A Labor of Love

Eliana, my grand-daughter turns 2 today! She has been the most amazing blessing in my and our families lives. It is hard to believe that it has already been 2 years - but that is how time goes - fast! She is independent, funny, loving, vocal, a mini me of her mama and we love her to pieces! I decided to make her a special gift and thought I'd show how I did it. The plan is for it to hold a special gift every year when she celebrates from her Bibi (that's me - swahili for grandma)

I started with a brown wooden box we had in our stash. I spray painted the hinges silver and sanded it to prep it for paint.                                                                                                            
                                                       
                                                       
Next I painted it green with latex paint. Then I used lace doilies to add some purple stencil design. You use spray glue to adhere it temporarily, paint and then after letting it set a bit peel the paper off and you are left with the design. I also painted and glued on little wooden feet to give it a different look.

 

I used a clear satin poly to give it a protective coating and also a bit of a sheen since the paint I used was flat. Then I added a few trim pieces - her name and paper inside to give it a few extra special touches.

I used a hot glue gun to add the flowers and the ribbon and a paint marker for her name.                                                                            

                                                                                                             
                                                                                                             
                                                                                                             
                                                                                                             
                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

I'm usually craft impaired, but this was such a fun project made with more love than skill! This year it will have a bracelet and necklace I also made - who knows what it will hold in the years to come - but fun treasures for my amazing grand daughter for sure!

The necklace and bracelet!

Can you paint a lampshade?

That was the question rolling around for me. After some research and mixed answers where some said yes, others no, I thought - guess I better give it a try to see. I had a perfectly good lampshade that I wanted a different color because it just didn't add anything to the decor of the room. I even shopped for the right color and didn't find it, so I decided to try the paint option.

 So here is what I did:

• Clean all the dust, cobwebs, etc off lampshade
• Tape the parts of the lampshade you don't want to get painted (you can stuff the inside with paper - it's easier than tape)
• Spray paint in one direction first - across the pleats. Go back and respray in an up and down motion. 

I used Metallic Bronze Rustoleum general use spray paint- not fabric paint, because I had it!
It worked! There is no paint smell at all when it is turned on - that was my worry. And it does have a sort of opaque color when lit -but the bronze color is exactly what I wanted in that room - not brown so it turned out GREAT!!

And now the new office with the newly painted lampshade - looking much better overall with the office decor.  It was a quick and easy project.