painting 101

My friend Katie and I bought a Groupon not long ago for a 2.5 hour long painting class. Last weekend it finally happened! I loved all of the art classes I took in high school, and was excited to paint again. (Now I'm not saying I was ever good, it was just something I loved.) We recreated a Van Gough painting, getting the chance to change colors, shapes of flowers, whatever while we worked.

The blank canvas, with a copy of the picture we were going to trace on the canvas and then paint. You can see underneath it the Van Gough picture we were making.

About halfway through. Look at how awesomely I mixed those colors! I know, I'm a pro.

Katie working on hers.

Katie's final piece.

My final piece.

I can't wait to paint again! I will have to get all of my painting stuff next time I'm in Houston and bring it home. Maybe I can convince Katie to come over again and paint with me! We did rock it pretty hard. 

crackling sucks

I have this little table thing by my door that I hate. It's this ugly light wood, and I have been looking for a replacement for it for awhile now. It's much harder than it seems since everyone wants to sell something similar for more than $50 or it's ugly. Well I came across a website that showed how you could crackle something yourself! Done and done. Especially since I would only need to buy blue paint since my parents happen to have everything else I would need.

Before with some of my supplies.

I sanded it down, primed it, then painted it black.

Luckily my dad had some scrap wood he let me use to test out crackling first.

Too goopy.

The left turned out pretty good, but too much blue. When I tried using less blue paint it just looked crappy. So I decided to change my plan. I painted the entire thing blue, let it dry (in our heat it only took about an hour to dry) and then sanded it all down to make it look distressed.

I got some really cool knobs from Anthropologie, but the screw part on the back was too long so I got to use a hacksaw for the first time! Luckily dad was able to keep all of his fingers. I was a little worried, but I didn't tell him that. Who else would hold the knob for me while I sawed right next to their hand? Not Rebecca, that's for sure!

All done! It looks pretty awesome, and it looks great in my apartment. I already have my next 2 crafts planned. Once school starts back I don't know how I will be able to craft and teach!