Teacher Appreciation Sign

We're getting closer to the end of the school year and come some time in May, we'll be doing Teacher Appreciation week around here. 

Now mind you, this project was not originally my idea and I don't know anything about the original artist, so I won't post their photo without being able to give them proper credit. I was sent a phone picture by one of my customers asking me to make something similar. I believe the original one was done freehand on canvas maybe, while mine was done with the help of my Silhouette Cameo on wood.

I wish I could tell you what all the fonts are, but I had this melt down with my lack of proper judgement by installing the newest version for my Cameo much too soon. I ended up installing & uninstalling it AND the old version 3 times each just to get this project done by the deadline. I can tell you that the font for TEACHER & the name at the bottom is Cornfed. Others are TMJ, Hello Heartache, Comic Sans, Happy Sans, Hippy Movement, & maybe Segoe Script? I know there are some more, but if you want to make this sign yourself, make it your own & choose which fonts YOU like! I'm thinking the apple was part of a title image from the Silhouette store, I just made one fat & one skinny.

All you have to do is paint your board black first. And here's a little tip for making your colors POP on a black background, do a primer coat of your design in white first. 

Trust me, if you didn't do a white base coast first, the pink & green paints would have had a black undertone to them & harder to see, plus you would have had to do many more coats. Since I cut my "stencil" design using plain white contact paper, it makes it easy to keep it in place & do each color over the white with little hassle & barely a trace of the white. I had a couple of letters with a white edge, but I touched them up with a fine artist brush. Once the paint is completely dry, I like to spray a couple coats of a matte sealer. 

 

**I have to mention that my late Mother In Law had a hand in creating this sign. I was afraid I was going to have to out & purchase another bottle of pink paint, since that's what my client wanted, but I went to check my stash, just to make sure. Wouldn't ya know it? There was a bottle of Country Rose paint that I had inherited from my MIL, Barb. And it was EXACTLY the right shade too. I only have one other bottle of pink paint & it's baby pink. I just had to share that with you, for those that read my blog & knew my dear Mother-in-Law.

Have a great day!

My Simple Fall Blocks

I found this idea on someone's Facebook page that I had come across. I wished I would have saved their page, because if I remember correctly, they had some pretty cute things. But once I saw these, I forgot about everything else ... I was on a mission. I had to go outside & dig out the pieces of scrap wood my husband cut from odd sized trusses he couldn't use & threw out in our burn hole the night before. He always seems to shake his head when I start pulling things out of the burn hole. LOL

I painted the blocks orange first & then lightly sanded the edges & rough spots til they were sort of smooth with my cheap hand sander, but you could do this step by hand if you don't have a little hand sander. 

Then I had a big bagful of small wooden spools I picked up at a flea market a few years ago. I almost put them in our garage sale a couple of different times, but talked myself out of it. Good thing!

I painted the spools brown & kind of sanded the edges of those too, but sanding probably isn't necessary. You could paint them green if that suits you more. I tied a few strands of rafia around the spools. Nothing fancy, but it does add a little something extra to the look. The other lady used dark green rafia on hers. I screwed the spools onto my blocks with drywall screws, but the original ones had just hot glued the spools on, so you don't really need anything out of the ordinary to make these. 

I used a different font than she did too, but it isn't really that much different. The letters are stenciled on in the same color of brown as the spools.

You can use what ever font you like to make it yours.

Here they are, along with a sign I also made using the same colors, & some fake pumpkins. Truly nothing fancy here!

So if you're wanting to make a simple, yet cute fall craft - this just might be what you're looking for.

  
I'm linking to these parties:

Funky Junk

Our Hand Made Rustic Bin

If you've been following along on my blog lately, then you may have noticed my latest trend of rustic/primitive projects. 

I like rustic decor and it seems to be a bit of a trend all over. That may be why I do fairly decent at my craft shows, for being a no-name crafter that is.

Sometimes I can get my hubby to show a little enthusiasm too. Especially if I can convince him that what I need him to do is simple. 

He helped me out a lot with the memo boards & chalkboards. So I showed him what I thought was a simple project, but proved to be a little more laborious than I anticipated, but he/we got'er done!

I was going to post the picture here of the inspiration piece, but I'm having problems getting it to post no matter how I try. 

So here's our black painted version, which has graphics added to it, where the other one was just plain dark blue.

Sorry about the poor photo quality, but it's been so gloomy & rainy all week, that I had to use my flash and I still couldn't get the photo editing program to help me create the money shot. 

But in these shots I wanted to show how it works great for Keurig coffee pod storage, boxed or not. 

 
And this a close-up of the graphic I used, which is the same one I made for the wooden grain scoop I decorated too.

I put it in my craft show this past weekend, but it didn't sell. I sort of followed my hubby's advise on the price, but I think it was too high. Actually, he wanted it to be priced even higher, but I disagreed with that one for sure! I've done enough shows in our area to have a better idea of what the threshold is for people in our area. I'm not saying that no one would ever pay his asking price, but it's just gonna a take a while to find the right person, but I don't want to hang onto it that long. LOL!

It holds 3 boxes of pods nicely while giving you the top shelf available to easily grab one for use. I didn't have this in mind when I wanted the hubby to make it, but the idea just came to me while looking for someplace to take a decent photo & I was moving my son's coffee pod boxes out of the way.

It may not be the perfect solution for everyone, but it does work.

 
Parties I'm linking to:

So Now I've Got A Wood Scoop

What would I do with that wood scoop?  


Do you know what wood scoop I'm talking about?

  

This wood scoop is the one that I picked up at the thrift store with this group of goodies.

Could you tell I was so excited when I went on and on about them in my Thrift Store Goodies post? Oh yes, I was.

And before I knew it, I was already working on the cutting board. 

If you missed out on that project, feel free to check it out here.

I noticed a few people were really admiring the wooden scoop in that first post too. To be honest with you, tears nearly ran down my legs when I spotted it. I can just hear it now, "Clean up in isle 7! And bring the mop and disinfectant."

But I managed to contain my excitement and just grabbed it as quick as I could. THEN, I looked at the price. What??? It was less than a dollar and I also got 10% off that. Score!!

I've been pondering about what to do with it. I mean, it's cool enough just as it sits, all pale and naked. But I can't just leave it go like that. It needed something to dress it up & yet make it look rustic. Like it had been used and had a previous purpose in life.

 This is so much more to my liking. 

I seen this name when I did a Google search for "feed and grain." I wanted something that seemed fitting for a scoop. I have no idea what a wooden scoop might have actually been used for, but this seemed likely. 

The images with this name were all really generic looking and quite plain with just a single line. I have quite a space to fill on this good sized scoop, and even though I'm going for rustic, I wanted to spice up the look.

The font I used for Feed & Grain is called Niagra Engraved and it has some pretty slim lines that are barely noticeable, but I still loved how it looked. Again, I used my Silhouette Cameo to make this design.

I wrapped a small portion of the handle with some twine and tied it off, then stuck in some burgundy pip berries. I don't show it in these photos, but once my battery pack charges for my drill, I'm going to drill a hole in the top of the handle so I can add some twine or rag ribbon to hang it with.
 

                Before                                                                          After

 

I'm so glad that I'm getting this stuff done. I just wish it would look like I'm making a dent in the whole hoarding look I have going on right now in my home.

  



I'm linking up to these parties: 

Vintage Style Cutting Board

Does anyone frequent here enough to remember my March 2, 2013 post on the 3 treasures I found at my local thrift store?

These 3 treasures?

Well typically, I'm a huge procrastinator! If I don't start on something immediately, then I tend to let things sit around, at least until I get a good swift kick to jump start me. It's usually deadlines or I've been made to feel guilty by my husband (who is a bigger procrastinator than me most times) that gets me motivated to finish stuff.

Heh! Not this time! I actually had one of those items in that picture done BEFORE I even posted about buying them, and I didn't wait that long to post about buying them either - like 2 days.

And truth be known.....I now have a 2nd one done at the time of this post writing! Woo hoo!! I'm on a roll friends! 


But today, it's all about this one

Just like the title said, the Cutting Board. It doesn't look very vintage here though, does it? (for all the admirers of the wood scoop, stay tuned...)

I love the old look it had, however, it was pretty pale in color. I adored its versatile looking style. It looked like a cutting board and was all marked up like it had been used as such, but it also looked like it could be made into an old wood sign. 

Would you believe I actually passed on it the first time I seen it in the thrift store? Luckily, so did everyone else that had been in there during the week that passed. 

 

Ta-da!! 

Doesn't it look more interesting & all rustic now? I really like how it looks sitting there on top of the Primitive Style Breadbox I painted up last year.

The large gaps are what really made me want this slab of wood. 

I like the primitive look it has now. I tried to make it look as authentic as possible. Since it was a cutting board, I wanted a design that gave it that country kitchen look and feel. I chose Flour as my jumping off point. Since I usually use my own wood cutting board to cut my home made noodles on, which of course, requires flour. I don't even remember if I found an image online that said Old Glory Flour or if I just used the "Old Glory" part and added an "e" at the end of the word old, then the word flour, plus the scroll & the stars, but it must have been something similar to that. I created the design in my Silhouette Cameo Designer Studio program. Gosh, I love that thing!

I stenciled on the design in black paint, distressed it, then stained over everything with Minwax Aged Oak gel stain and sealed it with a spray on Matte sealer.

This gives you a pretty good idea of how used and loved this cutting board really was. Who ever donated it probably would have kept it if they knew it could be made into this, don't you think?

I hope it finds a new happy home that will appreciate it and display it proudly. Of course, if it didn't find a new home, it's safe to say it looks pretty good in mine.


  
Parties I'm linking to:

Thrift Store Goodies

I don't have anything creative to share today, but if you like seeing others thrifty finds, then stick around. 

 It's the beginning of March & there's no sign of spring weather here in northern Indiana. I remember hearing the phrase, "March weather comes in like a lion and out like a lamb." I wouldn't say it's like a lion so much, but it's cold and there's snow on the ground. So that means there are no garage sales going on right now. Bummer. I love garage sales!

What's my alternative?  The thrift store in my town. Oh yeah! I visit it on a pretty regular basis. Like, at least a once a week basis. I mean it IS on the way to Walmart. I have found some really nice stuff in there! Some things are just stupidly priced way too high for a thrift store though. Other things are priced fair or pretty darn cheap! 

I took a donation in on this particular day and they gave me a coupon for 25% off my next purchase! They've never done that before. Yes! Since the coupon was burning a hole in my pocket, so to speak, I decided it couldn't hurt to have a little look around.  

I didn't really get much, but I didn't have to. 
 

I was flipping out over finding this bigger wire sled. I can usually sell sleds that I've decorated up for Christmas at my craft shows. It's painted a metallic gold, but it won't be when I get done with it.
  

After I finally came back to earth after throwing the sleigh in my cart, I quickly seen this old looking cutting board on the next shelf. I just loved the rustic look it had. I had a vision for that and you'll see that in a future post.

I have been on the lookout for rustic scoops. I don't know what I'm going to do with them, but I think they're just interesting looking. I don't have any others, except for a cute little aluminum one. I could probably just leave this wooden one alone and not do a thing to it and still sell it, but I have to change it up in some fashion.

  
So like I said, nothing creative today, but if you like checking out other people's treasures, then this might have been an interesting read for you.


  
Parties I'm linking up to: