Well I know I’ve been somewhat remiss about writing our blog, ok lazy, but there have been extenuating circumstances. We’ve been getting all our Shabby Chic Welsh hearts and plaques ready for the Urdd Eisteddfod. You might be wondering how I’ve got the time to blog if I am at said Eisteddfod. Well the truth of the matter is we are not there! Someone , somewhere in a certain Welsh organisation has had a bit of a slip up and a marquee to house all us Welsh Crafters was not booked so all our hard work has been for nought! Yes I know it won’t go to waste but that’s not the point Sonja and I were really looking forward to catching up with all the lovely friends we made when the Urdd was in Swansea as well as show casing the lovely new Welsh Shabby Chic items we have made since the last Eisteddfod. I’ve had my moan now so I’ll continue, on a more positive note.

I was hoping to have several photographs of my picture frame montage, where I’ve used some of the lovely Shabby Chic frames that we sell and mixing them with some that I’ve distressed myself but he whose motto is  ‘don’t do today what you can put off until tomorrow’ hasn’t finished painting the wall, let alone put up any frames! You’ll just have to be patient and wait – like I have to…………

In the meantime if you want to have a go at distressing some of your old pine frames here’s a few tips:

1. Lightly sand the frame to remove any wax/varnish
2. Wipe with a damp cloth to remove any dust
3. When dry apply a thick coat of your base colour and allow to dry thoroughly (I use a flat matt emulsion for both coats)
4. Now paint a thin top coat of your next colour, allow to dry thoroughly
5. Wipe again with a damp cloth
6. You can now apply a thin coat of clear wax to protect the paint finish

Happy distressing!