Grain Sack Wanna Be..

Vintage grain sacks seem to be a big part of the French country look. People are using them to make pillows, purses, framed art, seat covers and many other projects. I do not have access to vintage grain sacks and if I did I don't think I would want to pay for them. I have seen a lot of DIY'ers making their own grain sacks by using graphics from the Graphic Fairy and fabric.

While cleaning up my garage I spotted a frame that I had purchased a few years back. This frame had a fun vintage like apple farm picture. It accidentally got left outside for quite some and the rain ruined the picture. I didn't want to throw the frame away because I thought maybe someday I would do something with it. When I saw it I thought the framed grain sack idea would be perfect. I do not have a before picture because I painted it before I remembered to take one. The frame was already a pretty Robin's Egg blue but I wanted it to be black, so I painted one layer of Old White Chalk Paint and over that I painted one layer of Graphite. I printed up this image from the Graphic Fairy:



If you click on the image it will take you to the Graphic Fairy and a towel project, which I hope to try out. I liked the look of the grain sacks that have the lines on them, so I taped up the drop cloth I was using to section off lines. I mixed a bit of Aubusson Blue, Versailles, and just a splash of Old White to make a greenish blue color. I then painted the lines waited for them to dry and got to work on the image. I had hoped to use a Freezer Paper transfer technique like this one: http://gardenberger.blogspot.com/2011/09/freezer-paper-transfer-tutorial.html but my printer is a laser printer. From what I have read, laser printers will not work ( I do have an old ink jet so I will dig that out for my future crafts). Instead I used a projector to project the image on to the drop cloth and painted the image using acrylic paint. This was tedious, and in the future I will back the fabric with spray adhesive and maybe cardboard to give it a hard surface to paint on. I didn't do this and the brush just didn't paint well. Learning as I go is becoming my motto! Once that was all dry I took a little bit of sandpaper to try and age it and then I stapled the cloth to the frame. This honestly was the hardest part, I could not for the life of me get it straight. So the image is a little wonky, which will drive me nuts. I will again in the future stabilize the material first, then paint. I have to say if it wasn't for the crookedness of the lines, I would be pleased with the outcome of this project. I will re-do it in the future, but not today! As always, I welcome helpful tips and tricks that you may have.

If there is any doubt how wonderful this could look here is some actual Grain Sack Eye Candy for you!

http://bushelandapeck.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/09/vintage-grain-sack-and-a-picnic.html

http://thegrowersdaughter.blogspot.com/2010/11/reclaimed-rustics-vintage-grain-sack.html

Linking to:

 

 

Just a Little Blue!!

When I started this journey (painting furniture) a few weeks back I purchased a very old secretary off of Craigslist. I bought it from a girl who had just moved to Ocean Beach from out of town. When I saw the posting for this she was asking $20 for it, which was within my budget. I was so excited because I could tell it was a very old piece but when I went to pick it up my excitement fizzled. It was in fact old and but it showed. It had a separation of the wood straight down on the side (plus other stuff) and it was actually smaller then I had expected. The girl told me it was her grandmother's and that her grandmother used to pay her bills on it. I loved that history and for $20 bucks I decided to take it. For the last several weeks I have just stared at it wishing I hadn't bought it. It was pretty beat up for my skill level.  I spoke with a wood guy and he said the type of separation in the wood was not really fixable. So I just left it and got to work on my chair, and then my table. My table needs a few more coats of poly but it has been so hot that I haven't wanted to mess with the poly drying to fast. In the meantime I decided to do something with the secretary. I had a vision in my head and have really loved the French Images from The Graphic Fairy. I wanted to put a graphic on the front and on the inside of the secretary. The funny thing is when I went to check out her blog, there was a vintage secretary that did the same thing! Well, I had to figure out how to get that image onto the secretary and saw that it mentioned a Modge Podge technique. I printed my images, this one for the front and this one for the inside. I wanted to paint the outside of the piece Paris Gray and the inside Aubusson Blue (Annie Sloan Chalk Paint). I painted the inside first and then started on the outside but it wasn't looking right. The two colors weren't working that well together and the Paris Gray didn't look like I had thought. I continued painting until the whole secretary was finished. It was getting late and I had things I need to get done so I started to clean up. As I was cleaning up, I spotted a paint can and was like "which one is this" I took a look "uh-oh, Paris Gray, oh-no!" running outside "what have I been paint with??, Are you kidding me, DUCK EGG BLUE!!!" Yup, I painted the whole thing Duck Egg Blue, which would explain why Paris Gray just didn't look right. I AM NOT EVEN COLOR BLIND!! The crazy thing is, it wasn't until I read the words Duck Egg Blue that I saw it as blue... geez! It is a good example of how the brain can trick you. The next day, I got to work and re-painted again with Paris Gray. This time the Aubusson Blue looked beautiful! The two colors were working so nicely together... more work but I was happy! I left the desk to dry and waxed and worked on my images. I woke up this morning and well the Modge Podge thing didn't work out so well. The imaged is still on the inside but there isn't one on the outside anymore. I found Red Hen Home blog and she used a projector, my hubby has one so in the future this will be the technique I will use. I really wanted the modge podge to work because it seemed so easy. When I look at others who have used this technique I don't see any paper left but mine had paper still. Any tips?
I didn't mention it above but with the secretary I just filled in the split wood with wood filler and nailed it together where I could. You can see a line but that is okay.
Here are the pictures of my Secretary. I am still trying to figure out waxing with both clear and dark wax as well as the distressed look. I want it to look naturally distressed and in some areas it does look like that but in others not so much. I would love your feed back and tips. Currently I have Annie Sloan's clear wax and Fiddes and Sons Clear and Ruggar Brown wax. Okay while on that topic, I want to give a shout out to John Millen Hardware who I bought the waxes from on recommendation from Miss Mustard Seed. I ordered it and it was to me in 2 days!
I am still trying to figure out linky party etiquette so if you could also give me some tips on that I would appreciate it!

Paris Gray's feeling a little Blue!

Mommy's helper!

Thank you for looking!



                                                                         Linking to: