Word Art

Hi Friends!

I am increasing intrigued & inspired by some of the wonderful word art I have been seeing around.  There are so many many wonderful ideas all over the internet, but I  came across this one locally last week.  I love it as a whole and also love each of the little sayings on their own.  Oh the possibilities!  I have my eyes open for just the right medium on which to create my own!

This one is stenciled on two separate pieces of black painted wood.  I love how all the sayings run into each other.  And I love the simplicity of the artwork itself. So simple yet so powerful.

{Sorry about the picture quality, I had to take this one with my phone}

I suppose you can read it right off the picture, but here are all the sayings if you’d like to cut and paste any!

He used to say things like

all that glitters is gold

and you catch more flies with honey than vinegar

money doesn’t grow on trees

never trust a man a dog doesn’t like

early to bed and early to rise makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise

beggars can’t be choosers

where there’s a will there’s a way

a closed mouth catches no flies

a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush

the squeaky wheel gets the oil

an apple a day keeps the doctor away

don’t count your chickens before they hatch

a leopard cannot change its spots

the early bird gets the worm

don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater

a watched pot never boils

good things come to those who wait

never trust a skinny cook

a rolling stone gathers no moss

waste not want not

cloudy mornings give way to clear evenings

two heads are better than one

makes hay while the sun shines

into every life a little rain must fall

finders keepers losers weepers

it goes without saying he was a good man.

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So there ya go, permission to use clichés!

Hummm, I’m thinking on a large pallet perhaps? 

Smile!

hugs, Celeste

Spray Painting an Armoire Dresser

Hi Fabulous Friends!

Last year I picked up this great armoire/dresser off Freecycle and it cluttered sat in my garage for quite some time.  Then a few weeks ago my brother moved into a new place and was in need of some more clothes storage.  Enter: the dresser that has been living in my garage for a year!  I had put off refinishing it as I didn’t really have a place for it to fit in my house.  But I thought it had great potential, so I held on to it.  Also, I have been ready for a while to graduate from spray painting 101 to spray painting 201…I’ve done a mess of frames {see a tutorial here}, a huge mirror, and my mailbox!….but now it was time to try my hand at a piece of furniture {thanks to my willing brother}

So we did a little babysitting/I’ll-refinish-the-dresser-for-you exchange and my garage now has 6 extra square feet to fill with crap bikes.

It’s a very heavy piece, made almost exclusively from solid oak {or maybe something else?}

So that’s the before picture.  I just loved the vertical slats on top and kept thinking they look like board and batten if only they were white! It was hard to convince my bro of that…he even asked if I could pry them off and sand.  Nah!

After a good long sanding job it was ready for primer.

{Don’t stare too long at my messy garage!}

 

 

 

I brushed on a coat of primer.  I used my usual go-to primer, Zinsser Smart Prime, and the same Purdy brush I have used for years. 

 

 

After the primer dried, I did a light sanding with 220 grit sand paper. I wanted a relatively smooth, flat surface to apply the spray paint and didn’t want my brush strokes peeking through.

 

 

 

Oh, I forgot to mention, take a look at these knobs!  The picture doesn’t really show them, but they are recessed and push into the drawer in order to grab on to the handle. Well, I’m sure that didn’t make any sense to you…but no matter, they had to go!

 

 

 

 

Once removed, I was left with this massive 2 1/2 inch hole in the middle of both drawers!

 

 

 

So I picked up some Presto Patch and got to try it for the first time {oh my agreeable brother…thanks for letting me practice on you!}

 

 

 

 

 

It actually worked quite well!  First I placed some tape behind the hole to stop the putty from just going right through.

 

 

And then I mixed up a batch of putty{only make as much as you can use RIGHT NOW}

and filled the hole half-way:

 

After it dried, about 45 minutes, I filled it all the way to the top and then some.  If I had filled the entire hole from the beginning, it would be so thick that the middle would likely never have dried. Once completely dry, about another 45 minutes, I sanded it down til smooth.

And now, the real fun begins! Cue: Cheering from side-lines.

I used 6 cans of spray paint to complete the dresser.  Initially I bought 4 cans of Rust-Oleum Painter’s Touch in Satin finish Heirloom White {which emptied the stock from that store}.  When I ran out, my brother came home with 2 more cans from another store. But these were Rust-Oleum’s American Accents product, also in Satin Heirloom White.

Same brand, same color, same finish, but different nozzles.  I’m still not quite sure what the difference is supposed to be between the two.  But without a doubt I preferred the”Painter’s Touch” product. 

I mean, no matter what, your finger can’t move after it’s pressed the trigger down long enough to empty 6 cans of spray paint {how do those graffiti artists do it?} but still the nozzle on the Painter’s Touch was preferable.

It’s wider, for one, which was more comfortable…and it didn’t clog up as much.

The American Accents product would spontaneously spurt out huge droplets every once in a while…the Painter’s Touch never did that.  

In between coats {I did about 6 coats, maybe more in places} I rubbed steel wool over the whole thing to knock down any high spots where too much paint ended up. And at the end I did a final, rather hard, “sanding” with steel wool.

I added the new knobs and drawer pulls…

And delivered it to my brother!

Oh, I forgot to mention, those doors on top open to a set of 3 more drawers and 3 shelves.  I actually ran out of paint to finish painting the inside backs of the shelves…..maybe we’ll add some contact paper? Or just fill the shelves with clothes so you don’t see the back?  But when my brother said that he bought out the spray paint stock from the 2nd store, too, I was done painting for the day!

It turned out so cute, {I think}

that I almost tried to steal it back from him!  Smile!!

Hugs,

Celeste

PS..If you want to see the other dressers I’ve painted, just click on each picture below:

 

A {nother} Fall Wreath

Hi Y’all! Happy {almost} Fall!

Ok, that was so cheesy I couldn’t resist! But seriously, there’s a crisp breeze in the air today, telling us fall is near.  I LOVE it!!!

As promised, I made another fall wreath for my front door. Do you recall the first one I made, almost solely out of burlap? If not, you can see how I made it here.

 

But alas, I wasn’t totally satisfied with how it looked against my black front door.  So I promised to make another one…

here ya go!

To make this, I started with some beige burlap fabric and cut it into 5 inch strips.  I folded the strips in half lengthwise like this:

Then I wrapped the strips around a 12” foam wreath.  I overlapped about halfway each time, coving up the cut edge, exposing the folded edge and about half of the fabric:

Once my wreath was covered it looked like this:

Next I made a bunch of fabric flowers just like I did for my burlap wreath. I followed the easy tutorial on Prudent Baby. 

I also used a handful of those Eucalyptus Tree Nuts with the little stars in the middle that my kids collected on a hike recently. 

Lots of hot glue and voila, a 2nd fall wreath to welcome a new season!

I like it on my front door much better than the first version:

Please, remind me to put “Do something about front door knob” on my SHORT to-do list!

And the little owl wreath?  It’s hanging over my mantel…which is not quite finished!  A few more minor details to complete and I’ll show you my fall mantel.  Smile!!

Hugs,

Celeste

If you want some more wreath inspiration, here are some others I have made this year.  Click on each picture to see the whole post: