What to Do With Old Buttons: Make Button Heart

Here  in North Carolina people panic when there is a forecast of snow.  Yesterday when it started to snow I decided just to stay inside like a native Southerner.  I made some soup and some brownies and got some extra firewood ready to “ride out the storm” and I decided to do a little project.

Valentines Day is approaching.  I don’t decorate for Valentines day, but I love hearts, so this is sort of a Valentine’s Day post.

  I have always loved the shape of a heart.  I also like buttons and always buy some if I find them at garage sales.  I have lots of button ideas on my Pinterest pages and this idea for the button heart came from there.

 I had a photo in this lovely frame.  So I removed the glass and covered the cardboard back with some  pinstripe fabric that came from an old sheet.  I just taped it on the back.  Then I lightly painted the frame with Annie Sloan pure white, leaving some of the original color to show through

 I drew the shape of a heart on a piece of white paper and then hot glued the buttons on it.  When I finished I glued the heart to the pinstripe back.  There are so many online instructions for this  that I’m not going to give you a step by step tutorial.  You can google it 

    Here is the finished button heart.  At first I was going to put it on the mantle in our living room.  It looked good there.

            But as I usually do when I have something new, I walked around the house trying it in different places.

I decided I liked it best on the desk beside my bed, next to the little cherub which was already there.  As I am writing this, I just realized that without even thinking I just made a Valentines Day vignette: hearts and cherubs!

    I am always on the lookout for heart shape stones and I put the few I have in a dish in front of the heart.

                     Here is a close up.  if you ever see a heart shaped stone and don’t want it, send it to me 

My daughter and I have done several button initials as gifts.   They are so easy once you get the hang of it and are great for personalized  baby shower gifts, or a gift for the bride.  She did for me one Christmas and I have it hanging on my gallery wall in the TV room.

 Speaking of the TV rom, do you remember the button heart garland I showed you that was on the winter mantle in our TV room?   Now  that I had my  little button heart in the bedroom, I decided to bring it in there.

 I randomly draped it over the plates on the wall. I think every room in our house has plates on the wall   Maybe it looks a little corny but I like it for now.  It adds some whimsy to the room.

Because it’s white, my button heart isn’t just for Valentines Day.  It can stay around all year.  And we all need LOVE all year long, not just at Valentines Day.

**As I have been writing this post, it has started to snow again and they say so we are in for a bad storm again.  Good thing I’ve got some bread ready to put in the oven and some homemade soup for lunch.

Rhondi xo

Joining the parties at

Anything Blue Friday

Wow Us Wednesdays,

What’s It Wednesday,

Be Inspired Wednesday,

Work It Wednesday

Show and Tell Friday

Weekend Wandering On Tybee Island

                                Weekend wandering the internet and dreaming about summer. 

 Maybe I’ll spend the weekend on Tybee Island GA.    There are so many wonderful places to stay!

                                                                      Mermaid Manor

                                                                    Weil Atkinson House

                                                                                Fish Camp Cottage

 

                               You could even stay in Paula Deen’s Savannah Beach House  y’all.

All these photos came from the Mermaid Cottages website.  Many of them have been redone by designer Jane Coslick and they are BEAUTIFUL!!

This is my first visit to Tybee Island but I’m definitely coming  back again.  Next time I may even really go there!

The Secret of My Success in Watercolor Painting

I am excited because I am taking a 6 week watercolor class starting next week.  I puttered around with watercolors many years ago but never took any lessons so it will be fun to learn how to use the paints properly.

Last night, in anticipation of the class I was puttering around and did these watercolor paintings.

                                                                    my dainty blue tea set

                                             red polka dot tea set from the Valentine tablescape 

                                                               Pitcher full of daisies

                                                               mantle in our TV room

   I did all this watercolor painting in one night.  What is the secret of my success?  Maybe you guessed already.   The secret of my success is an app called Waterlogue.  You pick a photo and Waterlogue turns it into a painting right before your eyes!  It’s amazing !

                                                                               living room

                                                                 window in our  sunroom

                                                                   fern in the sunroom

                                                           table in the living room

      I think this is the most amazing watercolor painting of all the ones I did.  Here is the photo it came from.

Isn’t it amazing how it can make some broken bits of china on a newspaper look like a painting you would be glad to hang on the wall.  I am in love with this Waterlogue app.  I want to turn every photo I  know into a watercolor painting using Waterlogue. If you try it, let me know how you like it.    Maybe I could host a Waterlogue Wednesday Party and we could all post the pictures we painted.  Anyone interested in that?

                                                                            Rhondi xo

Broken China Mosaic DIY

Did you watch the Superbowl?  I am writing this post while my husband watches it. I am not a football fan at all!

Some of you asked how I did the mosaic on my fireplace so I’m going to give you a little broken china mosaic DIY tutorial on it today.  Whenever I break a piece of china I pick up the larger pieces and save them.  I have collected quite a bagful!

Here is one of my blue willow plates that I dropped and it broke.

 This is my method for mosaic using broken bits of china.  The first thing I do is turn the plate upside down

Cover the plate with an old tea towel and hammer it into smaller pieces.  Tap lightly.  Before you do that, notice that some of the pieces aren’t flat and try to tap on those places.  A few hits with a hammer should do it.  Safety glasses are recommended.

 Here is what it looks like now.

 See how there are still be some pieces that aren’t flat?  I sometimes try to break them a bit smaller and break off the rounded pieces. For my mantle I didn’t worry about that because the surface didn’t have to be flat.  If you were doing a table or any surface that needed to be flat you would have to use only the flat pieces.

Some of the pieces will have sharp points.

 You can buy this tool at Lowes or Home Depot and nip off the sharp points.

 To glue the pieces you need an adhesive that is made for tile.

 To apply the glue you need a trowel with a serrated edge on 2 sides  You will find all these supplies in the tile section.

 Spread the adhesive over the surface.  If you are doing a large area spread the glue on in stages.

                                                            It should be about 1/4″ thick.

               Use the serrated edge of the trowel to make these grooves.  This helps the tile stick better.

 Place the pieces by pressing them down with your finger and wiggle it a little bit to make sure it adheres.  Arrange the pieces like a jigsaw, leaving a small space between each piece.

Keep on placing the pieces until the whole surface is covered.  Let it dry for 24 hours.

 Keep on placing the pieces until the whole surface is covered.  Let it dry for 24 hours.

 The next thing you need is the grout.  Mix it according to the directions.  It should be the consistency of very creamy mashed potatoes. For a small project I just mix it in a milk carton.

 If you are doing a large project you will need this grout spreader.  I don’t think that’s what it’s called and I already put it away  so I can’t read the label.

 Since this project was small and the tile was very uneven I used this little plastic paint scraper to spread the grout and to spread the adhesive into the corners.

       Spread the grout.  Mine for this example is a little too thin, but I was in a hurry to get it done to show you.

 Cover all the tile, making sure you get the grout in all the spaces between the pieces.  Don’t be concerned with wiping all the grout off the china right now right now.  There will still be some grout  on the china.  Let it dry for awhile.  It tells you on the package how long. I think it’s 20-30 minutes.

                                              Use a clean moist sponge to wipe off the excess grout.

 Keep wiping with a clean moist sponge until all the china looks clean.  Let the grout completely dry.  If you are going to place anything on this surface or it might get wet, you need to seal it.

I hope this broken china mosaic DIY tutorial has been helpful and my instructions were clear enough!

 I tiled my kitchen backsplash a few years ago and put some of my broken china pieces in place of some of the tiles.

                                                         And here is another look at the fireplace.