Friday, September 30, 2011

More cheap & creepy decor!

What's a girl to do when she's stuck at home on a friday night with two little boys and nowhere to go? Make the house creepier! Tomorrow is October 1st! I couldn't resist pulling out my cheap halloween decor that I bought from the Dollar Tree back in August. LOL. yes August.
In my town, if you don't grab it now, it won't be there later. Esp at the DT!
These creepy spiders were 2/$1.00 at the dt. I attached them using scrapbooking pop dots.


Then I decided to go gather some broken branches from the woods and spray paint them black. I then spray painted an old coffee can black and added some sand in the bottom. Then I stuck my painted branches in it and added some rocks to keep it all in place. Then I spray painted the rocks on top black as well.

When I got it inside, I added 3 of these crows. I got them for $1.00 each at DT. I think Michael's has them too, but probably not for a dollar. I also had some spanish moss laying around and added it too!



My kids love it!!

Monday, September 26, 2011

Cheap & Easy Halloween Decor + SVG Freebies!

Things are getting creepy around here! I decided it was close enough to Halloween to start decorating! I love halloween and up until now, we've always lived in a tiny apartment or trailer. Not this year! We now own a 5 bedroom house! So I have plenty of room to decorate! Just wait for Christmas! LOL.

I got out some black vinyl and cut these creepy spiders in all sorts of sizes. Check out all the places they are creeping around!




I had seen this idea here. If you don't own a cricut (which really speeds up the process). She has a template on her blog for cutting them out. As soon as I put the first one up, my son says "ohhh Awesome mom!". Those words made it all worth while. Makes me feel like by doing little things like this I'm building memories for my children. Hopefully they look back and remember how cool mom decorated the house on halloween and really brought the season to life!


If you do own a cricut and have SCAL, you can use the files below to create your own creepy fun!


Saturday, September 17, 2011

Girlie Birthday Card

Don't you just love it when you're getting ready to go to a birthday party, the gift is wrapped at the last minute and you realize you have no card?
Well that's what happened yesterday. I had about 20 minutes to spare before I had to leave and I just put the finishing touches on the tissue paper in the gift bag (in otherwords, stuffed it in). LOL. I realized I needed a card. I ran to my craft room, which was a WRECK. I really need to clean it up.
I dug through a drawer of junk that I sometimes throw stamped images into that haven't been colored yet. I found this little girlie. She was perfect for a 6 year old's bday!
I colored her with my copics really quickly (I haven't used copics in months). I'm surprised I remembered how. I added some distressing inks to the edges and it made her *Pop*!

Quick, easy & simple.
This card qualifies for the challenges at Creatalicious, Cute Card Thursday.

Thursday, September 15, 2011

My Paula Deen Dining Table Look-a-Like!

A few months ago I had no idea that Paula Deen even had her name stamped on any furniture, then one day I went held an Uppercase Living open house at a lady's home and she had the most gorgeous dining table. I knew I would never be able to afford one. So I kept my eye out for one that looked similar that could be transformed.
Then I came across this huge table on craigslist for $300. I talked her down to $250, since 2 of the 8 chairs needed repair. I took the broken chairs to a friend who makes cabinetry and he repaired them for me for free. I was going to pay him, but he refused, so I made him a chocolate pie as a thank you.


I took the chairs outiside to primer them. I used Valspar white primer.




I them brought them inside and sat them one by one on top of the dining table and hand painted them with a brush. *Oh my this was exhausting. Each one took 2 hours to do 2 coats.
Thankfully, after the first 4 chairs were done, a friend let me borrow a paint sprayer to finish the job. Let me tell you, it was a lifesaver. I was losing motivation to get this monstrous job finished, but once I got to using the paint sprayer, holy moly was it easier! I wish I'd used it from the beginning. I'm told that the one I used is about $100. Totally worth it. I'm going to be asking Santa for one for Christmas.
Well after everything had a good paint covering, I had one last problem, 4 chairs had been painted by brush, 4 by sprayer, so the texture they had wasn't quite the same. Not that the sprayer gave it a bad texture, it just didn't match. So I went over the ones that had been sprayed lightly with a brush to give them the same texture.

The next step was to add some distressing. *I know, Paula's tables aren't that distressed. But I have 2 little boys who WILL distress them if I don't. So to prevent future stressing over paint touchups, I intentionally scuffed them up. 




If you'll notice in the close up of the next photo, Paula's table has a little bit of tea stain glazing on it.
I attempted to recreate this by mixing my own clear glaze with a latex paint called "fried dough". LOL. I love that name. It turned out quite nice!


Finally, I put a good coat of polyurethane on top of the table, so spills would be easier to clean up, not to mention it prevents glasses from leaving water rings.

 So here is my version of a Paula Deen Linen Dining Table set!


 And here is the real thing!


Thursday, September 1, 2011

Holiday Mini and & Blume Jewelry are LIVE!

If you're looking for some very unique jewlery, you will love Blume!
It is very affordable as well with prices ranging from $9.95 to 119.95

This is a customizable bangle! You can design your own vinyl expression to wear!

This is just one of many gorgeous charms!
They even offer handstamped charms!

Our new Holiday Mini features many decorative vinyl pieces that can be used year after year!

I love this chalk wall christmas tree!

And these chalk wall tombstones!

And don't you love these snowflakes!

To start shopping to my website!
To learn more about joining my Uppercase Living team, go to my site and click "Join my Team"
or feel free to email me with any questions you may have at tamara_bennett7@hotmail.com