If you give a mouse a cookie...

I sat at the computer the other night to print out a couple signs for church.  Five minutes, max, to type, print, cut and frame.  

As I saw the files I had left open, I realized I could print a sticker for a birthday present instead of making a tag.  So I wrapped, taped, typed, printed, adhered.

The table was a bit messy, so I started putting everything out in its place and realized I should just make the labels for my drawers I've been meaning to put up for awhile.  That also meant I had to rummage through the drawers and make sure each was properly labeled.

So I found in the "Scrapbook Paper" drawer something that didn't belong: a wrapped gift.  For the life of me I could not remember what it was, or who it was for.  

After I carefully used an X-acto blade to open the wrapping- then I sat down to the computer and finally made the signs.

Five minutes.

What a coincidence that Andrew shared photos of his dresser refurb the same week I was attempting my first furniture painting project.  Darn!  After I am always reminding others to take progressive pictures, I didn't.  I do, however, at least have Before and After:

Ben's aunt Judy supplied me with this table from one of her storage units.  Two years ago, when we moved in, my MIL helped me clean it up by scraping off the bubbling top and using our pal Old English.  It has been in my dining room ever since, housing multiple collections.

I needed a change, and initially was going to go with an Heirloom White- distressed, of course, courtesy of this inspiration by Shanty 2 Chic.  This blog gave suggestions for distressing.  Originally I was thinking the table would be against a painted wall again, but then decided it would be next to white, so I nixed the Heirloom White and went with a red to accent other parts of the new room.

This project ended up costing a little more than I initially planned (though not a ton, by any means).  

Items I ended up buying:

• sandpaper
• 1 can of red spray paint
• 1 can of primer spray paint (Hobby Lobby 40% off coupon!)

Items I already had:

• 1/2 can of red spray paint
• bottle of harvest gold acrylic paint
• polyurethane satin finish spray

I didn't have Vaseline, as the tutorial suggested, so after reading other "distressing" tutorials, I ended up using a candlestick.  The wax serves the same purpose, and I didn't have an extra cost.

What I'll do differently next time: paint the underlying color (in my case, the gold) everywhere.  After spraying the red on, I didn't remember the oh-so-clever places I had painted the gold, and it was a little uneven.   I'll also try to remember to take progressive pictures.

For a fun but simple card/tag, I combined two of my favorite things right now: Chevron design and washi tape!

I enjoyed putting this piece together, although it was a real challenge at first.  Amanda sent me some great inspiration and then let me have fun.  This is an example of what I really love to do- combine different media and try something new.  

I used some watercolor element from a previous project for the background, as well layered color, texture and font; I sketched the nest, scanned and manipulated it in Photoshop, creating more depth with colors and gradients within the nest.