Halloween Decor and 5th Blogaversary...

Hello Crafty Friends!

Hope everyone is doing well and gearing up for Halloween.  We've moved and won't get any Trick-or-Treater's here, but that didn't stop me from decorating.  :)  A few family and friends kids come to visit occasionally so they will get to enjoy it.  :)  

Our doxie Penny didn't even care that this really wasn't daddy.  She slept in his lap anyway.  Any port in the storm.  LOL!

We have loads of wildlife where we live now, and due to the drought the pond is all dried up, so I put out 2 watering buckets.  These turkey's come several times a day and hang out around the water cooler.  The deer and other's come out in the morning and evening, and more come out throughout the night.  ;) Now that they know there is water there I need to fill it up everyday. LOL!

Back on the 6th I posted about my 5th Blogaversary.  Well it didn't show up for some reason and it isn't in the drafts.  So anyways, I can't believe it has been this long.  So many changes have happened and new social media avenues have opened up it is just to hard to keep up with all of them. I have been posting all around and not staying consistent with the blog.  I don't ever see any action from here (blogger) anymore, is anyone out there? LOL., My facebook page for myneed2craft gets more action. This year has been super crazy either way, and I haven't done much in the way of crafts, but I will share anything I do.  :)  Plan to get the craft studio up and running before the holidays.  

We'll see. 

Until next time (hopefully sooner than later),

Adventures in Chalk Painting with Waverly...

Hello Crafty Friends...

Well I finally got around to trying out Waverly's Chalk paint that Walmart is carrying.  I didn't get Waverly's brand of waxes though.  I have Annie Sloan Wax clear and dark, so I just used those.  No sense spending more money right?!  :)

Today I thought I would try it on a wood chair.  I've had this chair forever and when we moved I didn't get rid of it.  It was in definite need of renovating, so it was the perfect candidate.

First I sanded down all the paint splatters so I had a smooth surface.  I didn't go all crazy sandy, just enough to knock off the high spots and a little of the varnish.  Then wiped it down really well with a damp cloth.  Then applied one coat of Waverly's Chalk Paint in Truffle.  It only took a little less than half the bottle to cover the whole chair (even underneath the seat).  It has the consistency of chocolate putting and went on nicely.  I wanted a brown color for this chair to be an extra chair for the Farmhouse Table I made.  (You can find that post here.) The paint had more of a grayish brown color when dried.

It was a little more grayish/brown than
the pic shows.

I applied a coat of Annie Sloan clear wax using a t-shirt instead of my wax brush.  It was easier to get in between the spindles.  Let dry for about an hour and then applied dark wax.  Rubbed it down really well with a t-shirt then used my drill motor with buffing brush (best tool ever!!) and then went over it with a shoe shine brush.  The wax after being buffed was still a little streaky so I wadded up some paper towels and rubbed down one more time and it rubbed right out.

On a side note:  My intention wasn't to have a distressed look on this chair.  I wanted it to be a solid brown.  Wellllll....thanks to my drill motor bumping some of the sides and scraping off some of the paint, it became an accidental victim of distressing.  Oops!  LOL!!  So it had a few more accidents (intentional bumps) and made it look symmetrical (sort of).  I think it still looks great.  :)

Here is the finished product...

The Annie Sloan Dark wax really browned
it up to the color I wanted.

I also got Waverly's Chalk Paint in Rhubarb and Peacock.  Going to paint some Ball jars and see how it holds up.  Making vases for centerpieces for a wedding.  I'll let you know how that goes when I get them done.  :)

Until next time...

Custom Picture shelves...

Hello Crafty Friends!

Today I will share how I made these picture shelves.  I couldn't find any pre-made to the size specs I wanted for this wall, so I did some research on Pinterest and came across this tutorial at Viva Cindy Blog.  Literally, we have the same exact story!!  LOL!

So here it goes:

The blank wall!

The supplies!  Oops, forgot to fill in the nail
holes.  Couldn't tell anyways.  LOL!
The can of GF top coat was
empty (how did that happen??)
I used Minwax's spray polyurethane satin.
Lowe's cut all the wood to size for me (30")
2- 1x4 pieces and 1- 1x2 piece for each shelf.

Glued in between with good 'ole Elmer's wood glue.

Since I wasn't using power tools and was home alone, I used
a piece of scrap to hold in place while I nailed together.

Ta Daa!!
1 down and 4 to go.  :)

All ready to sand.

Stained with one coat of GF Java Gel.
Then out to get sprayed.

I used black wood screws and went into the studs.  They
were not exactly centered on this wall (surprise, surprise),
but you can't tell because there are pics in front of
them.  ;)

That's it!  Now I am off to work on the craft room.  Got one piece started.  I'll share that soon.  It will be a work in progress.  I sure miss my old craft room at the old house.  I'm sure this one will be just as fabulous!  Yay!!

Until next time...

Office Craft room/Office Chair makeover with ASCP...

Hello Crafty Friends!!

It's a gloomy rainy day here today.  Woke up at 4am to thunder and lightening.  A while later, huge downpour.  Not complaining, we need the water here in CA, but I was enjoying working outside these last few days.  :)  Oh, well.  Got me to finish my office chair.

I'm really missing my old craft room.  Haven't gotten the new one together yet as we always have something else to work on first.  Ugh!!  (Maybe next month.  ;) LOL!)  I loved the color in the old craft room, it was called Green Tea and it is a very soothing yet help me be creative color.  Recently I found this fabric at Walmart and it became the inspiration for the new craft room/office.  I won't be able to paint my walls here (as they are already painted and the craft room/office is part of the main area of the great room in the new house) but I can bring in that Green Tea color in fabric and accessories I love so much.

Here is the chair I worked on this week for my new craft room/office...

Before

ASCP Old White with clear wax, heavy distressing, and
a 50/50 mix of  clear and dark wax.

Love this fabric!

Here is the link to the old craft room if you want to check it out.

Until next time!

One Farmhouse table reno complete!!

Hello Crafty Friends!!

FINALLY!!!  I have my dining room table reno into a farmhouse table complete.  :)  Yay!  Just the table mind you.  Still have 4 chairs to finish.  LOL!  I did buy to fabric covered chairs to take the place of the end chairs.  Got to love Wayfair.com  And they match our living room decor perfectly.

I have lot's of pics to share, so brace yourself...hehe!

STEP ONE: Find a used table and chairs (or redo your own if you have one).  This one had a leaf which I was thrilled with because I wanted a really long table.  I found this one on a local online garage sale site on Facebook in my old neighborhood.  SCORE!!! 

STEP 2:  Locked on the leaf and then painted the base with Annie Sloan Old White Chalk Paint and waxed with clear.  Sanded lightly and then waxed with a mix of light and dark wax.  Polished up with the drill motor and a round brush attachment.  

STEP 3:  Attach pine boards.  For my table I used 3 10x8's and 2 8x8's.  This gave me some

over hang to widen the table about 6" and lengthen it by about a 1'.  We trimmed off 3" from each

end.  We also countersunk the holes about 1/4" and filled with

some oak putty I had laying around.  One of the boards was a little

catty wompus, so I shimmed it up.  

STEP 4:  I wanted our initials carved into the top like if it was in a tree trunk.

Romantic right?!?!  <3 <3 <3

I drew it out on the computer and then used a scoring tool to carve

it into the top.  Pine is soft so it was real easy.  Then we used at little torch to 

burn the wood.  Which didn't work so we used a soldering iron.  We really

could have just skipped this as it didn't show through the stain anyways.  

STEP 5:  Now to the stain process.  I used General Finishes Java Gel and their 

recommended top coat.  I only did one coat of stain and 3 coats of top coat.  Sanding

with 320 (?) grit lightly between coats, wiping down thoroughly before the

next coat, allowing dry time of 3-4 hours.  Let it completely

dry for several days before use.  

I still need to get the side chairs done.  I want a bench for one side, which may be another homemade
project.  ;)

I am so thrilled with how it turned out.  Exactly how I imagined.

Stay tuned for more fun projects.