Refinishing a piece of furniture

So I know I have always posted crafts that are pretty easy to just go and do one day. This one is a little more complicated and depending on your deal finding skills might cost a little money. 

So I moved into my house a year ago and go a cute dining room table, but always wanted a buffet or sideboard type of thing for the dining room. However after finding one that matched the table I knew my budget wasn't going to let me have it so I have been on the search for one for cheap. Craigslist every morning and every night and nothing was coming up. I wanted something reasonable in price, but where I felt okay redoing the thing to my specifications.

FINALLY I typed in sideboard on there and yay one came up for $50. So I took my money I had saved and we drove to their house. They had furniture everywhere. I really wanted to take a picture, but I didn't want to seem weird taking pictures of strangers house lol. 

He showed me the piece and it was in rough shape, but you could see the potential it had. O I was so excited. I was able to purchase it for $40 instead and we were on our way.

A quick stop at Lowes for some furniture stain, sand paper and wood filler. I sanded down the top and put one coat of stain on it and it already looks like a brand new exciting piece. Here are pictures of the before sideboard. I will post pics of the process so you can see. Hooray for my 1st piece of furniture I am refinishing:) Now I need to find some knobs!

Melting Crayon Art

I saw this on Pinterest and thought I have to try it, but also make it something unique. I went to Target and they had boxes of 24 Crayola Crayons for $.50, so you can't beat that price. I bought 10 boxes total. I went to Michael's and had a coupon for 40% and 15% off so I got to use both and it made my 5 pack of canvases only $10. I got 16x20 for the size. I drove home very excited about this project. 1st step I did was lay out my canvas and crayons and how I wanted the colors to line up. I changed my mind about a million times before I found the exact color order I loved:)

Next I wrote on my canvas with a black paint pen. If you don't have a good steady hand you might want to try another method of writing on there or just don't write at all. I love "Live, Laugh, Love" so that's what I wanted on my art.

Here comes the art part!!! After you line up your crayons in whatever order you want you will need to hot glue them onto the canvas, one by one, it takes some time, but it's worth it in the end. If you do add words or picture make sure to put painters tape or something over it to cover it if you don't want the crayon to get on that part.

You will want to find a way to prop up your canvas and put down newspaper around it (it splatters), I learned the splattering part the hard way-I did mine inside on carpet, whoops! Anyway I put mine up against an old door and used my heat gun to run across each crayon slowly till they started to drip/run down the canvas. I found it easiest to focus on one crayon color then move on to the next color. So here is the finished product. I didn't get any pictures of the in between stage of making it-SORRY:(

You will notice how my colors on each canvas blend in with the next canvas. I see a lot of people doing this with their kids. It seems like a cool project they would enjoy, but you would be best to use a hair dryer because of the heat gun getting to hot and that might take longer so kids might get bored, but it's worth a shot. I am off here for the night....Keep Calm and Craft On!

Modge Podge photo

I haven't really used to much mod podge. Just been playing with ideas about what to do with it. So I decided to create a piece of wood with a photo on it. If you modge podge the picture it makes it stick better and makes it just pretty and shiny. I printed out the pictures in size 4x6 and just cut them down to the size of the wood piece. You can either cut it to size or make the piece of wood smaller and cut the picture to size.  I painted my piece of wood. I go to Lowes about once every 2 weeks and look for "reject" paint. This paint is in the paint section and it's paint that has been mixed and people don't want. You can get good brands and any size from anywhere from $.50-$5...Not to bad:)

After the paint dried I put modge podge on there and immediately stick the picture to that. Once I let that sit for a couple minutes I take and spread a thick layer of moe over the photo. I use a sponge brush and it seems to work the best.

Here's the final product. It's still drying so that's where there is still streaks, but when it's completely dry it'll not have any streaks.