The Mitten State {Customized Stencil by Lazer Design}

I got a new stencil!!  Not just any stencil, but the silhouette of my home state - Michigan! Sorry Iowa, you raised me well and I will always love you, but I've made the switch to Michigan girl. Anyways.  Ohhhh, guys. I am like Heywood Banks looking for subjects to sing about.  The possibilities are endless.  I mean, he sings about foreheads being on fire, flies landing on a cow pie before landing on your potato salad, and my all time favorite Heywood song  - TOAST (ask me to sing 'toast' for you sometime.  I will).  But instead of subjects for music, it's subjects for my new MICHIGAN stencil customized just for me by LAZER DESIGNS.  Nothing is safe from getting branded with the shape of Michigan.  A chair seat? Vintage suitcase? Old Vase? The cat?

This stencil was made by LAZER DESIGNS, cut from a thick and durable high quality vinyl -  totally unlike the homemade ones I make using clear folders from the Dollar Tree.  The detail on the state outline is perfect too! They did two different designs for me - one with less detail and then a more intricate one.  Even got all the little islands cut out between the Upper Peninsula  and the Mitten!

Let's see some of the projects I've used it on so far, shall we?

Yes Nelson, we see you. 

When the photobomber has adorable whiskers, I say bomb-away.

I can see the hashtags already. #theUPmatterstoo.  I promise, the chair and the vase were the only two projects I shirked the Upper Peninsula on.

Let's move on to some signage.  I mean, signs are just a given. I will be making Michigan signs like a crazy woman with this stencil. Again.... endless possibilities!

How about a little of everyone's favorite Michigan winter sport added to the Michigan silhouette?

On the left, those people who can't handle two skiis... and on the right - the real baddies.

Bet you can't guess which one I do.... ;)

I actually went into my booth at the Parma Antique Mall with my stencil in hand, wondering if there was something I could jazz up with the state of Michigan. I pulled out this old vintage suitcase.  What do you think? My friend Shana suggested I add the
"Let's Go North"  because let's face it.  If you're a true Michigander, "Let's go North" means "It's time for a vacation, comrades!"

Interested in LazerDesign,s stencils?

Click HERE for your own customized stencil - for your business or yourself!

Wait, let's not just end this at stencils. Because that's just the tip of the iceberg! 

 Talk about ENDLESS.... they have thousands of items for you to customize with your very own logo, design customized bridal party gifts, wedding favors, engrave knives, uniforms, and much more.

Check them out!

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Repurposed Closet Door... And how I about took out an Airbnb Guest With It!

There was a very scary mudroom in the tenant house on our property.

We decided the room would thank us if we busted this closet out of there!

It had two very heavy wooden sliding doors, one of which was already removed in these photos and probably heading for the burn pile when I intervened cuz ya know... #repurposeeverything....

(Check out what the mudroom looks like now... HERE)

The wheels would be kept on and put to use, as well as the handles. :)

Thanks to Ryobi's battery powered saw with a laser beam, cutting this bad boy up was pretty simple!

Ryobi, are you paying attention?  

You follow me on my lowly  Instagram account, which makes me giddy, but when do I start getting sponsored? ;)

So here's what one chunk turned into:

A towel holder! Black chalkboard paint, distressed, and the words WASH, RINSE, DRY.

For this handle, I used a gold oil-based paint that I've literally had for 16 years, and I still use it.  In fact, it's just a little half pint and it's not even half gone!  A little goes a long way.

Now THIS sign, could have cost me dearly.  Like DEARLY.  Let me tell you the story....

I painted the scripture text found in Matthew 11: 28 "Come to me all you who labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest."  Seemed pretty fitting to hang over the bed in our newly listed Airbnb!  I was excited for something nice and big because the bed didn't have a headboard.  The problem was.....  I used jute rope that was WAY TOO THIN!!!!  I mean, how was I  to know that the skinny nail I hung it on was going to act like a little knife on the rope?  Seriously. I can be such a brainless idiot some days.

So it was my second group of guests ever staying in our airbnb next door when I get a text from the woman that the sign over the bed had come crashing down because the rope broke during the day.  THANK HEAVENS IT WASN'T AT NIGHT WHILE THEY WERE DREAMING OF SUGAR PLUM FAIRIES!!!!  I think it could have done some brain damage!  Can we say, lawsuit?  Worst nightmare.  Thankfully, the only damage was some scraped paint off the wall. When we first opened our Airbnb, I would get soooo nervous about things not being just right!!  So this kind of put me in panic mode!

After taking a couple of weeks to recover from the terror of the "what if's" going through my brain, I redid it with a much more heavy duty thick rope.  The castors that the closet door slid on were perfect for the rope to wrap around.  Just make sure the rope is STURDY!  And just in case, let's hang it somewhere other than over the bed.  It got moved to the couch.  At least they would be conscious if it fell again.

My precious Taffy kitty cat who is now in kitty heaven... always posed so beautifully for me. (Or was just always in the way of my photo shoots....) :)

So about a month later, a family was staying in our airbnb when I got a text asking if I could paint a sign for them just like the one above, but using the verse  "But those who wait on the Lord will find new strength.  Isaiah 40:31"... and could I please put an eagle on it. The issue was, I received this text fairly late in the evening and they were leaving in the morning.  They really didn't want to pay for shipping...  Well low and behold, I had the other hunk of door cut, with castor rollers still attached, and painted black just waiting for me to paint a sign on!  So at about midnight I finished it, and brought it over as they were packing up their van the next morning.  Thankfully they loved it (or they pretended really well) and were super appreciative of me being willing to do it on the fly.

Almost everything decorating the Airbnb next door is for sale, and the original one eventually sold too.

So, I still actually have a few chunks of this closet door left, including another piece with a handle, and I'm waiting for motivation plus inspiration to strike.  And you never know how long that might take.... 

Thanks for stopping by!

You can find the towel hanger sign in the:

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Removing Old Decoupage (Thrift Signs Before/After)

Did someone say 75% off of blue tags at Saint Vincent De Paul?!!!!!

I'm all over that!

Fifty Cents each for these plaques.  The metal screw-in rings on the top are almost worth that!

I scarfed these bad boys up.  Now to get that ancient old decoupage off....

I read you needed to spray them with wallpaper remover.  I knew I had some of that.  Somewhere.  Nope.  Must have been something I hung on to for fourteen years and finally threw out the week before because I was never going to use it.  That one time I shushed my inner-hoarding voice...

So I got a rag, and soaked it in ultra hot water and laid it over the pretty print that was so thickly decoupaged onto the wood.  It took at least twenty minutes to loosen up. I used a metal scraper, but only about twenty five percent of it scraped off, and then I had to repeat the process.  I found it best to just put the hot, wet rag over the picture and let it sit - the longer the better.  I kept it on the drying rack in the sink so I could periodically run hot water over it.  It really wasn't difficult, just not something that I could do quickly since it needed to sit and soak. 

Then I painted two of them black, and two of them white, and got busy with my stencils making signs (plus one odd ball - a jewelry holder with antique door locks!). :)

I can't even remember which doors these old locks came off, but I'm so glad I kept them (would you expect any different? I'm not exactly known for throwing stuff out).

After scrubbing them and getting the loose rust off with a wire brush, I painted them with oil based gold paint.  Then I secured them on with screws.  The black and white chevron pattern made it pretty easy to evenly place them.  I love whenever I don't have to measure!

This is always a popular quote: "What I love most about  my home is who I share it with".  

I hope that's true for you!  

Sadly, I'm all too aware of homes where this is not the case.  

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Simple Burlap Bow Around Chippy Board Sign

When you have to yank it off, might as well repurpose it!  Pretty sure this board came from right about where the bottom of Tim's ladder is, off the outside of the sunroom.  This delightfully chippy wood was all hidden underneath ugly aluminum siding and oh how I wish we could have restored the look BUT for reasons I won't go into...  we didn't. :(  So I'm having fun creating with the wood I cut up and added to my "salvage stash."

I cut a long piece of burlap, tied a knot in the middle of it and then just used a staple gun to attach the ends around the back of the board.

The letters are stenciled on, and I used Cutting Edge's Birds On A Branch stencil for the leaves overlapping  it onto the board in the spaces between the words.  It's a huge stencil, but I love using just small sections of it for projects like this. 

Here's one of the teachers using this "technique" at one of my sign painting classes:

I had actually put the lettering on this board as an example of what the different letters looked like for a sign painting class I was hosting (I'll say hosting rather than teaching because I didn't excel in the "teaching" department). 

Ms. Haney, our awesome school principal, chose to paint her sign on a piece of the chippy white wood which she actually painted a light aqua blue over... and it turned out so cute (wish I had a picture of her finished product):

I have more signs in the works using this awesome chippy old salvaged wood from off of the old "Lefere Mansion" so stay tuned.  :)

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