Vintage Soda Shop Ice Cream Sign

Ever have those days where the amount of projects you've got going outnumber the flat surfaces you've got to put them on?
Yeah, that's me!

In the past two weeks I've:

• made my first set of boy name blocks
• painted and stenciled a picture frame and mat
• put the first coat of paint on cabinets for my craft room (a.k.a. laundry room)
• had my kitchen table covered 90% of the time with one of the curtains from my hearth room (can't wait to show you this project... I'm painting them!)
• and... made the ice cream sign I'm showing you today

If I could manage to stick to a single project at a time, it might not take me weeks and weeks to finish just one!!

Oh, I also read two books... if you liked Hunger Games, check out Divergent and Insurgent by Veronica Roth.

You won't be disappointed!

Ok, onto the sign...

This one started as a dark old cabinet door I bought for around $3 at my local ReStore.
I slapped some Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Old White on it and then did a quick color wash with watered down ASCP in Coco.

Used the Silhouette Cameo to cut a Contact Paper stencil.

I knew I wanted to make it into a sign, and eventually decided on a vintage Soda Shop look. It was either that or something about drinking Margarita's... supposedly this is more "family friendly". WHATEVER!

I suppose I like Ice Cream just as much as I like Margarita's... uh, NOT!!

Anyway...

I painted the letters with more Coco ASCP, then went over that with a lightly watered down Duck Egg Blue ASCP.
I ended by sanding and sealing with some clear wax.

Tada!!

Makes me want a Sundae.

And a MARGARITA!!!

Now that I've practiced on the sign, I'm off to finish tackling those craft room cabinets.

(Any guesses what kind of finish they're gonna have?)

Mr Concrete is just itching to install them so the kitchen island isn't permanently covered by drop cloths, paint and Mod Podge.

You'd think he'd be used to that by now...

~Jeannine

Fun Parties I'm Linking Up With:

Sunday

DIY Showoff ~ Flamingo Toes ~ I {heart} Nap Time ~ My 1929 Charmer ~ Nifty Thrifty Things ~ Twigg Studios ~ Under the Table and Dreaming

Monday

Alderberry Hill ~ Between Naps on the Porch ~ Boogieboard Cottage ~ Debbiedoos ~ The Dedicated House ~ Flour Me With Love ~ Holly's Stamping Addiction ~ Home Stories A to Z ~ Serendipity & Spice ~ You Are Talking Too Much

Tuesday

Claiming Our Space ~ Coastal Charm ~ Cowgirl Up ~ The D.I.Y. Dreamer ~ Elizabeth & Co. ~ Homework ~ House on the Way ~ My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia ~ Not Just a Housewife ~ Sugar Bee Crafts ~ Today's Creative Blog

Wednesday

 A Creative Princess ~ Embracing Change ~ Fine Craft Guild ~ Fireflies & Jellybeans ~ Homestead Simple ~ Ivy & Elephants ~ My Girlish Whims ~ {PRIMP} ~ Savvy Southern Style ~ Sew Much Ado

Thursday

The ArtsyGirl Connection ~ Beyond the Picket Fence ~ Bliss Ranch ~ City Girl Gone Coastal ~ A Glimpse Inside ~ House of Hepworths ~ No Minimalist Here ~ The Shabby Creek Cottage ~ Somewhat Simple ~ Sweet Bella Roos ~ The 36th Avenue

Friday~

Common Ground ~ Create Craft Love ~ Finding Fabulous ~ French Country Cottage ~ The Grant Life ~ Jennifer Rizzo ~ My Romantic Home ~ Redoux ~ Serenity Now ~ The Shabby Nest ~ Stuff & Nonsense ~ Tatertots & Jello ~ 2805

Saturday

Classy Clutter ~ Funky Junk Interiors ~ It's Overflowing ~ Natasha in Oz ~ Positively Splendid ~ Too Much Time on My Hands

The Dreaded End of Summer!

It's that day again.

The day my kids have been dreading since May.

Back to School!

I'm not sure how some of you "create" the kind of kids that like going back to school. 

My kids just didn't get that gene.

They have zero desire to go back!

I have to say though, they did make the best of it and put on a few smiles for mom.

Morgan's a Junior this year.

She decided since she hates being short (her and Kylie are the same height, 5' 1") she'd wear 4" heels on the first day!

Apparently there are flip-flops in her bag for walking to the bus, etc., good girl!

16 year olds are officially crazy!

If you look close, you can see Kylie's on her tip-toes to prove Morgan's really not taller than her.

Siblings... always gotta fight!

Kylie's an Eighth Grader and Connor is in Fifth.

We have a brand new K-8 school that opened this year so they're back to riding the same bus again after two years apart.

Like it or not, they got on that bus and toughed it out.

I don't think they were too miserable.

I saw a couple of smiles when I got home this evening. :)

~ Jeannine

DIY French Script Lamp Shade

We're taking a leap back in time today to the first project I worked on when we moved into our house last year.

Yes, I should have been working on putting up curtains.
(we'll pretend there aren't still Ready Shades hanging in my son's room a year and a half after we moved in... hey, I want Plantation Shutters in there and they don't give those babies away, plus he likes to draw on the Ready Shades, I'm leaving them up so he can have hours of fun...)
Did you buy any of that? 
No?
He really does draw on them... (hangs head in shame)

But I digress...

The first project was a neat little lamp shade.

As this was another PBP (pre-blog project) I don't have step-by-step pics of how I made it.
But, this one's a no brainer even without any pics!

Supplies for this project are: 

• A cheap, plain Target lamp shade (to go on my existing lamp base which I've repainted 3 times now, I'm finicky!)
• A fine-tip Sharpie
• Print-outs of whatever you want to put on the lamp.
• OPTIONAL - Tea or coffee to "tea stain" the lamp after it's done.

The longest part of this entire project was finding all the graphics and lettering to put on the lamp.
I found some at The Graphics Fairy, some by Googling "french script" or "french script graphic", and at least one of the images I got by going to Google Translate, typing in the words to a favorite song and having it translate into french.
I then copied the translation into Word and picked a pretty font to print it out with.

Once I had all my images printed out, I taped them one at a time to the inside of the shade.
Then I just turned the light on and traced everything on the outside of the shade with my Sharpie.

When the light is off, which is most of the time, you can't see this line.

As soon as I was done, I mixed up a little instant tea and water and brushed it onto the shade to make the white shade a bit more antiqued.
No worries about the ink running with the tea mixture.
Sharpies are PERMANENT!!

That's it.
Simple and easy with some great results!

And don't you just love that little chandelier in the middle of all that script?

It's my favorite part!!

Itty Bitty Update: I've had several comments (thanks by the way :) mentioning all the time this must have taken to complete. Just wanted to let ya know that I did the tracing from start to finish in one afternoon. It really does go very quickly!
~Jeannine

Fun Parties I'm Linking Up With:

Sunday

DIY Showoff ~ Flamingo Toes ~ I {heart} Nap Time ~ My 1929 Charmer ~ Nifty Thrifty Things ~ Twigg Studios ~ Under the Table and Dreaming

Monday

Alderberry Hill ~ Between Naps on the Porch ~ Boogieboard Cottage ~ Debbiedoos ~ The Dedicated House ~ Flour Me With Love ~ Holly's Stamping Addiction ~ Home Stories A to Z ~ Serendipity & Spice ~ You Are Talking Too Much

Tuesday

Claiming Our Space ~ Coastal Charm ~ Cowgirl Up ~ The D.I.Y. Dreamer ~ Elizabeth & Co. ~ Homework ~ My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia ~ Not Just a Housewife ~ Sugar Bee Crafts ~ Today's Creative Blog

Wednesday

 A Creative Princess ~ Embracing Change ~ Fine Craft Guild ~ Fireflies & Jellybeans ~ Homestead Simple ~ Ivy & Elephants ~ My Girlish Whims ~ {PRIMP} ~ Savvy Southern Style ~ Sew Much Ado

Thursday

The ArtsyGirl Connection ~ Beyond the Picket Fence ~ Bliss Ranch ~ City Girl Gone Coastal ~ A Glimpse Inside ~ House of Hepworths ~ No Minimalist Here ~ The Shabby Creek Cottage ~ Somewhat Simple ~ Sweet Bella Roos ~ The 36th Avenue

Friday~

Common Ground ~ Create Craft Love ~ Finding Fabulous ~ French Country Cottage ~ The Grant Life ~ Jennifer Rizzo ~ My Romantic Home ~ Redoux ~ Serenity Now ~ The Shabby Nest ~ Stuff & Nonsense ~ Tatertots & Jello ~ 2805

Saturday

Classy Clutter ~ Funky Junk Interiors ~ It's Overflowing ~ Natasha in Oz ~ Positively Splendid ~ Too Much Time on My Hands

Wooden Name Blocks

In the Spring of 2011 there was a baby shower thrown at my house that is now a thing of legend!

The amount of pink that covered my home was enough to send my family running for the hills on the day of the event (or to my sisters house out of state).

One of the many "pinkalicious" items I made for the Mommy-To-Be were Wooden Name Blocks.

I don't have a great pic of them, but this is one I found on my iPhone.

She wasn't 100% set on the name at that point, so "PRINCESS" it was for the shower.

Once the little Princess arrived, I added her full name "CAROLINE" (sweet baby Callie) to the opposite side of the blocks.

Huge amounts of luck that there was the same amount of letters in both!!

Well they were a big HIT!

I've since made three more sets and this weekend finished my first commissioned set. Thanks Kelly!!

They're pink and sparkly and tons of fun!

And at 3.5" square, they're also heavy enough to probably break a toe!

They're so much fun to make, and to give, that I'm considering opening an Etsy shop so I can create and sell more often.

It'd probably be more work than I should take on at this point, but I'm not certain I'm gonna let that stop me.

Whatcha think??

Update: I've still not committed to an Etsy shop. I fear the time and commitment it would take along with my already full-time job. I am selling blocks though, here on my blog. If you're interested, follow the Shop ~ Wood Blocks link at the top of the page, or you can click HERE.

To view all Block posts, click HERE.

Fun Parties I'm Linking Up With:

Sunday

DIY Showoff ~ Flamingo Toes ~ I {heart} Nap Time ~ My 1929 Charmer ~ Nifty Thrifty Things ~ Twigg Studios ~ Under the Table and Dreaming

Monday

Alderberry Hill ~ Between Naps on the Porch ~ Boogieboard Cottage ~ Debbiedoos ~ The Dedicated House ~ Flour Me With Love ~ Holly's Stamping Addiction ~ Home Stories A to Z ~ Serendipity & Spice ~ You Are Talking Too Much

Tuesday

Coastal Charm ~ Cowgirl Up ~ The D.I.Y. Dreamer ~ Elizabeth & Co. ~ Homework ~ My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia ~ Not Just a Housewife ~ Sugar Bee Crafts ~ Today's Creative Blog

Wednesday
 A Creative Princess ~ Embracing Change ~ Fine Craft Guild ~ Fireflies & Jellybeans ~ Homestead Simple ~ Ivy & Elephants ~ My Girlish Whims ~ {PRIMP} ~ Savvy Southern Style ~ Sew Much Ado ~ The 36th Avenue

Thursday

The ArtsyGirl Connection ~ Beyond the Picket Fence ~ Bliss Ranch ~ City Girl Gone Coastal ~ A Glimpse Inside ~ House of Hepworths ~ It's Overflowing ~ No Minimalist Here ~ The Shabby Creek Cottage ~ Somewhat Simple ~ Sweet Bella Roos

Friday

Common Ground ~ Create Craft Love ~ Finding Fabulous ~ French Country Cottage ~ The Grant Life ~ Jennifer Rizzo ~ My Romantic Home ~ Redoux ~ Serenity Now ~ The Shabby Nest ~ Stuff & Nonsense ~ Tatertots & Jello ~ 2805

Saturday

Classy Clutter ~ Funky Junk Interiors ~ Natasha in Oz ~ Positively Splendid ~ Too Much Time on My Hands