DIY Book Page Poinsettias Pattern And Tutorial

I have been making some Christmas crafts myself too! along with being busy making some new ornaments, I needed something for the top of the tree. I decided I wanted to make some book page poinsettias to match the new book page honeycomb ornaments but every pattern that I found had perfect little petals and natural poinsettias just don't look like that...so I just made one.

Even though a natural poinsettia doesn't have book page print on them I still wanted them to have a natural shape :))

Once it was completed I sprayed it with alcohol ink to give it an aged look. I liked it so well that I am doing some not just for the top but for the whole tree. I also tried one in red but I think I like the first one the best. I still have to get some beads to go in the centers. I will put them on a wire so they can just be stuck in the center. That way they can be removed so that they can be folded flat for storage. They are fast and easy and will keep from year to year... so go ahead and make a bunch! 

Pattern and Instructions are available in my little etsy store

Story Time.... and showing off my vintage souvenir locket assemblage!

As I said in my last post, I have been busy making some pieces for hubby's store. I guess I should call it our store now, since I am getting so many of my pieces in it :)) Anyway... I thought I would show off one of the necklaces I have done recently. If you click on the thumb.. it will take you to some much better pictures.

I have really enjoyed making these pieces, it is just so relaxing for me. I thought I would give you a glimpse into my creative process. Now I am no writer, however I can just sit there for hours in my own little world and make up my corny stories... something I have really not told any one :)) It seems that when I do this, things just flow together... like they belong together. I don't get stuck on what should I add here or what colors to go with...So I thought I would share a condensed version of one... here goes...

Somewhere in England during the dark ages a carriage makes its way down a bumpy dirt road carrying a lovely young lady to visit her dear aunt in the neighboring castle. Suddenly a group of bandits appear stopping the carriage and over taking the driver and its guard. They kidnap the young lady to hold her for ransom and during the struggle the necklaces she wears are broken and fall to the ground... 

She is later rescued by Robin Hood and returned to her home.... but that is another necklace :)) Can you tell I was a big fan of BBC's Robin Hood? at least until they killed of Marian... I really lost interest after that.

So on with the story... along comes a little peasant girl who had been in the forest all day gathering mushrooms and berries for dinner that night. She finds the broken necklaces on the ground and gathers up all the pieces. Later that night she assembles them all together creating a lovely necklace and presents it to her dying mother. Her mother is so pleased and tells her daughter that she knows in her heart that she is going to become a wonderful woman. She implores her not to be satisfied with her station in life. To always strive to better herself. 

After her mothers death, the young girl wakes up before dawn every day and goes out into the forest gathering mushrooms, berries and wild flowers. She then spends her evenings in the little village selling them, saving her money in hopes of attending the boarding school for young ladies in the city. 

One day while out in the forest she encounters non other than Robin Hood :)) He asks her why she is out so deep in the woods and she tells him of her mother and her hopes to go to school someday. 

Well that is just not something Robin Hood could let pass so a few days later he shows up at the little girls cottage. He gives her a trunk of clothing.... that he had liberated from some rich passer by and a pouch of gold coins... enough for her to go to school. The little girl is thrilled.

Then in all her newly acquired finery she makes her way to the city where she enrolls in the school for young ladies, carefully watching the other girls and mimicking there mannerisms. She learns quickly and begins to make friends and to be a lady. Soon one of her friend notices her necklace and convinces her to create one for her. Using the girls jewelry she makes an elegant and unique pendant for her. All of the other girls began to notice and soon were coming to her to create one for them. 

When spring break came her close friend told her that her mother had seen her necklace and hoped she would come visit during there break and put together some things for her. The girl did and while there met a handsome young gentleman. Over time they corresponded, met on occasion (dated) then he asks her to marry him and they live happily ever after. 

Ok... really corny story but I like it and it helps me focus on my work :)) 

           

Studio Progress

I have been so busy! Yes... working on the studio and getting my planting done.I have also been busy working on my studio.. I finished the "crate stack" for my printer. I added some vintage casters and a little lace curtain to hide my inkjet printer. 

 

and I have put some of the vintage locker baskets to use... I have been arranging and rearranged things a hundred times...lol. I even put the newspaper shelf paper on my bookcase. So here is another peek at that. 

I got much of my lace wound onto the printable spools that I posted previously. 

I just love to edge them with a gold paint pen... They look so authentic

Its all coming together now... I am so excited! 

Happiness in the kitchen once again! Free Printable Little Cooks... Chefs

I know you all think my hubby is the greatest but he does have a few quarks that really bug. One of those is that he insists on having a bunch of junk sitting on the counter all the time! So I put it all on a wooden tray so that when company came I could quickly hide it away in the pantry. But I STILL HAD TO LOOK AT IT!  Recently I saw a post on pintrest where a lady had put all her tea necessities on a silver tray and knew that was my answer. I found one I loved at a local thrift store and on went all his junk.

I put his splenda in a little silver sugar (of course) his creamer in a little silver overlay creamer jar. Not that he drinks coffee... he has to add it to his hot chocolate to make it creamer...lol. I found a silver swan napkin holder. Our butter has always been in a vintage refrigerator dish. I used the sugar shaker for his garlic salt and his vitamins and hot chocolate packets went in the silver biscuit canister. Now there is happiness in our kitchen once more!

Feel free to pin the thumb above but please do not pin the actual download. I would like everyone to stop by here to download it so they don't miss all my other fun free downloads

A Working Studio ... Free Scissor Printable

I am loving being able to work in my studio again. I made this cute little necklace with the tiniest little antique change purse.

 Not only am I able to create again but with all my supplies and tools in place I can now start getting things organized and decorated! I have just added a new "old" shelf that hubby made me from an old door and antique door knobs.

and I have to show off my latest find... a scissor light for my workbench. I was so excited to find this. I pictured it with an antique light bulb but I have ordered some reproduction Edison light bulbs to actually use.

I got some crates from the craft store. I distressed them and used vinegar and steel wool to age them. I think they are perfect for Fairyland and some of my little theaters. My other distraction you can see sitting on the crate below.... Yep... I got a Pazzles cutter! You can copy and paste any .jpg into it so if you have software to open the cut files you can convert them to .jpg and just copy them into this cutter. I have just been going crazy finding all the fun cut files available! I will be making some stencils for the sides of the crates too. Just as soon as I figure out the software for it.. lol.

Speaking of decorating and scissors... I thought this little graphic might look good blown up and framed. I think it would make a cute little card too. I hope you can come up with a fun use for it :) Oh and I almost forgot to say... check out the brand on those scissors she is holding :))

Feel free to pin the thumb above but please do not pin the actual download. I would like everyone to stop by here to download it so they don't miss all my other fun free downloads

Vintage French Chocolate Change Pocket Envelope Free Printable

I love this little change pocket. When a servant was sent to purchase something, the change was often put in a change pocket with the item to be given to the employer. I love this little French chocolate change pocket and I wanted to have it posted for Valentines day. It could be used to hold a little card or tea bag for a birthday gift too.

 

Studio Update

I am not quite ready to show the entire studio redo but I thought I would share a few pictures.

As much as I love my new-old sewing trunk, the sewing space is a little cramped. For everyday sewing and mending it is fine but for those time I need a larger surface it sucked. So we picked up this old sewing machine cabinet on Craigeslist and removed the sewing machine and turned it into a sewing table. Here is a picture of the before.

and then the after...

The top folds over for even more work surface and since this picture was taken I bought one of those little pads so your cell phone wont slip off the dash of your car and placed it on the treadle for my foot peddle...worked great :) 

Then my printer was a big problem. It is a professional version color laser so it was large and just doesn't fit the theme of the room. So we bought an old Victrola cabinet for it. I forgot to take a before picture but here is the after picture. 

   

 And then... check out what I scored on Craigeslist this week! Yep... a whole bunch of vintage locker baskets! I am an organizational freak and now I am going to have things more organized than I have ever had them before :))

Studio Update Sewing Trunk Free Sewing Printable

I know this studio redo is taking forever! I have so many projects and I keep doing a little on this one and a little on that one... and nothing is getting done! So I decided to just get one completed : )

This is what I started with.

First I darkened the interior metal with jewelry blackening, then painted the inside with a dark cream paint. My thought was to paint sign graphics from an antique sewing store sign on it but then I found this fabric and I was in love. Hubby built a shelf that sat on the metal brackets you can see in the picture to hold my sewing machine. It has a drop down cover so I can pull the machine out to sew. We added some large casters so that it would be the right height to sit at and also so that it would open and close easily. 

This is with the drop down desk closed 

... and this is with it open

Oh yes... and the free printable... what else could I post :))

Feel free to pin the thumb above but please do not pin the actual download. I would like everyone to stop by here to download it so they don't miss all my other fun free downloads

Enjoy!

Inka 

Studio Progress

I wanted to wait and show pictures of the completed studio but things are not going quite as quickly as I had hoped. I keep apologizing for not posting and making up excuses, but the truth is my health has not been great. I had hoped that I could keep up but it really has slowed me down. So I am going to have to just admit that I just can't keep up the pace I have in the past. I love sharing my free printables and I do have so many goodies to share so please forgive me and I will post them as often as I can. Once I get the work on the studio done, I should be able to get some goodies up a little more often.

This is what I started with. I found this awesome bedroom set on craigslist. It had fallen off the truck while being moved so it was in sad shape. The amour's door was missing and someone had put shelf's in it to use it for a bookshelf. There was trim missing on top. a broken drawer in the bottom that did not even match and one foot was badly worm eaten. The trim on the headboard had been busted and some of it was missing. There was a foot board too but it did not get into the picture. The set of drawers were missing some of the nobs and had the top replaced with an odd marble.

But my hubby is handy dandy. He cut the top down on the amour to eliminate the missing trim and also because it was too tall for my studio. The foot board had the same carved feet as the amour so it took one from it and replaced the destroyed foot on the amour. Then he took out the drawer and replaced the shelf's with some oak that he stained the same color. Since I haven't gotten to the decorating stage, it is covered with junk so the finished picture will have to wait.. but it is good!   

Then hubby used the headboard and the piece that went across the bottom of the foot board to make me a desk. We used legs from a table that I had picked up at the thrift shop and some antique picture frame trim that I had found at a yard sale a long while back. He designed a keyboard mechanism so that it disappears up under the desk when not in use.

I have ordered a glass top to fit but for now I am just using a glass cutting board to protect the top until it comes in. As you can see by the pictures, I had a hard time choosing the wall color but after painting three times, I settled on chocolate brown :))

 

 

These baskets have really taken me some time since there are eight of them. I found them at Homegoods and made some altered art fabric liners for them. I will be putting on some antique library label holders on them too. They are sitting on an old wardrobe trunk that I also found on craigslist.... but more on that later :)  

My Table Top Mannequin and Bortree Corsets Paper Doll Free Printable

I really have a treat for you today :) I don't know if you have noticed but I always try to post something that goes along with what I am working on. Well I have been working on my studio. I had planned to make one big post with all my studio projects but things are taking a bit longer than I had hoped... so I thought I would just start posting some of my smaller projects.

I bought this mannequin bust on ebay but as you can see it is not quite my style. A redo was in order. I hated the thought of having to sew a new cover so I thought I would try painting it first. Because I did not want to loose the softness or texture of the fabric, I used some textile medium with my acrylic paint and gave it a whirl... it worked! I added a candle stick to the bottom and then had my son cut me a stencil that I took from one of my favorite paper dolls for the wording.

It now has a home on top of my favorite project so far.. but more of that later.

 

The paper doll that I took my inspiration from is an advertising paper doll for corsets made by Bortree manufacturing. I hope you love her as much as I do :)

Feel free to pin the thumb above but please do not pin the actual download. I would like everyone to stop by here to download it so they don't miss all my other fun free downloads

Tattered Lighting

Although I have not been blogging much and I had a ton of junk going on, I still somehow found time to do a few creative things around the house and I thought I would share one of them with you today.

I finally got hubby to run the electricity for the wall sconce I picked up on ebay. The shade it came with looked ridiculous. It was an oval but it hit the wall and was obviously too large. I wish I had taken a picture of it before...

So I picked up a round shade at the thrift shop and removed the paper from the wires. Then I cut a third off the back and straightened the wire that I removed, resoldered it back on so that it now had a flat side to go against the wall. Then I wrapped the entire frame with strips of torn muslin.

I sewed on sections of fabric and lace from my scrap bin, added some kewl buttons and...

I ended up with this... I was pretty happy with the outcome.

This is from the side. I wanted you to see how I sewed some of the scraps inside the frame and some on the outside of the frame... it really worked for that tattered effect I was after.

I have been up to a few more projects too! I think I mentioned I was working on a major redo of my studio so here is a sneek peek.

and this is a peek and one of the projects that I am working on too. This is a before glimpse however. I will be posting the before and after of all the projects soon!

Serving Up Silver Platter Paper Dolls

Did you know you can have yourself made into a paper doll? I have not had these listed for some time but just decided I would list them again. These are dolls I did of some of my friends sometime back but I just made some new sheets that you can steampunk any paper dolls with so I used them. This is such a fun idea... Just because I used my paper dolls you really can use any paper dolls.

I just love tarnished silver and I have been looking for ways to merge my art with my decor! Anyway... every time I see a piece of old silver plate in one of the local resale stores... I just have to buy it! Since I don't have a lot of storage in my little house, I have started to just put it on the walls.

Recently I discovered that magnets will stick to some of them. You do have to be careful though, not all silver plate platters will accept magnets. It depends on what base metal they were made with so test them before you buy them. Here are a few ideas I have come up with to give them a little more pizzazz. I have use the magnets to attach old photos and papers, I have added magnetic hooks to hold my jewelry

Or how about hanging scarfs on those hooks!

 

 and now of course... I am dressing them up with paper dolls.

 

 

I just added some magnetic strips to the back of my dolls and instant steampunk decor! These are kinda a grown up version however this would be such a fun way to decorate a little girls room too.

I colored them with watercolor crayons and then added some printed graphics from some of my other collage sheets to steampunk them out. I also added some real gears, feathers and chain to give them an additional layer of interest.

All things old are sometimes new!

I had this old earring holder but it had been designed for the old clip on earrings and it was very unstable. It had just a wire tripod for the bottom. So hubby used the cutting blade on my dremel to cut slots in it to accommodate my pierced style earrings. Then I used the base of an old candle holder to give it some stability.
 

and all those old parts.............

Well they became my new bracelet holder.

We drilled a hole in the little silver coaster to hold rings and the bracelets that did not hang well and then used old parts from a candle holder and some dead clocks we took apart.... very steampunk kewl!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Gentleman In Every Way ... MMM Buttons

This week over at Mixed Media Monday the theme is buttons. I know it is suppose to be Mixed Media Monday but I can never seem to get things done by Monday so I am always late. I just don't work that fast. By time the theme is announced it takes me a few days to get my artwork done.... but here are my buttons!This is truly a noble effort ... another piece for my bathroom. I started with a smashed leather toiletry case.

The poem in the mirror reads

A gentleman in every way,
His sparkling eyes do smile.
His cloths are always sure to be
In just the latest style

 

The watch case features fabric with news and map print that has been dirtied up with a little rust, a brass leaf branch, a top hat from a monopoly set, a brass harmonica charm, a rusty spring topped with a brass treble cliff and the typewritter of "H" for Heaton.

Yep ... that is my hubby in the rusted picture frame... a much younger version I must admit. He is much older and rustier himself now :))

Oh you beautiful dolls!

I think I mentioned that recently I had been doing a little private tutoring. When Janice and her granddaughter Michelle decided to start a little enterprise creating art together, they approached me and asked if I could give them a little private tutoring. I was so honored that they felt a few lessons from me would give them that edge to be successful. So I brainstormed for a few days writing down my most used and favorite techniques. For the past few weeks they have been over several times. We have had so much fun creating some wonderful projects. They will be available soon in there little etsy store.

So here is a sneak peek at Michelle and one of her projects
 

...and Janice with one of her projects.

I know these pictures really don't do them justice but I will post more of them and there projects when they get there little store open.