Stair makeover
It isn't quite finished but I am falling in love already

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These steps are the original steps in our 200 year old house, they are crooked too so it was challenging to put the poster paper on. This was a door poster, the largest I could find and it still wasn't wide enough or quite long enough but I like it. I purchased it from amazon. (https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0015TWJUE/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1). I put the wallpaper type poster on by measuring each step, cutting the paper to fit then used mod podge to put it on. I do need to do something to edges where the paper stops, not sure at the moment what that will be.
I wanted to use a wood graining tool on the top of the steps but the steps are not completely flat so it wouldn't work so I made sort of a marble stone type of pattern on the steps using Black, 2 different shades of brown and a light grey with a sponge. They didn't come out quite as good as I wanted them to but they look good to me over all.
We had to put the stair treads back on because the dog is afraid to go up and down the steps without them and I don't want her to fall.

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These are the steps looking down on them

Snowmen using small plastic cups I had I found in my stash (not sure where the larger ones came from, plastic containers that were small like communion cups for the little ones, circles made from cardboard for the bottom of the hat use hot glue gun to attach, plastic baseballs for the large ones and ping pong balls for the small ones. hot glue ribbon around the hat, add a bow or other little decorations then put some school glue on the hat and ball so I could put some glitter to make them look a little snowy. The eyes and mouth are drawn with a permanent marker. The larger ones I rolled some paper real tiny and glued on painting it with an orange sharpie.

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The wires are just small pieces, (I poked or drilled a hole in the top of the cup, slipped the wire in then hot glued to keep it in place)

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I put some on a wreath I made

Mushrooms for the yard or for a planter inside

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The tops are plastic bowls from the dollar store 5 for $1
I made some with just dots and some with trees and dots. I made a circle with masking tape so there would be a bare see thru part in the center of the bowl. I used a round sponge pouncer for the dots and did the trees myself with a white latex paint, when that dried I spray painted the inside with red rustoleum paint.

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The solar lights are from the dollar store only $1 (they really don't last long) but they are cute even when they don't burn out. I hot glued them in the blank center so they can get sunlight.

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These lights are are great because they have their own stake so no worries how to anchor them into the ground

TV Stand redo

My old TV stand was looking poorly. It was similar to the one below but has a swivel top and had pealed paper wood grain (manufactured wood with paper wood grain)

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I sanded the entire stand, nailed a piece of plywood on the back
used primer on the entire stand
Painted the inside a combination of browns to make it look a little like wood boards
Mod podged a printed horse picture along the side and back
painted it with matte black paint
let that dry then use 1/8" tape to make boards
used white paint over that and immediately used a wood grain tool to make wood grain boards (pictured below) doing one board at a time
I then dry brushed a medium brown paint over the white grain after it dried
Pulled the tape off
Gave it 2 coats of minwax polycrylic (water based) inside and out

wood grain tool

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front

side

back

Kitchen cabinets refinished

My cabinets are old but I can't afford new ones so I wanted to make them look lighter and newer. I stripped them and sanded plus added a tendril vine stencil to them then used a oil based polyurethane because of the wear and tear that the kitchen cabinets would get.
The bottom ones look a bit busy but I am not going to change them just yet. I do like the way the top ones look though. This is the before of what they looked like


this is the bottom area that is too busy looking and will need changed eventually


This is the top cabinets which I like much better. I made a mistake with the stencil and didn't want to have to remove all the poly from them so I mod podged a rose over the mistake. For some reason the picture is sideways and I can't find a way to change it

Old dresser refurbished

This dresser was so dark you could hardly see the wood grain, not in great shape either with some gouges, scratches. It is only laminate and not an expensive piece of furniture. I was redoing it for my own use so I wanted the wood grain even though it does have gouges in it so I didn't want to fill and paint. I stripped the wood and put clean polycrylic on it so the wood grain would stand out. I did paint some highlights on the trim so that the drawers would stand out more. From a distance it does look good and since I am the only one to use it I can overlook the gouges in the laminate.
The first 2 pictures are the before

Toothbrush rugs
A great site to learn how to do this is, that is how I learned
http://ragrugcafe.com/toothbrush-rugs-complete-video-instructions-part-1-beginners

Door mural front and back

I don't have a how to for this since it was all don't free hand and my insiration from multiple pictures, the first picture is of the main floor, the second is the back side of the door. I just wanted to share.
This took me about a week to complete

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This door was a flat hollow door with a couple holes in it I repaired with wood putty, put on a base coat then went o town with the painting. I did use contact paper for the deer and bear so that I would have an outline of them. The second picture is a stairway to a no longer existing cabin (in my mind)

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I used modge podge to seal it and it just didn't seal well enough so I used a water based poly over it and now it is much easier to keep clean and is sealed better

Material I used for this project:

• Acrylic pants, various colors
• minwax polyurethane water based

Camouflaging Visible Wires

We have visible wires that I wanted to camouflage It is an old farm house and all planks so there are no hollow walls to hide anything.

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I painted the wires and molding using a dark brown I had but I used a soft touch so they weren't solid brown but kind of streaky to make them look like vines.
I printed some leaves from the internet to use as a pattern, for some reason I couldn't draw these right.
I cut the pattern from cardboard and traced them using a pencil onto the wall
I just did some shading with green, yellow, brown and a little red to make the leaves
The grapes were really easy to do, I saw online a simple way to do this. You use a round sponge spouncer (ones used for stencils) I mixed my colors for the grapes using red and blue. Dip most of the spouncer into the purple color then on one edge you dip that in white. place the spouncer on the wall and give it a quarter twist and you have a nice round grape with shading :)

Materials I used for this project:

• Heavy weight acrylics 
• Dark brown paint 
• Sponge Spouncer for stencils  

Forest room hand painted

I started this because I wanted to make my sewing room look different and I want an outdoor view inside, this picture is before I did the doorways. I made the entire room full of hand painted trees, no stencils, I did it all with an artistic vision

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I just wanted soemthing different, sorry no tutorial since i did this on the spur of the moment and just kept going until the room was filled with trees. The first picture show a waterfall, it isn't perfect but it looks neat.

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This doorway had to be done with faux wood grain since the wood was pine and had very little definition

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This is what the top of the trees look like

Material I used for this project:

• Acrylic paints, various colors but they were the heavy weight  

Camouflaged damage on screen door

This screen door was kicked in at one time and had some dents in it, plus it had rust at the bottom but it is a special size so we can't afford a new one right now

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Hubby and I fixed the rusted area at the bottom. I used a rust reformer on it before using any paint.
I sanded the door, primed it then taped everything off and spray painted the door white (I painted the trim too so it would match)
I printed a tree and some cat and a dog picture from the internet and made my own stencil using contact paper, placed that on the door sticky side so it would stay in place.
I then used spray paint to paint around the stencil then picked up some golden rod weeds to hold in place and spray paint to create a border around it. Then I pealed off the contact paper to reveal the design.
I wish now I would have not been so heavy handed and would have made the spray lighter but it looks better than originally and hides the damage to the door.

Materials I used for this project:

• Primer  
• Rust reformer  
• White and brown spray paint  

Nasty tables turned into a lovely cat tree

This is similar to the tables I got, I didn't take a before picture, they were solid wood but had a mildewy, moldy smell to them and I almost burned them after about a month but I persevered and made a cat tree out of them.

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I had to clean the tables, I wiped them down with soap and water and a rag first, let them dry and they stunk bad. I wiped them down with bleach water, dried, wiped them down with pinesol water then dried, wiped them down, put baking soda in them, put, carpet freshner in them, let them sit ourside under the porch for weeks and they still smelled. Finally after a month or more sitting out I mixed up some water with those scent crystals for laudry and wiped them down again and you know the smell went away. I waited a week and they still smelled good so I started sanding and painting.

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I sanded them primed everything, spray painted the inside then the outside masking along the way to separate the colors. Hand painted designs inside and out, used stencils. (I think I went a little overboard on the stencils though) I spray painted using weeds for a muted design on some of it. We used metal braces to attach them and used part of an old cat tree we had torn apart plus wood boards for shelves with carpet. I made the pillows myself with foam and batting plus made the covers for them.

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My cat couldn't wait for the finished design and had to use it right away