Fireplace Wall

After searching for over a year for a piece of artwork to go in our dining area, I couldn't find anything that had the 'wow' factor I was going for.  I saw a ventless gel fireplace on the DIY network and thought it would be perfect for the 5' wall in our dining area.  The rock ads great texture, and it was an easy way to add a 'fireplace' to our upper level where there wasn't one.

First, Chris ripped out the sheetrock and put up cement board so the stone would have something to stick to.

We custom picked each piece of stone to fit perfectly without cutting.  We stacked the stone up to the height where we wanted the fireplace box.  Since the fireplace doesn't need any ventilation, all we had to do for installation was hang it.

The gel fireplace box that we used can be found here.  It has a box that holds gel fuel that creates an odorless, smokeless flame as seen in this picture from the manufacturer:

We often just burn candles in ours too, as shown here:

 

Before                                                           After

We love our gel fireplace!  It's a great focal point of our dining and living area, and we now have a fireplace upstairs!

Split Canvas Grain Belt Sign

I had always wanted to paint a picture on multiple canvases, but it seemed so expensive to buy so many canvases.  The vision for this painting popped into my head as soon as soon as I saw the square canvases at Big Lots for only $5 each!  I had to make something with them!  

The photo I used to make the painting is one I actually took myself in Minneapolis.  I zoomed in on the photo to get the size I wanted.

Next, I printed the photo on graph paper and cut it into squares.  I split the picture up into sections, so that I could easily section off the canvases and draw the picture to scale.

 
Before drawing the picture on the canvas, I painted all sides of the canvas a light grey so there would be no white showing.  I then painted the signs in grey tones using acrylic paints.

 I got ansy to see it on the wall, so I made Chris hang it up one night 'just to see how it looked'.  I loved it so much it never came down, so some of the bottle cap edges are lacking definition.  I think it adds character to the painting.  If you look close you can still see the pencil marks I drew.  Chris bugs me that it's been up for years and I've never finished it, but I like it just how it is!

Craft Club: Baby Cards

 

 Here are some baby cards I made at Craft Club a couple weeks ago!  

THANK YOU Kathee for hosting!  Looking forward to next month!

The saying on the card is embossed using a cuttlebug folder (Thanks Kath for sharing!)

 

 

 

DIY Photo Canvases

I first had 8x10 black and white prints made of the photos I wanted to use.  I bought the 8x10 canvases at Michael's using coupons. I spray painted the edges of the canvases black, let them dry, then used Mod Podge to glue and seal the photos to the canvases. I made a set of 12-8x10 photo canvases for about $40.

Here are some close-ups of the edges:

 I first had them hung in a square pattern, three rows of four.

Later, I changed them up to two rows of six to go over the bed.

Black, White, & Yellow Damask Dinner Party

Last year for my Mom's birthday, we threw a Black, White, & Yellow Damask Dinner Party for my family to celebrate.

The black table runner is one of my Halloween table runners flipped up-side down on a yellow tablecloth that I had.   12"x12" damask scrapbook paper set sideways to look like diamonds easily and inexpensively ties the damask theme into the runner.

I found damask paper plates and napkins at the party store. I used more of the scrapbook paper to create the menu cards/place markers, as well as the trim around the cake stand.

I couldn't find any cute candles to match, so I cut numbers out of scrapbook paper and glued them to long black candles to create custom birthday candles.

Painted Faux Granite Countertops

Because Granite is expensive and I couldn't live with our laminate butcher-block countertops, I decided to paint the countertops we had to look like the granite I wanted!

Here are some before pics:

First, we had to tape off the entire kitchen since I would be spraying some 'granite flecks' and our cupboards are white.  We also had to move our stove and fridge so we could get to the edges of the counters.

After lightly sanding the countertops, I started with a coat of primer so the paint would have something to stick to.

Next, I went over the countertops with two coats of flat black paint. 

I then sprayed a very light coat of Rust-Oleum  Stone Creations Spray in Black Granite to add the 'granite specks'.  I didn't want very many white specks in my countertops, so I sprayed it very thin.  It only took literally about ten seconds to spray the entire kitchen.

Here's a close-up of the specks:

Once dry, we applied about 6 coats of clear, water-based polyurethane.  Using water-based polyurethane vs. oil based is what makes it food safe.

The final result:

Painting the countertops made a HUGE difference in our kitchen!  The best part is that it only cost us about $40!

 Before                                                        After


View an up-date on our painted kitchen countertops six years later here.