Robot Baby Shower Favors

We go through a lot of bottles of Starbucks Mocha Frappaccino at our house. We buy them by the case at Costco. So I was so excited when I came across this great idea using the bottles over at Kerry's Crafts. I began hoarding the bottles in our mud room, knowing that I would find a use for them eventually.

TA DA! I decided to finally put the bottles to use in creating the favors for my sister's vintage robot-themed baby shower. The first step was getting the sticky labels off. After hand-washing the first ten bottles and slowly peeling off the labels, not without much frustration, it dawned on me to put them in the dishwasher. Not only does the dishwasher get them spic and span, but right after the drying heat cycle the labels peel off so easily. Just make sure you pull them out and take the labels off while the bottles are still warm.

After the lids were clean, I primed them with a primer spray paint. Trust me you're gonna wanna prime the lids, because the Starbucks logo is very dark and will show through. Then I followed up with some sparkly silver spray paint.

Once you have clean bottles and painted lids, it's time to cut the paper. I used a vintage looking paper pad by My Mind's Eye called Complete Boy. I cut the paper into strips 2 1/2" wide and 9 1/2 " long. 

Put a strip of double-stick tape on each edge and a little strip in the center. Wrap the paper around the bottle, secure the edge and voilà...

I punched out circles and robots then ran them through my sticker maker so that they would stick really well to the bottles.

The finishing touch was a little bit of sparkle. I ran Stickles, which I love, around the circles.



Now, let me tell you a little story to explain the display...

On my drive to the park where Ryan plays softball, there is a farm-style house, wrap-around porch and all, with an organic tomato stand out front. Every week, I slow down as I drive by, gawking at how adorable it is. One week, I drove by and they had a ton of antiques and goodies out front in the yard. I dropped Ryan off at his game and came back right away. It turns out they were setting up for a yard sale the next day, but they were such nice people they let me look around. Not only had the family owned an old-fashion soda fountain in town, but they recently threw a wedding in the backyard for their daughter. This led to many amazing finds for me including : retro tin drink signs, large vintage window panes, and much more.

I spotted boxes of these small wooden crates. They had used them for centerpieces at the wedding. I jumped on the little crates (they were only 50 cents each!), itching to find a use for them.

I primed and spray painted a couple of the crates with a robot silver. Then used them to display the favors at the baby shower. I also sprayed a couple of the crates red to prop up the drink dispensers, which you can see here.

The last step was to stuff the bottles with something delicious. We displayed the bottles near the entrance with this sign that I made using a spray-painted thrift store frame.

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Makeover Results: Dresser and Hutch

I finished this months ago and am just now posting. Ryan and I got this piece and at a local antique store (to see what it looked like before click here). I fell in love with it, but we had no place to put it. Then it hit me, I still didn't have a desk for my craft room. Why not use it as a workspace/storage? Brilliant! I absolutely love the way it turned out.

If you look at the before pictures, you can see that it was a lavender color, yuck. I've just never been a fan of pastels, not even at Easter. So I decided to go with a neutral color, a cream. As I said earlier, I had the brilliant idea to sand and paint in 100 degree weather. I just think of it as dual-purpose: refinishing a piece of furniture and sweating out all of the toxins in my body.

I didn't do any heavy sanding or use a primer before painting. I just wiped off all the dust, then got to work painting every little nook and cranny. Which, as you can see, there are a lot! That's part of what I loved about this piece: all of the curves and grooves. Avoiding paint drips from all of these curves and grooves, however, was a major pain in my derrière. After two coats, I didn't like the sheen of the paint, too shiny. So I did a third coat with a flat paint in a slightly darker color, the first being brighter than I thought.

The last step : sanding the edges to give it that antique/shabby chic look. I thought that being outside, in the open air, and sanding by hand (not a big electric sander) wouldn't warrant goggles or a mask. Wrong. A word to the wise, wear goggles at least. Even if you don't see much dust coming off. Your eyes will thank you later.

You want to sand every edge that would be exposed over time to rubbing. The beauty of it is, it doesn't have to be perfect. You want it to look worn and old. All those imperfections give it character.

The original piece was meant to be a vanity/dresser, so there was a mirror on the left. The mirror was broken, which was partly why we got such a good deal. We took the mirror out and Ryan cut a piece of steel to fit the opening. He spray-painted it with a metallic silver and then sealed it. Now, I have a fantastic magnetic board.

I like to use antique teacup saucers as little catch-alls. I also filled the thrift store frames (from my sister's baby shower) with some of my favorite photos. The ribbon holder below was 50% off at Michael's recently, which made me a happy girl. I was finally able to wrangle up all of my ribbon.

These little ball jars are great for storing all of those card-making details: buttons, brads, etc.

Look at all of that storage! The center cabinets have just one shelf inside. Our plan was to knock the shelf out so that I could pull my chair up to it and set my feet in there. The shelf is proving to be harder to get out than we thought. 

How handsome are my great uncles? The youngest one, on the left, lied about his age to become a sailor during WWII. I love hearing his stories. My favorite being the story of how he got the naked lady tattooed on his forearm in Pearl Harbor by a 14-year-old tattoo artist. On the right, my grandparents on their wedding day. These photos are waiting patiently for me to frame them and create the wall of black and whites I've been wanting to do.

I got the little tub above for $2.50 at Target. The boxes below were on sale for 1.66 at Michael's. 

    

I love my new craft room! It's so organized, now let's see if I can keep it that way.

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Makeover: Lavender Dresser and Hutch

Ryan and I went down to an antique center in Chico called Eighth and Main (it's huge, you should check it out if you're local). I came across this piece and fell in love with it. A few other people were eyeballing it, so I knew I had to jump on it ! I was not so keen on the lavender color, but I was willing to take on the challenge.

We talked the seller down to a pretty good price, since the mirror was broken.

Ryan took out the mirror and I painted two coats of "white dove." Unfortunately, the paint shop in our small town gave me the wrong sheen; the paint was too shiny. So I had to paint a third coat with an eggshell finish from Lowe's. The eggshell finish looks a lot more vintage. 

The day I decided to paint, it was 95° outside. It took about five hours for the first two coats! All of the little nooks and crannies were tricky to paint. Not sure I've ever sweated so much in my life. I looked like a hot mess, with paint in my hair and my "shake what your mama gave you" t-shirt on. 

This is what Patsy looked like while I was painting:

Don't worry, she had ice water.

To see the finished product, click here.