January Newsletter -- Volume 20

Happy New Year!

TLC Vintage Collection, Central Iowa Headquarters for Annie Sloan Chalk Paint®, is off to a roaring start! We have rearranged the entire showroom and display area to afford better lighting for customers choosing colors. There is a research area, plus a new spindle paint display (Anthropologie-style, we like to think) in our front window! We have lots of ideas of what we want to do and share this year so stay tuned!

What's New?

Mini Clear Soft and Dark Soft Waxes! These cute containers arrived in December and are approximately 1/4 of a normal tin of our Annie Sloan Soft Wax. Since the wax does not spoil, for economy sake, we still recommend most customers purchase the 500 ml tin which is priced at $26.50. The small tins are priced at $15, so are no bargain unless you are doing the very rare project -- and a small one at that, such as picture frames or a small side table. The large tin covers approximately 300-350 SF if you use a wax brush; half that if applied with a cloth. The small tins cover approximately 75 SF if applied with a brush.

Color Mixing Scrapbooks! We are in the process of creating two books of color combinations to help you discover the endless colors you can create by mixing Chalk Paint®! These scrapbooks will be available to consult when you are in the store. Each page is titled by one of Annie's 32 colors, such as Antibes and there is a swatch at the top of the sheet. After that you see, Antibes mixed with all the other colors individually at one part to one part! 32 swatches and different hues and shades on each page! Slow going, but we already have two available to view -- Antibes and Antoinette!

Tips of the Month!

Baby, it's cold outside! So be sure to protect your Chalk Paint® from freezing. Move it into the house and out of unheated garages and outbuildings during the winter months! While up to 3 freeze cycles may not hurt the paint quality, why risk it?

TLC Vintage loves to see your before and after project photos and we like to share them with other customers on our Facebook page and Blog (www.tlcvintagecollection.blogspot.com)! Please email us your photos at tlcvintage@tlcvintagecollection.com. Include a description of the colors and processes you used as someone always asked so we would like to use this information when we post them!

You Can Help Us!

Please interact with our Facebook page by visiting at least once in a while and posting a comment. Facebook is continually changing  their method of operation and we need your active interaction of a comment in order for our posts to be seen in newsfeeds. Thank you so much as social media is important to us. Here are our addresses where you can find us on social media!

www.tlcvintagecollection.com is our web page where you can buy many of the products we carry in the shop and have them shipped to you!

www.tlcvintagecollection.blogspot.com is our blog where we are trying to post once a week including one tutorial per month.

https://www.facebook.com/pages/TLC-Vintage-Collection is our Facebook pages where we try to post something of interest once or twice per day

https://twitter.com/TLCVintageIowan is the TLC Twitter account where you can follow us. Normally these posts occur when we post on Pinterest or the blog, but we post here randomly
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http://www.pinterest.com/jrpiller/ is where you will find TLC Vintage Collection boards on Pinterest. If you are currently not on Pinterest, let us know and we will send you an invitation!

http://instagram.com/tlcvintagecollection/ is where you will find us on Instagram, though we are just getting started there and feeling our way along! More in 2015!

Workshop Schedule!

Wear paint appropriate clothing for all classes and we provide the rest: folder of notes, sample boards, refreshments. In-store discounts day of class. All classes are 3 hours and cost $85 per person. If two or more people group together and one person signs them up or they come in together to book, we give a 10-15 pct discount for each person.

Chalk Paint® 101 Plus!
Six paint techniques plus clear and dark wax methods! $85 per person in advance.
Jan 10: Noon to 3 pm
Feb 7: Noon to 3 pm      Mar 7: Noon to 3 pm
Apr 11: Noon to 3 pm    
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Chalk Paint® 201 Amazing Finishes!
More amazing paint techniques of Annie Sloan!  Crackle, frottage, rococo & more! $85 per person in advance.
Jan 31: Noon to 3 pm   Mar 21: Noon to 3 pm
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Chalk Paint® Kitchen Cabinets & Built-ins! 
How to renew your dated cabinets at a fraction of the cost without replacement! $85 per person in advance.
Feb 28: Noon to 3 pm       Apr 18: Noon to 3 pm
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Wood Icing(TM)
Ice wood like icing a cake. Texture paste to add a permanent dimension to any surface! Lace, wood, reptile, stencil & more. $85 per person in advance.
Nov 22: Noon to 3 pm   Feb 21: Noon to 3 pm
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Artisan Enhancements Special Effects!
Crackle, Pearl Plaster, Transfer Gel, Gilding Foil! Fun beyond description! $85 per person in advance.
Dec 20: Noon to 3 pm    Mar 14: Noon to 3 pm
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Peeling Paint, Crust & Crud!
Perfect for the junker who wants to blend a newer piece or add a more rustic finish to an item to blend in. Peeling off paint, layers of crust and crud. $85 per person in advance.
Jan 17: Noon to 3 pm
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Introduction to Milk Paint
A variety of applications for the use of Miss Mustard Seed Milk Paint. Wax distress, layering, staining and more!
Dec 13: 9 am to noon     Mar 28: Noon to 3 pm
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Chalk Paint Fabric & Upholstery
First time offering. How to update your look at home using Chalk Paint on fabric and upholstery -- leather, damask and more!
Jan 24: Noon to 3 pm
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Studio Time: $25 per hour by appointment. Rate adjusted per person if more than one. You purchase materials to use from TLC Vintage. Tutoring or project oversight. We also do custom  painting.
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Girls Night Out! Pinot & Paint Therapy!
Put together a group of friends and spend 3 hours in the studio painting finishes you choose. Cost dependent on materials used but generally minimum of  $300 for your group up to 6-8 people. You bring the wine, we provide the cheese and paint! Dates/fees negotiable.
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Class Size & Cancellation Policy: We maintain the right to refund your money or arrange for a different date if we do not have the 3-4 people necessary  to make a class viable. If you are ill or weather prevents travel, you may reschedule to another date within six months of the date you originally scheduled. If your plans change, we need a two-week notice before the class date if you want to be rescheduled. Under two weeks, there is no refund but if your spot is filled we will allow you to reschedule. Otherwise, your fee is forfeited.


TLC Vintage Collection
7518 Hickman Road
Windsor Heights (Des Moines) IA 50324
Telephone: 515-276-1577 (shop)
M-F 10  am to 5 pm  Saturday 10 am to 3 pm
Closed for federal holidays and Sundays

Decoupage and Craqueleur on Glass!

Ever take photos with a great intent to do something with them.....then month's later something reminds you that you never got it done! That's what happened this morning when some ladies on the Annie Sloan Q & A Facebook page started discussing use of Annie Sloan's two-part Craqueleur! And here are some photos I did as I used Annie's products, including Decoupage medium on some glass sofa table inserts.

These were brown colored glass inserts and I really didn't like them. So I decided to decoupage old music to them.

First, I used the insert itself as the pattern to cut the sheet music to the right size with an exacto knife.

Next, apply Annie Sloan's Decoupage medium to the top side of the glass, then carefully place the music on top and gently work it flat with your fingers getting any bubbles out. I love this fluffy light product of Annie's as it is so much finer to work with than some of the decoupage mediums that are found in most craft stores.

Note: With Decoupage and Craqueleur, you may want to designate specific brushes to these uses. They will clean up with soap and water, but I just use inexpensive chip brushes. They never feel quite the same after using these mediums, so you do not want to use one of your better brushes.

After you have applied the paper you need to wait until the decoupage medium is totally dried before going onto the next step. We do not need to apply Decoupage over the music because we will be applying Annie Sloan's Craqueleur to these pieces instead.

When you are sure that your piece is thoroughly dry (maybe a couple hours, depending on how thick you applied the Decoupage medium), you can proceed.

Step 1 of the Craqueleur is runny and white. But it will dry clear and is like a varnish when dry. It creates a hard clear base for Step 2.

As soon as Step 1 is dry to the touch, bring on Step 2. Step 2 is a stickier medium and slightly yellow. You need to put enough on so that it will develop cracks. The reason crackle mediums sometimes fail is that too little is used. However, a thick coverage will result in wider, larger cracks. On this piece I wanted finer lines to develop -- so it is a matter of experience and practice to apply enough without applying too much. Don't you love the inexactness of that explanation!

After applying Step 2, you can let it air dry and cracks will develop. But I am the impatient sort, so I use a hair dryer to speed things along! The trick is to hold the dryer about 4 inches away from your piece so you don't blister the Step 2 medium.

I never tire of seeing the cracks develop as I move the dryer around! I hope you can see the fine cracks below.

To set off the cracks better, just brush on some Dark Soft Wax, then wipe off the excess as usual with a lintless flat cloth. You can also use Annie Sloan's Clear Soft Wax tinted with some Chalk Paint® by Annie Sloan. Another option is to mix a little metallic Gilding Wax with mineral spirits for a wash that you paint on and wipe off.

These four glass inserts with their new look were then put back into place on the sofa table. The sofa table was painted with Graphite then Old Ochre. After Clear Soft Wax, the piece was distressed and finished off with Dark Soft Wax. It is a popular piece in our shop and we display knobs and handles on it!

Stenciling with Dark Soft Wax by Annie Sloan

Here at TLC Vintage Collection, Central Iowa headquarters for Chalk Paint® decorative paint by Annie Sloan, we are always looking for new interesting methods of using Annie's products. This week we found a parlor table that we had painted with Country Grey was a little too simple in its look. What could we do to make the top more interesting?

There is some wonderful carvey parts at the top of the legs, which I planned to accent with Dark Soft Wax, But I wanted something to carry that color to the top and change it up a bit! I love lace and doilies and immediately turned to my stencil supply, looking for a large Lace stencil by Royal Design Studio.

The entire table had already been waxed using Annie Sloan's Clear Soft Wax, wiping back the excess as we went along. However, we did not buff it,  because now it was time for a bit of magic!

We lightly taped down some edges using Frog Tape and pulled out a little shoe polish brush we like for small jobs. It was just stiff enough to work well. Unlike stenciling with paint or stencil cremes, we did not stipple on the wax. We did however use very little wax on the brush -- almost like we would when dry brushing with paint -- a little goes a long way!

So instead of the usual pouncing with a brush, we gently drew the brush lightly over the stencil. This just lightly changed the color of the exposed surface area. We also went slightly outside of the stencil so the "snowflake" like edges would show up on our table. Your stencil can be cleaned with mineral spirits and a soft cloth to remove the wax, then soap and water and rinse.

Don't you love gently lifting off a stencil to peek at your work? I do.....

Our final step is to let this rest and cure for several days before buffing or putting it out into the showroom. Our wax finish will not be fully cured for 20-30 days during the winter months when we have the heat working in the shop. A simple way to step up your game when dealing with one color!

Chalk Paint® Wash Tutorial

At TLC Vintage Collection, central Iowa headquarters for Chalk Paint® decorative paint by Annie Sloan, we like to keep adding and changing the finished pieces throughout the store. This gives inspiration to our shoppers who are looking for a new idea. Well, some of the ideas are not that new really, but are simple to recreate once you have an idea of how to do them. So today I want to share how we get this wash effect.

Garage and estate sales are an addiction. I had to replace my trucks brakes after only 30,000 miles because of my failure to roll on by when I see a driveway filled with furniture! Among my favorite pieces of furniture to pick up are Martha Washington sewing cabinets or tables. I've found three of them over the past three years and they usually sell like hotcakes without doing anything to them.

 

This one stuck around a little longer, perhaps because of the scratched surfaces, so I got around to painting it with Chalk Paint® decorative paint by Annie Sloan in Louis Blue. This was quick to do. Just washed down the piece with Dawn dish soap, rinsed and let dry, followed up with two coats of paint.

This is a sweet powdery baby boy blue shade but it left the piece flat and one dimensional. I remembered a Coco wash I did several years ago on a bedroom set that was very popular and did not remain with us long.

Washes are easy on small areas, and a bit more difficult to get right on large expanses. This is because it is easiest when you do continuous brush strokes and wipe offs -- more difficult the bigger the piece is. I used Coco because I learned long ago that Coco loves Louis Blue, as well as Antoinette and other pastels, giving them dimension.

Chalk Paint® is so rich and creamy and thick that I like to mix it with a little water for my wash. Then cover a workable area because you do not want the Coco to start drying before you drag it off.
The area of a drawer is really easy to work with, so cover the entire front.

I like to use wadded up cheese cloth to drag off the paint. It is porous and can absorb a lot of the paint. But you could also use any lintless cloth, like a piece of old soft tee shirt. Drag the fabric from one side to the other in one motion.

Painting and dragging should go with the grain of the wood. You can pull off all of the paint, so it just stains your underlying color or leave more of a streaked look, which I have done here.

In the end you have a mellow look that helps age the piece. After the paint dries you can distress or wait until after the first coat of wax to distress. We distressed edges, the carved part of the legs and the bends in the wood where it was turned and cut originally.

The wash with Coco is an alternative to using Dark Soft Wax to give your piece an aged look. When people see a cabinet door sample with this technique they often confuse it for a Dark Soft Wax finish. I believe this gives a softer look to the finished product once it is waxed with Clear Soft Wax.

Someone will discover this sweet piece in TLC Vintage Collection. It is perfect next to their couch as a side table to hide knitting projects in because the top is hinged with long deep compartments on each side. The drawers are perfect to hide pens, notecards, remotes or other things you want to tuck away.