Welcome to Inspiration Cafe ~ Distressed Donna Down Home

Natalie - NorthShore Days

Mary - Sweet Little Bluebird

Danni - Silo Hill Farm

Sherry - Pondered Primed Perfected

Heather - The Beating Hearth

I am so excited to be invited as guest host here at The Inspiration Cafe.  I have been following them for a while and love their Monday features. 

I am Distressed Donna Down Home.  I am a retired middle school English teacher.  I haul and refinish rusty, crusty stuff to resell in my booth at a local antiques mall.  I started blogging back in April and have written at the speed of light ever since.

My posts are as scattered with ideas and projects as my brain is.  I love photos, but am chronically bad at taking them.


Hang onto your coffee cups or iced sweet tea.  It's going to be a bumpy ride!

For this post I chose three unsuspecting little benches.  I love to stack these in vignettes.  I have chosen a bird theme for these and some painting and some distressing and some stenciling and some stamping and some torn cotton and some tags.

Well, you'll see - I just go too far sometimes.

I bought some sample pots of Valspar in (from the left) Summer Sky, Rain, and Prairie.

Very close in shades of blue-gray.  They turned out beautifully and most would stop here.

Not me!

 I hopped over to The Graphics Fairy and chose a nest for the round bench, a dove for the small bench, and two black and white images - a bird and a nest - for the large bench.

On the two colored images, I used the regular Mod Podge method.  Thin coat on the back of the image and placed carefully on the surface and let dry.

 On the large blue bench I decided on the placement of the bird and the nest.  I carefully cut the images out so that there was just a small border of the white paper.  When you are placing the image, remember you will be reversing it so it will actually be on the opposite side.

I put a coat of Mod Podge on the top of the bench and placed the images face down.  After gently smoothing them out, I let them dry overnight.

The next morning I wet the back of the image with water. When the paper soaks up the water, you gently rub the paper backing to release it from the ink.

This takes practice!!!

 Here the bird image is revealed with the nest yet to go.

The results are really worth the effort.  If you mess up, you can:
A.  Leave it and say it was on purpose.
B.  Sand it off and start again.

Finished - finally.  After rubbing the image off, let it dry and then sand with a cheap rough paper towel or a knee-high stocking or if you are fancy, super-fine sand paper.

If you would like, you may go commit a crime - you have probably rubbed your fingerprint off!

 Yes, I know, most would be happy and stop here.

Not me!

I took the benches outside and gave them a distressing using a heavy grit sanding block followed by a fine grit one.

The round bench got a heavy distressing.

The small one got a medium distressing.

 And the large bench got a light distressing around the edges.


Most would stop here.

Not me!

This next part is  Danni's favorite thing to do!

STENCILING!!!

I decided the round bench with the nest needed a bird on either side of the legs.

First stencil in Folk Art Barnwood.

Move the stencil about an eighth of an inch to the upper right.

Stencil the bird in Sea Mist and the leaves in Clover.

Using a fine liner brush and Linen paint lightly create highlights where natural light would hit the object.

I also gave some details to the bird and the leaves to make them pop.

The small bench did not need much extra - the distressing really brought out all the different coats of paint it had endured during its life.

The name of this print is "A Dove At Sea" so guess what?  I pulled out my stamps and put the title on it!

I thought of something special for the big bench - a skirt!

I love tearing up cotton calico.  I purchased this fabric because it went with all three benches.  My sewing machine is hiding somewhere in the house so after ripping and fraying one edge, I ironed down an inch.  Using Peel 'n Stick tape, I taped that down.  Simply slip a piece of elastic through there  and you have a skirt for your bench that can be removed when necessary.

 Here it is a skirt for a bench!

 Most would be happy and stop now.

Not me!

I made a small copy of the black and white nest, colored with with pencils, Mod Podged it to a distressed blue shipping tag, made a torn cotton tassel, and attached them to the skirt.

Whew!

All three benches received three coats of satin varnish - I forgot that step somewhere along the way.


Most people would be happy and stop here.

And I am definitely happy!

THE BIG REVEAL

 Baby bench in blue with a dove.

 The round bench in summer sky paint with stenciled birds.

What's that I see?

I know I said I was happy, but I could not resist adding a nest of eggs underneath.

The shy bench with a skirt covering her legs.

If she gets frisky, she can just strip that skirt off!

All three sit outside to pose for a picture.  I must admit to being slightly attached to these three.  I hope you don't regret coming for a visit.  I am sure the ladies at Inspiration Cafe wondered if I would ever shut up, but I am Southern - when we have something to say, we just talk and talk and talk and . . .

Well, you get the picture.  If you ever have the time, come over and visit.

See y'all!

Thanks Donna!

 

Happy Monday Everyone,

Sherry

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ROADKILL RESCUE BENCH FEATURE

I can barely believe it!  Beckie Farrant of Roadkill Rescue is featuring the Outdoor Bench we made over from some old pizza parlor seating.

Please go and check it out and tell Beckie "HI".  I love what she is doing ~ sharing the creativity that so many people have when recreating something old, discarded or free.  Just be glad you can't hear me singing her praises for real...my singing voice sucks.  Really!  Now don't you feel lucky?

GO.  GO NOW.  GO CHECK OUT MY BENCH.  GO SHOW SOME LOVE TO BECKIE AND ALL THE OTHER "RESCUERS".  HURRY!!!  BEFORE I FIGURE OUT HOW TO POST AUDIO ON THIS BLOG!!!

http://roadkillrescue.net/2012/02/upholstered-outdoor-bench/

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Bench Makeover ~ I think I have Spring Fever

Lately I've been drawn to pictures of outdoor spaces. 
Light, bright and cheerful spaces such as these:
{Click on photos to follow links to available sources}

Aren't they wonderful???
It's no wonder I'm pining for some sunny outdoor time.

After such an extended period of short, gray, rainy days that are the norm around the Pacific Northwest ~ It takes it's toll on my level of cheerfulness.  I'm not joking when I say I prefer summer months.  I am lucky that in my job I'm able to spend a decent amount of time outside even in winter, so I can get as much Vitamin D as possible.  I also lean towards Cottage and Scandinavian design due to their use of light, white and bright colors.  It may be dark outside more often, but I have some control over the evironment inside my home!

A lack of daylight hours combined with cold and rain for extended periods of time can take it's toll on all of us.  Mother Nature seems to understand this and starts throwing in beautiful, crisp, sunny days here and there this time of year.  Just enough to keep me satisfied!  It's sunny days like these that cause me to start dreaming of those long, warm, lazy summer days.  I thought I would work on a project that would help get me into a breezy, summertime mood.

One of Scott's Craigslist runs a few months ago scored us a couple of free benches.  There were two benches, one about 4 feet long and the other about 6 feet.  They had a pizza parlor label underneath.  I don't know why, but that seems kind of funny to me...how we ended up with these pizza parlor cast offs.  They weren't very pretty...painted a dark brown and covered in brown vinyl.  The vinyl upholstery had numerous cracks and repairs in it also. 

We were in need of some more furniture suitable for our back deck area for the warmer spring and summer months.  I thought it would be fun to make these benches over with some paint and outdoor fabric.  I was able to work on the smaller 4 foot bench this weekend.  Here is what I was able to accomplish:

The metal piece was painted silver to freshen it up, then the wood was painted a pale green with a touch of grey in it and distressed.

The seat was reupholstered in an indoor/outdoor fabric in a beachy, tropical pattern

Fun metal hardware was just an easy spray paint fix.

Bright Shiny Silver on this fabulous feature of the bench.

Colors that bring long, hot, relaxing summer days to mind. 
(And it doesn't clash with the pool either, that's a bonus!)

New life given to a discarded piece.  The fabric was attached to the underside of the seat with a manual staple gun.

A place to sit and sip lemonade!!!

Just in case you forgot how bad it was ~ ANOTHER BEFORE.

And again the AFTER shot!    ;)

This might be the perfect spot for a tiny nap...

I have a whole bunch of thrift store stuff to show you that I'll be using to finish jazzing up this back deck.  This little project took maybe two hours time and $10 in fabric.  The paint used we had on hand.  I purchased $20 total in outdoor fabric so I would have plenty to do some other back deck projects.  Can't wait to show you!!!

Here's hoping that your week is filled with fun projects, little naps, sun breaks and happiness!
xoxo,
Sherry

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