Two Chairs Meet One Old Bench

I have been an owner of this bench for many many years. It's an old Amish Bench I found in the trash at neighbors house when I lived in Pennsylvania. It was currently in the garage and served no purpose. I painted it white few months ago and moved it outside on the veranda. It just stood there...kinda lonely. When Cindy gave me the 2 chairs last week it made perfect sense that I'd introduce the chairs to the bench...so I did!

Annie Sloan Paris Grey, 2 coats and lightly sanded. I decided to be adventurous and ironed on a picture from the Graphics Fairy www.graphicsfairy.blogspot.com

Yep...with my iron! I was careful with it and placed a towel over the image but the paint still bubbled a a bit but it came out nice and rustic.

Before

And...After!

Look how pretty! It's not super comfy so I will probably just use it as a table 

I had these pillows from Pier One that fit perfectly on the chairs

Bella approves!

Target has these lil buckets for sale for a $1

#22 my lucky number!

The bistro table and a chair got a cover of Paris Grey also.

 I think we are in good shape for a Garden Party! 

Thanks for visiting 

Bryn

This post is being linked up for Brag Monday at The one and only:

www.graphicsfairy.blogspot.com

Fun with the iron

I was a busy bee this Sunday morning...I even forgot to make myself a cup of coffee until I was done. The graphics are from   www.graphicsfairy.blogspot.com

4 plain linen napkins from Target 

Happy Sunday!

The Graphics Fairy

Have you checked out the Graphics Fairy? She is amazing.
All the clip art is FREE!
http://graphicsfairy.blogspot.com/
Be patient, browse and ignore the ads (her way making revenue)

Z is for Zebra... I couldn't resist printing this baby out and I had the perfect frame for it!

These are hanging in my living room right now. 2 old white (cheap) frames I had from way back. Intended for kids art projects but never used... I printed it on a "nicer white card stock" and then matted it myself...Yup I am an old scrapbooking Queen....

 

I personally love this picture. I bought this frame for $4 on the clearance rack at Marshall's when I was re-doing my fireplace and thought it would look nice on the mantle...somehow it didn't fit...maybe too big I don't know...

The image is in antique brown and fits the color in the frame so well!

It's sitting so pretty on top of the piano....The piano that I am thinking about tackling soon guarded with a brush and Ms. Ann Sloan Paint...Don't try to talk me out of it and please don't tell my husband :-)

Transferring Graphics

I have to admit how frustrated I am with transferring graphics onto things. I have poured over demos on youtube, the graphics fairy and personal blog tutorials. Everyone makes it sound so simple and easy.
In my previous blog I painted a couple of chairs and transferred pictures onto them. I ran into a few problems on the way but corrected them. I printed out the graphic onto regular copy paper with my laser printer. I cut out the image and brushed mod podge over the printed side. I let it dry overnight and then the headache started...the simple thing of spritzing water on the image and rubbing it gently off...That's exactly what I do but somehow my image isn't as nice as all the other ones. My image is dull, it rips, and I feel like it is a sticker looking.

This is a tray from someone else. Looks great and the image is sharp

This is mine, same method...

I tried it on a clay flower pot and it looked kind of sticker-ish so I decided to rough it up and antique it...You can still see where the paper is even though I sandpapered the edges

I tried another way from a blog tutorial with wax paper. The image is printed onto wax paper and then placed onto the wood and brushed on with a credit card. It worked nice. A little slippery but the image came through but not very sharp looking. ( I read later that if you wet the surface a little bit before with water the image will appear darker) 

Here is one of the chair that I painted. I used the mod podge technique. It works but it's hard. I am still not happy with the outcome even though I sanded it down and waxed it again and again...

so needless to say when I see pictures like these I get very frustrated....Grrrr.....Why can't I do this?

There must be a better way out there....Anyone?