Meet Frenchy

Being a professional educator for 18 years, I've met kids with all kinds of unusual names.  Most teachers will tell you that it's hard to name their own children without having flashbacks of monsters  students that they've had in the past.

So I've never been one to name furniture....until I finished this piece.  It was a simple oak plant stand that my mother passed on to me years ago.  It hopped all over the house serving various roles.  The other day I decided it needed an update.

So I gave it two coats of ASCP Old White.  You should be proud of me. I remembered to take a "before" shot before I finished painting it!

I love this image from The Graphics Fairy and have been waiting on the perfect project.  So I pulled it out and used it.

I printed the image in reverse, copied it on a copy machine, and used a blender pen to transfer the image.

I finished it with some light distressing and clear wax.

Perhaps it's the small size.  Probably that combined with the French label.  "Frenchy" just seems to fit.

I'm safe.  I never had a student named Frenchy!

Crashing these parties:

Bee Stool, Round 2

Who knew such a simple project would become so complicated?  A few weeks ago my husband brought home this stool.

I had the idea of using a Graphics Fairy image on the seat.  I tried a new transfer method using Mod Podge.  It was a miserable FAIL! 

 You can read more about it here.

Anyway, I sanded it down, repainted the seat, and decided to use the Chartpak Blender Pen recommended by Rosemary at Villabarnes.

That was an adventure in itself!  I went to my local Michaels store to buy the pen.  They didn't carry it, so I bought a different brand.  THAT didn't work!  Like Rosemary said, it's got to be a Chartpak!

I was at a conference in Austin and decided to look at a "big city" Michaels.  They didn't have it either.  Rosemary suggested I try Amazon.  Found some there for less than $2 each but Amazon wanted $4 per pen for shipping!  Ridiculous!  So I contacted the company directly and was able to order from their website.  For less than $2 each I decided to go ahead and order several and save on shipping.  If you're having a hard time finding them, you might check Hyatt's Art Supply.

Anyway, the pens arrived this week and now that my grandson has played and gone, I decided to finish up this project that seems to have gone on forever!

I had printed out the flipped image from the Graphics Fairy on my ink jet printer.  Then I took it and had a copy made.  You must use a copy that comes from a toner print machine.  

This really was as simple as Rosemary suggests!  Place image face down, rub the back of the image with the Blender Pen, and voile!  

This is what it was supposed to look like the first time!

So what would I say is the secret to the success of this project?

Persistance!

Joining my friends here:

Another Stool and Another Challenge

By now you probably know I have a soft spot in my heart for stools. I've rehabed wooden ones and metal ones.  I've put numbers on some, words on others.  So when my husband found this stool by a dumpster and brought it home, I was excited to see where it would take me.

See those white legs?  They're metal!

This has real potential.  The light-colored wooden seat spoke to me so I painted it ASCP Arles.  That color then spoke to me and I began to hunt for a bee graphic.  Where else to look for graphics than the Graphics Fairy!

I found the perfect one and needed to figure out how to transfer it to the seat.  Karen at the Graphics Fairy pointed me to this tutorial.  It seemed simple enough so I decided to try it.

You can read Katie's tutorial, but basically you glue the image to the stool and then wet the paper and rub it away, leaving the image intact.  I couldn't believe it as I began to rub the paper away and the image stayed behind!  One thing I learned was that the color of the image may change.  I printed mine out in brown because I thought it might go better with the yellow.  When I rubbed the paper away, the blue pigment went with it and I was left with a rusty red.  It works!  Just want to give you a heads-up because that might not be good on your project!

I brushed on a coat of wax and took it outside to dry.  That's when I discovered the "challenge."  

You see, this transfer method has you put a coat of glue on paper before you print your image and a coat of Mod Podge on the stool.  Then you put the image face down on the wet Mod Podge and leave it overnight.  What I discovered was that when I wet and rubbed away the paper, the Mod Podge stayed behind.  You can see it in the light (above).  

Here's the same shot taken from the other side of the stool.  Now you see it, now you don't!

Have you tried this transfer method?  Did you have the same issue??

Small Bench and a Coffee Sack

The joy of this business comes from breathing new life into old, neglected pieces.  Some pieces bring more satisfaction because of where they started from.  


I can't remember where I found this bench.  I look at it and think, "surely I didn't pay for this!"  

But if you look past the filthy pink roses you'll see some pretty awesome legs!

So after dismantling the cushion, I painted those legs in ASCP Emperor's Silk.

One of these days I'll get the lighting on my photos figured out!

Last weekend I found a great burlap coffee sack with awesome black lettering - just the size for this bench.  So I recovered the cushion.

Sometimes anything you do is an improvement.  



Showing of at these great parties: