If I stay home . . . .

It's amazing what I can get done -- and quickly!  Here are some of my latest creations.

I dyed the tags, stamped the fabric, sewed the stamped sections down to red and white ticking, wrapped the tags with vintage laces.  Yes, I know that Stampington & Co. sells these fabric tags, but they are easy to replicate.  Especially if you have the Bonjour Cavallini stamp set.  Short story on that Bonjour stamp set:  I had bought a duplicate set several years ago.  Listed it on Etsy and it sold immediately.  Since then I have had three inquiries from Etsy people wanting to know if I had any more sets. Hmm!  Cavallini doesn't make that stamp set anymore.

I have a roll of wonderful vintage wallpaper that is white with a heavy flocked pattern.  I created a fancy envelope sometime back and posted it on my blog.  Well, I was wondering what to do with a small left over bit of the wallpaper.  Here is what I did first:

I made another envelope and decorated it.

On both sides.  This is front since the flap is on the other side.

Then I decided to cover a composition notebook with the same wallpaper and this beautiful Paper Whimsy image.  Now, I have a question for you artists.  The glove is an orphan and even though it is made of thin nylon, it is still a bit bulky in order to glue down the image.  Any suggestions on what to do?  I am afraid that since the image sits above the surface of the notebook that it would catch on things and eventually be torn off.  Should I cut the glove up and expose only the fingers and the ruffled cuff?  Should I mount the image on bits of chipboard so that it sits above the glove?  Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Restocking my booth again.

Besides neglecting this blog, I have also been neglecting my booth at Merchant Square.  Once I got back in town I was out shopping for items to put in my booth.  I also got back to doing some artwork.  Take a look!

Put these tags together to display and sell the vintage hat pins I found.  I covered the ends of the pins with the old photos of ladies with hats on.  The photos come from one of Tim Holtz' papers.

Some "Haute Couture" tags I made.  I had made a few about a month ago and they sold out right away.  So I have replenished my stock.  More projects are in the pipe line to get finished this week.  Also working on some repurposed clothing.  That should be interesting!  ((smile))

Was lucky enough to find a lot of pearl necklaces last week.  Great bargain, too, since they were on sale.  So I will be replenishing the pearls in the booth.  Haven't found any bargains in pearls until last Thursday.

I found this pretty plate one day as well as the glass candle holder.  I turned the candle cup/holder upside down, glued (don't you love E6000 glue??!!) a small porcelain knob on top of it, and voila!  A small cloche to protect a favorite trinket or keepsake you have!

This is the plate.  It is marked Germany and has pretty pink flowers and lovely raspberries on it.  So pretty!

It's time to destash my stamp collection so I pulled these out, priced them and they will be in my booth tomorrow.  They are clean and most have never been used.  I am a collector -- can you tell??!!  There will be more stamps coming to my booth in the days to come.

Something else I found recently.  These are heavy gauge wire light bulb covers to put over unprotected light bulbs.  I have seen them painted and used like a cloche to cover small items in a display.  I like the mini plant inside the one on the plate.

If you live close to Merchant Square in Chandler, be sure to check out my booth -- C-6.

A place to visit -- The Embellished House

Last Thursday, Joy and I went to visit The Embellished House in Scottsdale after we had read about it on Karen Valentine's blog, My Desert Cottage.  We weren't disappointed!  The Embellished House has a bit of everything!  From the colorful, to the blingy, to the "steampunk", to just wonderful!  All in one place!

The colorful!

The blingy!

Some salvage, some steampunk!

Industrial storage!  Salvage chic!

Clocks and globes!

Silver and glass!  My fav!

Trophy cups!  Why can't I find these?

Perhaps because they are all here!!

Bottles, frames, candelabras, chandeliers!

I love these tags!

The necklace says "collect" on one side --

"lets face it...I want it all." on the other!

I bought it!

I recommend you make a trip to see The Embellished House on Scottsdale Road, just north of Shea.  It's worth the trip!  Take my word for it, there isn't another place like it in Phoenix!  It has something for everyone, whether it's blingy or steampunk, it's there!  Visit soon!

Fluffed my booth this morning

Went to an estate sale last Friday that produced a lot of old smalls for my booth.  Have also been making tags to tuck into spaces in my booth as well.  You can see the entire new photo album on my Judy B's Shabby Chic Facebook page, or my home page.  Click on the pics to enlarge them.  Here are my favorite corners.

Someone had taken an old frame that contains a shabby mirror (silver missing in spots) and added tall spindly legs in black.  This was too special to pass up.  Also that shabby silver candy dish on it was too cute!

Also found this old shabby white bowl (cracked but still holding up) probably from a pitcher and bowl set.  It was outside and a plant had been sitting in it.  So I cleaned it up and now it contains three vintage serving pieces, pretty shells and an old notebook full of handwritten and news clippings of recipes.

This little corner holds some Cavallini Easter postcards, tags I made, some Cavallini Paris postcards tucked into the train case, and that great ash tray lamp with plenty of bling.

If you live in the area, I hope you will visit sometime soon!!

Spice shakers redeux

There were four of these spice shakers in the thrift store two weeks ago.  I had my "thinking outside the box" hat on that day and bought them.  I cleaned them up and then went to work on them.

I filled each one from my stash of small pearly buttons, wrapped these two in old lace and tulle, stamped clear round tags and tied them on.  A lot of people buy buttons from me.  Don't know exactly why -- do they collect, do they sew, do they do mixed media art???  Anyway, what better way to display a jar of tiny pearly buttons in your sewing room or to give as a gift for someone else.

These two are again wrapped with pieces of vintage lace and the tags are antiqued and then an old white rose bead is attached.  Way pretty, don't you think??

Once the buttons are used up, the shaker can hold glass glitter, regular glitter, or more buttons for your crafting.

Wordless Wednesday

Tag creations

Don't ask me why, but I got the urge to use yellow in these creations. For some reason, yellow just seemed to be a color to use. Not a color I am normally drawn to use. But I thought these turned out pretty good. Here is another tag in one of my favorite colors, pink! No surprise there!

Valentine tags

Been working today on a bunch of Valentine tags to take to Merchant Square this week. We are having another big three day sale there this weekend and I want to get these tags up there for the sale.

The papers for the above four tags are from the Basic Grey paper pad "Eva." Loved the colors and the smaller print on the paper. Regular 12"x12" paper print is sometimes too big for a tag.

The background paper for this tag is "Hope" by Melissa Francis. Love this paper! All the images here are from an image sheet that can be purchased from Mystic Paper. They have individual sheets with lots of vintage photos.

Also have printed out some images from Instant Memories "Love" book. This book has ready-to-use scrapbook pages and a CD from which you can download the individual photos and ephemera. Tomorrow I will be working on more vintage Valentines using the images from "Love".

Pretty tags!

I've been working on some pretty tags. Love Cavallini bird postcards, vintage lady images and Cavallini paper. These are just a sample of the tags. I plan to sell them at Merchant Square.

All have lots of sparkle by using Stickles. Love those little squeeze bottle of glitz! I have yet to add ribbon ties and perhaps a few words on each one.