Mason Jar Giveaway!

This weekend i sold some of my recent projects (soon to be blogged about) at a local school's Fall Festival.  While the overall show was more of a miss than a hit, there was one favorite item that everyone loved.  I have to agree with the public that my Chalkboard Mason Jars are pretty amazing, and i want to share them with you.  I took several vintage mason jars that i got from an estate sale, and chose several cool and funny templates to stencil on using my favorite chalkboard paint. 

After washing off the decades of layered dust,

I used tracing paper to sketch out my designs including a mustache, rooster, and a tree.

To make my life easier i taped my design to the INSIDE of the jar and painted inside the lines, on the outside of the jar.

Since the jars are painted with chalkboard paint, the labels can easily be erased and rewritten with chalk whenever you want to change them!  The winner will receive 3 large mason jars of your choice!

This giveaway comes at a good time because i want to thank everyone who has been following me!!!  Thank you for supporting my new hobby and forever passion of crafting great things!  There are three super easy steps to win:

1st:  Follow my blog.  (you must click to follow.  If you just subscribed by email I can't see you, so follow publicly to ensure you win!)

2nd: Get a friend to follow my blog (someone new to my blog world)

Last but not least:

Leave a comment letting me know who you got to follow me and your name will go into the drawing!

The contest if for US residents only. 

The giveaway has ended.

The winner will be contacted by email. 

GOOD LUCK EVERYONE!!!

I'M A HOOT!

So it's about time that you knew that i like birds.  Shocking, i know.  So when i came across this vintage owl print from the 1970's at a yard sale i was more than thrilled to snatch it up.  To make things better, it was only $1.  I really love the print, but i wasn't to crazy about the frame itself.  The print is glued into the frame so my only option for change is to change the color of the frame.

It's hard to tell from the photo, but the print has shades of navy blue, not black.

To save the owls from over spray, i used painters tape and newspaper to cover the print before spray painting.  I first chose a bright orange color to complement the navy shades. 

So this was supposed to be the cute bright orange.  It dried and looked like it was the original paint from 1970. :(  Without taking the newspaper off i knew it wasn't the right color. 

2nd Attempt:  Turquoise.  MUCH BETTER!

  

The perfect place to hang this was above a vintage metal dresser i have in my bedroom.  I like the combo of the old dresser, vintage colored glass bottles, my mom's jewelry box from the 70's and now my adorable owl family.

P.S. I want to give a shout out to Julia and her adorable blog for mentioning my chalk boarding skills!  You can check out her crafting ideas and her post about me HERE.  Birds of a feather flock together!  Thanks for the love!

{BS}

My Favorite Trio...

So, i am having trouble remembering to stop and pause for a minute and BLOG about all things that i am making!  I wanted to start blogging to capture all of my finished projects, but i had no idea how time consuming blogging was.  It makes me appreciate my favorite blogs and what a commitment those women have made to make their blogs AMAZING. 

Since i am having time management issues this week (let's be real-all my life!) i want to post about three of my favorite paintings that i have (already) made for my home.  All three are large and compliment each space perfectly.  The first is a mixed media work i did while i was in NYC for a summer during college.

This work really means a lot to me and symbolizes my heritage by using thread {my wonderful mom sews, hence my love for buttons} and the journey of my faith.  A journey never ends, so the thread continues outside of the box.  I used natural canvas, paint, sharpies, and orange thread.  To make my life a little easier i poked holes in the canvas first with a large needle to plot my course.  This painting takes up the entire wall above my washer and dryer in my laundry room.

The next work I created originally for my master bath room.  I found a really cute but simple shower curtain on sale at Target and wanted to tie the whole space together with a coordinating painting.  I created (SURPRISE) a silhouette of a bird on a branch.  I layered the background with a solid gray, whitewashed a layer, then stenciled on the pattern of my shower curtain.  Finally I painting the bird in brown.  This was supposed to hang over my toilet... but i thought that it was too pretty not to be a focal point and hidden in my bathroom.  So i moved it to my bedroom and now it hangs over my bed.

My shower curtain inspiration!

Finally my third favorite painting is the focal point of my living room!  Since my house was built in the 1930's it has character and charm but no original lighting.  I would love to have a vintage chandelier installed, but in the meantime i will enjoy my gray and mustard chandelier painting.  In case you haven't noticed i really like silhouettes. 

P.S. Notice how zoomed in it is on each painting??  Yeah- it's because i not only procrastinated blogging, but also put off cleaning my house!  I'm going to go make my bed and take full pictures of each room! 

 Stay tuned for a clean house!  :)

{BS}

Happy Fall...

Hopefully you found me off of Savvy Southern Style's Wow us Wednesday!  http://savvysouthernstyle.blogspot.com/   

I am so excited that it is finally autumn weather!  This is my favorite time of year in Tennessee, when the leaves are finally starting to change, Starbucks brings back their amazing Pumpkin lattes, and my friend Susanna surprise us with delicious pumpkin muffins!  I of course wanted to take this seasonal opportunity to chalkboard yet another thing in my life and decorate for fall. 

I give you: a chalkboard flower pot.

Now normally the blogger would suggest putting a plant in this pot with a label and called it a day.  Not me.  I kill green things.  Not intentionally, it just happens to the best of us.  So I used my flowerpots as a decorative way to display pine cones, mini pumpkins, and my personal fav- candy corn.  I guess you can put a flower in yours if you want to be a show-off.

 I added a brown paper ribbon around the top, but any color ribbon or twine would work!

 You could even make these Halloween themed with larger pots to hold candy for trick or treaters!  BOO!

 If you are feeling extra creative, you can spray paint your pine cones!  I chose to make mine pink, orange, white and blue.  But to keep with the fall theme you can make yours orange yellow and white.

The great thing about these pots now being chalkboards is that you can change them for every season! 

Enjoy!

{BS}

to the windows, to the walls...

So today i had all intentions of finishing that free desk that i posted yesterday.  {oh yeah- it was FREE} But as most of you have probably experienced, i suffer from crafting ADD.  I have so many ideas, and projects going on that i am having trouble finishing one project before jumping with joy to the next.  I guess you will just have to wait a little longer in anticipation to see the finished desk!

In the meantime i wanted to show you my three favorite walls (and a window or two) in my home.  All of these walls used to be a bland butter cream yellow.  While this color was a great neutral color to have on the walls to sell, it later proved to be boring and inspirational.  Over the past two years i have used unconventional methods to jazz up the rooms that these walls are in and even put up WALLPAPER.  Don't worry mom- you won't be helping be strip this paper off the walls anytime soon... because it is super cute!

I finished this hallway with an antique {FREE} window with original glass, and carved bird bookends!

{Thanks sis for the bookends!}

The more stuff i can cram a wall the better!  This is a frame collage in my bedroom with framed fabric, chalkboard, cork board, letterpress art, and a vintage OWL (yay bird!) crossword from 1972 that i found in the bottom of my vintage metal dresser.

This wall is probably my favorite and the most fun!  I painted an entire wall in my kitchen with

RUST-OLEUM's chalkboard paint and my only regret is that i didn't do this sooner!  This is the first chalk board project i took on, and since then everything i own now is a chalkboard. 

back to work!

 {BS}

fab finds!

This weekend I went to a couple of yard sales with my mom, and it proved to be another great day for deals!  I love the thrill of the hunt, and finding that spectaular one of a kind piece that you MUST have.  My mom also enjoys this and is willing to speedwalk her way in front of you (and old ladies with walkers) to snatch up a great deal.  Some treasures that we got from our outing are:

 a dresser

 an antique rake

a left handed desk

and vintage stainglass Christmas ornaments.

These were just a few of the amazing things that I found- and I only spent $2 on all of it!  Check back to see the transformation on all of it and what else I found! :)

Early Bird,

BS

welcome to my world...

I have a dear friend, whom i treasure with all my heart.  She is thoughtful, funny, super creative and instantly gets on board with any crazy idea i might have.  She is always encouraging and part of the reason i am now in the blogosphere.  Her and her husband recently decided to start the adoption process and there are several of us that are eager to not only find out where they are in the process, but to meet their kids!

(we always look this cute when we craft...)

While going through this process patiently, Mary Susan (the beautiful amazing friend before mentioned) brilliantly came up with an amazing idea to decorate her kids' room.  We were brainstorming and crafting one weekend and she suggested that we could cover everything with chalkboard paint... including a globe.  GENIUS and ADORABLE!  I immediately wanted to steal borrow the idea from her, and thought that it would only be fair if i made one for her too!  I instantly ran out, found a cheap old classroom globe (thanks former employer!) and set to work making a perfect belated birthday present for her. 

All i did was apply 3 coats of chalkboard paint and used a white paint pen to outline both countries.  To finish the look, i repainted the tacky gold base with a fresh coat of BEHR's premium paint.

I love that she will have a permanent outline of the US and Africa with a little heart outline of where her kids' new home will be in Tennessee.  Since the adoption process is sometimes a long one- we can at least preoccupy ourselves by doodling on the globe... oh and you can check out Mary Susan's witty blog HERE to find out how she is preparing for her new growing family. 

It's a small word afterall...

{BS}