Some of you all may or may not, be wondering why its such a biggie for me to be on {Studio 5}.  Of course it would be awesome to win for the sake of winning but the biggest reason is because, Studio 5 sort of changed my life…I was completely burnt out from sewing baby stuff and it made me discover a new way to be creative! During the summer I happened to be flipping channels and {Brooke from All Things Thrifty} was doing a demo of her {PB knockoff signs}. She was so cute that I headed over to her blog and

oh.my.gosh. I died.

 I spent the next 2 days reading through every.single.post. and plotting and planning. My MIL/BFF and I headed to the nearest thrift store (the DI) and this is where my love for everything junky began. So I will take you back on the journey of my very first piece of craptastic furniture.

Ta Da! Here she is in all here glory. For a mere $40.00 she is the most expensive thing that I have bought to date.

 I have posted about my glazing technique {here} but I will show you step by step again for all you newbies!

1. Wash your gorgeous (say that as sarcastically as you can…) piece of furniture off. Chances are that if you’ve scored yourself a beauty it will be mighty nasty. Also take off all the hardware.

2. Prime! I used Kilz spray primer. It can come out kind of sand papery but if you shake it for at least 3 minutes it wont be bad at all!

3. Whip out your spray paint. I use exclusively Krylon now because their handle rocks and makes it so your trigger finger doesn’t want to fall off. (Its kind of hard to get an even coat when you have to push the trigger down with your thumb. Come on you know you’ve done that!)  On this piece I used Krylon Gloss in Classic White. When you use the Kilz primer for some reason it makes the spray paint not super glossy,  which is fine with me.

Now you get to glaze!

4. Get your gear. I LOVE those cheapie $1.00 brushes at home depot or walmart because their bristles are really stiff and when you glaze you are trying to get it in every nook and cranny. Soft brushes don’t seem to work as well and they are usually more expensive and it makes me cringe jamming a nice brush into something. I use Ralph Lauren Faux Tintable Glaze in Black Silk. You can get it for $13 or $14 from Home Depot. One container lasts me about 6 big projects. The last thing that you will need is something to wipe your glaze off with. The size of my project determines the size of my material. When I did this piece I used a sheet with 1/2  of it wet. You will also want another fully wet rag/t-shirt for the final wipe down.

6. Wipe Wipe Wipe! Start with the wet half of your cloth. This will get the bulk of your glaze off. Don’t worry about it all being off just a good chunk of it. Then I switch to the dry size of the same cloth and buff the rest off. Next I use cloth #2 that is all wet and GENTLY (not in the cracks, just on the surface) wipe it off again. This makes it so that its not super dingy looking all over. Ta Da! Just repeat until you are all done.

And here she is in her permanent home in my entryway:

So ladies if you haven’t had the time to head over to {Studio 5} to vote please do,  hopefully then I will be able to inspire someone the way that Brooke inspired me! #2 Mandi Gubler