Frosted Mirror

 

I got a Lowe's creative ideas catalog in the mail, and they had this very pretty and creative mirror project.

Frosted Mirror

I have a mirror above the mantel and thought...hmmm, I could do this.  Plus, I only needed two items from Lowe's.  Everything else, most crafters all ready have on hand.

So, I went to Lowe's and got:

Valspar glass frosting spray paint

Loctite acetone spray adhesive

Cost for those two items, less than $10.00  I followed the Lowe's instructions step by step.  No problems at all.

 

Before

After

 

 I love it.  In fact, I like it so much, I do believe I will keep it up even after the holidays.  It adds a bit of personality to an otherwise plain ole mirror. 

Chair for Maggie

From this.........

To this....... 

Door to Coffee Table

Over at Sweet Pickins Furniture I found this awesome, way cool door turned into a coffee table.

I knew I could do this, or atleast I believe I can...so waited until I had the perfect door.  That day happened and I found me a door.  It is a very old solid wood door.  It is a door that stinks.  Hubby says it smells like cat urine.  I say it smells VERY, VERY old.  Kind of like when you go into a very old KMART, or get hold of an old book.

I wasn't about to give into hubby talking about my stinky door.  Although, I wasn't too sure this was going to go in my house.  So....I crossed my fingers and moved forward, hoping that I could remove that smell.

My inspiration photo above, looks as if nothing was done to it.  But my door was plain and needed something.  I began by stripping 30 years of paint off.   Time and elbow grease.

Then we measured the door, trying to decide the height and width.  Hubby cut my now very stinky door into 3 pieces, two sides and the top.

Yep, the stink was still there.  I continued to make light of it, all the while wondering would that smell go away.  I had sanded and sanded, probably making the smell even more prominent.  But I still had hope. 

We used the Kreg Jig screws to secure the sides to the top, making it look nice underneath and very sturdy. I primed with Kilz, then painted with a satin white.  I tend to use what I have on hand.  I originally wanted to paint it a blue color.  But...doors are usually white, especially old doors.  I then put a coat of gloss Polycrylic over the top, sanded and put another coat of Polycrylic.  This seal of Poly seems to have sealed in the "stink".  Hip, Hip, Hooray...the door/table may come into my house.

I debated to leave it a solid white, but my paining skills are pretty bad, so an easy way out is to "antique" it up.  So, I sanded some spots here and there, making it look beaten. This in turn allows my mistakes and not so good painting to show.  I went to HD and bought a set of glass door knobs.   I love these knobs.

Ta-da...it passes the "Smile" test.  If I walk past it and smile, it stays.  If I don't smile, it's out of here.
                                                                                

Hollowed Out Books

I took two diet books and made my granddaughters a secret hiding place.  Who needs a diet book anyway, the word DIET is a four letter word to me.  If you go on a diet, then someday you will come off the diet, making the whole trip wasteful.  I want to teach my gbabies to eat healthy, to make the better food choices in their eating habits. 

So....I found two old diet books.  I marked about 1/2 inch around the pages and used a box cutter to cut out the pages.  If you go slow and remove as few pages as you can at a time, it will look better.  If you get in a hurry (like me) it becomes not so neat.

I used Mod Podge, but you could also use Elmer's glue to glue the pages together.  I just used a brush and brushed the glue along the inside and outside of the pages.

I tend to not go out and buy items for decorating, and use what I have. I used a couple of old fabric pieces to line the cut out holes.  Being I had some Halloween stickers, that is why one book got a witch.  The other book got a gingerbread baby, not sure where that came from. 

Stickers and just random items to personalize each book a bit. 

My choice would be to fill the hole with trinkets, but I was in a hurry to give it to my oldest granddaughter, as she saw it one day and has constantly ask me, if I was finished yet.

Soo...I went and bought a handful of candy to fill the space.  The other book, is for the gbaby that is 4 months, I have plenty of time to find trinkets for her book.

Very Easy to do.  It took no time to complete.  Best of all, the gbaby loved it.

52 Reasons I Love You

Found a very creative way to say "I Love You" over at Paper Vine Blog.  I immediately thought hmm, I could do this.  It requires little money and is easy.

I bought two decks of cards, a set for each granddaughter.  And I already had the little rings. Now, I don't have fancy machines to cut out perfect squares.  Or a machine to punch perfect holes.  But, I do have scissors and a single hole punch. :)

First, I punched the holes into all the cards.

Then I used the paper out of the printer and cut little rectangles that would fit in the middle of each card.  Next, I colored a border around each paper.  I used a glue stick and glued a piece to each card.

Now, came the hard part..thinking of 52 reasons you love someone.  Hmm, you say that shouldn't be so hard.  Well, I didn't want to use just generic reasons...I wanted to be as specific as possible on some of them.  It needs to be where it couldn't be given to just anyone.  It has to belong to that one person only.

My 10 year old granddaughter...her deck is completed. I will give it to her next visit. As for my 3 month old granddaughter, well, her deck will take a bit longer.  She is too young to be very specific about.  Our memory making has just started.  As she grows and I learn about her ways, I can add specific reasons to her deck.

Making memories for the girls to have, so they always know they mattered to me.

Paint Chip Dry Erase Board

I found this inexpensive, easy gift project for anyone on your gift list.. friends, teachers, co-workers.  It takes an hour or so and cost about $5.00.

You know those paint chip squares that you get from HD, Lowes or even Walmart.  Anytime, I go to these stores and I frequent them quite a bit, I always choose a handful for reasons such as this, or one never knows when I will want to change the paint on a wall. 

Here is where I got the idea...over at The Aesthetic Writer.  I followed their directions, although I couldn't cut the squares as straight as they did.

I bought a $5.00 11x14 frame at Walmart.  Keep in mind, it needs to be large enough to hold a month of numbers.  I cut the squares to be about 2x2 size.  I then spray painted the cardboard that comes in the frame white, as you can see the board in between the squares.

I taped the squares down, by just taking a little piece of tape rolling it up and sticking it on the back of the square.  That allowed me to adjust as necessary.

You could make another one or several and line a wall, if you need to see months in advance.  Or when the month is over, just grab a tissue and wipe it clean, re-number and you are ready for another month.

Neat, easy peasy idea.

Ruler Growth Chart

With my 10 year old granddaughter we have marked her growth on a wall in the garage. I have kind of framed it in, but nothing permanent.  We have only lived her 3 years, and even though she loves to stand and see how much she has grown, I always think how nice it would have been to have started it when she was born.

With the birth of our second granddaughter next month, I knew I wanted to find some kind of chart.  So, set out for internet travel to find something I could do. Well, lo and behold, I found the coolest and easiest growth chart over at 517 creations , this really neat ruler growth chart. 

My ruler growth chart

 Went to HD and bought a 1x8

Chose a stain and wiped it on.  In hindsight the color I chose is a bit too dark.  I then got out the yard stick and a small ruler.  I pretty much copied 517 step for step.

I used a pencil to first mark off each foot, then went and marked half of that then inches in between.  I then went back with a black medium point paint pen and drew over the penciled in lines.

517 said she enlarged the font to 200...oh no, I had no idea how to do that. The drop down box only allowed the font to be enlarged up to 72.  So,  back to google to search how to enlarge font.  I found exactly what I needed here at ehow. It worked like a charm.

I rubbed pencil on the back of each number and then turned them over and used an ink pen to trace the number where I wanted it.  I then took my paint pen and filled in the number.

It's not secured to the wall yet, as I have to make sure it is 6 inches off the ground.  Just wanted to share.

I love how it turned out.  Hugs to me.