~how to make a faux wood arrow~{thrifty thursday}

While I was hard at work on the One Room Challenge, one of the things I looked into was new flooring. Although those two things called "time" and "budget" came into play, so we ended up just touching up the floor we have. 

One thing home improvement stores are offering now is free floor samples.

I think this is genius for visual people like myself.

You can bring home samples and lay them out to see what it would look like.

Here are some samples I brought home. It's a whitewashed faux wood.

Each piece measures approx. 3x6"

After sitting around for a while I decided I'd put them to use and make a faux wood arrow, and here is how you can as well!

Gather your supplies.

You will need:

Liquid nails, or another strong glue.

Blue painters tape {optional}

MDF, I had some left over from my faux snakeskin drawer liners.

A pencil and ruler. {Or tape measure}

A jigsaw.

Lay out your pieces of flooring on a piece of MDF and glue down.

Place heavy objects on top and let dry several hours to overnight.

The following day, remove your heavy objects and using a pencil and ruler sketch out your arrow shape. There are so many different arrows to choose from.

You can make a whimsical one, or a traditional one, up to you.

{If you need a pattern you can enlarge one that you print from home at a copy center, cut out, and trace around it.}

I used blue painters tape to outline where I had drawn the pencil because it was a little hard to see.

Using your jigsaw carefully cut out along your pencil/tape lines.

I left my edges raw but you could always add a contrasting color of paint for fun.

I think it turned out so cute!

This could be hung indoors or out, or just propped on a shelf.

Happy crafting!

xoxo

~thrifty thursday~{& how to paint faux wood grain}

So this week I am making over a cupcake stand that was
picked up at a garage sale for a whopping $10.
This sucker is huge, and I am so sorry,
but the before was just not my cup of tea.

I'm starting with an after shot:

Ready for the before?

Are you blind? Sorry.
Ok, here is how this makeover went down. Mom calls me up and tells me she scored for me at a garage sale! You might be thinking this is a good thing.....
obviously you have not seen some of her "scores"
Luckily she knows I'm pretty handy and can make ugly things pretty.
I had this cupcake stand for 1 whole day before I made it over.
It was that bad. I guess if you like peacocks and purple with turquoise it's not bad,
but I was thinking more of a woodsy feel.

So, with the woodsy feel in mind, I headed off to my local craft store and bought a variety of "wood" scrapbooking papers.

I wanted to cover the center "tubes" in this paper.
I cut them to size on my paper cutter and glued them on with spray adhesive.
Love this stuff!

For the round "discs" or "shelves" I hand painted the faux wood look. I picked up some paints at the craft store that matched the tones in my paper, as well as some brown stain and black paint. I already had the dark wax.

First step was to spray paint each piece white, front and back.

Then I took a small foam brush and randomly added imperfect lines using
the aluminum colored paint. Be random because nothing is nature is perfect or symmetrical.

Then you want to "highlight" those areas with a bit of black and a bit of brown. I used a thinner brush.
The cheaper the brush the better, because it won't be so perfect. Use a kids paint brush that has been beat up if you have one!

It should look similar to this now:

Then you need to add some "knots" These are easy to replicate.
They kinda resemble eyeballs.

Then the real magic happens when you apply the dark wax.

The one on the top has not been waxed, the one on the bottom has.

To finish the edges off I hot glued on rope.

Here it is all done!

Kinda a long process drawn out here, but really, it's very simple. I think it could be used for a variety of things, not just cupcakes!

Also, my friend Emily is doing a giveaway on her blog with one of my favorite candles! Go check it out here!

xoxo