DIY Pottery Barn Silver Seashells

Finally a small break in the rain to do a little spray painting- I was REALLY hoping it would last longer and I could end this project drought...but no such luck. I only had time to spray this one.
 
In the mood for silver seashells anyone?

After lusting after looking at some from Pottery Barn I did a little searching around and it seems they are quite popular.

And mine:

Prices range from $20 for 4 or  $345 for 6 {silver plated}!

I experimented with a few techniques for silvering my own seashells.
I tried acrylic paint, "Rub n Buff" and Enamel Craft Paint.

I wanted a highly reflective silver and one that didn't have a lot of black in it, like in my PB inspiration.

Based on these criteria I settled on Krylon's Chrome as a far and away favorite.

For now I put a bunch of them in a large mason jar in the bathroom. There' s no bathroom window, so this is with a flash...but the other pics show the color better.

This was the bathroom before it's makeover- you can check out how it looks now right here.

I'm pretty happy with the result, I think it looks pretty darn close to the original. I hope you all are having better project weather than I am! 

If you liked that knock off, then these others may be right up your alley!

 Make sure you check out these awesome blogs that decided they like this project!

- Becca -

Linked up at these great PARTIES, here

and here.

Spray Grip Goodness

In my last post I mentioned I was desperately hoping to have at least one of the lamps I have stashed finished for Mandi's lamp linky party- but the weather completely foiled my plans. I have to spray paint outside and it has been big time WINDY and RAINY.  Bummer.

So instead I have a recent find for you all that you'll LOVE.

So, if I ruled the world my first official decree would be the gift of one new spray grip for everyone!!

OK, maybe not actually- 

but it's so fantastic it's understandable why I would say such a thing!

No longer must we always pay 7 bucks for the spray paint with the trigger sprayer- now we can spend 3.43 for the regular stuff and attach our 2.50 Spray Grip Goodness to it.
 

The spray grip is, in fact, goodness. It clips onto most bottles of spray paint and then allows you to adjust the amount of pressure you're apply using your whole hand and not just your index finger. I was able to lacquer like never before!

So just in case you were wondering if you should drop the 2+ bucks, and you don't have a Z Berger standing by to tell you that your index finger is worth it- then allow me to be your Z Berger and say to you-

BUY IT!!

- Becca -

Thank YOU!

A huge thanks to YOU peeps for following my blog!

I am so excited to have people interested in the little projects I LOVE to do! I love all you comments and your thoughtfulness! 

Thank you, thank you for making this soo fun to do!

Hope all your days are flled with fun crafting DIY adventures!

P.S. Have you guys seen Mandi's (from Vintage Revivals)  post about a lamp-off linky party starting tomorrow? It's gonna be tight but I'm hoping to get my next redo done in time!

- Becca -

Copyright-I mean Copycat Book Wreath!

This project is no biggie, cause basically I'm a total copycat. 

I love these book pages wreathes that you find all over the Blogosphere and decided to make one for myself. I saw them selling for $40 on Etsy- so let's save some dollars, shall we? 

I looked high and low for a wreath form from a dollar store and they don't sell them around here.

My cheap side almost won out and I was going to make a 10 inch cardboard circle to use as a base but finally decided I wanted the final product to include the depth created by a 3D form. So I bit the bullet and bought one from Joanne's for a whopping $5.

The book, however, was a 49 cent find from Saver's (thrift store)- and it came with aged pages and beautiful teal colored trim- just what I wanted!

I looked up "book page wreathes" on Google Images and decided on my favorite style. In the end I went with this one as my model from Lindsay at Living with Lindsay. She did a great and easy to follow tutorial.

For my wreath I ended up checking the OCD at the door and tried to let the creativity flow. {Easier said than done! lol} In the end I primarily used two shapes over and over. I circular tube and a ruffled looking page. I really liked the varying textures.



The tutorials I looked at said they used under 200 hundred pages to complete their projects- so I made sure my book was over two. However- 4/5 of the way through I had about 4 pages left. *ugh*

For about a minute I thought about waiting to finish so I could look for a matching book-but I really don't think I would find one and I'm so impatient!

See? Crap-ola.

So I was left trying to thin out the layers I'd already done and scrape together enough pages to cover the middle. The back looks like crap-ola cause I took off the bottom two rows- see where I cut some off? But...I got it done.



I still need to use some pages of something(?) to cover the styrofoam back so that it cannot be seen in the mirror.

To hang it up I just bent a paper clip into a hook- I didn't have any straight pins, you know- cause I don't sew!

I think it turned out pretty close to the inspiration- but still uniquely mine.

Not bad close up- but now you can see why the mirror isn't hung- darn thermostat. This wall will probably be the new gallery wall anyhow, so this setup is temporary until we can make up our mind about those new couches already!

Thanks for popping in today!
- Becca -
Partying HERE this week and here.