A Somewhat Oldie but a Goodie: And the Owl Goes

People must do a ton of searches for snow owls because this post from my short lived first blog has garnered the most views.  Decided to bring him on over to the new one slightly edited.  Eventually, I'll delete my old blog, but for now I'm going to bring over two or three of my favorites in order to fill up some space since the husband and I are going to be way busy over the next month putting in our backyard so I'll be posting even less than I already do.  IF that's even possible. 

And the Owl Goes.....

Another painting project?  Yes, and it's awesome so deal with it.  While perusing the aisle at Hobby Lobby during one of their big clearance sales I came across this fat little gentlemen.

 

With only one and a half eyes, how could I resist?  This is one of the most odd planters I have come across.  His body had a porcelain like finish with that flowery curly cue pattern but his eyes and feet looked like someone had smeared brown and green paint on them.  It is pretty ridiculous to look at in real life.  But the shape of him had so much potential I had to snag him.   

First I made him a lovely little cardboard perch and then went to work with some spray paint.  Next, after many, many, many thin coats of white spray paint I was finally able to cover up that extremely persistent and therefore annoying blue flower pattern which resulted in a nice clean white owl planter.
 

I was half tempted to stop at this point and leave it white but I figured if I didn't like it with the colors I had planned on adding I could always just spray paint it white again.  That's why spray paint is so awesome.  The plan was to color his eyes, beak and feet with black paint and use blue to fill in the space around his eyes.  Why those colors you ask?  Mostly because I thought it would look nice and was partially inspired by this actual owl.



Not sure what he's looking at but I'm pretty sure he wants to eat its face.


Also, I already had blue spray paint and a tube of black acrylic.  Yep, decorating inspiration can come from many places including feelings of laziness and not wanting to spend money.  In order to add the blue spray paint, I had to section off the eye area so as to not ruin the rest of the now perfectly white body.  To achieve this I had to concoct a tape and Sunday comics mask.    



He could totally be a crime fighter




Featured in the background:  Our lovely, soon to be gone, dirt yard.



 

A few more thin coats of spray paint and the careful removal of the tape we have blue eyed perfection.


Is it weird that his eyes now match our great room?

The next step was to add some black paint to the eyes, beak, and feet so that he no longer had that creepy dead blue eyed stare.  Using a small paint brush and a mostly steady hand, I added black acrylic paint to the eyes, beak, and feet to add some more definition and a bit of personality.   

I think this planter turned out pretty adorable.  Now I just need to figure out what kind of plant needs to call him home.


**Update**

So, instead of getting a plant for my owl planter I decided to use him for something a bit more practical.  Turns out he was the perfect size to house all of my contact paper, cellophane wrapping, sign vinyl, and other vaious tube shaped items.  Much better than my previous storage solution for all this stuff which was leaning everything precariously in a corner of the closet. 

And Then a Space Became Useful

After long last, the craft room, my mecca of creative glory, is no longer random piles of crap piled on top of other piles of crap.  The craft room had turned into one of two rooms in the house where things ended up if we didn't know what to do with it or if we were cleaning up real quick before people came over.  After attempting to clean and organize my space and repeatedly failing for it to stick, we are now on the road to recovery.   

Anyways, enough rambling, onto the projects!

I whipped up three quick and easy projects that helped to organize my work area.

Project 1: Less than stellar thrift store shelf into awesome display area

Step 1. Purchase or barter your way towards owning a shelf. 

Step 2. Lightly sand and then spray paint shelf a color that will be visually appealing to your face.

Step 3. Hang shelf on wall.  Nail into studs or use anchors when necessary.

BAM!  A beautiful purple shelf for various glues and my random awesome things.  I’m pretty in love with this little guy.  The dark purple against the light purple appeals so much to me that now I’m hunting for other shelves of various sizes that I can paint the same dark purple and hang elsewhere in this room.  Shelf collage of purple happiness.  

Project 2: We Can Rebuild It, We Have the Technology

Might I introduce you to my previously used thread holder?  Don’t get too attached, the little guy shown below is no more. 

Step 1. Use a claw hammer or some other prying tool, like maybe your teeth, and pry or gnaw bars off of base.

Step 2. Glue to already owned or freshly snagged bulletin board.

*Quick side project: Get an empty frame and glue a piece of thick cork or a hacked off chunk of an old giant bulletin board into it.  Results in a nicely framed bulletin board.  Take advantage of your local thrift store and this would probably cost less than $10.  

BAM! New thread holder/bulletin board.  This was a spur of the moment project in the style of use anything within a five foot radius.  Now, the extremely detailed and highly specific directions above may not apply to you but I'm positive that you can improvise your way into creating something similar or better.  Probably better.   


Project 3: About Damn Time This Got Done

In addition to the gold framed bulletin board now bulletin board/thread holder pictured above, there was a second gold frame hanging above my desk, as well.  This one however, was empty.  It mocked me each and every time I walked into the room.  Why, you might ask? Because, it's a jerk.  It was a reminder of my procrastination.  The empty frame's fate was to have a pegboard mounted in it to hang my various shears, pliers, and scissors from.  An empty frame that I hung up around two months into moving into our home.  Ten months later, empty it still hung. 

I shall be mocked NO more!

 
Step 1: Acquire a frame, empty of its junk if necessary, and paint if an undesirable or gross color.

Step 2: Obtain a piece of pegboard that will fit in empty frame.  Paint, or stain (as I chose to do) pegboard so it is pleasing to your eye and the area it will be hung in.

Step 3: Use some wood glue to attach pegboard and frame.  Be sure to allow proper drying time for glue so your stuff doesn't get messed up.  Watch a movie.  Or do some laundry maybe.  I don't know.  Don't be so damn impatient.

Step 4:  While you were getting pegboard and an empty frame you should have also picked up some pegboard hardware.  A hardware store, garage sale, or craigslist could be helpful.

Step 5: Hang frame on the wall.  Arrange crafting tools on board in an orderly fashion.

Upon finishing the above three projects, your desk area might look something like this.

I'm hitting a bit of snag when it comes to adding color to this room.  The gold frames and the dark purple shelf look great but it would be nice to add a bit more variety.  There is also a bookcase and a cupboard storage piece in this room that require makeovers.  Two chairs reside in this room as well, both of which are partially pictured above that need reupholstering.  Making everything dark purple and gold or silver seems a bit overkill and crazy ugly.