Chalkboard Clothesline Christmas Card Display

Like many of you, I love receiving Christmas cards. But a few weeks into the holiday season I start to get more and more annoyed as they repeatedly slide down or go flying off of the refrigerator door every time that I open or close it. True, the problem is me and my desire to display them on the fridge, not the cards themselves. So I found a fabulous solution that was easy and inexpensive, a Chalkboard Clothesline Christmas Card Display. :)

This is a bit reminiscent of my craft room clothesline photo display from this summer.

I got this large frame back in the summer at the thrift store, and when I walked up to it I immediately thought to myself, Chalkboard! It's huge (42" by 33") and perfect for such a task. Once I got it home, I realized that it is an old Kirkland's sign. Pretty cool, huh? No wonder the frame was a bit ornate, and it was only $2.50!!! No way I could pass it up. It has been sitting in the garage ever since waiting for me to decide on a final destination for it, and I finally did.

I took the cardboard out of the frame and painted it with a coat of chalkboard paint. Then I hot glued some cotton twine in 2 rows on the back of the cardboard and popped it back into the frame.

I made this little pendant banner for that in-between time, when Christmas season has already started, but there aren't quite enough cards to fill up the frame. I wanted to keep it from looking too sparse in the beginning.

I also stamped some little Christmas symbols on the backs of a few of the flags as a shorter alternative to the Merry Christmas message.

Of course I hung each little flag (and card) with my favorite teeny tiny wooden clothespins, which you can get at any craft store.

And that's it! I love how the frame and the black background look against my walls, and that it makes a perfect and neutral matting for a variety of seasonal pictures and well wishes!

You may want to switch this out for a larger piece of art or something that is normally on your wall, as it has to be on the big side to adequately hold a bunch of cards. I personally decided that this frame needs a permanent presence in my kitchen, and it will have to evolve seasonally as it is the only thing that's big enough to work on this long blank wall beside my table. I may just remove the clotheslines and use the chalkboard.

Which also means that I'm saying goodbye to my Barn Wood Wall Art, and selling in my etsy shop. Check it out here if you're interested.

Hope everyone has a wonderful Christmas!!!

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Picture Pawfect

My poor pooch has this drab corner of our house allotted for his food and water bowl. It is so boring, one piece of art work, a walking stick (used to hang his stocking on for Christmas) and that's pretty much it. Well, have a look for yourself.


I mean I love this print and all, but, Moose deserves a bit more than this I think.



Recently, I have been noticing how much I love the colored, mixed matched sized frames. So, why not make a little pet corner for the Moose? After all, these frames are cheap and fabulous--if you purchase them from Homegoods, TJMaxx, and Marshalls like I did!



First, I laid my prints on the floor to get an idea of space and how I wanted to place them. A little to "boxy" on this try. Don't you think? Plus I was looking to extend this project from the bottom to the top of the windows..this wasn't going to work.



Trial 2: Ah-ha! Perfect. An elongated version of the first try and hey look, Moose is even checking out how awesome he looks in all these photos.



Now, to start hanging them on the wall. I started from the bottom up just to keep my spacing in tact and to make sure everything would fit nicely. I was immediately excited after the first piece hung. (Why hadn't I done this before?)



I love this print (rt), a couple of years ago Moose was in Live Spa magazine and this was the photo featured..the cute robe was ours to keep!



Lastly, I quickly printed a greyhound coloring page onto scrapbook paper and wrote "happiness is a warm puppy," cut it out and placed it in the last frame for the finishing touches.



As you can see, everything fit just as exactly as planned! I also ran across the monogrammed M in that terrific green and had to have that!



Moose can now enjoy his dinner in style and I can enjoy looking at my new display of happiness...my love sponge!

Have a great weekend and check out other great blogs here!

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Jute Webbing to Fall Planter

I apologize to those of you who thought you might find more craft room projects today, as had I promised last week. But this idea popped into my mind at the beginning of the week and I couldn't restrain myself from trying it out. Then it ended up coming out so well that I couldn't help but share it a little earlier than later. Hope you don't mind too much!

I saw this jute webbing in JoAnns a few weeks ago and just feel in love with the beautiful texture and the fun red thread running throughout. I bought a few yards, unsure of what I would use it for, but knowing that it would end up somewhere. I kept envisioning how cool it would look all intertwined, but just didn't know exactly what I would do with it. Then I remembered this old cooler. You probably have one lying around somewhere in your garage or basement, and if not, check your parents or grandparents' garage or basement-they're the types of things that always seem to be just lying around somewhere. Or buy one at your gas station, they're cheap.

I ran lengths of the jute webbing down the sides of the cooler under the bottom and up the other side, keeping it slightly loose the whole time, and secured the ends with pins.

I made sure that the pins were pushed into the cooler at a downward angle as opposed to straight in. This kept them from pulling out as I wove the webbing.

I then ran a length of webbing down the shorter side of the cooler, weaving it through the bottom pieces and then up the other side, again, securing with pins.

I took a length of webbing and wrapped it around the outside of the cooler, and trimmed it for length. I then pinned the end underneath one of the pieces of webbing that was running vertically down the cooler, and then weaved it under and over the other pieces until I had worked my way all the way around.

I trimmed the webbing so that both ends would be hidden under the same vertical piece of webbing and pinned them in place.

Now that my basket was completely woven, I took the slack out of the lengths of webbing. I started with the vertical pieces, adding a second pin at the top for extra support, pulled each strand until it was taut, and then re-secured the end with pins.

I then moved onto the pieces that were running horizontal on the cooler. I grabbed my glue gun, and glued the ends of the horizontal webbing to the vertical strand that they were hiding behind, pulling them taut and trimming as necessary. Now that my whole basket was assembled, I took my glue gun and ran a thin line of glue behind any pieces that were pocketing to get them to lie completely flat.

I then got my fabric stiffener and applied a thick layer with a sponge brush. I didn't worry about it soaking through to the bottom layer, I just focused on getting the top layer saturated. I left the top ends (where the pins were) without any stiffener, because I wanted to fold those down later. But everything else got a good dose. (The red dye from the red yarn ran a little bit, so I tried to apply the stiffener in the direction of the pattern, as to not spread red dye over top of the brown webbing.)

When everything was dry I discovered that I couldn't pry the cooler out, so I decided to just break it off piece by piece. It was really secure in the bottom corners, and I was worried about warping the now stiffened jute webbing that I had worked so hard on! Luckily I won't miss that cooler.

I left the bottom piece intact, because I want to use the basket as a planter, and want to protect the bottom of the basket from any excess water that runs out of the plants.

I layered up a fun red vignette and popped it onto my front porch. Hello fall!

The size of the cooler, and therefore the basket, was perfect for 2 small mums, which were perfect for my front porch. But it's lightweight and fun enough to be used in the house as well.

In retrospect, had I known that I was going to be throwing the cooler away at the end of this project, I probably would have just covered the entire thing in webbing, hot gluing it onto the cooler as I went, and then I wouldn't have needed any fabric stiffener. But the basket would be larger, and a bit bulkier too. Oh well, just a few more options for you I guess. :)

I'll be linking this around to these great parties this week. Check them out for some beautiful fall inspiration.

And check back with us later this week for a great giveaway!

See you next Monday!!

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Distressed Blue Chair

When I drove up to the thrift store a few weeks ago I was stunned to see this great chair sitting outside by the dumpster in the rain! I quickly threw it in the back and then headed inside to see what was so great that they were throwing beautiful things like this away! It was an old chair, dark brown, with 5 fun bars across the top, and I knew I could put it to good use. (It didn't occur to me to get a before picture until after I had already started in on painting the seat, sorry!)

Anyway, I knew exactly where I wanted to use it, as an accent in my light blue kitchen, so I bought a several-shades-darker blue (Tranquil Aqua by Sherwin Williams), and went to work painting it. This was my first time re-finishing a piece of furniture, so I thought I would share a few tips from my trial and error experience.

#1. Sand it first. Don't skip this step, even if you are impatient. If you skip this step and then try to sand the already painted furniture, you will end up just making scratch marks in the paint and it looks terrible. (Sorry no picture, but it looks bad and is really annoying!)

#2. Before you start painting, decide whether or not you want the furniture to be completely painted and lightly aged, or lightly painted and heavily aged. I discovered that it is much easier to put on another light coat of paint if you want more coverage than to sand off paint that was put on too heavily. (It may be easy if you have an electric sander, but I don't.)

I realized this after I had put this heavy coat of paint on the seat. This is when I noticed that the seat was completely flat, and really looked so with this kind of paint job. So I heavily sanded the spots that would be naturally worn if this chair had been used for years: around the edge, the "leg spots," and a bit of a butt spot.

#3. Try the "dry brush" method of painting first. Get a little bit of paint on the end of your brush, dip off the excess onto a paper plate or the paint can lid, and then lightly brush it across the surface of your furniture. If you don't like the look, it is easy to sand off for a more worn look, and it's easy to paint a second coat for more coverage. (Again, that thing about not too much paint in the beginning, have I stressed that enough yet? Can you tell that the sandpaper and I spent a lot of time with this chair?!)

#4. Lightly paint over the details. Leave the cracks and crevices unpainted.

#5. Sand the edges just enough to let the wood show through. Or sand a little more to show a little more of the wood.

You can even make it seem like sanding is fun enough to abandon Sesame Street over.

#6. Apply wood stain liberally.

Be aware that if you use a lot of stain (like this) then it will change the color of the paint in addition to highlighting the exposed wood. I let the stain sit here for just a few seconds before wiping it off, but the places with more exposed wood (like the seat), I let it sit for a few minutes until it really seeped into the wood.

(See the difference between the horizontal post and the back leg of the chair? It changed the blue to a bit of a brownish aqua color.)

#7. Allow to dry completely. Repeat any steps as necessary. Seal as desired.

#8. Experiment with various decor, use as photo prop for flowers, remain undecided about decor and post pictures anyway. :)

Once I had the blue paint on my chair, I realized that I didn't just want a blue accent, but the combination of a lot of dark brown and the blue, which is why I went with the VERY distressed look. But I also wanted to see how just a little bit of distressing would look with the same colors, so I pulled out this cloche I made a few months ago.

I lightly sanded along some of the sharp edges and a bit around the circle to give it some depth. I used a q tip to apply some stain just to the sanded parts and then quickly wiped it off so that it didn't get onto the paint to change the color.

I had been tentatively planning on painting numbers on each of the spokes on the back of the chair, but decided that the very distressed finish was enough detail for now. So I put a 3 on the cloche instead, and I think it was a perfect touch.

Better huh?

This is no Miss Mustard Seed tutorial, in fact, I wish I had read some of her painting tutorials before I dove into this painting project, but I was just so excited about the chair and had the prettiest blue paint already picked out...

I hope you learned a little tidbit if you haven't done any painting like this before and would like to try it out. And for you seasoned painters out there, please let me know what I have missed! This may have been my first furniture painting project, but it certainly won't be my last.

I'm linking to these amazing parties, and the CSI Project!

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