Welcome

I had a successful thrify re-do this week that turned out well and I thought I’d share. I came across these old blocks at the thrift store last week, I knew exactly what was in store for them.

I popped off the wooden letters, painted the front black, and printed off some letters in various fonts.

I liked the way the black letters on white looked so much that I painted white over the black background. I then traced the backs of the letters in pencil, put each letter on a block, and rubbed the front with a lead-less mechanical pencil to transfer the letter outline onto the block.

I got some Craft Smart paint from Michaels that almost doubled my painting time (on the right). Do not get this stuff if you are trying to do this project, it covers like watercolor, so it makes an already time-consuming project take a lot longer. Luckily I had some of the Liquitex (on the left) leftover from another project, and that filled in the letters easily with only 1 coat.

I then sanded the letters and corners, painted over the whole thing with a glaze and wiped it off. Ta da!

I realize that glazing flirts with the fine line between making your project look antiqued, and making it look just plain dirty. This was my first time glazing anything so hopefully my technique (I’m pretending there was one) will improve with time.

The black paint under the white background paint ended up coming in handy, because when I sanded the edges and corners, the black just popped right out. It didn’t even need the glaze.

I'm excited to be linking this to the CSI Project!