TATTERED AND INKED GUEST BLOGGER TODAY!!!!

Hello all you Creative Chickadee readers!!
I'm so excited to be here today!

My name is Kelsey and my little piece of blogworld is called Tattered and Inked.

I'm a craft blogger and am addicted to furniture redos, free printables and spraypaint :)

I was so excited when Kelly asked me to guest post and I thought I'd show you a recent furniture makeover I did.

I found this awesome beauty at our local Goodwill for 25$.

It was solid, had good lines and was a great size!

The top had quite a bit of wear on it, but not too much damage so I just gave it a good sanding to bring it back to life a little.

I painted the base in my new favorite color: Pottery Barn Cream

and after several coats, I gave it a good distressing with my sander.

I love the look of the dark wood underneath, so this piece got a good bit of distressing.

It really gave it a lot of character.

I painted the top in a creamy espresso brown to give it a two-tone look.

Since the top of the table was just MDF, no grain would have come out if I had stained it,

which is why I decided to paint it instead.

I love the creamy brown against the white.

It had a great drawer on it and I kept the original hardware.

I also made sure to give it several coats of clear gloss to help protect it against youngsters and drinks :)

I actually ended up putting this piece up for sale and I'm hoping it's new owners love it.

Much better, huh?

It's amazing what a little paint can do :)

I'd love for you to come and visit me over at Tattered and Inked!

You can also join the fun with me on Facebook where I post sneak peeks and other fun blog finds I come across!!

Here's a peek at some of my other past projects:

Yellow Harlequin Table

Free Laundry Printables

Yarn Chevron Canvas

Hope to see you soon!

And thank you so much, Kelly, for having me!!

FUN CHALKBOARD OUT OF A CABINET DOOR

 

 Easy, easy project that even a beginner can do.  

1.Find an old cabinet door.

(garage sales, Habitat Restore, curb side, etc)

2.  Buy the following supplies

-chalkboard paint

-spray paint

-drawer knobs of your choice

-paper(optional)

3.  Spray the outer border of the cabinet with your spray paint, or regular paint.

Let Dry completely

4.  Tape off the border section and spray paint the middle portion with the chalkboard paint.

Let Dry Completely.

5.  Paint your drawer pulls.

  I used a cardboard box that I cut slits into it to secure my knobs upright while drying.

6.  Drill holes in your cabinet door.  I measured to get them evenly spaced and I still failed at it, but it looks fine.

7.  After knobs have dried, mod podge pattern paper on them.  

8.  Secure the knobs into the drilled holes.

 

9.  You need to temper your chalkboard by going over it with chalk before officially using it.  Rub the flat side all over it and the clean it off.  You are ready to hang and use the new chalkboard.  

Mine was for my niece to put in her room.  

The paper and paint I picked out goes along 

with the birdie art my sister and I did for her room.  LOVE IT!!!  

Lots of simple steps and with the weather warming up it won't take long for the paint to dry.  I would say this project may take you a few hours for dry time.

Family Collage Wall

Sorry for all of you that saw the finished product of this and have been, probably, impatiently waiting.  School is finally winding down for my boys and I finally feel like I am coming up for air.

For all of you that did not see the teaser photos, I recently did a family collage wall in my hallway leading to my master bedroom.  It probably took me from start to finish 2 weeks to do this project.  I used a lot of frames I already had.  I think I only bought 4 new ones and I got them all from the Dollar Tree.  I spray painted them all the same color and added bit of spa green here and there for an added, but subtle, punch of color.  I hope you enjoy the process.  I stressed over it a lot!  I am not one of those people that levels and measures and takes their time.  I hate dislike exacts.  Because of that it tends to get me into trouble craft wise.  But for this project I measured and leveled a little, just a little.  I made my husband proud.  I asked him for his opinion of my initial floor placement of all the frames and he said, "Looks good."  I am so excited that I did do this all myself and never got so stressed that I had to ask him for his help with all of the "exacts".  :D

Enjoy and let me know if you have ever done a collage wall.  If you haven't or have felt intimidated I hope my "semi-exact" methods make it do able for you.

I first laid all my frames out on the floor and moved them around until I had them generally where I like them.

While the pictures where on the floor I measured width and height for tape placement on the wall.

I thought I took a picture with just the painters tape up, but I can't find it.  I first taped up my basic height and width rectangle and then measured up every 5in and put tape.  I used my husbands laser leveler for all the taping.  LOVE it!!!  This method may not work for you but I saw it on a design show and knew my brain could handle doing a collage wall this way.  The nice thing is this is the only exact part of the process.  You use the other tape lines to keep you straight and even on the frame placement.  I used the tape to help level the bottoms of frames and to level the tops of frames.  Once you have all the frames in place you take off the tape.  I will use this method again and again I think.  Hopefully I have explained it so you get my method of madness.

 

I used napkins to mod podge the M.  Don't you just love it!!! See the bit of green in family?  Just a subtle splash.

I added all of my family photos from earlier generations.  I also added a G for my maiden name.  It was gold(Hobby Lobby) but I used the same green from the family sign.  

 Another splash of green is added through this family tree I had done. 

I used nails and 3M velcro strips to hang up the frames and 

Letter M.  Love 3M!!!

finished project again

There ya go.  My family collage wall.  It still makes me happy as I pass it.  Don't you just love feeling happy in your house, but also feeling happy that a project worked out!!?

Kelly 


linking up and meeting new friends over at...

Wreaths and I are finally friends.

Examples of wreaths the inspire me to try and make one.

I love both of these styles.  They make me smile.

How cute is this!!!!  Made out of marshmallows.  hahahaha

maybe for Christmas...

I hold a deep dark secret that frustrates me to no end.  I agonize over it.  I feel like a crafting failure because of it.  I can't make wreaths.   I throw my hands up in frustration every time I attempt to make one.  Why out of all things, is it the little round wreath that gives me such trouble?  Show me a picture of most anything else and I will pretty successfully copy it for cheaper of course. ;D  I think God forgot to give me a wreath gene.  And of course I refuse to pay for them though.  They are so stinkin pricey and even over priced at that.  So because of my handicap with the wreath I normally hang something like THIS on my door.  With so many of you making the most adorable wreaths this year I decided to give it one last go.  Here are the photos of my attempt.

Painted a styrofoam form from Hobby Lobby.  The paint is called Pistachio, but it's more lime green.

 So far so good.  

I found some cute cupcake holders at Hobby Lobby for 1/2 off.

 

All I did here was fold the cupcake wrappers into flower shapes and hot glued them on.  This got a little frustrating for me because my crafting OCD kicked in at this point and a few didn't look as good as I hoped.  I plugged along in hopes that the more I got on there the less the bad ones would show.  I did a small grouping on each side of the wreath.  Top, bottom, left and right then filled in the gaps.  Trying to keep it balanced.

A better view of the cupcake wrappers and how they looked glued on and bunches together. 

 I was very hopeful at this point.  

I used 150 wrappers for this project. 

I hot glued a pink ribbon down a white one I had to coordinate with the wreath's colors.

And, now I can say the wreath and I are on the road to becoming friends.  Possibly BFFs one day.  Well, lets not get carried away Kelly.  Baby steps right?  My front door finally displays a wreath for the first time.  I am quite smittin with it.  Maybe one day I will attempt something harder but for now I will sit back and enjoy the fact that I can now finally say, "Hello, my name is Kelly and I can make wreaths."  

What kind of projects do you struggle with?  Share with me so we can be joined in our struggles together.  Happy Crafting!!!!

Don't forget to enter my Birthday give away. 

It ends Friday @ midnight!!!

ENTER HERE!!

Meeting new friends through...

Wandering Wednesday

Birdie Love on Spring Break

Over Spring break my friend Amy and I got together to craft.  She wanted to do something with birds on it.  Birdie art is all over blog land and in designer magazines.  When my sister came to town she loved it and wanted to make one for my nieces room.  These are such a quick, easy and inexpensive project to add decor to any room in your house.  My inspiration came from the blog UNDER THE SYCAMORE.

my birdie's still need eyes

They are hanging on either side of the kitchen entryway.  They added more color here.

Amy's art

Cherie's art for my niece's room

I just love these colors!!  Wish I had a little girl's room to decorate.

Love this bird too with the pink eye.

My canvases were recycled, so cheap for me.  All you need are canvases of any size, scrapbook paper, mod podge, black sharpie, paint(if you want to add color to your canvas) and buttons for the eyes.  
1.  Paint your canvas if you want to add color
2.  cut our your birds and leaves(I printed some off line and cut them out then traced onto pattern paper)
3.  Draw out your limbs with a light pencil stroke. 
4.  Use the black sharpie to trace over pencil strokes.
5.  Place leaves and birds where you want them to go and then mod podge them down.  What for about 10 min and then go over the entire canvas with a layer of mod podge to seal.  


Sharing the love with these ladies...

Making the World Cuter