Quick Tip

Just thought I would share a quick tip with everyone. Do you hate trying to find the end of the tape on your big rolls (masking, packing, painting tapes) and then trying to get the end started?? Well here is a quick tip to help save you time. I place a paper clip at the end of the tape to keep my place. It is also nice to hang on to when you pull a piece of tape off the roll. When I get the length that I want, I place the paper clip where I want to cut and use the paper clip as a guide so I cut a straight line. Works Great!!

Antler Lamp

My nephew is 11 years old and loves hunting... I was trying to decide what to get him for Christmas but I have got him everything for hunting and fishing that a boy could ask for except for the gun itself!! So I got to thinking.... What could I make him that he would like?? Well his family just built a brand new house and of course his bedroom is hunting. I noticed he did not have a lamp and that is when things started to flow.... 

I had a plain old lamp that over time the lamp shade broke off and even where you screw the light bulb in was broke and just dangled there. So with the help of lock tight super glue I fixed up the lamp. Didn’t think he would like white, I gave the base of the lamp a brown paint job. I have always wanted to make a lamp completely out of antlers but thought just attaching a few antlers to this lamp would be a great start. So over to my brothers I go and he found me 3 different antlers. I gave them a good scrubbing so they were a nice pearly white. Finding how to arrange them I think was the hardest part. But after a few times of placing them different ways I found a position that I liked. To attach the antlers I scuffed the area with sandpaper that touched the lamp. I used E6000 because it’s a really strong glue but it was taking forever for it to dry. So I added a little bit of my lock tight super glue, it is a faster drying glue that held it in place while the E6000 dried. I went out and found a burlap lamp shade for $9.00 that I thought went along with the theme. Everyone at Christmas loved it!! Kinda wish I made it for myself but the thing about crafting is… I can always make more!

Benefit Wood Plaques

YAY!! Sharing one of my crafts for the first time!! My heart is pounding… so excited yet nervous that I will sound stupid!!

Here is the Story behind the craft that I am sharing with you today. My brother-in-law has kidney problems and has many medical bills and will need a kidney in the near future. A great group of people put together an Auction to help raise money. Their main event was a bachelor/bachelorette auction and since I am married and could not participate in it, I decided to make some wood plaques to enter in the silent auction. Proud to say they all went for around 60 bucks!!

On to the making of my wood plaques… A while ago my husband and I made something (don’t remember what) out of 1x6s and we had a few short boards left over. My husband was going to throw them in the burn pile but I yelled at him and went and put them in the garage. The hoarder that I am said "Someday I will use these". Well this was the day I dug them out and said "It's a good thing I kept these."

 

I decided to go with more of a wore vintage look so I cut the corners off, gave my 2 ½ year old a hammer and let him go at the board to give it some character. We then sanded down some of the rougher edges so no one would get a sliver.

Here is a what my board looked like after Ty got done.

 

I like doing a base coat, the one pictured I used a dark brown. The paint that I used is a thicker oil based paint made for outside projects so did not feel the need to use a primer. When I use a thinner indoor paint, I do a quick coat of primer.

Over top of the base coat, I put a lighter color (this came from my bedroom) so my wording can be a darker color and standout more. It doesn’t have to be perfect because after I apply the light color, I will take a piece of sandpaper and scuff it up to give it a worn look.

 Before Sanding

 After sanding

Opps…

The harder part is picking out the design and what color you should go with. Everyone has a different taste and different color scheme in their house… well since I am using paint that I have in my cupboard, I picked a red color that I have in my Kitchen. I love swirls and butterflies so for my first design ~ Swirls and a Butterfly.

The wording is also hard but everyone loves seeing the word Love right?!? After I got done I noticed I had an open spot that looked odd on my board so I add the word unconditionally and put it in the same brown as the base coat so it wasn’t all red. I also gave the words and designs a worn look by using sandpaper. 

Plaque #2… I like to print out the designs and place it on my board before painting to see what it will kinda look like. For this one I used a black base coat. For the flower, I used toilet paper rolls. I think I cut them about an inch thick and applied with super glue. I painted them a yellowish color and speckled the red on the outside.

 

Plaque #3… I don’t remember where I saw the quote me & you but I thought it was cute and different. Don’t see this very much on other decor so thought it would be something unique. This board was a little shorter too so it fit it perfect and I made the ends round instead of the cut corners. Base coat was a brown. To make the “me and you” stand out more I did the design a lighter color like the background and put the wording in the dark brown.

I hope you liked them!!  I will be posting more of these down the road as I truly enjoy making them!! Hopefully I inspired someone else to continue with their passion even if you don’t always have the time to fit it in. Life is better lived when it is enjoyed! Happy Painting!!

A little about me

My very first post!! Eeekkkk so excited!!

Well to start my blog off, I thought I would tell you about myself. I live in a small town in South Dakota. I have a wonderful husband that puts up with me and two studly boys, Garth and Ty!!

My first boy is now 5 and he LOVES bull riding! By the time he turned 2 he knew how to tie the bull rope to one of his pretend bulls (which normally is my pillow). Every free moment he has, he is either pretending to bull ride or watching bull riding on youtube. I have a feeling momma is in for it when he gets older (scared!)

Ty is 2 ½ and is my trouble maker!! Anything he is not supposed to have, he has it!! Anything he can take apart, he takes it apart. Anything that can be tied into knots gets tied into knots. But he is most like me, has a love for animals. When he isn’t trying to get into trouble, you can find him in the dog kennel with Dixie or carrying around momma (our cat).

Now about me…

The boring part… I work full time in a grain elevator as the bookkeeper. I do all of the accounting work except for the financials, I have an auditor that comes and does that for me :) There is way more for bookwork when you work in an elevator then your normally small business… keep track of all the farmers grain, all different kinds of contracts, always writing checks, sales tickets for feed, statements every month, grain reports, blah… But I also weight trucks, test grain, clean :S, clean some more, answer phones, load feed, stock the fridge with pop and candy bars, order some of the inventory, market grain, take feed orders, and send out feed samples. But I am sure most of you don’t care about this part of my life which takes up depending on the time of the year 45-60 hours a week…

I love animals!! As a family, we try and ride horse as much as possible!! As a kid, I had many different kinds of animals for pets: dogs, cats, bottle calves, bunnies, coons, rat, bat, owl, snakes, turtles, frogs, fish, salamander, sparrows, bugs, and I have been out of my parents’ house for quite a while and they have a squirrel, (guess I know where I got it from)

When I get some free time (which is hard to come by when I work full time and have to clean up after 3 boys :S), I will try and make crafts… I have learned that there is always a use for things even if they are old and unwanted anymore. So as my husband calls me, I am a hoarder (but in a good way right!?!)… I love making old things into new things and I love making items out of wood, now if only I had enough money to buy all the wood working tools that I want… So far most of my crafts that I have done are either for gifts or myself but I have a lot of people telling me I should start going to craft fairs. For my blog, I am hoping to share with you the items that I am making and the remodeling jobs that I am doing around my house because my house is really old and out dated. Hope these will interest you and you become a follower. Thanks for stopping and I hope to have one of my crafts up soon!!