The Infamous Glass Tile Pendants

Tile pendants are all over Pinterest these days. My sister made some a while back and was gracious enough to show me her source for supplies and give me quick instructions. Mandi has been making a lot of gorgeous jewelry lately. Check out her blog Handi Dandi and shop her creations at The Goodness Shop. Next I'll share the funky turquoise and gold beaded necklace she made me from new supplies and some fun vintage finds.

I knew I wanted to make some necklaces for Sarah's Heart to Heart Swap this year. I always want to join this swap but never seem to get it together in time to craft after Christmas. There are always some unique interpretations of the "Valentine" for this swap and I wanted to make sure to measure up and thought these pendants would be fun. To check out all of the swap Valentines click HERE to visit Shara for a roundup.



I used some paper from a Martha Stewart Valentine's Day paper pad I purchased last year because I couldn't resist the cuteness. The page I used had several 1 inch designs that looked like stamps. I think the Love pattern was my favorite but I used other images as well:



The bails I used were silver and shaped like hearts and I alternated between silver and hot pink ball chain depending on the design.



I packaged them up on some pretty Simply Shabby Chic tags I found in the two dollar section at Michaels and tucked them into plastic goody bags. I also had some Valentine stamp stickers from that same Martha line and I used those to seal up the back.

These pendants were fun to make and very affordable to make in bulk. All of the supplies (except for the paper and tools) are from Sun and Moon Craft Kits. Please check out my latest article on the Examiner for details on how to make your own pendants by clicking HERE.

Bewitching Beauties

I was happy to join Sarah's Halloween Ornament swap this year and blow the dust off of some of my crafting skills. Everytime I join a swap I start freaking out that I won't finish in time. Luckily my second idea turned out well (the first, not so much) and I was able to finish them up with time to spare.



My theme was Bewitching Beauties. I love using vintage images* in collage art and when I came upon some cute scrapbook borders of different poisons I knew I wanted to show a fancy lady with her preferred method of getting rid of her problems. ;)



I gave each beauty a witch hat, crepe paper collar and some bling and packaged her up in a sweet little toile bag. Toile made of skulls that is. Spooky.

I've received my return package and all I can say is WOW. These crafty ladies are good. I'll share links to Sarah's posts of all the creations soon!

Cheers ~

* - I find a lot of my images here.

Christmas in July

Well technically, the day AFTER Christmas in July. As usual, I'm running behind. I promised myself I'd be starting my holiday gifts by now. Yeah, well, you know . . . but I have an idea of what I'm making. Well sort of. Needless to say, I'm not nearly as organized as I had hoped to be. BUT I plan to change that on Saturday. I have the day to my self (my DH is off racing Ferraris - more on that later) so I will have a day of cleaning, catching up on my Tivo and at the very least making a list of my holiday gift crafts and hopefully starting one. Anyone else have holiday crafting on the brain??

On my list?

Monkey hats for everyone. Available in sizes newborn to adult. Oh yeah. Found here.
I have some photos to share from last weekend's Beach Blanket Bingo party plus a few thrifted goodies. I'll be getting right on that. You know how organized I am. ;)

cheers ~ Rebecca

Decking the Halls

So how about a spin around the living room?



The tree. I love love love ornaments so it's full, I know. But like I said, I love it.

A few ornaments . . .



A vintage inspired beauty I made this year at the craft party. These are my favorite kinds to make. I have a whole box of dresdens, foil leaves, pretty tinsel and rhinestones in anticipation of making more.



Another handmade ornament from the party this year. I bleached the bottle brush tree, hot glued it into a small glass ball and made a hanger around the top with wire. It is decorated with beads cut from plastic bead garland and Martha Stewart mica flake glitter. Oh and more tinsel trim, of course.



My favorite recent vintage ornament find, a very intricate felt donkey. Isn't he the best? I just adore him.



And a sweet little girl made by Shara last year. This is the first year she's been on my tree since I was at my Mom's over the holiday last year.



And my house is never complete without a festive bar. I love vintage Culver glass wear and mix it with more modern red Lenox glasses. I wish I could have cocktail parties a la the 1950s. :)



And a rather sad display of the glittered churches (there is a silver one off to the left) I found for a song at Target after Christmas last year. They are lovely all lit up but need a better display place next year, I think. More bleached bottle brush trees glued into glittered wooden spools, too.

We are off to Baltimore tomorrow. Have a safe and VERY MERRY Christmas! I'm looking forward to some major Goodness over here in 2011. :)

xoxoxo ~ Rebecca

More Goodness

The rest of the ornaments arrived from the Goodness Girls just proving again why our annual ornament swap is my favorite!



First up from Jodi is this adorable plaque with vintage postcard image. Red? Glittery? Vintage? Perfect!

Then this package from Leigh Ann came the next day:



Her love of Texas shows!



A cute vintage cowgirl blue bell! I tried to photograph this one on the tree but this picture looked a lot better.

And then yesterday Heidi's ornament arrived:



Don't you just love it?



Clever and adorable!

Thank you girls, yet again your ornaments are some of my favorites and will have places of honor on my tree.

And remember when I posted the dresses that I made for this year's ornament and said I got the idea from The Felt Mouse? Here is the link to her original creations. Thanks, Jen!

I hope to be back to post before the holiday!

ho ho ho
Rebecca

Book Reviews - Get your craft on!

Hello all,

I'm still waiting for my crafty mojo to come back from vacation so to stoke the fires I ordered some new books from Amazon.

Fabric Remix - Sandy Stone

Fabric Remix has loads of projects using repurposed fabrics. Sandy Stone is a woman after my own heart. She loves to shop estate sales ad flea markets and make the old new again. My favorite project is a dog bed made from a rug. It's really cute and would probably last longer than the beds I buy which seem to end up super flat in no time. :) I've been emailing with Sandy about an interview at the Examiner so I'll be able to share more about her inspirations and future projects soon!

The photos are nice and the instructions are pretty good, too, though I haven't tried anything yet. I do think you have to have "an eye" for old fabrics to get the same sort of results. I do love that pom-pom fringe covered ottoman on the cover though Sandy states that it does take some time to attach all that trim but worth the effort. :)

Tilda's Christmas Ideas - Tone Finnanger

I know you're probably tired of hearing me babble about my love of Tilda books but the latest edition is just as sweet as the others. It's a short one, with a few new Christmas projects, and is priced around $6.00. If you haven't tried any Tilda projects yet, this is a good place to start due to the price and the few projects to choose from.

As always, the pictures are gorgeous and it's printed on large lovely matte paper which appeals to the fiber lover in me. There are the cute santas on the cover plus pixies in a similar fashion, sweet little stuffed snowmen (which are shown under shabby dessert cloches!) and the cutest vintage ice skate/boot stocking which will be my first holiday project this year. Tilda books always make me want to drag out the sewing machine! Check out my article on the book HERE at the Examiner.

Fa La La La Felt - Amanda Carestio

If you love crafting with felt, this book is for you! It's a collection of fun projects that range from easy to slightly difficult though I don't think there is anything too intense in here. I think this would be good for some projects with kids as felt is easy to deal with and they can decorate with all sorts of fun embellishments.

I love the stuffed trees on the cover but I think my favorite project are the cute little Christmas pudding ornaments made from soda bottle caps! Cute AND clever. They are definitely on my list for crafting this year. Depending on the ease of the project I may include them in my upcoming annual Christmas Crafting Tea that I hostess with my Mom. I also love the peppermint candy garland and the felt doves perched on hinge clothes pins to clip on your tree. There are a lot of other projects in the book and you can read more in the review I posted HERE on the Examiner.

So this is where I'm going to get some of my holiday inspiration. I also got out my collection of knitting and crochet magazines hoping to get the spark to start a new gift. Lately I've just been tired and blah and honestly, I'm sick of it! Time to get holly jolly, don't you think? Do you have any tips for getting in the crafty mood?

Fondly ~ Rebecca

Halloween Crown Swap Part 2

I was so excited to come home to a box waiting for me yesterday. My crown from Samantha had arrived!



Isn't it gorgeous? Made from chicken wire, ribbon, vintage images and flowers. I've always wanted to make a wire crown but haven't tried it yet. Now I have my very own! I love how it looks on the pumpkin. I will get a shot of me wearing it as soon as I get rid of the cold I'm nursing, I'm looking rather wretched lately, lol.



I love the little party girl there on the top.



The vintage pumpkin and October 31st are adorable, too. I requested a "sweet" crown and she got it perfect!



Samantha also included a cute glittery BOO banner. There was a glittery owl, too, but some how he didn't make it into the photo! I think he's off there to the left. lol

Thank you so much, Samanatha! I love it. My craft room is filled with creations from all the talented ladies I've met over the years and the crown will have a place of honor. :)

I loved this swap so much I'm considering hosting my own crown swap. Maybe fall themed? Or holiday? For some reason Ice Princess is screaming my name. :) Anyone interested?

xoxoxo ~ Rebecca

Halloween Crown Swap

When Sarah at My So Called Junky Life announced a crown swap you KNOW I was right on it. I LOVE making crowns. In fact, I think I'll make myself a crown this weekend now that I've completed my crown for the swap. My partner is Samantha, one of the bloggers at Altered Junkies. I can't wait to see what she creates for me! My crown arrived to Samantha earlier this week and I've been dying to share so here we go . . .



I used black poster board (which is how I start all of my paper crowns) and cut out my crown shape.



I cut out grave stones from the Cricut Cartridge October 31st and glittered them with fine Martha Stewart glitter.



The moon graphic is from the ever fabulous Graphics Fairy and the sparkly letters are from Michaels. Do you know that I have an entire DRAWER of chip board glittered letters? Seriously.



I love how it turned out. I think when I make one for myself I'll call it "Scream Queen" what do you think?  Now that the "Wicked" crown is with it's new owner that white pumpkin looks a bit lonely.

Click here to see my album of crowns at Flickr!

I've also been busy at the Examiner and think I've written one of my favorite articles to date! I was able to interview Marlo from Contain Ya Crafts and it was a great experience! She is fun and interesting and really KNOWS what crafters are looking for in their storage needs. Please click HERE to read the interview. I also posted some fabulous Halloween crafts from Jen at Lipstick and Laundry. Check out the article HERE and make sure to stop by to visit her. She makes the most beautiful things from everyday materials! Thank you so much for your support with the Examiner. I'm enjoying finding new inspiration and meeting new people and hope you're enjoying them as well!

cheers ~ R

Stop looking amnd start doing . . .

I really wanted to go to the flea market this weekend. But when Sunday rolled around I just wanted to stay home. I'd been out most of the day on Saturday and really want to spend some time on the sofa. Then I thought I'd just head to the thrift but I couldn't seem to motivate myself to do that either. So I fretted about for awhile, thinking about what I was missing. Wondering if there were some fabulous craft supplies out there with my name on them. Then it hit me. I have PLENTY of supplies right here from countless trips. Why not just use what I have?

When I cleaned my sun porch this weekend (which was sadly over due) I found two cloches I picked up at the thrift YEARS ago. They aren't really cloches, I believe they are meant to hold candles in some sort of holder thing. Hard to explain but I thought they were cute and planned to use them to cover a few seedlings back when I was trying to cultivate a green thumb. Looking at them on Saturday I was struck with a different idea.



I have purchased several ornaments that are small glass cloches or jars that have little scenes inside and thought I could turn my little containers into something just as cute.



This project turned out even better then I thought it would! I only used things I had (which isn't much of a feat considering my hoarding tendencies) and am very happy with the results.



I had a huge pack of bottle brush trees picked up at an after Christmas sale for pennies and a big jar of Martha Stewart mica type glitter.

 

I used some beads I cut from picks that I thrifted earlier this year plus some other little odds and ends in my scrapbook supply bin. I piled up glue around the bottom of the trees to make it look like snow drifts and poured on the glitter. Then I glued down the cloche and added a sparky pipe cleaner hanger and tag with the year on it.



I love them! And now I want to make more Christmas things even though I have all of my fall and Halloween stuff out on the desk to work on. :) I'm very easily distracted.

Stop by the my page at The Examiner for my latest articles. If you click HERE you can read about  CricutSearch.com, a free online tool that has a searchable data base of ALL Cricut cartridges. A fabulous tool when you are looking for a certain shape and aren't sure which cartridge you saw it on. You can click HERE and see a great holiday DIY gift idea on making a stylish cuff from an old belt. It's clever and quick and will give you a great head start on your holiday gift crafting. Thank you so much for your support! Don't forget to send me your projects and ideas.

I'll also be having a give away this week. When going through my supplies this weekend I found a lot of Halloween items that I'd like to share. Come back soon!

My Fair Ladies

I've been wanting to have the chance to spend some time in the clean craft room but the new job and house work has kept me busy. I managed to get up super early yesterday and drag out a few supplies and start on a heritage album:



I spent most of my time sitting there "thinking" about what to do and not really doing! (Don't you ahet that?) But at least I got some creative time in. I also remembered that I haven't shared the latest Victorian Lady I finished up a few weeks ago and quickly snapped some pictures:



It really is much cuter then this photo lets on! I used a fan ornament I found at the thrift store, some vintage photos I printed from here and some great silver leaves that Shara sent me some time ago. I actually started it back when I made this ornament I made two years ago:



You can see the original post here. Oh yes, TWO YEARS it's been sitting in pieces waiting to be finished. Oh how I procrastinate lol. However, I'm glad the pair is done! I think they are so cute and I keep them in little shadow boxes I found on clearance forever ago:



Cute, right? So as you can imagine I put the heritage album stuff away and drug out my files of Victorian ladies and started on some Halloween witches. Hopefully they will be finished by October 2012. ;) I'll share those soon! Has any one else started on fall crafts yet?

Please stop by and read my latest article on refinishing flea market furniture. I have an expert guest who gives great tips on stripping off and repainting the pieces. This is the first post where I feature that expert who happens to be my dad! So please visit and see what he has to say. You won't be sorry! :)

Digging In

I love fall. It really sparks me to be creative. I was so worried that my back and leg problem would keep me from enjoying my favorite season but I'm feeling better and better every day. Tuesday I'll have my sutures out which to me starts the beginning of my road to better health. I can't wait to be "back to normal" and to start doing all those things I love about this time of year.

Yesterday dear Louie took me out to the thrift store, book store and craft store. My favorite Trifecta of Shopping. Nothing too exciting about the thrifts except these fun old canning jars:

I love these for storing things in the craft room and for using as fun containers for holiday gifts. Perhaps I'll stuff one with a sewing kit including a handmade needle book like the ones I made for friends a few years back:

That was such a fun project! I added them to traditional mason jars and made the tops into pin cushions. Perhaps with these glass topped jars I'll make one of these cute little crocheted pin cushions made from a bottle cap:

Earlier this summer I thrifted this lovely collection of vintage crochet cotton.

Don't you just love the colors? They would make adorable bottle cap pin cushions.

I also picked up the fall issues of some of my favorite crafting magazine and have already started both a knitting and a cross stitch project. (you KNOW I can't work on just one thing at once!) So as you can see, I am motivated to get a move on with my holiday crafty gifts. Anyone else start making for the holidays yet?

I realize that I have lots to catch up on so expect to hear from me more often. Next time: The BEST handcrafted piece of furniture you'll ever see.

xoxoxo

~RR

Hats ON to the USA?

Hello! How was your holiday? I am back from my loooong weekend in Baltimore and finally have something creative to share! Yeah! Mom, Mandi and I got together on Friday and made ourselves some Yankee Doodle Dandy crowns to celebrate the 4th.



Man my glasses are tilted! I've been trying to fix that forever. :) I'm guessing one ear is lower than the other lol.



Crowns are easy to make. I just freehand a crown design on poster board and cut it out. I fold it in half to make sure it's symmetrical. Then glue paper to both sides and decorate to your hearts desire! Wrapping paper works well because you can cover the entire surface but you can always cover the seams if you want to use regular paper like I did. The you punch some holes along the ends and thread ribbon through and tie it to fit.



I started out thinking I would cut out stars and use glass glitter on them. I have a small jar of fine glass glitter just waiting to be called to duty. I tried one and it looked blech. :( So I used some sparkled paper I picked up forever ago at Joann's. It's sticky on one side and worked perfectly! I hope they still carry it because I'll be back for more.



This is my Mom's crown. She used an image we downloaded from Country Living for a more vintage look.



The sides are covered in vintage flowers that I received in the Red, White & Blue swap. We also used some sheet music and ribbons that Sarah sent as well. It worked perfect!



My sister's crown is of course unique just like she is!



I love the stars on the side! She said it made her feel like Wonder Woman LOL.

We had a great time making our crowns and wearing them on the 4th. Maybe this will become a tradition! I was very inspired by the RWB swap with Sarah to try my hand at paper crafting again. I always forget how much I enjoy it.

I have more pictures to share from the 4th that I'll save for another post. Plus I'm pushing back my shop update until next week when Mandi is here for a visit. I need her to model the aprons! I also received the most amazing package from a Queenly Friend. Thanks again!

See here for the first crown I made!

Ciao!

Decking the Halls

Hello . . . I know I've been absent but things have been, well, BUSY. I know you all are feeling the same way. So I've decided to stop kidding myself that I'm going to be able to post anything worth reading over the next few weeks and CALL IT A YEAR.

But before I go I thought to share some of my ornaments and decorations with you:


This was my friend Dita's idea and I love it! What's really making me laugh is the inch of dust on top of my hutch! Once I saw this picture I got up this with the duster LOL. Keepin' it real over here!




We made some really cute little shadow box ornaments this year but of course I forgot to photograph most of them before I sent them out. Made from paper scraps, printed Victorian images and sayings, ribbon and jewelry box lids. Easy!



And yes, and this is the banner that I made! Congrats to Diane for guessing correctly first! Want to see what I sent her? Go here.



A sweet fairy Santa my Mom brought me from St. Michaels, Maryland. I love his little trumpet and pointy nose!

And now I'm off to finish the 80 million things I need to do before Christmas. I'll be back in the New Year better than ever! I have ideas for some swaps and tutorials and patterns that I hope you'll enjoy. And now my message to you:


*from an embroidered stocking I made for a swap . . will share more about that in 2009!

Enjoy your holidays however you celebrate!

fondly,
Rebecca