A Bit More Wall Art

I'm super excited about my stuff in a new space.  

It's all over at Twigs and Twine in Zinnia's in Phoenix.

Here's a pic of the things I did last time.

You can see her Facebook page here.

I wanted to try some new techniques for the next batch of signs 

so I tried the steel wool/apple cider vinegar method.  

It turned out so easy and super cheap to do.  

I definitely will be doing more.

I've wanted to try this method for almost a year 

but I couldn't ever find plain old steel wool anywhere.  

It always had the soap in it.  

aka.  SOS pads.  

I knew I didn't need the soap so I bided my time and kept looking. 

Finally by a crazy random happenstance, 

I was walking through the paint section of Walmart and struck gold...  

Well, steel anyway.  

It's super cheap and doesn't have any soap in it.  

There were two grit sizes.  

I got the one with the smaller grit size.  

Now to dash home and try it out.  

Since I knew it would be a chemical reaction, 

it had to go into a glass bowl.  

Metal would never do, 

and I'm afraid it would ruin anything plastic so I stuck with a glass pyrex bowl.

I just poured some apple cider vinegar into the bowl 

and set one steel wool pad in the vinegar.  

I made sure the vinegar covered the steel wool.  

Then wait.

24 hours later.

Since life got crazy all of a sudden, the steel wool sat for at least 24 hours.  

I think the longer you leave it in the vinegar, 

the darker the result of the 'stain'.  

So it's up to you how dark you want to go.

I cut and screwed my pallet boards together.

Gave them a good sanding, and grabbed my gloves.

Be sure to wear gloves and work in a well ventilated area.  

I was in the garage with a fan blowing, but outside would work too.

Just dip the steel wool pad in the vinegar and smear it on the wood.  

It goes on like stain, but you don't need to wipe any excess off.  

It seeps into the wood on it's own.

You can see the huge difference as I'm wiping the vinegar on the wood.

Let dry completely.

Next I got out my trusty Con-Tact paper and my sister's Cricut.

{J} over at Twigs and Twine wants clean lines, 

so I made some stencils with the Con-Tact paper.

This time it's LOVE.

Put the contact paper on the mat paper side down and cut at a low depth.

Next I laid the negative contact paper on the wood and pressed firmly.

Sponge on a little paint, remove the stencil and you're done.

I was able to do 3 boards with one Con-Tact paper stencil 

before the sticky-ness wore off.

It was a little tricky to place the stencil, 

but just work from one side to the other 

smoothing out the Con-Tact paper as you go.

Super easy.

Clean Lines.

I gave it a light sanding to weather it a bit, then a wax coat to finish it off.

Some hanging hardware and it's done!

I love it when a pinterest idea really works.

I've got some holiday ideas floating around in my head so hopefully you will see some soon!

Be sure to come back often!

Happy Crafting!