Birth date canvas

Here is a canvas my oldest daughter Britany painted today.
24"x48" canvas with all of our birth dates hand painted on each line oldest to youngest and family wrote at the bottom. She also gave the canvas an old time worn look to it before she did the lettering.

Great job Brit!

Fun With old cabinet doors

Have old cabinet doors lying around? Don't throw them out.....

This is a before shot of the cabinet door below. It is shown vertical here.
The frame has already been stained dark, the inside panel is the original color of the door.
The blue is tape. Sorry for such a bad before photo.

• Make hanging art work out of them. Paint a picture or perhaps a printed verse or numbers.Using all types of media from paint, plasters and decoupage to create your art work.
• Make a chalkboard out of the center panel and it already has a built in frame. Simply sand the center panel slightly, tape off the area you want to be a chalk board, prime with a dark tinted primer, dry then roll on or using the spray can variety apply the chalk paint. Three coats are best.
• Apply vinyl lettering to one for a cool looking sign.
• Attach hooks to the bottom of one and create a coat hook.
• Any type of paint finish can be done on cabinet doors to give a unique look for any decor.
• Attach photos to the center panel and you already have a frame.
• Using magnet paint and marker board paint create your own message center.
• Give the door a distressed paint finish. Add cup hooks in even rows over the center panel of the door. Apply numbers on tags or paint them on under each cup hook for an old fashioned hotel key holder. No more lost keys.

AFTER:
Here's an example of art work done on an old cabinet door.
I may attach coat hooks or door knobs along the bottom yet.
The frame is still wet in this photo.

White wash a brick fireplace how to

Before

After

This is an extremely easy project. 

As you can see in the before, the brick was pretty much a standard brick color and a little harsh in it's surroundings. the white wash gave it a much softer feel.

This is the lime wash that I used

Clean the brick first of any dust or cobwebs with a broom and an old rag, no water needed.

1. Tape off ceiling and surrounding walls and woodwork.
2. I used a lime wash by McClosky. Pour some into a tray. You will also need a chip brush and an old rag
3. .Begin by dipping your brush into the lime wash and work into the bristles. Start out with as little on the brush as possible, you can always add more once you get the feel for how much you are comfortable with. Starting at the top of the wall dap the lime wash on to the brick and scrub it in until you get the look you desire.
4. Now take an old rag and rub some back.
5. Once the entire wall is covered you can go back in and add more lime wash here and there on the edges of some of the bricks.
6. Your done!

Painting clouds on a ceiling

My little girl wants her bedroom to have a horse theme with the ceiling to have clouds painted on it.
The ceiling is slanted at one end and the whole ceiling is divided into sections with lattice strips. The strips are painted out with wood grain. So each section will have clouds painted inside them.

We first painted the ceiling a very light blue, which she chose. Then with a 2" chip brush and an off white I brushed and scrubbed in cloud formations, doing one section at a time. Make the clouds odd irregular shapes with uneven wispy edges. Space them out in a random order. Make sure they do not all look the same and are different sizes. Then using a white paint, chip in the high lights on the top edges of the clouds and tap in some areas in the middle of the clouds as well. Using a clean chip brush blend the area somewhat to soften. Then using a blue a couple shades darker than the base color, chip in areas on the under side of the cloud formations and again soften. At this point you can add a little of a grey blue color under the blue areas to give more depth. Stand back a look at the clouds. More white may need to be added where you put the white before to give it a more solid white look at the top of the clouds. You can also chip in some areas of white in between some of the clouds to give a hint of a wispy cloud here and there.

Stenciling all over a paneled wall

Revamped built in book case

Built in cabinet: I removed the shelves and cabinet doors then thoroughly cleaned the entire piece with TSP. After it was dry I then primed the entire piece with 123 primer by Zinzer. I rolled on a white paint in a satin finish. 2 -3 coats. I decided to paint just the back wall of the cabinet a blue gray and stenciled a design on it using a metallic paint. Soon I will purchase glass shelves instead of the original wood ones and Iv'e decided not to put the bottom doors back on.

Before

After
Update.... decorated, but I kept the original wood shelves, for now anyway.

How to paint Zebra stripes on an entire wall

coming soon