Country Decorating Ideas

If you ask me, the most fun part about moving is decorating the new place! It’s like a fresh palette to reconstruct all those fun decorating ideas you’ve been wanting to do! Pinterest doesn’t help matters….so many great ideas! I wanted to share some of my new country decor, and I’m not done yet!

I got this old window frame at a co-op ages ago and decided to frame it with some shutters. I got the shutters unfinished from a thrift store; spray painted them black and distressed by sanding. I added two hooks from Hobby Lobby. The length of the shutters fit perfectly, which was just a coincidence! Easy wall art for the wall above the bed.

 

These shutters were found at a barn sale and I simply hinged them together. They fit perfectly in the corner in the hallway. Around the holidays, I think I’ll adorn them with Christmas cards held on the shutters with small clothespins.

   

This hoosier came from my Grandma’s house and is a great storage piece with all its drawers and cupboards. It currently holds my wine glasses, cook books, and all sorts of things.

I filled in the bottom roll-top area with some fun primitives including the found suitcase and some other doo-dads.

I hung up a crate on the bathroom wall and it works great as a mock cabinet! Thank you Pinterest! We are going to paint the walls a muted olive-green color and get rid of the baby blue….yuck!!!

Above the cupboards was a giant open space, just begging to be filled with…something! I put some crocks and jugs from my Grandma’s house, another old window frame, and some big tin stars.

Next is the catalog/apothecary unit that I found on the side of the road (I know, it’s an incredible once in a lifetime find that I still can’t believe…), and a vertical primitive wall shelf filled with some of my favorite antiques. I love pieces with lots of cubbies – more room to display all my STUFF!

A simple cheese box works great as a napkin / S&P holder!

My giant crock, a Craigslist score (this one and 2 others for $20…incredible!) sits beside the sliding glass door with a bunch of junk inside…my rug beater, some deck accessories, etc. Storage baby!

And lastly I wasn’t sure what to put in the giant open space above our TV so I opted for a giant clock from Hobby Lobby. I love it! It’s not a real antique but just made to look distressed. Got it half off…never pay full price for anything a Hobby Lobby! They have half off sales on pretty much everything at some point; be patient!

Hope you enjoyed my lil country decorating adventure. Have a great Sunday!!!

Super Easy Primitive Key Hanger

I still haven’t unpacked my craft stuff yet, so I had to improvise for this Pinterest-inspired key hanger I wanted to make. I started out with this shallow crate / shelf thingy that I already had. Any shallow wood crate or tray would work!

I bought these little screw in hooks at Wally world…4 for $.97!

Making sure they won’t be too long…these are perfect! If they are too long, you could file down the excess, or put some felt dots / tape over the little protruding screws. These are a great small size and will probably work fine  for most crates / trays out there.

Just screw them in by hand. No tools necessary.

There she is, one hook short (oops). I figure I can get more hooks the next time I go, or just set a small figurine or decoration in that space.

This is where the improvising came in. Since all my hardware is packed, including all my hangers and wall hooks, I used two pop tabs nailed on either end. They are surprisingly strong. I simply nailed them down, nailing right through the small, flat metal part of the tab. Another Pinterest idea to the test, and it works great!

I love it!!!

Not only did I work on my first craft project in a while, but I also hit up my first great barn sale of the season. I got a super deal on some primitives that have already made their way to my booth at The Carriage Place. I got these two 10 foot antique shutters for….wait for it….$3!!! That means $1.50 each. Probably the best deal EVER, in the history of the world!

I also got this old ladder back chair and big blue swirly enamel tub. I thought they’d both make great garden pieces.

Two small unfinished shutters and an old tool carrier, both which I plan to eventually paint & distress.

And lastly, I got this old wooden army trunk from the 40′s. Great army green color and original hardware. Trunks always seem to sell well in my co-op.

Along with all my thrift store / garage sale “smalls”, I like to sprinkle in some really nice antiques and quality pieces here and there. This improves the overall quality of my my booth and shows dealers that come through, as well as customers, that I am “legit”. LOL. I got this beautiful antique cabinet on Craigslist. My personal rule is: only buy a piece if I know I can double my money. I know I’ll have no problem selling this beautiful cabinet for more than twice what I paid.

The same goes for this other Craigslist find; an antique oak ice box. These go for BIG money around here, so when you see one at a decent price, you gotta get it! It’s in excellent condition and was a real steal!

I am headed to the co-op for a massive over-haul on Wednesday night, so I will get some updated pics and share them with you soon. If you try out the key hanger, or any variation of it, I’d love to see a pic! Hope everyone has a super-duper week, and Happy Crafting!

Dollar Store Salt Shakers + Vintage Buttons = Button Flower Bouquets

It’s me again! I am on a crafting BINGE! I don’t know what’s gotten into me! Maybe because it’s been sunny and “Spring” feeling these last few days? I don’t know, but I’m going with it!

I have a fun “dollar store craft” for you! I made these cute little vintage button bouquets using Dollar Tree salt shakers (you can also find some at the thrift store for super cheap, like the ones here on the left) and some buttons and wire that I had on hand. So easy and a perfect Spring craft!

I also used twine for a bow accent, and shredded paper (also found at Dollar Tree) to stuff inside the shakers and help hold wire stems in place. I suggest using a pair of pliers that have a cutting edge on them, so you don’t jack up your scissors while cutting the wire.

To make the stems, you are going to twist the two sides of the wire together. Fold the wire piece over and cut it roughly the length you want the stem to be – keeping in mind it will be a tad shorter after twisting it together.

Layer your buttons to make fun, colorful little “flowers.” Slide the ends of the wire through your button flower and start twisting them together tightly, to create a sturdy stem. Cut off the excess wire.

Stuff a small amount of shredded paper down in the salt shaker to help hold the stems in place. You could use more buttons, beads, floral foam, or nothing at all…whatever you want!

Make as many flowers as you’d like! They are fun to make!

My first bouquet is a red and brown theme

And my second bouquet was a blue and black theme

I photographed them for Etsy but decided at the last-minute to bring them to the co-op. They are currently in my booth at The Carriage Place. I can’t wait to make more!

Last night I photographed a ton of new stuff I am putting in my Etsy store, and I wanted to let all my fellow crafters, that have booths or small shops, know that I am going to be selling these word blocks in groups of 6 at a wholesale price. I ordered way too many of them, so they’ll be in my shop this week at some point. They would be a great little item to resell, if you’re into country/prim decor like me!

  

I also wanted to share a few great thrift store finds from today! A great enamelware tin pan, an apothecary style jar (these sell like hot cakes in my booth!) some wooden plaques for future craft projects, vintage tin molds, and a small wooden platter with a glass cloche. I am going to paint the wooden base – probably black with a yellow prim star in the middle.

I was also sooooooooo excited to find some unique Scrabble tiles from a “Deluxe” edition of the game; 100 tiles for only $4! Best of all, they are maroon colored! I love that they are different from the regular Scrabble tiles, yet are a great color for country crafting!

And lastly, I had to share this find…..these brown kraft boxes were only $1 for a bag of 6!!! If you have an A.C. Moore’s, go grab some before they are discontinued!!! I was “that person” who depleted their inventory. Hehe. I am going to stamp them eventually. Love the variety of shapes!

That’s all for today! Have a great weekend and Happy Crafting!!!

Scrabble Tile Wall Art

I am finally starting to get my crafting mojo back after a few months of the winter blahs, thanks to some of my fellow crafters and friends who have been sharing some great ideas and projects lately! My friend Sara made this awesome wall plaque using burlap and Scrabble tiles, which I would LOVE to recreate for my booth at The Carriage Place!

I just adore the burlap and scrabble tiles together, so I decided to make a shadow box for my friend with the names of her expanding family. She is due in a few months to add a little boy named Henry to the crew!

So here are the supplies I used! An 8″ x 10″ shadow box from Joann’s, some Scrabble tiles that I found at Goodwill (bought the whole game for $2 and now have 100 letters to work with! Great deal!), some burlap, rusty tin shapes to accent the final project, and my trusty glue gun!

I would recommend laying out your names/words ahead of time to make sure they fit properly in your frame or shadow box. As you can see from my drawing, the names fit nicely on an 8.5″ x 11″ piece of paper, but I couldn’t find a shadow box in that size. Now that I am done, I would have liked to get one a little bigger than 8″ x 10″, as it was cutting it a bit close to the edges. I think it would have been more visually appealing to have some space around the names – see the final product and let me know what you think!

I laid the names out on the cardboard insert to make sure they fit!

I then hot glued the pieces together, to make it easier to line them up on the background.

Cut the burlap to the size of the cardboard insert of the frame or shadow box. It was easy to cut it straight using the lines of the burlap as guides.

Warning: the burlap gets everywhere when you cut it! If you have an anal-retentive significant other like I do, I would suggest laying down some newspaper or else you’d be cleaning up all the little burlap fuzzies that cling to EVERYTHING! hehehe…

I used small dots of hot glue on the corners and around the edges to hold the burlap background in place.

Lay down the puzzle-pieces and glue the names together! Make sure they are straight!

I tried many different rusty tin accents, from little salt box houses, to hearts, to stars. I decided to go with one large star in the corner; I didn’t want it too “busy”.

Tip: Use a blow dryer on the hot setting to dissolve any hot glue string that may be on your project. After a few seconds they just disappear!

And here’s the final product! Again, I wish there was more space above the “M” in Melanie and below the “Y” in Henry. Because of my mild OCD tendencies, I may just have to go back and get a 12″ x 12″ shadow box and replace the 8″ x 10″. It’s really bugging me! lol.

UPDATE! I got a slightly larger shadow box (10″ x 10″) to create a little more space above and below the names. It was bothering me how scrunched they looked. This new shadow box is perfect! I also corrected Christine’s name…it was spelled wrong, in case anyone noticed!

I also thought I would share some updated photos of my booth at the co-op after a little re-organizing! I like to just move stuff around once in a while to keep it looking “fresh” and different. There are not a lot of crafts in there; more antiques and vintage items. I hope to get some more hand made stuff in there this Spring!

Thanks for stoppin’ by! Happy crafting!

P.S. I apologize for the random links in my post(s), that when you hover over them with your mouse, says “coupon drop down” or something like that. I am not making those links  -  it’s must be a virus or spam type action that’s automatically appearing here and there. Don’t click them. Sorry!

Some Thrift Store Finds and Makin’ Tags!

Hello crafty people! I thought this awesome ecard was perfect for this post, as I finally got my pickin’ “fix” this weekend after hitting up a few thrift stores! In the winter, garage sales and estate sales are scarce around here, so I tend to more thrifting in the winter months. I found some pretty cool stuff that I plan on putting in my booth over at the Carriage Place later this week when I do a complete overhaul.

I got this light green enamel pot, which is awesome because I found the exact same one a few months ago that is a darker shade of green! They’ll look great next to each other, especially with St. Patty’s Day coming up! I also found a few “apothecary” jars, and a green glass candy dish. I don’t usually do fancy glassware (aside from mason jars, vintage bottles, etc.) but this one was kinda neat looking and had some nice floral designs.

I scored 2 awesome Pyrex casserole dishes with fun patterns that also shout “SPRING!”

I got a bunch of vintage Anchor Hocking jars with lids, which I thought would be great on someone’s counter filled with flour, sugar, or other stuff!

Lastly I got this cute little “cottage chic” bird house and an enamel pitcher. The pitcher was a STEAL at $3 because I believe it’s real, and not a repro. It’s pretty heavy and appears to be old! Sweet!

In other crafty news, I decided to use up some of my tons of scrapbooking paper and make tags, using my trusty tag-shaped hole punch. I don’t even scrapbook – I just have an uncontrollable compulsion to buy cool scrapbooking paper when it’s on sale, “just in case.” Lol. This was the perfect use for it!

I punched some with designs on one side and plain white on the back, for use as gift tags. I went through each one and punched a small hole in the top for stringing them. I am going to sell them in my Etsy store in sets, with baker’s twine of a coordinating color, for hanging them.

Depending on the paper, some have designs on both front and back. I thought they’d still make nice gift tags, or for paper crafts and scrapbooking. The possibilities are really endless! I think these are a great idea for craft shows too, especially around the holidays! High profit margin, and something everyone can use!

That’s it for today. I have craft ADHD and haven’t finished painting the gnomes (from the last post) yet. I will soon. Hope everyone stays warm and has a fantastic week! BBS!

New Etsy Additions: Skeleton Keys, Cinnamon Sticks, Rose Hips and More!

So this post is a shameless plug for my Etsy store…sue me! I haven’t done much crafting since the Sculpey ornaments, but I have been busy trying to photograph and list some new items; mostly craft supplies. It seems my store has become more geared toward craft supplies and accessories, which I am happy to provide for those who may not have immediate access to them!

Here are a few pics, to give you an idea of what’s new over at Upstate Primitives!

Starting with jars of colored buttons! I have seen so many cute button projects on Pinterest lately, I thought these could come in handy!

TONS of skeleton keys of all shapes and sizes, and I have TONS more to come! Please feel free to email me there is a specific type of key you’re looking for!

I love these super tiny keys and thought they would make great charms for you jewelry-making peeps out there!

I also have some dried rose hips, anise stars, allspice, and cloves, for your crafting or “fixins” needs! In the near future I plan on making some scented fixins for my booth with some cinnamon-applesauce ornaments mixed in – maybe little stars or hearts – we’ll see!

I’ve had requests for the long cinnamon sticks, which can be hard to find. These are great for making giant stars (make star shape and tie together with jute or homespun strips) or “cinnamon stick santa’s” as seen on Pinterest!

Also some 6″ and 1″ cinnamon sticks!

Thanks for takin’ a look and I’ll try to be back with some crafty shananagans as soon as I get motivated! This time of year tends to be a little slower for me, but I have a few potential projects in mind. Have a great week everyone!

Easy Thanksgiving Favors: Rolo Pretzel Turtles

I have to apologize for the lack of posts over the last couple of weeks. I kinda had a craft-overload leading up to my show at the beginning of the month and needed a break! You know, let the tips of my fingers heal from all the hot glue burns….hehe!

So, in honor of Turkey Day, I made up some yummy little favors to bring to my Mom’s for dinner. I admit, I really just wanted an excuse to make these treats cause they are SO stinkin’ good! The salty crunch of pretzels with chocolate, caramel, and pecans? A-MAZING!

You’ll need: treat bags, twine, some homespun fabric torn into thin strips, and some little “Happy Thanksgiving” tags of some sort. I found this vintage “Thanksgiving Greetings” graphic online and printed it out on some heavy stock paper. You could personalize some homemade tags or print out virtually anything to decorate your favors!

Here’s the free graphic, downloaded from littlebirdieblessings.blogspot.com, if you’d like to use it

For the Rolo Pretzel Turtles, you’ll seen small pretzels (these square ones work best), some shelled pecans and a bag of Rolo’s! Chocolate wafers (melting chocolate for candy making) also work great if you want to nix the caramel.

Place the Rolo’s on top of the pretzels and put them in the oven for about 5 minutes at 350 degrees. The Rolo’s should be softened and warmed though, but not melted. Immediately place a pecan half on each one, pressing it down into the softened Rolo! Yuuuuum!

Tip: A foil lined baking tray makes for very easy clean up.

Put some in a treat bag and tie with a little strip of homespun fabric. You could also add some raffia for a nice Fall look!

Use a hole punch to punch small holes in the corners of the tags…

And tie on your tag with some twine. Cute, quick, easy, and super yummy favors that everyone will LOVE, guaranteed!

Before I go, I thought I’d share some photos of my newly re-arranged booth at The Carriage Place! I made the decision to condense back down to one booth, because I felt that one full booth was better than two sparse booths. It was getting hard to keep up with both spaces between working full time and all the other projects I have going on. I am back in my corner booth and it’s looking fresh and over-flowing with all kinds of vintage and primitive goodies!

I hope everyone has a very Happy Thanksgiving, and a great long weekend with family and friends! Thank you again for all the very sweet comments, tips, and feedback you all have left for me – I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it. When it comes to being thankful, I am most certainly thankful for all the support and love from all my fellow crafters out there!

This Week in “Junk” & A Vanity Table Re-Do

I say “junk” with quote because all my picks from the last week have been anything but! I found some really AWESOME stuff and am so excited to bring over it over to the Carriage Place this week! I also have added a lot of new little items to my Etsy store – there’s new stuff everywhere!!!

I’ll start with this incredible yard sale find: an antique chair from the original Silver Stadium on Norton Street, in Rochester. Thanks to my work partner and historical baseball expert Joe, he tells me these seats were originally installed in 1929 and then ripped out when the stadium was renovated in the 80′s. The stadium is now located in Downtown Rochester; now Frontier Field, home of the Rochester Red Wings. These seats are rare, as most of them were torn out and burned. I hope that a Rochester historical junkie or baseball fan will be able to add this piece to their collection – it’s headed over to the co-op on Wednesday!

Talk about another great find – this 3 gallon crock off of Craigslist. I have been researching the wreath marking and have found nothing. I really need to learn more about crock markings. I also got this old oil can with old chippy red paint and a great wooden handle. Love old, primitive tins!

I have been slowly collecting these apothecary jars – all finds from the thrift store ranging from $.99 to $2. They are all different shapes and designs, and I plan on displaying them as a group. They are a major trend right now in decorating magazines and online, such as creating a “candy bar” at a wedding, holding toiletries like Q-tips and cotton balls along a bathroom shelf, creating terrariums, or filling with ornaments or candies for holiday decor! So many uses…I am exploding with ideas for these. I am debating between bringing them to my co-op or selling them on Etsy…I think they’ll do great in either venue!

Of course I have picked up a lot of “smalls”…some vintage salt & pepper shakers, this wooden horse figure, this fun 50′s style hunter figurine, and some other junk not pictured.

And MOLDS! Tons of vintage tin molds! I love these…again, so many potential uses! You could fill them up with fixins, use em for baking, candles, tarts, soaps, bath bombs, favors…

And last but not least is this great little solid wood table with retractable arms in the front. Got this gem off of Craigslist for $10. It’s in phenomenal condition and with unfinished wood, I knew it was a candidate for a primitive/country make-over.

**UPDATE! Thanks to some readers, I finally figured out what this is! It’s a make-up vanity, with arms to fold a skirt in and out, where your legs would be. See the comments on this post to learn more. Thanks guys! **

It was full of tack holes around all the edges, which I decided to fill with wood filler, to clean it up a bit.

I used my finger to smear it into these tiny holes. Let it dry for about 10 minutes and then sanded it to smooth down the filler.

Now it’s ready for paint!

I used a satin black spray paint – Rustoleum American Accents in Canyon Black. Did a light sanding mostly on the edges to “prim” it up.

Sealed with a coat of spray polyurethane. Make sure to let it dry completely, for several hours. Otherwise you’ll get finger prints and streaks across the finish. Now, can anyone tell me what these little retractable arms are for?

I added the little teal knob from Hobby Lobby. Teal and black are one of my favorite color combos!

And here she is, ready to bring over to the co-op. I love how it came out!

Have a fantastic week and enjoy the last few days of summer. It’s winding down and soon my FAVORITE season will be here…looooooove FALL!!! Be back soon with some new pics from The Carriage Place and other crafty chaos! Later!

One Step Thrift Store Makeovers

Thank you so much for all of the great ideas and suggestions on how to “fix” my ruler table. I agree with those who believe it soaked up too much stain because of the light, balsa-wood material of the rulers. I ended up sanding the crap out of it and just spraying on a layer of poly. It is noticeably lighter now. I didn’t want to try to remove all the rulers because I know I used a LOT of glue and it wouldn’t be worth the time and effort. I figure I can use it as a “display” table for now and slap a price tag on it, and maybe someone will like that super-grungy look.

Next time I will either experiment with a LIGHT stain BEFORE gluing them down, or not use stain at all…just a clear coat! I actually kinda like it now, even though it still doesn’t look like the original “Pinterest” project. Lesson learned!

Some other projects that have been in the works are a few easy makeovers of some items found at thrift stores. The first one was this awesome, primitive set of pine drawers, missing one knob. I’ve been looking high and low for a matching knob but of course couldn’t find one.

Since I didn’t have 4 matching knobs, I decided to change them out for 4 white, mis-matched knobs! Took off all the knobs and drilled larger holes for the NEW knobs!

Here are the knobs I chose! It’s now a functional storage piece with a little sass! Even though the knobs are different, I feel like it “works”…what do you think?

I got this large “S” from the thrift store for super cheap. I scooped it up immediately because I know large letters, either spelling out a word or by themselves, are a very popular decorating trend right now. It had some scratches and was really dirty. After dusting it off a bit and a fresh coat of black satin spray paint…

It will wait for that special “S” name person to pick it up and hang it on their wall!

And lastly, my favorite makeover, this mason jar lamp turned chic button lamp! I got the mason jar lamp base at the salvo (I know, I couldn’t believe it either) and picked up the shade at Walmart for $8. I have been looking for a shade forever and this one was so awesome I had to splurge a bit!

I filled the mason jar with charcoal gray buttons that matched the shade perfectly. I put a toilet paper roll stuffed with brown craft paper down the middle so I only had to use half the buttons to fill it up. I use this trick to preserve “fillers” and therefore save $!!!

How adorable is this lamp?? “French-cottage-chic”, or something like that…

Hmmm…to keep or to sell…that is the question….

Hope you enjoyed my mini makeovers, that really required very little effort! I love EASY!!! Have a great weekend my crafty blog friends!

Some Recent Thrift Store Finds and Updated Pics from The Carriage Place

It’s been complete chaos in my house between trying to keep my booth at The Carriage Place stocked up and getting my new Etsy store up and running! And I’m excited to announce it’s officially up! I’ve only got a handful of items listed right now but plan on adding more in the very near future!

You can check it out here: http://www.etsy.com/shop/UpstatePrimitives?ref=si_shop.

In the mean time I thought I’d share some recent “finds” that I’ve accumulated from various thrift stores over the last couple weeks. I got two extra large glass mason jars, a cool apothecary jar, a reproduction stoneware jug, a flower frog and little Anchor Hocking piggy bank.

I also found this awesome yellow lamp a few days ago and I HAD to have it!!! It’s sorta ugly but COOL! Lighting sells well at the co-op. I can see it in a cottage or lake house, or in someone’s funky retro living room…

And some “Americana” items…a little late for Independence Day, but still always a popular theme!

I LOVE this repro game board that was handcrafted by a local artist in 2008. Great wall art.

And something I pick up any time I see them…vintage BUTTONS! These will be going up in the Etsy shop soon. Love em for crafting or just filling up random jars and displaying them.

I was able to get over to the co-op yesterday and do some re-arranging and re-stocking. Here are some updated pics!

These wooden pieces were hand crafted by my step-dad Mike. He has made these mini hutches, some candle boxes, horseshoe boxes and milking stools. They are made of very old wood and constructed the old-fashioned way – hand sanded, knobs hand turned, and old square head nails. He does incredible work!

I have another cool project in the works and will be posting about it soon. In the mean time hope everyone is staying cool and enjoying their summer! Later gators!

A Few Good Picks

Upon driving home from the North Country on Sunday, I purposely took the back roads knowing that there would be lots of barn sales, flea markets and garage sales, as it was a GORGEOUS day. I wanted to take the opportunity to do a little “pickin” and sure enough, I found some treasures.

I got this awesome little tool box with a wooden tray inside – LOVE the robin’s egg blue paint!

A very cool metal catalog

And a giant red galvanized tub and an old crate

My favorite pick of the day is this 1920′s-30′s brass Hendryx bird cage. I don’t know why but I have a thing about old bird cages. They are so charming. I took off all the plastic feeders and toys and cleaned her up a bit. Inside it were the original glass feeders, which I have seen go on Etsy/Ebay for big bucks. I figured why not keep it all original and include them with cage.

There is a small brass plaque on the door that says Made in USA, Hendryx, New Haven, Conn. The bottom detaches with 3 metal clips. It has the most lovely patina. I am debating on keeping this piece.

Close up of the original glass feeders

Some other finds from a recent trip to Goodwill include this Samsonite vintage suitcase with a beautiful, burnt orange, satin interior. Also got this black trunk. Thanks to Country Living and magazines alike, pieces like these sell easily, as one of the latest trends is stacking these pieces for side tables or using trunks as coffee tables.

And talk about random…I had to share this little tiny pottery jug marked “Gnomes”. I think it’s so funny and cool.

I’ve got a bunch of small crafty pieces stocked up and ready for our big weekend – the Cruise-In and Flea Market which will hopefully make for a busy weekend at the co-op!

Keeping my fingers crossed for a nice day on Saturday for the Cruise-In and Flea Market. I’ll be back soon with pics. Have a great week and happy pickin!

A K-9 Demo, A Haunted Barn & More Marble Magnets

Talk about a busy Memorial Day weekend! It was great and the weather was perfect. I helped Greg with a military and working K-9 demo on Sunday at the Ogden Historical Society & Museum and also got a chance to see this awesome property filled to the brim with old primitives and antiques from our area, along with a few cool ghost stories.

Here are a few pics of Greg and his helpers in action!

The house and barn were built in 1811 and have a rich history. The museum is still in the process of sorting out some of the antiques that have been stashed in this barn, along with many donated historical items from people in town.

The barn is supposedly haunted by an old man, who is very cranky and “dislikes women.” I was told that he has been heard on EVP’s calling out “bitch” and other profanities. He has also been known to throw walnuts at people in the barn. I egged him on and dared him to throw a walnut at me, but he did not oblige.

There were many great antique medical devices, which I find fascinating.

The museum conducts 2 paranormal investigations each year, with mush success seeing and hearing these entities. There is a small girl attached to an old sleigh in the downstairs portion of the barn, and also a few spirits inside the house. They are often seen peeking out the upstairs windows. I am going to attend the next investigation for sure, and will keep you posted on any activity!

Okay, and now on to the crafty portion of the post! More marble magnets! These are a bit different from previous marble magnets I have made. These are 1″ in size and also I used some pre-designed holiday graphics that I purchased off of Etsy. I love to support other artists. For $2 and $3 per page (each page containing multiple images), I will have these images forever, to use however I want. It’s a lot less work for me having to find and resize images in Photoshop.

Here are the basic tools for today’s project, some of which you’ve seen before. I got the 1″ cabochons here and the clear silicone at Lowe’s. I also got a 1″ hole punch from Michael’s. You could easily cut them out by hand, but I like to have little tools like this for use in many different projects!

Since my craft show is in early November, I decided to do some Thanksgiving themed magnets as well as the usually Christmas ones. Magnets sell like little hot cakes so I wanted to make a bunch! The art I used was purchased from:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/Kellymedinastudios

http://www.etsy.com/shop/EphemerasGarden

Punched them all first…

And then started with the silicone. I put a pea-sized dab in the middle of the image (using a tooth pick or some other small tool)…

And then smushed it down, with even pressure. It’s oh so satisfying to watch the silicone even out and magnify the image!

Your work space will then start to look like this…

After drying for about 2 hours I glued on small magnets. I didn’t use a barrier; glued em’ right onto the back of the paper image. The silicone is pretty strong and they will not budge. Here are a few of the finished products!

I love how they came out and am definitely going to make a bunch more, for both my booth at The Carriage Place and also for my craft show. They would make great gifts and fun stocking stuffers!

Hope everyone has a great week! Happy crafting!

An Enamel Top Table Fixer-Upper and a GREAT Day of Pickin’!!!

First off, I wanted to say thank you to all of the awesome, encouraging comments people have been leaving here on my blog lately. I really never expected so many people to actually read and follow it! I really appreciate it and thank each and every one of you who have stopped by to say hello!

So of course I forgot to take a before picture of this enamel top table I got at a garage sale, but trust me, it was pretty rough. The top and leaves were in good shape, but the wooden base was all stained and the metal legs were very rusty. I started by removing the legs and painting the wooden table base black.

I thought I could shine up the chrome legs with some steel wool but after scrubbing them ruthlessly, the rust would not budge. It had actually eaten through and was pitted in some areas. I also scrapped the project and was going to leave the legs as is, but I stumbled across this shiny “metal” spray paint and thought I may as well try it out. First, I steel-wooled the crap out of the legs to smooth them out as much as possible.

Wow, it actually worked! Looks great!!!

The spray paint worked better than I anticipated and gave them back that “chrome” look! Even up close, it’s very convincing!

I even painted the old plastic drawer pull with the metal spray paint, to match the legs. I love how it turned out and hope someone snatches it up to enjoy on a porch or a  sun room!

In recent “pickin’” news…I had the best day EVER last Saturday and scored a bunch of great primitives!

Got a couple new crates which have been selling like hot cakes!

Some great firkin buckets…

A country tool/flat-ware carrier…

A super primitive wooden bowl

A wonderful red painted planting box / crate

A green vintage suitcase and an enamelware “slop bucket”

And a red silk-lined case of some sort. Wonder what it was used to carry?

Lastly are these fun, quirky vintage pins! I bought a crate at a garage sale and it was filled with these colorful old pins, some of which I found kind of humorous. Like “Preppies are people too…” There were probably about 40-50 of them. I love little chotchkies like these…they are just FUN!

That’s all for today! Have a great weekend!!!

Repurposing an Antique Level

I’m all about simple, EASY make-overs and repurposing old JUNK! I got a good one for ya – an old level turned key holder!

I got this piece out of a huge box lot from an auction a while back that cost me $1.00. It was really grungy, so I wiped it down with some Murphy’s Oil Soap. I love how cleaning it up really brought the red out!

Hammered in a wall hanger on the back…

…and a few cool hooks on the front, found at Hobby Lobby!

I thought about doing it horizontally, but I liked the vertical look better! And to make hanging easy, the actual little glass level tube still works, inside that little hole!

Total cost: $5 for the hardware. I always wait until the knobs/hooks at HL are 50% off, which is fairly often. The level was practically free when you count all the crap that came in that box lot!

ANNNND, I have some other exciting news! I am expanding to another small booth at The Carriage Place! This is the crappy booth that I will be taking over…say GOODBYE coffee mugs, crappy vases, and ugly 80′s fake flower wreaths!!! Muahahahaha! (please note: my opinions are not necessarily those of The Carriage Place Co-op!!)

I painted it an olive green because I thought this big cupboard that I am going to use to display a lot of “smalls” would really pop. It’s still pretty empty but I will be fillin’ er up over these next few weeks!

I spent the weekend doing lots of little projects and cleaning up some neat “picks” so I will be sure to share those soon! Have a junk-tastic week ya’ll!

The Easiest, Coolest Project Ever: Stamped Paper Mache Gift / Trinket Boxes

Sorry for the blogging hiatus! There’s been so much going on and I have been not been in the crafting mood lately. Now that the sun is starting to shine more and Spring is here, I am getting that itch again. Barn sale season is upon us! In the mean time, here is an easy little project that I was experimenting with, and REALLY like the results!

You may remember these little snowman boxes that I did for my winter craft show:

Well, I decided to play around with stamping some of the brown paper mache boxes that were found in the same area as the white ones above.

I got all my supplies ready to go…

And I quickly found out that larger stamps work better for this project, and I’ll show you why!!!

I tried stamping on the tops like you normally would, pressing the stamp down on top of the surface. The paper mache boxes aren’t perfectly flat on the top – they are warped, have raised edges, etc. Every time I stamped them, parts of the image would be missing, like this:

So, I found out that it worked much better to lay the stamps down on their backs, and press the paper mache surface onto the stamp. That way you can press down all the way around and ensure an evenly stamped image. Hence, the larger stamps work better!

Here are some of my favorites:

I think they would be a good Christmas craft show seller, maybe $1 a piece, to use as small gift boxes.  I’m gonna make more because they were just plain easy and fun to make. I’ll let you know how they do!

I categorized these as a “dollar store craft” because the paper mache boxes, at $2.50 per 6 pack amount to around $.41 cents a piece. That’s not including the half off coupons that you can always find online for the major craft stores. Also, I have had a lot of luck finding really cool stamps for $1.00, like these ones from Michaels:

So have at it! Send me a pic if you give them a try! In other news, I HAD to share with you the “find” of a lifetime…this  35 drawer catalog/apothecary unit…for FREE…on the side of the road!!! That just doesn’t happen! I about died!!!

Every drawer was there, with this AMAZING original hardware…

I was all gung-ho to sell it in my booth but upon cleaning it up, I decided to keep it. After a little soap and water, voila! Isn’t she a beaut? The bottom right have drawer is there, it’s just darker than the rest. It gives it character.

Well, hopefully I can get my butt up and moving with some craft projects and find some inspiration in this beautiful sunny, Spring weather. Hope everyone had a great weekend! BBS!