Monday, January 20, 2014

Upcycle Challenge-Part 3 ~Chalkboard & Signs

This last spring I entered several projects in my local Habitat for Humanity ReStore's Upcycle Challenge.  In talking with the store manager I found out they hadn't had much interest in it at that point so I decided to just make a bunch of easy stuff that people could easily reproduce themselves.  I told her not to worry, crafty creative people are also notorious for being 'last minute' and procrastinators...they had lots of entries!  Two more of those projects I made are below.

During one of our Saturday visits I found a few three foot finished boards that had nice rounded edges already and they were nice and smooth, they were about 8 inches wide and who knows what they were originally but I scarfed them up at $1 a board.  I cut them into thirds so I have plenty to work with.  I also found these peel and stick quotes from the Dollar Tree that I used, I love both quotes.  The blue sign is sprayed with Krylon spray paint that I also got at the ReStore...as you can tell, I REALLY like my ReStore!  



I painted little flowers all over the sign around my sticker on the blue one by dipping the end of my paintbrush in paint and making 5 dots in a circle then I went back in and added a red dot in the center to make my flowers. You can kinda see the sticker in this picture but only if you're really looking.  In hindsight I would have added a coat of poly to seal the sticker in because it did start to peel while on display.

The next one is my favorite, I love this quote and try to live this as a personal philosophy, luckily I bought two of these so I can make myself one too.  
 

For this one I used my DIY chalk paint that I used for the bog bed project and stuck the sticker on before I did anything else.  I waxed it with the sticker on and buffed it and the sticker stuck far better on this one.  I added two small screw eyes from a picture hanging kit and some copper wire to hang them with, of course I forgot to take pics of the signs once they were all finished.  I've been fighting with myself over that since I could swear I did, but I just can't find them *sigh*.


 I also purchased several cupboard doors one day for like $.50 a piece and I really liked the way this one had the little dippity-do's in each corner...anyone ever use Dippity Do in your hair back in the day?  We used to use it when braiding our horses manes and tails to keep it all laying flat.  Back to my project...I taped off the molding cause I wanted to leave that the natural wood color and I painted the inside with some...you guessed it...homemade chalk paint.  I use some red spray paint...yes, from the ReStore...for the outer edge then used another technique I learned from Lucy over at Lucy Designs where you use your Dremel tool to carve a design into the wood.  She used it on a dresser, which is on my list but thought I'd try it out on a smaller scale first and this seemed like the perfect opportunity.  I pulled out the brand new Dremel tool my wonderful daughter gifted me for Christmas last year and got to work.  I just used a simple scroll all around it red boarder...of course trying to make them all relatively the same size and going all directions was quite the task for me since I kinda like things to go the same direction...but that just looks so un-random.
 
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Once I had them all carved in I glazed it so the carved areas filled in with the dark glaze and it gave the red and antique feel to it.  I attached some old knobs in the bottom corners to hang items from and used the original hinges and strung some copper wire between them as the hanger and once again...forgot to take a damn picture of the finished project!  Luckily the ReStore Web page has pictures of all the projects turned in last year so you can see it here.

I also made a serving tray out of an old wooden calendar holder but somehow managed to not get any pictures of that at all.  I painted the wood that same color blue as the sign above, lined the tray part with cork tiles and added two old door handles to the ends...all with stuff from my ReStore...luckily you can see it here as well as all the entries that were submitted last year.

I'm looking forward to coming up with something for this years challenge! 

2 comments:

  1. I wish we had a restore! I would not have ANY extra money for sure, BUT it sure would be fun! Such fun projects and WHEN I try to do something and THINK I will post it, WELL I can never remember to take the pictures...I just get caught up in the moment and really, does anyone WANT to see my brain at work...had a BFF that said the thought of taking a walk in my brain TERRIFIED him...;)

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  2. You've been on a super creative binge! Loving it:)

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