The Many Lifes of a Room Divider Screen

Hi All!

I thought I would tell you about my room divider/screen...

Many moons ago, while we were stilling living in South Africa , I started making these..

This one had bamboo sticks glued to the bottom part.

I had a friend of my husband make  the panels, and I did the rest. Was just decoupage with gift wrapping paper and some paint and embellishments.

These are loose  panels of two different, but similar screens.



I sold them at craft markets and In-house boutiques.

But, after a few years, now living in USA, I got tired of mine, and had to change it, of course. So, I turned it around and decorated the back. Do you remember the stunning embossed wallpaper I used on this ?

Well, I originally got it to use on the screen. I cut the wallpaper in squares to make it look like tin ceiling tiles, painted it silver and distressed with brown artist's  paint. 

This is what it looked like then....

When I discovered the rust paint I talked about in my previous post, I just had to do it on this piece, too.

You can see it has gotten some nicks and wear and tear since...

By now it had been promoted to headboard in my bedroom....

Ugh. The color of my comforter is really nicer than it looks in this picture.

Guess what these adorable kiddos are doing....

We eventually got a real bedroom set, and now the screen has been taken apart, and two of the panels are used as wall art on either side of my bedroom's back wall.

This is the best I could do to show you. There it is to the far left of the pic. The other one is in the exact same spot on the right side of the room, next to that window.

Most of the times I like symmetry.

O, and FYI...that is Wonderhusband's side of the bed with the computer wires peeking out from under the bed. I hope he is embarrassed.....NOT!

So....would you say I have had my money's worth on this screen? Or can we reinvent it a few more times?

Have a great one!

love,

Suzanne




Linking up to:

Frugalicious Friday

Rust Effects

Er...H..hello there, Friends

My husband has a saying, "You smile like a dog who had just pooped in the bedroom."

Well, thats me today...guilty smile.

I am so guilty of neglecting all my faithful followers and readers. So,so sorry people. What can I say? This is not a Dear Abby corner, so I will stick with: Please forgive me and I hope I can get back to doing and blogging about it regularly again.

Today I want to show you some cool rust effects. I am not talking about the little kit of paint we buy at the craft store and then use normal rust colored paint to make something look rusty.

This stuff is the real deal.

It is made by Modern Masters and is called Reactive Metallic Paints .(Feel free to let them know I am advertising for them for free).


These paints are water based and contain real metal particles. They will tarnish naturally over time and when exposed to the elements.
But, if you are impatient like me, you can get the activator solution and apply it over the wet paint, and have the effect within 20 to 30 minutes.
The activator will react with the real metal particles in the paints, thus speeding up the oxidation process.

So, this is what  I did with it....

Don't know what you call those "indent" thingies, but I rusted mine.  :)

The base paint is black, with real iron particles in. Then, if you apply the activator over it, the iron particles start to rust. I wanted the effect of water that leaked and caused rust, so I applied the activator so that it ran down .The activator is runny, like water, so if you don't want this effect, you can use a sponge to apply it.

You get a protective coat to apply over the oxidized metal finish, minimizing any further corrosion, and  to create a weather resistant barrier, but I found that it darkened the color, and made it look less natural, so I'm taking my chances.

The more common use for it is on outdoor plant containers and ornaments, like this:

 I got this generic plant container at a garage sale for two dollars, and transformed it into something I love.

Again, I want it to go on rusting and tarnishing over time, so I did not put a top coat on.  

But then, of course, I was on a roll and could not stop myself... I just had to paint this wrought iron table's base , too. 

This is outside by the BBQ, so it, too, will tarnish more and more over time. Untill I get tired of it and paint over it, of course.

Well, that's it for now!

Love,

Linking up with

 

Bathroom Improvisations

Hi There!

I thought I would show you some  improvisations in my bathroom today.This is very brave of me, since these poor walls have not even seen a lick of colorful paint yet...
    I can't even say that bathroom  is  a work in progress.  There's not much going on right now but there are a few clever (in my book, anyway)  ideas that I can share with you.

A year or so ago I got this plate stand at Goodwill. I liked it because it was different from the regular tiered stands, and would work perfectly for what I had in mind.

I also had three of these plates, with different designs of shoes on them.

Put together, they made a wonderful catch-all for perfumes, and jewelry.

Another temporary "fix" was this:

Before I learned about the cheap and easy way to frame these huge builder grade mirrors , I just hung a big picture on the mirror to break up the "vastness" of it.

Since this was a do-it -yourself-in-5-minutes kind of a job, and I was neither equipped nor inclined to drill holes in the mirror,

I hung it from a hook on the wall, with a black chain that used to belong to a light fitting.

I really liked it, but now that I know how to, I am soon framing this mirror out too.

Oh, and PS, did you notice the quilt hanger in the reflection?

It will also someday get a makeover, since it is serving as my towel rail now. I'm seeing some ORB in its future.

OK, then! Do you have any such improvisations that you can tell me about?

You know I love hearing from you!

*Suzanne*

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Decoupage with a Twist

Happy Monday Everyone!

The other project I did during my blissful weekend of guilt-free crafting , was to decoupage two serving trays. Now I know anybody who has ever crafted for more than a week, knows how to decoupage, but this one has a twist in the end...trust me. (I'm a doctor...no, just kidding, I'm not)

We use serving trays in our house a lot. Every morning I take my husband breakfast in bed on one...(thank you, thank you, you can stop clapping now...I know..I'm awesome). Ok, I have to admit, it's usually just coffee, and  toast or cereal, and it's minor compared to what he does for me, but the point is, I use a serving tray at least once a day. I'm saying this to explain that I can't just make a tray pretty, it must be durable, too.

I started out with two trays, which I primed with Kilz primer, of course.
One got sprayed red, and the other one black.

I took a picture of my "inspiration" glass of red wine.Wine and uninterrupted crafting...it doesn't get much better than that....

 

The red tray got this black and white paper, and a red L that I printed out on the computer.

The black one got lime green scrapbook paper, and a collage of pictures of my kids that I had made at Wal-Mart. I could have just used the individual pictures, but my experience is the more pictures, the more little corners that can pop up.It is just easier and neater to do it this way.It was really cheap, way less than $5.00, for a  one hour development of a 10 x 8 print.

Again, some Dollar Tree vinyl lettering and hearts.

Then came the fun part....

Have any of you used this stuff before? You can buy it at Michaels or Lowes.It is a type of resin that hardens and leaves a thick, hard,glossy layer on top. Like they say, equal to 60 layers of varnish...sheesh!.

 It is very easy to do...just like the instructions show above. Just mix equal parts, stir well, and pour.

It takes 72 hours to cure before you can use it.

Can you see the finish? I'm not sure if you can from the picture.

I love the look. It makes a great gift to grandparents, too

You want to know what else I used this process on???

My kitchen table!

I was sick of the grooves - it was so hard to clean with the crumbs accumulating in there, that we came up with this plan..

Just stuck a bunch of memories on there, poured the resin, and now we have a wonderful conversation starter. So much fun to tell the story behind each different picture to enquiring guests!

We did this months ago, in my BB days (before blogging), so I don't have pictures of the process, but it is the same as for the tray. Only this time I  stuck the pics on one by one, of course.

Fun!!

The only thing is: what shall we do with it when we want to replace the set?

A friend suggested we take the top off and hang it on a wall. We might just have to. I'm very sentimental about pictures...

What do you think? Have you used this product before?

Let me know! I love your comments!

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