New life for an old girl

I couldn't wait to share this project with you!  I bought this old cabinet a few years back at a craft show Mom and I were doing.  I had to rearrange the back of the truck several times to make room for it but it was worth it!  It WANTED to come home with me.  See, it's not my fault.  Really. Who am I to turn my back on the homeless?  :)

I'm not sure of her age but someone had replaced a few tiles on the top with whatever was lying around.  At least they tried to match the colors.  They didn't really match my decor unfortunately so it was time for them to go.  This picture is after I started removing the tiles.  Since I didn't know what was original to this piece and it didn't really matter since they didn't all match anyway, I didn't try to get them off in one piece.  Good thing.  Cause it wasn't happening anyway.

Ahhhh.....a blank slate.  I've been inspired by all the cool subway type signs I've been seeing on Pinterest lately so I decided to cut a piece of plywood to fit in the top and find a quote or something to put on it. I cut the plywood and gave it a base coat of a creamy color.  After that dried, I dry brushed a little white on.

I looked and looked and couldn't really decide on a quote so I decided to do the fruits of the spirit.  I arranged my words using PSE and printed them out using the reverse image feature.  The plan was to use a transfer method that I had seen on some other blogs. 

(As always at the Gibson house, animal support is very important to projects....)

All I had to do was trace the reversed images and a small indention would be left on the wood.  Ummm...right.  That doesn't work on plywood.  So, my mind set on making this work somehow, I cut out all the letters using my exacto knife, effectively making templates.  I traced the templates onto the wood and then painted them using a black craft paint.  Later a friend asked why I didn't just use my Cricut.  Ummmm...good question.  I'll get back to you on that.....

After a light sanding and a few strokes of a light stain, my sweet little cabinet has her top back on.  Good thing too cause the neighbors were starting to stare.  

I think she was worth the effort.  What do you think?