Happy Monday!  Did you have a wonderful Easter?  I had such a great weekend with the family.  I had both kids under the same roof at the same time!  I just love when that happens.

Welcome back to our monthly Thrift Store Challenge.  To see all my monthly Thrift Store challenges you can check that out by clicking MY THRIFT STORE CHALLENGES.  This month, we (myself and some awesome friends) have all kind of exciting thrift store inspiration for you.  I will post the link to their blogs at the end of my page.  The rules are simple–take your item(s) from a thrift store and transform them into a cozy and warm home decor.  There was no budget on this challenge just make it budget friendly.  We are free to let our creative juices flow!

Well y’all…one day I was driving down the road and I notice items on the side of the curb waiting for trash pickup.  I pulled my car over to the side and took a look at the items.  They ended up in my car.  I know this isn’t a thrift store purchase, but it is like a thrift store item, someone’s trash.  Right?  I normally don’t go trash hunting, but when I see something right out in the open, I don’t hesitate stopping.  I feel what one person may consider to be worthless could make another one feel it to be highly valuable.

Here is what I found that day, an old concrete planter and inside was a little metal butterfly.  Both was not bad enough for me to throw to the curb, all it needed was some TLC.  The planter had a chip at the top and the butterfly was rusted.

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Let’s start with the planter

Freshing the look up with a little paint.  The planter had some dirt inside so I dumped it out and cleaned it real good.  I am painting the terracotta top black.  I took a plastic bag taping it around the bottom in case I get a little messy when I paint.

I gave the top band two coats of exterior black eggshell Valspar paint.

Removing the plastic.

I turned the pot upside so I can paint the body of the pot.  I turned it upside down so I can paint the bottom easier.  I gave it two coats with Simply Blue exterior Behr paint.

It looks white but it is a light blue.

Once the blue dried I took a sponge roller and the black exterior paint and dry rolled the paint onto the planter.  I rolled most of the paint off in the pan before rolling lightly on the lattice pattern.  Some came off on the other part of the surface, I sort of like the look so I continued.  Looks distressed in a way.

I added some polka dots to the top band that I painted black earlier.  I am using a round stencil brush tapping into the paint and pressing evenly to the planter.

I did one row at a time spacing my dots about 3 inches apart.

Second row I applied a dot in the center of the top row dots.

The last row same as the first row.

Let it dry.

I added two coats of polyurethane.

Here is the Before & After.  Doesn’t the before look like an ice cream cone?

Now the cute little iron butterfly.

Well, he will be cute.

I removed all the jewelry by taking pliers and raising up on the little wire holder.

I took the gazing ball and gave it a bath in ammonia and Dawn soap.

Since the butterfly was pretty rusty, I added a coat of Correseal.  Painting on the Correseal eliminates having to sandblast the butterfly.

After the Correseal dried I sprayed it with Black Rustoleum spray paint.

I replaced the white dingy glass stones with blue glass stones.  I placed them back under the wire and pinched the wire down.

Added the silver gazing ball back.

Not bad, right?  I got the glass stones at Dollar Tree and I had the paint on hand.  All it needed was a little TLC!

Here is the Before & After 

I will be placing the two great trash finds on our front porch this summer.

Pretty neat how someone’s trash turned out to be my cute little porch decor.   I don’t normally go trash hunting, it was right there for anyone to take.  I am so happy I came to it first.

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Be sure to check out my friends thrift store items!