Closet Door Art...I'm No Picasso

I'm No Picasso

It all started when hubby and I replaced our bedroom closet doors.

These were hollow core doors, almost 30 years old and not in great shape.

But as any DIY'er would do, I did not want to throw them away.

 I knew they could be used for something.

Being 7 ft tall doors I knew this would make a great canvas for a piece of artwork, however that presented a hug problem because............. I'm no  Pablo Picasso

Here I had this burning desire to paint to create, to flow in the arts but I had no vision.

So what did I do????        GOOGLE........

I looked at artist work......

I looked at abstract art because I cant even draw stick people (seriously) but I knew I could do abstract and mixed media art.

Needless to say I repainted this door 3 times with colors and designs until I was satisfied..... 

or should I say tired of all the do overs :)

 Here is my door art proudly hung over our couch.   It makes a big statement in the room ..... I so needed something over my couch.

Think of my excitement when my kids came over and said wow mom where did you buy that at.

They liked it ......they really liked it, or they were just being sweet.....whatever they were doing I just smiled and said ah! thanks

I love me some animal print so I took some zebra wrapping paper and cut out these triangles I watered down some brown paint and painted over each piece to give it an aged look.

Then I just mod podged it right on the door canvas.

See the lines in the wall under the right side of the picture?

Yeah, well that is another project...we had a busted water pipe so hubby had to cut out the wall to replace the pipes.  

 I have an idea of what I want to do to this wall.

That is for another post once I get it done.

I really had fun being creative with this and it was all free......... I love free

So do we have any Picasso's out their?  

Please share what you did, I would love to see pics.

 

Until next time,

partying at,

I should be mopping the floor

Before & After Thrift Find

Meet Mary Jane!

One Saturday a good friend of mine Kaye and I set off to Goodwill to find some thrifty finds for her brand new house that she had built and just moved into. 

She had ask me to help her decorate her place and I was super excited to accept the challenge. 

I laid my eyes on this Shabby piece for 12.00

When I saw it I said, wow...My friend Kaye said ......UH~REALLY (with  a look of horror) what are we going to do with that?

I laughed :)  because all she saw was this ugly piece of furniture with runny gold paint and no top.

I said ............oh this will be awesome, trust me.

She said ........OK.......(sigh) .......I trust you .......let's get it.!

She had no top as you can see above but she did have doors ...............................

I was so excited about the redo that I forgot to take pictures before I took the doors off.

The great thing is this piece was solid wood, however she was in rough shape and needed a good sanding to remove some gold spray paint that someone had attempted to spray on.

Kaye and I took to our project sanding off all the mess.

Oh I forgot to mention Mary Jane had these old gold caster wheels which we removed.

Like any good DIY'er I saved those casters for another project down the road.

I had Mr. CIS to cut me some pallet boards to make a top for this piece, I had a vision and was hoping that it would all come together in the end.

I ask her what color she wanted on Mary Jane

.................. she said what do you think?

so their I stood trying to figure out the perfect color for her new thrift find.

She had a multi color rug in her foryer and it had one of the colors I thought would be perfect.

This turquoise has been one of my favorite go to colors this year.

So we painted Mary Jane and immediately she had new life in her.

I told my friend, now we need to distress her a little and age her with some glaze.

At this point before the distressing and glazing my friend was falling in love with her now found thrift find.  :)

We stained the top boards before they were attached......

we stained the center board for contrast as well as the inside shelf.

Oh did I mention Mary Jane had STORAGE!!

Once we finished the glazing and distressing we spray painted the hardware with oil brushed bronze and put her all back together.

Now she was all dressed up and perfectly ready for her new found home.

Into the Foryer she went......

The pretty wood tulips sitting here we picked up at goodwill that day as well.

what do ya think of our Mirror we found the same day at goodwill?

Oh my our heart went pitter-patter when we saw this.

I knew it would be a great match to hang over Mary Jane in the foryer.

So what do you think of Mary Jane?  My friend loves, loves her new thrift find sitting in her new found home.

Until next time,

Linking up at: funkyjunkinteriors.net    diyshowoff.com   my1929charmer.com

Kitchen Shutter Valance

For many years now I have not had a curtain on my kitchen window over my sink.

 Is that bad?

Have any of you left your window lonely with nothing to cover it?

If you remember reading this Farm Fresh Egg Sign Tutorial

......................I put her above this lonely window.

One day I ran to restore and found these cute shutters.

a Score for 3 bucks....

OK they had a few flaws but nothing that Mr Color It Simple could not fix.

The one thing he couldn't fix was this blurry (before) picture I took (grin)

I went to my supplies and thought to myself what was I going to do to this shutter to make it warm and inviting.

Do you love Stained wood?  I love me some stained wood.  So I knew that would be just the ticket

I pulled from my stash of paint goodies my Minwax Special Walnut Stain.................

and my special stain brush.

I proceeded to stain that beauty.  Have you ever tried to paint or stain shutter slats?...

..........well let's just say it was a little tedious!

I pressed on and decided to give it a two toned look so I painted the frame with a cream color.

                                                             I just love it!

Now my farm fresh eggs sign is right at home with the window topper shutter valance

Don't you think they make a great pair?

No more curtain-less window.

So let's talk, tell me about your re-purposed projects made from a shutter

Until next time,

sharing at:  addicted2decorating

She's about To POP....A Baby Shower For Ashley & Aaron

Caution warning: this post is picture heavy..... view at your own risk :)

I am going to be a Nonna' a second time!!

My son Aaron and his wife Ashley are expecting any day now the arrival of our newest member of the family Sophie Ella!

......................We are waiting with excited anticipation for her birth.

We celebrated with a baby shower for the proud parents to be at my home.

I helped host with Ashley's sister-in-law, Cecily this fun party.......My job was to do the decorating, my favorite part.....can you say fun, fun......

I worked for weeks planning and putting together the decor......I was so pleased how it all turned out.

The first thing I did was make a cute sign for the mommy and daddy out of some left over pallets

.........yes my favorite thing to use.  Then I gave it to them take it home for the baby room.

They really loved it.

See the baby with the cute little headband?

Yeah the one holding the bottle.......

I found a picture on the internet printed, traced onto a piece of wood then had Mr. DIY cut it out for me.

 I painted her and made a cute flower out of a paper towel.

I then took a hair tie and hot glued it on....... cut a notch in the wood and stretched it around for a finishing touch.

The other flowers you see on the sign I made out of paper towels and glued them on to fancy it up a bit.

I found a pot that we were not using wrapped some burlap around it filled it with dirt and stuck in the sign.

 Love....... love how it turned out!!


~~~~~~

I had to have center pieces for the tables, of course....I mean every table needs a pretty center piece......

............Hummm what to do.

I got an idea to make table center pieces out of four..... 5ft boards.

........I needed (4) centerpieces for the guest tables

What I did was find some scrap 5ft boards in my wood project pile.....

I measured the distance I wanted to place each of my handmade flowers .......then  had Mr. DIY drill holes in the board.

 I painted the boards white.

 I made these cute flowers out of paper egg cartons........ painted them pink, white, yellow and aqua.

 I found some wooden dowels at Walmart to use for the stems, painted them green, tied some string and burlap around the base of the flower . Too cute!

I bought some moss from the dollar store and hot glued it down on the board.......

............WA LA....... I had 4 table centerpieces all for $2.99 the cost of the wooden dowels and moss

CHA.... CHING!!

This is my son Aaron (daddy) sporting one of the gifts from the shower...he is such a ham!!!

Here is Ashley (mommy) opening gifts with Sophie's big sister Kinley.

Beautiful Ashley

Aaron & Ashley

can you say POP ART!!!!!!!

I had an old frame that I took off the kitchen wall that was just outdated.....

Goodbye wall art you have done your due diligence over the years but you had to go.........

I took out the print.... painted the frame added some chicken wire and hung to display this cute pop art!

I found this adorable curtain, pink and white check at Goodwill, hung it on a piece of wood for the rod and tied it up with some gray fabric for a window effect.

I made two burlap banners for the shower. One with Sophie's name given to Ashley to hang in Sophie's room after the shower.

I glued them to the twine but added the stained clothespins for a little whimsy.

One with Baby!!

I took some night time shots of the decor

I just love the lighting of the night light.....

Mommy and Daddy signs were made for the parents for special seating!

I used Gimp a free photo editing program to make these, gimp is much like photoshop....... except free!!

Here I used a ladder to display some fun decor......

I covered the ladder with a curtain I bought at Goodwill.

The Party was held poolside so the guest could take advantage of the pool for a little cooling off.

I created a baby wreath  for the door out of an old grapevine wreath I had lying around.  I stuffed pink napkins in the top half and added a baby elephant toy to the bottom.

Now, let's talk FOOD......A shower is not complete with out yummy treats!!

Look at all that food.  A big thanks and shout out to Ashley's beautiful mom and her adorable sister-in-law Cecily for all their hard work to cater in all this scrumptious food.

Ashley's parents own a restaurant and catering business so they really know how to do it up right.

 ......and A Baby girl shower would not be complete without a pink lemonade sherbet punch.

 Below I made these cute little flags toppers for the cupcakes.....

some were out of fabric, others were out of pink and yellow card-stock cut with decorative crafting scissors....attached to toothpicks with some hot glue.

An about to pop party needed some yummy marshmallow pops.

Dipped in pink chocolate covered in hot pink sprinkles...... stuck on popsicle sticks!

Can you say YUMMMMMM

..................These are like chips you can't have just ONE.

The center piece here I made from a flower vase turned upside down.....I had a glass bowl, a thrift find from Goodwill......it was carefully hot glued to the vase.

A flower was made and painted pink out of a paper bag.  I had some fake pearls that I wrapped around the vase with a pretty broach clipped to the pearls and centered on the flower.

After filling the glass bowl with water I just had to have a pink color so I took some pink craft paint and added a blob and mixed it together to get this beautiful pink color.

I picked some gardenia flowers and tiny roses from my back yard and floated them in the ever so pink water.

I added a candle holder inside for some height.

And wrapped some twine around the candle for some whimsy texture.

Another centerpiece for the mommy and daddy table made from a cute white rod iron stand made out of a girl with pigtails.  I forgot to take a picture of this before I added the little pink dress over it.

 some whimsy material ripped and tied to a pink clothes hanger

Look at the tissue paper pom pom I made for the center of the gazebo , while draping pink tulle for a grand effect.

This was the special place for mommy and daddy to relax and enjoy the shower.

A thrift find from goodwill....a pier one import piece (woot, love this) made a beautiful center piece for the food table.

Filled with pink roses plus handmade/silk flowers it turned out beautiful.

So their you have it.......  We had a popping good time

Thanks for sharing this event with me.

Ashley as of today is having contractions but still not at the hospital.

She is due on June 16th.

Come on Baby Sophie we want to love on you and welcome you into our family.


Until next time,


Linking up to funkyjunkinteriors, addicted2decorating, itsoverflowing, my1929charmer.com, ishouldbemoppingthefloor