ReStore Project 2 Brass Tray Table: It's All About Molds

So, the other day while shopping for my ReCreate It stuff, the lady at the counter who happens to know me quite well talked me into this super huge brass Persian tray. I completely missed it when I was shopping because it was covered up with other stuff. Now, I have a limit to how many trays I'm allowed to have and this was for sure one over my limit.

Last count put me at seven and I think I had my eyes closed when I was counting....they all require some kind of polishing at some point and are "decorations" in various places. However it was $5 and my MIL said WOW, good job, those are really expensive...and that one is Persian.

So, I decided later to use the rest of my ReCreative funds on a base. Low and behold this perfect black spindle base showed up with a wooden top for $15 and I decided to use that as the "legs" for the brass tray.

It was a pretty simple project and my only addition was really cleaning the legs & adding velcro so it would stay together unless you wanted to collapse the legs for storage.

Heck, I don't even know if they want two submissions, but like I told the assistant store manager, it's not staying at my house. It's super cute & all, but there is a limit to what I can bring home without getting divorced.

Hence I decided to shop for decorations so I can practice a bit more with some paper clay and molds and make something to decorate the top. I spent $5 between the pumpkin & the fake flower. Both I thought would be good candidates for adding some paper clay embellishments & flowers to.

 The glass bottle was my first experiment where I made the paper clay scallop & tried my hand at gluing it wet with E600. Worked like I charm so I was then able to be brave enough to try it on furniture.

Didn't even notice those did ya? They look like they are meant to be. Super fun. Anyhow, they are now meant to go on everything!

Here's the upside down top of that pot with a big paper clay molding added. The molds I got off Amazon and some appear to be for making things to go on top of cakes. Prima carries some as well.

I was pretty pleased how it turned out. The whole pot was spray painted black and then I added gold to the scallops. I removed the "plant" from the styrofoam and washed with the sprayer so now dust free, it was easy to add it back into the plant pot and then add some spanish moss with hot glue. Pretty cute for $1!

More molds on the pumpkin and added some flowers to both.

Well, I can certainly say that I've enjoyed myself. I've gotten to play with both some paper clay and transfers without spending a whole lotta dough!

The total cost in this project so far is around $23. Breaking that down:

$10 Black Spindle Base

$10 in donated product

$5 in decorations 

$5 brass tray

$3 velcro

$13 that I spent

I really kept track of the costs for fun because I wanted to prove how easy it is to create something unique and cool by upcycling.

These will be heading off to our local library to be on display for a while and then over to ReStore for the bidding. Here's to hoping they make a lot of money!

ReStore Project 1 It's Magical but not Magic: Using Transfers

Let's start here with the photo of the finished product so you are lured in to read this article. I mean seriously, the before photo probably won't do much for you. Looks like a pile of crap I got at a second hand store, am I right? Alright, but you came here for the story....which starts with a contest. 

The other day I caught up Alex the Manager at the Corning ReStore. He asked if I was going to sign up for ReCreate It. My days at Habitat are over, so I'm actually eligible, but I had a commitment the day they had set aside to pick up the gift card for the material. I signed up anyhow and hoped they would me pick something out later. 

Lucky for me they let me participate! They gave me $50 in store product to make something fun. Here's what I bought the first time I went. The first thing I picked out was this $10 nightstand and that $15 hand painted lamp. I looked it over really well, but my only concern was that the bottom drawer was really tight. It sounded like it was stuck but that things were also stuck behind it. My concern with the lamp was that I probably wouldn't find a glass shade and it REALLY needed to be rewired. 

There were a whole collection of things & garbage (not shown) behind the drawer which I discovered after I finally got both drawers out which took quite a bit of coaxing. The drawer itself I fixed with a bit of wax along the track and an orbital sander on where it was sticking. Sadly the necklace was cool but nothing epic! 

The nightstand was very easy to paint. Probably because I cheated slightly. Let me tell you how. My before painting trick that is super easy is to wipe the surface down with a deglosser in lieu of sanding or stripping. My favorite stuff to use on old varnish is to wipe down the surface several times with Kleen Strip Deglosser. My current bottle is still going strong five or more years later and this product can easily be picked up at Home Depot or Lowes. After getting it all cleaned off and ready to paint I used plain old white Rustoleum spray paint on the top and silver on the bottom. I let the silver paint drift into the white and vice versa to get the two toned look. The paint I already had. Since this is a donated piece, I wanted to keep the cost down. I also wanted to keep the cost down to prove to you that you can make super cool things really cheaply with items you can buy at a normal hardware store. 

You are curious about the flowers. They are part of a VERY LARGE transfer that is set up to work on a BIG HUGE DRESSER. My point is that I used three sheets and a very snippet of another and have A LOT of this transfer left. 

It's made by Prima and is called Rose Celebration. I got mine off Amazon. See it's something they carry in stores IF you live somewhere you can find things like that. I do not. I live someplace that has a couple of hardware stores and then there is pretty much on-line shopping. The magic of transfers is that they completely can change the look of your project in about a half hour. It's literally like using a rub-off only it's much larger and more forgiving.  There are five trillion Youtube videos out there showing you how to use transfers. I didn't watch one. I used the directions and the little stick thingie they included. It was easy. You just have to be patient and careful. 

I bought a rewire kit for the lamp that was around $12 in Walmart because there is no way I wasn't rewiring the lamp. I can't have someone having their house burn down on my conscience! A rewire kit is generally around $12 at any hardware store. It also comes with the wires already stripped and generally directions. You pretty much just need to be able to read the directions & use a screwdriver. I had my husband check my work, because again, fire is bad. The bottom & top of the lamp base were sprayed with black spray paint and then I used some gold metallic luster paint to bring out the details. 

The total cost in this project so far is around $60. Let's break that down.

$10 Nightstand 

$15 Lamp 

$5 Lamp Shade

$5 Wood Top 

$35 in donated product 

$12 Rewire Kit

$13 in Prima Transfers for the nightstand & round decorative piece

$25 that I spent 

You may of noticed that I also made a round decorative piece that can get used with the lamp & nightstand. That was from my second trip to the ReStore where I picked up a very cheap brass Persian tray & a $15 table with a round beat up wood top. I did not take before photos of the top, but suffice to say it's much prettier now. 

I'll be back with that project that didn't involve any painting. I did however use paper clay & molds. Check it out on the little glass bottle which isn't quite finished yet! 

Happy Hunting for your bargain!

Simple Easter Cards for THE CUTTING CAFE

I had some really pretty water color paper & decided to show case THE CUTTING CAFE Easter files I was using by cutting them out in white and using the paper as a back drop. They are super simple yet really have an impact.

Take for instance this simple Egg with cut out flowers. It looks great with a little gold embossing power, some pink shimmer spray splotches and gems for the flower centers. This file is the Egg Shaped Card and a very simple cut.

Also in the file is this other egg that is all flowers. So pretty! I cut them out a wee bit too big for my card so I cut them down to fit and them added the gems, spray, and gold embossing.

And then there is this bunny file, made extra cool by adding the flowers from the previous file. He's from the Bunny Family Shaped file.

Of course I'm not a Clean and Simple (CAS) kind of girl, so everything got grunged up on the edges and I let some of the embossing power stay on the card to add a little extra gold shimmer.

Anyhow, fun times! Can't wait to get these in the mail!

Kayla & Lexi Layout for THE CUTTING CAFE

Just popping in with a fun little layout where I used all kinds of goodies from FRIENDS, which incidentally is what this page is about! It was inspired by that pretty little photo booth photo that ended up on my desk after Lexi and Kayla went to the mall. Lexi is driving now so she's off to all kinds of adventures.

That little folder houses a student ID card that Lexi also gave me that didn't match. I have been wanting to stash it on a layout somewhere. It's from my friend Lizzy Hill who isn't blogging much these days but is out on Insta & the book quite a lot. She also sent along the cool doilies!

The unicorn sparkly strip of paper is from Lexi who is having fun these days with water colors and glitter modge podge. The card which is now a super cool graphic on this page is from my friend Lisa B. who is blogging. The calendar is from Regina over at THE CUTTING CAFE and is called the 2019 Folded Calendar. It's nice to use a little graphic like that so you can note what date the photo/photos on your layout where taken!

Super excited about that brick stamp too! It's embossed and is from Joy Claire! You'll be seeing more of that next month!

And there you have it! A layout made with all kinds of goodies from friends about friends!

Happy Thursday!

Popcorn Box for THE CUTTING CAFE

Had a LOT of fun with this box! It's a great shape to play around with, especially if you have some pretty flowers to fussy cut! I made this box from THE CUTTING CAFE Pop Corn Box. I added a pretty copper handle to dangle some lace from. 

I did struggle taking this photo though! We had a little bit of wind and the whole thing tipped right over! Had to go grab a weight to keep it from flying away! The vintage key is all glittery from SNOW, and not real glitter!

This little rock came in handy! Pretty little box! I'll be posting more photos once it's not super cold & windy!

Coffee Filter Collaboration Box

Freshly new fallen snow made this box a little difficult to photograph! I had to use a plate and balance my box on top of it, but I wanted the SUN so I could show off all the pretty colors! The coffee filters were dyed with an ink pad, spritzed with some shimmer spray and then modge podged on. The leaves were also from coffee filters. It's a nice paper to play with as it colors up well and is also translucent like washi tape. Love how this box turned out with it's vintage hardware and music paper!

I was of course sneaking in at the last minute so had to photograph right before I left for work....hence the sun just coming up! Loved this photo so I'm sharing! Check out the silhouette of that vintage hardware! 

Here's a top view. You can see the strips of dyed coffee paper and the vintage music paper. 

Love the sunshine on the gold embossing power! So pretty! Can you tell it's a snapfish box? It held a bowl a week or two ago and was so nice and sturdy that I had to keep it to make it all pretty!

Want to see more coffee filter paper projects:

Laura has a cool project on her blog here and Linda is blogging about a tea rose journal here. Tina who is hosting the challenge has a super cool book! 

Have a fantastic hop around those blogs and a great Friday!

Hell(o) Love Card for THE CUTTING CAFE

Regina over at THE CUTTING CAFE has a new card out. It's very dimensional! In fact, it's called the 3D Shadow Card. You cut the card body and then cut a very small thin part that turns into a very small box to hold all kinds of goodness.

I thought I'd be clever with the inside and add a vintage metal key, flower, and a little vellum saying. Too bad I covered up the "o" on the hello! Now it just makes me laugh a little! 

The part in the middle is dimensional & moves, so from a certain angle you can see that it does say hello love...

It turns out like a little card book though. So super cute! I can't wait to try a few more of these and those cool circle sentiments that come with them!

Enjoy! 

Remember 45 Layout: A month later

Last year on my Birthday with a little stomp, I sent a meeting request to THE MAN and said that I wanted burgers and Angry Orchard on tap for my birthday this year. See, they always ask what I want to do and I'm like ohhhhh nothing, nothing, I don't need to do anything for my birthday. Big Liar, I always want to do something for my birthday and then later I'm super annoyed they are like la-de-dah, it's a normal day.

So, after YEARS of throwing a fit.....

This year they come up with a decent plan. Might be because I sent a meeting request last year???? Anyhow, the oldest planned a massage for us that her and Luke split, Nate took us out for dinner at a burger place, and my Mom who never falls for such tricks made her world famous cheese cake. In all it was pretty epic.

Love those flowers! I always hesitate to pay $10 for flowers, but then I've used them on three layouts and I love the glitter edges! It's a pretty simple page so I needed some pizazz!!! Check out that cheese cake! Lexi decorated it all up!

What a nice day! Welcome 45! (Well, now I'm 45 and one month!)

Merry & Bright Layout for Civil Air Patrol

Another fun Civil Air Patrol evening was our night at the Glenn Curtiss Museum in Hammondsport. It's always nice that they set up a cool spot for photos and it's usually manned by someone who makes you take a group shot before you get in too far. This is great because usually I'm thinking....ughhhhhh.....photos......and then later I'm like AWESOME PHOTO TO SCRAP!!! HAPPY DANCE!!!

They even threw Luke in with us! Well, I suppose he's our kid. He polishes up nice. I did make him a page of photos of just him and Megan. It's nice, the flowers match so it's like a double page spread, but not too matchy matchy.

All that gold & glitter makes me happy! So pretty those vintage velvet pieces of holly with those Prima flowers! Alright, enough CAP for the week! I'll be back around tomorrow with a layout from my birthday!

I've got to get caught up so I can start doing vacation layouts!

Elmira Enforcers Color Guard: CAP Layout

Hang on to your hockey helmets folks! I've got two Civil Air Patrol layouts to show you! It's good to get these done and dusted! I've been looking forward to this layout for a while. I had an awesome time watching these kids do Color Guard and then watch the hockey game! What fun! Who knew there would be brawls!!!!

I took some liberties with the logo for the Enforcers. I had printed it out on regular white paper and it seemed a shame to not use it, even if was a bit too big. Plus, I loved how I fussy cut around all the boys and that super awesome police dog mascot! I didn't have to write too much on my page as the ticket I saved did the heavy lifting.

It's a pretty flat page but has some shimmer to it due to some glitter I used on the letters on the bottom and some shimmer spray. Who says glitter isn't for hockey?

I'll be back tomorrow with another CAP page, this time with photos of me! Seems like we never take photos of ourselves....I'm even dressed up!

Flying in for a Snow Storm

Last week Lexi, Nate and I were in Tampa, Florida. Tampa as in the place of gators, lots and lots of tourists, and warmer weather. Anyhow, as we were waiting in the airport for the flight back, we met a nice couple who was heading to NY to stay in their Keuka Lake cottage on purpose to watch the snow. See, all week we had been hearing about this HUGE snow fall we were going to get over the weekend with inches and inches of snow. So, these people decided to go to their cabin and watch it fall on purpose. They were previously NY peeps until they became snowbirds and then must have missed snow?

I won't miss snow. Pretty sure of it. Talking about it later, THE MAN shook his head and said freaking old people. He had visions of plowing for hours in the cold and a much less romantic view of being snowed in.

Currently as I write this we're waiting for it to end. There is a fair amount outside, but there really isn't any point of breaking out the tractor to clean it all up until it stops falling. The dogs both peed as close as possible to the house and dove back in with snow flying all over. Duncan hates to get wet. The highway that I can see from my window is empty. We were told to stay home and for once it looks like everyone listened.

The little old lady I sat next to on the plane had needed some help to get her phone in airplane mode. Thinking about the snow storm we were heading back to, I very uncharacteristically struck up a conversation. I asked if she was coming for the storm. Her face twisted and she started crying. She was coming back for her 44 year old daughter's funeral. I thought a whole lot of words in my head (most of them rhyming with the word duck) and gave her a huge hug. She said that her daughter died very unexpectedly and they were awaiting an autopsy for cause of death. I'm not a hugger either, so all of this was a bit out of my comfort zone.

I watched as she tried to read her book and offered to turn on the overhead light for her.

She said that focusing on anything wasn't working as her mind kept whirling.

I decided to keep her company for the two hour plus flight. We talked about gators, dogs, houses, and anything else I could think of to keep her distracted. Her daughters were waiting for her to land and I figured she had a pretty long road ahead of her get through the funeral & hopefully getting some answers, the least of her worries being the snow. I watched as she met up with them by baggage and wished I had something profound to say to all of them. They hugged and headed out into the cold. I hope that they can find comfort in each other and some peace.

We headed to the parking lot and Lexi's car battery wasn't pleased about being left in the cold for a week. Needless to say the car wasn't starting. THE MAN who had gotten us thus far started to melt down a little. He was trying to find a taxi so we could ride home and grab another vehicle to jump the car. I asked at the rental car counter and found out that the booth attendant had a booster. In about ten minutes we were on our way. We were thankful that our local folks are used to dead batteries!

Today I'm thankful for my people and they are all home with me. There is a lot of laundry to do, dogs to play with, and home made meals to cook. There is satisfaction in coming home after adventures. Even if that coming home has it's own adventures.

A Happy Cappy Christmas Party!

Mid December found us off to Hammondsport with Megan in tow to go to the Civil Air Patrol Christmas party. It's always nice to get the museum to yourself and their photo booth didn't disappoint! What a fun cool car! Megan and Luke looked really nice too.

I think Megan enjoyed herself. Look at her giving Luke rabbit ears. ;-) Of course I could have used the normal photo, but I like this one! I have another page coming of the event.....we got photos too.

Sometimes you need that perfect embellishment, which is why I downloaded a plane and cut with it with coordinating paper. See it in the background? And I bought some special flowers to match my paper from Prima. They are so pretty! I used them on another page too.

Anyhow, I'm off! Enjoy your Tuesday!

Shopping List for THE CUTTING CAFE in a Fancy Vintage Binder

Every week Lexi and I head off to the store. We're usually not excited about our trip. We have our grocery list split out so we know which stores we have to visit and our errands in order. At the last store where we grocery shop, we struggle to figure out what we're having for dinner for the next week. I think with a little bit of planning, we might just have an easier time of it! Maybe just maybe we won't dread going!

I printed out 52 shopping lists & weekly menu planners from THE CUTTING CAFE where the 2019 Planner Files are available for your crafting pleasure.  I figure we can actually plan AHEAD of time what we might want to eat which will help us fill out the shopping lists. In fact, perhaps I can spend a little time on Pinterest and come up with some fun new meals!

These are easy to take out of the little book so I can just run to the store with the individual pages. I'm actually really excited to use them!

My little book is even adorable so I can enjoy it in the kitchen! I decorated it with a vintage advertisement for Jello and some CUTTING CAFE pop up flowers! The image is a bit of a joke. I can cook, but I'm certainly not a chef!

Hope your weekend involved a little bit of glitter and some good food!