Jasper Cabinets Secretary Desk Furniture Flip with Chalk Paint and Shimmer

Hello my wonderful readers! I am very excited to show you my new pride and joy. I don't know if I can part with her but I also don't think the hubby will let me keep her. LOL! She is an entry to the "The Furniture Flippin' Contest"! So leave me some love in the comments below so the judges can tell you like her as much as I do!

Meet Anastasia

The theme for this contest is "Inspired by Mom". Though the name of this piece was totally inspired by a comment my hubby made one day while I was painting. This piece was truly planned out to reflect who my mother is to me.  She is quiet and reserved but once you get to know her she really "opens up". She was created with Shabby Paints Cali Taupe & Licorice Chalk Acrylic Paints with a couple of layers of Old Gold Shimmer. Sealed with a mix of 50/50 Hazelnut ReVax/Sheer Vax. It all is distressed and is more beautiful with age... just like my mom!

My mother is my rock, hence the shades of grey (yes I know... that too was the comment my hubby made... "Is that your 15 shades of grey cabinet?"). But really it was to represent the colors of greys in most stones.

This is a Jasper Cabinet secretary desk. What is my mother's profession? You guessed it... she was a secretary/receptionist most of her life. She was always so good at keeping the office in order and dealing with customers.

The damask stencil was chosen as a representation of her style... she always tried her best to find nice things for us but she, a single mother of one, always had a hard time affording them. She was a great teacher of all things frugal. She also inspired me to be an artist as a young child. I can remember seeing her work in arts and crafts and thinking "I wish I could be as good as her someday".

Now today I can honor her with this piece and how this furniture flip. Mom... look how far everything you taught me has come. I love you, thank you for all you have done for me and one day I can fully repay you a thousand times over. You deserve every last once of love and kindness.

I just love the piece! Anastasia has been entered in "The Fab Furniture Flippin Contest" with the theme of "Inspired by...
Posted by Uniquely Grace on Thursday, May 21, 2015

More information about the "The Furniture Flippin' Contest":

• If your interested in participating: Bloggers can contact Stacy Info@anastasiavintage.com or Evey info@eveyscreations.com

• This month's sponsor is Cece Caldwells Paint (Disclosure: I have not used these paints)

• Two of our Hosts this month are Evey and Stacy. (Click on their names for their featured contest posts.)

Thank you all once again! Please take a moment to leave a comment blow. Also check me out on social media also... many ways to keep up to date on this artsy gal. Thank you for your support.

Here is a quick Before & After image. Hope you enjoy this thread.

UPDATE: I am so excited to share with you all that I received a Judges Pick award for this piece in the May, Fab Furniture Flippin' Contest!

Thank you to these Judges for putting my piece in your top three!

Evey from Sweet Songbird
Carrie from Thirty Eighth St.
Lynn from Fern Avenue

Find me on...
Facebook: Uniquely Grace
Twitter: Grace Lauer Artist @gracelauer
Instagram: @gracelauer_henna_artist
Pinterest: L. Grace Lauer

A Penny Saved, is a Penny earned...

Hello Everyone!
A few weeks ago I posted a project where I recovered my extreme coupon binder. Today, I am showing you a project that is an extension of this one.
This is my coupon cabinet. I bought this at a garage sale for $15 can you believe it? I love this small cabinet to contain all my coupon goodies. Inside one of the doors it had a white board that had marker on it that would not come off! So I decided to recover the white board... of course!
I was so excited to use the new Maya Road Cloth Dress Form, and of course I just love the Helmar Crackle over the template, from The Crafter's Workshop, I used to make the center design. Not to mention, I was so excited to create a paper dress after seeing them at the winter CHA. I just wish this one was bigger so I could make it more detailed.

Here is the before of the cabinet...

I took off the stickers with the Helmar Adhesive Remover (test this in a hidden area to make sure it is good for the surface you will be using it on), cleaned it up and spot stained the scratches.
Here is how I recovered this door. First I lightly sanded the white board and cleaned it with water and a towel. Once it was dried I began the adhering process, with Helmar Craft Glue because it works great on metal (that is what a white board is made up of). Be careful, this is a solvent glue and sometimes can damage surfaces like the finished wood! If you are concerned please test it in a small area you don't normally see. Or be very careful with how thick you put it on this project and where you put it.

Putting several strips of Helmar Craft Glue up and down the length of the paper then fallowing it quickly with the next step before the glue dried.

Using a Pampered Chef pan scraper (I have a few of these in my scraproom) I smoothed out the glue under the paper. Then repeated these two steps until the pages were fully adhered to the white board.
After embellishing the background and using stickers for my quote, I created a fun paper dress on the Maya Road Dress Form. I just love how it turned out. I love it so much I will probably make a larger more detailed one. I just fell in love with this idea from CHA! In this photo you can see a bit of the layers of crackle and the puff paint I used to add depth to the center design on the background.

What do you think? I just love making my home more beautiful and Helmar makes it so much easier!
Thanks for taking the time to read my post. Have a Happy Scrappy Day!