Boa-tiful Christmas Mantle

I have a fun, easy, beautiful Christmas garland to share with you:

None other than a white feather boa!! :)  I thought it would be mostly gaudy and tacky, with a side of fun and 'ok' but I was so not giving my idea not enough credit.  The boa is fabulous (yes, a little gaudy still) but fabulous none the less!

I just strung two boas across my mantle with a string of white lights and voila!  Instant awesomeness.

Do you recognize these trees?

 

Last week I told you about them in this post.

Now they're on my mantle and I put lights in one and the other I stacked on top of an old pot (painted teal) to make it taller.

And these candlesticks?  Also from last week's post?

Now they add the a little silver to my thrifted glasses which are the perfect touch of color.

One was a teal glass that I painted the inside of with looking glass spray paint.  The other one was a clear drinking glass I painted with krylon's glitter blast spray paint (sparkling waters).  I haven't used this before and I have to say even though it coated wonderfully I was rather irritated when after using the can ONCE (to paint this glass) the nozzle stuck in the OPEN position and I could not.  get.  it.  stopped.  The entire can sprayed out in my trash can (outside).  Needless to say, tomorrow I will be getting a new one.  Hopefully they'll trade it out - we'll see how that goes.

Anyways, here they are side by side - one sparkly with glitter, the other shiny and sophisticated, but surprisingly very similar in color (that part was all luck - I bought the paint for a different project and had no intention of painting this glass - maybe that's why it sprayed all out ;) ?

And here's a nice dark picture of my mantle.  Tomorrow when it's light I'll photograph it in the daylight.  I was too excited to share and didn't want to wait for pictures. UPDATED: with daytime photos :)

Enjoy!

ps.  remind me to tell you the story about half the stuff off my mantle coming crashing down around 11pm last night...

Goodwill Hunting with bonus tutorial

I heart goodwill.  Like super big red glittery ruffeldy puffy {heart} goodwill.  I heart it as much as I heart driving around looking for trash people put by the road for me to stuff in my car to take home and make something new out of.

I like other thrift stores too (notice I use the word like).  I know a lot about goodwill and their pricing too.  I know there's one by me that charges more than others because apparently they think THEIR donated stuff is worth more than other stores donated stuff.  It's ok, I still shop there, but I'm careful what I buy.  I know where four goodwills are within driving distance.  I know there's an awesome one across town that I go to when I head that way (it's like 45 minutes from me).  I also know that they open at 9 am.  Perfect timing for me when I have to take kids to school at 8:30, I can stop and get a coffee and be there when they open.  Genius.  

I have been to all four GWs near me this week.  Hm..what does that say about me?  Nothing else to do it seems.  That's so not true.  I'm getting ready for Christmas (first time I have EVER been ready to decorate so early - thanks Pinterest!) and my shop needs more stuff! I thought I'd share a few things I've found this week.

First - this nifty lamp.  Lovely Terrible phone pics here, sorry!  White ceramic barrel base.  Wooden stem (is it a stem?  who knows.  looks like a stem to me!).  I thought I would cover the flat part of the base in some awesome damask.  Maybe paint the stem a nice bright color - maybe teal or fuschia, and a new shade.  I found a couple shades also, but neither worked with this shape.  This one needs a drum shade - nothing with even the tiniest of taper, trust me, I tried.

This (again, wonderful pic) is the shade I picked up.  Medium gray with a little texture.  Perfect shape and size!  Here's the lamp is trying it on for a fitting ;)

 

Three silver candlesticks.  While they all look similar they do not match.  I also got some glasses to make into mercury glass and put on the top of these.  I thought they'd look nice on a Christmas mantle.

Then I got these glasses.  They're the perfect size for the candle holders.  I'm trying to get the mercury glass technique to work on them.  Honestly, I think I have a bad can of looking glass spray paint.  This can isn't working at all like the others have.  I need to go get a new can and try this.  Because if I hadn't done mercury glass before (see here) I'd have given up by now!!!

See?  Fits nicely.

Two drum shades and a stick lamp.  The chocolate shade would be perfect for a pendant light.

And a bonus tutorial for you :)  Yay!  I know you're SUPER excited now!

I also picked up these candle holders (the pic shows one, I promise there really are two).  Wouldn't they look great on a mantle?

I mean, you know WITHOUT the candle holder thing on top and then painted white?  Maybe even with some Christmas lights poking through?  I thought they were Awe. Some!  So, here's how I did it.  Take your hammer.  Beat the metal round thing on top.  Beat it some more.  Wait - a few more times.  All around the circle.  If it starts bending down, then beat it from the bottom.  There's nothing nice and sweet about taking this bad boy apart.  Mad at someone?  Great!  Use it to beat this thing apart.  Eventually the welds (there are 5!) will break and the circle will come off.  Then you're left with this:

Throw the circle in the trash.  Save the tree.

Get your spray paint out.  Paint them.  I didn't want mine perfect.  I actually liked them the way they were, but I wanted them white, so I painted.  Here they are.  Sitting in my garage waiting for their place on my mantle.  :)  yay!  I think they're so pretty.  They'd be awesome in a bright color too.

And one two last photos. I'm raising my boys right - already painting furniture! I'm so proud.  lol.

Go forth and create!

Mercury Glass Chalkboard Tutorial

Or rather, Mercury Glass Chalk Ink Window Tutorial (or some other nonsense like that).  Let's just stick with Mercury Glass Chalkboard Tutorial to keep it simple.

Some of you may remember this post where I showed you how I created my faux mercury glass.  Well, in this tutorial I've combined my love for chalkboards with my love for mercury glass to make a mercury glass chalkboard.  What is a mercury glass chalkboard? Let me show you:

For this 'chalkboard window' I used a vintage cabinet door that came out of a 1920's bungalow.  I'd had it sitting in the garage a while and couldn't decide what to do with it.  Finally I decided to do the single pane in mercury glass and the smaller panes I will add some photos of my kids after I get them printed.  I painted the frame itself in ASCP graphite and distressed it heavily.  Eventually I would like to hang it from a ribbon that goes through the hinges as well, but that's for another time.

To get this effect, I basically followed my instructions for the faux mercury glass I posted previously. I will do a quick run through here - I did the tutorial on an extra piece of glass I had laying around.  

I started with clean(ish) glass. 

Sprinkled it with a little water:

Lightly sprayed about 4 coats of Krylon's looking glass spray paint.

This is what it looks like when you first spray the paint.  When the surface is all even then you can spray the next coat.  Since it's laying flat you don't have to worry about runs as much, but still do light coats.  Blowing helps dry it some :)

Close up of the painted over water droplets:

After the paint is dry (took about 7 minutes or so) I very GENTLY wiped with a slightly damp very soft cloth.  Nothing rough, no paper towels or anything like that.  A piece of an old t-shirt would be perfect.  First I gently wiped one direction, then the other.  After I wiped the droplets off, I used a dry corner and carefully dried the rest of the water off.  The looking glass paint is very delicate at this stage, I'm sure if you let it dry overnight first it would be better, but I like fast projects.

Then I very LIGHTLY sprayed some Rustoleum Hammered finish in gray to give the holes some depth.

Lastly, I sprayed the entire back in flat black:

Finished glass inside (it's so hard to photograph this stuff so you can really see the detail!!)

Now, here's the actual project on the old cabinet door:

You'd probably be able to see a black chalk ink marker better, but I only have white on hand right now.  I bought my chalk ink markers are Michael's but there's a website where they have a rainbow of colors. 

This technique would be perfect for thrift store frames.  I've also used it on thrift store frames then used the frames on a table top as a tray.  You could hang it on a wall and add hooks or knobs and use it as a message center for keys or coats.  You're only limited by your imagination and 'you only fail if you fail to try!'

Update, what do you think about it set up like this?

Go mercury glass something this weekend and send me the link!
Enjoy!



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