Birdhouses with Style

Our preschool silent auction is today. Every year I donate a one-of-a-kind birdhouse to be auctioned off. I never spend more than $3 on the birdhouse and usually buy the unpainted versions at Michael's or ACMoore. Then I get creative by hand-painting a scene and add unexpected touches to the house.

2008 - Jardin da Girasoli de Vendere "Vendor of Sunflowers"

Painting sunny sunflowers and some green grass gave this birdhouse a sunny garden look. I added a gold spigot for the new perch. Using a spade bit in my drill, I cut a hole slightly smaller than the spigot, then simply screwed the spigot in place. For added stength I coated the threads with some E-6000. Can anyone guess what the roof tiles are made from? They are canvas shims! Those are the freebie scraps if wood that come with a painter's canvas! Painting them bright red took the little birdhouse from cute to bidding war worthy!

2009 - Red & White Bird Silhouette Round House

I apologize right now for the condition of this picture! Obviously this is the only picture I took of this cute little abode. The birdhouse was a $2 find at my local Goodwill. The roof was detaching and it was painted an ugly 90's hunter green and burgundy. I gave the house a good cleaning, then glued and nailed the roof back on. After a fresh coat of primer and white paint, I hand-painted the bird motif and the roof and base. The perch is a curtain rod screw (that holds the rod in the curtain rod bracket). Then she received a little green ribbon and a silver bell on the top. So simple, but one of my favorites!

2010 - Christmas Time, Snow and a Pinecone Roof

Another unpainted house picked up at Michael's. This house got some serious head turning attention with a pinecone plank roof, white snow, glitter, and a stick for a perch. The tutorial to make this birdhouse can be found here.

The back has a large Christmas tree decorated for the holidays. I hope the birds appreciate it.

To protect all my birdhouses from the elements (should they really be "for the birds"), I coated them with a few coats of polyurethane.

I know that some of you might be thinking you can't do this, but let me float some ideas for you. Instead of decorative painting try:

• Mod Podge Wallpaper on the sides
• Mod Podge Fabric to the sides
• Use a stencil
• Search the web for picture inspiration and trace it onto your birdhouse.
• Use painters tape to create stripes
  
• Let your little ones decorate the house with paint

So, how much do you think my pinecone roof birdhouse will fetch today? I hope more than $3!

Ballard Pear Knockoffs

Have you seen these deliciously rustic pears from Ballard Designs?

They are really adorable until you see the price tag: $49 each! What?! Obviously I'm not the only one who thinks that price is outrageous, because when I googled "Ballard Pear" to find the above photo for you, I stumbled across Thrifty Decor Chic's own version of the pear.

As fate would have it, I happened to come across a pear that I found at my local Goodwill a few weeks ago. I bought this pear and gourd. They were quite an ugly pair (hee, hee.)

But, the price was irresistible at $2.49 a piece.

I started by sanding the surface of the pear and gourd lightly.

Then I sprayed them with white primer.

And finished them off with Rustoleum's Heirloom White Satin finish.

And that is how they sat for several weeks while I tried to decide what to do to them next. Until I happened upon those adorable pears in the recent Ballard Designs catalog. Then I knew exactly what to do with my pear and gourd.

Starting with the gourd, I mixed some acrylic paint, using raw sienna (dark brown), burnt sienna (red brown) and yellow ochre until I had a nice golden brown antiquing color. After pouring out a small circle of acrylic matte medium (you can use glazing medium or modge podge if you like), I used a coarse fan brush to dip my brush in the medium and the paint, creating instant custom tinted glaze!

Working in small areas, I began painting on the glaze dry brush style (wipe off almost all the paint so you see streaks). My strokes were in random directions and brushing back and forth a few times to blend the color out (being careful to leave the brush strokes for visual interest.)

I also used a rag to dab around the gourd until I liked the results. Once the gourd was painted I used some raw sienna on a smaller brush to paint the stem.

For the pear, I squeezed out some acrylic paint in dark green, off white, and a creamy yellow. I mixed them until I got a nice apple green color. I purposely wanted a vibrant color because I knew they would lose some punch after adding the brown antiquing glaze.

 

To paint the pear's leaf, I used a dark brown (raw sienna) and a yellow ochre for the highlights. Acrylic paint is really forgiving because if you don't like it you can paint over it. The leaf consists of about four layers of playing and blending before I got the look I liked.

After the green had dried, I used the same technique with the fan brush in the brown glaze until the whole pear was covered.

I couldn't be happier with the results! $5 was my total cost. I saved myself about $95 for two decor items (not to mention shipping costs.) Luckily, I already had the paints and brushes on hand.

Did you see that ladder above? Yes, it is the other half of this ladder! I'm still working on it and will show you the results when I'm done.

The project today is another one of the T-shirt Diaries Stashbusting September Challenge projects. You can see more bloggers who are taking Robin's challenge here or here.

And, so you want to see more Ballard Design knockoffs? Check them out here:

Ladder Stepping Up to the Stashbusting September Challenge

Robin over at TheTshirtDiaries is a gal after my own heart.

She has thrown down a challenge to anyone willing to close up their pocketbooks this month (well, at least for spending on arts and crafts and DIY projects), and use what you have in your home, workshop, craft room or wherever you create. The challenge is called Stashbusting September and you can read more about it here.

She also has a link party called Upcycled Awesome every Wednesday. I hope you hop over to check out some of the fantastic ideas she and other bloggers have shared.

I am always up for a challenge, so I jumped in with both feet ready to complete some projects and do it without spending a dime!

 Obviously toe-less shoes are not safe in the workshop, unless you want to be,
ummm toe-less!

So, what about you? Up to the challenge? I hope you step up to the plate and try your hand at re-using and making-do with what you have on hand! Altogether now: Hey ho, let's go!

Here is one of the projects that has been sitting around waiting to be given a new life. An old ladder that I picked up from The Habitat for Humanity ReStore (visit this post for more details).

$15 dollars was a little more than I wanted to pay, but Habitat for Humanity is one of my favorite charities, so I don't mind spending a little more when the money goes to people who need housing.

I actually made this ladder into two separate items. I'll show you the results of the other half when I finish that project.

Tools Needed:

• Safety Goggles (Definitely wear your safety goggles when using a pry bar!)
• Hammer
• Sand paper or sanding block
• Pry Bar
• Drill
• Screws
• Piece of L-shaped moulding

I used the chisel end on my pry bar to loosen the rivets. Some of those rivets were hanging in there and weren't ready to come out yet. But, I showed them who's boss. That would be me, the woman in a skirt and toe-less sandals!

Then used the claw end of a hammer to to remove it the rest of the way.

After removing the brace and top rivets, the ladder's front and back were free from each other forever. I wiped the whole ladder down with a damp cloth and then lightly sanded it to remove any splinters.

I played around with the back of the ladder in our dining room...

...but ultimately decided I wanted to use it as an easel.

I have a decent scrap pile with leftover boards and trim pieces. A little scrap of L shaped moulding was exactly what I needed.

I measured how high I wanted the moulding to be and then marked where my screws would go.

 I predrilled the holes.

 Leveled the moulding and screwed it into the ladder.

 Instant easel!

 

Love it!  Especially those paint splotches.

 It looks great next to our repainted Craig's List buffet and hutch.

Plus, I can change out the artwork on a whim. 

I hope this has inspired you to do some Stashbusting this month. Check out what some other Stashbusting bloggers are doing this month: HERE!

Chalk it up...to a busy day.

...to another busy day in the life of Pretty Handy Girl!

I had fully intended on posting a tutorial on distressing furniture for you today. But, I got side tracked today and then let's just say that my evening ended up with a visit from these guys:

 Thank you Raleigh Fire Department for putting out my oven fire! 

Let me tell you, it is a scary thing to see your heating element turn into a 4th of July super-sized sparkler! Luckily no one was hurt and our kitchen is still white (not smoky gray.) Needless to say, we will be in the market for a new oven this week. Any recommendations or "steer clears" would be appreciated. And a word of advice, if your heating element shorts out, sparks and catches fire, turn off your circuit breaker.

Not exactly what I planned on dealing with today! I did have plans for one tiny little project. This little project had me on a hunt for the illusive and extremely rare chalk marker. I have been looking everywhere for one of these exotic creatures. 

Target - nope

Walmart - nope

Ace Hardware - nope

JoAnn's Fabrics - nope

Jerry's Art-a-rama - Ding, ding, ding! Finally found it!

If you've been around the blogosphere lately, you have seen chalkboard paint projects everywhere! I probably wouldn't be surprised to see a chalkboard painted dog next week.

I had some leftover chalkboard wall decal material, so I cut a little label for our jar of colored pencils. But, I really wanted a chalkboard marker so I could write on the label and not worry about it smudging from little hands using it daily.

So, naturally after using my new chalkboard marker and LOVING IT! I decided to paint some more things with chalkboard paint and use my new marker. 

I put up my homemade spray tent (I'll have to show you how I made it later.)

And got busy. My mind played "Back in Black" in my head as I sprayed. (Any other AC/DC listeners out there?)  I decided to use automotive black primer (for better adhesion on the plastic spice lids.)

First up where these Goodwill candy jars all four and the rack for $6.99!

U-G-L-Y oak lids, but not for long...

Blackified, labelled and now looking good.

Next victim was a spice rack and jars (I'm embarrassed to say)
that I repainted years ago.

That's right, back in the sponge-era.
The gold ink labels are impossible to read.

I carefully lined them up and made a list of the order 

they were in to make re-labelling them easy.
Seemed like a great idea, UNTIL my oven caught fire.
Then I swept everything off the counters and away from the stove.

 After testing my sense of smell, I put the lids back on. And now that I can read them,
I shouldn't mix up red pepper and paprika anymore.

The rack received several layers of treatment to give it a distressed look.

Here is the tutorial on distressing.

Finally, I spray painted a Goodwill picture frame heirloom white and distressed it.

I cut a piece of foamcore to size (since I accidentally broke the glass) and sprayed it with chalkboard paint. Easy framed chalkboard.