart in my graphics program that I liked, printed it out, mounted it to a scrap piece of red paper and then to another scrap piece of black mat board:

 

Almost there...I MP'd another scrap of the star paper onto a wooden clothespin, hot glued that to the post ( I don't know what to call it) added some adhesive rhinestones to the drum and remembered I had some stars and stripes wired ribbon and:

Linking Up At:


 

 

"Fourth" Project #1

For whatever reason,  I've never done a lot of decorating for the 4th. No conscious reason...maybe it's because we're not usually home but this year I was determined. So here's the first of we'll see how many projects! This started out as a table leg or banister part? Not sure which...I found it at my favorite salvage place for a dollar ( and of course bought more than 1):

I painted it red with appropriately named "Americana" acrylic paint, and then dry brushed it with white. I made a medallion for the center using crepe paper and a circle cut from a recycled cereal box covered with scrapbook paper. It needed something for the middle so I painted the center of a bottle cap with the red paint, put a gold "4" sticker from my sticker stash and then filled in the bottle cap with "Diamond Glaze" by JudiKins. This gave it a dimensional / enamely look:

I went around the raised areas of the leg/post thingy with a gold paint pen and then Mod Podged some scrap strips of the scrapbook paper. I originally thought I was going to put flags in the hole at the top of the leg/post thingy but that didn't work out so I Mod Podged a washer with more scrapbook paper and glued it to the top to make a base to support a votive candle holder and:

Not the best pic but here it is on my mantle ( next to my crystal candlestick I got for $4 to which I glued a piece of milk glass I got for $5 at the Salvation Army thrift store!)

Linking Up At:

 

Father's Day: Wall Art

I didn't put this up earlier because I didn't want you know who to see it before he got it. But now that he's got it ( and likes it) here's what I made Mr. C. for Father's Day:

I'd been wanting to try out Sabby in Suburbia's photo transfer tutorial, and when my husband found a photo of a favorite childhood memory, his favorite bike, I thought it would make the perfect subject to use.  I've had this cabinet door I found on an excursion to a magical place called  Earthwise Architectural Salvage in Seattle, which I knew I wanted to use for a piece of wall art. Originally I thought I was going to do something w/ chalkboard paint on it but I decided the wood was too pretty as is. 

I converted the photo to black and white in my photo editing program and printed on regular printer paper. Then using Sabby's tutorial, I covered a plain canvas board with Mod Podge ( I didn't even paint it...it was already primed and gesso'd) , stuck the photo to it printed side down ( remember to print any text mirror image!) and let it dry for 24 hours. Then wet the back of the paper and rubbed it off. I then added a scrap of scrapooking paper:

I then spelled out his name and the word bike with some pewter letters I had on hand and superglued them to the canvas. I really like how aged this looks. 

I didn't leave the cabinet door completely alone...that's not what we do is it?!  I cut a piece of scrapbook paper to fit the center panel and Mod Podge'd it on:

The sun  decided to make a rare appearance and mess up my picture, but you get the idea. And yay...another use for my still ginormous roll of carpet tape, which I used to adhere the canvas to the cabinet door.

Linking Up At:

Here's his card, using images from The Graphics Fairy along with a transparent frame from Colorbok's Nocturne collection.

Linking Up at: