Thriftstore Purse Find

You’ll most likely find me sporting a classic brown leather purse. Which is becoming harder and harder to find these days in the midst of blinged out shiny decaled purses. Don’t get me wrong, designer fashioned bags can be very cute, but just not my style.

So I usually stick with the basic brown shoulder bag, but it does need to at least have a cute shape - like this one I snatched up during a quick thrift store trip.

It has plenty of compartmental space which is a key ingredient in a great functioning purse.

The brassy clasps were a bit dingy and worn. So thinking back to my recent painted owl project, I decided to whip out the acrylics and get painting!

First I taped off the purse around the clasps. This clear tape was what I had on hand and did the job quite well.

I also took apart the metal wire components that hold the straps in place.

Using a basic white acrylic paint, I used that as a primer.

Then a couple coats of this awesome silver toned paint and I was in business.

I love this paint, I have it in gold and this silver tone.

This particular paint is a little on the thick side so I let it dry completely for a couple of days before putting my purse to good use.

Now I can enjoy every part of my “new” purse.

Cute 3-In-One board

Cute Multi-Board!

A White Erase board, Chalkboard, and Bulletin board all in one.

I made this board for my younger sister, much younger, we're about 17 years in difference. It's perfect for a pre-teen!

Here are the materials:

Large foam board

Chalkboard paint

Cork board squares

White erase stickable sheet

Spray on glue

Cute fabric and ribbon

Starting off with the chalkboard paint, I painted a width of about 5 inches down the board. Giving it about 3 coats and let it dry.

Then I took the white erase stickable paper, I love this stuff! If you're not familiar with this, it's kind of like contact paper where you cut however much you want, just peel off the backing and stick anywhere you like.

So after applying the chalkboard paint and white erase sheet on the board, I cut my cork board to the right size and then applied the fabric to my cork board with spray glue.

Then hot glued the fabric-covered cork to the board.

Next I hot glued this cute ribbon down both sides.

To hang, I found these hanging hooks that work so well with the foam board. They have two protruding spikes that easily punch into the back of foam board – but I ended up hot gluing them on for extra hold.

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Owl Makeover Before/After

I found these brass figurines glancing through the thrift store shelves a couple days ago.

I hadn't known these owls for long but I could tell it was time for a change and I knew the perfect transformation for these little brass birds.

They first needed some cleaning so with an old toothbrush and some detergent I prepped them for their shiny new coats.

There was no skipping the priming step, it helps with adhesion plus it allows the bright paint to stay true to its color with minimal coats.

I initially thought to use spray paint for a nice even coverage. But since I was going to paint three different colors and I wouldn't need that much paint I decided to use regular acrylic craft paint and a paint brush. The acrylic paint and brush work well since there is a lot of texture to the figurines which doesn't show many brush strokes.

The soft bright colors give them a clean and ceramic look.

Hooo hooo!

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