Dollar Store Ornaments The Remix

Christmas crafting and fluffing has started around the old homestead. I'm trying to keep it simple and thrifty this year. Every year I try to add  a few new ornaments. Last year it was all dollar store and this year I'm making a few and altering a few dollar store ornaments. I bought three ornaments from the dollar tree and did a quick makeover. I started with this swirly ornament... pretty but very plastic looking. 

I liked the shape but I wanted to add a little something extra so I tried three different looks.

I simply painted on white glue and dusted it with white flocking powder mica flakes and clear glitter. I added silver glass glitter to the tip.

For this one I mixed flocking powder clear glass glitter and silver glass glitter. I added a little dove on a bed of snow and a little  vintage hymnal paper.

I added clear glass glitter and mica flakes to this one and silver glass glitter to the tips. I bleached a tub full of bottle brush tress and added one of the minis to the center. I flocked the tree with snow that is sold for trains scenes and sprinkled it with clear glass glitter and mica flakes.

It was a quick and thrifty up grade,I only purchased the three new ornaments for a total of three dollars. Everything else was in my craft stash.  I'm making a few more ornaments, I'll share those later.

How's your Christmas  crafting coming along? I'll be joining these great parties this week:

                      Betwwen Naps On The Porch for Met Monday
                      The Tablescaper for Seasonal Sunday
                      Savvy Southern Style for Wow Us Wednesday
                     Ivy and Elephants for Whats it Wednesday
                      Centsational Girl for The Holiday Crafts Party
                     

Happy Thanksgiving

Have a Happy Thanksgiving everyone. May your day  be filled with love, laughter and good food. May we all be grateful for the many blessings bestowed upon us. Among my many blessings I'm grateful to all of you who take the time to stop by, drop me a line, encourage and inspire me. Have a great day.

Blogging a Year in Review and Thank You

 It's my one year blogging anniversary, I can't believe its been a whole year. I've met so many wonderful bloggers and learned so many great tips and techniques. Overall its been a positive experience and the few negatives are too minor to mention. I'm still amazed that over 300 talented and kind people follow my blog. Each one of you are worth more than a million to me.  I've been through loss and illness with the support of my blog friends and you've been a blessing to me.  I am eternally grateful to all of you who take the time out of your busy day to read this little ole blog. I thank you all for your kindness, your encouragement and support. You've all become a major part of my daily life. For all of you, old and new friends  I thought it might be fun to recap a few of my favorite projects. Number one is my first time at attempting upholstery, my thrift store settee redo.

I've since learned to take a better picture lol. My next favorite is my  painted ottoman,

The  bench redo

Pottery Barn knock off  Hurricanes

The decoupaged Table,

                                                                                                                                                                  Living Room updates          

 

French Bee Tray

Painted Suitcases

And my favorite blog party challenge  from  Debbie Doos Blogging and Blabbing Copy Cat challenge

The altered globe              

The newest favorite is the chair redo

 

This shows  my chair and a few of my favorite projects in one shot. Thanks for taking this little stroll down memory lane with me. I hope to have lots of good things to share in the future and I''ll continue to look forward to reading and learning so much from all of you talented  and wonderful friends. Thanks again for the inspiration, encouragement, laughs, and just plain fun.  Its been a wonderful year. I'll be joining these great parties,

                                  My Romantic Home for Show and Tell Friday

                                  

                                  Bunny Jeans Decor and More for the Bunny Hop

Sheepish

 You guys may remember When I posted my  French Bee Tray I mentioned my love of trays. Well I had these two old metal trays hanging around. I bought them for a dollar each at the local produce outlet about 12 years ago or more. I was very tired of them, not to mention scrubbing them had scratched them up pretty good and they just looked dated. I decided to give them a new look.

Since I've recently become enamored with pastoral paintings, specifically of sheep  and cows I decided to add a pastoral scene to my trays.  Here's were I started. 

Why did I ever Like this? anyway I did a  Google search and found the paintings of Thomas Sidney Cooper.
Cooper (1803-1902) devoted his life to painting sheep and cows. His work is on display in many art galleries around the world. I loved them and had a hard time deciding which ones to choose. Finally I chose two and set about deciding what to do. For the first tray I used the same ink transfer method that I used on the  French Bee Tray. I primed it and painted it first in antique white, then I painted the outside edges in Aegean Blue and went over that with a wash of Sharkey Gray, then I dry brushed the tray with Sharkey Gray to distress it. Here's  the after:

The edges transferred in a jagged fashion which was perfect for the distressed look and  the colors are soft and muted.

   

For the second tray  I decoupaged the image to the tray after priming and painting it. I painted the edge of the tray in Magnetite and the tore the edges of the painting before gluing it to the tray, after it was in place I dry brushed over everything with the Sharkey Gray paint to give it a distressed look.  This is the second tray:

I'll  probably frame some of these painting to use around the house, its a thrifty way of changing out the art work and getting a new look.  Well back to furniture. What have you been up to? I'll be joining these parties this week,

                                              Between Naps On The Porch for Met Monday

                                              Savvy Southern Style For Wow Us Wedne

                                             My Romantic Home for Show and Tell Friday











         

A Chair Re Do

I was visiting my favorite place to shop, Goodwill when I spied a gorgeous chair in a style that I've been looking for. I almost did the happy dance right then and there, but not wanting to embarrass myself I refrained. However a tiny squeal did manage to sneak out.  I was even more thrilled when I spied the price... 19.99 say what? could this be true? I was happy until I went to check out and the lady I've nicknamed The GW  Police  was working the check out. Rut Roe, this lady has refused to sell me things on more than one occasion because she believed they were improperly priced.  Holding my breath and gearing up for an ugly fight I approached the check out. Sure enough she was hesitant about the price. I pointed out the load of chairs sitting there... all priced at 19.99.  With a pained expression she gave in, can I just tell you this woman gets on my last nerve. I'm beginning to wonder if she wants to keep the good stuff for herself. Anyway all's well that ends well and I got my chair. May I add that several  ladies were shocked and appalled when I told them that I would be re doing the chair. I must confess the chair was in perfect condition so I can kinda understand where they were coming from. Here is the chair in all of it's before glory.

It's pretty right? But I had a different vision for it. Here is my redo:

I bought the script fabric from JoAnn fabrics on sale for 50% off plus another 25% off  the total purchase, so one yard of fabric cost me about 8.00.  it was 24.00 dollars a yard originally. The back is covered in osnaberg  that I had on hand. I printed  the frame graphic from the  Graphics Fairy and transferred it using  iron on  transfer paper. I created the silhouette by printing a vintage picture and cutting it out, I then used the negative part of the cutout as a stencil. I used black craft paint and a textile medium to stencil the image in the center of the frame. The chair is painted in a gesso and paint mixture that I learned from the super talented Rosemary at Villabarnes. The paint color is Sharkey Gray.  I'm really happy with the way it turned out, even if the old batting is a little lumpy. The total cost of the chair is about 36.00 dollars including the cost of the trim. Not bad for a whole new look.

I'll be linking up with these great parties

                                               Savvy Southern Style for Wow Us Wednesday

                                               No Minimalist Here for the Open House Party

                                              My Romantic Home for Show and Tell Friday

                                              French Country Cottage for Feathered Nest Friday

                                              Miss Mustard Seed for Furniture Friday
                                           
                                             BunnyJeans Decor and More for the Bunny Hop
                                           
                                            Between Naps On T he Porch for Met Monday
                                           
                                            The Graphics Fairy for Brag Monday