Okio B Designs

I've been playing around with the little vignette I have on a vintage school desk in our dining room.

I recently re-painted both of these frames to freshen them up.

I simply added vintage sheet music to this one.

More vintage sheet music and a beautiful religious image (from The Graphics Fairy) for this one. I love the soft touch the whites and pinks add to this space.

I also dressed up this cardboard letter B that I got from Walmart last week. I painted it white and then decoupaged French book paper on it. I still have to seal it with Modge Podge and fix the little bit of paint I missed on the top insert. Funny how I just noticed it as I was writing this post. Off to go fix it...

Jeanine

4 comments

I've been wanting to try Omni Gel after seeing a few pins about it on Pinterest and after reading about it in the blogosphere (Susan from Homeroad and Karen from The Graphics Fairy both have nice tutorials on using it). I found it at Walmart.com and decided to give it a go.

This is actually a re-do of a re-do. I used this little wood tray on my porch last summer. It had a lobster design on it but that peeled off. Doh! It made the perfect candidate for this trial run. I gave it a few coats of Annie Sloan chalk paint before starting.

I printed out the French image (from The Graphics Fairy) onto regular white paper. Because I have an inkjet printer, I made a copy of it using my fax machine. (Yes, fax machine. Remember those?!). I did NOT reverse the image.

I gave the image two coats of Omni Gel and let it dry overnight. Once it was dry, I added it to a bowl of water and just started peeling the paper away from the back - kind of like the Modge Podge method. With the paper removed, I added the image to both sides of my tray and put a coat of the gel over it.

Super easy! I like this much better than the Modge Podge method, which I just can't seem to master. Can't wait to use it for other projects!

Jeanine

4 comments

I hit a few garage sales this weekend. Sadly, I didn't score much.

Yup, that's pretty much it. The little pitcher was 50 cents. So was the prayer candle. I could not pass up the bag of vintage clothes pins.

These are my favorite: skull shot glasses. Now, I am not a big drinker but I do love Halloween and these are perfect for it! I got four of them and they are actually big enough to hold some creepy candles. Score!

Some of the vintage clothes pins are available in my Etsy shop!

Jeanine

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Remember these wood Easter blocks I picked up at our local thrift store back in April?

While they were super cute, they just weren't quite my cup of tea. I knew when I bought them, I'd be turning them into something a little Frenchy. Here they are now:

I gave each block a few coats of Annie Sloan chalk paint. Once they were dry, I sanded the edges for an aged look.

Then I broke out my Staz On ink (brown) and some random Frenchy stamps.

I, of course, had to add a little bling to each one.

An easy way to add a quick, Frenchy touch to any shelf!

Jeanine

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I know you've seen these types of cloches floating around Pinterest. I love the look and just happened to have a petite lampshade lying around from a past Goodwill visit.

I simply removed the fabric cover revealing the vintage-looking wire. No painting, no distressing - nothing more to do!

Except add some pretty vintage teacups. I think this would also look lovely with a small bird's nest or on a book stack. So many possibilities!

Jeanine

4 comments

Truth be told, when I bought this chevron burlap from Walmart last week, I wasn't quite sure what I was going to do with it.

After unraveling it a bit, I saw it was the perfect size for banner pendants. I broke out some twine, scissors and fabric glue, and got busy.

After cutting each pendant, I added some fabric glue to the bottom edges and the tops so they wouldn't be sliding up and down the twine. I used clothes pins to hold everything together until the glue was dry. This literally took 30 minutes from start to finish