Tuesday, January 28, 2020

Valentine Photo Holder


Once your kids have outgrown their ABC blocks, recycle them into a fun way to display photos of your Valentine.
All you need are the blocks that spell out love (or the name of your Valentine), red and white paint, 2 wooden hearts, paintbrush, pencil, rag, & hot glue.
 Paint the blocks white...
 While the blocks are drying, paint the hearts red...
 Dip a rag into the red paint and wipe it across the raised parts of the blocks. You can use a paintbrush if you prefer.
 Use the block as a guide to draw a straight line approximately 1/2 inch from the edge of one of the hearts...
 Add hot glue along the line...
 Glue the hearts together. The hot glue is just thick enough to leave a small gap between the hearts where there is no glue so there's a place to insert a photo.
 Glue the blocks together, then glue the hearts onto one of the blocks...
 Add a photo to the hearts and you have a lovely way to display your Valentine.




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Saturday, January 18, 2020

Follow Your Heart To Signopoly

Have you heard of Signopoly? They are a family owned business based in North Carolina.
They create a large variety of items that are perfect for door hangers or art. All of their pieces are made from quality wood, cut, & sanded to perfection.
I teach a lot of painting classes at Junk Mama's General Store, & Signopoly is my "go to" for class projects.
I'll be teaching a painting & wax class in February using this heart from Signopoly...
 You can get hearts with smooth fronts, but I like the grooves cut into this one. It's a great guide for adding multiple colors.
 I chose to paint the heart with the colors Fluff, Soft Pink, & Peony from the Dixie Belle Paint Company.
 I painted the heart going from the lightest color to the darkest. So, I first painted the entire heart, including the sides, with the color, Fluff.
Then I painted some of the sections with Soft Pink.


 Then I added some Peony.

 To make the lines more crisp & give the heart a more finished look, I added Dixie Belle's Beast Dang Wax. I love this wax! It is water based so it dries to a nice hard finish. The wax has no odor & is eco friendly.
If you add a dark wax directly over the paint, it can be a little hard to control the depth of color. In some cases that's okay, but I wanted the black wax to be heavy in the grooves and more subtle over the paint. To have more control over the black wax, I used a rag and applied clear wax over the entire heart first. I didn't worry about getting the clear wax into the grooves because I want them to be dark.
 Then I used a stiff wax brush to apply the black wax making sure that I got it down into the grooves.
 I used a rag to wipe the black back a little so it was more subtle outside of the grooves.

 Here the left side of the heart has wax & the right side does not. It's a good example of the difference the wax makes.
 You can skip the wax if you prefer, but I love the look with the wax.

 Here is the same heart using a different color combination, Fluff, Vintage Duck Egg, & Antebellum Blue...
Here are a few of my other projects using cutouts from Signopoly...






And, on occasion, I just order plain squares of wood from Signoloy to use in art projects...
Need a custom piece? They do that too.
Check out Signopoly! I'm sure you'll find something you love.

I was not compensated for this post and all opinions are my own.

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Tuesday, January 7, 2020

Sew Pretty Table Makeover

There was a time when sewing tables were beautiful and made to fit in with your decor. When your sewing machine was tucked away, the cabinet looked and functioned as a table.

The sewing machine was missing from this one that I found in an antique store, but I knew it would be beautiful as an end table.

 I also knew that a little paint would bring out the detail. I chose the color Dusty Blue from the Dixie Belle Company.

 I added a little black glaze to highlight some of the detail.
This is the perfect example of the phrase, "they don't make 'em like they used to!"

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