Timing is everything.

Remember this cute little grey chest of drawers?  It’s been forever since I had any chests to put in my booth at Stars, so I was anxious to get this one painted and taken in.

Just DAYS after I had put it in my booth, I came across this adorable little SOLID OAK  hutch top /  cubby shelf, that looked like it would be a perfect fit to set atop the grey dresser.

I went to work on it as fast as I could.  Painting it in the same grey that I had used for the chest, and distressing it.  I was SO looking forward to pairing it with that grey chest!  Alas, when I went in the following week with the grey hutch top and some additional stock for my booths, the chest had SOLD!! Bitter sweet.  Happy for the sale, of course; but disappointed that I wasn’t able to display the two pieces together.  Lousy timing!

Here are a few other pieces that I’ve recently completed:

Off white oval three tiered night stand; painted pink and distressed.  This piece is available for purchase at Pink Door in Aurora, Oregon.

I had two of these child size chairs.  The seats were made of that white ‘dry erase board’ kind of wood, which as as you can see in the before photo, was slightly damaged.  While the damage did not affect the structural integrity of the chairs; my attempts to cosmetically repair them failed.  Pretty wrapping paper and Mod Podge to the rescue!  These have not yet been taken to either of my sales venues.

  The drawers to this cubby didn’t slide very well once I had re-painted it; so I set them aside for some other project.  Cubbies with the backing already on them are extremely time consuming to paint; hence, spray paint is my go to solution for such pieces.  A little hand sanding along the edges shabby it up a bit.  available to purchase in my booth at Stars.

Continuing with the grey color scheme on this small shelf and DVD rack.  available to purchase in my booth at Stars.

 This bar stool is BIG and sturdy.  It had a glossy finish on it to begin with, so I had to either prime it or sand it before re-painting it.  I opted for primer, which gave it an added dimension when I distressed it.  Some of the distressed areas show the white primer layer and others the original dark color.  I was very tempted to stencil something on the back, but I couldn’t quite decide what, and I really NEEDED furniture in my space, so I left it plain for now.   Available to purchase in my booth at Stars.

With two of the wicker drawers missing, I opted to just remove them all.  The cubby was in fairly rough shape, and since I had just painted the other cubby white, I decided to leave this one it’s original wood; just distressed it a bit.  It’s available to purchase in my booth at Stars.

The leopard print mannequin torso needed some ‘legs’.  I had a black wrought iron base and a tall curvy plant/candle stand.  Opted for the wrought iron base as the weight of it would make her stand steadier; and besides, her skirt pretty much covers the base.  I used nearly 100 yards of tulle to hand make her fluffy black skirt.  She is available for purchase at Pink Door in Aurora, Oregon.

A couple of smaller upcycled mannequins with fluffy tulle skirts; also available for purchase at Pink Door in Aurora, Oregon.

I’m ALWAYS on the lookout for vintage gumball machines to make over and fill with ‘fun stuff’ like seashells, spools of thread, jingle bells . . . . etc.  NEVER imagined that I’d come across a silver plated one!?!?!  It really wasn’t even very tarnished and required minimal polishing.  Such a fancy gumball machine needed some fancy filling.  Acrylic gemstones to the rescue.  They look prettier in person.   Available for purchase at Pink Door in Aurora, Oregon.

Somehow I missed getting a ‘before’ picture of this one.  It was dark brown wood, that I sanded painted and sanded again to distress.  LOVE the little drawer and the ceramic rose drawer pull that I put on it.  This piece can be purchased at Stars in Portland.

Could hardly believe my good luck when I found this set of three suitcases . . . ALL of them had beautifully CLEAN innards!!  The color is difficult to tell in the photos, but it’s a very, very pale pink.  Each is priced individually; and available for purchase at Pink Door in Aurora, Oregon.

Just waiting for the weather to cool down a bit and the outside air to be ‘breathable’ so I can get LOTS more painting done.

The ‘pink parfait table’ tutorial

 Remember this pretty little table from a few posts back?

Here’s how we made it. 

In Michael’s dumpster divings he found this nice plywood round AND a circle (I call it a donut because of the hole in the middle).  I wanted to give the table a scalloped edge so we needed an ‘inset’ space.  But since the donut was the same size as the table top we had to do some cutting.  To try and shave 1/4 inch off the outer edge of the donut and keep it even would have been nearly impossible.  So my thought was to cut the donut into four even pieces, then cut an equal amount off each end until we got the right size.  Since the donut would not show at all once we were done, the extra cuts were no biggie.

Once we got the right size, Michael glued and screwed the donut to the underside of the table.

Michael went on a ‘bar stool binge’ a while back and we’ve got a bunch of them awaiting a purpose, so I decided to use one for the table base.  I just spray painted it a flat white.  (it’s much more TIME efficient to spray paint things like chairs and stools.  Brush painting around the legs and spindles is just a pain!)

Then Michael attached the top to the base, screwing it in from underneath.  Now I was ready to work on the top!  I gave it a good sanding, two coats of pale pink paint, then sanded to distress it.

For the scalloped edge I painted four pieces of lathe, two shades of pink (one the same color as the table) and two shades of white.

Then cut them into pieces using my scroll saw.  I just cut them ‘freehand’ because I didn’t want them to be perfectly the same.

Once cut into the rectangular sections, I ‘carved’ them and distressed them using my 1″ belt sander.  Again I did this ‘freehand’ not wanting them to be perfectly matched.

I decided to stamp a little bit of a design around the edge of the table.

Using a foam stamp and craft paint.

You can see the design much better in person than in these pictures!  This pale pink paint just does not photograph very well.  NOW it’s time to add the scallops!  I flipped the table upside down:

And just glued them along the inset under the rim of the table.

Alternating the colors.

Left it sitting upside down for the glue to set overnight.

Turned it right side up the following morning and gave it a couple of coats of waterproof matte varnish.

Had a bunch of the scallops left over so I glued them onto a couple of white shelves.

Ah-ha!  You can see the stamped design around the edge of the table better in that photo!

One thing I learned from this project is that the ‘donut’ for attaching the scalloped edge to was NOT the best idea.  It worked ‘okay’, BUT with all the scallops added, the table is a little ‘heavy’ on the outside edges and will tip if you lean on it.  Next time we make one of these we will make the inset a solid smaller piece of wood to better balance the weight of the added scalloped edge.

OUR WEBSITE: www.cscrafts.com/aj.html

OUR BLUJAY:  http://www.blujay.com/folk_art_originals

VISIT OUR ETSY STORE: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5876981

~ primitives ~ trash to treasure ~ shabby chic ~ cottage ~ Paris apartment ~ repurposed home goods ~ repaired ~ restyled home decor ~ reused ~ recycled art ~ handcrafted gifts ~ one of a kind ~ artist originals ~ second hand style ~ junk market style ~ flea market style ~ beautiful junk ~ beach cottage décor ~ unique home décor ~ vintage home décor ~ unique gifts ~ custom made gifts ~ custom made home décor ~ personalized signs ~ Sophie’s Cottage ~ grubby candles ~ how to craft books ~ Shabby Paris apartment ~ baby gifts ~ personalized gifts ~ AJ Finsand ~

PINK PUMPKINS!!!

So, in y browsing of the web recently I saw a picture of a sweet little pink pumpkin.  Don’t know if it was a real one (I’ve heard they come in all kinds of designer colors these days!) or a fake one that was painted.  BUT I WANTED SOME PINK PUMPKINS! 

 I have lots of white and ivory pumpkins that I’ve brought in for fall, so I selected three of them for a ‘Sophie make-over’!

Aren’t they just too cute!!!  Don’t ask me WHY anyone would need pink pumpkins???  But I guess that’s the whole point.  They are ‘just for fun’.

After looking at them for a day I decided they needed a little ‘dressing up’.  So I took this pink berry candle ring, and clipped off a few little sprigs.

Now that’s better!

Literally MINUTES after I added the berry sprigs, a customer bought all three!

OUR WEBSITE:  http://www.cscrafts.com/aj.html

Thinkin’ PINK!

This vintage shelf we bought at an estate sale some time ago was a nice soft aqua color, and I used it ‘as is’ in the store for quite a while.  Brought it home thinking I was going to freshen up the color with ‘that aqua’ that I have been using so much of.  But then decided that I had enough stuff painted that color for a while!

Was getting ready to paint this chair at the same time

And deciding on what color to paint these two little tables and big round tray.

I only ended up painting the bottom table for now, and the chair and shelf.  Decided to go pink.

And on all three pieces I sanded and distressed after the paint was dry.

On the shelf, some of the aqua shows through.  Although now with the top coat of paint being pink, the undercoat looks more sage green.  Which is fine because I like pairing pink and sage together!

Sanding the table and chair brought up some of the dark wood color.  Kind of that ‘pink and chocolate’ color combination that seems to be so popular right now.