Field Trip-Part 2

We are back in the classroom today.

I showed you the entrance and a few details yesterday. Today let's go look at my desk.

If any of you are teachers, you know that most of the furniture in your class has been handed down since the beginning of time.

That bookshelf was no exception. I spray painted it red this summer to brighten it up. That task was more than just a little pain in the bootay. At least 3 cans of spray paint and then it kept getting this weird film on it. It just about did me in.
If any of you know me at. all. then you will not be shocked by the baskets. It's not that I have a basket fetish, I just have a "it has be cute fetish." I made little chalkboard labels for the baskets and tied them on with ribbon.

Above the bookshelf are my decoupaged letters.

It says "Mrs. Cash" if you can't tell.

I went to Hobby Lobby and found the letters I needed in as many different styles as possible. The "M" is just as it came. The other letters I decoupaged with scrapbook paper or fabric. (I used the same fabric from the drop cloth drapes.)

I hot glued magnets on the back.
(Many of the walls in the school are metal. Or magnetic. I'm not sure how to say that. Magnets stick to the walls-k?)

I originally wanted to put the letters above the windows in the room, but those walls weren't magnetic. Or metal. Or whatever. Then I couldn't even get 3M strips to stick to them. Plan B was to put them behind my desk. So there.

On the front of my desk I made this nameplate with some extra scrabble letters. Remember my sign on the door?
But I decided to spray paint the tray red.

#1 because it is the school's color (and my favorite color) and

#2 it is against the law for me to leave it plain.

It's helpful to have that nameplate there just in case someone missed the ginormous name on the wall behind me.

Here is a shot of my pencil cup. I had another one but it got on my nerves that it was really full and all the pens and pencils and highlighters were all mixed together. I found this polka dot one at Cracker Barrel and it is perfect for sorting!

Plus it spins and it is polka dot, you just can't go wrong with a good polka dot!

Behind that is my "To Do Thing." I am constantly making "to do" lists and sticking them all over my desk. I am also always remaking "to do" lists because I lose the first ones under all the stuff that accumulates throughout the day.

I got this from Wuslu this summer. It was when they had their "surprise box" deal. Honestly I was a little disappointed when I got it, but then I thought about making it into something to hold all my lists! Of course I spray painted it too. I went with blue this time-the other school color.

I have gotten a ton of compliments on this and it has helped me cut down on the number of post-its I use in a day!

Next post I'm going to share some of the artwork I've made for the room. Check back!

Leggo My Eggos!

Okay, so that is a little bit of a stretch. I had another idea to link eggs to the letter L, but it didn't work out the way I planned. (Legumes means beans-or something like that-not eggs).

Anyhoo. Eggs are the topic of my second installment for "L" week:

I love to decorate for the holidays. I love sparkly things. For some reason this year, sparkly eggs and I didn't jive. I just didn't feel like all my cute, pastel, sparkly eggs were what I wanted out this year. So I came up with a different approach. I borrowed an idea from Maryann at Domestically Speaking and made my own "twinefied" eggs. I added my own embellishment to a few (you will see in a minute).

I also got some cute napkins and decoupaged some. Oh, also I have made several cloches. Here are some of the Easter decorations around my house:

This cloche is simply a white plate with a votive candle holder on top (the kind you stick in a candle sconce.) Notice on this twine egg, I added a little polka dot ribbon.
( I love some polka dots!!)

Next up is my dining room table:

I have a lot of silver accents in here. You can get a glimpse of my decoupaged eggs. (And there is Scarlett in the background.)

Little Bunny Foo Foo under glass.
(You know there was ACTUALLY a question about Little Bunny Foo Foo at the Regional Governor's Cup competition last weekend?)

Here is a closer shot of the decoupaged eggs.

I love this little silver bunny sitting under a votive holder. I LOVE the shape of the glass and it is perfect for a little "happy." Can you see that cute top?? It is a perfect tiny cloche!

Downstairs, I allowed myself to put out some of my pastel, sparkly eggs just because, well just because I really like them and it was difficult to give them up!
Here is my hearth on my fireplace:

That is a concrete bunny I normally have outside, but he has been in the garage for the winter, so I thought I would park him here for a little while.
Here is a closer shot of him, and the sparkly eggs:

I am pretty pleased with the pictures I have this post and I have Donna at Funky Junk to that for that. Go check this post for tips on taking better pictures. She promised Step #1 would make a difference and I think she is right! Thanks Donna!

I am going to be linking up some places this weekend. Come by and check them out. I kid you not when I say you will find some great ideas!!

"K" Week---Me and "K. McKay"

I stumbled across the neatest blog the other day. It was the kind of blog that instantly inspired me and made me want to immediately use all the ideas. The blog is K. McKay Designs and the wonderful designer is Kristine McKay. I loved her blog so much, I decided to devote one day of "K" week to her:

She is pretty high falutin'(that is pronounced fah-loo-'n'), she has developed products for QVC and the Home Shopping Network. She is so very talented and guess what she has on her blog...free downloads!

I found some pretty cute things to finish out some projects that I had laying around.
Because of her generosity I made some super cute tins, some great magnets and some cute thumbtacks. I am going to make some number spheres, I am just looking for the perfect spheres (aka ping pong balls).

Here is how the tins started:

I got them for less than $1 each. I glued them to the brass candlesticks you also see in the pictures, them proceeded to spray paint them black.

Then I hot glued some Dollar Tree twine around the lid and around a small bit of detail on each candlestick. I liked that look, but felt like it was missing something, then I remembered good ole' K. McKay!!

Here is the what the download looked like from her blog:

You can download it for yourself here.

I printed the labels out on resume paper
(mainly because my kids used up all my regular paper, but it actually turned out great),
then Mod Podged them onto the tin. Look how cute!
Thanks K. McKay (I just love the rhyme! Even if we were best friends, I probably would still call her K. McKay because it is fun to say...go ahead try it.)

The other thing I downloaded from her were some simple number circle tags:

These are on the same page as the link above.

I created magnets and thumbtacks with these in just a few simple steps:

I know these numbers seems random (and scary) but they are all significant for my family.
Yes, even the 13. That one happens to be my wedding anniversary.
Hubby's and my first date was on Friday the 13th and we got married one year later on July 13th.

Simply get the large glass beads (the ones with the flat bottoms) and decoupage the labels to the flat side. Make sure, of course that you glue them printed side down-so you can see the number through the bead on the other side. Once the glue dried, I Gorilla glued magnets or thumbtacks to the back. Voila. You can do this with cute scrapbook paper too.

Here is a little bit of Easter inspiration she just posted this week. Everything on her Easter post you can make from stuff from the Dollar Tree:
Couldn't you just see this with the candy hanging from the tree?

You should definitely go check out K. McKay:
www.kmckaydesigns.com
She covers it all: crafting, scrapbooking and sewing. There is something for just about everyone. She's awesome. Tell her Molly sent you!


I'm dropping over at Funky Junk Donna's for:


and Tatertots and Jello:

C is for Cardboard

Call me crazy, but I never knew the "card" is card table would actually mean "cardboard." I just thought it was because you played cards on them.

Yeah, I'm a natural blonde-or at least I used to be. It was awhile before I caught onto the purpose for speedbumps too. I thought they had radars in them-what good is that if you have to slow down to go over them, you don't catch the speeders!

If you have been following Decorating A-Z, you saw my last auction revamp. If not, check it out here. Now for my next victim, er I mean project....

I bought about 4 cardboard tables (let's call a spade a spade, are you made of cardboard or not??) at the same auction I got Scarlett in and they cost me $3 a piece. They cost more then Scarlett because I had to fight some people off for them. Anyway, here is one of them before:

They sat in my garage for a couple months until I could get the nerve to try to cutify them. My plan was to Mod-Podge some cute scrapbook paper on them, but I wasn't sure how the messed up tops would handle all the glue and such.

When I finally got up the nerve, I hauled one into the downstairs den and decided to try to tear off the top layer of paper (that was when it dawned on me that it was made of cardboard). Huge mess, but kind of cathartic.

Another side note about me: I am a little OCD about peeling paint and paper. It is all I can do not to peel it when I come across it. If you ever invite me to your home, check the seams on all your wallpaper, it's an illness I tell you. You've been warned.

Here is the during: (yeah I started getting nervous...)

But notice the wooden legs, that is what made me want to pay $3 per table. I love the gams on this thing.

After I ripped all the paper off (which took a little while), I primed the top 2-3 times to seal the rest of the paper. I found several papers that coordinated and starting cutting 4 inch squares to use for the top.

I marked off the diagonals on the table because I wanted to lay the papers on a 45 degree angle. I placed the papers on the table in the pattern I wanted then tried to pick them up in an organized a fashion as possible. I got nervous about using Mod-Podge because I struggle with the decoupage bubble blues, so I opted for spray adhesive. I sprayed the table then began laying the pieces where I wanted them.



I had to work on the "tiles" for the edges and my fingers were a sticky mess, but it turned out pretty good. I painted the sides of the table in a coordinating color (a light aqua blue) then covered over the whole table with a couple coats of Mod-Podge to help seal it. Then the bubbles began to appear--BLIMEY! I let the glue "cure" overnight and I gave the table about 3 coats of polyurethane and trimmed out the paper edges in coordinating ribbon. Aside from the bubbles she is pretty cute.





I did another table later in the week. This time I cut the paper into 6 inch squares and I used Mod-Podge. I thought the 4 inch tiles looked a little "quilty."

Here is the best tip I can give you about decoupaging: use a tool to help you smooth the paper down. I used to just use my fingers to work all the bubbles out, but this time I used a "Pampered Chef" scraper and IT. WORKED. BEAUTIFULLY!!!! You could use a credit card or a tool like the kind you use to put those vinyl words up, just use something other than your hands. I got ZERO bubbles on the second table. I didn't change any of the other steps. It turned out so much better. Here are a few shots of it.




My plan is to sell these two, then make one or two for me to keep. I already have the black and red papers that I want to use. (Any bets on if some of it is toile???)

I'm linking up to the following (make sure you drop by and see all the cuteness!!)

I've also link up to Reinvented's Trash to Treasure Tuesday and Kimba over at A Soft Place to Land: