Off Her Rocker

We were passed down this sweet little rocking chair by my aunt. Apparently my cousin (now 15) had it when she was little, but nobody could remember where it came from or if it was something important, so it sat in her storage room. When it came to us, it was certainly a cute rocker, but it had a few pencil lines and was looking a bit sad.

Sad little rocker, begging for love.

I knew I could help it step up its' game (is that the right its'? I never know)! A few weeks ago, I popped over to Home Depot to check out their mis-tint paint. I snatched up this lovely shade of green for .50. What a steal! Here's the cutie-pie chair after a few coats of paint.

Ahhhh... that's better.

 I'm a sucker for the cottage-y distressed look. Plus, this little guy is going to be living in my daughter's room, which is super vintage inspired, so I had to make it fit in. I took my sanding paper and got to work. Then, to make the sanded parts pop even more, I brushed on some REALLY watered down brown paint. Wiped it all off (just want a little to stick to the raw wood) and voila!

Have a seat, won't you?

I'm ready for my close up!

Total cost: .50 for paint. That's my kinda project!



Linking up to:

Freezer Paper Stenciling - Makes for Awesome Gifts!

I saw this post over at Little Blue Boo and knew I could pull off something cute using her technique- boy did I! We've got three little nieces on hubby's side, plus our little lady, so I had a friend come over yesterday and we got a little nutty with some plain tees and fabric paint. First off, let me tell you- these are SUPER SIMPLE. It's totally easy.

What you need: Plain t-shirts (fabric bags would be awesome too, really... anything fabricy), fabric paint, brushes, freezer paper, xacto knife, iron
1. Choose your design. We hit up Google images for inspiration, printed some things off right onto our freezer paper (just cut some 8.5 x 11 pieces). With most of them, we ended up drawing our own or adding little lovely variations.
2. Transfer your design to your freezer paper (if you printed right onto it, skip this) and then break out the xacto knife. Cut out the pieces where your paint will go.
3. Iron the design, put the glossy side down on your fabric and iron just until it sticks- don't want to burn the paper!
4. It's painting time! You want to do a few light layers- we did two layers on everything, and make sure it dries a bit in between layers.
5. Pull off your stencil and be amazed, but give it a few minutes. Patience: It's a virtue.
6. Let them dry for quite a while- and make sure you read your paint bottles. They'll have instructions specific to your brand of paint, on how to set the paint.
7. Wrap them up all pretty and pass them off to someone sure to love them!

Related articles

• Tutorial: How to Freezer Paper Stencil (or Fake Silk Screen) a Necktie (craftingagreenworld.com)
• Projects " Creations " Freezer Paper Stenciling (cutoutandkeep.net)