Crafty Day @ 'GoshDarnIt!'

Well, just a quick update for you all! I have a few pieces of furniture to be working on but I just can't seem to find time at the minute! I work in a toy shop and this time of year is always a little hectic for us :)

Last week, I spent the day with my mum and sister at a 'craft workshop' in our very own kitchen. My sister Grace is fantastic at sewing, and makes BugBears, Badges, Bunting and other beautiful things to sell at craft fairs. She goes by the name of 'GoshDarnIt!' and you can see all her stuff here http://www.facebook.com/pages/Gosh-Darn-It/165624210173919

So we worked hard all day to replenish stock for her stall and came up with a few things...
Robin Tree Decorations

Festive Bugbears; Hollie, Donner and Blitzen!

Just LOOK at the handstitched yumminess in these Christmas Pud's!

And here is her stall all jazzed up for Christmas :) I LOVE the Christmas bunting and vintage material gift bags!

Well, I discovered during the day that all this is very fine, detailed work and I think that I will stick to the paintbrush :)

Monroe Madness or Masterpiece..

This one is for Sandy.

In the words of Marilyn Monroe;

“Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.” 

I feel like this quote was written for this piece of furniture!! It's been a case of one step forward to take two steps back, but let me begin...

FIRST ATTEMPT

My friend Sandy brought me this little coffee table complete with glass top, and asked me could I paint it in cream and gold for her shop 'Revival'

The top was an old chippy veneer which I tried to take off by sanding, by scraping, and then with white spirits but it hardly seemed to make a dent. Against my better judgement I then whipped out my gold spray paint and began.

After this, I painted the entire table with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint 'Old White' but it was no good as the top surface was uneven and just looked rubbish. I then tried to rub it down with a sponge to bring out the gold...but nah it just wasn't happening! Sorry I didn't have the heart to take a photo of this stage.

ATTEMPT TWO

This time I rubbed all the white off and was left with a thin coat of gold which I left on. Then I painted the legs in a deep glossy black, waxed them and ordered a Marilyn Monroe poster to attach to the top - perfect what with this table having a glass top. I used PVC glue and got to work

EEEEEeeeek. Yikes. Etc. 

I have tried this method before and failed, and I thought there may be the possibility of bubbles BUT LOOK at the lines and wrinkles!!  Any tips on this method from my fellow bloggers would be very much appreciated, especially as we don't have 'mod podge' in Ireland.

THIRD ATTEMPT

If this piece was for me then I may have given up at this point, but as it was for Sandy I kept relatively calm and carried on by peeling all the top off;

Then I went to a local shop and bought the only Marilyn poster that they had, even though I had concerns that the face was too big.. but BOY am I glad I did!

My dad helped me at this stage (thank goodness). We simply cut the picture to size, set it on top, and used his electric screwdriver on four corners to attach the picture and the little black plastic screw caps. No glue in sight!

What do you think?

I just love the pop of pink and ruby red lips!

For Sale

This cute little dressing table is up for sale at £150, just follow the link. 

Painted in 'Henrietta' Chalk paint and hints of gold - gorgeous and girly!

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260866338400

Worth the Wait

This little gem has been a long time coming, but as the title suggests, was worth the wait! My dad found this one for me in a skip of all places so it was absolutely free. It was going to be thrown out because the top left hand corner had broken off, and to be honest if I had of been the one to see it I don't think that I would have taken it home because of the state of it - I mean how do you add a corner onto furniture? Beats me.

Here she is;

I would love to tell you all how to fix this up, I even have step by step photographs for you all but the honest answer to 'How did ya do it?' is... 'my daddy!' - he did it for me when I was out one day. Lets see what he did

 Drilled holes and glued in wooden dowels

 Sanded..

 Got a good samaritan 'Tommy Mooney' to do the edging, and what a fantastically smooth job he did;

 Then primed and lightly sanded

Now it was over to me. I really liked the table being white but I wanted a challenge so couldn't make up my mind when I had a visit from a friend who wanted it painted in black with lots of lovely gold on the details. Not a bad idea! So I got to work and here she is

I sprayed it with gold craft paint first including the inside and outside of drawers, then gave it two coats of black water-based eggshell paint which I love because it is environmentally friendly, washes out of the brush in water, and has a lovely sheen which I found very similar to the quality of oil-based paint. Last of all I waxed it a couple of times et voila!

Thank you very, very much to Tommy Mooney and my dad for helping me on this one.

"who is the fairest of them all?"

That's right, this is my second mirror redo of the week and I think that it is my favourite of the two although my photos don't show this in all it's glory.. Like the last mirror, this one is also for my client Sandy's new shop 'Revival'.

This is basically how it arrived, except by this time I my dad had taken the mirror out

It is made from plastic and had various cracks which we tried to glue up. Also, we put a very high grab adhesive bonding along the top back to try and give the mirror more strength.

Next I took out a brush and lightly dabbed on some paint which I had used on another piece called 'French Grey' by Farrow & Ball. I love the tones of this shade, they are nice and dusky and earthy.

Here she is;

'Mirror, mirror on the wall'...

A client, Sandy, brought me this mirror to be re-vamped for her new shop. I think she bought it locally, and it looked a little...dingy boring sad?

But we could see that she has pretty curves in all the right places, and was in good condition. Sandy made the call for her to be finished in cream and gold, and I'm glad that she did. I set to work with masking tape and newspaper (I find that the easiest and quickest way to do this is to first tape all around the outside with masking tape and then stick the newspaper ontop of the tape that is already down).

I quickly sprayed it completely with some gold paint that I purchased in local craft shop... (you can sneak a look at another table that I am working on but that's a longgger story for another day)

Once this was dry, I brushed on some Annie Sloan Chalk paint in 'Old White'. This paint was ideal for a number of reasons; I knew it would adhese to the spray paint no problem, it dries within an hour or two, it would only need one coat, and it distresses beautifully. I allowed it to settle for a few days and then set to work distressing it with a wet sponge all along the edges and ornate settings. Finally, I waxed on one coat with my usual Colron Clear Wax to secure the chalk paint to the frame and to protect it.

Here she is!