martha stewart paint – A Smith of All Trades

Stenciled tray

June 13, 2012June 11, 2012 Jessica Smith

I was so pumped by my first craft project involving a simple tray that I picked up at a thrift store, so when I saw another tray at a yard sale I of course had to have it. (I know I keep talking about yard sales… I totally stocked up when Beth and I went yard sale shopping in May. It was awesome.)

Unfortunately, I don’t think this project turned out all that great. You’ll have to let me know what you think. The main reason I’m even sharing this with you is so if you use a stencil you know the trick that I decided NOT to do. Big mistake.

Anyway, instead of turning this tray into something else completely, I just wanted to make the into a prettier tray. I figured the hubby and I could use a tray on our coffee table to collect our remotes since we now have three floating around.

I didn’t take a before picture, but the tray was a dirty white and needed a fresh coat of paint. I stuck with white because it will pop off the coffee table, which will eventually be stained black. I also recently picked up a few stencils at Michaels, so I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to try them out. I chose a stencil of a bird (I love birds) for the tray.

Using two different shades of bluish green, I painted over the leaves and over the bird. I didn’t use stencil adhesive, but I really wish I had because the stencil definitely moved around a little.

Once I had two coats of paint on my stencil, I peeled it back to reveal the stenciled design on my tray.

As you can see around the edges, the paint spread a bit — especially close to the base of the branch. I knew it was going to be messed up even before I peeled the stencil up because part of the small leaves came up underneath my brush (Crap! The worst part is I even bought stencil adhesive, but with all the craziness in my craft room I couldn’t find it. Oh well!). So, I improvised. I took an artist’s brush and some silver paint and traced the edges of the stencil.

To finish it off, I added silver dots along parts of the stencil and around the edges of the tray.

I think it was a good save, but here’s where you come in. Should I sand it down and try it again with no silver paint? I can’t decide if I like it or not (which probably means I don’t like it…). I kind of like the silver paint, and I think it needed something extra in addition to the stencil… but I’m not sure what.

I’m open to suggestions!

Moral of this project: Use stencil adhesive!

Craft Projects

Frame mania

June 6, 2012June 6, 2012 Jessica Smith

Sorry I disappeared off the face of the earth this past week. The medicine I was taking for my poison ivy was worse than the poison ivy itself. I stopped taking it two days early, but it took about three days to get out of my system completely. I felt so icky that all I wanted to do was lay on the couch and do nothing. I didn’t even feel like watching TV or browsing the Internet. Weird.

The hubby was starting to get a bit concerned: “Are you sure you’re OK? You’re not gluing or crafting anything….”

A week later and I feel just lovely again, now that the stuff is out of my system… and my poison ivy is gone! Woo! It’s also pretty much all dead in our yard, so that’s just lovely too.

On to the crafting (and gluing… because apparently that’s what I do. I glue…)!

I’m happy with the progress we’ve made in our house since we moved in in March, but I still feel like it looks like a house anyone could live in. So I’m trying to pick out pictures to decorate our home. I had more than 100 photos ready to print online, but Snapfish failed the upload and my hour or so of time was completely wasted. Such is life.

I’ve taken a break from sorting through our photos to redo some of our picture frames. I’ve got this great idea for a gallery-style wall in our master bedroom that will include pictures, mirrors, a shelf and maybe something else. Here’s what I’m thinking…

The gray frames are mirrors, the empty frames would likely stay empty to show the wall color through and act as architectural elements. The frames with pictures would be, you guessed it, pictures! And the center frame would be an empty frame with some sort of wood letter in the middle that reads “you & me,” sorta like this:

Right now, all of the frames I have are boring black, super ugly or just won’t go with my grand idea. So I decided I’d do a simple makeover of some of my picture frames to give them a more cohesive look. I want to use silver and white because those colors will pop of our blueish-gray walls.

Enter my new favorite paint: Martha Stewart Metallic Silver. I can’t get enough of this stuff. I used it to paint an ugly, thick wooden frame, a cheapy wood frame from a thrift store, a bright blue frame, and two resin frames (I picked these up at a yard sale for $1!).

Here’s the resin frame. This bad boy is heavy… and gold… and green. Yuck.

For one of these frames, I did a light dusting of silver paint using a sponge brush. By only applying a light coat of paint, a lot of the dark tones still have a presence. For the other frame, I used a sponge brush to get into all of the nooks and crannies of the frame. Same frame. Same paint. Two different looks.

For my other frames, I used the same brush and applied several coats of paint. Several. I started painting two of these frames before I got poison ivy and have probably done three coats on each.

They don’t take long, but to get each side you have to wait for others to dry. You also have to make sure any angle of the frame that might be seen is painted. For example, if you know you are hanging your frame on a wall, you don’t necessarily need to paint the back; however, if you plan on propping your picture frames up on a shelf, the back of the frame will likely be visible from some angle so you should take the time to paint that, too.

Look at all of my pretty frames drying! I’ll be doing one last coat of paint tonight, then on to my gallery wall! {so excited}

Also, I’m hoping to get a countertop for my craft room this weekend. No more painting on the floor or on top of my washer and dryer! Woo!

Furniture

Reveal: Wooden Trunk

May 26, 2012May 26, 2012 Jessica Smith

After lots of painting, my little wooden trunk if finally complete! I’m pleased with how it turned out and am very excited to share it with you.

Remember this bad boy?

Two coats of primer and two coats of paint later and this trunk was ready for some fun.

I wanted to play with the Martha Stewart Metallic paint I’ve seen in Home Depot, so I snagged some silver paint and dragged out the white paint I had left over from other projects around the house.

Using painter’s tape for delicate projects, I taped out a funky stripe pattern with a zig (but no zag) on the top of the trunk.