I bought these end tables several months ago.  I loved the size of them and the details but had NO idea where they were going to go.  They have been many places in the house but they may have finally found their home in the living room next to my newly re-upholstered sofa! :)  

Here is a picture of the tables before a couple of coats of paint....

You can see dear sweet hubby starting to scrap off the veneer of the top.  It was in really bad shape! I really love the design in the wood but these babies HAD to be painted!  

I wanted a dark blue to contrast the light color of the sofa (and dh prefers darker colors and I had to appease him with something) :)  

Instead of buying chalk paint, I just make my own.  With this project I bought a sample pot of paint from Lowe's.  To this you add 2 T of Plaster of Paris and 2 T water.  Mix the plaster and water very well before adding to the paint!

After painting, distressing and glazing a little bit.  Here's what they look like now...

I went to Hobby Lobby and purchased some new knobs.  Not sure if I really love the red but it matches the rug so for now they stay.
  

My favorite part though, is the cutie picture of my two baby boys (who aren't babies anymore) being sweet to each other! :)

Subway art has been pretty big for a while now and I'm just now getting around to making one for myself - well not actually for myself but for a Christmas gift.
I receive emails from Fab.com (if you don't you should, they have some AMAZING stuff).  Anyway, there was a company selling these collegiate prints on SALE for $125 (regularly $160).  Now granted they were framed prints but still, a print for $125.  No way!  The crafty-ness in me knew that I could make that.  Not only could I make it but I could make it better (because it was going to be painted on wood) and I could definitely make it cheaper!  AND...it would be handmade and who wouldn't rather a handmade gift?  The gift that takes time and planning and thought and time and time and time...well, you get the idea! :-)  I would rather one of these gifts, but again I wasn't making this for myself.  It was going to be a gift for my dear boyfriend (sweet huh)? :)

Although I don't have pictures of the process let me show you what I started with and then my finished product.

Here is the inspiration:

So I see this and think, "I could do that"

So I started with getting that wonderful mom of mine to use the massive crazy vinyl cutter that she has to cut this just as it is.  But then, I got an even better idea to make the "NC STATE" line in red (school color) and that way it would stand out a bit more and I thought it should be bigger so we switched a couple of lines around. Also for some reason on the 4th line she couldn't get the VIA and ST so we decided to just spell out street.

Okay, once the vinyl was done I headed out to Lowe's and got one piece of plywood go match the dimensions and some trim to make the frame itself.  Glued it all together, put the vinyl on like a stencil, painted, a light sanding for a distressed look and WHA-LAH!  Done.  Well that sounds much easier than it actually was but those were the steps.  And here is my creation all done and ready to wrap up! :)

So because I used the vinyl as a stencil I had to make my background white with black letters, other wise I would have been trying to paint white letters over a black background, which would have been a nightmare.  Anyway, whatcha think?

Sweet boyfriend liked it but then again, he has to right?  Its from me and its handmade so what is he really gonna say?