When Things Go Wrong!

I found this wooden basket at a thrift store for $2.00. It was an unfinished wooden piece that you would find at a craft store and I thought it was worth the $2.00, plus I had an image I've been wanting to use and thought it would be perfect for it.

Mistake #1 I didn't sand the piece before I painted it. Those poplar wood pieces tend to be a bit rough.

Mistake #2 I primed it with a white primer. I realized this was a mistake when I started to sand the piece after all the paint colors were done and got the white primer showing thru on my edges where I wanted it to be down to raw wood.

Mistake #3. I used my trusty Vaseline trick to give me the chipped paint look but went a bit too far with it. So I had to do a patch paint job to rectify it.

Mistake #4 The Fresh Eggs image wasn't big enough to make a statement at the bottom of this basket so I pondered what to do. Dictionary pages, yup that was the ticket. The dictionary pages wasn't the mistake, the mistake was I was in a rush (like that's something new) and didn't take my time making sure that the edges of the dictionary pages that butted up to the sides of the basket were straight.  So I tried to fix it with some black paint to make it look, oh I don't know maybe right? Didn't work. It looks sloppy.

So I added some more paint to the edges and then went over it with some antiquing polish and it looks better, but not good enough.

My choices for this piece, keep it as it is or redo the dictionary pages and image so it's right. I opt to redo it.

BTW I got the Fresh Eggs image from Playing with Brushes.

Pine Wood Tops Turn Country Charm Chalkboard

Remember those pine ammo boxes I got a couple of weeks ago? Well I started doing something to a few of the tops.

BEFORE

So originally I thought the box top could be repurposed into a wall hanging. My idea was to give the top a chippy paint look and then decoupage a nice vintage image in the middle. Then I also thought it would be a good project in making this top into a chalkboard hanging. 

So I decided on doing 4 tops with the chalkboard idea.

Step one I sanded off all the rough edges on the top and sides.
Next I knew this raw pine needed a primer and I used Kylz2 latex primer.

I decided my paint color choices would be a chocolate brown with an off white top coat and the black chalkboard in the middle.
 
So after the primer had completely dried I applied the brown paint on all parts but the chalkboard area. Luckily it only needed one coat, Hooray for primer.

After the brown coat was dry I used a crackle medium in a few scattered spots and then also using a brush painted on some vaseline on a few more different spots.

Years ago I read somewhere that to achieve that chippy paint look to put some vaseline over the first coat of paint where you want the look of chipped paint. The vaseline will  inhibit the second coat of paint from adhering.  It's a bit messy but it's my technique of choice to get that look.
 
After preparing the brown paint for the old look I applied my off white paint.  After the white paint had dried I used a damp rag and wiped off the paint where the vaseline was. Next used a sandpaper pad and lightly went over the painted area. Then applied a  umber glaze  with a brush and wiped it off with a rag and repeated until I was happy with the effect.

After the paint technique was finished I then did 3 coats of chalkpaint in the center using the FolkArt brand from Joann's

Add two pieces of chalk wrapped in twine and it was done.