ON A ROLL...

I have been wanting to restock my etsy stores for awhile now but haven't really squeezed in the time needed to do that. Well the last couple of days have been spent doing exactly what I needed to do... CREATE! I have collected bits and bobs and containers for awhile now and they were overtaking places in my workroom. I knew that I wanted to create some pincushions and maybe some assemblages with them so I started with the pincushions and then there was no stopping me! I have a few more planters and such to use so I'll continue making these and loading them in the store as I finish them. I was inspired by another page in the last Somerset Life and covered this little soap box to use as the container to hold one of the goodies in the giveaway.

The sheep image from Graphics fairy has become my new favorite and so I shrunk it down and put it on top of this gorgeous black prim looking paper using script paper for the sides.

Then after I decorated the test tube for the giveaway I just kept going with those too! Not all of them have decorated corks because I ran out but they will all have stoppers when they're done. I went in a few different directions with these, some with vintage millinery and some with jewels one with a vintage religious medal.( my personal favorite)

They're all wrapped with different trims too and will be filled with different goodies whether its buttons or mica or glitter... they're pretty versatile for small items and they end up looking so pretty. I love that they are so utilitarian in nature and now are prettified!

I gotta find a better way to photgraph them though, I tried to put them in something clear for the ones that are already filled. I know I've told many of you when you show us a momento from a family member that you are lucky to have these things... I have only a few maybe one or two items that have been passed down to me and these sundae glasses were my grandmothers, we called her Bushie, ukranian for grandma. She owned a restaurant and when my mom gave me these I was beyond thrilled! Max loves to make "Max Sundaes" for everyone!

This last project is one of a few more to come... I was given some trim pieces from a neighbor when we moved in the house, some we have used to replace trim in the house and then the rest are my stash :) I have used a few in the past and have a plan for others. Here is one of those plans---

A beautified note pad holder for someones wonderfully decorated workspace! A couple of beautiful images and some fabulous bling, a tarnished bulldog clip, and there you have it! All of the pages of the notepad are hand torn to match the chippy molding, then they are stapled and glued along the top edge and finished off with a torn scrap of painters cloth. waalaa!

A close up of the bird from Graphics Fairy and the rhinestone feather.

the tarnished bulldog clip 'blinged out' as well...

So there you have it, it feels really good to get some of the ideas storming my head finally finished. Ofcourse the storm is still brewing and so there is more to come.

Tomorrow is Silver Sunday and I've got a couple of things to share, stop by if you can!

Thanks for stopping by, Theresa xoxo



I'm backtracking a little... I'm linking this up to Brag Monday @ The Graphics Fairy! Karen has so many wonderful graphics that I use often... Thanks Karen!

the one filled with shameless giveaway plugs... and another wax collage...

It being White Wednesday and all I thought I'd show one last wax collage. This one is titled Dear
Iva. I imagined that during this company picnic two women bonded and shared stories of love and life. The postcard at the bottom is one I found and instead of using the front of the card I loved the letter on the back and wanted it to show. The clock shows that their friendship stood the test of time. If you look closely at this photo you can see that when you use wax to collage it makes the paper somewhat transparent. If you don't want this to happen simply photocopy the paper you want to use or try putting a piece of plain white paper behind it.

See you can still see the music paper behind the photo. Just look at this little girl with her dog. Oh my gosh she is so cute! I wrapped the outside edge of the canvas in the backside of a vintage tape measure. ( the same one included in my giveaway... shameless plug!!!) I like the texture that the grosgrain ribbon and vintage white buttons adds to the piece, all added with wax.

Here is another example of what blogging and etsy have added to my life... fancy packaging! I know for me when I have received a package that is thoughtfully wrapped, even if I purchased it myself, it feels like a special gift. This is one of my recent sales all ready to be boxed and shipped to its new owner. I love adding a special little touch to my sales. Ofcourse if you win my giveaway I will be Prettying all of the goodies up just for you!! (yup another shameless plug!!) I know, I am truely pathetic!

So after my bird pillow, I tried Jeanines trick of running the fabric through the printer and I gotta say I LOVE IT! The results are close to screenprinting and so the kids and I were playing around with it this weekend. John and Cam were looking up bands they like and making patches of their logos and Danielle made an image to add to a journal she is making.

I love when they get as excited about a new art form as I do! These are two that I copied off so that I could turn them into pillows but alas my sewing machine died this weekend and when I took it to the quilt shop in town to have it fixed our local fix-it man informed me that it would cost as much to fix as to buy a new one. I have no idea what I did to it but now I'm on the lookout for a replacement. I need a machine, I feel like every new idea and all of the home decor stuff I want to do needs to be sewn. ofcourse. :(

So as not to end on a sour note... Look at these amazing sheep from Graphics Fairy! They need to be a pillow!

I'm linking this up to http://fadedcharmcottage.blogspot.com/ and to The Boardwalk Bragfest thank you girls for the fun parties!

If you haven't entered my giveaway yet come on over and see what your missing! (3 plugs in one post, can you believe it?)

Thanks for stopping by, Theresa xoxo

A WAX COLLAGE FOR TUTORIAL TUESDAY...

I have mentioned this before, but I love doing wax collages. They are kind of therapeutic, the smell of the beeswax, the warmth of it, the ability to fix your mistakes... that's right a sort of absolution art form! I taught this as a class this winter and everyone had fun doing it and wanted to do more (at least that's what they said to my face!) All you need is a canvas, tissue paper, I like to use vintage pattern paper but if you want color any tissue paper will work., a photo or copy of an image, beeswax... the ones I'm showing you are done using natural or unbleached wax but if you want a different look or more colors you would use white beeswax, and a quilting iron. Plus all of your collage items.
I use an old small crockpot I got from the goodwill (think appetizer/dip size) and melt the wax, then with a decent sized brush I cover the entire canvas with the wax. Lay the pattern paper on top of the canvas and using a craft/quilting iron simply iron the paper to the canvas, you will be able to tell that the paper is adhearing to the canvas. Make sure to iron the tissue paper to the sides and around the back of the canvas too just in case you don't want to frame it.

Start layering your collage out. I add more wax wherever I am going to "glue" my collage items and then once the item is placed on the warm wax you iron over it. When using an original photo I put a plain piece of paper on top of the photo so that the iron won't melt it. Everything you see here was "glued" down using wax but when I taught the class some of our items would not stick so we cheated and used hot glue to make sure that nothing fell off when they got their projects home. I know, I know, "cheater cheater pumpkin eater..." I don't know if it was the new wax I purchased or the objects used but some of the items just wouldn't stick. Which puzzled me because nothing was heavier than this skeleton key and that is held down with only wax. The ruffle of pattern paper was made by just adding wax to the piece a little at a time and scrunching the paper by pushing it into the wax with the handle of a paint brush.

I used the original photo for this piece and love how it turned out. I wanted some drips for a textured look and then the phrase that I used I just typed on Word and then printed off.

The photo already had the age marks on it but I liked them so I used it, because well look at those faces, there are so many stories there!

So there you have it... there are waaaaayyyy better tutorials out there on wax collage, when I wanted to try it, it was because I saw it in an altered art book and I love the vintage look of it. If you want to try it and have questions I will try my best to answer them, I am by no means an expert but I promise it's really pretty easy when you get started.

This last photo is of another one that I did and I added a little color to it by melting a crayon with the iron and holding it over the spot I wanted the color to go, then I melted it more by ironing on top of it. I have a more colorful piece for sale in my etsy store where you can get a better idea of using tissue paper and more colors.

I'm linking this up the Tutorial Tuesday at Hope Studios and hope to have time to see all of the other participants ideas tonight.

If you missed my last post, I hope you'll stop by and enter my giveaway!

Thanks for stopping by, Theresa xoxo

YOU HAVE GIVEN ME WINGS... the giveaway!

This is a long one so I hope I don't lose any of you! First off, these are my babies... it's so rare when I get them all in one place for a photo. One of their aunts who loves and spoils them brought an egg hunt to our place yesterday and they had a blast racing eachother for the eggs filled with change. How smart is she to know that if you want the older ones to get involved tell them there is loose change involved! Here's Max jumping the obstacle course of logs that Duane cut last year. Him and his friend played on them so much after D. got the cutting done that he decided to leave some placed randomly at the back of the yard so they could keep having fun. ( excuse the messy, leaf filled yard I have yet to do my spring clean-up out there.) That's the river behind him.

I love this picture of Hannah, she is trying so hard. Lucky for her Danielle joined in on the fun and then gave her eggs to Hannah and Max. What a good big sis.

Here are my older three, Danielle, John and Cam with A.Linda in the background. Yeah it's finally getting warm enough for shorts and flipflops here in MI. !!! .

O.k. so now comes the news I promised... first of all the reason for my title is this, YOU my friends have given me so much inspiration here on my blog. Really. I am humbled that you keep coming back for my ramblings and to see the crazy ideas I come up with. And now there are 103 followers here at 612! I am thrilled that so many of you stop by regularly and comment. I LOVE COMMENTS! I mean really, who doesn't!!!

I have met so many wonderful, creative and inspiring people here and you all just fuel my creativity. And I gotta say one of the biggest rewards of blogging? YOU GET ME!!! The rusty, crusty, chippy, and mixed with gitter, bling, tattered fabric. I could go on and on but I gotta tell you, there are not too many people in my neck of the woods that 'get me' so THANK YOU!

So I'm having... you guessed it A GIVEAWAY!

I have gathered some goodies for you and the theme is wings. Because you my blog-friends have given me wings... O.k, o.k. enough mushy stuff and on with the goodies...

First up. A glass pendant with a sweet fairy.

Another glass pendant, this one does not have the bail so that you can use it in a future project.

I was inspired to make this next little goody from the pages of Somerset Life. They were made by Karla Nathan and Rachel Jackson, oh they are gorgeous and caught my eye immediately. I knew I would have to try them as soon as I saw them! This issue is loaded with amazing ideas page after page of beautiful photos. Mine is filled with mica flakes and wrapped with hand stamped fabric, with ofcourse a little bling!

Up next is one of my vintage millinery flowers on a hand stamped tag, it's attached with a little piece of adhesive foam so you can use it in one of your beautiful future creations.

A little chalkware bluebird...

Here is a print of a old class picture that I picked because I am learning so much on this journey. It is glued to the front of a metal piece so there is some fab rusting going on here!...

A little silver angel with a little broken wing just waiting to be loved, an awesome roll of vintage tan crepe paper and one of the few atcs I ever made... I love this man on here, definitely one of my favorite pics to use in my artwork.

Last year I purchased one of Teresa McFaydens Ezines and she showed how to do this altered silver tray...

Here's a group shot so you can see a couple more of the goodies... a section of a vintage tape measure wrapped on a handstamped tag and a set of 6 tags with a little bird theme.

So there you have it, some fun stuff for you to play with and some goodies that I made for you to enjoy right away. Now down to the 'legal stuff'...I think we all know the drill...

Since this is my FIRST giveaway I'm going to make this pretty simple for you...

1. If your not a follower, jump on the bus!!!

2.If you are let me know in your comment, which brings us to #3

3. Leave me a comment to know you are playing along. Remember

I LOVE COMMENTS!!!!

That's it, that's all you have to do to have your name in the hat! I will draw the winner next Monday April 12. Just to make this clear... you must leave a comment (yes I'm that desperate for them) to be entered because that's how I'll draw the winner.

Wow! This might be my longest post ever! I hope I didn't lose any of you!

As always thanks for stopping by, and GOOD LUCK! Theresa xoxo