It's give away time - rustic herb crates stencils

It's been a long time since I hosted my own giveaway. Remember my rustic herb crates?

I have two sets of vinyl stencils to give away. Although I did not make the Rosemary crate, I have recently created the stencil. You get all four stencils.

These are pre-weeded vinyl, ready to lay down on your surface, then you just paint them in. I recommend using a few very light coats of paint to reduce the risk of bleeding. They can only be used one time, they are not stencils made of acetate or mylar, but of vinyl.

So, in order to win, there has to be a hoop to jump through. Just kidding. I'd like to do something a little different this time.

Leave me a comment telling me one person that you would like to sit down and talk with, and why. That's it.
If you want to follow my blog, great, but you don't have to.

Two random winners will be chosen on Friday February 24th. Good luck, my friends.

P.S. be sure to leave your email address if you don't have one associated with your account.

Cha Cha Cha Changes

The new year didn’t start out too well for me and it seems that my life is soooo busy. Hopefully it will get back to some semblance of normal soon :)

I’m working on emptying my craft room so that my sister can stay with us while she goes to school.  I finally had it organized, and now I am rearranging my entire house to empty the room. LOL

The dining room is getting yet another update as it will become my craft room. My closet will store my craft supplies; that’s the only space I have left.

So, I better get back to work.

before I go, I wanted to share with you my daughters most recent sketch. Sigh, I wish I were artistic like her.

 

It’s a long weekend here in Ontario, so I’m taking advantage of it.  Wishing you all a wonderful weekend.

A new tool to determine colours

 

Look at this!  A tool provided by Sherwin Williams that will allow you to find colours used in any online photo. This is a photo of my lamp makeover and it picked the colours out perfectly!  I am already addicted :)

I am soooooooo excited!  Kelly from Jax does design posted about a new tool that she has been turned on to.

You guys are going to be amazed.

Head on over to Sherwin Williams ChipIt for the details

Ooh La La – Frenchie claw foot coffee table

It took a long time, but I’m done. And I love how it turned out.

This is what I started with

 

The wording was from the Ballard Designs ottoman knock off that I created.

I’m not a fan of heavily distressed furniture, and since this will be for sale, I wanted to appeal to as many potential buyers as possible. I distressed and glazed and kept it pretty conservative.

A post on how I created such a big stencil is forthcoming, for now I’ll sit down and relax.

Sharing at

Progress

I have been really busy with stencil orders this past week, so didn’t have time to work on my coffee table. Tonight I finally had a few hours, so I got to work.

This is the final look I’m going for

I created the stencil with my cricut and SCAL software. Because the table is 33” wide, I had to break the stencil into three pieces to get it to cover such a large area.

Now it’s drying and tomorrow I will spend some time sanding it down so it looks like it’s always been on there.

can you see my oops? Obviously I’m not going for perfection :) .

Followers

With the announcement that Google Friend Connect will no longer be available to platforms other than Blogger, I became a little worried. How am I going to let people know that use other platforms, that I still follow them and value what they post? 

Needless worry, but that’s just how I am :)  Brett of McLinky fame, has created a new tool that will allow you to follow blogs, no matter the platform. Linky Followers is his newest tool to help us out.

I’m not sure if I need it on my Blogger blog, but I don’t think it hurts to have it along with GFC, do you?  And what if GFC all of a sudden is no longer available to anyone?!!! Just to have all of my bases covered (‘cause I’m paranoid like that LOL), I also have a Word Press blog.

I’m still figuring it out, so I don’t post there yet, but maybe someday.

I’ve been blogging for a while now, and I am so appreciative of those that follow along with me. To think that people actually want to read the things that I post about, is thrilling!

I am hoping to finish off my coffee table this weekend. I consulted with the best out there, Susan of Maple and Magnolia and she inspired me to create something that is unique.

Where I buy vinyl for my projects

If you’ve been around here for a while, you know that I love using vinyl for many of my projects.

pssst… a give away for a set of vinyl to make your own herb crates is coming soon

Since I use so much of it, I had to find it at a better price than what I was getting. I found a company online that specializes in sign making and sign making supplies. I emailed the company and a wonderful lady named Kerry hooked me up with the most amazing pricing, EVER!

The company is  All Graphic Supplies, in Mississauga, Ontario.

They carry a line of vinyl that comes in a matt finish and is perfect for all of my projects.

M,K, ready for the price?… $20.00 for 24 inches wide X 10 yards!!!! (black and white) and $22 for colours and metallics. And they will cut it down to 12” for you to fit your cutter mat!  So, you end up with 20 yards of vinyl at 12” wide.

Back in November I ordered some. I will admit that it didn’t cut quite the same as the vinyl I was using from Avery as it’s a little thicker than what I was used to.  With some adjustments to blade depth and speed, I was able to get it to cut perfectly.

I can pick mine up, but even if you live far away, it may be worth it to figure out the shipping charge (they have an online fedex shipping calculator).

Let Kerry know that Mel sent you :)

slow progress – claw foot table

sheesh, I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; I don’t know how you guys knock off painted furniture so quickly!

I’ve sanded, primed and have my first coat of paint on, and it feels like I’ve been at it for weeks :)

I ran out of my go to primer, Zinsser oil base, and when I went to the store to get more, I found an odourless one! Thank goodness, because I am painting indoors. It really doesn’t have an odour. But, it still irritated my eyes.

The colour I chose to paint it with is Cottage White, in Behr premium plus. I am really liking it, and it was free at the recycle centre.

See that roller, I bought it at the dollar store and it’s FANTASTIC!  Smooth as butter.  Here is a shot with the paint next to the primer so that you can get a read on the cottage white.

One coat down, hopefully only one more to go.

Save a dollar – Pinterest inspired

When I was growing up, a box of tissues was a luxury. With six little girls running around in a northern climate, you can imagine how many boxes we would have needed. We used regular ol’ toilet paper to wipe our noses.
When on Pinterest a while ago, I saw an ingenious idea and had one of those ‘smack my forehead’ moments for not thinking of it myself.
Take a roll of toilet paper and remove the cardboard tube from the center. Find an old tissue box, open it up, insert tissue, pull from the center and glue the box back together.

Yes, I can afford a box of tissues, but I feel like a genius using this method :)

Joining in at

Cutting Edge Stencils winner

Thanks to all that entered.
The winner is

It’s Erin, from Where Beauty Meets Function.  Congrats Erin.
Please email me and I’ll hook you up :)

Thrifty finds Jan 18

I couldn’t wait to show you this fabulous chair I picked up today.  I was so anxious I didn’t even take the dust off of it :)

Here’s the reality. It’s a miniature

 

While looking through several of my plastic containers, searching for photos, I found this water colour that I had bought several years ago. Very similar chair, huh?

I love the robin’s egg blue of this candlestick

And this box will become a remote control centre for a friend at work.

I’m going to do something similar to what I did to my remote control holder/organizer made from an old cutlery box.

 

I seem to be having some good luck lately with my Junkin finds.

Claw foot round coffee table

Another fabulous find at my local GW!  It’s huge, it’s solid and it’s in pretty good shape.

  It’s obviously a reproduction, probably made in the 80’s, but it has so much potential.

And cheap too.

I bought it to redo and sell. I’m thinking of stripping the top and re-staining it, as I did with my other thrifty find coffee table.

Or, paint it all black and distress to expose some of the wood.   Or stripping the entire thing and re-staining a nice dark walnut. Decisions, decisions. I hope to get started this weekend. Feel free to weigh in.

Be sure to enter my Cutting Edge Stencils giveaway, going on until Friday.

Cutting Edge Stencils giveaway reminder

My stencil came today! I’m so excited and anxious to get started. I was surprised to see that they also included the roller and the stencil level. How very generous!

So far there are only 19 entries, so compared to some of those “BIG BLOGS” that are hosting the same give away, your odds are much better here :)

Visit this post to enter and good luck. Winner will be announced this Friday.

Just before Christmas I knocked my dining room light down and it broke and blew a fuse! I’m guessing that the wiring shorted. I still needed a light though, as there are no other lights in the room.

I came up with some things that I had around the house to make a new one. It still needs more crystals, but overall I’m happy with my “no cost” light fixture.

To this

 

Blooming flowers

My buddy gave me an Amaryllis for Christmas and it bloomed this week!  It’s so lovely to see flowers when it’s so miserably cold outside.

How beautiful is this!!!

She also gave me a hyacinth and it smells heavenly

This rose was from the spray at my sisters funeral; it’s still going strong

Also, I have a give away going on. You can win a stencil from Cutting Edge Stencils. Visit this post. 

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend.

Cutting Edge Stencils Give Away!

Yee Haw! It's Friday.

Time for a give away from Cutting Edge Stencils!

Oh how I have loved all of the projects made from Stencils!  The curtains, the walls, the flooring and now with their craft stencils, the pillows! The possibilities are endless.

 

Casablanca Craft Stencil

Birch Trees on walls are all the rage now!

Birch Tree Stencil

Now is your opportunity to win a stencil of your choice (up to a $50 value) from Cutting Edge Stencils!  And, shipping is free!

You have three chances to win!

 - Visit Cutting Edge Stencils and leave a comment on what stencil you would like to have and how you  would  use it (mandatory)


 - Like  Cutting Edge Stencils on Facebook and leave a comment letting me know you are a follower

- Follow me via Google Friend Connect and let me know you are a follower

The winner will be announced on Friday January 19th.

You must leave a separate comment for each entry. If your email address isn't linked to your Google account, please leave your email address along with your comment so that I can contact you.
Disclosure: in return for hosting this give away, Cutting Edge Stencils have offered me a stencil of my choice - project to come soon :)