A Child's Picnic Table

I thought it was time for me to begin sharing some of my creative moments from the past. I would like to thank my mom, grandma, and aunts for sharing their creative ideas and genes. I know that my ability to enjoy crafting comes from them!

So here is a Christmas present I gave my niece last year. It started as a child-sized picnic table. I found someone locally who made the table for only $20! Can you believe that? So after cramming the table into my Diamante (look-alike Galant) I made it home and began to think of ways to decorate it. It sat in my garage for a few weeks before I even had any ideas. This is because I am partially a perfectionist and also lazy. Those two things usually force me to have to work last minute... but that is beside the point.

Now I wanted to decorate this table having my older sister in mind. Because really, she is the one I really wanted to impress. My niece was only one, and I knew that the detail work wouldn't really matter to her. So I remembered that
my sister always has liked designs and things my Mary Engelbreit. So that is what I based my decor on.

I first sanded the table so that it would not snag or cause any splinters. You don't want to go and hurt the recipient of the gift! I then started with a base coat. I actually spray painted the table white. This helped cover any darker spots on the table. I then painted the top of the table and seat bright yellow. I left the legs white because I didn't want to overload on the yellow. I penciled in their last name first before ever beginning to paint. This prevented any mistakes or problems with centering. I painted the letters in black, and then once dried I outlined with a black paint pen. Those things are amazing! They have such clean lines and really made the piece look nice. I then added little white dots on the letters, just to liven it up.

I added flowers to the upper right and lower left sections on the top of the table. This added some other colors and made the piece of like something Mary Engelbreit would do. I finished by added a black and white checker pattern onto the sides of the table. This was the longest part, but having a paint pen helped greatly. So there you have it!