Those bowling balls…

I really did have a purpose for them! Really! Friday, was still 50% off day at the thrift store and so I had to stop in and see if there was something new or something that I missed. When I walked in, Ann said “Hey, I just put put two more bowling balls for you.” So, I had to get those too! ;-) Some of you hav e wondered…what could I possibly want to do with 6 bowling balls??? Welll…it involved red paint, black silicone, copper wire…Any guesses yet?
It’s not another gazing ball

Okay,  what started out as well used bowling ball transformed very nicely into a 5 pound Lady Bug!

Isn’t she cute? She is going to have a nice home out in my garden, when the sun comes up! I’ve tried all weekend to get her finished so that I could take her to The thriftyba’s party, but I had semi unexpected company after going to see the expected out of town company! Now she’s finally finished, but it’s too dark to go outside now!
I saw this idea in Birds and Blooms Backyard Projects and knew I had to try it! There are a lot of fun projects in there and I can’t wait to try some more. Most of them, like this one, are fairly easy to do. If you’d like to try it, here’s what you’ll need:
A bowling ball

Primer,Red spray paint, black craft paint, sealer
Painters tape
copper wire
2 wooden beads
black silicone 
I stuck my bowling ball onto a piece of steel rebar to be able to spray all the way around it. First, I gave it a good coat of primer. I borrowed hubby’s car primer. It really gives a heavier coat and helps hide the imperfections.
Then I sprayed it with a gloss red spray paint.

When it was dry I filled the 3 holes with black silicone so it could be drying.

Then I taped off the back to paint the black stripe and painted it with black craft paint.

Once it was dry, I peeled up that tape and made templates for the circles out of more blue painters tape.

I traced circles on it using a small Tupperware container and cut them out with a utility knife. I placed them around on both sides of the stripe and painted them in with black.

While that was drying I painted the wooden beads black and super glued them  to the copper wires.
 
I pushed the wires down into the finger holes for the antennae. When the paint was dry, I pulled up the templates and I had a very round, very heavy lady bug!!

I can’t wait to take her out to the garden in the morning! 

****Update****

Here is ladybug in her new home:

I think she looks happy and right at home!

Tonight though, I think I’ll sneak over and see if thriftyba’s party is still going on. I’m also going to take her to some of the parties in my sidebar! Come with us and see some very inspiring projects! Just click on the small buttons in my sidebar!
Good Night for Now!

News Flash on Friday!

Happy Friday! I hope everyone is looking forward to a fun weekend with family. I know that for many this is the last weekend before school starts!

We have some out of town family coming in for the weekend. It will be busy!

I have noticed that since I’ve been able to read more blogs lately that I find many things that I’d like to share from giveaways to and fun projects to worth causes to support! Doing a post for each thing that I would like to share would be overwhelming to me and to whoever is trying to keep up with them all! :-) I don’t want to be “random” either, so I’ve had an idea! I’m going to try a “newsflash” Friday approach. On Fridays I’d like to share giveaways that I’ve found, great projects that I can’t wait to copy try and other things that may be of interest. What do you think? Let’s give it a try:

Giveaways

Julie @ Less Than Perfect Life of Bliss is giving away one of her gorgeous personalized corkboards!

 

 Mama Chocolate (a brand new blog) is giving away a copy of Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. I really want this book! :-)

New Parties

I found a few new parties to join! Check them out!

I didn’t know there were so many of these types of parties!!

A new linky party I was invited to:

  

The thriftyba is also having a party this week!

She’s promising us we’ll have a BALL! ;-)

Favorites

I hesitate to say “favorites”, but these are some projects that caught my eye and went down on my “I gotta do this” list!

What an amazing transformation!

By Jan over at BobbyPinsboardwalk. I’ve heard of spray painting, even done it my self, but I LOVE this idea!

 

Basket Liners

from Keep it Simple! I’ve been looking for something like this to try! I have a hoard collection of baskets!

DIY Frame

 

from Sarah @ A Little of this A Little of That. A great tutorial! I won’t be framing doormats, but I do have a project that involves making frame, so I was glad to find this!

Last, but definitely NOT Least, a very worthwhile cause:

Ashley, @ Cute As A Fox Creations is offering a customized washer necklace or keychain when you make a donation through her sister, for Breast Cancer Research. This has recently taken on a new dimension in our family as my Mother-in-law was diagnosed last week with breast cancer. Please go by and support, Ashley,her sister and all of those with breast cancer waiting on a cure!

That’s it for now! Updates as breaking news happens! :-)

 

 

Thrifting on Thursday

I LOVE a sale…especially a 50% off sale at my favorite thrift store!! Well today was my day!!!!

This is my haul:

 

A little closer…

This is what all is in that pile:

2 sleeping bags ~we ARE going on a family camping trip!

4 bowling balls ~ yes, four! You’ll see them made over very soon!

2 basket balls ~ also destined for a makeover soon.

1 nice metal stand with 3 shelves ~ getting a coat of spray paint

2 nice pillows that match my bedroom colors perfectly!

2 boat towels

A laundry basket,large brass planter, unique watering can, frame, wooden crate, wood curtain rod, a large bag of wooden craft supplies, and I really needed the wood beads and balls for a couple of projects I’m working on! I love it when that happens…I live in a small town with no craft stores and our Walmart has basically no craft supplies and I find my wooden beads at the thrift store!

I also found some really nice, new yarn!

 

It was a very profitable day!

Have you had any good thrift experiences lately??

How about a CSN Giveaway???

How does a $45 CSN GC sound? They have everything from dinnerware sets to toys and school/office supplies, so finding something to use it on should be easy…making up your mind which thing might take a while! :-)

Can you believe this is a file cabinet???

The even have good old fashioned pencils!!

and then there are the dinnerware sets:

There are so many choices just for their dinnerware sets…you can spend all afternoon just browsing!

So are you interested??? Here’s what you can do to get in on the giveaway.

1. For your first entry, check out csnstores.com and come back and share  here in a comment what you might like to use your GC on.

2.For a second entry, post about this on your blog, FB, whatever! lol

3.If you are a follower or choose to become a follower tell me so for a third entry!

Separate comments please! I’ll be using random.org to select the winner. The giveaway will end on Monday, August 9th at 9pm est.

I’ve wanted a set of white dinnerware since last Christmas. I had just started to read some creative blogs and many people were doing amazing things with their tablescapes by starting with white dinnerware! Then in the spring, I found these on Pottery Barn:

And I fell in love! Problem was, the price! On sale at PB $149 for a 16 pc set (service for 4) it would cost me $450 just to get the dishes…no completer peices! Oh Well…I can dream! I saw this  too, for $35:

And after reading someone’s post about spray painting glass(I’m sorry, but I can’t remember who to give the credit too…it was back in the spring! ) I got inspired and decided to try it! Now this was back when I had just started to blog and would forget to take my before pics.

I started out with a clear glass vase from the thrift store and gave it a very light, almost a mist of white primer. I let it dry and gave it another mist. I followed with about three mist coats of white gloss spray paint. I found that the key to spraying the glass is going with several light, light coats since the paint really can’t grab onto anything on the surface of the glass. it turned out pretty good…and I wanted to add the raised “dots” that the Emma Pitcher had. I tried to figure out what would work…it had to be flat on one side…so it hit me! Wiggly Eyes!

I glued some of them on with Gorilla Glue and gave it a couple more coats of white paint. I finished it off with Krylon’s triple thick crystal clear glaze and here it is: 

It’s been sitting…waiting to have some other white pieces to go with it…. Since I don’t see myself gluing wiggly eyes to a whole set of dinnerware, so maybe I can win someone else’s CSN giveaway and find some dinnerware sets there!

Meanwhile, go choose something you like and let me now what it is here!

 

I’m going spread the word of the giveaway at a few fine places!

So Many Projects…

…so LITTLE time!  That is going to be my theme for my craft room ….whenever I get my craft room! I see new things everywhere that I would like to do, blogs, stores, friends homes and I’m not even a third of the way done with what I already have on my “project list”! Thankfully the list only exists in my head!
One of the projects that I have had in mind was to use vinyl on these dollar tree frames.

When I saw these in the store, I hoped that they would be done in true dollar store quality and that the “Friends” would just scrape off. I opened one right there in the store (I knew I would buy at least the one) and scraped with my fingernail…OFF it came! So I grabbed several for future projects.
They’ve just been sitting and waiting for the perfect project and time. I had a project opportunity come up Thursday. My sis in law was having us all (the sisters) over for lunch on Friday. It would be the first time I had been to her new home, so I wanted to bring her a gift. It was a little short notice for a very big project, but this was quick and easy and looked great when it was done!
I took the frame apart, scraped the letters off and washed the glass. Then I gave the wood a couple of coats of satin black spray paint. while it dried, I used my Craft Robo

vinyl cutter and cut out her last name and the year that they married.
Here is the end result:

This picture was taken with my phone after I had given it to my SIL…my girls had used it in black and white and I couldn’t figure out how to get it set back to color! I also removed the little hangers from the back and moved them so the frame would hang in “landscape mode”. I used some black and white ribbon for a hanger.
Quick, easy and thrifty! My kind of project!! I have a couple of giveaways coming up VERY soon…so stay tuned!
I found a new place to party:

I’ll also be linking up to the usual parties on the appropriate day.  Check out the buttons in my side bar and join me at these awesome parties!
Have an awesome Monday!