French Dresser Transformation - Annie Sloan Chalk Paint

I bought this French Dresser (made by Kent Coffey) back in October and have been trying all winter to finish it.  Well, I finally did it!

This is my first furniture re-stain project, so I'm sure it took me a little longer than most.  My plan was to re-stain the top to match the existing end tables in our bedroom and paint the bottom color with Annie Sloan Chalk paint.

I think what took the longest was sanding… BIG shock, I know.  I sanded the top with 80 grit sand paper using a black and decker mouse sander.  Notice I didn't say it was my sander.  I borrowed it from my mother and well… I just haven't given it back to her yet.  Sorry Mom! :)  Now that I have figured out that I enjoy re-finishing old furniture, I should go and buy my own.  

What REALLY took the longest was figuring out how to sand the detail on the edges.  It appeared to be made out of pine, which whittled away with any touch of power sanding.  So in order to save the detail from being obliterated, I had to find something else to use.  I tried hand sanding but that was taking too long.  I found that using the wire brush attachment on my Dremel took off most of the stain.  I just had to do a light follow up with 220 grit sand paper after the wire brush and I was finally done!!

I found a perfect blog article from Centsational Girl  on how to restain.   I went ahead and used pre-conditioner on the wood since I had pine on the edges.


This picture is after Pre-stain conditioner, two coats of Minwax stain, and
two coats of Minwax polyurethane.


Here are all of the products that I used.

I then applied 2 coats of Annie Sloan's Duck Egg Blue Chalk Paint with my favorite Purdy brush.  Annie Sloan Paints suggest using a natural bristle brush, which I did on a previous project.  I saw where someone had used a synthetic brush with the chalk paint and had success, so I thought I would try out my Purdy XL brush for this project.  I definitely preferred using the Purdy (synthetic) brush over the natural brush.  The paint seemed to apply much easier, especially on the second coat.  The clean up was a cinch with soap and water.


As you can tell by the handle, I have gotten plenty of use out of this brush and it still works great!!  After my brush dries, I put it back in the original packaging to keep its original shape.  If you haven't already invested in a nice paint brush, go ahead and do it!  I've used this brush on lots of projects over the past few years and I plan on using it for many more.

Ok now I'm off my paint brush soap box….*breathe*

I have used lots of different paints in the past, but nothing like chalk paint.  It is super easy to use and clean up after you're done, but you do need to know a few things before you start.  I really recommend watching Simply Reinvented's video tutorials for applying chalk paint and wax.  Check those videos out if you are unsure on how to apply Annie Sloan Chalk Paint and Wax.

Here is the final product!

Since I had all of the handles and they were in good shape.  I decided to keep them original.

 

Heart Canvas

I saw a post from Southern Lovely a while back that spark some interest in my lull in crafting.  I made something very similar to hers.  I believe she used burlap behind her buttons instead of paint.  

 

 I bought 14 x 14 canvas and evenly spaced out ~ 2 inch strips of contact paper and applied black paint in between each strip.  Once that dried I laid a heart stencil out of contact paper on the center of the canvas.  I applied 3 or 4 coats of red paint and let it dry.

I made another stencil using "Set Fire to Rain" font for the Me + You section.

 

 And the most meticulous part of this project was gluing the buttons on one by one.  I bought a couple of packages of red buttons from Michaels for this project. 

Guest Bathroom Vinyl Decor

I remodeled my guest bathroom last year but I have been dragging my feet on decorating. 

 I finally decided to get the ball rolling.  I cut the vinyl with my Silhouette Cameo.  

The top font is Lavanderia and the verse font is Duality.  

Link Parties

Shabby Creek Cottage

Violin Birthday Card

I made this card last week for a special man who has inspired me along with many others with his passion for music.  I took trumpet lessons from him for a couple of years as well as played in numerous community events with him.  I was unable to make his 80th birthday party, but I went ahead and mailed him this card.  His prefered instrument is the fiddle, so that was the inspiration for this creation.

Recent Birthday Cards

Here are a couple of birthday cards that I created recently.

This one was for my grandmothers 92nd birthday!

This one went to my husband for his birthday this year.

Airplane Baby Shower Mobile & Banner

A couple months back, I was in charge of decorations for my sister-in-law's (and future nephew's!!) baby shower.  The theme was airplanes to match the nursery.  I put together a banner, mobile and some 3-D airplanes to decorate for the shower.  I had planned to take a lot more pictures throughout the process but the mobile ended up being WAY more involved than I expected!

I created the banner and it's components using the "Trace function" in the Silhouette Design Studio.  The small 3-D airplanes on the mantel were from the Silhouette online store.

For this airplane I traced the outer edges of the design and created a white background 

piece that I could glue each separate piece to for stability.

For the mobile, I continued the plane that was in the banner.  I also added a couple of additional airplane designs (one I made again with the trace function and the other from the silhouette store) along with a 3-D Cloud Design.

I hung my mobile using two different sizes (12" & 18") of MDF rings that I found in the floral department of Michaels.  I ran a light silver floral wire through the two rings to connect them and then spray painted the whole hanger in Ivory.

Sorry for the poor photo quality.  It was after midnight the night before the shower and I realized that I hadn't taken any pictures of what I was doing.  Since I had my iPhone right next to me I snapped a quick photo.

  While the hanger was drying, I laid out my cut-outs in the order I wanted for hanging.  I did strings of 3, 4 and 5 items to give it a fuller look.  Using a large sewing needle, I strung the cut-outs with some old fishing line that my husband had laying around.  I then attached the line to the wire of the hanger.  It got to be one big tangled mess after I started to hang the lines, so I hung the mobile from my chandelier and that worked a lot better.  Once I connected all of the lines, I spaced the cut-outs to where I wanted them and tied a knot right below the last cut-out and trimmed off the remaining line.

I also made a few food decorations using a 2.5" and 3" circular punch.