Cheap Thrills

I love a quick, easy project from a cheap find at a thrift store. I found this little tray earlier today for 50 cents.

I wanted to put my address number on the tray and didn't have the stencils for it, so I just printed out some numbers, cut them out, traced onto the tray with a pencil and filled them in. It's just as well - the lines won't be perfect on the bumpy tray anyway. I now have the tray hanging as a plaque on the wall in my kitchen =)

Also, I'm currently working on this small side table below that I found at a thrift store for $10. I have painted it white, distressed it and now glazed a small section of it, but I don't like how dark it is so I'm going to have to paint over that and water the glaze down a bit with paint thinner next time. I'll definitely post pictures when I'm finished with that, hopefully after this weekend.

Until next time,

It's my Birthday! ...and recent projects!

As the title says, it's my b-day today! And this little bird was my birthday present to myself! lol!

Anyway, on to the projects! I have several small projects I finished this week. First I'll show you the stool I mentioned in my last post. Unfortunately I was so excited to get started on it that I completely forgot to take a before picture. I'm so bad about that. But it was a plain-jane light stained wood legs with a cheap fabric someone had tried to recover it using tape! Here it is after I worked on it...

The paint on the legs is a pale blue/gray color. I then lightly distressed it and finished it off with a brown glaze. I stenciled the 4 onto the fabric before stapling it onto the stool. I wanted to get in on the number craze and thought it was perfect for this little guy.

I also picked up this cute little guy for $2 to make a gift for someone.

I used the same exact technique (and the same paint colors) as the candelabra I did not long ago and I'm really happy with how it turned out. I hope the person I give this to loves it as much as I do =)

I also think it'd be a super cute with a fat candle sitting on it...

And last but certainly not least, my own little spin on this wreath from Mudpies & Marigolds. It was very time consuming, but fun and cheap. I found the frame and the old book I used to tear pages out of from a thrift store for $1.40 total. Everything else I had.

Then a few days later I found this frame at my favorite thrift store for $6.99 $3.50! Gotta love half off day! I didn't paint it or anything. I loved it exactly how I found it. It's too bad you can't see the detail of the carving in it with my crappy phone pictures. It's fabulous!

Phew... that's enough projects for a little while. I'm appreciating my apartment being cleaned up again. I think I'll take a little break... but we'll see how long that lasts lol!