Before and Afters...

I just wanted to share some thrift store items I redid over the last few months...I think you'll agree that the "Befores" are a little scary!

Letter Sorter: BEFORE

I knew this metal letter sorter had potential~ but man, was it rough!

AFTER:
I sanded and painted and distressed this thing until I could no more!

Now I love it! (And it's for sale...)

The next specimens are these adorable owls. Ok, so they're stuck in the 70's, but not for long!

BEFORE:

(Still BEFORE!)

AFTER: Whooooo you calling stuck in the 70's?

I just love how these all turned out!

I was tempted to keep them & add them to my daughter's woodland/owl themed room...but I put them in the local shop where I consign some stuff & they're for sale! (A few of them in these photos are sold.)

That's all for now! I had fun turning trash into treasure.

Thrift Store Cross Redo

I had been on the lookout for a cross for my guest bathroom to complete a grouping of three on a small wall. You might remember when I made the Crown Plate for this wall. I decided I wanted three of my favorite things there: A Fleur de Lis, a Crown, and a Cross. I bought this metal cross for $1 about a month ago at a thrift store. I knew I could alter it into something I'd like for that space.

BEFORE (front):

BEFORE (back):
I removed the hanger on the top, the metal jump rings on the bottom (that obviously used to dangle something) and the heart from the front of the cross. I just flipped it over to use the back. The blue matches my bathroom really well (unlike in this picture) and I liked the chippy/distressed edges, so no need to paint it!

I did, however use a fleur de lis stamp & randomly stamped chocolate brown scrolly swirls of paint on top of the blue paint.
It still looked plain to me, and a little unfinished, so I decided to trace the scrolls with some copper colored glitter paint. (I love me some glitter!)

I then dug around to find another embellishment & remembered that I had an old crystal off a chandelier. I took it apart & dangled the two smaller glass "crystals" from the bottom holes & (after painting a big blob of the glitter paint in the center to show through) I glued the largest glass "crystal" to the center of the cross. I glued a hanger onto the back & hung it up in the arrangement...
Here she is! A little classy & a little artsy-fartsy. I think I'll keep her!

Tissue Box Cover Redo-Thrifty Find

I posted a few weeks ago how I had found this vintage metal tissue box cover (right) at Helping Hands for $1. It was worn gold and needed some spray paint love to match my bathroom. For a second, I came really close to spraying it Watermelon & adding it to my daughter's room with a ribbon woven through it...but then I've been needing/wanting a tissue box cover in my guest bathroom, so I thought I'd better at least try it in there first! (I can always change it later.)

(I haven't figured out what I'm doing with that wall bucket yet...)

BEFORE
AFTER--I used Hammered Metal in brownTah-Dah! A super cheap & fast project--Done!

Fast, Cheap & Easy Frame Redo!

I found this ornate 5x7 frame at the thrift store for 50 cents...

Popped out the glass....
Sprayed it with my fave Krylon "Watermelon" gloss that matches all the other stuff in my daughter's room...
Let it dry, printed a pic off the computer, and tah dah!! A cute new pink frame (with a cute little girl in it!)

Thrift Store Frames with Art Prints

My son's room has a robot theme and he really desperately needs something hanging on his poor walls! I came across this robot abc print and thought I'd seek out a thrift store frame to alter to match his room. I also got an owl abc print to match my daughter's room (and she doesn't need anything else on her walls-but I managed to fit it in somewhere anyway!)

I found these two frames at Helping Hands. The brown one was $2 and the white one was $3.
I popped out the glass & mats & sprayed them...
Watermelon & Cherry Red gloss!
I adhered the robot print to a sheet of navy blue cardstock that I cut down from a 12x12...
Then, to add just a little dimension, I used Zots glue dots to adhere the cardstock to the mat. (The inner area of the mat was too small to let the entire print to show through, so I simply put the print on top of the mat.)
Here is the final product, hung on my son's wall! I love how it turned out...
...And how well it matches his room!
Here is the BEFORE of my daughter's frame. I really scored on this one at $3 because it had this print in it that had been professionally framed and matted with non-glare glass.
After I sprayed it Watermelon, I decided to sand some of the paint off to show the detail of the lines in the frame and to hide of few small chips in the wood.
I adhered the owl print to the pink marbled mat that the frame came with...and hung it on the wall! Super cheap & easy & I love the results!


I'm linking up here:

I was featured!

My owl caddy redo was featured over at Born Again Crafter's blog! I'm so excited! It's nice to be supported by other crafty bloggers~please go check out her cute stuff!

Here is the link to her blog where my owl is featured.