Brass Lamp Transformation

My home is a newer home and all the fixtures around my home are dark brown. I didn't have the heart to get rid of my brass lamp. It cost us a fortune in the 90's and it was one of my most exciting purchases;

however, it was quite the eye sore with all the new style in my house and its days seemed to be numbered. Then as I was checking out some linky parties, I discovered that a fellow blogger had been spray painting the fixtures in her home the same color as my new fixtures. Please go check out her blog. It is called Life in the Thrifty Lane. She has spray painted many items from her dining room chandelier to her outdoor lights to furniture.

I am so excited how my lamp turned out. Unfortunately, my photography does not do this transformation justice. My hubby is super impressed with the lamp. He was not too excited when I told him what I was going to do - BUT the end result made him think differently. I told him I was going to recover the futon in this room too (yeah - the southwestern look has got to go). Let's just say I need to go a little slow to appease my hubby and let him get used to the changes a little at a time. He seems to always be impressed with the outcome though- especially because it saves us money in the long run.

So this is what I did...

1. I took the lamp apart as much as I could. I sanded it with steel wool, washed it with soapy water, and dried it.
2. I primed it with Rustoleum Clean Metal Primer.

I couldn't believe how good the lamp look just after I primed it. It was tempting to leave it at this stage - but I continued.

3. After the drying time indicated on the spray paint can (twenty minutes) I started with the Rustoleum Oil Rubbed Bronze spray painting.

This paint is so awesome. I am totally a novice at spray painting and this paint is almost fool proof. I did do some goof ups - but they were really minor and for what I consider a huge project - and being a beginner - this paint is so good! If I kept doing the proper technique - which is to start the spray off the project and work on to it - then I would not have had any problems. Check out the Rustoleum website for tricks, tips and how to's as well as other spray paint project ideas - but be prepared for a spray painting obsession. 

Info that may be helpful: 

I spray painted in my garage with the door open and with a tarp and cardboard to catch the overspray.

I basically held a large piece of cardboard in my left hand as I spray painted with the right, although I did hit the lamp a few times with the cardboard and had to paint over those parts. This lamp is very large and awkward and I didn't think it would work well if I laid it on a table or floor. I am a novice- so I am not sure what the best thing would have been to do. It would have been good to start with a small project for practice - but I don't seem to do things gradually, I just go for it, and I am glad I did.

I wore gloves and covered my nose and mouth with a dust mask - although I did still get paint up my nose. I wish I wore goggles and a plastic hair net. On a smaller project that I am spray down onto, I wouldn't do that. 

And there you have it - my first spray painting re-do.

Thanks for stopping by!

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Home Stories From A2Z

17th Birthday Party Theme Idea

My daughter recently had her 17th birthday, so I thought I would show you what I did for her birthday.

My inspiration for her birthday started from the movie "17 Again". Since these were the digits for her birthday - I decided to go with a movie theme. I started with an invitation to look like the movie poster.

I can't say that I go too crazy with decorations and such. I decided to make gourmet hot dogs for dinner with onions, red and green peppers, pickled banana peppers, chili, cheese, gourmet relishes and of course your basics - mustard, ketchup, mayo.  Instead of the usual chips, I decided to go with flavored popcorn. I put taste tester servings in muffin cups. The flavors I had were Kettle Corn, Spicy Nacho, White Cheddar and Salt and Vinegar. These were all Orville Redenbacher microwave popcorns. I also bought popcorn twists. So yummy.

For entertainment, I made a slideshow of the birthday girl. The picture below is my computer screen. I got my daughter to make a movie curtain out of poster board and then I taped it on my computer. I used the song -"Man, I Feel Like a Woman" by Shania Twain for the slideshow. This was my daughter's favorite song when she was four.

I like to do different things when we open gifts. This year we played charades. Each slip of paper had a title of a movie on it. Some of the movie titles were: Planet of the Apes (I think the funniest one to act out), Dancing With Wolves, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, The Sound of Music, Forest Gump, Gone With the Wind, and Nightmare Before Christmas. The person acting could either act out the title, or act out a scene from the movie. The birthday girl started - and whoever guessed the right movie - she opened the gift from that person - then that person would act out a movie title - so on and so on. We had some good laughs.

A few years ago I started taking a picture of the b-day girl with all the guests. I thought it would be fun to have the pictures with some photo props - movie star style.  Here is a link to where I found some photo props. We also had a wig - and I bought some fancy glasses from the $ store that were fun to use for props. I saw the idea to put popcorn kernels in a jar on Pinterest - check it out HERE.

And the last thing I will show you is the "thank you's" we gave out at the end of the party. I made a filmstrip of each of the guests in attendance and filled it with pics of the birthday girl and that person.

I made a bag out of kraft wrapping paper - put a bag of M&M's inside, and adhered on the film strip tag and a thank you movie ticket tag. I topped it off with some twine. 

I hope this gives you some ideas for your next party. Thanks for stopping by.

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Nursery Art - Baby Shower Gift Idea

I made these music silhouette collage for a baby gift. The mom said she had enough clothes to last her baby girl until she was two, so it was an opportunity to look outside the box and get creative. I have been liking the silhouette art I have seen around the internet and wanted to try it. I liked the idea of having children songs as the background - and I searched the internet for silhouettes that matched each song. I printed them out and went and got laser copies as I modpodged them to wood - and my ink jet copies would have smeared ink. Here is how I made them....

1. I bought 5x7 wood plaques. I painted the edges white. I got my hubby to frame around the middle one with trim.
2. I adhered black card stock that I cut a little bigger than the music sheet with modpodge. I worked out all the bubbles and waited about 20 minutes for the next step. While I waited I inked the music sheet a little with Tim Holtz "Antique Linen" ink.
3. I adhered the laser copy of the silhouette music paper with modpodge. I worked out all the bubbles and waited about 20 minutes for the next step.
4. I applied the top coat of modpodge over the music sheet. I dressed the frame up a little by gluing on some checkered ribbon and a flower in the corner. I put the same ribbon on the outside of the little plaques - but I did not take a picture of it. It helped bring all three pictures together. I modpodged over the whole plaque and frame and ribbon so it adhered better.

All of the songs I picked have a special meaning to me and an uplifting message....

Close up of middle picture. I love this song - but I couldn't find a link for you to listen to it.

Close up of left picture. This song is my favorite child song. The first time I heard it I almost had to leave the room because I cried. A Child's Prayer on You Tube

Close up of right picture. Watch and listen to the song by clicking here.

I can send you pdf files if you would like to make these yourself. Click on the my contact page for my email.  Thanks for stopping by!

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From a Dress to a Ruffle Blouse Tutorial

I have been wanting to try my hand at making a ruffle shirt for a while now. I guess I was waiting for the perfect two shirts to come along, as that is what I read you need when you are making ruffle shirts - you need two shirts so you have the same material to make the ruffles with. Well one day I had a light bulb idea - I can be looking for dresses too. So pretty much the first day I went looking for dresses I found a perfect dress to make a ruffle blouse. Let me tell you about my adventure....

So I bought the dress and let it sit for a while as I was a little fearful of my sewing skills. I wasn't sure what kind of ruffles I wanted to do or how I was going to do them. I had liked a shirt my friend has and she came over to my place with it on and the next day I went to work. Turns out as I went along the ruffles were nothing like what was on my friends shirt - it kind of took on its own life - I just had to get started.

1. I tried the dress on and made a cut mark where I wanted the length to be - then I cut it across.

2. I looked at the excess material I had to make ruffles with and went from there. I wanted the ruffles to be wide at the shoulder and get more narrow as it went down the shirt. To do that I folded the fabric over at an angle and cut. 

3. Since I was working with the bottom of the dress material, I had to sew strips of the fabric to each other to make it one long strip. I made two ruffles - one was half the length of the other one as it basically just needed to go from the shoulder to the bottom neckline. The second one was twice the length as is was going to go from the shoulder, to the bottom neckline, to the waist.

4. I sewed a seam in the middle of my fabric ruffle - my stitch length was "4". I also made sure I had lots of thread at both ends so I could pull on the threads to gather the fabric.

5. I gathered the fabric.

6. Here is is a finished gathered ruffle.

7. I pinned the ruffles to the blouse.

8. I basted the ruffles on the blouse. Basting is sewing with long stitches that are easy to remove.

9. Try the blouse on. Do what adjusting you think is necessary. I had to remove the ruffle as it was  not centered, and then I basted it again. So do yourself a favor and mark where the center is before you baste. I like to do things the hard way.

10. Machine stitch.

11. Take out basting stitches.

12. Enjoy your beautiful new blouse. 

FYI - I liked that the design of the dress was a pullover. It would probably not work with a zipper dress but who knows.

- I did not finish the edges of the ruffles as the material was t-shirt like and it did not fray.

This was a super fun project - even though I was kind of freaked to start it. This project taught me that if I just try things, the result might be good. I am totally looking for my next ruffle project now because it was fun, and I will actually wear this blouse (I can't say that about my other sewing projects).

Thanks for stopping by!

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Metamorphosis Monday
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How to Make a Floor Duster Cover

Here is another idea I found on Pinterest. I am a pretty frugal gal and because of that I only have two floor duster covers - while one is in the wash the other is on my duster. I would own more but for almost $10 a piece I have been getting by with two. Then I saw this idea and was so excited. I purchased a towel at the $ store for a dollar - I used some thick elastic I had in my stash (although I have no idea where the thick elastic came from as I have never used it before) and went to work. 

Please check out where I got the idea from. The blog does not have a tutorial for a floor duster cover but it has one to make your own swiffer duster replacement - so go check it out at the 

Dollar Store Crafts blog. 

Here is what I did....

1. I used my store bought floor dusting cloth as my pattern.
2. I put the duster on the towel and then I cut about 1 1/2 inches away from the duster to allow for seams and folding. I cut my elastics to be the same size as the original.
3. I folded one side, put the elastic in the middle and sewed a seam down that side. I took the other side and did the same - but I made sure it was the same size as my store bought duster.
4. Working on the long sides now - I folded each side over and sewed the seam in place - making sure it was the same size as the original. I did some reinforcing stitching at the elastic parts as that is where I pull and tug to get the duster on and off.

I am pleased with the results and I am going to make more!

Thanks for stopping by!

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The Stories of A2Z

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A Bag With a Twist - tutorial

I saw this idea on Pinterest and I had to try it. They are so much fun to make - and a little addicting because of that. The tutorial I used was on DIY Wedding Ideas - please go there and see what their bag with a twist looks like. They used this idea for a wedding favor. They sewed the bag together - and although I do have a sewing machine - I made mine a little different....

1. First of all, I printed out on a regular piece of paper the image called Antique French Newspaper from Graphics Fairy. I had to put two of these images on the page to fill the whole 8 1/2 x 11 inch area. After I printed the image out, I cut one inch off the top and side to make my paper 7 1/2 x 11 inches. You can keep it the full size - I just wanted my bag to be a little smaller than what a full page bag would make. Then I put a piece of double sided tape down the whole right back side.

2. With the sticky exposed - bring the other side of the paper over to make a tube and stick it together.

3. Without creasing the sides -  fold up the bottom about 1/2 and inch and staple at least twice.

4. Now for the top you want to turn the tube so that you will close it the opposite direction as the bottom.  I just fold the top over for now - as I want to fill it with some goodies.

I punched a lattice edge from my Martha Stewart punch for the top and bottom edges and applied them on with staples. I tied on a bow, and added a metal "Believe" tag. I am going to make a whole bunch more of these for Christmas. 

I made a smaller bag by putting two images on one page and cutting the page in half. These little bags are just adorable. On this one I sewed the bottom edge to enclose it and I punch two holes in the top and tied it shut with a ribbon.  The image I used on this one is from Graphics Fairy -Vintage Floral Spray Postcard

I am loving these bags - and I am thinking you will too! Go on and give it a try!

Linking up to....

Graphics Fairy - Brag Monday