Refinished Coffee Table

Like the title says, "can't sit still" 

So I set out to refinish my family room coffee table.

Here is a little glimpse of the table before. I was never crazy about the color.

And there were some areas that were pretty worn out.

With one trip to Home Depot I gathered supplies:

After two coats of the Citristrip, LOTS of scraping and sanding,

my table's true colors were revealed.

Yuck!

 I know you're wishing I took more pictures of the next couple steps, 

but frankly I'm too antsi to stop and get my camera out,
 I just want to get to the good stuff. 

Staining! 

But even before that, I applied a pre-stain wood conditioner for even stain coverage.

I used a mixture of 2 parts English Chestnut to 1 part Ebony and mixed it in an empty paint can.
Applied to coats of my newly mixed stain with a foam brush
and used fine grade steel wool in between two coats of satin polyurethane.

I love the new color!

The satin finish is the perfect amount of sheen.

Ginger really wanted to be a part of taking-pictures-of-the-new-table.

I'm really happy with the results after a lot of blood, sweat a tears 

(okay, no blood, some sweat and I almost cried when I realized what I had gotten myself into!)

 But my hard work paid off.

Clip Boards

I'm facilitating a Bible Study at my church
and thought it would be a good idea to craft up some clip boards
to keep track of Prayer Requests.

 Here's how I did it. I started out with a plain clip board from the office supply store.

 Painted all the metal.

Added Mod Podge to the fronts on the clip board...

Adhered a 12 x 12 sheet of scrapbook paper.

And folded it around the sides, using more Mod Podge.

I made a little cut at the corner...

You can see it a little better here.

Then I cut the corner off so it looks like this:

I added a little paper at the top part of the clip board and tied on a little ribbon.

 I trimmed another coordinating piece of 12 x 12 paper and put it on the back (more Mod Podge)

Just a little something I crafted up at the last minute. You know...

Delightful Order

Come check me out here.

Felt Bows

On a recent trip to Marshalls, I found these shoes:

 Their cute. But I think I made them cute-rr!

 Here's what I did. I started out with some felt (a blend of wool and polyester) 

I cut two pieces (for the back) 3 1/2 long & 1" wide 

and two pieces (for the bow) 4" long & 1" wide

 I took the ends of the small bow piece and brought them together to the middle 

and put a dab of hot glue in the middle to secure it.

 It turns out looking like this.

I took the other long piece and folded it in half and cut it to look like this.

 And then glued it to the back of the bow and pinched the middle of the whole thing.

 I cut another longer-thinner piece (no specific measurement on this one, just something to go down the middle). Put a little dab of glue on the front (not too much-you don't want it oozy out the sides!)

Then I folded some two pieces over one another and cutting off the excess.

I made a slightly larger one and attached it to a clip for Katelyn's hair.

 So I made two colors of these adorable bows... I'm having a hard time deciding. Maybe I'll add a little velcro and I can switch them out. Don't you think RED would be cute too?!

Wanna know how to make this cutie?

 I started out with two pieces of felt 2" by 4".

 Fold it in half and then round the corners.

 Cut another small piece about 1" by 2".

 Pinch the middle. Add a little glue to secure it.

 Cover the middle pinch with the 1 x 2.

 Fold the pieces on top of each other with a little glue in between each piece.

For this bow I added a little bobby pin on the back.

 She likes it!

Thanks for stopping by!

Handmade Beaded Necklace

All summer long I looked for a yellow and grey necklace. 

When I couldn't find one, I decided I needed to just make one.   

I began my hunt for yellow beads with none to be found!
And that's how I ended up here...

It was time for me to make my own yellow beads.
I bought a bag of wood beads and yellow paint.

After painting all the beads yellow with a foam brush 

I strung them up on some yarn and sprayed them with some lacquer to give them a little sheen.

With one yard of gray satin ribbon...

 I wrapped the end tightly with some scotch tape to make an aglet 

(for those of you who don't know, that's a metal tag or sheath at the end of a shoelace-

yeah I didn't know that either! Google's a wonderful thing!)

 I strung 11 beads onto the ribbon. 

And then tied a loose knot on both end's about 5 inches from each bead.

 After cutting each end with a sharp scissors I added a little Fray Check.

I love Fray Check!

 Here's new Handmade Beaded Necklace!

I love the way it turned out so I made a red one too!

 Cute even from the back (if I do say so myself!)