Christmas Items

 'Tis the season... for HOLIDAY DECORATING!  I love love love to decorate for Christmas.  I have to make myself wait until the day after Thanksgiving to put up my Christmas decor and it gets harder every year.  I do get started building holiday decor before Thanksgiving though.  I have only made a few pieces so far this year but am hoping to get more done very soon.

I put together these cute wooden Christmas trees out of my stockpile of barn wood.

Next I decided to do some glittery items and came up with these green and red bucks. 

After that my 5 year old asked me how Santa got into houses of kiddos that don't have chimneys and inspired this piece. 

I thought that if they don't have chimneys then they don't have fireplaces or mantels either so they need a place to hang their stockings. 

Check back in for more holiday items.  Thanks for stopping by!

Metal Painting Class

I recently had the opportunity to attend a Metal Effects Painting Class given by my friend and co-vendor at the store, Cindy.  It was amazing!  She lets us paint with copper, bronze and iron and use different rusting agents on them to cause different patinas and aging effects.  There were 3 students including myself and we all painted the same 4 things and they all turned out completely different.  I love that!  

When we arrived Cindy had our items painted with primer and all of our brushes and materials set out for us. 

We started by painting our JOY letters.  Everyone painted each letter with a different metal.  I painted my J bronze, the Star copper and my Y with iron.

Next we added the rusting agents.  We could use blue, green or rust on each piece.  I did mostly blue with a bit of green on my J, a mix of blue and green on my star and just rust on the Y (it had't started to turn yet in this picture).

We painted the rest of our items in the same fashion.  Metal then rusting agents.  We let them all dry and then added some iron to each and put the rust on the iron spots.  

This class only took about 3 hours and I walked away with 4 great one of a kind home decor items.  I love the way each piece turned out and can hardly wait for Thanksgiving to pass so that I can put them out with my Christmas decor!

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!

Fall Decor

I love this time of year.  I love the fallen leaves, cooler weather, holidays spent with friends and families and pumpkin spice... everything.   I also love love love decorating for Halloween, Fall, Thanksgiving and then Christmas! October through January is a continual setting up and taking down of seasonal decor at my house.  I have just taken down my Halloween decor and now I am setting up my fall/Thanksgiving decor.  I wanted something wide to place in the center of my entry-way table that was festive.  This is what I came up with and I am kind-of in love with it!  I love making pumpkins that aren't traditional round pumpkins and these fit the criteria.  

I started off by simply cutting the wood to size and painting.  I painted the pumpkins orange and the base and stems brown.  Easy peasy.   Then,  I used my favorite product, Jacobean wax, to give them an antiqued look. 

No antiquing wax used. 

Far right with antiquing wax.

Next, I stenciled on the word Fall with black paint.  After that I attached the pumpkins to the base with wood glue and nails.  Then I drilled into the top of each pumpkin and glued in their stems. 

Finally, I glued on a few leaves to complete the pumpkin look.  LOVE! 

This piece really completes the look that I was going for in my entryway and makes the table look so much fuller.  Happy Dance!  I have one available for purchase in our store and it would look great in your home! 

I also have these great fall decor pieces available:

Crafts & More 558 Main Street in GJ.  Open Monday - Saturday 9a-6p.  There are 16+ vendors in the store all the time.  Come support local vendors- we appreciate every purchase! 

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day! 

Custom Kitchen Signs

I have a friend who is a Pampered Chef Consultant and she asked me to do these cute custom kitchen signs to go with her big fork and big spoon.  She is so fun and so are these signs- a great fit! 

I started off by cutting my wood to size and staining each piece.  I used 1" x 6" common wood and a dark oaky stain that I had left over from a previous project.

Next I used my handy dandy cricut machine (both of them actually) to cut the vinyl templates that I used for the lettering and images on each sign.  I couldn't find an image of old fashioned beaters so I free handed that part.  I am not in love with how they turned out but I am my own worst critic.  

 Overall I think they are very cute signs and were fun to make.  Honestly I was singing the entire time  that I was painting!  

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day! 

Pumpkins Pumpkins Pumpkins

I love decorating for holidays and seasonal changes.  Fall, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, St. Patrick's Day, Easter, Independence Day and so on.  One of my favorite things about Fall, Halloween and Thanksgiving decor is that a lot of it can flow from one theme through the next, especially pumpkins!  I have three pumpkins that I use and re-use in my front porch decor every fall.  They are metal and/or ceramic and I love them.  I wanted to try out something new this year though and since I have an awesome pile of 100+ year old barn wood laying out back I decided to try my hand at making wooden pumpkins. 

I grabbed a few pieces of wood from my majestic pile (Ok maybe not majestic but it's pretty freakin' awesome!) and cut them into equal-ish lengths.  I lined them up and attached a piece of scrap 1x2" cut into half onto the back to make a basic rectangle.  I used wood glue and screws to attach each piece rather than just a brad nailer as wood this old tends to split very easily.  Then I used my handy dandy jig saw to roughly round off the corners and the belt sander to round them a bit more. 

I was going to use some scrap quarter round trim for the stems but then came across an old dried bark free tree branch that was laying out by the chicken coop and decided it was more the look that I was going for and so VOILA- pumpkins.  I wanted them to be rustic but also a bit farmhouse chic so I added some burlap ribbon in the form of a bow to the front of each pumpkin.   I love how they turned out and can't wait to make a few more.  I want a set for myself and to sell in the store. 

Thanks for stopping by and have a Happy Fall Y'all! 

The Party Place

 If you are in direct sales or have ever hosted a direct sales party you know that having a great place to hold those parties are a large part of the success of that party.  I have a large open floor plan home that is great for hosting parties, however I live outside of town and many of my friends find it a bit daunting to have to drive all the way out to where I am.  Bummer.  I decided that I needed a more centrally located place to hold/attend parties that allowed for easier access to people who live on the opposite side of town from me.  As you may know or have read about in an earlier post I have opened a craft booth at a friend's store in our wonderful downtown area.  The back room of this super cute little multi-vendor venue shop wasn't being utilized,  well wasn't being utilized for anything other than storage and spider housing, yuck.  I decided to spruce up the place and put this great little space to work for myself and my fellow vendors.  

Before

I really wish that I had gotten a before, before picture.  Before I cleaned it and before it was emptied of it's many contents- when it was used to house tables, chairs, shelves, old doors, antiques, and lots and lots of dust, dirt and grime!  It was a hot mess but had great potential.  After the owner of our building cleared out his furniture and antiques I got busy cleaning.  Oh my word at the dust!  I swept 4 dust pans full to bursting with nothing but dirt/dust.  I was sneezing like a Disney dwarf!  After I had most of the yuck swept and wiped away I got busy painting.  My fearless leader Peggy had some leftover paint from when we had painted the interior walls of the store and I used it to help breathe some life back into these old, cracked plaster walls.  It really lightened the space and helped it seem larger.  

After

I hung a curtain panel over the exposed conduit to help hide the eye sore while leaving it readily accessible.  Add a few paper poms and some festive table covers and VOILA! The party place is now readily available for myself and the other vendors in our quaint little shop to use for whatever types of parties, classes or small gatherings that they may be doing.  I held a Chalky & Company party there last weekend and it was great.  I can't wait to hold/attend more events in "The Party Place".

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day! 

Craft Fairs, Farmers Markets & Store Fronts, Oh My!

I have been a full time crafter for almost a year now.  I started selling my wares at craft fairs right after my fourth daughter was born and she will be 1 year old in a few weeks.  I started off with a few local elementary school craft fairs and a few in a large rental space at Goodwill that vendors I know were putting together.  After just a few months I started organizing my own craft fairs and then decided to take the leap into our local farmers market- which is a big commitment because it runs from June through September.  Goodbye every Saturday all summer long!  Next a fellow vendor approached me about a store front opportunity in town.  She had found an empty store front on Main Street in the heart of our downtown area.  She had the awesome idea of turning it into a multi-vendor store that would serve as a store front venue for hand crafters and direct sellers.  I was more than apprehensive at first.  I straight told her no.  I was worried about spreading myself too thin.  I do have 4 children and a husband that works out of town frequently plus I am busy in the shop building crafts, running our oilfield repair business and selling doTERRA essential oils (and since then have started selling Chalky & Company too!)  Whew!  I need a nap just after typing that never mind living it everyday.  Plus- as she explained it to me we would have to set up our display and items, sell for the day and then tear down our displays and pack out our items. Ugh.  I am already doing that every Saturday in 100+ degree heat.  I REALLY don't want to do that any more than I have to, but I received a few more messages from her that she was having trouble filling the spots and do I know anyone who would be interested and am I sure I don't want a spot?  I agreed to meet her at the store and take a look at the place.  It was... a mess!  The owner still has tons of antiques stacked all over the place.  It was dusty, dirty and dingy.  The walls are a dozen different colors and textures.  I fell in love!  Ha! Anyone who knows me knows that I love a fixer upper.  I tell her that the location is great and the building has tons of potential but I am still not interested.  I can not be taking care of 2 small children full time and packing in and out hundreds of pounds of horseshoe home decor pieces.  That's just crazy talk- not happening.  She understands but says we wouldn't be able to afford a cashier and so no one would be able to leave their items in the store without being there to sell them.  I suggest that we operate like a co-op and that everyone who wants to leave there items in the store full time must donate 3-4 days a month to serve as cashier.  She says that will work and just like that, VOILA a plan begins and a business venture is born.  She signs the lease and we both start recruiting fellow vendors.  We clean the place up, paint the crazy walls and move in our displays and products.  We are very lucky to have a great group of vendors at our core that are willing to help with things like painting the interior of the building, climbing up crazy tall ladders to hang signs on the exterior of the building, working as cashier whenever we need them.  It really is a great group and we are so thankful for each other.  I am still doing craft fairs and will probably do the farmers market again next year but I now have a "permanent" home for my wares and I am so excited to be a part of this adventure.

The CMU music department students decorated our windows for Mavs month!

If you want to check it out view our Facebook page or visit us at 558 Main Street in Grand Junction.  We have 19 vendors and there is so much to see! We also have parties and special events happening all the time so subscribe to us on Facebook to receive updates about whats happening!  I actually have a party there nest weekend, October 22, 2016 called Fall Family Craft Day where we will be painting with Chalky & Company products.  It is very kid friendly and I hope everyone joins us for tons of fun! We will also be having a L'dara Wellness Tea Tasting and a Dove Chocolate Discoveries Halloween Costume Party later this month and a doTERRA party next month. Always something fun happening!  I also have several craft fairs coming up over the next few months.  Check them out if you can!

Loma Elementary Holiday Craft Fair

Saturday 10/22/16 9a-3p

Tope Elementary Craft Fair

Saturday 11/12/16 9a-3p

Home for the Holidays

Saturday 11/19/16 10a-4p @ the Grand Valley Activity Center in Parachute

Two Rivers & Avalon Holiday Craft Fair

11/25/16 2-6p & 11/26/16 9a-4p @ Two Rivers Convention Center

Palisade High School Arts & Crafts Festival 

Saturday 12/3/16 9a-3p 

Fruita Rec Center Craft Fair

Saturday 12/10/16 10a-3p 

There are many great vendors at each of these events and we all appreciate when you shop small and shop local!  Thanks so much for your support and business!  I hope that you can make it to some of these great events and come down to the store and see what we are doing there.  Have a great day!