A Little Tuesday Tutorial

Happy Tuesday!

Every once in a while I get the itch to redecorate. 

Especially after the first of January.

New Year.

New Decor.

Kind of a no-brainer around here, especially after I'm finished purging like a madwoman. 

Somehow, though, when I get the itch to do so, it's gotta be fast.

WHY IS THAT?

Part of it is, if I putter too much, it will never get done.

The other part is I become a woman obsessed.

It starts and then my brain just goes on hyper-speed.

It's a strange sensation.

ANYway.

It began like this:

B.O.R.I.N.G.

I am, however in a learning mode right now, which is a good thing.

It gives one lots of room to TRY, and not beat one's self up for not getting it right the first time,

but I'll save that for Friday.

So, I kept at it.

See that little burlap covered square?

It's a rubber paver from Lowe's that I cut down to a 12x12 square to make the plant stand into a table top.

You just add burlap with the handy-dandy staple gun

I love staple guns.

No, that's not the tutorial for today.

I ended up with this:

I can't decide if my favorite part is that the chalkboard cost me zero, or that the bird cage was SUPPOSED to be a house warming gift, but when I found out they did not want gifts, I kept it.

What?

Here's another funny part.

The gunmetal box that I painted the numbers on?

There's a number 4 after the 2 and 7 and I'll be darned if I can remember what the numbers stand for.

No wonder my dad always said it was hell getting old.

If you are still reading, the little tutorial part comes in about now.

Chalkboard frame.

Find an old frame, sand it down a little if you need to. This one had little foam football stickers all over it and the outline showed up through white paint. I sanded it down a second time and put some Gesso over it, and it helped, but it wasn't perfect. Which I didn't care because, 1. I was running out of time and 2,, it's out on the porch.

I let Brenna spray paint the frame brown. 

Brown because it seemed to warm up the arrangement and it covered the football sticker outlines a little bit more.

Wow.

Who knew so much paint comes out of the spray can when you hold it in one spot?

ah, well.....

It's on the porch. 

And I was running out of time.

chalkboard frame, easy peasy.

Next, find a stiff piece of cardboard.

I used the back of an old mat and cut it to fit the frame.

I used a sponge brush and painted three coats of Valspar Chalkboard paint in Black.

First coat, horizontal.

Hit with a dryer.

Second coat goes on vertically.

Hit with a dryer.

Third coat horizontal again.

Repeat with the dryer cause you are out of time.

Run over all the surface with the flat side of a piece of chalk, then wipe that off.

(This way, you won't see left over lines when you change what you write on it.)

Put into your now dry frame and decorate.

Enjoy.

Make about a hundred more cause they are so cute.....

linking up to:

http://knickoftimeinteriors.blogspot.com/

http://linda-coastalcharm.blogspot.com

Thrifty Life Thursdays