Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Starburst Mirror...

I have fallen in love with the look of the starburst mirrors that are out there.  What I couldn't fall in love with was the price tag!  There are some that are around $400, totally not in my budget.  But I read on Dollar Store Crafts how she made her mirror here...so I had to make my own...and here it is!
I really wish that the camera would do this justice.  But for the starburst I used bamboo skewers and wooden dowels that I got from Joann's, I also got the middle mirror which I think was a 4 inch mirror and the only smaller mirrors that they had were the 3/4 inch mirrors from Joann's.  I was pretty upset because they only had the one smaller size and I had wanted to start the mirror the next day.  So I ran over to the Dollar Tree and found the rocks that they put in the bottom of vases, you know the decorative ones with the flat bottoms.  They turned out really cute.  I painted the skewers with silver metallic paint and then I hot glued it all together, using a piece of round cardboard for the middle to glue all of the skewers to.  I love it, I think that I am going to make a few more and have the hallway of staburst mirrors!

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Part 1 of Bedroom Fix Up...

I guess this should be really part 2 because I have already shown you a picture of my new comforter set. Well I have been working on cleaning up my bedroom and trying to make it a nice place to go into. I don't have really any budget to work with right now, but I think with a few small changes and a few dollars it will make a good difference. First I bought a can of Rust-oleum Hammered Metal Finish in silver. I really had wanted to have a brushed nickel type of finish, but this was all my hardware had at the time, and another store is at least 20 minutes away. Too much for just a can of paint. So I gave it a whirl, it is a little brighter silver than I wanted but I like it.



Before: They were a tarnished brass color. Not much into brass and since they are tarnished they just blend in with the wood.



After I removed the hardware I sanded with a 600 grit paper, that was all my husband had, I read online that you could use 400 grit. Then washed them off and let them dry. When they were dry I used a metal primer. The one I used was a self etching primer that is sometimes used on cars. I think that it worked great! Then when the primer was dry, which was about 30 minutes, I sprayed a few light coats of the silver. I had to flip over the handle on some of them in order to get them covered evenly. But I only did that when they were dry to the touch. Now the next part is the hardest! Let the hardware sit for as long as you can before you can't stand it anymore and just have to put them on your dresser or cabinets. I could only wait for 2 days and then told my husband to be careful! :) Later I will show you what else I have been up to in my bedroom. I still haven't got far enough on my craft room to show you yet, but I will.
After...it is a little hard to tell the real color in the photo. It is dark and rainy here today. But I will be sure to show a better photo when I reveal my bedroom!


Saturday, September 4, 2010

My new bed set!

I have just received my new bedroom set and I love it! I looked all over to find one that I liked and I found this at Macy.com. CUTE! I just love the embroidery and the colors. I already had some of these colors in my room. But I will post the after pictures later. I know I have a lot of different things going on ... my basement, my bedroom. It seems like I start one thing and almost finish and move on to another. But I am going to get them all finished after the kids start school next week. I will blog about those later.