Coastal Bohemian: July Upcycle Challenge- Mermaid Table

Welcome to the July Upcycle Challenge.

Meet my Mermaid Magazine Table

(Say that 5x fast)

I love doing these challenges with my blogging friends because it keeps me busy, creative and very happy. It's also very exciting to see where everyone else's creativity takes them for the challenge.

If you like a good challenge or you are intrigued by upcycling stop by and visit the other bloggers listed below.

Don't forget to leave us a comment .

We look forward to new friends and discussions.

My Husband Has Too Many Hobbies • Across the Blvd

Cookies, Coffee, and Crafts • Intelligent Domestications • Sew Crafty Crochet

The Inspiration Vault • Olives & Okra • Purple Hues and Me

Coastal Bohemian • Stone Cottage Adventures • This Autoimmune Life

Here is my Upcycle Challege. For this challenge we were tasked with finding a thrift store piece for $10 and under and giving it a new life. My piece is actually a donation so I definitely hit the price point mark for this challenge.

My friends know I am an upcycle mama, a chalky painting fool and so they donate their cast offs to me. I get messages of sidewalk goodies and yard sales all the time. The other day my neighbor, lovingly, helped me walk a giant vintage display case down to my house.(Thank you Renee) Gosh , I love my friends.

Anyway, my friend Rick is moving and gave me this little cutie. Of course , I don't truly have a before picture because I got to painting in a hurry, like I do, like I do do do. Can you hear a little jingle there?

First things first, I give this piece a wipe down and a coat of Chalk Country Paint in Crisp Collar, which is our white.

After a coat and a half of paint and some drying time, I use some 100 grit sandpaper to sand the edges and various spots, to get it looking distressed.

Now what?

Boring, so boring.

Who even likes magazine stands? Forget it ,this thing is not going to work for me. Yuck.

Oh wait , what if I make it beachy...like I do do do.

I see Mermaids. So off to the Graphicsfairy.com to pick out a killer image. Something so gorgeous I won't be bored. I need inspiration!

Tada.

I like to call her, Inspiration.
Suddenly I am seeing a very black and white piece. Oddly , not my norm.

I printed her on standard paper and cut her out . Then I used some Mod Podge to place her onto the table. I only applied the Mod Podge glue to the back of the paper and was very careful not to rip her. (I ripped her the 1st time I tried to apply her.)

While she dries, I stencil on a few designs .

(There it is , the black and white)

Yes

Boo boo alert. What? After the paint dried a few hours, I took a bit of sand paper to knock back the painted embellishments and create a little more distress but that was a mistake.

Even though the paint was dry , the sanded bits began to cling to the stark white chalky paint. Ugh.
Not a look I was going for here. ( The answer to this is to wax the entire piece before sanding the black embellishments to make them looked distressed ). This doesn't always happen but with the black and the white ...well.

After a deep breathe, I grabbed a tiny paint brush and began a few quick touch ups with my Chalk Country Paint .
Next I top coated the paper image with a clear wax and buffed it. This seals in the printer ink and keeps it from bleeding onto your project.

The whole piece was interesting but not a wow piece.

I had picked up some Flood just for this reason. I believe that Flood will act like a glaze and will be tintable and easy to work with without drying too fast.
I used approx. 2 tbl of Flood (actually I used a cap full but I believe it's about that)

I added one drop of white acrylic craft paint and 2 drops of black craft paint to create my glaze.

Now to test it out.

That works .

Here we go now.

At this point, I'm thinking of showcasing the mermaid with the diy glaze but after the blotting it didn't feel right.

But in the end I filled it all in ,working in sections glazing and blotting. When that was good and dry, I went over the whole thing with a quick coat of the DIY Glaze and blotted it (all the while moving and twisting my hand to ensure a random finish).

I was very satisfied with the Flood in helping create the DIY Glaze.

Boy, have I got some ideas for the Flood.

This is a pic of the wet glaze before I blotted that last time.

Here she is finished. After all was said and done, I coated the piece with clear wax 2 more times to create a durable finish and protect the paper image.