Shabby Chic Handmade Valentines Day Card - Love Bird

Happy Saturday! Today I have a Shabby Chic Valentines Day card to share. When I finished this greeting card I noticed that it's embellished in such a way that would be fitting for many occasions, such as a wedding anniversary or Mother's Day. How cool is that? I'd like to say I planned it that way, but I didn't.

I used my Kirby Teesdale Paper Pack from the Paper Studio, DCWV Neutrals and K&Company 4"x6" Recycled Berry Pinks. My card measures 6"x6" so to make a mat with the smaller paper I cut 4 berry strips and taped them into place. Due to the style of my card I was able to blend those strips where they came together. 

I love the rose paper from the Kirby Teesdale paper pack, it's very elegant. I used the oval die from Spellbinders 3 Fancy Tags and Sizzix Thinlits Handwritten Love to make my sentiment and then attached it using brown ribbon. The tag is edged in Victorian Velvet Distress Ink and embellished with two pink adhesive-backed pearls.

To add some overall softness I pulled pieces from a used dryer sheet. There is a very faint fragrance left in the dryer sheet that makes this card smell really good, but it's not overwhelming at all and actually has to be held close to smell it. To make the large light pink and dark pink heart I used pink heart doilies colored with white ink and Victorian Velvet Distress ink.

I cut the bird from a page from the Kirby Teesdale paper pack and covered it in Glossy Accents. 

To give the bird some dimension I cut a wing from another page of the same bird, placed thick glue dots on the backside of it and then placed it directly over the other wing.

To make the flowers I used the Recycled Berry Pinks paper and the Tim Holtz Alterations - Tattered Flower Garland Die. I then chose one style of flower in 3 sizes. To shape each layer of flower I dipped them in a cup of water for just a moment, dried them off and shaped the softened paper by pinching the petals and pushing the back of a pen down into the middle of the flower while the flower sat on thick craft foam. I then used my heat tool to dry the flowers to make them stiff and hold their shape. I love that the paper I used has a white core because the flower edges were automatically outlined. 

To make the small hearts, I used the waste paper hearts from a Sizzix Border die. The hearts are very tiny so I placed them all the way around the edge of the card.

Materials:

If you like this card using the Kirby Teesdale Paper Pack you may like the card below as well

Thanks for stopping by and for your wonderful comments! Come back again for new projects :)

My Craft Room Makeover for under $100.00

Hello everyone! 

Wow, I've had a crazy last couple of months, but I'm back and so happy to be able to get back to crafting again and see all of your wonderful projects. 

Scroll down for video

Today I'm sharing my craft room makeover video that takes you through the process (can be found further down this post) as well as a few photos of my finished room. I made a video to avoid making people scroll through a post for the next two weeks. The dramatic reveal moment of the second song makes me laugh every time. Music does wonders. Some of the photos move quickly because they are mostly the smaller projects that were done and can be viewed in previous posts. I still have my chandelier to hang, my floor to polish and an old ceiling to paint eventually, but everything that deals with my crafts is done and in it's place and that is a breath of fresh air. 

I set myself a budget of $100.00 and I'm proud to say that I didn't go over budget.

$$$ Spent

$3.44 can of spray paint
$24.00 cloth storage bins
$16.00 small baskets
$12.99 curtains (cut up to enclose bottoms of shelves and table)
$11.00 satin finish white paint
$12.00 rugs
$3.00 chair
$5.00 chandelier (not hung yet)
$5.00 bag of curtains, clock and miscellaneous small decorations
$7.00 spray paint for chandelier

Total $99.43

 

I wasn't able to finish everything for my craft room makeover such as the painting on the glass of my cabinet and my chandelier is not yet hung, but my room is far enough along to reveal. I'll post the remainder of my projects as I complete them.

Be prepared for an extremely girly room. I love how different it is from the rest of my home which is decorated in earthy tones and has very clean lines. My table skirts make extra storage and can be easily removed and hung back up. I also have enclosed my rubber stamp cabinet that sits on my desk with a curtain, but most of the time it's not hung. I just use it when I have company.

I added a comfortable wing-back recliner chair to my room so I have a corner devoted to relaxation for reading or doing a yarn project. So far one of my girlfriends has made herself comfortable there. I like having somewhere nice for her to sit.

If you have not been happy with your craft room, I hope my project gives you the inspiration you need to make your room, corner, or closet a space that makes you feel good. My craft room makeover was definitely worth the effort.

I would love to hear your ideas of ways you've organized and/or decorated your craft rooms. Please share your ideas in the comments below for other crafters. 

 

Happy crafting!

Easy Way to Make Your Own Shabby Chic Wall Clock

When I was at local yard sales recently, one of the places allowed people to fill a bag for $5.00. After stuffing some material in my bag to make table skirts for my craft room I had a little more room left for a few more things. One of the items I grabbed was a clock. I needed one for my craft room, but I wasn't quite sure what I'd do to make it more appealing. It wasn't a bad looking clock before, it was just too plain and dark for my room. I like the shabby chic appearance much better and it was really easy to do.

 

The first thing I did was take it apart.

Next I painted the two circles pink with acrylic paint.

 I wasn't sure what to do with it next, but while looking around for ideas I found crackle medium in my paint cabinet and decided to give it a try. You just brush it on, over your first dry layer of paint, and then let it dry. The crackle medium is clear, but shiny so it wasn't difficult to tell where to paint and where I had already painted it on.

The result is fabulous and it was fun watching it. The crackle effect began happening right away so I continued to paint the white acrylic paint on quickly. There was no need to be super neat about it. I just tried to apply the paint as evenly as possible without having to go over it too much.

Once I finished applying the white paint I let the clock dry completely for a couple of days before touching it. It's not necessary to leave it alone that long, but it should at least be allowed to dry overnight. Waiting is just to be on the safe side of not ruining the finish as you put it back together and embellish it.

Before I put the clock back together I embellished the inside. I placed gems between the numbers, a pink swirl of gems under the twelve and I hot glued a pearl strand onto the inside edge of the clock face.

Once I was done decorating the inside I put the clock back together and hot glued pearl strands (fake pearl necklaces I bought at yard sales) to the outside of the clock.

Then I made a bow with some hanging ribbon and pearl strands. I tied them together with wire and then hot glued the entire thing onto the bottom of my clock as one piece. Once the glue was dry I hot glued a store bought white flower in the middle to cover the wire.

I always try to keep some handmade flowers available for projects and these flowers were perfect for my clock. I made them using lace and ribbon and just weaved a wire in and out, then gathered the material in a circle and twisted the wire ends together. They were very easy flowers to make and you can use anything for the centers of your flowers.

Here is my clock hanging.

My finished clock turned out gorgeous and it feels good when I check the time to be looking at something that I made.

If your interested in making your own flowers check out
Handmade Flowers

Happy Crafting!

 

Chair Makeover - Shabby Chic

Hello everyone! My girlfriend and I had a blast this holiday weekend. We ran around her little town on Saturday from morning until late afternoon shopping at all the yard sales. Every year her town has a day when you can't go down a street without yards full of treasures. The park even fills up with people who are on the outskirts of town wanting to sell their "junk".

I had specific things I was looking for, a chair for one of my craft desks, chandelier that I could alter for a Shabby Chic touch in my craft room, some doilies, and I am happy to say that I found everything I wanted. I also picked up some pink and white, striped wallpaper that I can use in my room and for craft projects. I haven't made any changes to my chandelier yet, but I did give the dated chair a shabby makeover and it turned out great. I draped some accessories on it that I got during our yard sale adventure too.

Nothing like redoing an old chair to make it look old.

I didn't mind the scratches, because I was going to make it look old and abused anyway. The first thing I did was remove the seat and paint the chair. I used a paint brush for all the nooks and crannies and then a small roller for a nice even coat on the rest of the chair. 

The vinyl covered cushion was damaged and dirty, but it is a very sturdy chair and worth the easy fix. 

The second thing I did was remove the old cover from the seat cushion. I have to say this part was quite nasty.

A friend of mine had given me some scrap material. I loved this material, but it was so small I wasn't sure what I would ever do with it. The beautiful pink and white material was sewn to an odd strip of red, black and white printed material. I'm not sure why, but it gave me the extra material I needed to be able to wrap my new chair cushion.

Craftaholics Anonymous has a great tutorial on upholstering chair seats if you've never done it before and the the same principles go for reupholstering. Before attaching the new covered seat I sanded the white paint on the chair frame to give it a worn, peeling paint look.

I love the material on this chair. It was the touch I was looking for.

Now I have a beautiful, Shabby Chic chair to add to my craft room. I can't wait until I'm done with my craft room and can show my chair in its new home.

Here is a sneak peak of another craft room project

Below is the chandelier I picked up for $5.00. I can't wait to start working on it and most importantly to remove the yellowed, ugly ceiling fan that's currently in my room.

I have big plans for this chandelier and love that there are hooks on the base to hang crystals. Stop back again and see the updates!

Happy Crafting!

Update: Craft Room Makeover in Progress - Add Paint to Mismatched Furniture

Hello everyone!

The Painting in my craft room has begun

My mess of a craft room just got messier as I've been pulling everything down off the shelves and giving my room a makeover. I've had a room of mismatched furniture and storage bins that make everything feel cluttered and closed in, even though I've been organized. Below are photos of my progress. They're not the greatest quality photos because I've been doing much of my work during the evening and at night, but I think the difference in atmosphere, just by adding some paint and hiding all those paint bottles, really shows up. The before picture looks like an eye-spy photo.

I didn't paint stripes on the bottom portion of the shelves because I want to place my big ugly things in there and cover them up. I plan to paint many of my storage containers white or at least coordinate with the color scheme of the room to keep a light and airy feeling. The photo (left) shows the colorful plastic drawers that I took from the center of the two white shelves and replaced with a wine cabinet I use for my paper storage (right).

Making the old hidden wine cabinet a featured piece

The cabinet (pictured below) had very dark stained wood with a clear glass door. It had been sitting on the curb and I had no qualms about asking my neighbors for it last fall. Right now it's just primed. Painting will happen down the road since it is easily pulled out. A medicine cabinet sits on the top of it that I recovered from our garage. It's been wiped down and painted, but as you can see I have not cleaned the mirror yet.

  

Painting a flower motif

I've never painted flowers before, so I watched some one-stroke painting of flowers on YouTube. The people that do one-stroke painting are VERY impressive.

I lined the back of the glass with white, crinkle-cotton fabric and have begun to paint a flower motif on the front of the glass. Painting on glass is wonderful because if you mess up it easily wipes away. The paint can also be scraped off with a razor blade when it's dry. I did a lot of wiping away as I practiced using the one-stroke technique. I still have quite a bit of painting to do, but it's coming along. I used the leftover acrylic, craft-paint I mixed for painting the back of my bookcases so the color would be the same.

Removing the old shelves above the bookcases

I removed the black shelf that was once over the bookcases and found a piece of scrap plywood that I spray painted a turquoise color. All that can be seen of the new shelf is the underside over the medicine cabinet (pictured-right). There was also an ugly wood shelf above the black shelf so I painted it white and spray painted the brackets turquoise.

I wanted to attach molding to the top of my cabinets, but don't have the money for molding at the moment so I used a lace valance over the top of the shelves to soften their appearance. This is as good as it gets for now.

Making the stripes

I couldn't find any scrap wallpaper around the house and I didn't want to have to buy paint so I pulled out my painter's masking tape and my acrylic, craft paint. I had a large bottle of white craft paint so I used mostly the white with a mix of blues and some green to get the colors I wanted. I didn't want to have to use very much paint so I dabbed the paint onto the back of the bookcase with a dry brush. I like the texture I got.

I can only guess that there is something on the back of the bookcases, because even though I thoroughly cleaned them, they rejected the paint and made the paint splotchy in some places, but my daughter and I agree we like it and it just adds to the texture and character. Since the shelves break it up and there will be craft bins on the shelves it wasn't something to be concerned about.  

When my daughter saw the painted bookcases she told me that she wants striped bedroom walls. Hahaha! Being in the middle of this project I don't even have the energy to entertain the thought.

 Making my mismatched furniture more cohesive

Below in the next three photos, I painted white, the two cabinets that sit on my desk and weathered them with sandpaper. I used a sheer floral curtain I already had on hand to line the doors. The glass was missing from one door so I broke the remaining glass out and then placed white fabric behind the floral fabric to make the pattern pop. Glue guns are very handy for this.

I placed the cabinet upside down so it can sit on top of the other and the shaped wood looks kind of cute topping it off instead of hanging below. It's one of my favorite furniture pieces so far. Very Shabby Chic :)

When I broke the glass, I used a large piece of cardboard to protect the floor and make cleanup easy.

The cabinet that it sits on was another old medicine cabinet with glass shelves that I store my rubber stamps and ink in. I used cup hooks to hold a cafe, curtain rod on the front. All I had left was the bottom of the large curtain I had cut into pieces, so I turned the curtain upside down and it's now hanging from the hem. I roughly cut the curtain to size because I will be trimming it with thin lace. Fortunately the curtain was narrow so I don't have to do any sewing on the sides.

Fun with color
Months ago I picked up a small paint sample that was on clearance because I love the bright bubblegum-pink color. I had no idea what I would use it for, maybe crafts, but it was too good of a deal to pass up.To have some fun with a splash of color I painted the inside of my cabinet with it. The new fresh paint really beats the scratched up, dark stain that once covered the inside. I still need to take my razor blade to clean up the lines of the fabric that I glued on the doors, but right now I'm in a rush to get back to crafting, so it can wait.

The money I've spent
$$$
So far I've spent money on a can of spray paint. For everything else I've either used things I already had in my craft room, throughout the house or found in the garage. It feels good to do a craft room makeover and it feels even better to do it without spending a lot of money. I set myself a budget of $100.00 and I've spent $4.00. Not bad for all the changes I've made and I didn't even use an entire bottle of craft paint.

If you would like to challenge yourself to redo your craft room like I'm doing, please let me know. I would love to see how and what you do and feature your story and photos.

Happy crafting and redecorating!

Copyright © 2014 Angela Conklin - Heartedly Handcrafted

All Rights Reserved

Altered Vase - First Shabby Chic Decoration for my New Craft Room

Hello everyone! Today I took my first couple of steps toward my new craft room. I cleaned out a desk and shelves from one corner and then needing some rest I decided to sit down and redo an old, heavy, sandy vase. The vase used to hold a Christmas tree on my front porch, but got blown over, wrecking the tree and chipping the vase. So this afternoon I gave it new life and it will become part of my Shabby Chic craft room transformation.

The vase was very dark. It looked good outside in the sun, but without light shining directly on it you could barely see the pattern. I had to lighten up the photo in Picmonkey just to show it here. There were also areas that were chipped and a big chunk was missing from the corner. I didn't repair the corner because I think it adds character.

Below are the steps I took to change the look of my vase, but the very first thing I did was wipe it down to remove any dirt. This vase is very grainy/sandy and made it difficult to clean. By the time I was done I had a small pile of sand. This was another reason I felt painting it would be a good idea. Coating it with paint keeps it from shedding sand everywhere.

After my vase was clean and dry I mixed two craft paints, Scallion in a satin finish by Martha Stewart and Mediterranean Blue by Craft Smart. Once I got the color I wanted I just brushed blue all over the vase. I was not being careful and wanted some of the dark color underneath to stay exposed.

After I finished applying the first layer of paint I took baby wipes and wiped paint off as I rubbed it around the vase. What I was trying to achieve was a very thin layer of the turquoise color that was a little heavier in the nooks and crannies. After wiping it down I used my heat tool to dry the remaining paint.

I applied white Kilz once the turquiose colored paint was completely dry. I would not suggest using this without open windows as the fumes are very strong. I don't have chalk paint or the money to make my own, so I found Kilz in the garage and thought it was the next best thing since it has a very chalking appearance. I dry-brushed the white Kilz lightly to lighten up the undercoat and accentuate the design.



I'm so happy I stumbled across this vase by my garage and surprised my husband hadn't thrown it out. I think it turned out really nice and will make a great addition to my new craft room. I will show how I filled my vase in the reveal of my room.

Happy Crafting!

Copyright © 2014 Angela Conklin - Heartedly Handcrafted

All Rights Reserved