Shabby Sweet Cottage: May 2012

Sunday, May 27, 2012

Inspirational

Ever since I laid eyes on this wooden rosary by Rachel Ashwell I've wanted one. The simplicity of it makes it so beautiful to me. However Rachel's is a little out of my budget, but it did inspire me to make a couple of my own. I made one that looks a lot like the original and one that I put more of my own twist on. I'm sharing the latter today. Later I'll show you the other one. This is my rosary;

I used wooden beads and a wooden cross that I bought from the craft store. I had seen a cross made from book pages and it gave me the idea to cover my beads with script. I stamped tissue paper and decoupaged it to the beads and cross. I used rhinestone spacers between the beads and threaded them on cotton twine.

Its made even more special by the addition of of my mothers earring added to the cross. Decoupaging the beads was very tedious and time consuming, I had every intention of making it longer but it would have taken me a year.

Mom had a ton of jewelry some earrings were onesies, perfect for crafts.

In some spots on the beads the script looks marbled, a happy accident, I like it. I'll share my other creation soon. I hope everyone had a great weekend. I'm joining these ladies this week;

  Jennifer Rizzo

  Savvy Southern Style

  Ivy and Elephants

  My Romantic Home

Monday, May 21, 2012

A Lamp Makeover

This lamp has been on my to do list for some time. It seemed that every time I had it scheduled the weather wouldn't cooperate. Finally the perfect day presented itself and between about ten other things I got it done. I bought this lamp years ago when I changed my interior to darker colors. I like the shape of the lamp but the colors aren't right for my return to a lighter palette and the old lampshade just annoyed me. I knew I wanted a two toned silver lamp. So after a lot of thinking this is what I came up with;

This is what I started with;

I wanted the lamp to look like mercury glass but that wasn't possible with looking glass paint because it only works on clear glass and my lamp was amber. I don't like the look of the shiny metallic paints so I decided to experiment a little. I first spray painted the lamp with primer and let it dry. Next I painted the base and the metal at the top with brushed nickel spray paint. Once they dried I covered both parts with paper and taped with masking tape. I spray painted the amber part black. I wanted some specks of black to show through the silver. Since I had looking glass paint I used it as the top coat. First I misted the black paint with water and then spayed looking glass paint over that. The water allowed the black to show through the silver. I knew I wouldn't get a highly reflective surface because of the black paint, but what I got was a surprise. The finish looked like a dark gray pearl. I'm sorry I forgot to get a picture of that step. After it was completely dry it didn't have much luster so I decided to add a metallic glaze in mercury by Martha Stewart paints. It gave the lamp a soft luster and the black specks still showed through. Its a different look, one I haven't seen before, but I like it. Once again before and after;

I bought the shade at Target and everything else I had on hand. So all tallied the new look cost me 15 dollars. Its gong in my bedroom. It was a dark and dreary day so the finished lamp was very hard to photograph. I couldn't really do it justice. I'll have pictures of it in place once my room is camera ready. I'll be joing these great parties,

Savvy Southern Style

  Ivy And Elephants

  It's Overflowing

  My Romantic Home

Live Laugh Rowe

Saturday, May 12, 2012

A Thrifted Vignette

My ever changing buffet is dressed up for Spring in mostly thrift store treasures. I love changing this for the seasons. Its even more fun when done on the cheap. I've collected a lot of white tureens at thrift stores so I decided why not add them to the vignette along with my Goodwill frame. It was a terrible gold before I painted it white. My Husband cut a piece of leftover wood sub flooring for me and I painted it with chalkboard paint and popped it in the frame.

The silver cuff with the glass also came from a thrift store. I bought the glass candle holder from the dollar store and added it to the cuff. The mercury glass candle stick was bought at Marshalls as was the lantern. The seashells are also from my stash. I had a little fun with the picture in pic monkey.

I bought St. Therese at Goodwill and the twigs came from my yard. The little nest has been in my stash for years, I think I bought it at Michaels.

All three of these tureens were thrift store purchases. I have a real weakness for white turreens. Only one piece is ironstone but as much as I love ironstone if its white and has a pretty shape its for me, ironstone or not.