Embrace Your Mistakes

A couple of years back my grandmother got me a vintage sewing machine desk from a thrift store.  It is very functional; it stores my sewing machine when not in use and holds all types of supplies.  But it wasn't very pretty.  So I had this idea that I would paint it.  At first I thought I would paint waves on it, but my dining room has changed into my art room and I wanted something more colorful.  Instead of practicing on a canvas and planning, I just went for it. 

I had a base coat of spray paint that was dark blue for the original wave idea.  I thought I would add some crackle paint and paint a coat of white over it.  It worked well enough until I started painting details over the crackle finish.  It just peeled off.  The crackle paint did not adhere properly to the spray paint, and I had to scrape the entire thing.  Ugh!!!!!!!!!!

Here it is in the process of being scraped down.

The terrible mess it made in my floor.

With a coat of gesso and the back of it painted black.



I have learned a lot from my mistake, mainly to plan, practice, to take the time to do it right.  I am practicing on canvas right now and learning to paint, repaint, and experiment.  Something I may not have learned if I had not made this little mistake.  I think crackle paint would have been boring, now I am in the middle of a bright and beautiful painting that I am pleased with.  I am also very happy with my canvases, and will share them with you in the next few days.  And I will also be sharing some more work in progress shots of this desk.

Upcycled Frames - New Bathroom Art

I have been trying to add some color to my house, something I can change out if I get bored with it.  I am not quite ready to go with bright colors on the walls, so I figured colorful art and frames would be the way to go.  I wanted to start in the bathroom and was trying to think of something cool that hubby would like on the walls when it hit me - Outkast.  Oh yeah.  So I went to work.  The first frame I bought did not work out well.  It was thin and I had painted it black.  So I trashed it in search of a wider more colorful frame.  And when I saw this little beauty at the thrift store I just knew it would work.

I know, it looks kinda boring and gross.  But give it a chance.  I got my brush out and went to work.  One thing that I did not do that I really should have is sand it down a bit and prime it with gesso.  Don't skip this step!!!!  I just took the art out and went straight to painting my base coat, Folk Art Aqua.

Had to pull up the nails to get the panel out. 

I did two coats of the aqua paint and let it dry overnight.

Then I came back and antiqued it with some thinned down black paint (used water to thin it).  I just painted the black paint mix down and wiped the excess off.  And here is where I had problems.  Because I did not sand and prime my frame some of the paint peeled off.  Not a big deal, I just went back and touched it up with the aqua paint.  I had to do that in a few different places anyway because the black was too much.  I let that coat dry for a couple of hours and then coated the frame with a spray acrylic gloss (which is kinda nasty and should be used outside or with a respirator - or both!).  I sprayed one coat, let it dry 15 minutes, then sprayed another coat.  I let it sit outside for a few hours before bringing it in. 

When I brought the frame inside I put my print in and placed the panel behind it, then bent my nails back in place.  It looked good on my wall, but I thought it would look better with another piece next to it.  So I took a small plastic frame I had, painted it, and made a print of a photo I took to place inside.

I love this little frame, and thought it would look great with a nice coat of red.  Since I was out of red spray paint, and I am trying not to use it right now (baby bump and all), I just used red acrylic on this one too.  Normally I would use Krylon spray paint on something like this.  I didn't prime this one or even gloss coat it.  Just two coats of Folk Art Lipstick Red acrylic paint and I was done. 

I let it dry overnight and then placed my photo inside and hung it up with my other masterpiece.  They are in my bathroom right now.  Here is a pic of them on the wall together.  Once I get some more art and decor in the bathroom I will show you a wider view of the room.  But for now this should do.

I would like to warn you....if you come to my house and know this song you may want to close your eyes when you enter my bathroom.  Hubby and I both come out of the bathroom with this song in our heads EVERY time.  Usually we sing it or whistle it for a few minutes before we even realize what we are doing.  I may change this up before too long, but for now i think it is just too cool to take down.

Cloth Paper Scissors Pages - My Art Published!!!!!!

So excited to share with you guys that my art has been published in the premiere issue of Cloth Paper Scissors Pages!  I just received my complimentary copy of the magazine today!

I have been reading Cloth Paper Scissors since the first issue in 2004.  I love the magazine and it has been a dream of mine to have my art featured in it.  These books were originally sent in for the Mini Book challenge that was published in the Jan/Feb 2011 issue.  I was sorta bummed to find I was not published with the challenge until I found out that my books might be published in Pages.



The magazine is awesome!  It is so bright and colorful and features tons of books and art!  My favorite article so far is "Vintage Inspiration" by Renee Rogers.  I can't wait to get some of my vintage papers and books out and give it a try.  If you need inspiration, Pages is packed with 144 exciting pages of it.  You can order it from the Interweave store here, or check out your local bookstore to see if they carry it.  I know the Books-A-Million in our county does.