An Angel by any Other Name,...

This poor gal had seen better days.  I found her blue crackled face at the thrift store for $1.  Clearly her full potential was not being realized.  

Here she is after a coat of primer.  Doesn't she look much better already?

I finished her up with an ivory spray paint and then mixed up some glaze and a mish-mash combo of acrylic paints:  gold, burnt umber, black, got me started.  I painted a little on and wiped it off until it looked good to my eye.

Now, what to do to decorate her shelf? Hmmmmm,....my last trip to the Bibles for Missions Thrift Store (which I have been incorrectly calling the Bible Mission Thrift Store, oops), I scored a couple of glass vases.  I thought that might look nice but definitely would need some kind of filler.  


My husband travels a lot for work and always brings me back these little Neutrogena soaps (really, I must have a hundred) so I wondered if I could combine the bargain vase with the soaps and come up with something.  I added a piece of Christmas garland and voila:

Linking up here:

Wow Us Wednesdays

Featured at A Creative Princess

That sweetie Teri has featured my Thrifting Finds at her It's a Party party.

She has a great site.  Check her out.

Tea-Dyed Mouth Blown Eggs

Now that truly is a mouthful. Have you ever tried to mouth blow an egg? (keep it clean people).  It's not easy.  Well, maybe it is for some people but I felt like my brains were going to explode.  Maybe my lung capacity isn't that great.  Come to think of it, I can't really do balloons either.  Hmmm.

Anyway, after much effort I ended up with nearly a dozen hollowed out eggs.  I put them in a bowl with a tea bag and some water and they came out great.  Just a nice antiquey brown after a couple of hours.  I had to roll them over every once in awhile for the first batch.  The second batch I got smarter and laid a salad plate upside-down to hold the eggs under the water.  Worked great.

I let them dry and then added some ribbon and dried hydrangea petals from our garden plants from last year.

I laid them (for now, it might change) on top of some spanish moss that I put into the top of this vase.  This vase started out looking like the cat puked on it (take a look and tell me I'm wrong).

A quick coat of ivory spray paint (preceded by several not as quick coats of white primer) had it looking like new (again with the dungeonesque lighting in our upstairs bathroom, sorry for the lack of picture quality).

I'm linking up here.  Check them out:

Thrifting

Last Thursday, I went to visit my cousin in Barrie and dragged her to the Bible Mission Thrift Store where I found a bunch of cool things.

This first vase was $1.50 and very purple.

I wasn't crazy about this colour, though my cousin's daughter loved it, lol.  Anyway, I painted it black and here it is in our living room with some decorative sticks, next to my favourite Ikea lantern.

This basket was $1.00.

I painted it ivory, stuffed it with toiletries for company, and put it in the spare bathroom.

This third piece is nice.  I even like the colour except that it doesn't match anything in our house.  We're all green and gold and brown,....so, I went on behr.ca and checked out complementary colours.  The colour selector agreed that this blue was a punch of colour to accent our olive green but in reality, it just didn't look right.  So this piece is still pending.

It was the most expensive of the bunch at $2 so I really want to make it into something big.  :)  It might be destined for a black paint job and a spot beside the other vase, but I'm hoping for something more interesting.  We'll see.

I'm linking up here:

Kalanicut

Yay, the gift tags from Kalani of Kalanicut arrived today and they are so awesome.  First, look at this fabulous note that she wrote (love her handwriting).  I adore the yellow and red together, and the scalloped edge is so cute.

Here are the gift tags.  Aren't they adorable.  I still like the watercolours the best, but the others are not far behind.

Thanks again to Kalani for this giveaway and making me one spoiled gal.

Heart Wreath

What I should have done was made two wreath forms when I first started the book page wreath project.  That way, I would have been able to make  two pretty much identical wreaths and then I could have hung them on either side of the mirror in this bathroom. And they would have rocked.

But I didn't.  I did try measure the first wreath and duplicate it, but it was too hard to tell for sure after the flowers were glued on just how big it was and I didn't want them to be lopsided when you could see them both at the same time.

So what's a girl to do?  Do something completely different.  Okay, maybe not completely, I mean they're both book page wreaths, but the second one is heart-shaped so it can't be compared to the original round wreath.

I started with a super cheap frugal cardboard heart base (still need to find something to do with the centre heart piece).

Then I just crumpled up circles cut from book pages like in the round wreath.  Gold ribbon to match the other and that was it.

And here's a shot of both of the wreaths.  (Not a good shot, but a shot.  Please cut me some slack, there's no light in this room outside of the starburst above the mirror.)

In the end, I'm happy with the complimentary but not identical heart wreath.  Nobody but you will ever know.  :)

I'm linking up here:

I WON!

I am one incredibly lucky gal.  I have won, not one, but two fabulous giveaways.  Now before you get all jealous and start thinking that some people have all the luck, let me say -- I do not win things.  Never.  Ever.  So I'm absolutely giddy.

The first giveaway was from Kalani (love her name) of Kalanicut.  She shared 8 Sassy Gift Tags Anyone Can Make.  They are so cute and she made them all - so talented.  My favourite are the pretty watercolours, but the other examples are so beautiful, you'll have to check them out.

She is sending off a packet of 10 surprise tags that I will definitely share when they arrive.  Thanks so much Kalani!


The second giveaway was from Ann of On Sutton Place.  She has a Feature Friday and this time she was featuring Hearts in Touch, an etsy shop run by a trio of retired teachers who make the most gorgeous cards and envelopes.

I especially love the coordinating paper lining the envelopes.  So pretty.  Thanks so much Ann!

So I am feeling especially lucky and grateful.  Many thanks to Kalani and Ann for their great giveaways.

Gift Boxes and Bags

Recently I have started making my own jewelry.  Some of it has even turned out nice so I have been using my creations as gifts.  As with most things, presentation is important so I have been making my own gift boxes and bags.

The boxes are a little bit different in that they are made from old greeting cards.  I was surprised at how cute they turned out.  There are a billion tutorials, but here are three with step-by-step photos.  Each one is done a little bit differently.    

Wikihow

Instructables

Kid At Art

Here are a couple of the ones that I made.

Christmas Version

The gift bag template came from Toy's Haven.  I used polka-dot paper on the outside and a plain pink cardstock for the inside.  Quick ribbon and bow.  A small piece of tissue paper would be perfect.

This is a great way to use up old greeting cards and super handy to have for last-minute gifts.