Read about the above table HERE.

THAT being said, there ARE a few ‘little secrets’ that I don’t just GIVE AWAY.  I worked very hard all my life to raise a son on my own and have ‘taken care of myself’ since I was 12.  And I plan to do so until I die!  Taking care of myself (financially and physically!) became much more difficult in 2001, when a surgeon convinced me that my life would be better if I let him fuse my crooked spine.  (LONG story!)  That surgery has left me permanently disabled, and gradually getting less able-bodied as every year goes by.  What does that have to do with my ‘wood wash’???

Read about the above table HERE.

Well, since I may not be able to DO as much in the not so distant future, I started writing e-books, to sell at very nominal prices; so that I’d have SOMETHING to generate a little income when ‘the day comes’ that I can no longer make stuff and haul it to the craft show and antique mall to sell.   I was saving my weathered wood wash recipe for just such an e-book then the key ingredient I bought to make it was discontinued.  So it can’t be made anymore.

I began searching for a ‘reasonable substitute’ and discovered Ralph Lauren Glaze, tobacco color.  I actually like it BETTER then my old wood wash.  It’ s more ‘flexible’ and can be used on surfaces my would wash could not.  But I’ve heard it’s now been discontinued too!  (it’s a conspiracy I tell ya!)  I bought 3 quarts of it when it went on close out, so I’m SET for a while.

But YOU wanted to know how to get the look I do with my wood wash, right???  Experiment a little and find your own favorite concoction!  There are all kinds of antiquing glazes and stains out there.  Even glaze bases that you can add your own color to!  A ‘wash’ by definition’ is just watered down paint!  Find a paint color that you like, water it down and brush it on and let it soak in.  The DRAWBACK to the wash is that it will only really soak in into spots where it hits BARE WOOD.  So it’s use is pretty limited.  It will ‘float on the painted surface and dry’ , thereby darkening that part a bit too.  But if you apply too much it will pool and spot.

I hardly use it at all anymore, now that I am doing more shabby chic style and not folk art primitives anymore.  Take a scrap piece of wood, paint it, sand it, and start experimenting with stains and washes and find one that suits YOUR personal style, is my best advice on this matter.

But when I do occasionally have to sand by hand, I use  a coarse sanding sponge or block:

You can find them in any hardware store, near the sand paper.  I even found them at Dollar Tree a while ago, and stocked up!  They can be expensive at the hardware store, so look for them on sale and stock up.  They are just much easier to handle when sanding intricate things.

Vintage carved teak wood seahorse I found at a thrift store.

It had a bit of a crack down the middle of the head, so before I painted it, I filled the crack with some tacky glue to be sure it didn’t crack further.

I just slapped on a couple of quick coats of my beachy blue paint and sanded it to distress (with a COARSE sanding sponge).

The eyes don’t show up very well in the photo, but they do in person.

For sale in my booth at Stars.  I’ll be adding more beach and spring decor after Valentine’s Day.

One more using the DT plaques with the scroll top, but on this one I completely altered.

New scrapbook paper background, and word embellishments.

In my booth at Stars.

The last two had the most flat backs, so I used them on some altered heart shaped candy boxes.

This second box (the middle sized one) had some quilt-like designs on the top.  I only had 2 of the cherubs left, so I chose this one to alter withOUT a cherub.

And the smallest box with a cherub.

I lost the original picture of these little framed cherubs. (bought them quite some time ago!)  They were on a bright turquoise velvet backing in the frames.  I took them apart right away, and stashed them in my ‘Valentine stuff’ supply box until I was ready to work on Valentine stuff!

I also had these, shown as purchased; ceramic and painted gold.

And these, cast plaster painted gold.

And this single one,  plastic painted gold.  NOW, what to do with all that gold and gaudiness?!?!?

Paint them, of course!  Spray paint would be my first choice for items as intricate as these.  But being in the midst of monsoon season here in Oregon is prohibitive to outdoor painting.  So plan B is use craft paints.  More coats required and more time consuming, but it gets the job done!  MY flash went off in the above photo and washed it out a bit, but you can see how I painted them  an off white before ‘glazing’ them.

Did all of them with the same treatment; off white paint, then Ralph Lauren tobacco glaze.

GLAZING:  First, generously apply the glaze, being sure to get it onto all the nooks and crannies.  I really just SLOP it on!

Then I ‘stipple’ over the entire surface to remove some of the excess AND even it out over the entire surface.

Then with a rag (I prefer CLOTH to paper towels; old socks work great!) gently dab over the entire surface.  This is where you create the contrast, leaving more glaze in the detail areas.

And now another look at the before and after glazing.  A couple more glazing tips:  work quickly, it dries fairly fast.  If you look closely you can see that foot on the left is NOT glazed, YET!  Leave yourself something to hold on to.  Go back and glaze that after the whole thing dries.  Once the glaze is dry, it’s permanent!  So it’s better to remove too MUCH, as opposed to too little.  You can always go back and add more if you need to.

And then you have to figure out what to DO with your shabby chic cherubs.  I started rummaging through my stash of frames and happened upon these plaques from Dollar Tree; which I bought mostly because I liked the scroll on top, and intended to use for making collages.

So, I positioned one of the cherubs on the plaque to see if I liked the proportions before I started looking for new background paper.  HEY!!!  The cherub covers up the bird, AND the ‘BELIEVE’ saying works with the cherub theme!!  Where’s my glue???

I did both of that set on the DT plaques.

Then, after looking at them while the glue dried I decided it needed a little something more, crowns!  NOW they’re really done!

And the tiny cherubs with the frames just got a new backing (old dictionary pages)  and glued back into their original frames.  I thought about using vintage sheet music on these,  especially since they are playing instruments.  But the music pages were too big and bold of a pattern, and I wanted a more muted back ground.

I stayed away from Valentine specific colors/wording on these; so they are something that can be used year round.  The small oval framed cherubs will be going into my etsy shop soon.  The bigger plaques have gone to my space at Stars Antiques.

]]> http://trash2treasure.wordpress.com/2012/01/29/from-outdated-gaudy-gold-to-updated-shabby-chic/feed/ 3 trash2treasure 1.20.12 stars cupids 001 1.20.12 stars cupids 002 1.20.12 stars cupids 003 1.20.12 stars cupids 004 1.25.12 projects 071 1.25.12 projects 072 1.25.12 projects 068 1.25.12 projects 069 1.25.12 projects 070 1.25.12 projects 071 1.25.12 projects 076 1.25.12 projects 077 1.25.12 projects 078 1.25.12 projects 105 1.25.12 projects 096 http://trash2treasure.wordpress.com/2012/01/27/etsy-shop-back-up-and-running/ http://trash2treasure.wordpress.com/2012/01/27/etsy-shop-back-up-and-running/#comments Fri, 27 Jan 2012 18:10:01 +0000 trash2treasure http://trash2treasure.wordpress.com/?p=9058 ]]> Five pages of listings down and just a few more to go!  Close enough to being done for the time being though.  Take a peek!    Right n ow I’ve got to get outside and take full advantage of the 2 sunny and dry days that are forecasted!  I can’t even remember tha last time we had 2 dry days in a row.  I have several painting projects I’m hoping to get done while it’s dry.  And I need to sort through and organize the storage trailer while I can set stuff outside too.  I’ll be back to the blog and my etsy shop when the rain returns on Sunday!

I usually look at the INSIDE to decide whether or not to buy a certain one.  There is often, ‘all kinds of crap’ in there from years of use that will need to be cleaned out.  Usually a good soak in a sink of soapy water does the trick; but I have passed up some of questionable contents!

The EASIEST way to repaint these is with spray paint, but it’s not very good ‘outdoors painting weather’ here in Oregon right now; so I hand painted it with my craft paints.   A couple of coats, then a bit of sanding.  Alternatively, I could have used a glaze to bring out the detail instead of sanding.

The gold peeking through the turquoise turned out to be a good combination in this case, and I was happy with the result.  But I have been known to go back and paint over a finish that was not to my liking!

I had a few others in my stash that were already painted.  Just sanded this one a bit for the original white to show through.

The one above on the left had a lot of texture to it, so I used a dry brush technique on it.

Dry brushing just hits the high spots, leaving the indented parts their original color.  I don’t remember what color this one was originally.  I had spray painted it black last summer.

VERY lightly sanded some of the raised detail on this one.

They have all gone to my booth at Stars, and hung inside a frame with a couple of white wire baskets added.

]]> http://trash2treasure.wordpress.com/2012/01/25/vintage-wall-pockets-vases/feed/ 2 trash2treasure 1.20.12 stars cupids 020 1.20.12 stars cupids 035 1.20.12 stars cupids 036 1.20.12 stars cupids 021 1.20.12 stars cupids 022 1.20.12 stars cupids 024 1.20.12 stars cupids 026 1.20.12 stars cupids 060 http://trash2treasure.wordpress.com/2012/01/22/savings-alert-25-off-storewide-sale-michaels-craft-stores-including-sale-items/ http://trash2treasure.wordpress.com/2012/01/22/savings-alert-25-off-storewide-sale-michaels-craft-stores-including-sale-items/#comments Sun, 22 Jan 2012 16:56:45 +0000 trash2treasure http://trash2treasure.wordpress.com/?p=9033 ]]> If you’re signed up for their email list, you already know about this sale.  For those of you who aren’t on the Michael’s email list (I suggest you sign up NOW, to get all their sale notices and bonus coupons) Here’s the skinny:

MICHAEL’S   MADNESS   EVENT

25% odd your entire purchase INCLUDING sale items (some exclusions, see coupon in store)

Today only; Sunday, January 22, 2012 from 4-8pm 

And just in case you haven’t fully recovered from all the hectic Christmas shopping, don’t let the proclaimed ‘madness’ title scare you off.  I TRY to buy as much of my supplies as possible ‘on sale’ so I hit these ‘% off everything’ sales as often as I can or need supplies; and it’s NEVER been a mad house.  Pretty much like shopping any other day.  (at least HERE in my area!)

Still, I always plan to arrive an hour BEFORE the sale starts to get my shopping done before it gets a little busier.  Then I’m ready to check out right at 4:oo!  This also leaves me enough time to hit a second Michael’s about 1/2 an hour away; if there is something I need MORE of.

Happy shopping!  Happy SAVING!!

Most of these shown are bigger, about HAND size hearts that I’m selling individually in my booth at Stars.

Adding some *tea* stained vintage lace, felt and quilt batting.

*I don’t use actual TEA for my stain.  Recipe is sold on etsy.

LOTS of buttons!

It’s really quite relaxing, searching for ‘just the right button’ to fit in each spot and making sure they are all different.

Layers are stitched to the front piece, then buttons,  before stitching front and back together and stuffing.

Little French knots added between buttons.

I’m really “into” the LAYERS this year.

Smaller ones are packaged in cello bags in sets.

]]> http://trash2treasure.wordpress.com/2012/01/19/pictures-of-recently-made-hearts/feed/ 1 trash2treasure 1.2.12 lanterns etsy 007 1.2.12 lanterns etsy 008 1.2.12 lanterns etsy 009 1.2.12 lanterns etsy 010 1.2.12 lanterns etsy 011 1.2.12 lanterns etsy 012 1.2.12 lanterns etsy 013 1.2.12 lanterns etsy 014 1.2.12 lanterns etsy 016 1.2.12 lanterns etsy 015 1.2.12 lanterns etsy 017 1.2.12 lanterns etsy 021 1.2.12 lanterns etsy 022 1.2.12 lanterns etsy 023 etsy stars 12 24 11 060 etsy stars 12 24 11 059 etsy stars 12 24 11 058 1.12.11 stars 094 1.12.11 stars 017