Happy New Year

Wishing everyone a wonderful New Year.

Safe and healthy and prosperous.

Happy Wishes for the New Year!

Merry Christmas

Here's wishing you a Merry Christmas filled with good friends, family and good food.

Filled with wonderful memories of Christmases past.

And a wishing you day brimming

 with joy and excitement from our house to yours.

Merry Christmas!

Vintage Fair Finds

While driving home this guy was standing at the street corner staring at us when we stopped for the red light.  This is a really busy street in the middle of town.  Yet the wild turkeys are thriving.  It is said they are one of the most successful reintroduction of wildlife in the country.  They are everywhere.

Here is the only vintage item I found this month.  It is about two feet long and looks to be an old piece of oak trim.  I think I will make a skinny sign with it.

I also bought these little pieces of bling.  They were only $3.00 each.  The little round crown fits on an old bottle I bought a few months ago.  

 I decided to make a pair of earrings for the Holiday Season from the round rhinestone balls. Haven't decided how I will use the crown pin, yet.

I went to my stash and gathered a few items.

I began with the rhinestone balls for the bottom piece.

And added to them from there.

They look like just the thing for this time of the year.

Happy Crafting!

Bushel Basket Makeover.

I have a couple of bushel baskets I have had hanging around the garage for at least 40 years.  I finally found a use for one of them this year. I am using it as a container for my Christmas tree.

I know 40 years.  But when you find something really neat but don't have a use for it but just can't bring yourself to toss it out, it just sits collecting dust until just a the right project comes along.

I found these baskets in an old barn that belonged to an early pioneer in the area where I grew up.  I never really payed much attention to them.  But this year when I decided to paint one I noticed a very faded stamp.  I can't quite make out the date but it is either 1898 or 1893.

So when I painted this basket I made sure not to paint over that stamp, instead I covered the area with a clear acrylic varnish to preserve the area.

I decided to paint it white and a blue green.

I painted the vertical wood white making sure to leave some of the woodgrain visible.

The horizontal wood I painted with the blue green paint.  I am really happy the way it turned out.

And here it is with our 4 foot tree sitting in the basket.

I have both sitting on my curbside find trunk I also repainted.

Happy Decorating!

Handmade Christmas Ornaments

This year I decided to decorate for Christmas using white, green and pearls.

I started by creating some new handmade ornaments.

First I ordered some blank wooden ornaments to form the base. They came in a pack of 25.  For this project I only used 12.

The first thing I did was to paint front and back of each ornament with white acrylic paint.

Then I went to Pinterest and found 12 vintage style black and white images sized to fit the wooden ornaments, printed 6 to a page and printed with my laser printer.  Using Mod Podge I glued one image to each ornament.  I didn't worry that the images didn't completely cover the entire ornament since I was going to partially cover them with paperclay molded pieces.

When the glue was dry I used sandpaper to sand off the excess paper and smoothed all the edges.

Then using paperclay and 3 different IOD moulds I made appliqués for the tops and bottoms of the ornaments.  I used the same mould for all the bottoms of the ornaments but used different moulds on the tops of the ornaments.

I just used parts of appliqués.  Filling just the portion I wanted to use with the paperclay.

I removed the appliqués from the moulds and using white glue I glued the appliqués to the ornaments.  While the appliqués were wet I used the wooden end of a fine point paint brush to make the top hole.

The next thing was to let the appliqués dry and them paint the paperclay white.  Once I had the appliqués painted I mixed water with the white paint to make a wash and quickly washed the images and rubbed off most of the white to give the images a softer look.  Image on the left is before the wash.

Next I made a gray wash and applied that to the paperclay appliqués and immediately rub the wash off the raised areas.  Image on left is before gray wash.

Next I applied two shades of glitter to the sides of each ornament.  I ran a bead of white glue down each side and sprinkled with the glitter.

 

I let everything dry then cut about 8" of silver gray ribbon to make hangers for each ornament.

I made a few more paperclay ornaments the same way.  Moulded the clay, removed from mould, let it dry, painted white, but this time I rubbed the raised areas with silver Rub N Buff. Then added glue to the centers and sprinkled with glitter.  Next I cut off a few pieces from lace in my stash and hot glued to the bottom of each ornament.

IOD Mould

For these I add pink checks and lace medallions to the dried ornaments.  Again I made a hole in the center top with the wooded end of a fine point paint brush to create the hole for hanging while the clay was wet.

And here they are hanging on our tree.

Happy Crafting!

Vintage Haberdashery Cabinet

After a long day at Apple Hill we drove back down the mountain.  To while away my time I thought I would just take a peak at Facebook Marketplace.  I have been looking to replace one of my china cabinets.

And wouldn't you know it I spotted the perfect piece.  I wasn't quite sure what it was meant to hold but I knew I had to have it.  It was listed as a china cabinet, but I think not.  So, I messaged the gal and made arraignments to be at her house at 7:00 p.m.  Mad dash home and up the hill we flew.  

  OK, it's six o'clock at night by now and the piece is up the mountain in a different direction plus we had to go home to get our larger vehicle.  As it turned out she lived way out of town on a narrow country road with no street lamps.  But thanks to our GPS we made it and we were only a few minutes late.

Here are her listing photos, hum, interesting to say the least.  I fell in love with the wood grain from these photos.  After doing some research I concluded this must have been a case that originally held clothing in a high end store near the beginning of the 20th century.  Thus a Haberdashery Store for men's wear seamed most plausible.

Once I got the piece home I could see the upper cabinet looked like it had had fabric or velvet lining on the inside at one time.  I choose to paint just this interior section not wanting fabric inside.

The first thing I did was to paint the shelves with an orange rust colored chalk paint and while that was still wet I blended in a dark coffee colored chalk paint to mimic a wood grain.

When the shelves were nearly dry I cut sheets of mirrored scrapbook card stock to line the rear wall.

Mirrored 12 x 12 sheets of card stock

Here are the painted shelves and mirrored back.

The glass panels in the doors are really old and have bubbles.

Next I lightly sanded the doors before I oiled the entire piece.  Wow, the oil brought out the grain.

It also has beautiful old brass pulls.

Left door oiled after light sanding

before oil

after oil

 I can't get over the beauty of the wood grain.  You don't see wood like this anymore and these doors are about 3 inches thick.   I knew when I saw those first pictures on Facebook this was beautiful wood but had no idea just how beautiful it really was.    All the trays and drawers have dovetailing, amazing piece.  And best of all I only paid a little over $250.00 for this gem.

This cabinet weighs a ton, I don't think there is any veneer on it, just solid hardwood.

Even the unvarnished inside of the doors had beautiful wood grain once polished.

before oil

after oil

And here she is all full of collectibles that I have acquired over the years. She is only 3 feet wide but holds an amazing amount of items.  I have divided my things by season.  Now each tray in the lower section has one season of items.  Summer, Spring Fall and Christmas for the winter tray.  I call her a she because of her beautiful curving lines and gorgeous grains.

This is the china cabinet I replaced, moving it to my craft area to hold supplies.

The back wall was very thin ugly backing board that didn't match the wood of the piece.

I used a sticky backed paper to give it a vintage look.

And here is this filled with supplies.  I intend to cover the cardboard boxes to coordinate with the back wall using scrapbook papers.

The only downside to moving these two cabinets is I pulled something in the back of my leg.  Now I am sitting with my leg elevated and an ice pack.  Hoping to heal quickly.  Not a person to sit around with my foot in the air without going bonkers.  Getting old is for the birds.  I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

Happy Decorating!