Thrifting find

A couple of weeks ago, I found a great bargain at a garage sale.  I bought this chair for $2, already painted!

I love this.  I added the wreath and bow.  I may have to keep this myself.....

Score!

Angel feather ornament

This is a repost of an earlier tutorial.

So I have this room off of the garage where we keep our freezer and my saw, sander, hand tools.  I also store my excess craft hoard.  It had kinda gotten out of hand so I went out and started sorting and cleaning.  To my amazement, (my attempt at sarcasm here), I found some things I had forgotten I had. Enter this box of glass ornaments.  Okay, I know the box is empty, but it was full.  Trust me....

I also had a bag of white feathers.....

So I simply put one little feather in each of the clear glass ornaments.

I cut 12 pieces of white organza ribbon, each 10" long.  You could use whatever ribbon you want.  I had this on hand.

Then I printed these little angel poems and used my tag punch to cut them out.

I threaded one piece of ribbon through the hole in the tag and then through the top of the ornament hanger.  I tied it into a bow.  The other piece got looped through the same place and knotted for hanging.

What a sweet little ornament!  I sell a ton of these at craft shows.  One tip is to keep them in the box that they came in.  These are breakable and it never fails that one gets broken.  These ornaments are the glass discs.  You could use round ones if you like.  You could use plastic ones or grosgrain ribbon.  You could make the tags round or use a fancy scissors to cut them out.

Here is the short poem that I used:

This is an Angel Feather

Sent from God Above

To Serve as a Reminder

Of His Most Precious Love

I simply put it in a word document.  I used this font: Freehand471 BT, in size 9 text.  You can play around with it to get the size and font that you like best.  Have fun with this!

Christmas in July

Its not that unusual to see snow hanging around into May and June up where I live in the Rocky Mountains.  And it is certainly not unusual to see snowmen here at my house year round.  I am still busily working on inventory for my shows this fall....and you know what that means.....Christmas!

My friend, Dawn, gifted me some floral that I have used in a centerpiece.  This is a bit more glittery than I normally do, but I love the colors:

 All of the containers I have repurposed from garage sale or thrift store finds.

 I finally finished the deer trio.  I think they will make the perfect centerpiece for a sideboard or hall table.

 This is my first attempt at a diorama in a glass case.  I liked this case because it says "Polar Optics"

I bought this lantern a long time ago.  I simply filled it with a lighted tree and added a snowman and bow.

I stained this unfinished wooden reindeer and filled it with shades of silver and red.

 This sleigh is metal and is trimmed in gold tones.  I like the way it looks with the red and gold trimming.

 I've done and sold so many of these graters.  I rusted this grater, glued on the gingerbread, added a bow and a battery operated candle.

I'm working on some angel feather ornies today and waiting for my next round of company to come.  I will post the tutorial on making the ornies later this week.  Have a good day and stay cool!

Handmade gift wrap!

I am reposting this post from a few years ago for those of you who may have missed it.

If you are a crafter of any kind, you probably have all kinds of "stuff".  Well, maybe you don't, but I sure do.  I have alot of stamps!

I have collected these over a number of years at craft store sales, garage sales and even Goodwill.  Some were handed down to me.  But most are holiday stamps.  I sorted through all of them and picked out some "non-holiday" stamps.  The brown kraft paper roll, I picked up at a yard sale for $2 for a case.  I use it for packing and I thought it would make the perfect country gift wrap.  I unrolled a length of the size that I thought I would need and began stamping.  You can also find rolled brown paper at Dollar Tree....for guess what?  $1!  It is cheap enough, that I always keep it on hand, not only for gift wrap, but to cover work spaces and wrapping breakables.

I used two stamps, a small heart, and a small gift box.  After stamping, I used markers to color in the bows on the package.  Be sure you stamp in a random order like commercial wrap because once it is on your package, it will be in all different directions.    I also wrote "Happy"  and "13" in a few spaces because this particular wrap was for a 13th birthday.  You could write names, dates, etc on your paper.  

Then, and (what girl doesn't like a little sparkle?), I used some paint dots, (just use the end of a paintbrush) and add some glitter.

And this is the final look!

Here are a couple of tips if you want to make your own gift wrap:
     1.  You can use any kind of paper.  You can use tissue paper (just be careful of bleed-through), newsprint paper, paper bags, or paper that I used which can be found in a home-improvement store in the paint department.
     2.  Work on a covered surface since paint and some markers will bleed through your paper.  
     3.  If you choose to use glitter, don't worry about it if some sticks to your design in areas that were not painted.  And don't forget to save the excess glitter.  I simply pour into a shoebox lid and then back into the container. Or buy one of those parts sorters from Harbor Freight (previous post)
     4.  If , like in this gift, the gift is wider than the paper, put the seam down the center and cover it with a ribbon.  I had this ribbon that I picked up in a discount bin and the bow matches perfectly.  Another little hint:  Most ribbons will curl, even if just a little.  Just use the blade of your scissors.

Have a great day, my bloggie friends.  See ya later!

Angels Amongst Us

I don't know about you, but I believe in angels.  And I love making angels as well.  These angels came about quite accidentally.  I bought these lawn ornaments at the thrift store and was actually going to put them in my flower bed.  But the more I stared at them, the more they looked like angels.

 The hardest part in creating these angels was attaching the heads.  I thought that the ornaments were made of wood.  Nope, resin.  In order to get the wooden heads to adhere, I needed a flat surface.  So I had to saw across the top of the resin which my band saw wasn't too happy about.  I painted the surface with Waverly Ivory chalk paint.  I love using this paint because it is so forgiving.  And it dries very quickly.  Then I aged it with an antique wax from Folk Art.

This first one has a pair of rusty tin wings that I salvaged from a broken ornament.  I used silver tinsel on all.  Heads were painted fleshtone, blushed and eyes were dotted with a sharpie.  I added an organdy bow at the neckline.

I bought these wings at Michaels.  I found them in the floral department.  Since the bodies are resin, the wings were hot glued on.

Another set of wings from Michaels.

I think this is my favorite.  I love the filagree wings, also from Michaels, and the shape of the ornament makes it look like a skirt.

We had a nice holiday, although we are really needing rain here.  I give my plants loads of water and they love it!

Brooms, not for sweeping

I bought a couple of brooms at the thrift store.  I love these during the fall, to hang on the door.  They are so simple.  You can also buy brooms at craft stores in the fall as well.

 I thought the broom with the black handle looked a bit more elegant than the other one, so I chose an organdy orange and black wired ribbon for this one, a burlap print for the other.  To make the bows, and you know I love me a great bow, start by deciding how large you want the bow.  Wrap the bow back and forth as shown.

 You will want to get it pretty thick, like below so your bow is nice and full.

 Cut triangles into the bow, on each outer edge in the approximate middle.  Sorry the pic doesn't do it justice.  > <  Just make sure of two things.  Don't cut all the way through and don't use your good fabric scissors on wired ribbon!

 Cut a piece of the ribbon about six or eight inches long and roll it together, making it thinner and stronger.

 Tie the rolled ribbon into the > <  tightly.  Then one by one, pull apart the bow and twist as you separate.  You will get a big fluffy ribbon in no time at all.

 Elegant:

Rustic:

Practice making bows and you will get so good at it, you will find yourself putting them everywhere.  And your holiday packages will be the envy of the book club!

Glittery Reindeer

I was lucky enough to find three large paper mache' reindeer at the thrift store.  I got all three for $3.95 and was really excited to see that the price tags were still on them......$5.99 each!  I have had them around for a while, trying to decide what to do with them.  To me, paper mache' is not the best surface to paint on, so what 'cha think?  Glitter, of course!

I took them outside to spray paint them white.  It gets a bit tricky, because these are not flat surfaces.  I had to spray, let dry, turn, repeat.  

After the deer were dry, I gathered up the rest of my supplies, ModPodge, glitter, paintbrush, and a parts sorter.  I used a very coarse white glitter....I am obsessed with this stuff.....and an old paintbrush. 

  If you don't have a parts sorter, you can use paper or a cookie sheet or whatever to catch the glitter.  And if you don't have one, get one!  I love this thing for catching and recycling glitter.  There is even a little spout for pouring back in your jar.  You can get them at Harbor Freight for a couple of bucks.

The glittering had to be done in stages, as well.  I would paint on the mod podge, glitter, and move to another section.  The modpodge will dry pretty quickly so do small sections.  And use it generously, not so much that you have globs of the glue but enough that your glitter will stick to it.  I laid this one on its side to be sure to get the inside of the legs, the belly, and under the chin.

\

 I took the glittered deer inside to dry.  When completely dry, put on another layer of modpodge.  I water mine down ever so slightly because you do not want this layer to glob or run.  You also don't need to apply it as heavily.  This layer basically anchors the glitter in place.

 When completely dry.....I waited until the following day.....add your embellishment.  I had this beautiful ribbon, enough for all three pieces.

I think it really turned out elegant, don't you?