Me and my girls... A girls' night at the workshop!

I've got the best friends...and one of our favorite things to do (besides junking together) is having our project nights!

Me, Robin, Terri and Carol

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Me and three of my bestest friends, or is it three of my bestest friends and I...anyway - us girls (Carol, Robin, Terri and I), had one of our "Girls' nights" at our workshop the other night. It's a great place for us to play (aka create fabulous projects and have lots of fun) - and not have to worry if we make a mess, make too much noise, or act too silly (not that we worry about that a whole lot anyway)! (or partake of too much chocolate...oops...)


We had two projects in mind, and I'll share one of them for now... It was a junky/rusty wreath we had seen at a friend's house and we wanted one of our own! So.....over the last couple months we've been collecting pieces and parts (garden tools, tiny watering cans, and other miscellaneous pieces of metal paraphernalia) to make these rusty creations! Some of the pieces we found were those old coppery wall decorations (from the 60s??? - kinda cheesy looking by themselves...) - they made perfect focal points for our wreaths.

We used a wire wreath form for the base, and loosely wrapped some wide burlap trim around to hide some of the wire. We then tried to decide what to put on first...decisions, decisions (we had too many that was the problem...!). So, starting with the larger pieces first (on mine, it was the coppery flower cart), and then added the garden tools and cans, and etc........ I had gotten a large spool of perfectly rusted wire at a garage sale - and it worked great in attaching everything. One nice thing about this project was that we didn't have to worry about hiding the wire - it was part of the "trim"!

Another good thing about this project, was that perfection was the furthest thing from our minds...a bit of a test for Carol (the perfectionist in the group) - but she passed with flying colors!!

After we had them all together, we added a little moss here and there (with a glue gun) to fill in some gaps. The final step was making it all "look" rusty (some pieces were galvanized metal, copper, or too "new" looking) - so I had a can of brown Rustoleum primer that we lightly sprayed on the pieces that needed some age added - that really made the whole wreath come together in rusty perfection!

I'm going to hang mine on my front porch, and may even make a couple to sell (maybe even different "themed" wreaths...the sky's the limit). This was a really fun project -not too difficult to do - and an awesome look...AND best of all BIG FUN with my girlfriends!!

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Now some pics to share (of course):

Here's Carol attaching her first pieces...it was a little slow going at first, but we picked up the pace! So many decisions....

I found this great spool of old rusty wire at a garage sale...it came in pretty handy!

Here's just a small sample of our junk lineup... We had no problem at all coming up with MORE than enough stuff to play with!!

More stuff...and here's our little junk "muse", Petra - and she is SO "amusing" - and pretty darned cute!! (she knows it - ha ha)

Get busy girls...we don't have all night! :)

Here's Robin's wreath...

A close-up look - great junk!

Here's Carol's version...

Don't you love the little potted "plant"?

Rusty tools galore

Here's pieces and parts of Terri's wreath (I cropped the picture and saved it - so lost the picture of the whole wreath - trust me, it very cool!!!)

Another view - with a cute little red bird perched on a tool!

Here's my version - I just love it!

A little bench with a tiny watering can - I can envision a butterfly stopping by to rest on it...

I love the hanging pieces - lots of little details...

(and by the way...I was the last one done - which is normal...I just "fuss").


The flowers were part of a coppery wall decoration... But, with a spritz of some faux rust (primer in a can) - it all goes together so well!

Just another view...some tiny garden gloves (for munchkins I think) add a little texture.

I love the flower cart (it's one of those coppery things too...) - a great "centerpiece"!

And finally, for just the right amount of faux "garden dirt" on my tiny garden gloves, I had Petra bury them in the driveway, and rough 'em up a little! She was happy to help!! (just love her!!!) She was having fun...and didn't realize I was putting her to work! Kids... :)

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Thanks for stopping by - I hope you have a blessed day, enjoy some sunshine (and a sunset) - and find lots of great junk at your nearest garage sale, thrift store, etc... Gotta keep the economy going, right?

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P.S.

I'm looking forward to my upcoming trip to Minnesota - and meeting (in person) some of my fellow JUNKMARKET Style Contributors (who I feel like I know already...), a bunch of wonderful bloggers (I know you're out there!!!), and making new friends from near and far (mostly far...Minnesota is a bit of a drive from Ohio)!

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Take care! Kathy