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How to Make Paint Look Like Stain | Faux Stain with Chalk Paint

74 · Oct 29, 2015 · 6 Comments

Do you love the stained look, but can’t stand the idea of staining?

It’s smelly, sticky, messy… Not to mention all of the chemicals that you are introducing into your home. I have a fabulous alternative for you!

Faux Stain with BB Frösch Chalk Paint Powder®…

Doesn’t it look fantastic?! BB Frösch is an ALL-NATURAL paint additive that you can add to any flat latex paint and turn it into chalk paint. Mixed with a low-VOC or no-VOC paint you don’t have to worry about any of those harmful chemicals from other stains or paints. With the addition of BB Frösch, you are giving your paint the fabulous adhesion properties and manipulatable properties that everyone loves about chalk paint.

Which Kind of Chalk Paints Should You Use to Make it Look Like Stain?

As you can tell I love BB Frosch. There are a lot of different brands and types that you can use for chalk paint though. I wrote a post about the best chalk paints you can read. The down and dirty of it is that BB Frosch Powder is number one in my heart, and then you have the rest. The difference is that you mix the powder with any paint that you want to use instead of buying actual chalk paint.

PSA- DON’T EVER USE THOSE DIY CHALK PAINT RECIPES! They are harmful to your health and won’t work for this technique. Plaster of Paris and Unsanded Grout have caustic chemicals in them. You don’t want to introduce those into your home or your body for sure.

Now onto the fun stuff…

I’ve been traveling the country teaching BB Frösch Workshops and one of the techniques that we teach is a color wash technique. This is a technique you would use if you wanted to still see the wood grain when painting a piece. Even though I am the co-founder of a chalk paint company, I still am a lover of the natural wood look. I hate to cover up all of that character, BUT… Sometimes a piece still needs new life with a little TLC, OR maybe you have some raw wood that you would love to add some nice rich color to. For example like my shelves…

I LOVE the look of a nice rich stain, but I hate to stain! That’s when I thought… Why not use that color wash technique that I teach all the time and make it LOOK like it was stained? That is what I set out to do.

How to Faux Stain with BB Frösch Chalk Paint

I found a beautiful brown paint color from Benjamin Moore called Mink and I LOVE it!! When you are faux staining with this color it’s super fun because it pulls a little gray when painting (faux staining) your project. It’s a beautiful weathered wood look but, when I finish it with our Dark BB Frösch Premium Finishing Wax it gives it that nice rich stained look that everyone loves. If I want to keep the weathered wood look, I would just finish it with the clear wax.

But I’m getting ahead of myself.

First, you need to mix your paint with BB Frösch Chalk Paint Powder. Here is a quick video on how to do that…

Mixing BB Frösch Chalk Paint Powder from BB Frösch on Vimeo.

Once your paint is mixed, you’re ready to go.

You’ll need your trusty BB Frösch paint brush and wax brush for this project and a jar of water along with your mixed BB Frösch Chalk Paint.

This technique works amazingly well on raw wood, but it can also be used on a finished piece with a little extra care. We have a customer that faux stained her entire kitchen without any sanding or striping before she set to work. Here’s a look at her before and after…

YEA, it’s that aaaamazing!! Not to mention the fact that this took DAYS rather than weeks or heaven forbid months to finish. Couple that with the fact that this took less then a gallon of paint and your golden!

For this tutorial, I am using raw wood that I purchased at Home Depot. All you need to do is make sure your brush is pretty wet, dip it in your paint and then swirl it around on your paint lid, mixing the water and paint a bit.

Then, going with the grain, brush the watered-down paint onto your wood. Follow that with a lint-free cloth and lightly wipe the surface of your wood exposing the grain of the wood. THAT’S IT!!

Continue that process until you’ve finished your entire piece. It will literally take just minutes to dry and then you’re ready for the wax.

This is another simple step. Take your wax brush and butter a little bit of wax onto your brush, just like you butter your toast. Then, with the grain brush on the wax in a small section about the size of a 12×12 piece of paper. Then using a lint-free cloth, wipe off any excess wax and then rub the area until smooth. Move on to your next section and repeat the process until your piece is finished. Go back with a lint-free cloth and then buff to your desired sheen.

These shelves took only 30 minutes, start to finish… READY TO HANG in 30 minutes!!

You can’t do that with stain!!

Funny thing… Both of those signs that I made for my Fall display are also Faux Stained with BB Frösch as well, using the same technique just on a smaller scale. See, you can craft with BB Frösch Faux Stain and transform your kitchen at the same time. It’s BRILLIANT if I do say so myself!

This technique is catching fire… Here are a few more projects that use the same technique.

This beautiful desk was transformed by Kacey Stout one of our BB Frösch Masters in Las Vegas. She painted the base of the desk with Behr Paint “Hummingbird” and then Faux Stained the top with Benjamin Moore “Mink combined with BB Frösch Dark Premium Finishing Wax. She transformed it from this…

To THIS…

I also transformed an old desk with the same idea…

I bought that desk at a garage sale for $10… After I gave it a good once over with BB Frösch, I sold it for a couple hundred. Not to shabby!

Needless to say, this is by far one of my favorite techniques. I’ve even used it to make a large set of dice for Yard Yahtzee… This set I kept that weathered wood look and just used a clear wax to finish the look.

Here is another set of shelves that we made for an appearance on Studio 5 in Salt Lake.

Here’s Kristin and I on set, AND… Here’s a link to the segment.

If I haven’t convinced you yet to try this… I don’t know what will!

Go grab yourself some BB Frösch and get to work. You’re going to LOVE it!!

Kitchen Marquee Sign with Heidi Swapp

0 · Jul 31, 2015 · 3 Comments

+ Kitchen Marquee Sign post brought to you by Michaels Craft Stores +

I am obsessed with marquee signs… I truly am.

It started with this post back in July of 2013, my Designer Marquee Letters.

Back in the day when marquee letters were rather elusive. Your options were to either pay a fortune for the real deal, or find a way to DIY a set of your own. I went the DIY route which was great, the sign still lives in my kitchen and I love it, however… it was a tad challenging, still expensive and quite frankly it still looked a little wonkey with all kinds of wiring to contend with.

The day that Heidi Swapp released her Marquee Love, was a DREAM! Seriously, I’m not sure if I’ve ever been that excited about a product release in a long time. It’s BRILLIANT! Truly, I’m always kind of excited to see what Heidi has up her sleeve. She is taking the crafting world by storm these days with not only her Marquee Letters but her Minc Foil Applicator is GENIUS as well. One of my favorite crafting tools right now!

Heidi is one of those individuals who is amazingly innovative but someone who is truly genuine. She’s everyone’s cheerleader. We have connected a bit over social media and had a chance to chat at SNAP this last year. She is one lady who I truly admire and look up to. She’s brilliant and a go getter. She’s one of those ladies who dreams up a crazy idea like the Minc and just MAKES IT HAPPEN! I love that!

I had a ball this week creating with my favorite Heidi Swapp Marquee Love letters to celebrate Michaels Big Brand Sale Starting Sunday, August 2nd.

Kitchen Marquee Sign

I decided to take Heidi Swapp’s Marquee Love letters to the next level and add them to a wood sign, rather than just having them sit on a shelf. I have fallen in love with all kinds of fun typography signs for the kitchen floating around like this one from Gina of Shabby Creek Cottage

BUT… I thought, how fun would it be to have a marquee element to it. Why not do a sign saying, “Kitchen is Now OPEN” with the OPEN in marquee letters showing that when the sign is alight, the kitchen is open, when it’s off, the kitchen is CLOSED. Fun, right! Here’s how to make it…

Materials Needed

24×24 plywood board
4 – 25 inch 1 1/2 x 1/2 inch boards for the frame
Heidi Swapp Marquee Love letters O,P,E,N
Krylon Chalk Board Spray Paint
White Chalk Paint – I used BB Frösch Chalk Paint Powder
Silhouette or Cricut cutting machine OR Stencil Letters
Vinyl
Scrap paper
painters tape
Hot glue
Brad nails
Glue dots

Directions

Gather your materials and prepare them to paint. I decided to use Krylon Black Chalkboard Paint because I love the deep black and the matte finish.

First, I spray painted my letters and the frame for the sign.

Then I used BB Frösch Chalk Paint to white wash the sign base. I chose that technique rather than just straight paint because I still wanted to see the wood grain.

To white wash your board, all you need to do is use watered-down chalk paint and then lightly wipe-off the paint to reveal the grain of the wood. This is a great way to add a little color, keep the wood look and it also dries really quick!

Next, I cut my vinyl with my Silhouette CAMEO using the Bebas font. Love that font!

I laid down my vinyl and then taped the rest of the board with painters tape and some scrap paper to mask the rest of the board while I spray painted the letters.

Once the paint was dry, I placed my marquee letters and drilled holes to feed the lights through. Now, keep in mind, you need to think through the pavement of the holes and how you are going to arrange the lights in the letters. You want the battery packs sitting on the bottom frame of the sign and you need to place the drilled holes accordingly.

Then, I assembled my marquee letters and hot glued them to the board.

Next, I hot glued the frame to the sign base and then secured it with some brad nails.

On the back of the board, I used a few glue dots to secure the battery packs for the letters to the back of the board.

And that was it… your Kitchen Marquee Sign is finished!

The cool thing it looks great with the lights ON or OFF!

I found the cutest sign on The Diary of Dave’s Wife not to long ago…

Of course had to make one of my own, I thought it look great placed right under my Kitchen is Now Open sign…

How fun is that! I used some 3M Command Picture Hanging Strips that are velcro so I can easily interchange my breakfast, lunch & dinner signs for fun! LOVE IT!!

Don’t forget this next week is the perfect time to stock-up on all your favorite brands at Michaels Big Brand Sale!!

Disclaimer // This post is sponsored by Michaels Craft Stores. I am Michaels Maker this year and will be posting all kinds of goodies from Michaels Craft Stores. I do receive free product to create with.

DIY Black and White Wall Art

0 · May 8, 2014 · 8 Comments

DIY Black and White Wall Art // I have always been a huge fan of black & white. I love the stunning contrast and knew that when I was ready to dress up our front room in our new house I wanted a strong black & white theme. I also LOVE typography wall art and adore the hand painted typography displays that I’ve seen all over the place.

I however, CAN NOT hand paint a stick figure, let alone a beautiful hand lettered canvas… So, I did the next best thing! I busted out my Silhouette CAMEO, some black paper and a lovely large 24 x 24 canvas and went to work…

I LOVE how it turned out! It’s an element in my HUGE gold frame that is in my front room that I have redesigned for the spring/summer…

This is how it looked for Christmas this last year…

The frame is HUGE and I love it, but it can be a challenge trying to find stuff to fill the space, a large canvas is perfect!

This project is really quite simple. I used the Meddon font which has an imperfect hand lettered look to design my typography art. Then I cut my saying, “Leave a little sparkle wherever you go” out of black textured card stock paper with my Silhouette CAMEO and then used Decoupage from DecoArt to affix the letters onto the canvas.

Want to know a little secret to successful decoupaging? Wet your paper that you are wanting to affix to your surface FIRST before you place it onto your surface. I had a plate with a wet paper towel sitting next to me and placed the paper words on the towel for a few seconds to get them a little damp before I placed it on the canvas. This will help with any bubbling problem you may have once you add the Decoupage.

How to make typography wall art with Silhouette CAMEO and Decoupage

Cut your words out on the Silhouette CAMEO. For this size of canvas I needed a machine that could cut large elements and the CAMEO is perfect for that. I used my 12×24 mat and it was perfect. I unfortunately didn’t have 12×24 black paper so I had to piece some of the words together, but that wasn’t a big deal.
Figure out the placement of your words on the canvas.
Starting in small areas, one word or part of a word at a time, remove the paper word and place on a wet paper towel. Then using a foam brush, place a thin layer of Decoupage onto your canvas. Replace the paper word onto your desired spot and gently press into the Decoupage. Then carefully with a light hand, brush another layer of Decoupage onto of the paper word. Be careful not to over work the paper. Especially when using black paper on a white canvas, the Decoupage will breakdown the paper and then you will have a muddy mess instead of a clean black and white canvas.
Move onto the next word until you have the entire saying affixed with the Decoupage.
Make sure you cover the entire canvas with Decoupage so that the canvas will have a uniformed appearance.
Let the canvas dry and then hang!

I added a sheet of decorative metal that I found at Home Depot for a little added pop under the canvas and I LOVE how it looks!

So… Do you love typography art? What saying would you like to create with this simple project? Leave a comment with your saying!!

Disclaimer // This is NOT a paid post, I am however a member of the Silhouette Circle which is an affiliate program.

Simple DIY Art

4 · Apr 2, 2014 · 8 Comments

Simple DIY Art // Hey all! It’s Jenn from My Fabuless Life! Last month I shared my embroidery hoop bulletin board I did for my daughter’s big girl bedroom, and since then, I’ve caught the makeover fever, because I’ve moved onto my master bedroom and am here to show you a quick, simple art project you can do for less than $10. Finding large scale art for those bigger walls can get expensive, which is why I love creating my own. You can customize everything about it, for next to nothing!

I started with a 4′ x 4′ piece of thin, pine plywood from my home improvement store (in the lumber section with the peg board), and stained the whole thing. If you’re more into the painted look, you can do that too, it’s up to you.

My original plan was just to put the text right on the wood (which you’ll notice below), but after I wrote directly on the wood, it was hard to see, so I got out the paint. I wanted a really unique, sort of “messy” look, so I just grabbed one of my favorite sponge rollers and roughly rolled out the paint in the pattern I wanted. I let that coat dry, added another, and filled in some spots with a paint brush, and then it was time for the writing.

Remember, I tried writing first, so this picture is a little backwards. You’ll notice though, that if you’re writing with white, it would be just fine. Anyway, I measured for where I wanted the writing to go, and then drew a line with chalk so that the text wouldn’t be all over the place. Then, I wrote out my phrase with chalk and wrote right over it with a gold paint pen. After the gold was dry, I just wiped off the remaining chalk with a damp cloth.