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Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Glittery Bottle Brush Trees


The Christmas season is about the only time of year I really get my glitter on! From about October 1 until the end of January the floors in my house reflect exactly what is going on in my studio! There is glitter and mica everywhere!!! These Christmas trees are what I have been working on for the past couple of months. 

I love making these so much. It really is hard to let them go and put them in my shop at Rusty Saturday. All year I search for and collect little bits and baubles that will find there way into one of my Christmas trees.

 Sometimes I bleach the trees completely, and sometimes I like to leave a little color in them.


I use silver teapots too.

 This year I added some altered bottles into the mix as well. I've sold almost all the ones I made, so I think I'm going to need to make some for myself now!!


I made some more baby shoes too...  
One of my favorite things I made this year was this WISH* banner. It almost didn't make it into the store!! 
Hope you are all doing something fun for the holidays. I cant believe Thanksgiving is just over a week away!


Thursday, November 5, 2015

Faux Brick Wall Tutorial

I had a wall inside my space at Rusty Saturday that just did not make me happy. I didn't like the color or the lack of texture so I decided to change it. I love the look of old crumbling brick walls so I thought I would give that a try. Here it is all finished inside Rusty Saturday. I am really happy with the way it turned out and I thought some of you might enjoy doing this in your own booth space or even on an accent wall in your home.

 I started with panels that I purchased at Lowes. This is what they look like and let's face it... they aren't very attractive or real looking. I laid it out on a drop cloth on the floor. I needed to complete the panels at my home and then install at the store. If you are doing this in your house, and are going to need more than one panel width, I would recommend putting the paneling up first, and then painting.

 I just used the paint I had already at home. One was a semi gloss and one was a flat. Both worked fine. I think you will want a light creamy color. I also used black and old ochre (because that is what I had in house) but you will only use a tiny bit of those colors.

I painted a couple of rows with my light colored paints including the "grout" lines.

 Then I used a damp rag to remove a lot of the paint...

...and a dry brush to soften the lines left by the rag.

 As you are working your way down the panel, take another rag and further remove some of the paint on random bricks so that more of the red shows through. Let it dry. (It dries REALLY FAST)

 Then I got out my black and ochre colored paints.

 I started at the top of the panel again and added the black paint to random bricks.

 Then I used the creamy white or ochre to blend it a little bit.

I did the same with the ochre color, adding it to random bricks to give more variation of color.

Once the paint was dry again, I started adding the joint compound. You can find it at any home improvement store.

 I used a putty knife and just started smearing it randomly over the bricks. 

 Use as much or as little as like to get your desired effect. It's messy, but it cleans up really easily. I even used my hands to spread some it.

 This is the panel all dry and ready to be put up. The joint compound dries much whiter than it looks when it is wet.

After I hung the panels in the shop (with the help of my darling hubby) I decided they were too white and cool looking. I went back the next day and sprayed coffee all over the panel. Light in some areas and heavier in others. You can see the areas where I sprayed it on the left side of this photo. The water in the coffee made the joint compound soft again, but after it dried,  it was nice and hard again.

As I said, I am really happy with the finished results.

If you decide to try this, let me know if you have any questions.I'm happy to help if I can!

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