(re)Purposeful: Sparrow Painting

Now that I am in my new digs, the familiar left behind, it's time to decorate MY way... put my own special brand of "Amy Attitude" all over these carpenter-grade, cream-colored walls!

I am not much of a painter, besides the occasional furniture re-do, but I had this vision of sparrows on a branch in my head and I wanted to see if I could make it happen. After digging through the jungle of boxes in my garage, I found an old ugly canvas of beige vases on a beige table in a beige room....beige, beige, beige, BLAH! The size was perfect for  behind my bed so I thought: Why not paint over it? Anything would be a major improvement!

So I spray-primed the entire surface of the canvas and let it dry overnight. The next morning I dug out some black semi-gloss interior paint and covered the beige twice for good measure. Already a HUGE improvement! :o) I still had a little cream semi-gloss interior paint left from a coffee table project so I used that to paint a giant branch across the expanse... I had to go over it a few times but I like how it left brush marks, almost like bark on a tree!

So I've already admitted to my lack of painting skills... I wanted to sparrows to be colorful and precise. I know better of myself than to think I'd be happy with what I would do with a brush. I drew sparrow silhouettes in different poses and cut them out, now I had templates. After tracing them onto beautiful scrap book paper, I cut them out, then made wings and beaks in complimentary colors of paper. I used Mod-Podge to fix them to the canvas and to apply the wings and beaks as well. It works best and you get less bubbles, if you first glue down the bird, wait, then apply a top coat of Mod-Podge, wait, then put the wings and beak on. I covered the birds with a few coats of the miracle Mod-Podge to make sure they were on good and tight, then the whole canvas got two coats.

I LOVE how it came out and I had ALL the supplies on hand! It cost me nothing to make and my new room has some much needed, sparkle!

"His eye is on the Sparrow...."

(re)Purposeful: Re-vamp Ugly Picture Frames for Gifts or Home Decor!

We all have ugly little secrets tucked away all over the house that we are ashamed of but can't throw away... I will finally admit that I have a nook under the stairs FULL of ugly, dusty picture frames... Some are just hideous. I'm not even sure why I still have them and have been trying to find projects to make or poor, unfortunate souls to unload them on!
Now that I have my nifty little workshop in the garage, I can finally see all the cans of paint, brushes, sanding tools and supplies that have been yearning to be used! After browsing through some fun blogs and gathering my "goodies" I decided to try and repaint a few frames and see how they turned out... Here's what I started with, I call it: '80's Ode to Boring Oak

Absolutely nothing about this frame makes me want to display pictures of loved ones in it... So I sanded it with a rough sanding sponge (these are the best!) and gave it a light coat of spray paint primer that's tinted gray. After a full night to dry, I painted it a deep charcoal in a flat finish. It is so important to use a primer first, and I really love the spray paint version because it gets all the little nooks and crannies that a brush can miss. Also the paint went on so smoothly, like buttering a hot piece of toast! After another agonizing night of waiting for the paint to dry, I grabbed that trusty sanding sponge and distressed the corners and sides where I thought normal wear and tear would occur over time and VOILA! I am now the proud owner of this cute little frame:

I used some pretty scrapbooking paper (which is another obsession of mine, that we'll save for another time) as a background and am thinking of putting a monogram or silhouette of a bird in it! I have about 50 more frames to dig out so stay tuned for more fun ideas to do with ugly picture frames!