Cinderella Style Pumpkin

I purchased a medium sized white faux pumpkin from Michael's to decorate.

I began by lightly brushing on a coat of pearl acrylic paint.

Next I used a silver metallic paint over the pearl paint.

And lightly brushed that over the pumpkin from top to bottom. It gives the pumpkin a pearly champagne color.

Then brushed some silver lightly over the stem.

My next step was to use hot glue to add bling to every other rib.

Next I added large diamond shaped crystals around the stem.

And added different shaped and sized crystals to the pumpkin.

And lastly I glued a large square crystal to the top of the stem and ran silver Ice Stickles down the sides of the stem.

All finished and decorating the mantel for the Holidays.

Happy Crafting!

Vintage Market Globe

Last weekend I went to another local vintage fair.  This one is held once a month. Don't know how I had never heard of it before now.

I have been on the lookout for a small globe for some time that I could do a remake on.  There was a last chance room at the vintage fair where everything was marked way down and there it was.  The perfect little globe for what I had in mind.  It measures about 8 inches high.

It didn't look so perfect when I found the poor thing.  I did notice it was made of wood and was stamped on the bottom "Italy".  But the surface was scratched and the base was coming apart.

Not to worry though, it was easy enough to glue the base back together and patch the surface of the map.  I didn't care it had a scratched surface because I intended to paint the entire surface.

Before

I love the way it comes apart, spins and tilts.

My vision was to paint a globe in black and gold.  So here is the first coat of black and gold paint.  Not much of an improvement yet.

I added a second coat of paint.  For the gold I used Martha Stewart's liquid gold leaf.  Make sure to use this paint in a well ventilated area as it has some pretty strong fumes.

On the base I painted the columns flat black and the rest gold.

When the paint was dry I glued 4 crystals around the top edge of the stand and 4 on the bottom support, also 1 on the top of the globe.

What doesn't show in the photo is that I painted the vertical support for the globe itself gold on the edge and used a black shiny glitter black paint on the face.  I also coated the entire globe with a coat of glossy high luster Mod Podge when the paint was dry.

After

Before

Hard to tell this is the same little globe and here it is on my mantel setting on top of an antique book.  Now it looks like a piece you would find at one of those high end department stores.  Who would guess that I only paid $6.00 for this cute little globe.

Happy Crafting!

Crystal Necklace

Here are the crystals that I laid out before stringing.

I love the pastel and white crystals for summer.

And here is a close up of the focal beads.

I strung the crystals on beading wire and added a magnetic clasp to the back of the necklace.

The finished piece.

The white crystals look cool for summer.

Happy Crafting!

My Crystal Forest Fairy Earrings and Pendant

While on our trip up the coast we stopped at a tiny gift shop just filled with beautiful things.  Many of the items where from local crafts people. I just love it when local items are sold in local shops.

For Breakfast we ate at a very nice little hometown coffee shop , named Naveen's.  The food and service was great.  And in the parking lot I spotted this beautiful rose.

Then we headed to the gift shop. There was a section filled with lovely beads.

Here are the treasures I purchased at the little gift shop. I bought enough to make a pair of earrings and a pendant.

I started with the larger pieces and made wire wrapped bails for all three.

Next I added the rest of the crystals to eye pins along with some bead caps from my stash.

Here are the three pieces almost finished.  

For the pendant I used a long filigree piece I had and bent it to fit over a black velvet cord. to create an interesting connecting bail.

I named the set Forest Fairies because they reminded my of the surrounding forest where I bought them.

And here is the finished set.  The colors are actually gold and green and blue with sparks of lavender.

Happy Crafting!

Sparkly Stickpins

Wow, it is only May and it was so hot today.  The temperature topped out at 90 degrees.  I am not sure I am ready for all this heat so early in the year.  I washed my heavy rugs and hung them outside knowing they would be dry in no time.  So, while the laundry was drying I went to my workroom.

I almost forgot to take pictures of this project.  I was in my workroom, just straightening things up and looking through some of my potential projects. When I came across the  parts to put together these stickpins.

A few months back I sent away for some crystal topped 3 inch corsage pins, but never got around to opening the package.

But today I started playing around with the pieces then got out my glue and went to town gluing all the parts together. I also had a few pearl topped pins and 3 leaf top pins.

The pin on the right is how they arrived, next I added the little silver cap and then two pearls and a crystal roundel that I glued between the pearls.

I tried different combinations.

On this one I used an antiqued bronze headpin.  I can cut the length of the wire, form a loop and use this one as a tassel on some future project.

I went to town and just kept making different ones.  I only had 3 of the leaf pins.  Wish I had a few more of those.  Maybe next time.

  

Before I knew it I had 15 or 16 finished all in pastel shades.

This is a box I decorated and used on of the pins to help decorate the top by the large pink flower.  I also made the paper flowers for the top of this box. I will save the instructions for the flowers for another post.

Happy Crafting!

Vintage Lucite Earrings

I have been a bit under the weather for the last few days, so haven't done any major projects.  Just a few jewelry projects until I feel better.  I think I had some 24 hour bug of some sort.  Feeling much better already today.

These arrived in the mail last month and just haven't had the time to work on them.

Awhile ago I ordered a few German vintage Lucite oval pieces that I wanted to make into earrings.  The oval Lucite pieces are so pretty, brown with what looks like pieces of gold leaf scattered throughout the pieces.  And the price was crazy.  I think I paid under $2.00 for 10 of them.

 Here are the pieces I started with.

To the ovals I added three colors of crystals.

They have a lot of shine and sparkle.

Happy Crafting!

Yellow Tassel Chandelier Earrings

Again while cruising the rows and rows of beads the other day at my local Michael's I came across a package of wonderfully colorful tassels and best of all they where on sale.  Don't you just love it when something you want to buy is on sale?  I certainly love not paying full price.

Wow, I thought wouldn't these make gorgeous earrings for summer. I decided to make the yellow tasseled ones first.

And here are the supplies I began with.

To begin I attached a yellow crystal to the center of the metal chandelier piece and two more golden beads to each side ring at the bottom.

Next step was to add two more golden beads across the bottom leaving the center hole empty.

Under the two center golden beads I added two yellow crystals.

And finally I added the yellow tassel to the center and an ear wire to the top.

These have such an ethnic East Indian appearance. Love them.  

I also made a simple pair of purple earrings with a couple of purple crystals and the purple tassels.  I love purple, it's my favorite color.

Happy Crafting!