Painted Lady Cottage Chic Desk

 This desk started off a hideous blue, so we could only go up from here!

 

It has great detail but I felt like I needed to add a little more. I was able to take apart the letter holder that mounts on top of the desk.

Out of all the stencils I own I did not have one the right size, so I used my new machine, the Silhouette to designs and cut out the shape I wanted. I use a little spray adhesive to hold the stencil in place.

I have this great product that is an embossing cream and it kind of looks like chocolate pudding.

 I use a small pallet knife to spread it over my stencil

When you lift your stencil it leaves a raised design. You let it dry for a good 24 before you paint over it. It makes it look like there it carved wood detail where there was none.

Here is my painted lady!

I used Annie Sloane chalk paint. Colors are Versailles green and cream. I also added some more dimension in the paint by adding a bronze gold antiquing glaze to certain places.

Personalized signs

I have gotten to do some special order signs lately and one as a gift to my sister. Let me tell you there is definitely more pressure to get it right when you are making them for people you know, but so gratifying and fun all at the same time.

This one was for my sister and it was so fun to do. She loves bumble bees because it rhymes with her last name. I was just bursting at the seams waiting to give this to her for her birthday, I think it turned out even better than I imagined.

Another fun sign I got to do was for a friend, she wanted a special sign that would go outside her front door.

After getting to this point I just felt it was still missing something. Since it was going to be outside her front door I couldn't put my usual embellishments on it. She suggested painted Pansies, which I thought was a wonderful idea and I got busy.

So here is the finished sign!

Fun little sign to add style to a front door.

Gone Fishing Sign

I am so lucky to get to live somewhere where we are surrounded by water, and fishing and crabbing is a big deal. It has been so fun to see all my girlfriends get into fishing so I thought it would be fun to make a Gone Fishing sign that was more girly and less masculine, but still rustic.

So the first pictures are with the signs more basic

I thought it would be fun to add some embellishments to one of the signs and leave the other simple.

I mean who doesn't love sea shells?

Infinity Love Sign

This idea was brought to me by a friend and boy am I glad she did! It turned out great and I after I made one I got calls to make more. Perfecting the words that curve into the infinity sign did take extra time and was not easy at all, but it was worth it!

This is before any embellishments

 After embellishments 

So that was my first sign, and then my second batch I did more colors.

 Have I ever said how much I love making signs!