The Apple Street Cottage

Where does the time go?  It's the last day of July and that means today I'm sharing my last Christmas in July project.  I love using reclaimed wood (aka pallet wood) in projects and this one is a new version of a project I made two years ago.   The original was a set of 3 trees.  You can read about them HERE .  I had an extra vintage Playskool block that I split while hammering in the nail. (I was SO mad at myself) I glued it back together and decided it would be used in another project.   Before the split.   Since I'm talking about the block, I'll tell you about that process first, even though I did it after the tree was done.  The tree had a lighter finish so I whitewashed the block with craft paint thinned with water.  I brushed it on. Then wiped the block with a cloth until I had the look I wanted. Done! I love the vintage Playskool logo! Moving on to the tree.  I dry-brushed white paint on the tree and then lightly w...

    W elcome back to the 'Do It Over' Designers blog hop.  We are a group of bloggers who love to recycle/upcycle/DIY.  I'm happy to host this hop and I hope you'll visit everyone to see what they have to share with you.  Their links will be listed at the end of this post. In addition, Christmas in July continues at The Apple Street Cottage with a fun upcycle project.   This project got its start about five years ago.  The clock frame was found at an estate sale at the bottom of a box of junk.  It was dirty, the finish was ruined, and it came home with me.  I can't find the original picture of it but I can tell you it went through a few trials.   First it was painted white.  No good.   Then black.  Still no good.   Distressed edges?  Nope!   So it sat looking like this: So sad! I found it again about two years ago and finally had an idea for it.  Unfortunately, I needed somethi...

  Christmas in July continues with another ornament for your tree. I've been spying these Grinch Ornaments on Pinterest for quite a while and decided it was finally time to make one.   I never saw any instructions, but, let's face it, how hard can this be?  Let's get started. I had everything I needed:  scrabble tiles, a rack, and the little Santa hat - yes, I used them for cards one year and had some left over.  I also had craft paint and spray sealer. Notice, I drilled 2 holes in the rack for hanging. The first step was to give everything a coat of white craft paint to act as a primer. Keeping the paint out of the letters was difficult, so while they were still wet, I used a toothpick to remove as much paint as possible. After two coats of 'Grinch Green' and cleaning out the letters, a Sharpie was used to trace the letters in black. The rack, after receiving the same paint process was ready for hanging.  Fishing line was threaded through and knotted....