Will You Marrry Me?

Painting Furniture

Start out with a piece of furniture covered in years of build-up. I bought this TSP degreaser, and it worked like. a. charm. It was $6.00 at my grocery store.

I walked into the paint store and told my paint guy, “I don’t want to do anything to this piece of furniture. I don’t want to sand it at ALL.” He told me to buy this stuff. It’s got a pretty rough surface to it so that it can grip the paint.

Then, I turned to my handy dandy Ben Moore Low Lustre Metal and Wood paint.

I have two secret weapons. The first is my paint (swear by it). The second is a foam roller. I buy the foam rollers at Wal-Mart for a couple of bucks. I cut in the trim and curves with cheapo foam brushes from Hobby Lobby, then I roll on all the flat surfaces with the foam roller. Between the paint (which smooths out better) and the roller, there are no streaks, brush strokes, etc. It looks like it’s been sprayed on.

I’m quite careful about checking for coverage and lines as I go, but I don’t do anything special outside of that. I just keep rolling lighter and lighter until it’s completely smooth.

Just in case you’re doubting the smoothness this provides.

So…just to be clear. I did NOT sand this thing. I wiped it down really well with TSP cleaner, used the special primer (also with a foam roller), and painted a couple of coats of black paint on it. That’s it. No special finish over it.

#1. Clean it!

I make sure that I use a cleaner to get all the grit and grime off any piece of furniture that I paint. TSP works best for me, and it can be found at Lowes, Home Depot, etc. You’ll be amazed at how much sickness you’ll get off the furniture by using this.

#2. Prime it!

A lot of people ask me about primer, but I don’t have a set kind that I use. AND I don’t necessarily use a primer on everything (see below). The primer below is what I use if I don’t want to do a lot of sanding.

#3. Choose great paint!

Benjamin Moore Metal and Wood paint. Beautiful coverage, smooth finish, and gorgeous look.

#4. TOOLS!

A lot of people wonder about the paint brush. I ONLY use a roller on furniture. I use little foam brushes to get into crevices and trim work, but I NEVER use a brush on the flat pieces. I truly believe this is the difference between a piece looking nice or spectacular

And finally, I don’t seal my pieces with anything. I pay a little more for my paint than other brands, and that’s one of the many reasons why. It doesn’t need to be sealed after painting it.

Santa Hand Print

Decorating and Serving Ideas

Snowman Family - made with small terra cotta pots

SO CUTE!!

Christmas Vinal Projects

Vinal Projects:

Chalkboard Chargers

I found some cheap, plastic chargers at my local discount store for $1 each.


1. This is the most important step. If you are using plastic chargers, spray them first with Primer made for Plastic!! I made the mistake the first time of using regular primer. That does not work with plastic! If you use primer for plastic -- your chalkboard paint will stick.





2. Spray your chargers with Chalkboard Spray Paint. You can find it at your local hardware store - like Home Depot.

3. Another must have -- Chalkboard Pens!!! How did I not know about these before?? They are incredible!!! I big puffy heart them. And they come in all sorts of wonderful colors!! I bought mine at Micheal's -- use a coupon from their website. And they also sell them through Amazon.

Once you get the chargers painted you can use them for all sorts of events during the year.

*Thanksgiving*

*Christmas*

*New Years*

 *Halloween*

Some other ideas:

Birthdays
Valentines
Fourth of July

Another chalkboard paint idea --

Make an Ornament Place Card

Paint a rectangle on an ornament with chalkboard paint.

These can be used over and over!

Valentine Frames

From: http://www.tatertotsandjello.blogspot.com/

Items You will Need:

Dollar Store Frames

E6000 Glue

Bag of marble accent marbles

Scrapbook paper

And the great thing is that you can take out the Valentine XOXO and store them, and then use the Dollar Tree frames again for a different project.

I also used a large black frame that I had and made a large heart for my mantle.

I was going to decoupage the frame, but discovered that I only have the shiny Mod Podge, so I will do that later.

I love that it is a very inexpensive project. I used frames I already had, plus one bag of floral marbles ($1.50), scrapbbook paper I already had and E6000.

This is what I did:

Took the pictures out of my Dollar Tree frames and traced the outline on my scrapbook paper.

Found a cup that was the right size for the O's and traced around it on two of the papers. Found the center on the other two papers and used a ruler to make an X.




Then I put a followed the outline on the X's and O's with a line of E6000 craft glue. I then put a line of marbles on the glue. Then I made another line on each of the X's and O's and put another line of marbles. And let them sit overnight to dry.

For the large heart, I cut out the scrapbook paper to fit inside the heart. Then I cut out another sheet of paper the same size using leftover paper (you will not keep this part so you could use plain copy paper). I folded that extra paper in half and then cut out a heart that was a little smaller than the paper. Then I traced that heart on the paper that goes inside the frame -- using pencil. After that I put a bunch of the E6000 inside the heart outline and then filled it in with marbles. And I let it sit overnight to dry.

The next day I put the paper inside of the frames. The glass that comes with the frames I put behind the paper with the marbles on it. This way I won't lose the glass if I want to use it again with the frame for another project.

I like the size of the glass marbles and the way they sparkle in the sun!

Valentine Project: Playing Card Coupon Booklets

From: http://www.tatertotsandjello.blogspot.com/

This year I'm giving my little family Valentine Coupon books made out of a deck of playing cards.

I bought the playing cards at the grocery store. They were a double pack of cards for $1.99. Then I made the coupons. If you would like to use them, they are HERE. You can customize them and put whatever you want on your coupons.

I thought of each member of my family and what they would think is fun. Some of the coupons I made up were:

Kids:

• Lunch with Mom
• Movie and Popcorn
• Bowling with a Friend
• 1 Hour Computer Time
• Trip to the Ice Cream Shop
• Manicure
• Pedicure
• Mom will do your Chores for 1 Day
• Dad will do your Chore for 1 Day
• Trip to the Aquarium
• Breakfast in Bed
• Video Game Rental
• Video Night
• 1 Hour TV Time
• Trip to the Mall and a Pair of Earrings
• Shoe Shopping

Some for my Husband were:

• Back Rub
• Dessert of Your Choice
• Candlelit Dinner for Two
• Breakfast in Bed
• Night without Kids
• Foot Massage
• and a few unmentionables :)

First I printed off the coupons, trimmed them and attached them to the cards.

Then I punched a hole in the cards.

Then I took some big jewelry links and threaded the chain through the hole in the card.

Then I cut ten 5-inch lengths of ribbon and tied them on each of the round rings {found in the jewelry section of Micheal's}.



I then attached the round rings to the smaller jewelry links by opening up the links and then closing them when they were attached. If you can't find large round rings, you could use keychain rings (also found in the jewelry section).

The last thing I did was hot glue a vintage button on the top of each coupon book. And then cut the prongs off a fabric scrapbook brad and hot glued it on top of the button!