Autumn Goodness

As I said last night I've been working on a project that should have taken about two minutes, but ended up taking a good portion of my time this week. I took a wicker stool that started out a stark white and, after a little spray paint and glaze, it ended up looking like this...

The fabulous thing about this little table-like-stool is that its new color perfectly matches some wicker furniture that currently resides on the patio in our backyard. So after her foray by my front door she will be relegated to the backyard to live with her friends.

There's nothing terribly exciting here. 

Just a few pictures of some pumpkiny goodness by my front door...

Get a load of that mum in the foreground. 

Isn't she gorgeous?!?

 We have an invasion...

I saw this bat idea over at No Biggie the other day. Don't you love this swarm of bats? You could cut the bats out with a die-cut or craft punch, but I just bought some stickers at Michael's and slapped them on! They were a Martha Stewart brand. Martha was on Oprah this week. As a promotion for her products there is a 50% off sticker for all of Martha Stewart's crafting products at Michael's this week. I bought my swarm of bats for a dollar-fifty. Just go here to print the coupon!

 I thought it was a cute idea for decorating a pumpkin before you carve it.

 Here's a photo of the wreath I have on our front door.
It's a nice, unasuming fall wreath
until you look a little
closer...

 I have a daughter that would avoid coming to our house for the month
of October if she knew there was a spider lurking
by the entrance of our home.

 

 You've got to admit she is a fabulous bedazzled arthropod.
Have a great day!

Refinishing a Wicker Stool...

There are some projects that when you begin them you predict they will take a fair amount of time to complete. Others you imagine will come together in a snap, and by the time you're finally done you realize you sorely underestimated the scope of the project. That's what happened to me this week. What should have been a no-brainer, quick and easy project, ended up becoming much more.

The project began with a few stops at local thrift stores. I wanted to pick up (for cheap) a small table, rickity wooden chair, plant stand or crate that I could refinish and place pumpkins on by our front door as an outside decoration. Nothing fancy was needed. I didn't want to spend more than two cents. I just needed something -- anything really -- to elevate the pumpkins a bit. I finally found a small wicker stool/table that was spray painted a very stark white. Not the color I wanted, but I can unleash a can of spray paint with the best of 'em, so I carted the stool to the cashier. I forgot to take a before photo, but below is a photo of a similar stool to the all-white stool I bought...

 

I brought it home and spray painted it a warm brown color. By the time I was done it looked like this...

Hmmmm .... not exactly what I had in mind. As much as I love chocolate, I prefer it when my furniture doesn't look like it's been dunked in a rolling vat of melted chocolate and left out to dry. That's the thing about spray paint, it gives surfaces such a one-dimensional, plastic look. I immediately knew my chocolatey wicker would need a going over with a black glaze. I lightly painted some black tinted glaze all over the surface of the stool.

(FYI: You can buy a clear can of glaze in any hardware store, pour what you need for your project into another container and then tint the glaze with any color of acrylic craft paint (like the one below) of your choice. For this project I tinted my clear glaze with a squirt of black acrylic craft paint.)

Usually when I glaze an object I wipe off the excess glaze within a few minutes. I didn't do that with this project, because I wanted the black glaze to become a major part of the color of the stool. This is how it looked when the glaze dried...

No more milk chocolate! The wicker is much more natural looking now with different striations of color...

It also looks less plastic and more naturally "worn" in spots because of the variances in color. Tomorrow I'll show how it looks in all of its decorated pumkiny goodness.

Have a nice night!

Linked to:
Catch as Catch Can @ My Repurposed Life
Frugal Friday @ The Shabby Nest
Frugalicious Friday @ Finding Fabulous

Part Two - Printing on Fabric

Last week I published a post that showed a pillow I made and how to print on fabric using your home printer. Today I made an item using another method of printing on fabric. This time I used a technique that is washable. I did so because the item I made is a kitchen dishtowel that would need to be washed.

I began the process by going to The Graphics Fairy and falling in love with a beautiful, autumn-like, vintage image...

I downloaded the image onto my computer and began the real work. Because the dishtowel needed to be washable, I chose to use a "print and iron-on" method. I bought these iron-on transfer sheets at Hobby Lobby for $5.99. That's $2 a sheet which is, in my opinion, is a bit pricey. Still, I wanted to try out the method, so I grabbed the sheets and nicely pitched the big bucks to the cashier.

To use an iron-on transfer, one must make a mirror image of the picture you plan to use -- especially if your image has writing on it. I use Picasa3 as my photo editor. To make a mirror image in Picasa3, hold down the Ctrl + Shift keys and then strike the "H" key. Unfortunately, Picasa3 would not allow me to save the mirrored image until I edited the picture further by cropping it or enhancing the color. After the picture was further edited, I could then save the mirrored image in that form. Go figure.

Here's the image that I originally saved in Picasa3...

And here's the cropped mirror image...

Then bring up a new Word Document and insert the saved mirror image into the document. Size the image to the desired shape and size, then print the image onto a transfer sheet using your home printer. I set my Print Quality to "best" and let 'er rip! Lickity-split you have a mirror image on your transfer sheet. At this point all you have to do is put the sheet face-side-down on your fabric and iron it on. Peal off the transfer backing sheet and here's what you have...

 

As I said before, I chose to make a dishtowel with this image. I used my favorite muslin as my fabric of choice, made a few pleats and hemmed the edges...

I love how the quarter inch pleats frame the autumn scene...

The warm, earthy texture of this muslin works well with this sepia-toned image...

Once again, my thanks goes to The Graphics Fairy for this fabulous image...

I'm going to hang this on my oven door the 1st of November 

and gaze at it (adoringly) throughout the month. 

Have a great day,

Linked to:
Saturday Soiree @ A Little Lovely
Saturday Night Specials @ Funky Junk Interiors
Show & Tell @ Be Different Act Normal 
Weekend Wrap Up Party @ Tatertots & Jello
Hookin' Up @ House of Hepworths
DIY Fall Festival @ DIY Show Off
SYS Link Party @ Somewhat Simple
Show Off Your Stuff @ Fireflies & Jellybeans
Get Your Craft On Thursday @ Life as Lori
Show & Tell @ Blue Cricket Design
Get Your Craft On @ Today's Creative Blog
Anything Related @ All Thingz Related
Brag Monday @ The Graphics Fairy

Friday's Fabulous Finds...

Thanks for all the sweet comments on my
Anniversary post
earlier today!
::: Now on to my regular Friday feature :::

I spy with my Etsy eye something...

mossy green!

Clockwise, starting top left:

"Secret Life of Anemones" Photograph

Moss Green Harris Tweed Pin

Double Acorn Pendant

Cable Knit Lampshade Cover

Gathering Apples Mossie

Felted Handbag

Have a great weekend! 

Celebrating today...

My husband and I are celebrating our 33rd wedding anniversary today, so I thought it might be appropriate if I told you one of our special stories. The first words I ever spoke to the man who became my husband were "I looo...." Hmmm. Wait a minute. I'm getting ahead of myself. I should start at the beginning...

 (engagement photos, 1977)

In the Fall of 1974 I was a freshman attending college in California. (Yes, I am that old.) That semester I was enrolled in a sociology class. The second week of class our professor gave us a rather unusual assignment. We were asked to walk up to a total stranger, tell the person "I love you" and record their response. I went back to my dorm room a little frustrated. I didn't want to fulfill this assignment and embarrass myself. After talking it over with my roommate, I decided to call a stranger on the phone rather than approach them directly. That way I could still fulfill the assignment and record a response, but I wouldn't have to worry about the person recognizing me several weeks down the road. I picked up the dorm directory and started scanning down a page. I randomly chose a name and made the call. A young man answered the phone, and I asked if I could speak to "M.S." The young man said, "one minute," and went to get him. The next thing I heard was another "hello." With as much boldness as I could muster I said, "I love you!" There was silence on the other end of the line. Lots. Of. Silence. I said it again. This time with more feeling. "I love you!" More silence and then this response, "Well, what do you want me to do about it?" Because I was trying to fulfill an assignment I said, "Respond!" He then asked, "Who is this?" Embarrassed by my remarks I hung up the phone. A couple more phone calls were made before I was able to get a recordable response, and the experience was soon forgotten.

Several months later I met a young man, named "M." We began to get to know one another and soon we began seeing each other regularly. Several weeks after meeting "M" I was with him and his roommate, and they began to tell me about the crazy girls enrolled at our college. They began to speak about one girl in particular, a stranger, who had called "M" at the beginning of the year claiming love and devotion and issuing the statement "I love you!" Something clicked and I said, "I know what that was about. She probably had the same class I had..." Then I made the connection that I had never made previously between the name that I had called at the beginning of the school year and the young man who was standing before me. I realized at that time that it was "M" that I had called. "M" and his roommate didn't believe me when I told them the story, so I had to take them back to my dorm room and have my roommate verify my side of the story without her knowing why.

That's why I can say...

The first words I ever said to the man who became my husband were
"I Love You."

And I still do.

P.S. Just to put your mind at ease, "M" has become much more responsive to my declarations of love since that first time back in '74. ;o)

Printing on Fabric...

I've been inspired by those who have posted tutorials for printing on fabric. In August Gail at "My rePurposed Life" created just such a tutorial. It seems that each tutorial that is published is a little different, so I'm here to show you how I accomplished the feat this week! Printed fabric is a fabulous way to add a special touch to your home. All you need is a piece of cardstock paper, some light-colored fabric and spray adhesive. 

Begin by ironing your fabric flat and laying it down on a flat surface. Spray your cardstock with the adhesive, and gently lay it onto the fabric -- adhesive side down. Press the cardstock onto the fabric, then trim your fabric edges to the exact size of the cardstock.

I went to the "The Graphics Fairy" for this Pumpkin image. Karen has hundreds of beautiful images that you can download free of charge. Download your chosen image to your computer.

Then bring up a new Word document and insert the saved image into your Word document. Below is an image from my computer screen. It shows the dimensions that I enlarged the image to so it would nicely fit on my 8.5x11 inch piece of paper.(Height 5.8"; Width 9.7")

 

To print onto your fabric put your cardstock/fabric into your printer -- fabric side down (for inkjet printers).  Make sure you set the 'Print Quality' to "best." Then print the image onto your cardstock/fabric.When it emerges from the printer it will look like the photo below. Gorgeous, eh?

Warning: There are many tutorials that tell you to tape your fabric onto the cardstock. For me, this method didn't work well at all. With this method my fabric was too loose to print nicely. Below is an example of the differences between the taping method and the adhesive method. The fabric in the top of the photo was taped to the cardstock. The fabric shifted as it went through the printer and printed unevenly onto the fabric (note right side of fabric). The fabric on the bottom was attached to the cardstock with spray adhesive. You can see how the outside margins of the image are straight...

Let the ink on your fabric dry for several hours, then peel off the cardstock from the fabric.

(Note: This method of transferring a print directly onto a piece of fabric is NOT washable. I used it on a seasonal pillow top that I'll display for one or two months out of the year. Understand that there are no little ones in my home, so the need to wash this item is greatly diminished. ;o) If you want to print onto fabric that will need to be washed, you'll want to use iron-on transfer sheets to transfer your image onto fabric. I'll post about that method within the next couple of weeks!)

I used my printed fabric as a middle panel in a very simple seasonal pillow...

For those interested, below are the dimensions of the unfinished panel pieces. I used a 1/2" seam allowance on all my seams for this pillow...

I can't even begin to tell you how much I love this method of transfering an image to fabric. It's so inexpensive and easy! 

This particular image makes for a fabulous, earthy, autumn pillow.

 I have another couple of images up my sleeve that I'll be using this next week.

I'm aware this will come as a big shock, but the images I have in mind won't be used for pillows. I know. I know. Pick yourself up off the floor.

A girl has to diversify every now and then.

Linked to:

 



















Brag Monday @ The Graphics Fairy
SNS @ Funky Junk Interiors
Catch-as-Catch-Can @ My rePurposed Life
Show & Share Day @ Just a Girl
Friday Fun Finds @ kojo designs
Porch Party @ First a Dream
Frugalicious Friday @ Finding Fabulous
Frugal Friday @ The Shabby Nest
Best DIY Projects of September @ Beneath My Heart
Hookin' Up with HOH @ House of Hepworths
Transformation Thursdays @ The Shabby Chic Cottage
Show Off Your Stuff Party @ Fireflies and Jellybeans
Get Your Craft On Thursday @ Life as Lori
A Crafty Soiree @ Yesterday on Tuesday

"Girls Night Out" Halloween Pillow...

It's a known fact that girls require a night out with friends every now and then. Getting all dolled up in the latest fashions and going out on the town offers a nice diversion from the hum-drum of every-day life -- especially when you've been bending over a bubbling cauldron all day. That's when one deserves to kick up her heels, snatch the broom out of the closet, and hit the treetops with your best girls. "Girls Night Out" is my physical manifestation, in pillow form, of just such an evening!

Meet (from left to right) Agatha, Rhiannon, and Zefira ("Zeffie" for short). In spite of their many differences, they are the best of friends...

::: Agatha :::

Agatha keeps the girls in formation line with military-like precision. Although no one has designated her as such, she is the leader of the pack and everyone knows it. Her long-johns and sturdy cape are evidence of her practical nature. Don't judge. It's cold at night...

::: Rhiannon :::

She's the baby in the group. Rhiannon is spontaneous, spunky and filled with mischief. Her sense of style reflects her saucy attitude...

::: Zeffie :::

Zeffie is my personal favorite. She's a practical gal with a touch pizazz! I love her "sensible" shoes -- covered in orange leopard skin -- and her matching bedazzled bag.

I created "Girls Night Out" in early September hoping to share it on my guest post on Eighteen25's Spooktacular Series. By the time I was finished with it I knew it was far too complicated to post with a tutorial, so "Baxter the Bat" was designed instead. I created "Girls Night Out" by layering fabrics over one another and appliqueing each item onto the top of the pillow. It was like dressing someone -- first the leggings, then the dress, then the capes, and finally the accessories and shoes, including the broomsticks! One cannot forget the broomsticks -- they are the ultimate accessory for these witchy gals. Twenty-five different pieces of fabric were used to complete the top of the pillow. The pattern for this pillow isn't going to be shared. It's my original work. It literally took me hours and hours to draw, cut it out and piece it together, so I'm keeping this one to myself -- the pattern and the pillow! ;o)

Here's wishing that you can enjoy a night out with your girlfriends soon. And here's hoping they behave themselves and don't end up acting a tad bit witchy --  like Agatha, Rhiannon and Zefira!