Merry Mantle Piece.....

I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving full of the warmth and love of family and friends! We had a fantastic day with lots of food and family. Those are the days that make it all worth while!

We have been in full swing crafting Christmas banners and getting the Christmas season started around here. Sometimes it gets difficult to just settle in and enjoy the magic of the season with so much to do. Every year I say I am gonna slow down and enjoy, I have yet to accomplish that task!

I have been working on a little project for myself though. My husband and I love to go on hunts for antiques and junk. Recently we came upon a fireplace mantle that had just about seen it's last days. It had been sitting out in the weather and just looked so lonely and sad. We picked it up for five bucks and this is what I did with it:)

I forgot to take a picture of the poor thing before I started the makeover. Jerry had to replace the top because it was too weathered to repair.  The whole thing was painted this blue color and it had "brick" wallpaper on the front of it, no seriously, it did..........

I based the entire thing in brown, still ugly but watch what happens next....so excited!!!!

This is magic potion otherwise known as crackle.....oh how I love to crackle stuff mmwahahahahahaha!!!!

So I applied the crackle and then painted over that with a coat of cream color flat paint, let dry and then applied a provincial stain and again I forgot to take a pic before I began the next step, but you can get an idea here......

I let it dry and then sanded some areas to give it even more of an old crackled chippy look.

And this is the finished fireplace mantle!!! I hung an old mirror above that I had applied the same crackle steps to. I am not sure what I want to put inside "the fireplace". We have an old gas heater that we may put in there or I may just change wall hangings with seasons, or I may paint a scenery, not sure yet. I do know it will be fun to decorate for the Christmas season!!


We have some new Christmas banners available in our shop!! They would look beautiful hanging  from a mantle!!! Check them out when you have time!!!!
http://www.etsy.com/shop/theartofhandmades