Card Table Rehab

Isn't this little card table so bright and cheery?

I've been wanting a card table for a while.  Not enough that I was going to go out and buy a brand new one, but enough that I've been keeping my eye out for a free one that someone wanted to give away.  Enter this little number....

You betcha, this card table was in someone's trash pile, and I stopped and picked it up...with a ten foot pole.  I didn't take a picture before I ripped the vinyl off the top, but I can tell you: it wasn't pretty.  It had tears in it and dirt all over it.  I still figured I could figure something out :)

It is easy to take apart a card table.  There are a few screws on the underside that attach the top to the frame.  This one was was missing all but 2 of the screws anyway.  (I was able to find suitable replacement screws at the hardware store.)
Once the top was off I ripped off the covering, carefully pulling out as many of the staples as I could that had held the covering on.  Then I got to work on the frame.

I lightly sanded the metal, and then spray painted it black.  Pretty easy, and makes a world of difference!

I picked up some vinyl from the fabric store for the top.  I used my staple gun to secure the vinyl to the top, stretching it tight as I went.  I had to cut out notches for the metal brackets that you use to screw the top to the legs, and carefully fold around the rounded corners.  Just took a few minutes, and looks pretty good!

Here it is all back together.  The top screwed back on to the legs.  So easy to take apart and recover!

Now I've got a fully functional card table - which I am sure will get a ton of use this summer.
Particularly for tea parties...

My week of Antique Shopping

Have you heard of the legendary Brimfield Antique Show in Brimfield, Massachusetts?  This show boasts that it is the largest in the country - and it is truly spectacular and overwhelmingly huge!

My mom and I went on 2 different days, and walked until we were sore (mostly from the heavy backpacks we had on our shoulders.  Yes, we bought a lot.).  It was a blast - definitely an amazing experience if you love antiquing (or as some would say, finding and saving junk ;) )

Between my mom and I, we spent more money than I will admit to, but we did come away with some really fun things.  This collage shows a few of the things my mom picked up.  Some pulleys for hanging old wood for shelves, antique Chinese baskets, a bunch of bells, a butter churn, vintage doll clothes, European enamelware and some of my favorites: Quilt tops and quilt squares.  She is an amazing quilter, and takes antique squares to make really cool quilts with vintage fabric and modern flair.  

I also picked up a few fun things - and here they are (in no particular order):

This bench was a steal at $40 - solid wood, with storage!!  As you have heard me say in previous posts, I live in a tiny New England house.  Storage space is a hot commodity.   I had this little space available, and now I can store my blankets and quilts, and still have some necessary seating!

Adding some serious charm to my vintage style kitchen wall is this antique bell.  I can ring the kids in for dinner (not that I really need to in my tiny house, but still!).  I love it!  And yes, it came with an old key as a clacker.  Funny, hu?

This metal pie plate got a good cleaning and a hole in the middle to become my new kitchen clock!  I used the clock workings from the clock I used to have in the kitchen, drilled a hole right in the middle of the pie plate, and voila!  I love that is says "New England" and also goes right along with the other antique things I have on the walls.

This was one of my mom's purchases, but I have already decided that I will inherit it someday;)  (Hear that sisters?).  I LOVE this quilt top!!!!

It is a 1930's hand stitched "grandmother flower" style quilt, and the detail is amazing.  This thing must have taken hundreds of hours to hand stitch, and I have serious appreciation for that.  And who can resist those colors?!  Oh yah.  It has a little of my drool on it.  

Thought this might be funny in the laundry room...

This (below) is a sweet little item.  My 6 year old came with us to the antique show one day, and was on the lookout for a bell for her teacher.  She is still in Kindergarten for a few more weeks, so we had not gotten a teacher appreciation gift yet.  She told me that her teacher has to clap when they come in for recess, and wouldn't it be so cool if she had a bell to ring instead?  I thought it was an excellent idea.
Mom mom spotted the bell first, and the dealer refused to sell it for less than $15 dollars to her.  When my mom told us to go back and look at it, my daughter fell in love, and with her sweet little voice, asked the dealer if he would take $10.  Would you believe it, he took it :)  "You're a hard bargain," he said, "but okay."
I could have died she was so cute.  And so excited.

My mom was in town for a little over a week, and I think we will always remember this visit as the antique shopping trip.  We had so much fun - and we are very happy with our great finds!

You Are My Sunshine - Painted Wooden Sign

Made a quick sign for a friend - and I love the way it turned out.  I ended up distressing it (below), but I like it both ways.  It was fun to paint, and to give as a gift :)

Need a gift for your friend?  Check out my etsy shop here.  

Yarn Block Print Cards for Mother's Day

Here's a sweet and simple craft that you can do with your kids to give as Mother's Day gifts (or birthday, or Christmas, or anytime gifts)...

Inspiration for this craft came from this post here - and I adapted it to be ultra kid friendly.

Start by making cards out of white cardstock.  I had some leftover colored envelopes and I matched the size of those when making the cards.  

I found some scrap wood approximately the same size as the cards.  Then, I let the kids wrap yarn around them.  The more haphazard the better!  We taped the ends to the back of the wood to keep it all secure.  

We went ahead and used water colors to paint the yarn -- since my 4 year old daughter and her friend were doing this project -- I didn't want to be responsible for stained clothes!  We used just a little bit of water to keep the colors as dark as possible.  Acrylic paint, or tempura paint would also be great for this project.

While the yarn was still wet, we pressed the wood blocks down to the front of the card - and voila!  Look at these fun designs in all those pretty colors.  (We re-wrapped and painted the yarn for each different card).

I took my little $1 alphabet stamps and stamped "Made by [name]" on the back.  I think it's sweet to know who made it when you get a hand made card.

And here they are, stacked together and finished off with colored envelopes and wrapped in baker's twine.  SO simple, but sweet and personal.  It was fun to send my daughter's little friend home with some for her mom, and keep a few for myself :)

So - if you need a Mother's day gift, try making these block print cards!  They are quick and easy, and are sure to be loved!

Personalized Clip Boards

Working at a religious school, I've made quite a few Teacher Appreciation gifts in the past - and it has been fun to do different things.  I've made pencil bouquets, magnets, clocks, and more - you can check out my "Teacher Appreciation" section on my "Tutorials" page for pictures of all of those!

This year, I made Personalized Clip Boards - over 50 of them! - and they turned out great.

To personalize them, we had the students do an acrostic with the teacher's name.  We always love getting the students involved!  So, for each letter of the teacher's name, the students came up with a word or phrase describing their teacher, that started with that letter.

I then took the wording and created a different configuration for each name on the computer.  This made it easy to print the names right onto scrapbook paper.
I have a tutorial on how I made the clipboards if you scroll farther down...

My favorite are the ones in the pictures above and below.  The name is horizontal, and the acrostic phrases are in blocks below each letter.

I also made some with the name vertical...

I got some great honeycomb paper in the package of scrapbook paper I picked.  I love these honey bee inspired ones below!

And lest you think you can't make a clipboard for a boy, here are a couple of the more masculine designs.  I think they rock!

For short names, I liked making the words swirl around the letters.  You can do this in Word with word art, or I did it in my Silhouette software.  

Need something for a music teacher?  Print up some musical notes to make it even more personalized!

Aren't they great?

Want to make your own?  

Here's the How To:

Supplies: 

clip board

Mod Podge (paper or matte kind)

scrapbook paper

foam paint brush

scissors

distress ink (optional)

string (optional)

You can get these clipboards very inexpensively at an office supply store.  I picked some up for less than $2 each.
First, to make life easier for myself, I opened the clip as wide as I could, and tied a piece of string really tightly through the holes, to hold the clip open while I worked.  This is easier to do with two people ;)

The clip board is covered in different pieces of scrapbook paper.  To get the correct shape I made a template out of cardstock.  First, trace around your clipboard.  Then measure different points on the clip mechanism.  Use those measurements to mark on your template, and make small adjustments as you cut it to fit.

I used anywhere from 2-4 different patterns of paper on each board.  Since the clipboard was 1/2" taller than my scrapbook paper, I always had to have a strip of different paper running horizontally to make it tall enough.  Some I tore, some I cut evenly.
For each teacher, I designed the wording on the computer and printed the design right onto a coordinating piece of scrapbook paper.  I cut the paper first to 8.5" x 11" to run through my printer, and then cut it down to the size I wanted.

Next came the Mod Podge part.  I got the Mod Podge made for paper - and it worked fine.  You can also use regular matte.

1) With a foam brush, cover the clip board with a THIN layer of Mod Podge.
2) Then, starting with the paper on the lowest layer, brush the back of the paper with a THIN layer of Mod Podge and then affix it to the board.
3) Press the paper down well, so there are no wrinkles or bubbles.
4) Brush Mod Podge over the edges, particularly covering any area you will lay another piece of paper, and continue until all the paper is down
5) Optional: Run distress ink along the edges
6) Paint a thin layer of Mod Podge over the whole board.  Brush back and forth in one direction.

HINT: My paper ALWAYS bubbled when it got saturated with Mod Podge.  It was flat for a few seconds, right after I put it on and pressed it down, but as I put on more layers, it bubbled.  When this happened the first time, I was so bummed, and it was late, and I went to bed thinking I had ruined my clipboards.  By the time I woke up, all the bubbles were gone!!  They had all dried and settled!
So, my advice is: press it down firmly right when you set the paper down, and that's it.  Don't touch it again until it is dry!  If you do, you will make creases where the bubbles are.  Let it dry and settle on it's own.

In case you are wondering what Distress Ink will do for you, I have a before and after picture (before is above, after is below).  I really like the depth that the dark edges add to the boards.

Here is one batch, all lined up and ready to be Mod Podged! 

While many had the acrostics, some were given to parents and tutors, simply to say "thank you."
Don't want to use a printer - or don't have one?
Below, I used tiny alphabet stamps to stamp parents' names and a little thank you note.  You could also hand write something - or have your child write something!

Below are more ideas for a general "thank you" - without the acrostic.  Still personalized and fun!

I love the chance to show a teacher, tutor or friend how thankful you are for them.  These clipboards are personal and versatile - and certainly have lots of uses in the classroom.  Make a few teachers you know happy with one of their own!

Update:  Here are the ones I did for my daughter's teachers.  These ones have a quote from every student in the class on them - which turned out really cute.  We also made apple cards by cutting an apple in half, brushing paint on it, and stamping it onto cardstock.