Saturday, July 27, 2013

Thrifting

I've become slightly obsessed with thrifting...

Yesterday I made my way down to Richmond, hoping to ransack 6 thrift shops.  Alas, that was not the case, but! I did score some great finds!




1900's wood/gesso frame; this was filthy; cleaned up nice!





 1950s Italian watercolors




I'm planning on doing the tent sale at On a Whim in Lucketts, VA in mid-August.  It will be my first tent sale; hoping to get on the list for Chartreuse!



Saturday, July 20, 2013

Moooooooo

Saw a group of cows this morning and had to pull over to photograph.  This pretty little lady was quite curious about me and my camera.

 

Thursday, July 18, 2013

Dad

Today is bittersweet for me; my father passed away unexpectedly 6 years ago. 

Dad was my superhero, which isn't surprising...he jumped out of perfectly good airplanes and landed safely; well, must of the time. Upon graduating from West Point, Dad choose to go Airborne Infantry; became a Ranger and took the family on a helluva adventure.  My childhood was controlled chaos; 17 moves and 10 schools by the time I graduated high school.  We were the rolling stones; no moss gathered on this family...












 


I miss him...

Thursday, July 11, 2013

French Demilune

This project took me 3 days, and my hands show it!

The table was inexpensive and I could never find a place for it; it was just too dark and blah.  I used 2 coats of Old White ASCP.  I used a french label from The Graphics Fairy.  I enlarged the image and  printed the image on Lesley Riley's Transfer Artist Paper.  I think I used the iron too long and transfer was yellowed.  Soooo...I got a little crazy with sandpaper.  Once I sanded the image, I was committed to sanding the table.  I  applied silver leaf on the dark brass medallions on the front of the table. I used Annie Sloan clear wax, then her dark wax. Some more sanding. And repeat wax sequence.

Et voila!




wow...my windows need a serious cleaning! <lots of lab nose prints!>



...and yes, my dining room walls are painted a watermelon red.  My house looks like a crayon box; soft green living room, french blue kitchen, provence yellow in the family room, etc.  :-)
 

Monday, July 8, 2013

Vintage Pumpkin Triptych

Good Morning!

I have been a busy Lizzie...

Here are the 3 pumpkins images.  I used the same technique as with yesterday's Rooster image.








































Next project; painting a small accent table.

Sunday, July 7, 2013

Vintage Rooster

Heat, humidity, post-surgery recovery and no drinky-poos makes Liz a grumpy girl...

So, in an effort to get out of my funk, I've been working on a few projects:

Combing through my photo files, I found some that had potential and played with Photoshop/Lightroom plug-ins.

I went to Home Depot and picked up a 1"x12"x48" pine board.  I asked the board to be cut into 4 12"x12" pieces.  I don't trust myself with a saw (yet), and the first 2 cuts are free; the last cut was$1.  Works for me!

Here's my rooster.  The original photo was just blah; but with some tweaking I roughed up the image.  I sanded the board to soften the edges/corners; stained the board with fruit wood stain then a coat of provence stain. I used Mod Podge to adhere the photo directly onto the board; then 2 coats of Mod Podge on top of the image.  Then to seal the board and buff up the sheen of the image, I used a small amount of Annie Sloan clear wax.

 

I have 3 pumpkin images that I am working on; should have them ready by the end of the day.

Tuesday, July 2, 2013

Union Jack Tea Pot

It's now day 4 post-gallbladder surgery (acute pancreatitis), and I am going stir crazy!  I never realized how busy my life is until the brakes have been put on it...and frankly, I am very cranky.  So, I needed a new project.

I am a self-admitted Anglophile.  Gave Mom a list of sundries to bring home (She's on holiday; visiting friends in Woodchester, Oxford and London). I am hoping that William and Kate's baby will be born while Mom is in the UK.....ooooh, to think of all the tacky royal baby souveniers for purchase!

I knew I wanted to do a chubby teapot with the Union Jack flag.  I googled "free teapot template" and found this cute teapot.  I found the Union Jack image on The Graphics Fairy.  I combined the 2 images in Photoshop CS4; then printed the image from home.  I recommend to use a laser printer versus ink jet; less color smearing.  Then again, the smearing worked in "aging" the image.

 Ink jet image:


Cut out:
 


I used a solid side from one of the many veggie crates that I collected from Wegmans. I stained the wood first.





First coat of Mod Podge:

 

Sanded the image to rough it up:
 


Second heavy coat of Mod Podge:



I waxed the dried image with Annie Sloan Clear Wax, then antiqued the plaque with Annie Sloan Dark Wax: