Happy Earth Day! - Oak Table Flip to World Map Statement Piece

Hello World of readers! Happy Earth Day to you!

Well this one took a while but well worth it. He is done... meet Magellan! Painted by hand with my favorite paints on the market! These make refinishing so easy to do!

Shabby Paints Brand paints used were: Cali Taupe, Old Gold Shimmer, Hazelnut ReVax, Sheer Vax and a custom Mixed color...

Vintage Sue Blue - 

• 3 parts marine blue
• 2 part licorice
• 1/2 part so serene
• 1/2 part oh so shabby

This blue was hand mixed by myself to achieve a color from my childhood. Our living room was this color for many, many years. In honor of my mother and her "vintage" love for this blue... It is now my first custom color I will be offering and it is called "Vintage Sue Blue". Love you Mom!

The entire piece has been hand painted and the land masses were drawn and painted freehand.

Here is an insight to the creative processes. I really wanted to label the land masses and larger bodies of water. So I took some transparencies and cut them into pieces and wrote on them while they were laying on top of the map design... testing to see how it would look.

I asked around and in the end I decided not to add the words. The top was then distressed and dry brushed with Hazelnut ReVax.  

The bottom legs have a gold dip dyed look to them with old gold shimmer dry brushed onto the Vintage Sue Blue base. I began this step by painting Cali Taupe under all the old gold shimmer edging.

Once the old gold was painted on I painted the legs with the Vintage Sue Blue recipe listed above. I painted it down over the tops of the Cali Taupe/Old Gold to a measured height and created the line you see here.

Once the blue was cured over night I dry brushed the Old gold on the underside of the table with a chip brush. Don't you just love the depth it adds to the legs?

The entire piece was sealed with two coats of Sheer Vax. I love the Vax product by +Shabby Paints, it is so easy to use, non toxic, VOC free and MADE IN THE USA!

Hope you like this project. Please help support me by sharing, pinning or commenting below with your thoughts about this piece. Thank you!

EDIT/UPDATE: This project won a prize from Shabby Paints as a monthly favorite project. Thank you Shabby Paints!!!! I could not have created this without you!

Find me on...
Facebook: Uniquely Grace
Twitter: Grace Lauer Artist @gracelauer
Instagram: @gracelauer_henna_artist
Pinterest: L. Grace Lauer

‪#‎Shabbypaints‬ ‪#‎Giveaway‬ ‪#‎Coffeetable‬ ‪#‎refinished‬ ‪#‎oneofakind‬ ‪#‎reduce ‬‪#‎reuse‬ ‪#‎earthday‬ #chalkpaint #handpainted 

Reuse, Recycle, & Ribbon Blog Hop! - "C is for..."

Welcome to the Reuse, Recycle, & Ribbon Blog Hop! All of us bloggers were brought together by www.creamcityribbon.com and their wonderful products.

So lets get hopping!!!! I am the third stop on the list and you should have come from here... Mandie at Mandie's Scrappin'. After you check out my Reuse, Recycle, and Ribbon project you will see the next blog at the bottom.

GIVE AWAY! - I will have one winner randomly chosen from the comments on my left on this post. You must comment anytime on Friday until 11:59 pm PST to be eligible to win and you must also fallow my blog so we can keep in touch! You will receive a Holiday Scrapbooking RAK from me including some of the wonderful unique Cream City Ribbon and some beautiful DCWV Holiday Collection Papers! Doesn't that sound great?

My hubby would say that is a bad thing... but then again he has the Beastie boys song "She's Craft" as my ring ton on his phone and he always does the shifty eyes when he talks with someone about my creativeness. LOL.

Here is an item I made for the Michales Holiday Magic Contest on their FB page. I love Michaels and all the wonderful things I find in there... so here is a bit of a tutorial also.

Supplies:
1 - book (preferably paper back and one you wont read again) with aged pages
2 - small branches from a tree
3 - yards (give or take depending on the size of the next item) of yarn
1 - large 12" letter, number or symbol... either chipboard, cardboard or foam core
1 - wire or straw wreath base (if using straw you will need a piece of fabric to wrap around it till it is covered)
1 - hot glue gun and glue
1 - sheet of printable transparency
3 - clear ornaments
3-4 - public domain images from the internet
3 - glittered wire floral curls
1 - yard of Cream City Ribbon
2 - yards or so of gold thread
Brown ink pad
Bronze and Gold Ritzy Ditzy Glitz

STEP 1 - Ink all outer edges of the book pages in brown.
STEP 2 – Rip pages gently from binding and ink remaining last side of pages

STEP 3- Roll all pages need into a cone shape with one corner being the point adhere closed with glue dots.

STEP 4 – If using a straw wreath, wrap it in a light colored fabric strips, securing fabric with hot glue.

STEP 5 - Use hot glue gun to adhere cones to wreath base. Start with back row first finishing with the front row.

STEP 6 – Mist edges of cones with a metallic misting spray and let dry.

STEP 7 – Wrap desired yarn around large chipboard letter and secure it with hot glue.

STEP 8 - Tie yarn into a series of knots to create berries. Hot glue the berries onto the twigs.

STEP 9 – Print desired images onto transparency paper in the correct size to fit into the plastic ornaments. Color if needed, cut out and roll to insert into plastic ornament.

STEP 10 – Glue the Cream City Ribbon under one page cone on the front layer of the wreath. Weave above and under pages all around the wreath, repeat with gold thread if desired. Here you can see the Natural Red Cream City Ribbon doing this.

STEP 11 - Find one blank page in your book, remove it and print your journaling onto the book page. Mist it with your metallic mist and let dry. (See pic for step 7)

STEP 12 – Assembly. Arrange all items to achieve desired look and hot glue into place.

STEP 13 – Cut a piece of yarn 1 1/2 “ft long. Fold in half and knot the two cut edges together. You now should have a loop of yarn. Tie it at the top of your wreath around the straw base. This is how you will hang the wreath, make sure it is not visible when it is on the wall.

If you give it a try you need to know you might need a good movie and some snacks that wont melt in your hands... hehe!

Are you enjoying the hopping so far? What kinda of off the page projects do you like to make?

Here's a list of blogs that you'll hop to with us today. Take a peek!

Nikki at Nikki, In Stitches

Mandie at Mandie's Scrappin'

YOU ARE HERE ---> Grace at Grace's Scrap Attic

YOUR NEXT STOP IS ---> Kim at Kreative Krafts

Meighen at Scrappin_3rdeeschik

Chris at Turned Gypsy

Tracey at The Cropping Canuck

Thanks for checking my post out!