Creative Home Expressions: Cheri ~ From Its So Very Cheri Guest Post

I’m still away for a few days with the hubster celebrating our 25th Anniversary this week! I wanted to make sure I left you all with something to read and not have you think I fell off the face of the earth. I asked my friend Cheri from Its So Very Cheri to help me out! Bloggy friends are great! I know you will enjoy Cheri’s post, and make sure to visit her blog ~ she’s got so much going on {including the new DIY Club}. I don’t know how she does it all sometimes!

So, without further ado, here is my friend, Cheri!

Hello Ladies. My name is Cheri and you can find me, most days at Its So Very Cheri.

I am SO HONORED to be here today with you ladies. Kathy is a great gal and I sure have enjoyed getting to know her and have had her do a guest Tutorial on my blog so when she had a desire to fill some spots so she could enjoy a romantic rendezvous with her hubby, I was thrilled to step in.

I currently have a linky party on Mondays --Its So Very Creative (creative projects), Tuesdays Party-Its So Very NOT QUITE RIGHT (a project that didn't go quite as planned or funny stories about your kids coloring the walls just before the open house etc...) and Wednesdays-SPOTLIGHT YOURSELF (you can show off anything you want--as long as it fits the flavor of my blog--(no porn etc)but this helps gals who are not crafty, be able to post about their blog and get some notice too. All my parties stay open till Friday night at 11:59 pm. Thursdays is typically "I Followed the Tute and learned how to..." day. I have people sign up to do tutorials on a fun project, and show it off on my blog. Fridays are open to special events or things I want to post. Saturdays we have Its So Very WOWZERS Day and I showcase a room decor or project that makes me say WOW. Then Sundays is my Sunday Devotional-right now we are going through the Proverbs 31 gal--she is my favorite and an amazing gal. She makes Martha look like a wimp.

I also do a monthly guest writing spot at Our Mommyhood. It began just last month and I am sharing our infertility story. Leaving each post as a cliff hanger, making you wonder what happened next. Even though you now know how the story ended and we have 4 healthy and happy kiddos, it was a long journey and we actually went through it more than once. If you know of anyone going through it, send them over, and if you are interested I would love to have you come over too. You never know when you may have someone come into your life and you can share some information with them. As the story progresses I will give tips on things that worked for us. Part 2 will be posted this Saturday.

Our Mommyhood . It began just last month and I am sharing our infertility story. Leaving each post as a cliff hanger, making you wonder what happened next. Even though you now know how the story ended and we have 4 healthy and happy kiddos, it was a long journey and we actually went through it more than once. If you know of anyone going through it, send them over, and if you are interested I would love to have you come over too. You never know when you may have someone come into your life and you can share some information with them. As the story progresses I will give tips on things that worked for us. Part 2 will be posted this Saturday.

I am also part of the DIY Club inc. If you haven't heard about it, be sure and read about it HERE. I promise you won't want to miss out and if you don't get the details and start working on your project, it will be too late.

We would love to have you grab the button and place it on your blog to help spread the word.

It will continue to get more and more exciting as more and more people and vendors jump on board and there are lots of cool and fun things to win too.

I am a Mom to 4 great kiddos and home school the two oldest kids. Next year we will begin homeschooling G3. I think it might be an interesting year, since G4 won't have her partner in crime to keep her occupied.

All 4 of our kiddos names begin with the letter "G: and so we call them THE "G" FORCE and on the blog I call them G1, G2, G3 and Miss G4. When we would go to big family reunions or birthday parties, we would write G1, G2... on their cups--it was always easy to figure out, if it was their cup or not, so I went with that on the blog. We have 3 great boys, each with their very own personality and then the pink loving princess entered our world and turned everything upside down as she sprinkles her girly love on her brothers and her love of all things pink. The boys say her room looks like someone puked Pepto Bismal in her room, I say it is the cutest puked in room--EVAH-then. I made all of her bedding, curtains etc and re-purposed her dresser so it was perfectly shabby and adorably chic. I bought a basic mirror and Prince Charming made the frame to go around it and then we added the onlays. I love it. I also made her chandelier and you can read about that here.

I have been working on several craft projects for some guest blogging spots and I have a painted glass piece to show you this morning.

I was in a thrift shop and grabbed the glass bowl and a glass candle stick.

I have used Gorilla Glue on several projects but this was my first time using their epoxy.

And it worked perfectly.

It dries a little yellow but I was planning on painting this piece so that did not concern me one little bit.

It was super easy to use.

If you haven't ever tried it, you should.

That is what will be so super fun about the DIY Club inc-

you will see how to use products you may have never used before,

see lots of projects that others have done

and get to try some project s with products you may not have even known existed.

Each of the 5 gals involved in the DIY Club will each do a tutorial for you,

showing you how they used some of the products.

I'm telling you --it will be sooo fun---

DON'T MISS IT

OK--so back to my project--

I let it dry over night.

It looked great but, I before I glued it together, I had decided I liked the vase upside down and

so, the base was now glued to the bottom of the bowl.

I was concerned that the NEW base (which was really the TOP of the vase)wasn't wide enough and I was afraid it might get bumped (remember I have 4 kiddos)

and I would loose this great piece.

Later that day, I heard a crash and another piece I was working on got knocked over and broke.

I scoured a thrift store and found a piece and used the epoxy to attach them together.

I let it set up over night.

Then started spray painting it.

I used 3 colors-a nickel, a bronze and some oil rubbed bronze.

Then I went in with some craft paint. I was going for a dual aqua and amber look.

I spritzed it with more Oil Rubbed Bronze for some depth.

Then I decided I wasn't crazy about it and so I went over the entire thing with Oil Rubbed Bronze.

If I find another piece or two I might even add to it, making it even taller.

It has some of the sparkles from the other paints coming through and I really LOVE IT.

~~~~

Each of the 3 pieces cost about $2,

(Thrift stores around here think they are an antique stores)

I could have bought them for less at the Dollar Tree or if I had taken my time to look long enough

but couldn't find what I wanted--

and I wanted to get this project done-

I think it depends on where you are from--as far as the Thrift Store prices.

Some of my gals show great deals, I rarely find a fantastic deal at Greedy Will.

So, you might be able to make this for even less, if you shop around. I do like the idea of re-purposing old pieces)

I did pick up the epoxy for this project but I have used it on several other projects and still have quite a bit so I can’t count the entire price for this project, and I had all the paint on hand already.

So for about $7, I have this cool piece.

I grabbed some faux flowers just for the picture, but I am thinking I want a neat looking greenery piece in it-

I have a few other projects I am working on that will nook really neat beside it.

Keep checking back to see what I come up with to go along with it.

What do you think?

Here is my Glass Jar and Carafe Collection, I recently started. I love the numbers on them.

And here is another fun piece I am working on.

I would love to have you come over and follow me (and if you used to follow me at the old blog--you need to re-sign up to get all my updates--Google swipes your followers when you leave. I'm still trying to figure out what they are going to do with my followers). I try to follow all of the gals that follow me--it's a courteous issue with me PLUS I really do love getting to know them.

Come on over for a visit and look around.

Thanks Kathy--I hope you have a fantastically romantic time and that you don't think about anything but your MAN while you are gone.

Thank you, Cheri, for doing this great guest post while I’m away! See you all soon!