Broken Mirror to Fake Transom...and a Doubtful TjMaxx Dude...

Awhile back while pursuing the aisles of TjMaxx I came across this:

It was in the clearance aisle....AKA Amanda's Playground.

Don't remember how much. I think $6 ish.

Brought it to the register. Dude looks at me with a "are you some kind of stupid?" look on his face and says, "uh, you DO know it's broken, right?"

I smiled, "yup!"

He raised his eyebrows, sighed and finished ringing up my purchases.

I find it strangely hilarious knowing he will forever wonder about the crazy lady who purchased a broken mirror.

Maybe he will one day come across this post.

While wearing thick work gloves I carefully took the broken mirror out and tossed it.

Spray Prime

Spray Paint

Wipe on glaze mixed with dark brown paint.

Wipe it off

Wipe it on

Wipe it off

....you get the idea....

You end up with a nicely aged finish in the seams and edges. PERFECT.

Check it out, a fake transom above my double sliding glass door:



SO much better than a dingy gold cracked mirror:

Before n After:

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Dear Doubtful TjMaxx Dude,

Didn't see that one coming, didya?

:) Amanda

LAST DAY TO ENTER! Live in the Pacific NW? Love animals? A great family ticket pack for the Pet Expo going on July 8-10 is up for grabs! Ends TOMORROW!

Two Free Paper Wreath Tutorials...

Let's all talk about some wreaths.

Some hand make paper el cheapo ones. As in, I spent nada on these. Just used stuff I already had lying around. Super thrifty decor.

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There is about eleventy hundred thousand book page wreaths out in crafty blog land rightthisverysecond and I was feeling left out and had to join in on the fun. Of course, I did it MY way. With shortcuts. Of course.

1. Grab an old book. We're going to thrash it so don't choose something important!

2. Rip ALL the pages out from the binding. I ripped the pages out in about 50 page handfuls at a time.

3. Stack them and while holding them dab and lightly paint the edges with dark brown or black craft paint and let dry. *** OR, do what I did....which was run out to the garage, hold the stack of pages in my hand and give it a 7 second shot of espresso brown spray paint. Simple and quick drying...perfect except for the large spray paint splotch on my left hand. ***

4. Go out and purchase a foam round wreath base. *** OR, do what I did...which was to eat pizza. Grab that perfectly round (if slightly smelly) cardboard pizza liner and cut a large hole out of the center with your kitchen shears. Voila. You've got a wreath base...and you get pizza. Win-win situation. ***

5. Scrunch, roll and accordian fold the pages and glue them individually to your frame, making sure to hide all evidence of frame. *** OR, do what I did....staple them in large chunks and glue gun only when necessary. Saved a TON of time.***

6. Hang on wall. Take pics and blog about it.

Easy peasy. Perfect to do while watching National Lampoons Christmas Vacation.

Next up, rolled paper wreaths. Most of the rolled paper wreaths I've been seeing are made of vintage sheet music which is cool....except I didn't have any and didn't want to purchase any. Huh, I wonder WHAT kind of paper that I can use in large quantities that I have lying around??? Oh yes of course, my Christmas wrapping paper stash.

I mean c'mon, you all know I shop at Costco. I buy a hugenormous wrapping paper roll every Christmas and use about 1/1000th of the roll. Perfect!
1. Grab wrapping paper you like.
2. Eat more pizza. OR, if you want to be more classy, use a non-pizza sauce stained piece of cardboard to trace and cut out a circle frame for your wreath.
3. Cut a thousand or so (exaggeration. I don't want nasty emails from readers complaining that I misguided them in a craft tutorial and have caused them to suffer carpal tunnel syndrome) squares of wrapping paper. I did about 12x12 ish. And I used an old dull rotary cutter to slice though the paper quickly.

4. Heat up that glue gun and start rolling, keeping the printed side of the paper on the outside. Make cones that are smaller at one end and bigger at the end. Use a tiny dot of glue so your cone doesn't unroll when you let go. Position and glue to your frame.

5. Uh, keep doing that until it's done. It looks BETTER to be unperfect and have cones that are larger and some smaller...and the pattern varying a bit.

Done! This was my first one that I hung above my slider doorframe:

Then my sis-in-law came over and we got bit by the craft bugs and came up with:

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I completely LOVE the candy cane wrapping paper. Which means this wreath is my fave too. Hang a $1 silver glittery Merry Christmas ornament in the middle and you are DONE. Hang above fireplace, stand back and enjoy.

Now, get to paper wreath creating!

A

P.S. For all you delightful lovelies, I have decided to have an indefinitely active Vintage Dutch Girl Etsy shop coupon code for 15% off all orders. Cause you are delightful. AND lovely. Your 15% off coupon code is: FOLLOWLOVE15 . Happy Shopping!

Joining these fab parties:

Keep Calm drink a Peppermint Mocha Printable...

Really now, how can I possibly make a Keep Calm free printable for Pumpkin Spice Latte and NOT do one for Peppermint Mocha? I know, that'd be sad for Peppermint Mocha. He'd feel all sad and left out.

So, I finally got my craft on and came up with:



My favorite part of this printable is the cutie patootie lil Sbux Peppermint Mocha cup. Isn't it sweet?




I also had to return to my spray paint shelf and revamp another thrift store 99 cent frame. Yup, I spent more moolah developing the print ( a whole big fat $2.99) than I spent on the frame. I may have mentioned this before but MELIKEY the INEXPENSIVE DECOR. I used Krylon's Cherry Red:



Love how it makes my taste buds jump and jive when I walk on by. Our local Sbux may be memorizing Lola's license plate and starting my order when I pull up to the order window.

All I can say is BRING IT ON.

OK, you want jumpy jivey tastebuds too?? Okee dokee, here you go!

Normal font:



FUN font:



White on Red (minus the cutie patootie itty bitty mocha cup):



Upload to Costco or whomever, get it printed out, frame in something cherry red and you'll be hitting up Sbux in NO time.

Merry Christmas!

A

P.S. For all you delightful lovelies, I have decided to have an indefinitely active Vintage Dutch Girl Etsy shop coupon code for 15% off all orders. Cause you are delightful. AND lovely. Your 15% off coupon code is: FOLLOWLOVE15 . You still have time before Christmas to get some gift shopping in! I have multiples of every scarf ready made and am trying to ship out next day if possible. Happy Shopping!

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RePurposing Bubbalu's Button-up Shirt For Lil Chick....

I LOVE little boy button-up collared shirts. I have Bubbalu in one almost every Sunday and a few days of the week too. It never fails to make me smile. They make him look like such a cute lil man!

I'm also digging the whole Women's boyfriend shirt thang:


Urban Outfitters


American Eagle


Nordy's

Being that I have a ton of these button-ups of Bubbalu's and this fun women's wear trend....you can pretty much guess what I did, right?

In order for Lil Chick to wear these hand me down shirts of her older brother, they needed some tweaking and embellishing. Some Sassifying, if you will.

First of all, I wanted them to fit her in a bit more feminine style. Most boy shirts are extremely boxy and unshapely. I could have taken in the sides but really didn't feel like measuring and all that jazz. Because I'm slightly lazy.

Enter elastic thread. LOVE THIS STUFF. Use elastic thread in replacement of your bobbin thread and you will have lovely gathered, flexible, fabric scrunching. It's delicious.

Mark off a centered rectangle section on the back of the shirt at the approximate waist area:



Replace your bobbin thread with elastic thread and start sewing.Making sure you bobbin will sew on the UNDERSIDE of the shirt, start on one corner of your marked rectangle and, backtacking first, sew a straight line the entire long side of the rectangle:



When you reach the end of your marked section you'll need to sew a hairpin turn and then sew across making a second line. CLEAR AS MUD?? OK, I'll draw you a picture to show you what I mean:

Start sewing at the red star, end at the green star. VOILA.

You'll end up with a gathered section that looks like this underneath:



That's ALL I DID. Threw it on Lil Chick and snapped some pics.

See how the gathered section adds a girly touch?



Of course I HAD to give her a flower pin:


(Yes, she DOES have two piggy tails, one is just hiding. I'm not trying a new hair fad on her)

This shirt looks great on her with jeans, or leggings and sparkly flats. Love that I can easily repurpose Bubbalu's old shirts into something fun and sassy for my little lady...without spending a cent.

I'm off to sassify some more button-down shirts...

A

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