What We Accomplished Wednesday #14

Want to be a pin-up girl?  Join the party, and if you are featured, I'll pin your project to my Green Willow Pond Features Board!





The sun is shining, it is about 63 degrees out and it is a glorious day!  I've been outside spray painting and enjoying the bird song.  Love it!!!

It's been a busy week around here.  We left Friday morning to head down to Kalamazoo  (5 hour drive) for our daughter Jamie's graduation ceremony.  She has one more summer class to take, but they let her walk with her class.

 We are so proud of her and what she has accomplished!

The weather was so nice there, that I was dreading coming back home, but we must have brought the warmth back with us!  I did manage to finish a couple of projects this week. I finished and posted about this frame I was working on a couple of weeks ago.  I went a different direction with it than I intended, but I really like how it turned out.  You can read about it here:

Spring has been slow coming this year.  The trees are just now starting to bud here, and I am longing for my flowers.  In the meantime I shared this post.  Are they real or faux?

Enough about me, lets talk about you!  The link-ups where awesome as usual.  I am constantly amazed at the talent shared at this party.  It was a hard decision, but here they are:

My place for Tea shared how she turned this damaged mirror into this gorgeous piece.

Aimee, at the Vintage Estate, did it again this week!  She used a faux zinc technique to turn this table into an amazing replica of a Restoration Hardware piece.

Isn't this two-tone dresser sweet?  Char, from His & Her Restoration, posted this chalk painted piece.

I love this idea for growing herbs or flowers!  Patty, from Creative Ideas and Tips, spills where she got everything for very little.

Denise on a Whim created these adorable pedestal signs.  These would make great shop signs, wedding table signs...anywhere you needed a sign!

Deborah, from Ramshackle Romance, found this sad, worn, cane chair with the cane intact.  She breathed life back into it.  Isn't it gorgeous?

Is this grain sack dresser not amazing?  Tanya, from Twelve O Eight, used her homemade chalk paint to transform this piece.

Check out this charming magazine rack at Vintage Breeze.  Sayuri transformed it with duck egg blue chalk paint.  

I love the soft gray color of this pretty little dresser by Mimi, at Vintage Charm by Mimi.

Here I go with chocolate again.  Someone save me from myself.  But I can't help it!  Doesn't this pie look absolutely scrumptious?  Check it out at Posed Perfection.

Now it's your turn to shine!  Check out the rules, then link up your fabulousness!!

Pinteresting Monday - Peonies & Roses

Can you guess what my Pinteresting Monday project is?

I can hardly wait for my roses and peonies to bloom, but it will be a couple of months before that happens.  In the meantime I faked it.  The roses and tiny pink flowers are silk.  The peonies I made with tissue paper.  I used this tutorial from Pinterest.

Source: inmyownstyle.com via Deborah on Pinterest

It's from Diane, at In My Own Style, who is uber talented and has tons of amazing ideas and tutorials.  You definitely want to pay her a visit. 

I had a little fun in PicMonkey.

Until next time, keep craftin' and smilin'!

I've linked to these super parties:

Pretty Things at twelve O eight

Knick of Time Tuesday at Knick of Time

Tuesday's Treasures at My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Take it On Tuesday at Romance on a Dime
What's It Wednesday at Ivy and Elephants

Birds In Painted Frame And A Plea To Noreply Bloggers!

Today I want to share a fun project I did, but first I have a plea to noreply bloggers. You may be one and not even realize it.

I've been getting a lot of wonderful comments from noreply bloggers recently. I used to try to chase them down to reply, but as my readership has grown I just don't have the time to do this anymore. That makes me sad as I do want to personally respond to your comments.

Are you a noreply blogger?  If you recently switched to a Google+ identity rather than blogger, you probably are. If your comments have dropped off suddenly, you probably are.

You would think this woud be an easy fix.  I spent half an hour trying to find out how to change the setting.  It is crazy how difficult Google has made it.  Rather than reinvent the wheel, I found this excellent tutorial on how to check to see if you are a noreply blogger, and if so, how to fix it. Robin at Fluster Buster has graciously allowed me to link to her tutorial here.

Please do me a favor and check it out, because I really love my readers, and appreciate each and every comment.  I do want to respond to you!

Okay, on to my project. I teased you with this picture a couple weeks ago, planning to post the finished product right away, but when I did, I didn't like it, so I started over.

I found this lovely frame at a thrift store recently.  I love the detail and the oval shape.  The glass, however, was not glass, but plexiglass, and was badly scratched.  Replacing a piece of oval glass is expensive!

So I decided to do something different.  First I primed my frame.

Next I used gold metallic paint to cover the area between the raised detail.

After that dried I used sapphire blue metallic paint over the gold, leaving a narrow rim of gold on each side.

As you can see, it's not perfect.  It didn't need to be as I was going to add another layer.

After that dried I brushed on a couple layers of gesso, wiping back most of it each time.  This is what I ended up with.

 I just love the way the frame turned out.  

I think the frame by itself would be lovely on the wall, but I decided to cover the plexiglass. It can always be removed to enjoy just the frame anyway.   

I printed off my script background first using this image from The Grapics Fairy. I lightened the image up by lowering the color density setting on my printer first.

I ran it back through the printer with this image, also from The Graphics Fairy. I did not lighten this one.

Sorry, I didn't get pictures of the process, but it was pretty simple.  I used a little of the sapphire blue metallic acrylic paint mixed with water to wash the image lightly.  While it was still wet, I spritzed a little walnut ink on, blending it a little and letting it be a little heavier in a couple of areas.

I let that dry overnight, then used mod podge to glue it to the front of the plexiglass.  You could also glue it to the back, but mine was scratched, plus I wanted to add some dimension to the front.  I just glued the whole sheet to the front, being careful that it wasn't crooked on the glass.  When it was dry, I trimmed the excess paper off.

Then came the dimensional part of this project.  I added a chain, using a necklace bail, and a connector to create the look of the cage hanging from the top of the frame.  I used a small dab of E6000 under each connector.

I really love how this turned out.  This one is available in my Etsy shop.  You can bet I'll be turning some more frames into dimensional art too ;)

Until next time keep craftin' n smilin'!

I've linked to these awesome parties:

Shabbilicious Friday at Shabby Art Botique

Feathered Nest Friday at French Country Cottage
Inspiration Gallery at Design, Dining & Diapers
Link Party at Redoux
Tickled Pink at 504 Main

Knick of Time Tuesday at Knick of Time
Tuesday's Treasures at My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia
Take it On Tuesday at Romance on a Dime
What's It Wednesday at Ivy and Elephants
Primp Your Stuff at Primp

What We Accomplished Wednesday #13

Want to be a pin-up girl?  Join the party, and if you are featured, I'll pin your project to my Green Willow Pond Features Board!



Wahoo!  The sun is shining today and it is warming up.  Fifty degrees may not be warm to many of you, but when it's been in the 30's for days, it feels like a heat wave!  Bring. It. On!

I've been busy working on projects for my shop this week.  If you missed them, I posted about these:

Old World Finish

I also found a guest post I did about a year ago that I never showed here:

Faux Zinc Travel Case

And for Pinteresting Monday I showed you:

How to get grease stains out

Based on all the great link-ups, I can see you've all been busy too!  The top link this week were these towels which were given a happy and pretty new life by Jeanette at Heirloom Treasures.

Laurie, from Heaven's Walk, shared her new shutters in her gorgeous bathroom. 

Isn't this a beautiful dining room?  Kathleen, at Faded Charm Cottage, recently added the chairs from World Market.

Elisha from Pneumatic Addict needed a rug, but didn't want to spend a lot (who does?).  So she painted this awesome chevron rug herself, and she shared a great tutorial so you can do it too!

Check out this Union Jack table. Aimee, at The Vintage Estate, also shares just how she did it.  Isn't it great?

This sweet ruffled pillow was crocheted by Faye, at Wild Rose Vintage.  I love the ruffles and vintage buttons she added!

Patti, at Old Things New, revealed their guest cottage remodel.  You won't believe the difference, and she did most of the work herself!

Therese, from Fresh Ideas Studio, took this dresser from an "ugly duckling," as she puts it, to awesomely vintage cool, as I put it ! ;)

A door, is a door, unless it's this door!  I love what Shannon, at A Southern Belle with Northern Roots, did with this old door.

My greatest weakness is chocolate.  This Chocolate Truffle Dessert, that Andi at Delusions of Ingenuity, made has me drooling all over my keyboard!  Doesn't it look yummy!

I love to see what you've been up to.  Check out the rules, then share your awesomeness below!