Creative Friday #6 - Repurposed Shelf

It's another Creative Friday! This week it's all about a project for the laundry room at the city house. Come see what I did!

Remember the heart shelves from the 80's? I found a couple at the thrift store some time back. They are great little wooden shelves - though dated. The first one I took apart and used it to make a sign for the guest room. It is fun and whimsical.

The second one is just the right size for the laundry room. However, I wanted to give it more of a farmhouse look.

 The first thing I did was sand the glossy white paint off on the edges and sides:

Next, I cut an old fence picket to fit between the supports (making sure it covered the hearts up) and over the shelf. After sanding them, I glued and clamped them on, leaving it to dry overnight:

 The next day, I brought it in and add screw hooks:

As you can see, the top board is sitting on the original shelf. I added a couple of screws to make sure it stays on.

It's great I didn't have to take the shelf apart to achieve this look. I don't mind the original shelf showing under the new one. I think it adds character. 😀

It sits right by the door going into the garage so it's perfect for extra keys. A little chicken wire basket on the shelf holds string or whatever.

I love how it turned out. The hearts are gone and it looks old and farmhouse-y! Plus, I was able to repurpose an old discarded shelf and a fence picket. A win-win as far as I'm concerned.

Also, I got this in the mail - it's from Kris over at Junk Chic Cottage. She's in the process of moving but still had time to share these cute Spring bags with us and I won one!

I know just where I'm going to put it. (Stay tuned!) Thanks, Kris!

I'm sharing at these fabulous parties:

Snickerdoodle Create Bake Make Link Party

Creative Friday #3: Bee Stencil On Canvas

Welcome to the third Creative Friday!

We're starting a bee hive this Spring at the farm. Bruce has been reading up on the subject, watching YouTube videos, and talking to friends who own some. We got the hive last year (too late to start a colony) and have the bees on order for April. Yay! I can't wait to harvest our first bit of honey!

In keeping with making our gallery wall, I decided to take a small canvas and make an easy piece of art for it.

I started off with a 5x5" canvas.

Next, I painted it a dark charcoal grey (a great way to use up those sample jars of paint!).

Then cut a stencil using my new Christmas toy (thanks Bruce!)

After the paint dried, I stenciled the design onto the canvas with white paint. Easy-peasy! I like the white pounced over the grey. (Oh if you've never stenciled before, Donna over at Funky Junk Interiors has a great tutorial here).

I'm pretty excited about my little bee art. It was easy and fast and ties in nicely with the farm. Plus, it is my first project using my new Silhouette machine. I think I'm going to really have fun with this thing.

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In other news, I've opened a new shop with Society6. This is a site artists can use to upload artwork to sell. Not only as prints and on canvas but also on a variety of products from phone cases, pillows, rugs, mugs, travel cups and more. I have 6 different pieces of art ready to go. I'd love for you to go check it out at https://society6.com/tinroofstudio.

Scrabble Letter Sign (and a New Weekly Blog Feature)

Hello my friends!

I love word games. I love to win said word games. Get me to play Words With Friends or Scrabble and get ready - the competitive monster rears it's not so pretty head and I'm out to win...with as many points as I can manage.

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It's pretty much gotten to the point my family won't play me. And when they do, they gloat when they manage to win. (I can't imagine where they learned that. ahem.)

Today I'd like to introduce to a new feature on my blog - one I will post every Friday. I'm calling it "Creative Friday".

Hopefully, it will help me clear out some of my project stash while providing you with lots of fun and creative projects. On each Friday, I'll share a creative project. It might include an art project, some crafting fun, or furniture makeovers...the sky's the limit!

For my very first Creative Friday, I'm sharing a project I'm making for my gallery wall (you can read about it here). What does it have to do with word games? I'm very glad you asked!

I thought it might be really fun to make a sign using Scrabble letters. I have a jar of Scrabble tiles I found in Canton and several old fence pickets just waiting to be turned into fabulous stuff. Paired with my love for word games it seemed a no brainer.

To begin, I dumped out my jar of letters, gathering the letters to spell out our names. Of course, I wanted them to spell off of each other just like you do in Scrabble. I used Family for the first word and went from there.

 I added my name playing off the "a" in "family", then added "Bruce" off the first "C" in my name. "Jay" was next off the "y", then "Megan" off the "m" and finally "Dylan" was added off the "n" in "Megan". Perfect! It's going to work out nicely.

Next, I took one of my pickets and cut two pieces the same length. Then I sanded them. (If they're really dirty, you might want to wash them down first).

 On the back I glued and nailed little support bars to hold them together.

 Lastly, I made a wash of paint by first lightly dipping my brush into the paint, dabbing it on an old lid (you could use a styrofoam plate) then adding water to the paint on the lid until I had a runny mix of paint and water. I used that mixture to paint the "stain" onto my boards. (I really watered my paint down but you could paint it thicker if you want a more painted look).

After the paint dried, I drilled holes in the upper corners and threaded a piece of rope through, knotting it in front.

Then it was time to add the letters. First, I measured and found the center of the boards. From there, I started with the word "family" making sure the middle of the word was in the center. I glued each letter down, making them as straight as I could.

It worked out perfectly - everybody wins in this word game. So I guess we can all gloat. :o)

Joining these parties:
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