Contest giveaway

Diane of A Primitive Journey blog and Forum is holding a contest / giveaway on her blog through Feb. 28th for a $25 gift card to either Hobby Lobby OR Michaels along with a tart warmer and tarts!  What a great giveaway!  Her blog is http://www.aprimitivejourney.com/.  I just joined the forum and love it!  Hurry the giveaway ends soon!
Thanks!

Antiqued wood sign tutorial

   I have been making these for a couple of years now.  There are several steps to them.  I use rough cut lumber from the lumber yard.  I have a huge stack of it in my barn.
 
   I then have to plane it and router the edges.
 

I then stain the sides and the back.  I let it dry completely then paint the front of the sign with a white latex paint.  It usually takes a couple of coats.  I let that dry completely and sand with a fine sandpaper.
 
   I then either hand paint the words on the sign or sometimes I use my vinyl cutting machine. I have a Roland GX-24.  I can have the machine cut out the saying for me and I apply it to the sign. 
   Then I use a 2 step crackle process.  I brush on step 1 and let it dry completely, then I brush on step 2.  I like to put them both on kind of thick to make larger cracks in the finish.  After the sign has dried overnight you will see the cracks have appeared in the finish. 
   I then take an antique gel and brush it onto the sign.  I add just a little water to thin the gel so that it goes into all of the cracks.  After I have a nice coating applied, I wipe it off with a soft towel.  The gel will settle into the cracks.


   I then let that dry completely and then I am ready to paint the grapevine and berries onto the bottom of the sign. 

   After it is dry, I measure and drill holes at the top of the sign to add the wire for hanging.  This of course is optional.  I curl the wire and attach it to the sign.  I then add the berries and bow for the finishing touch! 
Thanks for visiting.
Have a good weekend!

Click on pic to enlarge

Wall Painting

Hi everyone,   I wanted to share a painting that is in my daughters bedroom.  I painted this a few years ago.  I wanted to post a picture of it before she ''out grows'' it!  She turns 11 today, so it's just a matter of time before she will want to pick out her own colors for her room.  You can't see it in the picture, but the ceiling is also painted blue with clouds.  We wanted something bright and cheerful for her room.  It's nice to go in there especially on a day like today when the temperature is in single digits!!  Can't wait for spring!!
Stay Warm!
Jodi

click on pic to enlarge

Wool Sunflowers

It seems as if sunflowers are catching my eye lately.  I just made these sunflowers made of wool.  I went outside to get sticks to use as the stems.  I'm not sure if I will use the sticks or dowel rods.   It's based on a pattern from Buttermilk Basin. 

I found hand-dyed wool online and I cut it in strips for the flowers.  I  have been reading about different ways to dye wool yourself, but I don't think I'll be doing it anytime soon!  Thanks for visiting!
Have a great weekend.

Craft Hope for Haiti

I just found a wonderful group that has a shop on Etsy.com.  It's called Craft Hope .  It's a group of crafters that have donated a craft item to be sold with the proceeds going to an organization called Doctors Without Borders  They have already collected over $7000 in 2 days.

Please take the time to visit these websites.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/crafthope
http://doctorswithoutborders.org/
http://www.crafthope.com/

What ya working on Wednesday

I am making more of my handmade primitive sunflowers.  I sold tons of these last year at the shows, so I thought I had better get started making more.  I sold them in packs of 7 as bowl fillers and I put them in baskets too.  I am trying to come up with some other ideas for them.  People just love them!! I sold out of everything I had at the show.
This first pic is the sunflowers after I soaked them in a coffee/vanilla mix.  ( Please excuse my paint covered desk!!) I let them dry then "fluff" them up a bit by separating the petals. 

This picture is the finished basket.

I got my pattern for the sunflowers from a great blog by the Krazy Kraft Lady, here is a link to the pattern and her blog  Primitive sunflower pattern

Have a great week!!
Jodi

The view from my craft room window

I live in an old farm house and it has many, many things that I don't like about it and I wish I lived in a new home.  There is one thing that I absolutely love about this house though.. it's my craft room, especially the view from my craft room window.  It's a huge double window and I get to see deer walk by, and even a coyote once!!  No matter what season, if I am sitting at my desk working away or stressing over my next deadline, I just have to stop and look out my window and everything is ok.  If we ever do move, this is the one thing I will miss the most.  I live in Western PA .  We are in the middle of 180 acres, you cannot see our neighbors just lots of trees and wildlife.  This morning I woke up and we had a little snow over night and everything looked so pretty I had to take some pictures of it and share.  This pic is what I see outside my craft room.

This is a picture of our road in front of our house.

Ok, now back to work!!
Have a great day!
Jodi