New art work this week . . .

I had some "forced" stay at home days this week and used that time to create some new art work.  Decided to use old book covers that were on nearly destroyed books.  Here's what I did:

I have a number of different "hangers" for this kind of mixed media work.  Love these shabby white ones.

Sisters

 This is one of my favorite Paper Whimsy Beautiful Faces collage images.

Closer up you can see the stitching around the photo, the fabric and laces used and the trims.  

I tried my hand at resin as well.  Love this bezel by Susan Lenart Kazmer.  Another part of the Paper Whimsy Beautiful Faces collage sheet.

Going Fishin'

This is an actual old photo of this darling little boy holding a fishing pole.  Love his overalls and that cute, cute hat!  Isn't he just too stinkin' cute???!!  Love the wire hanger on this picture.

On this collage I just glued the original picture to the old book cover and added the trims and old buttons.

 Do You Like My Hat?

Next is an old photo that I just love.  I have had it for years and the things I like most are her hat and her blouse!  Beautiful!  And those partial gloves are fantastic!

An old book cover, old lace and cheesecloth.  Trims, ribbon and a pretty vintage crocheted flower.

I love the bit of pearl and lace trim at the top.

Thanks for visiting!  I hope to do more blogging in the future.  Please be sure to check out my Facebook page for more found items and updates on happenings around town and at Merchant Square.

Recycled bottles and vintage pearls

I have been collecting broken pearl necklaces for quite some time.  Little by little I have filled up several small bottles with the pearls.  They sat for some time on my shelf (would you believe over a year??) and I often wondered just how decorate them.  Here are the results:

This bottle came with the rusty ring on the neck.  It's what's left of the screw off cap.  So I found a glass stopper that fit, filled the bottle with a broken pearl necklace, glued the stopper in and decorated the front of the bottle.  It is an old pearl earring glued onto a bit of lace with tiny seed pearls and then a small dangle attached.

This small bottle has an old earring for a stopper, a bit of a lace doily with the top of a broken locket glued on it.  Small coffee-dyed lace is wrapped around the neck and tied in a box.

Recycling at its best!  And I am slowly cleaning out bits of my stash.

Two finished lampshades

These are two of the small shades.  I finished them up yesterday.  They are actually for a chandelier or tiny lamp that takes a flame bulb with a small base.  I need to make two more to go on a chandelier I have for sale in my booth at Merchant Square.

Fun to do!  Here is the first one I did . . .

It had six sections.  Three I covered with a cut up doily.  I overstitched the pieces to the wire frame.  This particular section in the middle is covered with a piece of lacey ribbon wrapped around the frame and pinned.  The bow is from a piece of tulle fabric that has pink felt polka dots on it.

This side is wrapped with another piece of lace and has a white feather glued to it.

This section has tiny rick rack wrapped from top to bottom.  An old photo was cut out and glued to coffee dyed cheese cloth and a piece of pink fabric.  It is pinned to the wire frame with safety pins.  I also glued on the ribbon roses and then put old shoe buttons, crystals, a diary key and some pearls on the bottom.

Here I covered the entire shade with an old piece of lacey fabric from an old dress.  I overstitched it at the top and bottom of the frame.  I had this old vintage bouquet of pink flowers and I tied a piece of rayon ribbon on it.  Once again I put old pearls from vintage and new jewelry around the bottom.

You can tell I spent more time on the first one.  It was a learning piece.  The second one was easier because I used one piece of lace to cover the entire shade and whipstitched it in place.  I may have to make changes since I don't know how much light they will filter once they are on the chandelier. 

I plan to do a couple more and will post them when finished.  I have to hunt through the thrift stores to see if I can find two more small shades OR some small lamps that take clip on flame bulbs.  :-))

Embellishments 2

I think that taking a strip of fabric, and adding sewn buttons, bits of other fabrics and safety pins is a neat way to add texture and interest to a piece. Also a fun and unexpected addition could be a watch face with the gears and arrows of Tim Holtz bits. Putting that on lace just makes it interesting! This vintage orange velvet corsage is attached to a tiny doily piece. I tied long threads to it to hang down like a ribbon from the corsage.
The fridge is fixed! The repairman found the problem (bad capacitor, relay and overload parts) right away and had it running again in a matter of minutes. And he even had the repair parts on his truck! Can you imagine that??!! I lost most of the items in the freezer. However, the entire fridge is now clean inside and the food that couldn't be salvaged is gone. Feels like new!

Display idea

I tried the bit of mink in yesterday's blog as a display piece. Worked out OK.From left to right: lovely rhinestone earrings, pretty bow pin with purple and pink stones, rhinestone necklace and two old buttons covered in sparkly stones. I also acquired the lace runner in the photo over the weekend.

Prairie Doves 4

This image gave me some pain. Can you imagine wearing a corset and having to tie it tight in order to get a tiny waist which was so popular around 1900?? I couldn't!! That's why I put the following quote on these pages:"Corsets! Too tight! Rather wear my camisole and my pantaloons. Sarah." I have added a vintage garter/stocking piece as well as more lace and a small doily. I don't think they had those fancy garter pieces when this picture was taken. I think these ladies either rolled their stockings or used elastic type garters.

Remember girdles??!!! Ouch!! I was really, really glad when pantihose became popular!! How about you??!!

KC Willis' challenge

KC sent out a challenge to the collage camp members to make a piece using recycled materials. Nothing store-bought except the transfer paper. Use second hand fabrics, doo-dads and trims. Well, I couldn't pass that challenge up! Most everything in my stash is from thrift stores, antique malls, yard sales and estate sales. I've been wanting to do a fabric book, so this was the perfect time to accept the challenge and dive right in. Here is the book titled "Prairie Doves." I wanted it to portray both the cowgirls of the West as well as the ladies of the evening.Here is a pic of the book from the bottom edge. It is filled with fabric, lace, trims and doo-dads.

That's all for this time! Want to get you to come back and see more of the inside pages of this book!

Today's happenings

Today I put a few more items in my booth at Merchant Square. I had an inquiry about where Merchant Square is located so I added a picture (on the left) of their business card as well as a link to their web site. The web site is still a "work in progress," but at least you can get address and phone number information. This weekend, January 30 to February 1 there will be a mall wide sale. On Saturday morning, beginning at 7 a.m., there is a parking lot flea market. Good stuff there!! If you live in the Phoenix area, Merchant Square is located one block south of Warner on Arizona Avenue.

After I left Merchant Square I headed over to Ruffler's Roost's new store in Chandler. They have opened a second store and I couldn't be happier!! There are ribbons and trims galore! Every color, type and size you could want! I have visited their Mesa store a few times, but it is really FAR away for me. This one on Ray Road is much closer.

Look what I found at Rustler's Roost today! Beautiful Valentine ribbons and trims! Can't wait to use these! Don't you love the ribbons with roses on them?!Found today at Merchant Square were these two bags of notions. I love the red and white seam binding in the bag on the left. And the blue and white trim next to it. I bought the thread bag so I could put two small spools on top of this cute little sewing cabinet I found at a yard sale. It will be for sale in Merchant Square by the end of the week.This little cabinet is vintage and made in Japan. I thought it was too cute! I need a tomato pin cushion for it, but haven't found one. Guess I really don't need it.This red box was a find at a thrift store. I decided to make it a Valentine display box. I made the pretty Valentine for the lid and then filled it with my Valentine tags and vintage and antique Valentine-themed postcards.This is a close up of the little Valentine on the lid. The lid actually had some logo on it and I wanted to cover it up.

Another Valentine

I finished another Valentine today. I am not used to the new scanning method that this new computer forces me to follow. It looks like I am going to have to call my "guru" about this to figure out what is going on. I used to be able to initiate scanning from a desktop icon, and now I can't do that. I have to actually ask the scanner (printer, copier, fax combined) to scan and I don't get the whole picture. Makes it tough to scan 3 photos in one picture -- which I discovered yesterday! This one has a lace edging like the others. But I sewed tiny pink beads on the pink heart, then glued it to blue lace, glued to ledger paper, glued to cardstock which was sewn to the heavy weight watercolor paper. Love the sturdiness of these cards! Even the stamp with the pomegranate on it worked well with this card.

How about those Arizona Cardinals yesterday!!! We're going to the Super Bowl!!

Altered book in the works

I am working on an altered book using old and new materials, and recycling others. It is still a work in progress, but I thought I would share a few pages with you. This is the cover. The flower and the lock plate are not fixed yet. Could change my mind on those two things.
This is one of the inside pages. I used an old "Certificate of Merit" as well as old lace. The background is several layers of different papers. This is a great collage technique to use to give the page more depth and interest.
On the wall paper background these birds look great! Love the machine stitching. Just adds interest.
This little girl is also on the page of wall paper. I have used a couple of pages of wall paper in this book. I think you will like the finished product.