10 Things About Us ~ Honest Scrap Award

We would like to thank Morning T, In Stitches and Strictly Simple Style for nominating Shanty2Chic the Honest Scrap Award! It is such an honor to be nominated by these wonderfully talented ladies!

Here are the rules I must follow, upon receiving this award:
1) Say thanks and give a link to the presenter of the award.

2) Share "10 Honest Things" about myself.

3) Present this award to 7 others whose blogs I find brilliant in content and/or design, or those who have encouraged me.

4) Tell those 7 people they've been awarded HONEST SCRAP and inform them of these guidelines in receiving.

So: 10 honest things you may wish you NEVER knew about us....

1) Yes, we really are sisters and we have 2 more (plus a brother)! Ashley is the oldest (far right) followed by Whitney (2nd from left), Kyndra (far left ~ she is pregnant and due in November ~ Yay!) and Leasha (2nd from right ~ our brother Tanner is her twin).

2) We are born and raised Texas girls but we did spend a short time of our lives in Florida and the US Virgin Islands in the '80's.

3) We are Christian women, moms, wives, maids, short-order cooks, etc....the list goes on.....


4) Whitney is a stay-at-home mom to 2 girls and 1 boy: Avery 6, Hayden 5 and Chase 3.


5) Ashley works part-time coaching competitive cheer at an all-star gym and is the mother to two boys: Kade 9 and Tris 6.

6) We are obsessed with shanty shopping and have too much FUN in the process.....

Just a little trim......

Now that's a wine glass....... 6) We should probably go ahead and mention that we have made it a rule that when we shanty shop we must dress in shanty attire......

This garb may be a little too shanty...notice the super cute bowling set (from Spice in Waco TX) that inspired us to make our Vintage Bowling Set

8. How our blog started: We both moved into new homes within the past 6 months and we were getting together regularly to paint, destruct and reconstruct, create and find items for our homes. We decided 2 months ago to document our projects and it has grown from there. We love being inspired by all of your wonderful ideas!

9. We are not lucky enough to have our husband's help us with our projects in a timely manor (meaning immediately when we ask) so we are constantly educating ourselves on new tools to further our creativity!

10. We are super excited to announce that we will be hosting our very first Link Party and Give Away Thursday October 8! The theme for the party is 'I Made it Without my Hubby' to honor all of you women who have made projects without the help of your significant other! It can be ANYTHING as long as it was made without the Mr. We can't wait to be inspired by all of your creations!

Now for our nominees in random order:

1 ~ Eating Our Way Around DFW ~ Our wonderful Aunt Laura for her restaurant blog!

2~ The Kirk Krew ~ Our wonderful cousin Jennifer for her cute family blog.

3~ Funky Junk Interiors ~ We love her use of tools and her 'I can do it myself' attitude!

4~ Flower Patch Farm Girl ~ Her bathroom and kitchen renovation says it all!

5~ Twice Remembered ~ Love her style and that RED kitchen! Cutest blog!

6~ Beneath My Heart ~ Super inspirational!

7~ Living with Lindsay ~ This girl knows her hot glue gun!

Ashley's Large Vintage Looking Dominoes ~ Tutorial

TGIF everyone ~ Hope you are enjoying yours! So, Whit and I had our first guest blogging experience with Beckie over at her great site Infarrantly Creative. She was so gracious to let us post one of our exciting projects on her site while she was enjoying a little R&R. Thanks so much Beckie! If you get a chance stop by and tell her hi!

Our project we shared on Beckie's blog is our Large Vintage Looking Dominoes. We loved how our Vintage Looking Dice turned out and wanted to expand the idea from there....…which lead us to the dominoes! This was such a fun project and we are so thrilled to share our tutorial and tips with you!

We started out with a 2x10 piece of lumber that Whitney purchased from Lowe's for $5.00. We marked off every 16 inches and began cutting with our circular saw which made 6 individual pieces.

We then picked up our battery powered sander and took turns sanding down every edge and corner to form the shape of a domino.
Now for the paint! We purchased Behr Cozy Cottage Satin from Home Depot...we picked this one purely for the name (it's a shade of cream).
Let the painting begin....
Two coats later and we are ready for the dots! We dry brushed some Behr Forever Black Satin over a circle stencil that we cut with our Cricut. It made for perfect dots...
We placed electrical tape on each domino to form a stencil for us to dry brush a line down the middle....we let it curve around the edge just a tad....
Now for more sanding...We used our 3M sanding block with 80 grit sand paper and roughed-up the edges a lot (especially the corners)....

A coat of Minwax Red Mahogany stain over the distressed edges gave the dominoes a great vintage look...

We finished these babies off with our FAVE ~ Ralph Lauren Smoke Glaze (also purchased at Home Depot) to complete our vintage look ~ just paint on and wipe away with an old cloth!

Our finished Large Vintage Looking Dominoes!

We decided at the last minute that our dominoes would be best displayed hanging on a wall.... A package of 6 Saw Tooth Hangers (purchased at Wal-Mart for $0.97) made hanging simple!

Just hammer one in the center of each domino....

A few wall anchors later and our dominoes are on perfect display!

I decided to hang mine on a wall in my dining room/entry way. They add such a fun touch to the room!

Whitney decided to hang her dominoes on a wall by her sitting area in her loft. They look great and make the perfect conversation piece!

Here is a close-up of the distressed edges...

We hope that you have enjoyed our Large Vintage Looking Dominoes! We added a detailed tutorial so that you all can make your own! They are so easy and cheap ~ we made 6 dominoes for $5.00! What a bargain! If you have any questions don't hesitate to ask! Hope you have been inspired!

I will be posting this at Southern Hospitality for Thrifty Treasures! Go check it out!

I will also be posting this at Between Naps on the Porch for Met Monday and Make Your Monday at Twice Remembered!

I will also be adding this to Kimba's DIY party over at ASPTL...

http://asoftplacetoland-kimba.blogspot.com/2009/09/diy-day-and-giveaway_28.html

Whitney's DIY Apothecary Jars... Too Darn Cute!

UPDATE!!
I will be joining Just A Girl's I Can Make That party for thrifty Christmas gifts!! Check it out guys!!

Oh hey there! I am so excited to share my next project with you guys because it was so fun to make and I am sure you will all be making one of your own! Ashley and I went to Michael’s over the weekend to look for shantys. While I was checking out, she was glancing at a magazine and ran across a lady that made apothecary jars from mason jars…. That started my wheels spinning. I would love to give her a shout out but I didn't even see the title of the magazine. Hers were different but she for sure inspired me! Here are the supplies you will need to make these cuties… I found all of mine at Hobby Lobby for under $8. You will also need a small piece of burlap.

First you will need to glue your candlestick to your wood circle… I used Gorilla Glue and put a book on top of it for about 30 minutes.

Next, paint your finial and your candlestick. I sprayed mine with Rustoleum American Accents Heirloom White. While those are drying I started working on the top of the jar. Hot glue a small piece of burlap to the top of your lid… Mine was 5” x 5”. Glue down the burlap to the sides of the lid, starting with your corners.



Next, take a piece of twine and wrap it around the sides of the lid a few times. I also added a dab of hot glue here to keep everything in place. You can either tie a knot at this point or add a little something.


I found this little pewter cross at Hobby Lobby for $2 so I tied it to my twine...

Now take your painted pieces and do a little distressing. I also added some Ralph Lauren Smoke Glaze to mine to make it even cuter...

Next, hot glue your the bottom of your jar to the top of your candlestick… we’re almost done!

Hot glue your finial to the top of your lid… SO FUN… Love these!!

Now your final and most fun step will be to fill her up. I used some shells I had that needed a home to fill this one. But I did think about what a great teacher gift this would be… Find out her favorite candy or coffee and fill your jar up with that. She will get to enjoy her treat and her new apothecary jar! There are endless options for these babies…. I would so love to see yours when you make it…

I will be posting this at The Shabby Chic Cottage for Transformation Thursday! http://www.theshabbychiccottage.net/2009/09/master-bath-becomes-beauty.html

I will also be adding this to Kimba's DIY day over at ASPTL... Check it out ladies...

http://asoftplacetoland-kimba.blogspot.com/2009/09/diy-day-and-giveaway_23.html

I will be posting this at Southern Hospitality, Between Naps on the Porch and Twice Remembered!

Whitney's Antique Window Find

My next makeover started down the street from my house. They are tearing down another house full of character, actually 3 houses, to build one ginormous one. While nothing was salvaged on any of these homes, I did manage to get my hands on a beautiful part of the last one before it was torn down. I noticed they had started the tear down so I called my stepdad to have him do me a little favor… I do this a lot! I asked him to go ask the demo crew if we could have one of the awesome harlequin windows from the front of the house. He told him to take whatever he wanted so he brought me home 2 of the windows… woohoo Bapa… You’re the BOMB! Each window is about 2ft x 6ft and they are solid wood… gorgeous!

So… of course Ashley’s house needed one of these babies! Both of us sanded the paint edge down a bit and then painted the whole window with a coat of cream paint… Mine was Antique Homestead Lace by Valspar and she used Cozy Cottage by Behr .

Now we needed a place to put them…. I decided to hang mine on a tall blank wall next to our recliner in the living room.

Ashley propped hers behind her curly willow in her living room… Aren’t they too cute?! I do find it a shame that nothing was saved from any of these awesome homes but I am so excited that we were able to get a small piece of them. I will be sharing these treasures over on Trash to Treasure at Reinvented…
http://www.reinventedkb.com/2009/09/i-fancy-flea-markets.html
I will also be adding this to Hooked on Fridays at Hooked on Homes... Check it guys!!

http://hookedonhouses.net/2009/09/24/hooked-on-a-cottage-in-carmel/

Ashley's Vintage Bowling Set

Happy Sunday friends! I am so excited about my recent transformation. This particular find has been transformed 2 times already and I am finally satisfied!

I found this cool "bowling pin looking thing" on a Shanty Shopping Spree with Whit a few weeks ago. It wasn't the right color and I wasn't sure exactly what it was but I thought it was cute and would be even cuter painted....

I painted the red stripes with Spa Blue acrylic and glazed it all over with Ralph Lauren Smoke Glaze. I was satisfied with the way she turned out....

Until our Shanty Shopping Spree to Waco. We visited a place called Spice. This is a wonderful store with very creative knick knacks although they come with a hefty price tag...needless to say I bought nothing there but we came away with MANY great ideas. We fell in love with these black vintage-looking bowling pins so I decided to transform my transformation once again. I painted her in 2 coats of Behr Forever Black Satin.



She was a little boring all black so I decided to personalize her a bit with my Cricut. I dry brushed with a "T" stencil (initial of our last name) using Antique White acrylic and a stencil paint brush.



Ahh....that's much better...I wonder how she'd look with some twine....



I have a quick confession to make ~ I have never owned a glue gun in my life ~ I always wing it with super glue or whatever adhesive I find around the house but I found this cheap-o glue gun at Hobby Lobby for $2.50 with my coupon so I caved and bought it. Whit made fun of my new "tool" but she works like a charm! Ha!





I put a dab of glue at the top of the pin and started to wrap the twine tightly around the top. I repeated this step every full wrap around to the back.



Now for a little extra ~ I have had 3 of these decorative balls for years and wasn't really sure what to do with them....

I decided to make them a part of my bowling pin project. I started by painting them with 2 coats of Behr Cozy Cottage Satin.

I then made number stencils (random selection) with my Cricut and dry brushed them on with Lamp (Ebony) Black acrylic using a stencil brush. I glazed them with RL Smoke Glaze and added twine to these as well ~ why not?

To add the twine I repeated the steps I used on the pin.

My finished vintage looking bowling set!

I will be posting this on Between Naps on the Porch for Met Monday! Go check it out!
http://betweennapsontheporch.blogspot.com/2009/09/welcome-to-36th-metamorphosis-monday.html

I will also be posting this at Twice Remembered for Make your Monday! Go check it out!

http://twiceremembered.blogspot.com/2009/09/make-your-monday-week-6.html

I will also be adding this to The Shabby Chic Cottage for Transformation Thursday! http://www.theshabbychiccottage.net/2009/09/master-bath-becomes-beauty.html

I will also be posting this at A Soft Place to Land for DIY day! http://asoftplacetoland-kimba.blogspot.com/2009/09/diy-day-and-giveaway_23.html and The DIY Show Off for her Surprise Party! http://thediyshowoff.blogspot.com/2009/09/youre-invited-to-surprise-party-diy.html