Altered French Chocolate Box

You might remember that a little while ago, I found some lovely vintage fabric covered chocolate boxes at a brocante ( you can see them here ). Of course, those are just beautiful as they are and I wouldn't mess around with them. But I also bought a third one, which was covered in paper instead of fabric. And that paper was torn, missing bits and pretty ugly. The basic structure though was exactly the same, with the same beautiful gold edged bottom, so I decided to prettify it. 

I covered the inside with pages of a hundred year old French dictionary and some music paper. I used some vintage fabric to cover the lid. The focal point just had to be the gorgeous little lace doily I showed you on yesterday's White Wednesday post. A few flowers, leaves and MOP buttons and a piece of sturdy lace as a contrast to the very fine doily lace, and the lid was done -

But of course, an empty box is just not good enough, so I decided to fill it with a few bits and pieces as well. So much nicer to look at when you open the lid. 

I might just have to look out for some more torn paper covered chocolate boxes, I thoroughly enjoyed altering this one.

Toodlepip xxx

The Oh-La-La Shabby Chic Girls' Club Link Party!

I am sure most of you will know Cindy Adkins from her Whimsical Musings blog, but whilst I was away in France, she also started a new blog, which I found out about as I was working my way through a million and one missed blog posts - The Shabby Chic Girls' Club. And she is having a Linky Party today! For anything shabby chic of French inspired. Oh my, having just spent 2 months in France, I have one or two French inspired photographs, lol. What to show, what to show?

Well, I have decided to show you a few shabby chic lavender sachets and an altered old French glass bottle. Oh, it was so lovely sitting outside my craftavan, doing a little bit of al fresco sewing and crafting -


And when I was feeling peckish? No need to go back to the cottage for a snack, I had plentiful supplies growing right next to the sewing machine -


I made these lavender sachets for Christine with some of the lace found at a vide greniers we both went to -


I finally found some lovely old bottles at a vide greniers, I had been looking for ages but had never been lucky before. Some of the really old ones are too nice to alter, the embossed writing on them is decoration enough, but I had fun with the plain ones. Well, one of them, lol, the others are still awaiting their transformation.

The bottles I found -


and the one I played around with -


Sigh, I want to be back in my little craftavan.

If you would like to see more pics from France, the cottage etc, you will find plenty on the blog, lol.

I am linking this post to the link party, of course

Have a terrific weekend, wherever you are, toodlepip xxx

Spring has sprung

Three days of sunshine has obviously had an effect on me, lol, it seems that I have surrounded myself with Spring colours, tender greens and sweet pinks. Of course today we are back to grey skies again, but Spring is still firmly on my mind. I love this silly little Spring poem -

Spring has sprung, the grass has riz

I wonder where them birdies is.

The little bird is on the wing.

But that's absurd!

Because the wing

is on the bird!

I had already sprung into Spring action with the pink little bonbon box, which I showed you here and yesterday I fancied altering a little bottle. I had this little thing on my shelf for quite a while now, and yesterday it finally got a long overdue makeover -

I had some of the sweet little pink French trim left over, so I wound it onto an old wooden cotton reel. Looks so cute!

And while I was still in pink mode, I made a Spring tag as well -


I love sprinkling German glass glitter, especially the PINK one!

And because there is such an abundance of pink in this post, I am linking, for the very first time, to PINK SATURDAY over at How Sweet the Sound. Hundreds of beautiful pink posts to look at, you can't help but drool, lol.

Now I am wondering what else I can Springify.......

Toodlepip xxx

Glue Bottle Box

I had this odd assortment of bottles on my desk, annoying me. Glue bottles, you know, fabric glue, white sticky stuff, clear glue, glue sticks, spray glue, as well as other bottles, like fabric stiffener for example. They lived on my desk, because I had no proper place for them. And of course they kept getting in my way. Which led to rather unladylike language.

Today I decided that enough was enough. I searched through all my saved packaging boxes to find one which was the right sort of shape, squarish, and high enough so that the bottles wouldn't tip over. And lo and behold, I found one which was just perfect for the job. It was a little square box which the lovely LissyLou had used to send me the Secret Santa Swap goodies in. Hmm, of course it didn't look all that pretty, being a bit of a battered cardboard box, but................... only a couple of days ago I had received some lovely paper goodies from sweet Annie. They were just begging to be used on this box!

I have just spent a few very happy hours doing up the box. First, I covered it in the lovely old music sheets Annie had sent me. I used her birdcages and butterflies tag on one side, and two of her pretty Victorian style scraps on two other sides. On the fourth side I used a copy of one of my old French postcards. Aaah, and then, then I was ready to spend ages rummaging through my buttons, laces, other bits and pieces to find some embellishments. That was the most fun bit of course. Just a teeny bit of stamping here and there, a little bit of text aged with a little ink, and hey presto, that was my glue bottle box! done. Ta daa -


Sometimes it can be fun getting organised!

xxx

Update on the 20 Minutes (and then some!)

I have been messing around with paper and bits and pieces and Adobe Photoshop and layering and stuff again. My DS No.1 has been trying to teach me a few things in Photoshop and after writing down instructions and spending way too much time practicing, lol, I think I might even remember what he taught me.

There are so many beautiful blogs out there, showing off the most wonderful pieces of mixed media art, altered art etc., incredibly inspiring, and I just couldn't help myself, I had to have a go.

This is what I spent my 20 minutes crafting session on ( plus a few hours, lol ) -


First, I layered a few photos in Photoshop, 4 of them. LOLOL, I am so glad you couldn't see me, trying to read my instructions and finding all the right commands etc in Photoshop, tongue poking out, forehead wrinkled, hunched over...... not a pretty picture, but quite hilarious, my other son gleefully told me.

Then I rummaged around for a few bits and pieces to frame the new picture with. I found this gorgeous old bronze-y green ribbon which I glued to the botton. A bit of a music sheet which I had cut off from another project on the right, the nicely torn edge from the same music sheet, also cut off from another project at the top, and a bit of leftover coffee stained paper on the left.

I also stamped a few things on it with brown and bronze ink, and trimmed the sides with a couple of little length of lace. A few buttons, a couple of clock hands, and a teeny rose bud, and I felt that was quite enough for a first pic.


I am loving this, might have to have another go over the weekend, it is sooooooooooo much fun. I suppose I ought to find or make a frame for this little thing and hang it up, so that I can see how ( if at all ) I improve with more practice.

DON'T FORGET, IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO TRY YOUR HAND AT MIXED MEDIA, ALTERED STUFF, THAT SORT OF THING, ENTER THE LALALAND GIVEAWAY BY CLICKING ON THE BUTTON IN THE SIDEBAR.

xx

Repurposing? Altered Art?

I hate to admit it, but the men in the house did a lot of snacking over Christmas. And I let them. Why? - Because now I have a rather large stash of party sized cheeselet tins, hulahoop tins and twiglet tins. I love them! They are great for storing all sorts of tall and thin things.

But.... they are not the prettiest things, so they have to be tarted up, lol. The look has to be altered. Hence the altered art bit in the title. Except, of course, I am no artist, and my first effort is nothing special. And of course its repurposing as well, because the humble hulahoop tin now has a new lease of life as a knitting needle holder.

You may wonder why on earth I have THAT MANY knitting needles when I don't even knit regularly. Well, I bought a couple of vintage knitting bags a while ago, and one of them had this huge bundle of needles in it. I don't think I will ever need to buy another knitting needle for the rest of my life, lol.


I really love messing around with old papers, photos etc. For this tin I used one page from a tatty old sheet music book, copy of a vintage photo of a girl with her knitting, various bits of illustrations from Victorian knitting patterns and a few words in nice fancy fonts, with the edges darkened to age them a bit.

Definitely an improvement on the original hulahoop tin. And I really got the bit between my teeth now. Need to make pencil holders, scissor holders, errrrmmm, what else? Stuff holders, lol. We'll see.

Thats enough for today, just a short post, too busy making stuff! Actually, I am also trying to sort out things to sell now, as I seriously have to think about parting with about 9/10th of my much loved collections before moving to France.

xx