Time for Change: Stage One

It's beginning to feel like SPRING which after this cold winter sure is a welcome feeling. 

Every year in the spring I get the itch to do something to brighten up the house. 

A friend at work showed me the pictures of where she painted an accent wall in her living room and foyer.  It was a bright and sunny teal that just made me smile when I saw it.  This got my brain churning but it hasn't been long since we painted most of our upstairs walls so I couldn't imagine repainting there.  So my ideas of painting something to freshen up the house kind of died.  

Then I walked into my basement (where I have my craft/ sewing / scrapbooking room set up) and looked at all the junk I had piled on my tables.  I haven't worked on any projects lately and it is very easy to just lay down whatever you have in your hands on the closest stable....which happen to be my work stations.  Then it hit me.... I need to get organized in my craft room.....and this could entail my painted wall. Because we all know that painting helps with organization! 

To start you off - my house was built in the 80's.  It has light colored paneling as its walls in the basement.  We don't have any windows - which is great for storms but kind of depressing when it is so nice outside & I want to be inside working.  

So the hubs and I moved the bed frame, headboard, foot board, and box springs that had so conveniently gotten propped up against the back wall in my craft area.  It went to storage and out of my way.  Then I started stripping down everything on the walls.  I pulled out my craft tables out and made a huge mess....so I could start painting.

You can laugh at my huge mess you can see in all the pictures.  I do!

With paneled walls (unless you are going to replace them with dry wall - so not happening at my house) you have to prime them before you can put on actual paint so that your paint will stick.  After talking to the guy at Lowes I went with this Bulls Eye Primer.  I didn't have it tinted so that if there was any leftover I could use it on another project.  The picture on the right is my 80's paneling.  

I started with a brush and painted in each "crevice" in the paneling.  I also did the tops and bottoms of the boards.  Our basement isn't finished so there is exposed ceilings.  I doubt we'll ever finish in the ceiling because it is easy to get to when we have issues.  After painting all the crevices, tops, and bottoms of the board I broke out the roller and rolled on two coats of primer.  I have a nice primed white wall.  I really liked how it already brightened the room...it made me almost a little remiss to want to paint it the teal color.   

But after one coat of teal I knew it was a good idea.  I used the same process for painting the satin paint.  Brush to fill in all crevices and then rolled two coats of paint on the whole wall.  (don't you love all my junk piled sky high?!?!?!?!)  The cabinets on the right are ones that my husband built for storage and I LOVE them.  I have a floating shelf on the left hand wall that he also built to hold my 12*12 scrapbooks.  You can't see it really good here.  I am thinking that I MIGHT paint the wall on the left.  What do you think?  Paint it also (because I have the supplies still) or leave it the natural wood paneling color? 

Tune in soon for Stage 2!  I am using cube storage from Micheal's to make a desk and for scrapbook paper/ item storage on the back wall.  I also have a super cute red clock from Hobby Lobby,  A modge podged S and a vintage crate to use on the wall.  Can't wait to get my craft room organized and sunny.

Stacey     

A little bit of Halloween

Last night I finally finished my Halloween craft for the church auction (and one for me too)

I found the instructions for this at Keeping It Simple.  The author of the blog, Kaysi, does 

a great job of giving simple instructions for this craft. 

Here is my rendition

I purchased a 10 foot 2*4 and that is long enough to make two of these crafts.  

The super nice guy in Lowes looked at me a little funny when I carried him 1 piece of wood and asked him to cut it into 10 pieces.  But he complied.  

I sanded the ends good to decrease the chance of splinters and then I got to work spray painting.  

 I didn't have any craft paints on hand so I bought outdoor spray paint when I purchased the 2*4.

The spray paint was easy going.  I painted one wide side plus both skinny sides of each block one night (2 coats) and then flipped them to finish the other sides the next night.  

Kaysi used vinyl for the hair on Frankenstein's monster.  I taped off my hair line and spray painted the hair.  

My way - was the wrong way - I should have either a.) used vinyl like the instructions said or b.) used paint marker for the hair.  Lesson learned! I did however use spray paint for the black behind the mummy's eyes instead of vinyl and that worked fine.  

I painted the face on Frankenstein's monster with a medium tip black paint marker.  I replicated from the blog because I have no imagination when it comes to drawing.  The paint marker was very easy to work with. 

As per instructions (didn't I say I love easy peasy instructions) I ordered vinyl from Expressions Vinyl to use for the facial features of the ghost, pumpkin and mummy.  I was scared.  I cut out with punches or scissors all the facial features.  I have never used vinyl with my Cricut but I knew that I had to in order for my wording to look like anything.  I had heard of Cricut Craftroom where you can design your image or wording on an online "cutting mat" and then send it to your Cricut to cut.  I decided if I was going to do it I was going to do it all in.  No need not to jump in with both feet.  I downloaded the Cricut Craftroom software to my laptop - it did take a while - and upgraded the firmware to my Cricut and I was on the go.  Doing the vinyl transfer was super easy.  I can't wait to order more vinyl and do more vinyl crafts as well as using the craft room to make scrapbooking tags and background easier.  

YAY for Halloween crafts and all the good new things I tried and loved.  

Thanks again to Kaysi at Keeping It Simple for doing just that.