~TUTORIAL - HOW TO MAKE CHEAP ROSES LOOK GREAT~

Surely by now you've grown tired of hearing my thrifting stories and junk store finds...  You won't hate me if I share one more, will you?

Be forewarned~here comes another one in case you want to skip out now!

  Hold on though~you might want to stick around for a second or two because this one is fun!

First...remember the lamps I found a few weeks ago? 

 You can read about them HERE and HERE.  Well, I found two matching shades during another thrift visit and put my guy to work on covering them with chicken wire...  WHAT A JOB THAT TURNED OUT TO BE!  Nevahhhh again (or so he said).  Took too long to ever make a profit selling them from what I understand.  Sooo...I SUPPOSE I'll be keeping both of the lamps!  Gee...too bad for Moi! :)

Anyway...last week while junking at Goodwill I snagged three boxes of large white roses for .99 per box!  Inside each box sat twenty-four roses about the size of my palm.  They were MORE than a good deal...problem was...they were ugg-lee.

Well...maybe not UGLY...but you know what I mean...the cheapo~polyesterish-looking~mass-produced stuff from CHINUH.  The roses were actually well made from what I could tell...  Felt circles on the bottom (great for gluing, etc.) even though the fabric was just crummy...

So...I decided to do what I always do when I hate something.  :)  I painted them!

I've shared with you before HERE how you can paint fabric flowers.  But here's what I did to get the look of aged millinery blooms this time around...

I took a cheap chip brush (from Lowe's and Home Depot) and after making a place to work (wax-side-up freezer paper is a good surface to work upon) I dipped the brush into my paint (latex/your choice of color) and petal by petal painted the rose.  I started at the base and worked to the center. Each rose took me only about a minute to paint.  I then set them down onto the wax paper to dry for a wee little bit.

When the roses were about halfway dry I spread out the petals and turned them over.  They were still tacky at this point and some paint easily transferred to my fingers.  When cool to the touch (about 30 minutes) I put them in the microwave for 30 seconds (two times) and nuked them (you can't do this if there is ANY metal and/or wire in your blooms).  The added heat sorta shriveled up the fabric a tiny bit and made them look even better.

 I decided to add one to the chicken wire shade and I'm lovin' how it came out!  Super easy.  Now...go paint some of your questionable flowers and let me know HOW they come out.  I want to SEE!  I might just do a blogpost about you and share your success (or failure?) with the world!

Now...see the sweet BELIEVE SIGN above?  Found it at Hobby Lobby.  Priced at $11.99 and I used my 40% off coupon on it.  The green (below) wasn't right for my home even though I thought it was pretty.  So, I painted the entire thing out with my favorite cottage white paint (Behr) and then used Annie Sloan's Dark Wax to bring out the details. 

Pretty sweet, huh?

Hope your Friday is super.
(DON'T FORGET ABOUT MY GIVEAWAY...YOU CAN READ ABOUT IT HERE!)

Love to you...