Rustic ‘Love’ Letters

That title kind of makes it sound like this post is about the sort of letters lovers send each other, doesn’t it? As for the rustic part . . . maybe they are very outdoorsy types? And the letters are composed in a cabin in the woods somewhere? I’m sorry to disappoint you, but these rustic love letters aren’t those rustic love letters. I’m talking about these ones:

I made these to go with my neutral, rustic Valentine’s display, and I really like how they came out. Although I can appreciate and enjoy Valentine’s décor that screams glittery red-and-pink greetings in your face, I wanted something a little softer for my place. This little display only cost a few dollars, it’s going to be reusable for Christmas next year by switching out a letter, and it’s not too traditionally loud for Valentine’s day, I could definitely get away with using it year-round as regular décor. Win-win-win.

To make these letters, I just picked up a few items from Hobby Lobby—a mini-twig wreath to stand in as the ‘o’ (it was $2.50 if I remember correctly), and a few paper mache letters (also $2.50 each, but wait for them to go on sale before you buy—they were 30% off when I bought them a week or two ago!). I picked up an L, V, and E, as well as an N. That way, I can scramble the letters/wreath to make ‘Noel’ to use in Christmas displays next year. Smart, eh? I have my moments.

Now, back when I was searching for a nice gray wall color for my house, I bought something like a dozen gray sample paints. So I just popped out one of those tiny sample size paints to use on my letters. It’s a very soft gray, but mostly reads as white, which is fine. Go ahead and paint your letters.

(Don’t you paint on your stovetop?)

Now, I wanted them to have a rustic ‘worn’ look. But sanding paint off a paper mache letter to get that distressed look didn’t seem brilliant to me. I don’t know, maybe it would work fine, but I wasn’t willing to try it and potentially ruin my super-expensive $2.50 – 30% off letters. So I tried a different route. I just grabbed some brown craft paint, got the teeniest tiniest bit on my brush, and ‘flicked’ it over the edges of the letters to make them look worn out and distressed.

I’m not sure how best to describe this. Just make sure there’s not much paint on your brush (I barely dipped it into the paint, then dabbed most of it off onto a piece of paper so it was just barely barely barely moist with paint), placed the brush right on the edge of the letter and ‘flicked’ it forward/upward. It’ll give it a sort of bristly, worn-off, splattery look. The important points here, I learned by sad experience, are to 1) make sure there is not much paint on your brush—too much paint and it’ll look sloppy instead of shabby chic, and 2) if you make a mistake, just forget it and keep going. You’ll do more harm by trying to rub it off and reapply than by just moving on. Really.

By focusing your faux-distress painting around the corners, it’ll look more natural, so go a little heavier around the corners and a little lighter on the other edges.

I used a tiny picture frame easel/plate stand thing to prop up the ‘O’ and just pulled the sides open a little wider so they’d essentially be hidden by the ‘O’. It worked out just fine. There you have it!

DIY Trunk Makeover

For years and years, I've pined for a steamer trunk. I just love the look of a big, clunky old trunk in a living room, all worn-out looking with lots of rusty metal pieces. And I wanted one. I wanted one bad. And (joy of joys!) for Christmas two years ago, guess what I got? (No, not a puppy, although I did ask for one.) The steamer trunk I've always wanted! Jeff found a great one at a thrift store for me and snatched it up. But there was only one problem . . . 

 (Pardon the baby in the before shot . . . he knows it's his toy box and oh, the treasures hidden inside!)

It was a wee bit ugly. I don't know what color it originally was, but Jeff thought that this brown would match our living room well (which it did), and painted it. It was a lovely thought, and really a fantastic gift that he put a lot of time into, but I never cared much for the color.

And in light of my recent epiphany that a rental home does not have to mean an undecorated, impersonal home, I decided that what our living room really needed was some color. I love color, and I've always wanted to live in a space that's bright and cheerful and full of beautiful color, but I guess I've been waiting to own a home that I could paint, because our apartments have always been brown, brown, and more brown. How boring.

No more, I say!

It was really time to bring in some color, and I sure do love yellow. Don't you think yellow is the happiest color? So I took my beloved ugly duckling trunk and gave it a facelift. What do you think of its cheerful makeover?

It was very easy to do, although time-consuming, and I am wildly impatient, so it was a bit of a struggle. As you can see, I got the trunk of my dreams--it's just covered with curvy old brass hardware, which really gives it that antique look I wanted, but was a complete nightmare to tape up before painting.

After about three coats of spray paint, I let it dry for a few hours and then started distressing it with sandpaper.

Have you always thought distressing was easy? I mean, you just kind of bang your furniture up and rub it with sandpaper, right? How hard could that be? I was really surprised at how difficult it was . . . I didn't really know where to begin (I walked in circles around my trunk for probably a good 5 minutes before finally just picking a spot entirely at random and attacking it), and I was shocked at how hard it was to make any progress. It would probably help to use a palm sander (but heaven knows I try to avoid spending much money on projects, so I did it the old-fashioned way), and I think I didn't let it dry long enough before sanding, because nothing was really happening except for the occasional little gloop of paint rolling up. I finally started making progress when I stabbed at the paint job a few times with a screwdriver, which I think gave the sandpaper something to hang on to. After a light coat of wood glaze to bring out the distressing job and give it a top coat, it was complete.

(Hideous lining inside, right? And it really smells like pee, although I febreze the heck out of it. I should probably just re-line it, but . . . meh. Who ever sees the inside? Except for, right now, all of you . . . )

It makes a great coffee table/toy box and brings such a great punch of color into the room, and as you can see, Forrest thinks it's his personal playground. I'd show you more of the living room, but it's undergoing a decor overhaul at the moment in my attempt to bring in more color, and is a bit of a disaster area right now. I'm in the midst of another furniture makeover and holy moly it is kicking my pants. Cross your fingers that I emerge victorious with a great new piece in the room. Although if you don't hear from me in a few days, you can probably assume that my project ate me alive. It's been nice knowing you.

I'll be sharing this project at some parties! Check 'em out!

Dress Up a Tabletop with Jaime of Crafty Scrappy Happy!

Do you ever stumble across a blog and become instantly hooked? And you search around for the "follow" button before you've even finished reading the first post? And every time you see a new post, you get all giddy and excited because you know it's just going to be amazing?

That's what Jaime's blog, Crafty Scrappy Happy, is for me, and I'm so happy that she was willing to share a post with you guys over here today! I've kind of felt like she's my little secret up until today, but I guess I'll share her with you. Jaime has the most beautiful cottage-y style home that looks like it came straight out of a magazine, and I love her unique take on DIY and decorating.

So here she is!

 Hi!  I am Jaime from Crafty Scrappy Happy and I am SO honored to be here today!  I just adore Rachel and her blog.

Here is a little photo of my project for today:

{A clever way to dress-up a tabletop}

{or any wood surface really}

But first I would love to introduce myself... I am Jaime from Crafty Scrappy Happy.

I am a crazy up-cycling, DIY-er, and girl on a budget.  I LOVE to drool over things that I wish I could spend a million dollars on and then make my own version (or at least attempt to)!  And I love to come up with and try new crafty "techniques" (my project today is one of them!).

If I had to pick my favorite crafty tools I would say---mod podge (I mean what can't you use it for?!?), a hand held sander (I love to distress everything) and encyclopedia paper (I am obsessed...I created a help-group for it awhile back; encyclopedia-paper-arts-and-crafts-addicts-anonymous or EPAACAA (not really) but for real; that stuff shows up in a large amount of my projects and I just adore it!). Here are a few of my past projects . . . I couldn't even tell you how thrilled  I would be if you wanted to stop by and check them out!

 Have I mentioned I love making new blog friends?!?!  You can find me at Crafty Scrappy Happy.

~So without further ado here is my project for today~

(Click read more below to see Jaime's beautiful table makeover!)