I Know The Plans I Have For You: American Crafter

Friday, March 23, 2012

Round 3!! Pallet Lemonade Stand...

Ok, round 3?! I can't believe I'm still here! I'm thrilled! There is SO much talent, I can't say that enough! Last week I made it through with my "Crib Craft Station", which has been my most viewed project since I've started blogging! This week the theme is "Spring", which I have to say, stumped me a bit. You try to out do your last project, but it took me some time to decide how. I don't think that I "out did" last week, but I am equally happy with it {and so are the kids!}. My husband suggested that I do a lemonade stand. It seemed like a great idea, but how was I going to make it special? I had been collecting pallets for a project I was planning on doing for my little one, but thought it would be great to do a lemonade stand with them instead!

I have to admit that I didn't take any pictures of the process. I was sick Tuesday and Wednesday, so I didn't get started till Wednesday Evening. I was really feeling the pressure, and I couldn't even think about taking pictures!
I'll explain what I did :-)

First let me say....IT IS NOT EASY TO TAKE PALLETS APART!!!! That was the worst part! The darker pallets were just breaking as I pulled them apart, so in a panic, I emailed a guy that I met (from getting something on CL) that had a ton on pallets. I told him what I was doing and asked if he could spare a few, and he said sure! He had some really nice ones (still didn't come apart easily) that I knew would be great. I started by taking the pallets apart, then I painted the slats using a white wash (white latex paint and water 1:1 ratio), which allowed the stain to go on smoothly (I used a walnut stain/varnish). It would have been great to use a complete pallet and just fill in the spaces, but the kids lemonade stand would have looked more like a poolside bar! That would have been GREAT, but we don't have a pool ;-) So I cut it down to kids size. I screwed in the top, the sides that hold the sign, and the sign as well. I wanted to make sure that it was secure, so I didn't want to nail it. I also screwed in heavy boards behind the stand at the base, so it wouldn't topple over.

The top is 4 slats held together by nailing it to 2 slat underneath with the front slat screwed on. I wanted it to look more "finished".

I made the puffs with coffee filters and a cupcake wrapper. I thought they turned out SO cute! I folded the filters in half and then in half again and hot glued them till it was a "complete" 1/2 circle. Then, just found the center and glued in the wrapper and the circle (which I printed on heavy card stock).

I used some printables that I found online, you can find them {here}

and designed the picture for the pitcher and the straws on picnik.

I will have to post all of the {other} printables that I made for this soon. While I was hard at work, "somehow" my laptop screen broke. So stay tuned for those. The banner was made from drop cloth, scrapbook paper and hung with twine.

I used yellow acrylic paint to hand paint the sign. Not, that it is hard to just paint "lemonade", but I think that we rely so much on some sort of transfer method, that I was nervous that the spacing wouldn't be right. Thankfully it worked out. You only get one shot {when it's due 20 minutes!} I thought it was funny when my son said "Mom, you didn't paint the "e's" right! They're the wrong way!"

What's a lemonade stand without lemons??

I got the basket from the dollar store, they have the best things!

I don't know if I would categorize this project as "a fun one to do", but the outcome is definitely FUN!! With the right power tools this actually could be a fun project to do! I didn't have the proper tools and had to do it all with "powerless" tools. In total, this project cost me $6!!
God only knows what I would come up with if I make it into the final week, but if you'd like to help me move on...vote here!! Happy Spring!!

sharing at these lovely parties:
Miss Mustard Seed: Furniture Feature Friday
The Shabby Creek Cottage: Transformation Thursday
Bringing Beauty: Beautify it Monday
Debbie Does Creations: Toot Your Horn Tuesday
Skip to my Lou: Made by You Monday
Chatty Chics: Wild Wednesday
Destination: Craft: Destination: Cutesy Monday
Center of Attention Deficit Disorder: Center of Attention Sunday
A Simply Klassic Home: Simply Classic Sunday
Junk in their Trunk: Link it Up Wednesday
Pincushion Creations: Homemade by You
Live Laugh Rowe: Live Laugh Linky
The Shabby Creek Cottage: Transformation Thursday
Tatertots and Jello: Weekend Wrap Up
Funky Junk Interiors: Saturday Nite Special
Kitchen Fun with My 3 Sons: Crafty Friday
Days of Chalk and Chocolate: Latest and Greatest
Fireflies and Jellybeans: Show off Your Stuff
French Country Cottage: Feathered Nest Friday
Little Becky Homecky: Fantabulous Friday
Family Ever After....Once Upon a Weekend
How to Nest for Less: Just a Party with My Peeps
Savvy Southern Style: Wow Us Wednesdays
Craft Test Dummies: Kid's Craft Week Round Up
52 Mantels: Thursdays Are YOUR Days
Craftionary: Friday Fun
Be Different Act Normal: Show and Tell Saturday
Cherished Handmade Treasures: Things We find Pinteresting

[Continue reading...]

Friday, March 16, 2012

Crib turned Craft Station!

To VOTE head on over here and scroll through the bottom of the projects and click on the blue vote now. I'm #10 Thanks!!

I can't believe I'm back for week 2 of American Crafter!! All of the contestants are SO talented! I have been having so much fun with this contest. It really makes you dig into the creativity bin from within! But so far, this has to be my all time favorite project. This week the theme was "KIDS" so I just knew that my kids would be thrilled to know that they would benefit from what ever I chose to make. A couple of months ago, while searching Pinterest, I saw this:

{source}

How creative is that?! Well, I love a Pinterest challenge (as you might already know from this post), and this was the perfect time to take this one on!! I had a crib in the garage that someone had given to me for my daughter, but it was a drop front crib, so I was nervous to use it.

It really is a nice crib and had I thought about it before getting my daughter a different one, I could have just put brackets on the front so that it wouldn't go up and down. Good thing I didn't though! Because now it looks like this:

Here are the supplies I used and what I did to achieve this:
a crib
ASCP Pure White
ASCP Graphite
Valspar gloss luscious green spray paint
Krylon Chalkboard Spray Paint
Sanding blocks fine/medium
grow grain ribbon
Sharpie Oil-Based Medium Point Paint Marker
dark wax
chalk
2 chairs
polyurethane
plywood
circular saw
2 hinges
4 corner brackets
painters tape
hot glue
glue gun

I don't have pictures of the entire process because I ended up in a time crunch, but I'm sure you can picture it. I started by painting the sides of the crib with the pure white and wanted them to be distressed a good amount. Then I spray painted the back with the green spray paint. (I'll warn you, I have a lot of pictures!!)

This crib had a slide out drawer which is what I used for the table. I painted it with Graphite and used dark wax to seal it. All of these things were easy! It would be the table top that would be the challenge. My friend had a huge piece of press board that she didn't need, and I knew that would save me quite a bit of money, so I was determined to make it work. I set the drawer on top of it and traced the size I needed, leaving about an inch in the front to have an area for the kids to be able to lift it up. Using a circular saw (for the first time!) I cut it down to size.

It obviously doesn't have a finish on it that could be sanded smooth, and splinter free. So my options were to cover it with something hard and smooth, or figure out something else. Since I didn't have anything on hand to cover it with, I had to think of the something else. I decide to put multiple coats of polyurethane on it to "fill in" and seal the wood

To my surprise, it worked!! So now that the wood was smooth (for the most part), I sprayed 2 areas with the chalkboard paint.

Using painters tape, I taped off the 2 sections that I wanted for the chalkboards and painted the rest with ASCP Pure White. I decided not to seal any of the top, so technically the entire thing is a chalkboard.

Since this is for my son and daughter, I wanted to give them each their own area. Using the ribbon that had pink in it, I framed one side for my daughter Drew, and using a brown ribbon with blue polka dots, I framed the other side for Nick. (Sorry there aren't pictures of any of these steps) Then using the hinges, I attached it to the drawer, so they could use the drawer for storage! Now it was time to turn the crib into a craft station. Since the kids aren't so little anymore, I wanted to make sure that it wasn't only high enough for them to use now, but to be able to use it for quite some time. I drilled new holes into the sides of the crib and bolted on L shaped corner brackets. Then I was able to just set the "table" onto the brackets and secure it all with screws underneath.

That took care of the table, but now they needed somewhere to sit! I have a pretty big collection of chairs to redo, so that was no problem! These would be perfect!

I used 2 coats of ASCP Graphite and with a Sharpie Paint Pen I put their names of the back. And tada.....they have a great space to do their homework and crafts!!

I loved doing this project so much! And the kids are THRILLED with it!! I hope you like it as well! You can see it at naptimecrafters.com and I would LOVE it if you would vote for it! The contest is based on votes, so I can use ALL the help I can get!! Voting is open NOW! :-) I hope to make it to next week and show ya what I come up with! Thanks so much for stopping by! I would love to hear what you think!!

Sharing at these lovely parties:

Skip to My Lou: Made by you Monday

Destination: Craft: Destination: Cutesy Monday