Branch Coat Hanger

Howdy folks!  It's been too long since I've last posted so here it goes!


The cold weather has brought out some of my favorite things to wear: Scarves, hats, mittens, coats, boots, and anything else that makes you warm and cozy!  However, that also means I need a place to put all of it... Which means it normally ends up strung over a chair or on the ground (becoming Gingi cat's new bed...). This brought on my desire to have a coat hanger so I rummaged through my apartment until I found some things I figured would attribute to my coat hanger needs.  

Here's what I came up with: Scissors, vice grips, coffee (always a necessity for any type of crafting experience), wire (you could also use twine or yarn if you didn't have wire on hand), wire cutters, something to bend the wire around (I chose a baby screwdriver for that), nails, hooks, and sandpaper.

I had spray painted a stick originally for another craft that I did but I got tired of it so it was now the main part for my coat hanger. :)

Here is a step-by-step of what I did:

• I used the scissors to cut off a nice piece of sandpaper to rough up the gold spray paint on the stick. I wanted the stick to have a worn look to it.
• I screwed the hooks into the stick and the vice grips helped me out when it became hard to twist the hooks.
• I drank some coffee.
• I wrapped the wire around the nails and and used the vice grips again to hold the nail in place while I wrapped very tightly (I also used pliers to wrap the wire around even more tight, but they're not in my picture... sorry!).  I left about a foot of wire hanging off of the nail so that I could wrap it around the stick later.
• I drank some coffee and knocked over a cute seal in the process (He premieres in  another post!).
• I tapped on the wall for about 30 minutes trying to find a stud in the wall so that the weight of the coats and scarves wouldn't pull out the nails. I made many wrong attempts and needed spackling paste to cover up the holes in the wall :-/  woops! 
• I used the hammer to put the wire wrapped nails carefully into the wall.
• Then I wrapped the wire around the stick very tightly and wah lah! A coat hanger!

 I probably did a lot of things incorrectly.... But it works!  Let's just not tell my landlord and fiancee about all those extra special holes in the wall :)  

 My giant, thumb-paw cat says Namaste my friends :)

Re-purposing with Chalkboard Paint

So I went thrifting earlier and I actually did something with it instead of just shoving it in my closet!  Yay! :)  You won't be seeing this girl on an episode of hoarders just yet!  I used one of my favorite crafty tools on my thrifty finds... Chalkboard paint!

Chalkboard Sign

My first re-purposing task was to take this... umm... I don't know what it is but it was free at the thrift shop I frequent so I decided to throw some chalkboard paint over it!  Now it's a cute sign hanging above my Keurig.

TIP: I did 4 coats of chalkboard paint and I waited an hour or more between coats.  Using chalkboard paint a lot I've realized the more you wait between coats the better the chalkboard paint holds and what not (The can instructs you to wait 24 hours... but I was too impatient...).

HOWEVER!  I do always wait 24 hours before I actually use the object that I've covered with chalkboard paint.  

Chalkboard/Dry erase Lap Table Trays

The next thrift store re-purposing I decided to do was to change up these lap table trays.  

Luckily the white part of the tray is like a whiteboard so I figured I'd only make a border around one of them so I could use dry erase markers on it. 

To make a border I used painters tape, decorative scissors and 4 layers of chalkboard paint.

 I just cut the painters tape down the middle and used one side of it to have the scalloped edge.  And then I made a square in the middle and painted in between the blues

Ta Da!  You've got yourself a cute border and you can write little messages to those who use them (My fiancee is in graduate school and he needs a few pick-me-ups while he's studying such riveting material like EKG's... yuck...).

The other lap table tray I decided to make all chalkboard paint so I just put painters tape over the wood so my messy painting skills wouldn't get all over that part of the tray.

Do 4 coats of chalkboard paint, let it dry, and then Ta Da!  You can make lists for yourself in the morning.  You can see I have really wonderful prioritizing skills :) Coffee always wins in my book!

What do y'all like to do with chalkboard paint?!