The Vintage Dresser

Paper Mache Birdhouses & Box

2012-01-20T15:52:00.000-08:00

I've had these birdhouse shapes and a cupcake shaped box for a while now. So, instead of shuffling them from one place to another one more time, I decided to actually do something with them! I didn't get any pictures of the "before" of the one with the rounded roof. I haven't actually completed the peaked roof one yet, so I did get a "before" of it.

Just a plain old paper mache shape with a hanger on the top.

So, this is what I came up with. I love this vintage Valentine theme scrapbook paper, so I covered the front, back and sides with it. The layered "ribbon" design paper I used for the roof seemed perfect. It had all the colors that were in the Valentine paper. I cut a strip and then cut it in half and reversed one side, so the design would be going the right direction. There are "shadows" under each ribbon row, so now the shadows are on the "down" side on each side of the roof. I know---a little anal! What can I say?!

I poked some crinkled paper shreds in the hole in the front and perched a bird from a scrapbook assortment I had. I fastened a gold foil spiral to his beak to indicate that he's singing! Kind of hard to see.

Then I attached a butterfly from the same assortment as the bird.

And --- Voila! --- A Valentine birdhouse! Pretty cute, huh?

I still plan on finishing the other birdhouse, but I got involved with the cupcake box, so I haven't gotten back to it yet. As you can see from the unfinished back/bottom, this too was a natural colored paper mache shape. I had several of these and I think I painted the others and sent them to new homes, long ago.

I had just this one left, taking up room in my stash. I had a big roll of crepe paper out on my counter and when preparing to put it away, I realized that it would look like a paper cupcake cup if I kind of gathered it and wrapped it around the base!

First I covered the lower portion of the box with neutral paper and then the muffin top with cooking theme paper. I tore the lower edge to make it look like icing. I painted the "candle" and then put the crepe paper around the bottom. I pinch gathered and glued as I went, wrapping around the edge and to the inside. I also put it on the sides of the bottom of the box. I wrapped some sheer ribbon around the bottom to keep the "ruffles" from being undone.

And here we have a cute little cupcake box! I had one little piece of the sheer ribbon left, so I tucked in at the tip top of the candle flame to resemble "smoke"!

I think it turned out pretty good, considering I was just kind of making it up as I went along!

Now I'm working on a few magnets using tiny wooden "clip boards" that I found at the craft shop on clearance a while back. I just can't seem to resist a clearance sale, even when I have no idea why I need the item! That might be why I have sooooo many supplies to work with! LOL!

Thanks for looking and check back in again. I'll be posting about the clip boards.

Valentine Tags

2012-01-17T14:04:00.000-08:00

I know I mentioned creating more of the bird ornaments last time, but I seem to have gotten off track! I had a scrapbook sheet of vintage children, so I trimmed them out and created a few Valentine tags. These illustrations are supposed to represent children's clothing for sale in a catalog. The catalog number and price are included. I just thought they were pretty cute and I was inspired by some paper doll tags I saw in a magazine. I actually made a couple of those, too!

So, this is some of the supplies I gathered for this project. I have a box of manila tags that I got at an office supply store, so that's the base for these. I've added scrapbook paper, word embellishments, die cuts, punches and various misc. embellishments.

I've used papers that coordinate with the colors in the clothing and made sets of two. I've used a border punch on one of these and sprinkled metallic hearts and a cupid on the other.

The colors are different on these two, but they're kind of a set. The background paper I used on most of these is a sheet music design, so I've used a punch and made music notes to embellish with. One has a dimensional butterfly and a sparkly spiral . The flower on the yellow one is sparkly, which doesn't show in the photos.

Some of the girl figures are mounted with pop dots, to add dimension, and some are glued flat, with the embellishments attached with pop dots.

I've used phrases on each one which would make them fun to attach to a Valentine gift for a young girl.

They'd be sweet to use on scrapbook page, or just a fun addition to a Valentine card. They're a little addictive to make! Once I get started on this kind of project, I can keep going indefinitely! But I've moved on to something different now. I may come back to these later. You'll be able to see them and some more photos in my ToletallyPainted Etsy shop if you're interested.

Thanks for looking!

Another Stash Item Eliminated

2012-01-14T13:38:00.000-08:00

I mentioned in my last post that I had a kit I'd been shuffling around for quite a while. I hadn't even really looked at it closely enough to realize what it was. Lo and behold, it was a kit of everything need to make a set of 5 all occasion cards! I thought it was just misc. supplies!

So, I sorted it all out, and started creating cards. There isn't much to it when everything is cut and punched and pre-matched for you! This one is a Valentine card.

And here's the finished card:

This one is a "Just Because" card.

And here's the finished card:

Next we have a Happy Birthday card with fun stitched panel and embellishments.

And here it is finished:

Here is a "Family Is The Best Kind Of Friends"

And all put together:

And last is a "Friend" card:

I enjoy making cards but it usually takes as long to make one card as it did to do all five of these, with all the work already done! I have several Valentine cards that I've created, in my Etsy shop, Toletally Painted and also some in The Vintage Dresser shop, if you'd like to take a look.
I've gone back to the bird shapes and have been creating a few Valentine or "just because" ornaments. I'll be sharing those shortly---stay tuned!

Be Sure To Enter!

2012-01-13T09:00:00.000-08:00

Just dropping in with a quick note. Tania is having a give-away on her Little Vintage Cottage blog. You have a choice of items to choose from---very cute items, might I add?! Be sure to go check it out!

I'mmm Baacckk!!!

2012-01-09T17:01:00.000-08:00

Hello! I know----it's been forever since I posted anything (hanging my head in shame!). My dear daughter is making me look bad with all her manic crafting, so I've decided I need to try to create something . Not that I haven't been creating---I've been painting. But I'm still stuck on Christmas ornaments, so I thought that probably wouldn't be the best thing to be talking about now that Christmas is a (not so) distant memory!

So, I dug around in my cupboards a little and came up with these bird shapes. They're a little heavier than chipboard, so I'm not exactly sure how to identify them. I don't think they're wood--some kind of composite material. I have a whole bag of them, so this project is just a drop in the bucket when it comes to reducing my stash. But I'm kind of inspired, so maybe I'll do more with them.

Please forgive a couple of kind of blurry photos. If I stop to go take better ones, I may never get back here! So, here are some of the ingredients I gathered for this project. The bird, some kraft paper with a scrolly design on it. This was actually a brown paper bag that I acquired someplace where I shopped. I couldn't bear to throw it out. .

Also some crinkly paper shreds, spools, ink and a magazine that had an idea that inspired me. My project looks nothing like this, but it provided the inspiration to get started.

I intended to use a large spool that I had in my stash, but decided it was too short. It was large but kind of short and stubby! So I found a small, tall round paper mache box that I thought would be more in proportion. I used the kraft paper to cover the little box & lid and the front and back of the bird, using glue stick to adhere it.

I fastened a small nest to the top of the little box. but first I put some of the shreds on the lid of the box, to give the nest a place to snuggle into. I hot glued it all in place..

I then cut two wings from some corrugated cardboard that I removed the front cover from, so that the ripply corrugation showed. I inked it and used stickles type glittery glue in the ridges and glued it to the bird..

I also applied the glittery glue to most of the black designs on the kraft paper, both on the bird and box. I found a bouquet of little yellow posies that I fastened in the nest. Then I cut some egg shapes from a glittery cardstock yellow leaf stem and added them in among the flowers. Then I used a similar green sprig to add a little "greenery" under the flowers.

I inked the words "nest" and "fly" on the kraft paper and cut them out in little squares, which I attached to the front of the box and the bird. It's kind of hard to see, but I used the black butterfly from the kraft paper design, cut it out, covered it with the glittery glue, and attached it to the box also.

So, there we have a bird/nest assemblage. I used only things I had in my stash. I could probably craft for months without ever having to purchase a thing! Tania and I have that in common!

My next project is some greeting cards. I've had a "kit" stashed away for-EVER, so I got it out and am working on it now. I'll post some pictures soon, and try to be a little more active here than I have been lately. Now that the Christmas rush is over, I should have more time!

Happy belated New Year!

Vintage Doll Face Tutorial

2011-10-30T13:54:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the "Doll Face" tutorial!

Tania came to my (Mom's) house yesterday so we could stage a tutorial. She found a cute idea online, using these vintage doll faces. The one she found was Halloween themed, but we decided to do a Christmas/Winter theme, since Halloween has sneaked up on us unexpectedly! LOL!

I chose the 2nd from the left of this selection of faces. Tania used the one on the far right. It isn't plastic like the rest. It's canvas or a similar fabric that was molded in a form, I guess.

But before we started we needed a little "Christmas Inspiration". We found some Eggnogg flavored tea stashed in my cupboard, which provided the perfect Holiday ambiance!

Now we're feeling inspired, so next came the decision making process. What to do to embellish this cute face? Tania brought some crepe paper, doilies, sheet music, vintage Christmas wrapping paper, etc. I had vintage piano roll paper, glitter, buttons, gems, glue, tape, etc.

I decided to put a crepe paper ruffle around my doll face. I cut a length of white and red, each about 3 feet long, layered it with the red extending beyond the white and stitched a gathering stitch the length of it, on my sewing machine. If you don't have a machine, you can use needle and thread and hand stitch a gathering stitch.

I gathered the crepe paper by holding one of the gathering threads and pushing it along the length of the sewing thread, till I had an oval shape, the right size for the face to fit onto. I wanted the face to fit over the gathering stitch, so it would cover it.

Using hot glue, I adhered the face to the crepe paper.

In order to hide the edge of the face, where it attached to the crepe paper, I glued a length of vintage pink rik-rak which has gold threads woven thru it. You'll need to measure around the face you decide to use, to determine the length it will take for yours. You could also use lace or other sewing embellishments for this step. The idea is to hide the edge of the face.

Then I decided she had quite a receding hairline for a young lady, so I attached short strips of the pink rik-rak at the top of her forehead, to simulate bangs. Ah, yes---much better!

The inspiration piece Tania found was wearing a mask, since she was dressed for Halloween. Instead of a mask, I decided my little lady needed cat eye glasses. I formed them from gold glitter craft stem (pipe cleaner). It only took one stem to form the glasses. Determine how long you want them to be across the top, extending past the outer corners of the eye. Center that measurement on the craft stem, fold the stem down at each corner and curve it down, around and up to meet the top again, winding the ends around a couple of times and clipping off the excess. I used hot glue to fasten the glasses to the bridge of her nose, between the eyes.

I cut another length of the white and red crepe paper, about 1 foot long, and stitched it lengthwise, like I did for the ruffle around her face. (The one shown above isn't long enough---it's just to show what I'm talking about).

Gather the stitched pieces to fit under the chin and cover the bottom of her neck. Fold in half lengthwise, along the stitching.

Turn under each end and fasten with a dot of hot glue.

Turn with the folded sides underneath and glue the ruffle under her chin.

At this point, she's looking pretty finished from the front. But the back is kind of messy! So I cut an oval to fit on the back, where all the gathered raw edges are showing. You can see what I mean in a photo down below a ways.

I used a roll of crepe paper and squeezed it a little, into an oval shape which matched the size of the area I wanted to cover up. I drew around it with a pencil onto a piece of chipboard (lightweight cardboard) and some vintage Christmas wrapping paper, making the paper piece a half inch or so bigger all around than the cardboard.

I used a couple of strips of double stick tape to fasten the cardboard to the paper oval. (Oops, no photo!)

Then I clipped all around the paper oval, from the outer paper edge to the cardboard. I did this every 1/4" or so. I put a small bead of craft glue all around the cardboard edge, smeared it a little with my finger, and folded the edges of the paper over onto the cardboard. (Sorry--no photo again!)

I then cut a length of crepe paper about a yard long and stitched about 1/2" from the edge, the entire length. I gathered it to fit on the back of the oval, keeping the stitching inside the edge, so it wouldn't show when viewed from the finished side.

Here we have the decorated oval that will cover up all the gathered edges showing on the back of the doll piece.

I put short folded length of gold rik-rak at the top and glued it to the cardboard oval, than ran a bead of hot glue around the edge of the front piece and attached the decorated oval, sandwiching the rik-rak hanger between the front and back pieces.

I picked the cute paper to use on the back from this box of fun vintage wrapping paper that Tania found at one of the antiuqe/junque sales we attended this summer.

So, this is where we're at. I hung her up and pondered for a while and decided she needed something! But what?? I KNOW! GLITTER! What's a fun crafty project without a little glitter?!

I ran a tiny bead of white craft glue arount the outer edge of the red crepe paper and then dipped the glued edge into gold glitter. Just your regular old fashioned gold glitter- - nothing fancy! Just run a little glue, dip in glitter, more glue, more glitter, and so on till you work your way all around the outer edge.

Sorry, this photo is a little out of focus! That's what happens when you're holding your camera in one hand and trying to focus and click single handed! I put the glitter into a plastic dish that's made for this purpose. It has a spout at one end so you can dump the unused glitter back into the container.

You can probably see here that I also added glitter to the edge of the ruffle under her neck and attached a little red heart shaped jewel under her chin. Now she's done!

Looks like she's thinking "What are you looking at?????"

We started with the counter top all clean and uncluttered and this is what we ended up with! And I think I had picked up a few things at this point even! Typical! Any time I create anything I end up working in a little square foot of space with clutter surround me!

Here is the one Tania made, hop on over to http://littlevintagecottage.blogspot.com to see her tutorial to make one like this.

Nancy

Ruffles & Rust Antique Show!

2011-10-23T18:35:00.000-07:00

This weekend found my mom and I at the Ruffles and Rust Antique show in Monroe, WA. It's a 4 hour each way trip for us, but well worth it in our eyes! :)

Here are a few pics:

I have this exact same toaster and mine has been made into a lamp too! LOL!

Poor guy... I'm sure he's the hubby of one of the vendors... and probably did all the muscle work!

This young lady's shop was so adorable!

And she had some neat old ties repurposed into belts and such.

This star is made out of a toilet paper tube! cut it into sections and make a cute star!

We had a really great time! You can see more pics of the show at Little Vintage Cottage blog if you are interested!

The Long, Long Weekend Project

2011-10-04T13:17:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was a busy one. Tania has a storage shed at the side of her house that she had big plans for. And those plans included me (her mom) and her dad! If' you've read any of her posts on her blog http://oohlalacestmagnifique.blogspot.com , you'll know that we've helped her with several projects---especially her dad!

So, we started on Friday with the transformation of her storage shed into a "Garden Shed". This is the inspiration she was working from:

Friday morning Tania got busy cleaning out her shed. You'll be able to see what she had crammed in there by looking at her blog http://oohlalacestmagnifique.blogspot.com . Not much-----just enough to fill a small pole building!

She had purchased pegboard, so the measuring and sawing began! Fred (dad) had volunteered to add a window so she'd have some light. Back behind this bush is where they decided it should go. Maybe Tania will have a picture after she pruned the bush a little, so you can actually see the new window.

At one point during the window installation Fred asked us to get him a finishing nail. We're digging around looking for what you would assume would be a small headless nail, but he goes "No, no---it's this one", and pulls out this spike from his nail collection! He needed something to hold the window in a certain position and the "finishing" nail was the perfect size!

There was lots of measuring, marking and sawing taking place over the next few days. We never got a really early start any of the three days, which explains why it took 3 days! We worked till it got too dark to continue each day.

I think this is day three below! We're getting close!

Tania painted a couple of metal shelves to put back into the shed and Fred was working on building a base for a table top that Tania found at a yard sale a few weeks ago.

This black bench was one Tania already had. We moved it into the shed and she started taping off areas to paint. Each painted area will be a place to hang various tools and garden supplies.

The red took several coats. The green was THICK old paint, so it went on pretty heavily!

Look at that cute window! It's amazing how it lights up the interior of this small space!

From inside, looking toward the door.

Red and green shelves in place and the bench at the end---the one Fred built a base for. The top is a vintage long narrow formica covered metal counter top. It sits down onto the base and can be removed, making it a little less heavy to move around.

Here we are at dark on the third day---pretty much done with the carpentry. Now Tania gets the fun of trying to fit everything back into this space that she took out! She'll be showing us how that comes along on her blog.

These were the supervisors during this project. As you can see, they have become bored with the whole thing and found other things to occupy their time---chewing & sleeping!

Nancy

Fun at Bill's Berry Farm

2011-07-03T22:10:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Tania and I went to an outdoor antique show at Bill's Berry Farm. They grow blueberries and several varieties of tree fruit. Right now, blueberries and cherries are in season, so they have the antiques in conjunction with the blueberry & cherry festival.

Their grounds are lovely and they have all kinds of fun things going on, including pony rides in a train made out of barrels, a petting zoo, playgrounds & a treehouse! These cute guys greeted us at the entrance!

So there's plenty to keep kids entertained and of course, the antiques keep mom's entertained as well! Since it was held on the Fourth of July weekend, there were lots of red, white & blue patriotic looking displays.

This one even had patriotic candies! Yum!

This booth had lots of fun goodies and original ideas for using collectibles.

Here you can see the cute little train made from metal barrels. It's the cutest thing and the kids had smiles a mile wide. They were using a 4 wheeler to pull it around and through the fields.

More booths full of goodies.

Here's Tania digging thru a box of goodies. We called this booth the $5.00 booth. The owner didn't have anything marked and whenever we asked her what the price of something was, she said $5.00! We talked her down a dollar or two on a couple of items, tho.

There were several pretty excited dogs on the grounds.

You had to be careful not to stumble over them!

These enterprising little girls had quite the business going on! We bought some licorice sparklers from them. (Red licorice with the end coated in frosting & red, white & blue sprinkles). They were too cute in their little booth!

I actually bought a couple of items this time! A cute apron and an old baby scrapbook--unused. I don't have pictures yet, but Tania has posted pictures of her finds on her blog, if you'd like to take a look. It was a fun outing and we've decided to add it to our list of annual "must-attend"events!

I hope everyone is having a fun and fantastic Fourth of July weekend!

Nancy

The Burlap Revolution!

2011-05-27T11:30:00.000-07:00

I'm a little slow getting around to talking about the antique show Tania and I went to last Saturday (not yesterday---a week ago!) . But I have a few minutes now so here goes------- Tania came to my house about 7:00 A.M. 7:00 is the new 6:30 A.M. in Tania's estimation! LOL! But it was early enough. We set out for the 3-1/2 hour trip to Snohomish, Wa. The last few years they've been having an outdoor antique show in the old downtown area. There are several antique shops there as well as gift shops & boutiques. It's a fun place to spend a day. And even more fun when they have the 3 blocks of downtown barricaded and people selling their wares in the middle of the street!

The weather was a little "iffy"--it tried to rain on the parade. But finally it got over that and was a pretty decent day. At least heat wasn't an issue! I wore capris and flip-flops and my toes got a little chilly!

There were lots of booths full of charming vintage/retro goodies. We saw several cute things people had created that make you think "why didn't I think of that?!".

Lots of pretty plants everyplace! Snohomish is on the wet side of Washington state and everything is always so green and lush over there.

But the thing that really caught my eye was how many uses we saw for burlap!
Burlap here:

Burlap there:

Burlap everywhere! This is the year of burlap! It's pretty cool looking. I actually have more pictures, I think, but Blogger is giving me fits at the moment, so I'm going to give it up. Maybe I'll be able to add more pictures later.

I hope everyone's having a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. We just had a little downpour, but now it looks like the sun might make an appearance. Fortunately we took flowers to the cemetery earlier.

Nancy

My Newest Creation--Funky Chicken Mirror

2011-05-03T11:54:00.000-07:00

I wanted to share my latest creation. I painted these cute chickens and daisies on an Ikea mirror. I find these at yard sales, thrift shops, etc., usually for $1.00 or $2.00. They're a great painting surface and sooo many designs work on them. I have another one in my Etsy shop now if you want to take a look. This is an adaptation of a Shara Reiner design. She's one of my favorite decorative artists.

I've been trying to get some spring things painted. I'm not sure if this really looks "springy" with the black background, but it really makes the white chickies pop!

I did a spring design a few days ago that's really bright and cheery. It's also in my Etsy shop.

For my next project I have a Terrye French design transferred to a photo frame. So I guess I'd better go to my studio and get paint on my fingers!

Hope everyone's having a great week. Maybe you have spring where you are? Sure hope so!

Happy Mother's Day--Soon!

2011-05-03T11:02:00.000-07:00

It doesn't seem possible that Mother's Day is just a few days away! Easter's over---time is flying. And still it isn't spring here yet! I'm sooo tired of rain and wind.

I've been making Mother's Day cards to put in my Etsy shop. Here are the last three I did. I could do more, but I'm running out of time and let's face it-----they aren't selling like hotcakes! LOL! But I enjoy making them. And I love working with vintage images. There are others in the shop if you want to take a peek.

I use photocopies of vintage postcards, cards, misc. images that can be found all over the internet. Just be sure they're copyright free! This is the inside of the floral one above. These little girls are probably all dressed up for a special occasion------like Mother's Day! Altho, I think Mother's Day is a relatively new holiday, in the overall scheme of things. I'll have to do some research on that.

Inside: I love this sentiment.This image cracks me up! The little girl here looks a tad demented! LOL! I'm sure she's thinking "Hands off---they're mine, ALL MINE!"
Inside

Now---back to that research on Mother's Day. This is what I found. Some may already know this, but some may not:

Julia Ward Howe, who wrote the words to the Battle Hymn of the Republic, suggested the idea of an International Mother's day to celebrate peace and motherhood in 1872. There were many other women who were active with local groups holding annual Mother's Day remembrances, but most were more religious gatherings and not the holiday that we know today.
Julia Ward Howe first championed a day to celebrate peace and motherhood in 1872.

One of the women, who was working on establishing Mother's Day as a national celebration was the mother of Anna Jarvis. Mrs. Jarvis held an annual gathering, Mother’s Friendship Day, to heal the pain of the Civil War. After she died in 1905, Anna campaigned for the establishment of an official Mother’s Day to commemorate her mother.

"Miss Anna Jarvis was as good as her word. She devoted her entire life to the struggle to have Mother's Day declared a national holiday. In the spring of 1908, Anna wrote to the Superintendent of Andrew's Methodist Church in Grafton, West Virginia, where her mother had taught Sunday School classes for over 20 years. She requested that a Mother's Day service be held in honor of her mother.

Thus, the first official Mother's Day celebration was held at Andrew's Methodist Church on May 10, 1908, with 407 persons in attendance. Anna Jarvis sent 500 white carnations to the church in Grafton. One was to be worn by each son and daughter and two by each mother in attendance.

Another service was held in Philadelphia later that afternoon where Anna resided with her brother. Anna had requested that the first official service be held in Grafton, where the Jarvis family had lived so much of their lives and where her mother had served for so long as a teacher and public servant." ( Mother's Day Shrine.org)

Anna Jarvis' campaign is the reason we have a formal holiday. In 1914 President Woodrow Wilson declared that Mother’s Day should be celebrated as a national holiday on the second Sunday in May.

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Well, that's the history lesson for this post! I hope all you moms out there have a wonderful Mother's Day!

Easter Chorus Line

2011-04-09T16:18:00.000-07:00

These are my latest creations. I found the cute little egg shapes with feet at Hobby Lobby. They were already painted blue & lavendar---no chicks showing yet. I had seen a cute design of a chick popping out of it's shell in the latest Crafts 'n Things magazine. It was painted on a round candle, but I thought these eggs were the perfect surface, so I grabbed the best of the few that were left. They were in the Easter 1/2 price aisle and pretty picked over. I figured three were enough anyway. I really don't care too much for painting the same design over and over. So here's my Easter chorus line. They look like they should be kicking their feet in the air, don't they?! LOL!Here are a couple of closer shots: And here's a butt shot! Woohoo!!! These are listed in my Etsy shop. If you go to peek, be sure to look at the hawk I painted, too. I think he turned out pretty good. I can't find the photos of him right now to post on here--sorry! And he lacks the Easter "vibe", too. He looks like he might have these chicks for dinner!

These next pictures aren't something I created. Tania and I found them at an antique show we went to a few weeks ago. She decided not to get them, so I jumped in and grabbed them. And was even able to dicker with the lady and get them for a little less than they were priced----which really wasn't too high to begin with. But I figured what the heck---the worst she'll do is say "no"! And she didn't so I was a happy camper! I just think they're the cutest little snack plates EVER! The flowers are decals and the paint on each one is all crackled. Some people would put them back on the self because of that but I think it adds the perfect touch of shabby-chic-ness! You'll probably be able to find them in our Etsy shop soon.

April Fools Day Fun & Frolic! - - - OR - - - Way More Than You Wanted To Know About April Fool's Day!

2011-03-31T15:06:00.000-07:00

Happy April First!

Wouldn't you love to walk into your office and find that your workmates had "redecorated" for you?! This cracks me up! I'd be afraid the boss would deduct the cost of the post-its from my pay! I've been doing a little research and found some info about April Fool's Day traditions. And lots of ideas for stupid tricks to pull on people! LOL! I'm not really much of a practical joker, but they're kind of fun to read about.

Giant Jokes:

While you may enjoy fooling family and friends, large companies and the media are not immune to the irresistible urge to pull a fast one on the public. The year was 1957 and the BBC news reported that the spaghetti crop in Switzerland would be huge due to milder weather and the spaghetti weevil’s demise. Photographs of spaghetti-draped trees being harvested by Swiss farmers prompted viewers to call in and ask where they might purchase a spaghetti tree.

Taco Bell, the fast food chain of Mexican fare, claimed they purchased the liberty bell and would rename it the Taco Liberty Bell. The indignation of the American public was felt when people began calling the National Historic Park of Philadelphia.

Press secretary, Mike Curry, continued the hoax by adding that the Lincoln Memorial had also been sold and would now be called the Ford Lincoln Mercury Memorial.

Burger King is another fast food chain that enjoys playing pranks on the American public. The company took out a full page add announcing the left-handed whopper. More recently, the company surprised customers ordering whoppers that the popular sandwich had been eliminated from the menu.

In the year 2000, a press release announced that New York City’s 15th annual April Fools day parade would begin at noon on 59th Street. The theme would include brutality, corruption, and incompetence. Two news groups, CNN and a FOX affiliate sent reporters and camera crews to the site. All was quiet on 59th Street at noon and the news reporters realized they had been had.

Fish?

Any kind of April Fool’s prank can be called an April Fish, but often it is a very simplest prank, consisting in the attempt to attach a piece of paper cut in the shape of a fish onto someone’s back, without that person noticing. When after some time, during which the victim is the unwitting butt of the joke, he or she finds out, everyone shouts “April Fish!” Traditionally, a real dead fish was stuck onto the victim’s back, with the intention that he would eventually notice it by its smell.

The name “April Fish” is also applied to the victim of the joke. The idea is that an April fish is a very young fish, and thus easily “caught”.

That kind of explains all the strange photos of people and fish!

So, in the spirit of the "holiday" we'd like to suggest a trip to the Bates Motel-----they love company!

Birthday Weekend

2011-03-21T17:00:00.000-07:00

Saturday was my birthday. We were gone all day, so Tania asked us to come down on Sunday to celebrate. We went to her house where she presented me with this cute magnet board, a card she made and a gift certificate to Craft Warehouse! I love Craft Warehouse! :-)

It isn't a large chain craft store, but they do have several stores in Washington and as craft stores go, it's one of my favorites. In the Tri-Cities there's Craft Warehouse, Michael's and a new Hobby Lobby all within a few blocks of each other. So when you want to go craft shopping you can almost park in one spot and hike to them all! LOL!

If you do go to all of them it can turn into an all day affair, tho. So I usually pick one and concentrate my time and money there! Isn't this a cute card? Tania repurposed a vintage birthday card, creating an adorable "new" one. She put the cute images onto new cardstock and added some ruffled crepe paper and buttons to create a sweet hand crafted card. She's done a few more that she's offering in her Etsy shop, here, if you want to take a peek.

And the magnetic memo board is the perfect place to display it! It's easel style so it stands wherever you've got a little spot for it.

I'm working in my craft room as we speak, trying to clean off my counters a little to make space. It seems like every time I step into that room I end up with every flat surface piled high! I don't know how that happens because I try to clean up after myself! I think there are gremlins in there creating havoc when I turn my back! It can't be me!! LOL!

Tania and Sydney (granddaughter) also took us out to dinner, YUM, so I had a very nice weekend and now I'm done having birthdays! One can only turn 39 so many times!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

2011-03-17T18:44:00.000-07:00

Just a little behind schedule but, better late than never---right?

I hope everyone had a pinch free St. Patrick's Day!

The Mannequin & The Chefs (Oh, And Some Chalkboards!)

2011-03-11T11:06:00.000-08:00

Believe it or not, I was actually able to drag myself away from Etsy computer stuff for a while a few days ago and create some things! I've had a collection of vintage photo folders stuck away on a shelf forever, just knowing that I NEEDED them! Didn't know why, just felt it in my bones! LOL! You know how it is---as soon as you decide you DON'T need something and dispose of it, you find the perfect project and kick yourself for getting rid of it!
I saw the idea for these at a flea market or antique show a while back and filed it away in my head (well, actually on a piece of notepaper that I ran across while sorting through "junk"), but anyway, I did remember what the scribbled message to myself meant! Amazing!
These folders didn't have photos in them any more, so I used some lightweight cardboard and painted it with chalkboard paint, to take the place of the photo. After allowing the paint to cure and seasoning it with chalk, I placed it in the folder. I had to tack it with a spot of glue on the lower corners so the top, frame layer would lay flat. And----VOILA----cute little chalkboards! Wouldn't these be fun on a desk, shelf or counter? Leave messages for your family or just print a phrase or sentiment you like. I have them listed here and here.

On to the next project. I haven't painted anything for a while and my Etsy shop really needed something new and non-seasonal, so these chef clothespins fit the bill. One of these is 9" tall and the other 6" tall and they'd be perfect to use while you're cooking to keep your recipe card in sight and safe from splatters (hopefully!). So now they're in my shop waiting for just the right person to come along and NEED them!
I've had this jointed artist's mannequin sitting around---another one of those things you know you need, but don't really know why! I found him at a yard sale for a quarter, so I couldn't pass him up! I thought it would be fun to include him in my photo session for the folders and chefs. I used to have photo sessions with my granddaughter till she decided that wasn't fun any more! Hmph! But this little jointed guy doesn't complain, no matter how I bend and twist him! LOL! He's like a little wooden Vanna White!
He seems to have an attraction to the chef. Maybe because they're both made of wood?!"Don't worry, I won't let anything happen to you!" Uh, oh! Could this be a kidnapping?! I wonder what he'll want for ransom---toothpicks? LOL!OK, that's enought nonsense for this morning! I need to figure out what my next project will be. I spend way too much time sitting at this computer it seems, but for some reason I don't seem to get very many things posted here! My New Year's resolution is suffering. :-(

My Swap For All Seasons Project

2011-02-26T15:00:00.000-08:00

In January I signed up to do an exchange arranged by Linda on A Swap For All Seasons blog. Our assignment was to create a 5" X 7" fabric collage. Just a small, simple, sweet swap. And we had till Feb. 16 to get it done and in the mail.

Well, being the procrastinator that I am, I began working on it around Feb. 14! LOL! I had this idea in my head but wasn't really sure what the completed project was going to look like. I started digging around in my fabric stash, lace stash, trimming stash---you name it!

But before anything could proceed, I had to undo some re-arranging I'd done at Christmas time to make room for all my Christmas decorations. I'd hidden my sewing machine in the closet so I could use the table it resides on. I'd moved my monster Christmas cactus there, so I tenderly moved it back to the table it usually lives on. It's got several buds on it and all you have to do is rustle the air around it to cause it to abort all it's buds!! It's one finicky plant! But I managed to get it moved and there are still buds clinging to life, so hopefully they'll survive!

So now that excuse--no sewing machine--is no longer valid and I have to get started on this project!

I've had a cute remnant for quite a while, with sweet little fairies & flowers, that I wanted to use somehow in this project. And someplace I'd seen a sweet collage with "curtains" on the sides. So, with that idea in mind, I dug in and this is the finished creation:
I ironed stiff interfacing to the back of the fairie and trimmed out around her. I had a piece of pink/peach chenille that I used for the background and cut some white satin for the "curtains".

Some lace at the top, some lace at the bottom & some rick-rack top and bottom. I cut one of the butterflies from the fairie fabric, stiffened it the same as the fairy and cut out. It's attached at the lower right corner. I had some crumpled silk ribbon that I used behind a pretty paper flower from my scrapbooking stash, in the upper left corner, along with a length of ribbon with the word "celebrate" on it. Then I made a rosette out of some white trim and put a pink pom-pom in the center of it, for the lower left.

Now that I'm reviewing the swap blog, I'm thinking I might have given this a little too much of a finished appearance. I guess I just can't help myself---sorry Deb!

I wanted to provide some way for Deb, my partner, to hang this concoction, so I fashioned my own hanger from some wire I had on hand. It really should have been a heavier weight of wire because it's a little flimsy, but that's what I had, and time was winding down!

I enjoyed this project and sure hope my partner does, too. I actually got it mailed one day early!

Another Valentine Tutorial--Paint Chip Note Pads

2011-02-07T14:52:00.000-08:00

I ran across this idea, or maybe Tania brought it to my attention, on the internet someplace and just had to give it a try. It requires paint chip strips that you find anyplace where they sell paint that provide choices of colors for you to pick from. All the paint sellers within a 50 mile radius of my home may be wondering what became of all their pink and red paint chip cards! Are there really THAT many people painting rooms red and pink???!!! No - - I pilfered them for my own devious purposes! HaHaHaHaHaHa (interpret this as one of those devious theatrical laughs while rubbing one's hands together in glee!!)

So, here you see a collection of supplies needed to create paint chip notepads. Paint chips, of course, note pads which you probably have an abundance of (I know I have stacks of them stashed in drawers every place!) ruler, bone folder, stapler & paper cutter(last 2 not shown) or scissors. The pink heart scrapbook paper is just for an attractive backdrop. Make a crease on one end of the paint chip about 3/8 from the end & fold, using bone folder or your fingers. You'll see that one end of the strip has numbers and this is the end I used. That way, when you fold the strip over to form the pad, the names of the colors will be right side up. I got negligent on a few that I made and didn't notice I was folding the wrong end, so the names are upside down. Not a BIG problem, but it's nice to be able to read the colors.

After you've creased the short fold, fold the other end of the strip over so it will tuck under the short fold just a little bit. Just make a finger fold here--no need to use the bone folder.

Now you need to do a little measuring and cut some pieces of notepad paper to fit inside the folded paint chip cover. You want the pages to slip under the short folded end so you can catch them with a staple.

Here you see the folded cover.

And here are some pages I've trimmed out on my paper cutter.

And, voila!, here are the pages stapled inside the cover!

Now I have an assortment of little notepads ready to decorate.

Aren't they cute?!

I seemed to have a shortage of stickers or other valentine decorations, so I used some rubber stamps to add a little Valentine feeling to them.

I love this "Be Mine--Or Else" stamp!

The paint strips above were short ones. I also pilfered some longer strips, so I made these pads a little longer.

And since there was a little more room for a larger writing surface, I decided to make use of the decorative aspect of the note pads I was using. These pads were wide enough to cut down the center lengthwise & have 2 strips to use. I used the side with the floral design & words "shopping list" in some of the pads.

And in some others I used the other strip which had a butterfly design. I just used a couple of decorated pages and then cut plain sheets for the rest of the pages in the pad, to make the design pages go further. In the meantime, since the time I started this project and this point, I was able to pick up some cute stickers. (at Wal-mart, in case you wonder where I found them!) So I used some of them to decorate one side of these pads and stamped cute valentine images on the other side.

Now aren't these cute little buggers?!

They'd be fun to enclose with valentines, to use at places at a valentine party, something to enclose with items you sell, if you are an Etsy or eBay seller, hand them out at club meetings, to your workmates, you name it!! They're kind of addicting when you get started making them. They'd be a fun activity to do with kids--at Girl Scout meetings, etc. The ideas are endless!

Valentine Coffee Filter Mini Album

2011-02-04T13:05:00.000-08:00

I finally got around to making a mini album I've been thinking about for quite a while. Since Valentine's Day is just around the corner, that's the theme I chose. I used the beige triangular shaped coffee filters (not sure the brand), scrapbook paper, rubber stamps, fiber, and whatever misc. goodies I unearthed in my craft room!

I put embellishments on one page and on the opposite page left it unadorned. That way some photos or keepsakes can be added.

I used about four different design scrapbook papers that coordinated, keeping red as the color theme.

You may have noticed that I used copies of vintage Valentine cards and images as embellishments and scrapbook paper with the same kind of images. I love these old Valentines!

Here (below) I placed some photos of my cutie granddaughter (from a few years ago!) on the unadorned pages so you can get an idea of what I had in mind. The pages of this book are kind of small and the little school photos work out pretty well. Don't we all have a multitude of those laying around?!

There are 4 inside pages that have pockets formed by the coffe filters. The front and back cover don't have pockets. I've made 4 tags--one for each pocket. There's a place on one side to add another picture or memorabilia, and on the back is room for journaling. Here's a view from the opening edge.

There are red fibers attached to the end of each tag. Here's a view of the tags sticking out of the pockets. They do fit down inside the pockets further than this!

There's room for additional photos or journaling inside the pockets if desired.

Here are the 4 tags--the side where you can put a photo or memorabilia.

And here's the side for journaling or notes.

And this is the back cover. The front and back cover and some of the pages have lace at the opening edge. I bound the book with metal Bind-it-All binding and tied red fibers to the rings.

This was a fun project. There are lots of options for these books--different themes, embellishments, decorations! And they're so easy! It could be bound with the individual metal rings also. So---do you have some of these kind of filters taking up valuable space in your kitchen?? This is such a much more fun way to use them than for making coffee, don't you think?!

I have this listed in my Etsy shop if you don't want to tackle making your own!

Home Improvement At Tania's House

2011-02-03T16:32:00.000-08:00

Well, here we are in the depths of Tania's basement laundry room! The rest of the basement is finished but this is where the finishing stopped! It was kind of dark and dank and scary, so she decided that painting it white would probably brighten it up considerably. And she decided spraying the paint on was the way to go, since the ceiling is just bare rafters/floor joists, etc. We'd probably still be there painting the ins and outs of all those 2 x 4's without the sprayer! So, never having used a paint sprayer, she called on her dad and me (mom) to come help - - please, pretty please!!!

Here are a few shots of the "before". On this side of the room there was a workbench which she ripped out before we got there. She's going to put some free standing shelves there to store her eBay and Etsy merchandise on. The bricks are the chimney for the fireplace that's on the opposite side of this wall. Here we're looking in from the doorway into the room. She's got the windows (2) taped off & the washer & dryer pulled out. We took the dryer vent down but just painted all the pipes, wiring---pretty much anything in our path! LOL! Well----I say "we" painted but what I mean is Dad painted. Tania and I followed along behind with brushes and took care of drips and runs. In a small room like this it's hard to get back far enough to not be too close with the spray wand, so there were a few drips and runs!

This is the wall to the right when looking in the doorway. This is Tania's master bath! LOL! Her bedroom is down here and the only other bathroom is on the top floor, so a toidy in here comes in handy occasionally.

We spread some plastic around and dad got his protective clothing on. Plastic bag over his hair, then hat on top (???), jumpsuit, ear protection, knee pads, rubber gloves and plastic bags on his feet! Looks like he's ready for some kind of hazardous duty! LOL!

And the painting begins!

These are the supervisors! Pongo and Roxanne. Looks like Pongo's saying "Why do you get to be boss?"! And Roxanne's thinking "you little pipsqueak! I was here first!"

And here we are with white walls and ceiling. It really went pretty fast. We probably got actually started about 10:00 and were ready to take the sprayer back about 2:00 or 2:30. And that was with a short break to let things dry for a little while. Dad's doing some clean-up before we head out to take the machine back.

We also stopped at Goodwill to look for treasures while we were out. When we got back to Tania's, we had stew that she had simmering in the slow cooker--YUMMY!

There's Tania taking pictures of the "after". Where she's standing is where her storage shelves will be and she plans on hanging the cute pink light above them. The washer and dryer are still in the middle of the room. She wants to clean the floor behind them before moving back in place.

And something will have to be done about this bare light bulb. She won't be able to deal with that for long, I'm sure!

Here's the view of the other end of the room "after". Dad's headed out to take of his "hasmat" gear & there's a fan running to help with drying.

Look at those bright white ceiling beams! Sooooo much better than it was before.

Tania also has a post about this on her blog that you can check out her version of events if you'd like!

Tutorial--Valentine Game Box

2011-01-15T12:37:00.000-08:00

I've gathered together a collection of small jewelry or candy boxes for this project. Size isn't very important as long as they're not much larger than 3" X 4" or so. And smaller is fine. I also printed out some images of vintage valentines that I've accumulated. These are easy to find on-line, like this site. I measured my boxes and tried to get the images printed to sizes that would fit them.
You will need a piece of corrugated cardboard, large enough to fit inside the bottom of the box. I used my paper cutter to cut this piece. Just measure, cut the front and then flip over and cut on the same marks on the back. You may need to finish w/a pair of scissors, but it won't take much. Cutting w/the paper cutter eliminates crushing that scissors cause.

Glue the image to the cardboard. I used an antique brown ink pad and inked the edges of the piece (that hasn't been done yet in this photo--but should be done before you're ready to place the image in the box). I then used my Crop-A-Dile and punched holes in the image and thru the cardboard. A regular small hole punch would aslo work, as long as the hole isn't larger than the beads you intend to use.

The cardboard gives a little cushion so that the bead will roll into the hole. If it doesn't want to do that, use a pen or end of a paintbrush or something to kind of dent the hole a little to create a divet for the bead to roll into. Here you can see where I punched the holes. The image you use will dictate where you put the holes. You don't want to interfere too much with the design. I decided to cover the edges of my box, inside and out. You wouldn't need to do them if you had a box with a design or one you liked uncovered. I decided white was kinda boring, so I covered it. I used vintage music sheets. Old book pages or scrapbook paper would also be a possibility. I measured strips of paper to fit the edges of the box and used glue stick to attach them.

I also covered inside the lid of the box but didn't do the edges inside the lid. I thought it might make the lid fit too tight to remove and replace easily. I covered the top of the box with bits and pieces of leftover music sheets, using glue stick. You could use a solid piece if you have one large enough---I didn't without cutting up another whole sheet, so I used scraps. There will be decorations on top of this anyway, so it won't show much.

Next I found a piece of red card stock and tore a strip to fit across the box lid and down over the edges, attaching it w/glue stick. I used a heart punch for the red heart and then just trimmed out a piece of music paper larger than the heart, with scissors, since I didn't have a larger punch.

I used the brown distress ink around the edges of the hearts and the edges of the box. You can see that in one of the photos below.

I fastened the two hearts together using foam adhesive dots, to give them dimension. I used foam dots also to attach a piece of glittery trim I found to the top of the box. I put one on one edge, stretched the trim across and fastened it to another dot on the opposite side. Then I used foam dots again, to attach the hearts to the top of the box, centered over the glitter trim.

Since I had the music theme going on, and I just happen to have a music note punch, I punched some notes from black cardstock and attached to the top of the heart, along with a button threaded with a piece of string. I used a foam dot to fasten the button and glue stick for the notes. I would have used foam on them too, but the dots I had were too large and showed too much.

Now, don't ask me why I decided to go with the music theme, since it has nothing at all to do with the lamb-----I just like old music paper and I've got a LOT of it! The picture above is the finished project. Below you see the little lamb all tucked into the box with beads in the 4 punched holes. I just happened to have a bunch of these little beads. If you have larger ones--punch larger holes. Pearls would work also.So, there you have a cute little Valentine gift for a grandchild, for a teacher, for just anyone you want to give something a little special to. Go dig out those little boxes you've saved because you knew you'd need them someday and have fun!

I got the idea for this project here. It's a fun site to visit!

Cupid Is Waiting In The Wings!!

2011-01-14T07:13:00.000-08:00

Unlike my darling daughter, I haven't done a danged thing for Valentine's day yet. Heck----I've barely got my Christmas decorations put away! Actually, there are trees in my woodcutting room that I have yet to get stashed on the shelves in my garage! Tania, on the other hand, has been busy crafting goodies for Valentine's day. You can see the cute wreath she made here.

I do have a project in mind and plan on working on it today. I'll be taking photos and hope to turn it into a little tutorial. So stay tuned...............!

We had snow, then a Chinook wind came thru yesterday (and still blowing today) and now all the snow's gone, leaving muck & mud! But if it keeps blowing, at least the puddles will be gone before long. It blew one of my little decorative flags away, so as soon as it gets light I'll be searching!
Hope everyone's having a Happy New Year and busy doing your own Valentine decorating.

Happy New Year!!

2010-12-31T11:16:00.000-08:00

Here it is almost the start of another year----where did this one go????!!!! I'm going try harder in 2011 to post a little more often. I seem to have a problem with that! I read blogs about all the wonderful things women (mostly women, it seems!) accomplish and then they actually have time to take photos and post about their accomplishments! I think I'm doing something wrong! LOL! So, my resolution----and I usually don't make them because they're so easy to break----is to post more often. And maybe even do something worth posting about! Ha!

I hope every one has had a wonderful 2010, had a lovely Christmas, and will have a happy and fulfilling New Year!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

2010-12-25T07:18:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas to everyone!!!

Christmas Villages & Electrical Magic

2010-12-08T21:50:00.000-08:00

So----- I decided to put my Christmas village out this year! I haven't put it out for a couple of years. One year we were going to be moving almost in the midst of Christmas and the next year I couldn't figure out where in the heck to put it! We were going to be having guests for Christmas dinner and I expected to be using the bar area for a couple of people to sit and eat (kid's table).

I love having it all set up. Isn't it magical looking? But it can be an interesting challenge to get it set up without looking like an electrical project gone horribly wrong!! (see below)

Here we are with the houses all set out on their bed of "snow". I'm standing there gazing at this plethora or cords wondering how in the heck I'm going to hide them. Fortunately, I have a cord with intermitten plug ins, a power strip and packing tape to work with.
So, I strung cords hither and yon, taping as I went and before long I had them hidden under the batting and securely fastened in place. Well, at least I was hoping it was secure! Since it's been a couple of days and nothing has sprung loose, I think it's going to hold!

Here's a view of just the houses, arranged in the configuration that seemed to work best. I try to keep "stores" in one area and "houses" in another, to make for a realistic (?) arrangement. All the gibberish in the background is a little distracting in a photo. It doesn't seem to be such an issue in real life.

And here we are from the "back". You can see where quite a few cords come together on the right behind the jadeite bowls and glass jar. I need to figure out some way to hide that a little better. Other decorating has interfered with that one last detail.

Next, I added "stuff". I've got several "evergreen" trees that I arrange between the buildings, mirrors for rivers, and just lots of little odds and ends. That's what makes it fun!Lights out makes it look even better! LOL!Here are a few close up shots.Isn't it a sweet little town? I think I want to live there!

So, when that project was done, it was on to the next little village. Oh no!-----one village isn't enough! I have a collection of little cardboard "Putz" houses. I guess if I had to choose between the bigger village and these, these would win out. I-LOVE-THEM!!

I decided to open the desk in my secretary and arrange them there. It was about the only un-adorned flat surface left in the house! So, I made a "hill" with a cardboard box, covered the whole area with batting and started another electrical magic trick. I have two strings of lights twined around, with a light in almost every house. They have little holes in the back for lights to fit into. They came with cellophane "windows" that glow when they're lit. Some of the cellophane has gotten torn from people jabbing lights too far into the houses and poking it :-( But they're still adorable.

Standing on the shelf above them is an angel choir. Yes, this is yet another collection! And this is the tip of the iceberg! I have a house that Tania gave me for Christmas one year, that holds the rest of the collection. I still have to get that out and figure out where it's going to live.

Here's a shot of the secretary and my tree. This secretary belonged to my grandmother and her father gave it to her mother when they got married. It's been in the family for a while!

So, here's a view of the little houses, all lit and accessorized. Yes----I have accessories! Little trees, little deer, even little motorcycles!! LOL! That's my husbands influence. Fit right in, don't you think?!

Here are a couple of shots of ornaments on my tree. Almost everything on it is handmade, mostly by me. It's been an ongoing project for YEARS! It may not be a "decorator's" dream, but I like it!
Well, my decorating extravaganza is still in progress, so I'd better get busy. I still don't have lights up outside! I was going to do it today, since it's warmed up dramatically. But the wind is blowing 90 miles an hour, so I'm not sure if I want to risk getting blown away for a few lights! Hopefully it'll calm down soon.

Time to Choose the Winner!

2010-12-01T18:09:00.000-08:00

Drum roll please!!!

The winner of the CSN $35.00 as chosen by the Random Number Generator is #5... Rachel Crisman from meeyeehere, congrats Rachel and thanks to everyone for taking the time to enter!

Giveaway Time!

2010-11-24T08:24:00.000-08:00

I think it's time for a giveaway, what do you think?! I am a CSN Stores preferred blogger... know what that means?? It means that they have offered a $35.00 promotional code to use in any of their 200+ stores to the winner! Just in time for Christmas shopping!! If you've never heard of CSN Stores, it's a collection of over 200 stores to shop from, you can find anything from leather messenger bags to great cookware and everything in between!

All you have to do to enter is leave a comment on this post! We'll choose a winner on December 1st! So, leave your comment and then go check out CSN Stores to see what you'd like to buy if you are the winner of the $35.00!! Good luck!

I'm Still Here and Still Painting!

2010-10-31T13:41:00.000-07:00

Hi and Happy Halloween to everyone! It doesn't seem like Halloween--the sun's shining, it isn't raining, wind isn't blowing---definitely not Halloween weather around here! I have a few candies for treats but I'm not really expecting any visitors. We had a big fat zero last year, so I have no reason to expect anything any different. But you know that as sure as I didn't have anything to give to the little beggars, some would show up! LOL!

Do you remember the huge naked snowflakes I showed you the last time I did a post? The one's below:

Now they're no longer naked. Well, I should say they have faces now. No clothes, so I guess they're still technically naked, but I got them all painted and now I'm on to other projects. I think they turned out kinda cute!

I painted this Ikea mirror with a winter scene. It still needs to be antiqued and the horse needs another back leg (!!!), so there's a little finishing up to do, but it won't take long.Then I did these ornaments on various sized wooden tags. I glued old sheet music to the tag and then painted designs over that.

The angel has a dimensional collar also made from sheet music.So now I'm off to figure out what to start next. I think maybe some more ornaments. I have an order for about 5 personalized ones and I found some other cute designs, all of which I'll have to cut, so I'd better get busy! It isn't like I have a shortage of projects I could do. I have enough surfaces to last me another lifetime and the same amount of designs! It's just one of those "decisions, decisions" things!

Happy Trick or Treating!

Ruffles & Rust Antique Show

2010-10-29T20:55:00.000-07:00

Last weekend my mom and I made a day trip to the Ruffles & Rust Antique Show in Monroe, WA. It was a really great show! Pop on over to my blog to read about it and see LOTS of pictures!

Some Recent Creations

2010-10-17T10:54:00.000-07:00

I always have good intentions to get started early painting for the various holidays, but somehow they always creep up on me and I'm painting things at the last minute---well, last minute for sale on Etsy! But nevertheless, I have gotten a few things done and in my shop.

I did seven of these pins in three different designs. Why seven, you ask? Because I cut them out myself from scrap wood I had left from other projects and only had enough for seven!

Aren't they cute?! Well, I think so, anyway---so far no one else has fallen so in love as to actually purchase any of them! LOL!

Here's the whole gang:

I found this round plate at Walmart! It's perfect for adding a design to---already had the dry brushed looking background and leaves highlighted--PERFECT! So I added a Terrye French design. I actually took quite a few liberties with the design so that it would fit in the alloted space, but it started out being her design!

Someone did fall so in love with this as to purchase it!! Doing a happy dance here! I sent it off to it's new home yesterday.

The little guy below is one of half a dozen that I cut. They're all painted with fluffy looking fleece but only two so far have designs on their tummies. I put Halloween designs on two and put them in my shop. The others are destined to have more generic or maybe Christmas designs added. But I just loved this Jack-O-Lantern scene, so I did a couple that way. I added black wire for hangers and had a picture of both of them all done, but I can't find it now, so this pic. will have to do!

I was thumbing thru an old painting magazine trying to decide if I needed to keep it and lo and behold, there was a Halloween design for the big clothespins that are so popular now. Well, I just happen to have several of them, so one was sacrificed for this cute pumpkin design.

I love the eyeballs peeking out of his mouth! LOL! See the face on the pumpkin setting next to him? That is wood pieces I cut a few years ago and hammered nails thru each piece, so the face can be added to a pumpkin---no carving required! Just poke the nails into the pumpkin and he's good to go!

BOO!

I did paint another Halloween design a couple of days ago, but altered it a little so it's no longer "Halloween" exclusively. It can be Halloween/Fall/Autumn. Trying to make things a little more generic now that Halloween is right around the corner!

I left off the faces on the pumpkins. The picture below is the original design, with face. So, what do you think? Pumpkins without faces are just fall/autumn decorations, right? - - Just agree with me because my mind's made up! LOL!
So, now I've moved on. Well, except for one more of the pumpkin pieces that I have crackled and ready to put the design on (on the left if photo below). Last night I sat and watched "Mike & Molly" (after Three & 1/2 Men), and basecoated these huge snowflakes. They are destined to have cute snowman faces on them, so stay tuned.
What a mess, huh?! I can't do anything in my "studio" without it turning into a regular pigsty! I end up painting in a little square foot area when I have miles of counter space in there. I don't know how I do it and don't seem to be able to change my ways, so I just cope!

My House is Haunted!

2010-10-06T11:14:00.000-07:00

I recently saw a project in a magazine that I wanted to try. It was in the October issue of Country Living. They have several pages of simple decorating ideas and this one caught my eye. It's a bevy of ghosts made from white tissue paper honeycomb bells (the ones that unfold & you hang up for wedding showers or decoration), cheesecloth & black cardstock. They just looked so cute all huddled together in the photo! So I got some of the bells at the dollar store--2 in a pkg. for a buck! And I got a package of cheesecloth at the craft store for about $3.50. (I couldn't find any at the $1 store). I had the cardstock already. So, four ghosts for around $5.50.

All you do is cut some eyes and mouths from black cardstock & use sticky dots (from a scrapbook or craft store, which I already had) to stick them to the tissue bells. Measure how long it is from one side of bell, up over the top and down to the other side and cut a piece of cheesecloth that long. It's pretty wide, so you can cut that piece in half, width wise, and have enough for two ghosts.

Find the center of the cheese cloth by folding in half & then in half the other way & make a little hole by pushing the threads apart. Thread the string that comes on the bells thru the hole and drape the cheesecloth over the bells. I trimmed mine around the bottom so they kind of follow the shape of the bell, but you can leave them so they hang longer where the corners of the cheesecloth hang down--up to you! You can use the strings and hang these guys around, or just set them out someplace, which is what I've done.

I made these last night, so this morning I got out my bin of Halloween decorations and set up a little display on my buffet. On the left is a small Christmas tree that I spray painted black.

On and around the tree I've placed some other little ghosts I made several years ago. They're made from muslin stiffened w/fabric stiffener & shaped over a form I created. I painted evil little faces on them and voila! Ghosts!! I also hung a couple of black cats and "bat" ghosts I painted.

I received the witches boot ornaments in an exchange one time, so they're tucked in there, too.

On the shelf of the buffet is a row of ghosts, once again--something I painted several years ago!

I tucked some silk fall leaves around here and there and I think my display is complete. Of course, I have more decorations to set out here and there, so I'd better get with it! Halloween will be here before we know it!

My Painting Convention Projects

2010-09-29T22:24:00.000-07:00

It's been a while since I posted anything! Tania's been keeping up better. Love the bowl tutorial!
I went to a tole/decorative painting convention last week for several days and thought I'd show you the projects I painted. Some are done, except for varnish, and some need a few details yet.

This is a set of ornaments I did in a class with Trudy Beard. The little birds on the right need wings & eyes yet! These are puffy metal ornaments. This clipboard was done in a class with Rosemary West. I actually took 3 classes from her because I wanted to learn her drybrushing technique. The colors are a little bright for me, so I may put a little antiqueing over it later.

The first picture's a little blurry, so here's a close-up of the rooster. This fruit tray was another Rosemary West design. I'm debating about adding more detail or leaving well enough alone!

I'm kinda thinking I shouldn't mess with it any more. It's too easy to mess up a design by adding "just one more thing"!
This is another class with Rosemary West. Two tin ornaments. They need glittery details and there's one more thing I didn't notice till I was taking pictures. Do you see what it is?
Nope, not on this one!
It's on this one. Do you see it???? Santa's missing the cuff on his sleeve! It's so obvious now but when I was working on it in class and later in the hotel room, I didn't see it!

Below are the finished ornaments. I added a cuff and brush on sparkles. They really don't show much except to look like spots! They're on the hearts, roses,trees,cookie & all around the edges of both ornies.
This cute angel tray was a class with Shara Reiner. I love her designs! It still needs metallic gold around the edges of the tray but other than that, it's done.
So, I had a fun few days in Seattle at the convention which was put on by the Northwest Toleliners Chapter of The Society of Decorative Painters. A friend and I drove over and met another friend, Jill Paris Rody, who rooms with us every year and also teaches at the convention. Usually we have a fourth, but she was sick this year and couldn't make it :-( Five days flew by and we were on our way home before we knew what happened!
Now we anxiously await next year's event, which will be in Portland, Or., put on by the Raindrop Chapter. The two chapters in Seattle & Portland take turns hosting. They each do a fantastic job and the events are anxiously awaited by many decorative painters from all over the U.S., as well as foreign countries!

I'll try to post actual finished items, as I get them done. I need to get to it or they'll get lost in the shuffle and I'll never get them finished! Sadly, I have unfinised projects from previous years still waiting their finishing touches. Shame on me! LOL!

Shredded Paper Bowl Tutorial

2010-09-25T07:27:00.000-07:00

I made a couple of these little shredded paper "nest" bowls to sell in my new Etsy shop, The Little Vintage Cottage and I thought it would be fun to do a little tutorial for how to make them!

They were pretty simple, but messy! I actually found some similar one's in an old issue of Do It Yourself magazine, theirs were made out of colored paper which was cute too.

All you need is a bowl the size you'd like your finished nest bowl to be, plastic wrap, Elmer's glue, and whatever paper you want to use for your nest bowl.

I used my shredder to shred some old book pages. You can use scissors or a paper cutter too... but a shredder is SO much easier!

Then I used scissors to cut them into shorter pieces.

Wrap your bowl with plastic wrap and then place it on a piece of waxed paper. Mix up your glue... 2 parts glue per 1 part water. I just eyeballed this... you don't have to be exact. I used Elmer's glue because it's cheap, but most any craft glue will work too.

I started out with a little wooden spoon and put some glue on the bottom of my bowl.

I quickly discovered that it is just WAY easier to use my fingers. Just stick them in the glue and then tap them on the pile of shredded paper. The paper sticks to your fingers so you can easily stick it into the glue on your bowl! So, put glue on the plastic wrapped bowl, add a wad of paper, smooth it on with more glue on top.

Continue on like this covering the entire bowl... glue, paper, more glue, etc., etc.

You don't need to worry about placement really, just slap some glue on the bowl and add paper, more glue on top of that, etc., etc. until your whole bowl is covered! You need to have about 3 layers of paper built up for stability.

Let them dry for a couple of hours, when the outside is dry to the touch then remove the bowl and the plastic wrap and let the inside dry... overnight is best.

Here is what my finished bowls look like...

I left the edges of my bowls jagged, I thought it looked more like a nest that way, but you can trim yours if you like!

Aren't they cute!? You could use them as candy dishes, what-not bowls, etc.! This is a really easy project to do with kids too!

Junkin' is Not For Wussies!!

2010-09-11T19:58:00.000-07:00

I went to visit my parents last weekend and we took a little trip out to an old dump about 20 minutes from my mom and dad's place. It is out in the middle of some farm land. My mom had her camera and took some pictures... it is much better in person than it looks in these pictures, there was LOTS of stuff I wanted to drag home, but it'll have to wait for another trip!

I was on the hunt for old rusty bed springs and we found the mother-load at this place... this was sitting right outside the truck when we pulled up! So, some wire cutters, a hack saw, and a very patient mom and dad and we got a whole bucket full of them! There is a link at the bottom of this post to my blog where you can see what I drug home and what my plans are for a couple of them!

I know these pictures probably don't look like much, but there were treasures to be had here! Interesting pieces of old wood, old window frames, vintage glass bottles, LOTS of rusty things...

If you ever needed a rusty can for a project, THIS is the place to be!!

This is me trying to figure out what the heck this piece of wood is... it has little pulley looking things on either end. I took it home with me, seems like it could be used for an interesting curtain rod or something! I am also holding an old, rusty lampshade frame... took that home too!

This is what my dad was most interested in! Apparently he has been here before and gotten parts from it and someone else has been here since then and taken more... he was a little miffed about that! LOL!

The legs of an old wash tub sticking out of the dirt... I would have liked to have those wheels but we couldn't get them off without tumbling down a ravine.

Ok... this is just wrong... :( Who took this picture... did my dad get hold of the camera somehow!!!??? LOL!

Me again... holding up an old park bench. I wanted this one but both of the front legs were broken off.

This WAS an old bucket full of nails... the plastic bucket has just about disintegrated, but the nails are still standing tall like the bucket is still holding them up!

This is at an old abandoned place called The Young Ranch down the road from the dump. Actually my dad knows the guy who owns it, it was his father's or grandfather's or something. Anyway, this is an old barn that's on the property. It is FULL of neat old stuff... can't have most of it though without first asking the person who owns it... like HE needs all that stuff... Jeesh, he's a GUY, he doesn't even know it's desirable!! There are old porch pillars, rusty cribs, cool old boxes, windows, screens, screen doors, etc., etc.

This is me peeking longingly into the barn and my dad trying to figure out how to get the door open for me!!

This is a really beautiful old barn, but it's about ready to fall down... it's kind of sad...

If you'd like to see all the treasures I drug home, hop on over to my blog, Ooh La La C'est Magnifique!! We had a pretty fun time! My mom and I had itchy legs from walking through all the knee-high weeds in capri pants and my dad had cheet in his socks! LOL!

The Cutest Thing EVER!

2010-08-20T10:31:00.000-07:00

Last weekend (I know----I'm slow!!) Tania and I went to an antique show. It's held outside at an old farmhouse. They have a lovely setting in the yard around their charming house and every year dozens of vendors set up their booths and offer their wares.

You can go here (Tania's Blog) and read all about it & see photos. I didn't have my camera, so she was in charge of pictures! She's also posted about the cool nursery we stopped at, so check that one out, too. The post about the antique show will be the second one down.

I love to go to these events and shop but don't often come home with much. Probably because I already have so much "stuff" that I can't justify bringing more home! But this little guy was just sitting there on a shelf begging me to adopt him! How could I resist? He's soooo adorable.
He's on a little ceramic wall pocket with a really sweet little prayer. And the vendor was only asking $4.00!! So now he's at my house and I'm trying to decide where to hang him.
Have a great weekend!

My Shopping Experience with CSN Stores

2010-08-15T07:50:00.000-07:00

I recently posted about having the opportunity to review a product from CSN Stores . This company carries everything you can think of, including dining room furniture. Check out this cute retro dining set. I looked at barstools because I need a couple. Check this one out. It's got an airlift! Not the style I wanted, tho. This would have been more my style. I'd also like to find a nice footstool, or ottoman. This one's really pretty and has storage, too. Can't ever have too many places to stash "stuff"!
But, in the end practicality won out and I settled on what I really needed----an iron. I know that some people think ironing is an outdated concept, but I still feel the need to iron a few things I own. Some don't need it, but some just DO! So I ordered this iron.
I was very happy with my shopping experience with CSN Stores. The iron arrived very quickly.

It's a Panasonic 360 Quick multi directional iron. Which means it's got a point on both ends! No more having to turn the iron around to get the point into tight places. Of course, it's a steam iron, with the shot of steam feature and also a spray feature. It has a titanium coated soleplate and I love the futuristic look of it!

I hate my old iron. It has an auto shutoff feature, which is great. BUT, it automatically shuts off after ironing for 1/2 hour, even if you're right in the middle of ironing something! So if I didn't pay attention to how long I'd been ironing, it would be off and then it would spit icky water all over whatever I was ironing when I started it back up!! MOST annoying!

My new iron has the auto shut off feature, but doesn't do it while ironing. If it sets on it's hiney for too long, it shuts off. That's the way this feature should work! So, I got it out and gave it a trial run a few days ago.

Isn't it pretty?! I love it! (I know---I'm a little weird about irons!)It worked like a charm and I'm very pleased with it. Thanks very much to CSN stores for giving me this opportunity!

Chicken Wire Crowns!

2010-08-11T20:32:00.001-07:00

My mom and I got together over the weekend again for another tutorial to share with you, this time we played around with chicken wire and made crowns! We started out with these books for inspiration: Crowns & Tiaras and an older issue of Somerset Studio with gorgeous chicken wire crowns by Lori Oles.

Then I took a bag full of old laces and trims to play with.

And of course we had a little bit of this!!

The first thing you need to do is cut a piece of the chicken wire about 20" by about 5" tall (or taller if you want your crown to be really tall!)

You should either use the bottom of the roll of chicken wire which is smooth or cut all the wires close where the crown will sit on your head. See all those little pieces of wire sticking up on the top of this piece I've cut?? You don't want that scratching your head... see how I've cut them close at the bottom?? That's what you want!

It's kind of hard to tell in this picture, but you roll the wire so it will fit on your head and twist the wires to hold it closed.

You should end up with a circle like this. Now you'll want to trim the top of your crown so you have a point at the top. Trim off some of the circles so that it looks like a staircase.

Now my mom and I both wanted to paint our crowns... you could leave yours natural. It would be really pretty if you had rusty wire... then all you'd need to do is put a clear coat on top of the rust to keep it from coming off on your embellishments and your hair if you're going to wear your crown!

We just put ours in a box and sprayed them with regular old Krylon white spray paint... use whatever color strikes your fancy!!

Now comes the fun part! Note: if you are doing this project with children, you'll probably want to have up to this point finished for them so you can just give them a naked chicken wire crown and they can embellish to their heart's content!

I decided that I wanted a crepe paper ruffle along the bottom edge of my crown. My mom had this really cool old crepe paper with a pinked edge! To figure out how much I'd need, I laid the crepe paper around the front half of the crown and then doubled it. Then I cut another piece the same length as the first one for the back 1/2 of the crown. The only reason I did it in two pieces was because I thought it would be easier to gather up my ruffle with the delicate crepe paper if it wasn't so long.

I then set the sewing machine to the longest straight stitch and sewed right down the center of the crepe paper strip leaving long thread tails at both ends. Pull one of the thread tails on either end to make your ruffle. Pull gently and kind of push the crepe paper to help it along and so it

won't tear.

Now I tied the thread tails onto my wire and then tacked the crepe paper ruffle with a little bit of hot glue from the backside here and there.

Here is my crown with the new ruffle!

Next I added some vintage gold velvet ribbon to cover the stitching.

Mom used some tarnished looking silver tinsel trim and just wove it in and out and around the base of her crown.

Next she added a large pom-pom flower made from old tissue paper that comes out of sewing patterns! There are lots of tutorials online for how to make tissue paper flowers if you'd like to make one of these.

Then she added some sparkly silver ribbon from my stash, some tiny black pom-pom trim, a little leaf for her flower... because, well what's a flower without a leaf?! And a little piece of leftover curled florist's ribbon for the center of her flower! Cute!

Then she added some sparkly net to the top, with a pretty vintage button in the center.

She also decided to wind some vintage seam binding lace through the holes, above the tinsel, and added some pretty green velvet ribbon above that. She printed "It's Good to Be Queen" and "Domestic Diva" on the computer & aged it with distressing ink. She placed the "queen" quote inside a chipboard slide frame that she first stamped with script, and clipped it to the wire on one side with tiny clothespins. Clothespins seemed appropriate, since hers is a "Domestic Diva" crown!On the other side, there's a tag stamped with her title, also attached with the cute little clothespins.
Then, one last touch is the fleur-de-lis chipboard shape at the front. She painted it black, covered it with mica flakes and glued it behind the glittery net.

For my crown I added a piece of vintage crochet lace trim. This is a corner piece off an old tablecloth... perfect for my crown! I just tacked it on in about 3 or 4 places with some thread.

Then I made a little crepe paper medallion for the front of my crown.

I also added an old crochet button and some tiny pearly looking buttons from my mom's stash!!

Next I added some ephemera do-dads to my crown... I stamped the word "Queen" and framed it with a little piece of cardboard, used gold embossing powder for my clock and also added a little piece of vintage sheet music.

I also added some tails to the back of my crown with the gold velvet ribbon and some white... I just tied my bundles of ribbon in a knot at one end and then glued it to my crown!

When I got home I added an old earring to the very center of my crepe paper medallion and now my crown has a new home on my dress form!

eBay Annoys Me!!!

2010-07-31T18:33:00.000-07:00

Yes, my mom and I have an eBay store, The Vintage Dresser, we've had it for about 12 years now! That's hard to believe! We've done pretty well there... for the most part... but I have to admit... eBay annoys me!!! In the last couple of years they've started creating new rules for their sellers... rules that are unfair, rules that are hard to abide by, they've raised their prices, and they've made it so that eBay sellers cannot leave negative feedback... EVER... doesn't matter if the buyer was the worst customer ever, doesn't matter if they completely ripped you off... you cannot leave negative feedback! What kind of a rule is that?!? I won't go into all the nitty-gritty, if your a seller I'm sure you're familiar with it already... probably too familiar! LOL!

But there is something they do to their buyers as well, and I want to share it with you in case you are unaware. When you do a search on eBay, they order the listings by "best match" which generally means that those big time eBay sellers who make eBay the most money are first in the results list! Just who are they to decide which listings I should see first anyway?! Well you can still sort the results to your own liking... take a look at the screen shot below (you can click on it to enlarge it):

See that little box in the upper right hand corner? It says "Sort By:" and then it probably says "Best Match". Here's a more close up view:

Well, if you click that little blue down arrow next to it... you'll see this:

You can now sort however you want!

-Ending soonest - this is a good way to swoop in and get that last minute bid in and WIN!
-Newly listed - great if the seller listed it as a BIN (buy-it-now), you can be the first to swoop in and buy it!!
-Sort by price (the listing price plus the shipping price=lowest or highest, etc.)
-distance from you - great for large heavy items, you can pick them up if they are near you and save the shipping completely!
-eBay's favorite... best match
-and Category that the item is listed under.

Lately our store has been kind of slow and I'm wondering if we are being ranked (by eBay) as not a "best match" so we are lower in the search results. And as I stated earlier... that ANNOYS ME!!!!! We are still hanging in there with our store, but we've also opened Etsy shops which are much more fun and user friendly and best of all there's no fighting with a bid war... just see something... love it... buy it! Easy-Peasy!!

Stay Tuned!

2010-07-20T13:39:00.000-07:00

I have been corresponding with Jessica from CSN Stores and am excited to have the opportunity to review an item from one of their many stores. They have anything one could possibly want, from armoires to dining room furniture to wicker chairs and lots of things inbetween!

As soon as I get it narrowed down a little and make up my mind, I'll be reviewing an item of my choice from one of their many stores. Here are just a few items I've been looking at:

So, stay tuned. I'll try to make a decision soon!

Smokey Sunset & The Village People

2010-07-20T12:09:00.000-07:00

Hmmm.......that title sounds kinda like a weird rock group or something! LOL!

Actually, it's a couple of photos. One of a sunset a couple of evenings ago. There was a fire up west of Yakima and the setting sun was RED! Unfortunately, this photo doesn't show that. My camera wouldn't capture the real color, but you can see it was a blazing sunset masked by smoke.

I think the fire is under control now. The smoke isn't nearly as thick as it was. The first reports were that up to 3 houses had burned but as it turns out, they were outbuildings and not houses.

On a totally different note, my husband goes walking up the side of a mountain ;-) every morning, and passes this little group of onlookers every time. He's been threatening to take their pictures for quite a while and yesterday actually had his camera with him. So he's captured this group of gawkers for posterity!

That'll teach them to stare at people! LOL!

Friday Finds!

2010-07-09T17:04:00.000-07:00

My mom came down today and we went out to a few yard sales and a thrift store. They were all pretty good sales and I came home with quite a few treasures (as per usual!) I try to be good... really I do... but I just can't resist this stuff!! The first sale we found was being manned by a girl who was about 11 or 12 years old, she just kept asking us what we wanted to pay for each item!!! OMG! I love it when people put little kids in charge!!! Got a great deal on everything I bought from that sale! LOL!!

Some of it will make it's way to our Etsy shop... some of it will be added to my home decor... and some of it will be used in my art.

I know... you're thinking what the heck did she NEED that ugly thing for?! But you'll be impressed when I'm done with her makeover! She's made of plastic and looks a little like a floosie with her red drawer lining!

This is her cousin... the plane Jane sewing box! She'll be prettied up too... you'll see!!

This little hat is so cute! I think it's a pin cushion because it's really padded in the center of the hat, it hangs on the wall.

I just thought this little hanger was cool... it's called the Pres-To-Lok and was made in Taylor, Mich. You pinch the scrolly looking part right below the hanger that goes over the closet rod and the bottom pops open!

I thought this old oil lamp would look pretty in my newly decorated bedroom It needs the top hurricane lamp part though.

This reminds me of a Holly Hobbie picture, it will also be so much cuter with a fresh coat of paint on the frame!

An old Easter egg project that someone had started and never finished... I mainly bought them for the little vintage flowers, but you never know... maybe I'll find a use for the cute eggs too!

I found a bag of vintage buttons for only .50 cents, there are a LOT more than I've shown in the picture, mostly the little beige ones.

Isn't this little girl so beautiful? I love her!

This is part of an old apron, it needs just a little bit of mending along the pocket.

And some old red pom-pom trim (I have a collection of this stuff in all different colors, I like to use it on my art projects) and a big piece of neutral fabric. I've been into slip covering things lately and I'm going for a very neutral color scheme in my house so this is just the thing I need!!

Well, my mom and I had a good day but it was HOT, it's supposed to get to 104 degrees here today and it definitely felt like that standing in the sun pawing through other people's ~~junk~~... um treasures!!!

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend!

Mustang Adventure

2010-07-08T22:04:00.000-07:00

This is a little different from my usual post, but I just have to share. A couple of days ago I went with my husband on a dealer trade for the Ford car dealership where we live. A dealer trade, in case you're wondering, is when dealerships exchange vehicles. Sometimes a customer is looking for a certain car or truck and the dealer he's doing business with doesn't have just what he wants. But another dealer in the area might have it. So the dealers work out the details and send a driver to get the vehicle.

This was a trade of a 2011 Mustang for a 2010 Mustang. We drove to Enumclaw, Wa. which is over Chinook Pass. It was a nice scenic drive, so I went along for a ride. My husband was kind of psyched to get to drive a new mustang and I thought it might be fun to see what's so special about them. Well - - - IMHO - - - NOTHING!! LOL! To begin with, I wasn't impressed with the spaciousness. I had a purse, of course, and a bag of "stuff"--- magazine (never go anyplace without reading material!), GPS, camera, etc. I wanted to keep them in the front so I could get to them and it made it a little crowded. So, I got all seated and then had to practically crawl in the back to get ahold of the seat belt! And I had the seat back as far as it would go! But we finally got situated and had all the paperwork he needed for the trade and we were on our way.

Right off, hubby wasn't happy with the headrest and tried in vain to pull it out of the seat by clutching it with both hands & yanking, while driving with his knees! Being a MAN, he "declined" to pull over and see if it could be removed or adjusted. So I guess he just got used to it after a few miles!

It was a pretty comfortable ride, but no better than my HHR (which has plenty of room in the front for bags, purse, etc., by the way!).

In a couple of hours we were headed over Chinook pass which is just a two lane road and has it's issues now and then. But it's pretty & scenic! Eventually we came to a relatively straight, level stretch of road where we could see oncoming traffic (or the lack thereof) for quite a ways. That was when my dear hubby decided to test the power of his "ride". It had a speedometer that went to 160 MPH, so I guess he took that as an invitation to see if the needle actually went that far! So there I am, plastered against the back of my seat, flailing about wildly for something to hang onto! He's in the driver's seat going "Holy Crap Batman!" and I'm grasping in vain for a "grab bar"! I'm TOTALLY unimpressed that there is no such thing provided. If they're going to make a car that goes at warp speed, the least they can do is provide something for the passenger to clutch for dear life! The dash wasn't even designed for digging fingernails into!

A while later, we made a pit stop so "Mario" (insert name of your favorite race car driver!) and I could visit the "facilities" and pick up a couple of cups of coffee. There's a cup holder hidden under a lid that folds down inside the arm rest, so we deposited our cups of coffee, were-upon one of them dropped into a black hole! One spot is deeper - - I suppose to hold a large cold drink or water bottle. So after digging my coffee out of that bottomless pit, I decide to just hold onto it myself .
Soon we drove out of the mountains and practically into the front door of the dealership we were looking for! Couldn't have been easier to find, which was nice. So hubby (AKA Mario) went in to get the trade finalized. They had to do a little search to find the car we were going to bring back - - it was "lost"! But they finally found it hiding in the service dept. It was a bright red Mustang - - pretty much the same as the one we delivered as far as I was concerned.
Once again, paperwork all taken care of, we climbed in and headed out. Same lack of room in the front, same kind of console with disappearing cup holder, etc. Only this model had another fun quirk. I sat down in the seat and got all fastened in, looked up to check the view out the windshield and could barely see over the dash! I am shortwaisted and sit a little lower that some people, so I wasn't too surprised and proceeded to try to raise my seat - - COULDN'T-BE- DONE!!! So I spent the return trip peeking over the dash. Good thing I wasn't driving! Surely the driver's seat adjusts, but I don't know that because hubby could see out fine.
I think by this time he was sensing my displeasure with certain aspects of this trip and decided to keep his foot out of the gas tank on the way home!
All in all, it was a nice daytrip. However, I have absolutely no desire to become the proud owner of a 2010 or 2011 Ford Mustang. Sorry Ford! I'm sure you'll get over it eventually! LOL!

A Few Fun Finds!

2010-07-04T09:22:00.001-07:00

I went to a fun event yesterday, not really expecting it to be much, but had to go check it out anyway! After all it was advertised "Antiques on the Farm". How could I pass up something like that?? It was held at Bill's Berry Farm and called "Bluebery Daze Festival & Antiques on the Farm" and was just a few miles from where I live. http://www.billsberryfarm.com/events.html

There were all kinds of fun things for kids to do--pony rides, hayrides, a train made from barrels for them to ride in! In addition, they had a band playing bluegrass music and a place to buy "All-American" food, with picnic tables to sit at while eating. You could go out into the orchard or berry patch and pick your own fruit--organic blueberries & sweet cherries. What made my heart flutter was about 14 antique vendors with cute rustic displays set up in a lovely lawn setting. And they had primitive, rustic, retro merchandise galore! Sometimes I go to these kinds of events and look and look and look------and come home empty handed! But this time I managed to find a few goodies I thought I really had to have! I love this gallon jar with the vintage crocheted pot holders fastened together and wrapped around it. I think it'll be a perfect spot to stash some of my vast collection of the same kinds of pot holders.

I love the vintage image on the jar lid, too!
I liked this rusty wire holder. I think I'm going to put one of my vintage mixing bowls in it--I'm sure I have one that'll fit--and use it in my craft room to pile supplies of some kind. Or I might put my old cookie cutters in it & put it in the kitchen.
I love this cute apron. I'm thinking maybe I'm going to make a "curtain" for my craft room using some of my old aprons. I haven't been able to come up with a solution for that window, but I think this might be it!

Oh, and the old white shutter in the background is another thing I found. I've probably passed up some that were cheaper at yard sales, but for some reason, yesterday I just decided I "needed" this one! I'm debating between putting it on the windowsill in my craft room or on the counter, against the wall on the other side of the room. I could hang all kinds of "stuff" from it in either location. Or just leave it uncluttered in all it's chippy glory!

So, now all that's left is to re-arrange the areas where I think I'm going to use these treasures! Of course that leads to a whole room re-do because moving one thing means moving another thing and then another thing-----and so on, and so on! And it'll have to wait a while because I need to go to town with one of hubby's cars and attend a car show in the park pretty soon.

Happy 4th of July everyone!

Happy Fourth of July!

2010-07-04T08:52:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone has a fun day with family & friends.
God Bless America!

Yard Sale Goodies

2010-06-16T18:53:00.000-07:00

Well, here I am running late again! I thought I'd share some of my finds from last Saturday's yard sale expedition with Tania. We hadn't been out for a couple of weekends so we were READY! And the hunting was good. We found lots of great stuff!

However, we should have started where we ended! It was a sale just a couple of blocks from Tania's house. I got several pieces of great fabric, including a couple of pieces of vintage bark cloth, vintage trims & crocheted things. While I was digging thru the fabric Tania grabbed up lots of goodies. You can see what she found on her blog.

Look at these great bundles of fabric for 50¢ and $1.00! They're remnants, but nice large ones. Plenty big for lots of projects.

These vintage sewing trims came from a couple of different sales. And we found a couple of earring holders--the mouse and owl---at different locations. I think I'll paint them hot pink or bright blue! What do you think? That garish gold doesn't do much for me!

Love these pretty crocheted and stiffened snowflakes.I'm always on the lookout for cute patterns - - the bonnets and aprons are pretty new. The vintage pattern is just cool! This apron pattern has a couple versions made from jeans and cargo pants. I'm a tole painter and always in the market for paintable surfaces and books. Found one of each at different sales. The rusty snowman will be fun with some fluffy snowmen painted on it, I think. The Jamie Mills Price book is an addition to my collection of her books.

We went to a sale at a church where we could fill a bag for $1.00! We found all kinds of great stuff to fill our bags with - - stitchery kits, a cookie press, embroidery project, scroll frame for embroidery and more below. But there's a little item in this photo that's a real keeper. Tania spotted it. I had looked thru stuff on the table where it was, but missed it, stuck into a zip lock back with a bunch of other items.

It's a little round celluloid box that has a glass insert. I have a huge collection of celluloid--mostly dresser accessories, so I was tickled to get this. They had the bag marked 5¢! But it went into the bigger bag with all our other finds for $1.00 and we continued searching the piles and stacks of treasures!

Here's an overview of some of the stuff.

This cute little crib coverlet was mixed in with piles of towels, pillows, etc. Sunbonnet Sue and Overall Sam. It has no batting, so it's not a quilt, just a sweet little decorative throw.

On the same table I unearthed this cute apron. I'm a sucker for old aprons!

And here's a vintage plastic Christmas doily. Sorry to say I only found one.

We found a community sale at an apartment complex. One seller had lots of fun stitchery kits and misc. treasures. Tania found them first and was generous enough to share a few with me. Isn't she a sweetie?! ;-)

Closer view of a couple of the kits. These aren't something I'm inerested in tackling but there are lots of people who love to put them together. So they'll be going on Etsy one of these days, along with several of the things I came home with.

like these vintage books and quilt template.

At one sale a sweet little lady was thinning out her day care supplies, since she wasn't in the kid care business any longer. I found this pretty tin and it rattled when I shook it!
Inside were these adorable little houses. They're just so worn and used I couldn't resist.

I don't remember where I came up with these but had to have them!

The images on this little card game are pretty cute. Kind of faded and vintage looking altho they aren't old. They're about half the size of regular playing cards. Tania spotted them--I probably wouldn't have noticed. The box is nothing special. But she knows I've got a "thing" about cards! I've got quite a collection of vintage ones. Speaking of cards, the box with the little girl images below is a deck of Holly Hobbie cards. Holly is quite collectible! I loved the woman's face rubber stamp and the rose one's pretty. We found a bag of old compacts, pill boxes, etc. and talked the guy down a little on the price. When we got home we split the contents and the price. I kept the enameled one and the rectangular one with a cute little poodle on it. The round one that looks like lipstick is actually a little folding razor! I took it out and unfolded it for the picture.

And the backdrop for all the photos is this vintage tablecloth. Another thing I collect! It's in really good condition--only a couple of pale stains that will probably come out. For $2.00, I had to have it!

Well, I hope I haven't bored you too long with all my rambling! It'll soon be time to go hunting again! And my hubby informed me that there's an antique show in one of the parks this Saturday, so we'll probably be checking that out along with yard sales.

However, yard sale prices spoil you for the prices antique dealers ask, so it'll have to be something pretty special and reasonably priced to coax us into purchasing.

Till next time, hope everyone's having a great week!

Catching Up- -The Farm Chicks Antique Show

2010-06-09T10:02:00.001-07:00

I'm playing catch-up with my posts. I should have done this one before I posted about the swap because this happened first. I kinda feel things should be in chronological order. But that's just the way it works sometimes!

Last Saturday, June 5, Tania and I went to Spokane, Wa., to The Farm Chicks antique show. It's held at the fairgrounds in a huge building and they FILLED it up! They don't get into the fancy Victorian antiques & priceless collectibles. They deal more in the "down and dirty" type of antiques---primitive & rustic---along with shabby chic, cottage, retro & just plain fun stuff. Case in point, that rustic milk truck that was parked just inside the doors.

Now a few pictures of fun offerings: See the hankie banner?

There are also hand crafted items, both artsy and craftsy! It's so fun to see what wonderful creations come from the imaginations of the artisans who participated. It's verrry inspirational. Makes you feel like rushing home and digging into supplies and creating something! The nice thing is that there are plenty of booths there that sell things to use in creations. Old lace & fabric, vintage photos & ephemera, millinery flowers, buttons, etc., etc.

But I'm ahead of myself!

We arrived about 11:00 A.M. There was a line clear back to the street where you turn into the fairgrounds parking lot! And the lot was packed. We ended up parking in about the next to last row--a couple of acres away from the building! So we made our way to the end of the line and stood, moved a few feet, stood, moved a few feet, stood........You get the picture! Actually, the line moved along pretty fast and it only took about half an hour to get to the ticket booth.

Once we'd paid admission and were inside the building, it was wall-to-wall people!! Difficult to get to booths and when we got there, so many people it was hard to see what was in them. We went in the ones we could and passed over some, planning on coming back later when the crown was hopefully thinned out a little.

These prize ribbons were something Tania was interested in. She's got a plan!!
This vendor made a "tent" from all kinds of various fabrics, aprons, etc. Bright & cheery!
Fun sign for this booth.
It took a couple of hours to squeeze our way through the three bays of the building and finally we stopped for lunch. Tania had fixed a couple of sandwiches so we wouldn't have to stand in line yet again to get to the food vendors. THAT was nice! And the sandwich was yummy! So, we ate and rested for a little while before tackling the crowds again. We ran across this wagon full of guard dogs just waiting for someone to adopt them!

As we shopped and the day progressed, the crowd thinned out a little, making for a much more pleasant shopping experience. Tania found a few items and I managed to settle for two things! WooHoo!! I love it all but I have so much "stuff" already that I have a hard time purchasing more. Tania has "stuff" too, but doesn't seem to have a problem finding things she "needs"! Here she is making a purchase.

Interesting doll assemblage! Check out Tania's blog to see more of them.

Lots of hand painted chairs & misc.

More hankies used to decorate this space. Door turned into a hall tree.
We finally decided we'd seen it all--or at least, seen enough---and headed for home about 5:00 P.M. It takes about 2 1/2 hours to drive from the Tri-Cities to Spokane, so we got to Tania's house about 7:30. I still had about a 40 min. drive to get to my home and I had to make a quick stop for cat food, but I was home by 9:00ish, I guess. It was a long day, but fun.

And as the sign says "happy endings". We'll go back again next year. Now we're perusing the flyers we picked up, deciding what our next outing will be!

My Something Old, Something New Swap Gifts

2010-06-08T11:51:00.000-07:00

I got my swap packages for the "Something Old..." swap over at A Swap For All Seasons! One package arrived on Saturday and the other on Monday, so I got to open packages full of treasures twice! Marcia had the first box all prettied up with wedding paper--following the theme of the swap.

This is the opened box with all kinds of goodies tucked in there.

There was a cute little sack, a round "hat box" and a wrapped packet, along with a nice note.Inside the round box are more bundles wrapped in sewing pattern tissue paper--probably the pattern that was inside the packet Marcia used in the "something borrowed" item down below.Here are the "something old" goodies. A crystal creamer holding a vintage hot pad and several vintage packages of sewing supplies. Marcia painted "old" on a hot cup sleeve and added a little bling.Something New included the cutest bird covered with music paper. She's got a pearl necklace, too! There's a pocket made using a decorated toilet paper tissue roll---how clever is that?! And "Merci" is stamped on a tiny clay pot. Here you can see the birdie better.

Back of the TP roll pocket.

Front of the pocket.

That was all of the goodies in the package that came on Saturday. Then on Monday another package arrived on my doorstep containing two more pretty gifties. Isn't this a pretty package? And look at the cool magnet board that was inside! It's a metal sheet covered with pretty scrapbook paper and some embellishments. Fastened to it with a magnet Marcia made saying "Somethin New", is the wedding photo that was the 5th item we were to include in the swap.The other item that came in the second package was the "Something Borrowed". It's a cool collage made using the cover of a wedding dress pattern, some tissue paper, ribbon, flowers & bling all attached to a lace edged hankie.Marcia had whip stitched the edges of some pretty blue paper to make an "envelope" to slip the collage inside of.

Here's a closer view of the vintage wedding photo Marcia sent. She decorated it with some lace and buttons. What an interesting headdress the bride's wearing!

And on the back of the photo she put pictures from the instruction sheet from the wedding dress pattern.
I love it all! this was such a fun swap. Now I'm looking forward to what Linda comes up with on her blog for the next swap!

A Swap For All Seasons--The Reveal!

2010-06-02T19:37:00.000-07:00

I've been participating in the "Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Blue" swap over at A Swap For All Seasons. I sent my package off last Friday and Marcia let me know today that she received it. So now it's OK to put some pictures up of what I sent.

I decorated the box up a little bit that I mailed the goodies in, so this is what she received in the mail. Of course, the post office added their little bits of "decoration", too! This is pre-post office visit.
Front:

Back:

This is all the various items all packaged up and ready to go in the box. I made tags for each catagory--old, new, borrowed, blue. For the smaller items I used some little organdy bags I've been saving for some special occasion.

We were also supposed to send an old wedding photo as part of the swap. One that I ordered on-line ended up being kind of tiny, so I found another larger one to include also. One wedding photo went into a little gift bag with Eiffel towers on it and the other one I wrapped with sewing pattern tissue and tied with measuring tape ribbon.
This is the smaller of the two photos. I decorated this one with some vintage looking tinsel and some netting and put a hanger on it so it can be used as an ornament or just hung in some little spot that needs some bling!The second photo I just put in an old art deco looking photo folder. I thought Marcia might like to decorate this one herself, or use it in some altered art project.This is the "something old". A tiny old teacup with a votive candle in it and a vintage hot pad.This is the "something new". I made this assemblage with new and old papers, a glittered Eiffel tower, a little pennant banner across the top made from pages from a vintage French dictionary, flowers, stamps, lace, buttons and a little bling.These are also part of the "something new". A couple of little flags made from vintage music pages, two chipboard fleur de Lis. One I glittered and the other I covered with music papaer. And some tags.

This is the "something blue". A sheer embroidered pale blue vintage hankie and some blue fiber wrapped on a cute tag.

I had pictures of the "something borrowed" items but had some problems getting them off my camera. You can see them in this overview of all the items. They're a little crocheted tea cup that's stiffened with fabric stiffener and a couple of vintage round crocheted motifs. They were probably originally intended to become a tablecloth or bedspread. These are closer shots of the flags & a tag.
This is stamped on the back of the ballerina tag.

And closer views of the hanging for the "something new" item.
Marcia told my my package should be arriving by Saturday. I can hardly wait!!

This was a fun swap and I'm already looking forward to the next one!

Sneak Peek!

2010-05-30T14:54:00.000-07:00

PEEK!

I'm participating in a swap on A Swap For All Seasons Blog We are supposed to put a sneak peek on the Swap Flickr group site. Since I'm not a member yet, I thought I'd put a couple of pictures on here so my partner could see. So I'll send Marcia a message to let her know and as soon as she receives her package I'll post more pictures.

Swap Meet & Yard Sales & Antiques Galore!

2010-05-20T18:26:00.000-07:00

I can't believe it's been a week since we headed over the mountain to attend a swap meet. It's a semi annual event that we always look forward to, held in Monroe, Wa. In the spring it's especially fun because there are lots of yard sales--a whole little development hauls out their cast-offs for our shopping pleasure! AND, Snohomish, which is just down the road a ways, has an antique street fair in the old town area. This downtown area is FULL of antique shops anyway, but when you add a street full of vendors with all their wares, it's double the fun!

So, Fred, Tania and I set out for a weekend of shopping till we dropped. Fred to investigate every box of rusty auto parts that looked remotely interesting at the swap meet, and Tania and I to search for hidden treasures in shops, booths and stranger's garages! We went in two vehicles. Tania and I left early and Fred came over later after going to his weekly Fri. morning breakfast with a bunch of buddies. Having two vehicles made it possible for us to go our separate ways and not have to hang around waiting on each other. And Tania was able to go home on Saturday. Fred and I stayed till Sunday and made another run thru the swap meet.

Here we are in downtown Snohomish. This is a shot of some of the booths all in a row down the middle of town. They block off the street, of course, so this can create an interesting parking delimma. We were furtunate to find an empty spot right at the beginning of the street!

Here's another long shot. You can see that the buildings are really old. The floors creak in some and in some they're uneven and not at all level. There's one especially that kind of brings on an attack of vertigo! But it's one of our favorites, so we forge ahead!

Look at these cute little kiddie overalls with vintage hot pads and doilies decorating the fronts!

This booth had some really fun and creative merchandise.

See the "mamma" ironing board and "baby" ironing board beside it, in the lower left corner? How cute is that?! Love the little pink bird cage, too.

This mannequin's dress is all made out of paper. Love it!

This booth had some really creative greenhouses made out of old windows.

They're so compact and cute! Another shot of a little window greenhouse. The river runs right below the main street. Looks so pretty and tranquil, right?
Well, think again! There was a speed boat down there making so much noise you could hardly hear yourself think! I just caught him taking off down the river, leaving a rooster tail in his wake

The west side is Rhodendron heaven! Look at this huge plant! They're all over the place---lots of pink, but also yellow and orange. I didn't think to get photos of other ones---got this photo at the last minute as we were on our way home Sunday afternoon.
We stopped at the little town of Duvall on the way. There's an antique shop there that just goes on and on and on........I took a few shots of spaces that caught my attention. I was on the look out all weekend for items to use in a swap I'm involved in.
I did actually find a couple of things here that I think I'll use. But that's a secret! LOL!
Look at all the treasures! I could have spent a lot longer digging around but my dear DH was beginning to wear down by this time. LOL! So I refrained from getting too involved. You can look and look in the same space and still not see everything! We left here and headed for home in earnest, only stopping to grab a burger once and hit a rest stop once.

I've got photos of all the treasures I brought home. Maybe tomorrow I'll get around to sharing them.

Am I Green or What?!

2010-05-08T19:05:00.000-07:00

The last few days I've been working on a little recycling project. I've been saving empty toilet paper tubes for a couple of weeks. The other day I finally gathered up six of them from where I was pressing them between books. That helped flatten them a little, but they were still pretty "springy"!

I painted them with acrylic paint and that really helped flatten them out. On three of them I used crackle medium. The base colors are a cactus green and teal type blue. I put the crackle medium over the color and let it set till it was tacky. Then I painted over that with antique white paint and watched it crackle. If you brush the paint on in straight lines you get straighter crackles. If you slip slap the paint you get a much more random crackle effect.I then covered the front and back of each tube with patterned scrapbook paper. Some pages are a solid sheet of paper, some are pieced with a couple of coordinating patterns.

I added ribbons, flowers, some lace and a little bling here and there. If you get too carried away, the book gets really fat!

This was the first time I used my Bind-It-All, too. That was fun! Another way to bind the pages together is with D-rings. If you do it that way you need to put eyelets in the holes to keep them from tearing out.

I had some small shipping tags to use for inserts. These go into the ends of the tubes where they're open, forming pockets. I covered one side with papers, tied a ribbon through the hole and stamped the back with a journaling stamp.

Photos can be added to the tags and on some of the pages. Of course, they'll have to be small photos! This would be great for those little photos that come with kid's school photos. There always seem to be a gazillion of those left over, so this would be a cute way to do a K thru 8th grade, or something like that.

I used pretty much just 2 different paper designs. One was a patchwork design that was perfect for this because there were nine coordinating "fabrics" on one sheet of scrapbook paper. It was by DaisyD's, called Patchwork #12022. The other design was by K & Co., called Classic K Bailey Blue & Pink Floral. It actually looks more green to me than blue, but whatever! LOL!

Well, that's it! That's what I've been obsessing over for a few days! I still have more tissue rolls, so I may make another one with different style paper. It was fun!

I Was Featured!

2010-05-03T10:13:00.000-07:00

I'm a member of The Eastern Washington Etsy Team and yesterday Gail wrote a post featuring shops of several members of the team. She's going to be featuring members over the next few weeks or months. She wrote a very nice article about five of us this time, including my shop, Tole-Tally Painted. Here's a link to her blog if you'd like to take a peek.

Free ClipArt Images!

2010-04-30T07:35:00.000-07:00

Are you familiar with Dover Publications? If not, they have tons of great publications FULL of royalty free images that you can use in your art! They sell books that come with CD's that have all the images on them which makes them SUPER easy to use! I have a couple of their books. But did you know you can also sign up to receive a weekly email with free samples? These are just a few of the latest samples I have saved for future use:

If you're interested in signing up to get the weekly free sample email go here: http://store.doverpublications.com/ and then scroll down a little bit and on the left hand side of the page you'll see a little picture that says "Free Samples"!

PS. No, I'm not affiliated with Dover and I'm not getting anything for telling you about this... I just thought it was a great way to get royalty free images emailed right to you! LOL!

A New Tutorial - Altered Laughing Cow Cheese Boxes!

2010-04-25T21:39:00.000-07:00

I headed to my mom & dad's today so he could show me how to change the oil in my truck and she and I could do another cute tutorial for you. This time it's altered Laughing Cow cheese boxes! Mmmm... have you tried this stuff?! It's to die for, I love it! So, needless to say, I have a whole bunch of these cute little round boxes! The oil change lesson went well and didn't take as long as I expected, so we had plenty of time for the cutting and pasting!

So, let's get right to it! First remove any of the label papers that will easily come off and sand your box a little bit just to take off any rough edges and give it a little tooth for your new papers and paint you'll be applying.

Gather your supplies... you know this probably isn't everything you'll need or want to use, but I like to get a little inspiration going by gathering up some stuff that I might like to use!

Next, my mom and I chose to paint the inside of our boxes. Her's is the off-white one and mine is the robin's egg blue.

We both chose to use vintage sheet music inside our boxes, but you can choose any paper you'd like! I cut mine with decorative edge scissors and my mom tore hers. Just trace around the outside of your box and then cut a little ways inside that line to fit it inside the box bottom and lid.

Choose some paper for the outside of your box. Mom's has some paper that looks like tea stained fabric on the top and small blue polka dots on the bottom. Mine has flocked polka dot paper on the top and coordinating patterned paper on the bottom. I used Modge Podge to attach my papers, but mom used UHU glue stick... just personal preference here... either method works fine! We both distressed the edges with Tim Holtz Distressing ink pads too.

You can glue some trim around the outside edges of your box too if you choose. More vintage sheet music paper on mom's and some lace and trim on mine.

You can now start to lay out your design... play around with your bits and pieces for awhile before you glue or attach anything. This one is the beginning of my box...

And this is mom's...

Once you have your basic design figured out, start layering on your elements. Here are both mine and my mom's boxes at this point. We have glued down, layered, fussed, rearranged, and experimented for quite awhile by now!

Aaaannnndddd... made a HUGE mess in the process!!! LOL! That's all part of creating art isn't it?! This is my side of the work bench...

And this is my mom's side... I think I'm a little bit messier! LOL!

Now, the finishing touches... I've decided to add little bun feet to my box and mom had added a hanger.

So, here are the finished little boxes... aren't they cute!? This is mom's box. She went with a wishes theme. The little tag on the top of the box says "Wishes are the magic in our hearts that cause beautiful things to happen..." and she's got a little vintage label that says "Complexion Beautifier". Open the box up and there's a beautiful woman and it says "Wish Granted"... isn't that clever? I love it!

Mine is a friendship theme. I used a vintage photograph of some of my ancestors as children, a vintage carnival ticket, a little "friends" sticker and lots of lush flowers, vintage buttons, and a white glittery butterfly that started out really tacky looking... dollar storish! You can see it before I painted it in the 2nd and 4th pictures. It was pink and green with a funny looking little face. So, I painted it off-white and then glittered the HELL out of it!!

So there you have it... from cute little cheese box to beautiful keepsake boxes!

Yard Sale Finds From Last Weekend

2010-04-13T16:26:00.000-07:00

I almost forgot about all the goodies Tania and I found on our yard sale outing last Saturday! This was our first real yard sale day. We did go one day a few weeks ago, but there weren't many and we didn't find all that much. But Saturday was GOOD! It was a little chilly and windy but we didn't let that scare us off!

Some of these are things I found on Friday, too. I talked my husband into helping me find a couple of sales out in the country near where we live. The mug and glasses and adorable owls were about all I found, but I think they were worth the trip.

I'm going to add the wooden spools to my collection and put them in an old blue mason jar I have. Actually, I have several of the jars, but I may about have enough spools collected to fill one.

I liked the vintage wallpaper design on (and in) the packet of stationery. The little book has vintage pictures & verses relating to mom. I thought it would be good inspiration for Mother's Day cards.

I Can't pass up a "Drawing" book! They usually sell pretty well and who knows---I might end up keeping it!

Even though there are only three, I had to get these glasses. The daisy design is really raised and textural. Very retro looking.

I found one of these little hens once before and really didn't know for sure what it was. See the slot below her wattle? I went ahead and listed it on Etsy and asked anyone who might know it's purpose to convo me. Some kind person wrote to say that it's an egg separator! How cool is that?!

Tania actually unearthed the apron pattern at one sale and thought I should have it. I have mentioned wanting to make some aprons & she remembered. But I have to get a new sewing machine before that's going to happen! My old one is disintegrating---every time I try to use it something breaks off or quits working!

I thought the slipper pattern looked like fun. And as you can see, the zippered album was only a quarter, so how could I pass it up?!

Aren't these the cutest little owl figurines? I love them! They're small enough to be salt and pepper shakers, but no holes, so they're just figurines. The daisy glasses and owls came from the same sale and the "proprietor" started out asking $7.00. I just said "no". So she came down a little. And I said "no" again. Well, after several attempts on her part to pry more money out of me, I ended up getting them all for $2.50! LOL!
I thought the mushroom mug was cute. Only one, unfortunately, but too cute to pass up. I'll probably hang onto it for a while and look for mates. Or maybe just look for more mushroom items and offer it in a "mushroom grouping".

Oh, I also got a cool retro head scarf, some tattered lace, and some old rik-rak with gold threads. Forgot to include them in the photos. I put them in the laundry because they didn't smell all that great.

Of course, Tania came home with lots more than me. She always does! I haven't checked her blog to see if she's posted about it yet, but I'll bet she has. Here's her link so you can check it out.

Hopefully this is just the beginning of many weeks of yard sale adventures!

Happy Poisson d'Avril (April Fool's Day)

2010-04-01T08:36:00.001-07:00

Or- - "More Than You Ever Wanted To Know About April Fool's Day"!!!

Myspace Graphics- At Myspacejunks.com
The most popular theory about the origin of April Fool’s Day involves the French calendar reform of the sixteenth century.
The theory goes like this: In 1564 France reformed its calendar, moving the start of the year from the end of March to January 1. Those who failed to keep up with the change, who stubbornly clung to the old calendar system and continued to celebrate the New Year during the week that fell between March 25th and April 1st, had jokes played on them. Pranksters would surreptitiously stick paper fish to their backs. The victims of this prank were thus called Poisson d’Avril, or April Fish—which, to this day, remains the French term for April Fools—and so the tradition was born. There is another theory that traces the origin of the custom back to the abundance of fish to be found in French streams and rivers during early April when the young fish had just hatched. These young fish were easy to fool with a hook and lure. Therefore, the French called them "Poisson d'Avril" or "April Fish." It became customary (according to this theory of its origin) to fool people on April 1st as a way of celebrating the abundance of foolish fish. Fish! Who knew? I just went searching for a cute April Fool's Day image and found out all kinds of stuff!
Hope you don't get fooled too bad today!

Christmas Ornament Tutorial---Yes, I said Christmas!

2010-03-30T18:52:00.000-07:00

So, let me explain my madness! I'm a member of an internet list called "Brush Bunch". We're made up of tole and decorative painters and we have a bi-monthly exchange called CTTY---"Christmas Through The Year". So, every couple of months I paint Christmas ornaments. Yes, sometimes it's a little hard to get inspired to paint Christmas designs---like when the temperature hovering near 100 degrees! But once I finally get started, it's fun.

This time I decided to paint some tags. These are 1/8 th inch thick wood. One's actually MDF, but it's all good! Here we have an unpainted tag, one I've basecoated with Cactus Green and one I've slip/slapped with some darker green around the edges.

Here's my wet palette with the two shades of green and the brush I used for basecoating and shading. It's a bristle brush that's kind of stiff and good for basecoating. And since I already had it dirty, I just added the darker green on one corner and worked it all around the edge of the tag. It's supposed to be a little choppy looking.
Here's the picture from the pattern packet of the designs I'm working on.

I know I only showed 3 tags before but I'm actually working on four. Two of each design. I've got the green on and ready to basecoat the bottom section. You can see the difference here between the wood ones and the MDF one.

Next I'm basecoating the white bottom sections.

All based and dried. I cheat and use a hair dryer to speed up the drying time!

Side loading an angle brush in bt. umber, preparing to shade the bottom section.

Applying a float all around the bottom light buttermilk section.

All shaded and ready to apply the checks that go in the stripe between the green and white.

I'm using a tiny check stencil instead of freehanding the checks. Although, when it was all said and done, it would have been quicker to freehand them because there was a lot of "clean-up" to do to the stenciled area. :-(

I've taped off two rows of the checks so I don't have to worry about paint getting where I don't want it.

I could tape the stencil in place but I don't like to mess with it unless it's realllly to my advantage to do it! This is small enough that it's easy to hold in place while you're stenciling. I use a make-up sponge to stencil with. Just be sure to dab most of the paint off on a paper towel before applying it to the piece. Much better to have too little than too much!!

So, now I'm all ready to apply the pattern to the ornament. I could trace the designs onto tracing paper so I could see through it better, for placement. But here again, I don't want to mess with it. So I just hold the pattern and ornament up to the light and line it up.

I used graphite paper and a stylus and transferred the design onto the pieces. It's a little difficult to see, but it's there! Here again, less is better. You don't want a lot of dark graphite lines to have to remove when you're done painting. I used white graphite here and will use black for the wording on the white section so I can see it better.

The mittens are basecoated in Fuschia with an angled brush. (Love my angle brushes!)

Here they are with a couple of coats of paint.

Now I'm basecoating the sheep. It's done in a tan color and I'll put curly wool over that in light buttermilk. The tan makes the white stand out and works as shading.

All four pieces basecoated and ready for details. I'll be working on the sheep first.

Sideloading the angle brush in Bt. Umber to shade around the face of the sheep and the outside edges of his body.

Shading done and ready for "wool".

The instructions in the pattern suggested using a rubber stamp to apply the curly wool. I happened to have one, so I gave it a try. Here again, would have been better off just free-handing! And I did that for the second one. My stamp was really a little too big, even tho it's pretty tiny. So, here I'm freehanding curly wool allll over his body! Next come his feet, ears and eyes, using a liner and black paint.

You can use the brush or stylus to apply the little dots for eyes.

I added white highlights to the feet, ears and eyes and tucked a fuschia bow under his chin. The bow is shaded with dk. plum and highlighted with lt. buttermilk. I used thinned black and a liner to add the words. SHEEP DONE!

Now, on to the mittens! They're all based in fuschia and I used a pastel pencil to put the detail lines on for the stripes. I could have re-applied the pattern and transferred them with graphite, but since it wasn't a complicated design, I just did it freehand. And besides, since I was too lazy to transfer the pattern to tracing paper, it would be hard to line up the design again!

I've added the stripes and some highlighting on the cuff with pale lilac and now I'm shading with dk. plum and a side-loaded angle brush

Shading all done so now I'm doing some linework at the edges of the stripes.

The string is done with fuschia, hilighted with pale lilac and shaded with dk. plum where it curls.

Once again, adding words with thinned black and a liner brush.

All done! Well- -I still have to spray them, paint the backs and add string to hang them with. But they don't photograph well with spray on them, even tho I use a satin instead of gloss.

Two of these will be winging their way to my exchange partner tomorrow. The other two I'll save for the next exchange, or one later on, if I get inspired to paint some more before another deadline approaches! I do have a tendency to procrastinate!

I hope I haven't freaked everyone out by doing Christmas ornaments in March/April. As I mentioned, I do these every other month, so maybe I'll make it a recurring tutorial. Thanks for looking!

Happy Birthday Mom!!

2010-03-19T06:15:00.000-07:00

Today is my mom's (Nancy's) birthday! I won't tell her age because I'm pretty sure she wouldn't appreciate that!! LOL! We are going to spend the day together hitting our favorite thrift stores and we've even found a few yard sales, Yay!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!!

LOVE,

Happy St. Patty's Day to You!!

2010-03-17T06:47:00.000-07:00

I hope everyone has a fun day... I'll be LOOKING for people who are NOT wearing green to pinch...(maniacle laughter here)!