Saturday, October 31, 2015

Changing Seasons.....

Today is Halloween but I am deeply involved in Christmas ideas.  That's just the way it is when you are a crafter. I can't wait until the week before.  So the past week has been spent creating designs for a new paper ornament series. I have had great fun with this concept.

In total I have created 7 different cutting files for my Silhouette and three different assembly techniques.  They are all available at my other website 3DCuts.com.
The files are here.
Assembly Tutorials are here.

Happy crafting everyone!

©2015 Marji Roy, Ashbee Design

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

Refinishing an Old Favorite

I know. It has been a long time and several of you have been inquiring as to what's up. Thank you for caring. I am fine, just very, very busy. And a major part of that was a complete re-do of my husband's website and blog in a new software. It got to be too much to maintain three different websites with three different softwares. I now have both my husband's Wood That Works website and my 3DCuts website in the same software, so I can again think about this blog. Only two different web software packages now.

But I have done a variety of projects and have photographed some of the process so let me share. This one has me excited today because...... one of my big projects is a complete re-do of my office craft space. That project will get a post of its own but this is a mini part of it.

Years ago (maybe as many as 30. We can't exactly place it in time.) my husband and dad, were together out exploring houses, and discovered this drawers unit.

It is handmade from wood with 36 little drawers and it was white with yellow naugahyde sides.  My husband negotiated a deal and this piece became ours. As a functional unit in an office it is wonderful. Years ago I had painted it forest green to cover the yellow always planning to refinish it. But I never found the time. Until now.

I am having cabinets installed in my office but I designed the new layout to still include this drawer unit. But there is no denying the fact that it is ugly but I believed it was beautiful underneath. Others wondered. So I attacked it with stripping chemicals.


First I removed all the brass hardware. I set up outside to allow for penalty of ventilation and applied Zip-Strip. This paint clearly wanted to be off this unit. It just bubbled up and was easy to scrap off.


I then sanded all the drawer fronts to remove any remaining paint.

I applied three coats of polyurethane and just watched the beauty of the wood grain shine through the drawer fronts.

All the brass hardware was cleaned and polished and then covered with lacquer spray.


I reattached all the hardware.

Meanwhile I painted the drawer unit a satin black.  I wanted the combination of the wood, brass and black.  There will be a bit of an industrial flair to my new office.


The finished unit is such an improvement.  The sides and top are still painted Naugahyde. Those will be encased in the new cabinetry. Just the drawer fronts with satin black frame will be visible.

Progress is being made daily on the office redo. I expect this piece will be installed by week's end. More photos to follow.

My daughters are now fighting over who will inherit this piece!

©2015 Marji Roy, Ashbee Design