Leaf Silhouette on Canvas Tutorial

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It's been awhile since my last post, I apologize, but I have a full time job now that takes up most of my time. ツ  Before I started my job I had a couple projects in the making that I've wanted to post for awhile now, so here is one of them. I'm sure some of you have seen something similair on Pinterest. Here is my version....

You will need:

Canvas (mine was 11x 14) I have a large wall area to cover, and 8x10 would have looked small!

Spray Paint - your color choice ( I used Krylon Color Master Gloss Purple and Ivory Satin )

Craft Spray Adhesive

Spray the canvas what color you want the base to be.

Let it dry between coats, I did two coats and don't worry about the sides to much with the base color because your top color will cover it anyways.

I let my canvas dry a couple days before I used the adhesive to put the leaves on.

Get an idea where you want the placement of the leaves, before you use the adhesive.

On newspaper, give the leaves a light coat of adhesive (you don't want it to stick forever!) and gently press down all the edges. Some of mine lifted a little but thats okay, it gave it a feathered egde on some leaves.

Spray your top color making sure to get the sides of the canvas.

Let it dry enough that you won't smear the paint, but don't leave the leaves on to long, or they will be harder to get off!

The leaves on the Black Locust (above) lifted while I was spray painting, its okay it still looks good.  ツ You can touch up if you want.

Kimberly Queen Fern  & Maple 

Black Locust  & Dogwood 

These look really good in my master bathroom, and they will look even better once I get around to painting the master suite ... I'm painting my bedroom wall with a life size silhoutte of a bare leafed tree.... I think it will tie in nicely.

Garden Totem

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I know its late in the season for this post, but I never made the time had the time to go thrift shopping or the money when I had the time  ツ I have wanted to make one ever since I saw the different ones posted on Pinterest from different websites. And I LOVE Cobalt Blue anything. I also want to make a garden totem that looks like a mushroom.

Garden Totems have an easy shopping list, maybe you have some pieces that you can use in your own cupboard? Or  maybe you purchased some glassware at a garage sale that you don't really know what to do with but you couldn't be without! OR You can buy the glassware this winter and in would be a work in progress project! ;)

My husband "glue" these together for me, you see I am short, and we put them together on the dining room table, so the first 3 pieces were already taller than me lol. Besides that he's way better at getting a smooth caulk bead. I wanted to make sure its good and sealed! I did however tell him how I wanted them put together, there are quite a few ways we could have put these together! He added his own touch to it by adding a piece of black granite tile (thank you Miss Pat) to the bottom to make it nice a sturdy. I don't want it to tip over and break!

Here is what you need:

Miscellaneous Glassware of your choice
GE Silicone II (make sure its silicone II because its heat and freeze proof and its also waterproof.Its flexible too!) I got mine at Lowe's, but just about any hardware store should carry it.
  

I made one of my Paper Peony's to put inside the crackled globe bowl (above)
I wanted to find a hummingbird or something cute like that, but couldn't find what I wanted...next time maybe..

Cobalt Tea-lite holder on a candle stick holder 

We "glued" (silicone) two pieces together at a time. Then once those were dry (we waited about a day in between) we "glued" those two to two other pieces and so on and so forth till they were all glued together. I didn't want any pieces sliding!
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Finished Totem

I see more of these in my future!!  ツ 

Be creative see what you come up with ....

Homemade Jewelry Cleaner

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Have you ever needed to clean your jewelry and didn't have any cleaner? 
My Grandma used to make her own, and told me the recipe a long time ago.
If your in a pinch and need some quick, this is good because most people have these things on hand. This is all I've ever used and it works perfectly! I wear silver and white gold jewelry, & my husbands ring is titanium  and its never harmed anything I own. Quite the opposite, its made it all very shiny!!

Also I use toothpaste to clean my silver jewelry that is a little tarnished.The paste kind works best, instead of the gel.. I just use a old tooth brush on it and rinse well when I'm done then put it in the homemade cleaner, shiny! {see below}

What you Need

Ammonia
Dish Soap ( I used Dawn, but you can use any)
Water

You can make as much or as little as you need, just use equal parts of all 3 ingredients. I used about 1 Tablespoon of each for this batch, if you put it in a lil container that has a lid, it will lasts forever!! {or at least until it gets too dirty and needs to be changed out} ツ 

 I use a tooth brush on my rings, to get in all the crevices.

All clean! {Its hard to take a picture with one hand ans zoom in AND keep still!}

Necklace that has some tarnish.. 

You can fix that with a little dab of ToothPaste!

I usually work it between my fingers first, then use a damp toothbrush, but I was trying to keep my camera hand toothpaste free! ツ 

After the toothpaste rub down/scrub, rinse all the toothpaste off and soak in the jewelry cleaner for about 10 minutes, rinse well and dry.

All clean && Shiny!!

Also if you have a jewelry box, and you have lots of sterling silver jewelry, take a piece of foil {doesn't have to be big} and ball it up a little and keep it in your jewelry box, that will help the silver from getting tarnished so fast! Or you can take a piece of foil and place you silver in it and fold it up in there.
Now you have some Homemade Jewelry Cleaner that actually works!
Your welcome... ツ 

Now go get your jewelry that needs to be cleaned and make some cleaner!

Lingerie Chest Makeover

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I have been wanting to re-finish my daughters old lingerie chest for awhile now. It was showing its wear and tear, and the bright white that it used to be, was a ugly yellow-ish color,  no matter how much you tried to scrub, it always looked dirty.
I'm slowly getting my craft room (some future posts ahead!) put together and this chest is part of my storage. I have been wanting to try the homemade chalk paint, but I think I'm saving that for an old hope chest that needs some serious TLC, but cant have to much sanding done to it! 
This dresser has a smooth laminate top and seemed to be dipped in a thin textured laminate coating,(drawers included) and some of it was chipping off. It looked terrible to me. I also have a dresser and a night stand that matches (and they are both in the same sad shape) but that is for another time, and another color  ツ ....


Things you need

Sander- Palm Sander or a Block Sander
Sand Paper (I used 220)
Primer (I didn't use, but its up to you)
Paintbrush, Foam Roller- I used a 1"inch paint brush to "cut in" under the top (where the roller can't reach)
Paint - your choice of colors
Rags - (2) 1 damp rag t-shirt to wipe down after sanding, and a micro fiber to wipe it down after the damp one.
Furniture Paste Wax - optional

I did sand this with the palm sander, just enough to take the shine off the laminate, it wasn't to bad since its textured. I did leave the top alone, as it wasn't textured and it was still in good shape, but lightly sanded everything else. (Sorry no pictures of the process...just before and after)
One of the back legs laminate and a few layers ripped off from me moving it by myself over the yrs. but my hubby glued it back on and used Spackle on the seam. (picture below) Its good as new...well almost  ツ you can't even see it now, that's all that matters!

I gave everything 3 coats of paint using the sponge roller, and let it dry really well in between coats. I did 1 coat a day, 3 days in a row. I didn't use a primer on this piece, I didn't feel like I needed too. I will report back on how it holds up.  I decided to leave the sides and front a Bright White, and to put some color on the drawers like a paint chip card. I kept the old knobs and painted them the same colors as the drawers but interchanged them. I let it all dry for the full curing time (on label) before I assembled it back together. I think I will use some clear furniture wax on it, (either Minwax, or the Johnson Paste Wax) it will help protect the finish!


BEFORE:

AFTER:

I'm happy how it turned out! && It LOOKS so much better now!  ツ  ツ