Sunny Days

 I'm back and ready to get going. I had a wonderful day yesterday. I got to all of the stores I needed to get to and pretty much got everything I was looking for. Then I headed to my daughter's new office-which has come so far just since I was there on Wednesday-for a little happy hour with her, her assistant and one of her best friends from high school days who is a whiz at organizing and who helps them out frequently when a client needs some help getting things ready in their new spaces. We had so much fun catching up and reminiscing and before I knew it, it was bedtime! Lol

I think our night last night has been our absolute coldest and it is still a bit nippy this morning but, the sun is shining full force and everything looks so much better than it does on those gloomy days.

Since I now had my supplies, I hit the ground running. The first thing I tackled was finishing up the painting on the star. I will say that once I realized that it is only the two lower legs on the star that have that much raised detail, the rest went rather quickly.

Next came the distressing and "rusting" processes. I've shown you this before but first I used some antique wax over the star tile and then applied some ModPodge where I wanted the rust, sprinkled on cinnamon and went back over the areas with more ModPodge. 

While that was drying, I went to the supplies I picked up yesterday. I found some blue cording at HL that will work well on the edges of the the tile so that the "bumpy" opening areas don't show. And then, I started looking for what I could use as a spindle. I thought of using a large dowel piece on a round base but when I saw the wooden spools, I decided that I liked them better.

I used wood glue to adhere the pieces and when they were dry I "stained" it using the antique wax. I like that better than using stain because it is water based and so much easier to clean up.

I also distressed the image a bit before gluing it to the wood star and then hot glued the faux tile to the wood.

Getting the cording right where it needed to be was a bit tricky but I kept the star on a silicon mat and could go around the edges while it was laying flat. I did get some glue where it shouldn't be so you know I will be going back to work on that but until then, it is coming along-time for a lunch break and then I'll be back and we'll see how far we can get before we just need to wait to pick up some 4th of July embellishments-and, since it is only January, I'm thinking we might have to wait a bit for them to appear. Lol

After lunch I stained and cut a small dowel, glued it to the back of the star and inserted it into the hole in the top of the spool. I must say that I am pretty happy with how the wooden spool/wood base turned out looking pretty much like the vintage spool used in my inspiration.

Once there, I tied some of the silk ribbon together into a messy bow and then added some red and white pip berries. If I can find some blue pip berries when the 4th stuff comes out, I will definitely add them. As you can probably see under the spool, there was much trimming and snipping. At first I wanted the ribbons long but changed my mind and they kept getting shorter and shorter. Lol The inspiration had some greenery and I tried that but I wasn't a fan. There are also some red flowers that I don't have. If I can find some the right size I might give them a go but I am thinking I also might just stop right here. I don't want to add so much that the bottom two legs of the star get hidden and it doesn't even look like a star any more. I did cut a piece of navy blue cardstock the shape of the star to glue on the back so most of the "uglies" aren't visible any more. I'm not sure where this cutie will end up "living" but I think I really like it.

HL has St. Patrick's Day stuff out and it was really hard for me not to buy a framed picture of a bouquet of shamrocks but, you know my motto-"I don't buy anything from HL if it's not on sale"! And so I will wait but I am pretty sure it will be coming home with me soon. I was thinking about using it in the living room under the new shelf where I now have a large gap. As I have said, I can move the lamp over and it will work but I've come to like the pictures in that space:

I'm not sure the shamrock picture would be big enough so, when I saw this cutie I decided to grab it. It is mostly green so it will work for St. Pat's and then also maybe another decor as well because it isn't holiday specific. And, if that orange flower bothers me-which I'm thinking it just might-it should be a simple solution to change its color. Lol

So, once again I have a huge mess of about every craft tool I own being out on the table so time to call it a day. Again, I think the temperatures warrant a fire tonight so I'm off to clean up and then get cozy for the evening. I have more of the Valentine tour to get to so I will be back. Stay safe and stay tuned.