New Life to An Old Tray

This is a message center my oldest daughter made for one of her friends out of one of my vintage trays. I didn't take a picture of the back, but it was left "unadorned" so you can see that it was a tray from the 60s.



Her friend loves pink, pink hearts, dogs, and sparkles....I think she'll be pleased....



The round flower pieces are magnets made from poker chips and decorative paper. All the other collage elements came from 1940s and 50s magazines.



She painted the pink, swirls, and dots around the outside and the center was spray painted with chalkboard paint.



I just love how it turned out. ~~~~ So vintage-y sweet~~~

Wordle Word Art

I came across this post at Mimi-Toria's Designs blog. I thought it was neat, but wasn't really sure what it was. Soooo, I clicked on the picture and it took me to this awesome site called Wordle!



Consequently, I just spent the last half hour piddling (kind of a silly word, maybe I should add it to my word collage!) with words and art! Oh, my goodness, it's addicting!! It's somewhat limited, but for me that translates to easier, which is good! It also translates to free, which is even better!



My plan is to print one of them out onto transfer paper and make a tote bag. I think I may also make some business cards out of one of them. The site says feel free to do so, just include the website address. I can do that.
Tip: (1)make sure you copy your group of words because it isn't saved on the site, if you want to edit or start over.(2)If you want two words or more to stay together, type the ~ sign between them (3) You'll need to take a screen shot of it if you want to save it as a jpeg file on your computer.

From Our Home to Yours.....

We send you warm, but snowy wishes for a Very Blessed Christmas!! and a Prosperous New Year!!

More of the "Junk" Ornament Exchange

Cheryl Keyes had my name in the junk ornament exchange and she sent me a package full of fun. She made this tree from buttons---ahhh, I love buttons!




These are two little gift card or treat holders which of course were wisked off by my little gals toot sweet.



Her mother crocheted this snowflake. I know how much work goes into these. I made a tree full one year--in another life-- BK (Before Kids). Then, at our other house, our basement flooded and as a friend was helping us clean stuff out, she pulled up a wad of dripping white thread and asked "What the heck is this?" Yes, it was my collection of crocheted snowflakes. I guess the stiffening used was water soluble!

Stay tuned for more information on the junk ornament blog party/challenge/meme! I am going to do it. This will motivate me and make me learn to use the Mr. Linky Widget. I love that thing I've seen on others' blogs! The last week of each month will be the link up time.

So don't toss any good junk or items you can recycle!

Junk Christmas Ornament

Over at the Junk Revolution site, Hillbilly set up a "junk ornament" exchange. I enjoyed the challenge of coming up with an ornament made from "junk" around the house as Hillbilly put it. Of course everyone's definition of junk is a bit different, and it's fun seeing what everyone made as they post them on the JR site.
I made mine out of rusty canning jar lids that I hammered flat for the frame, vintage fabric, very old hooks and eyes, a snap piece, rusty ball chain from an old necklace...



and the backing was another flattened jar ring and a piece from a starbucks coffee cup sleeve. I love corrugated cardboard and those little sleeves are so cool---I keep them. Yes, I just admitted that publicly. And I have used them as paper embellishments.



I have this grand idea of making a blog challenge to create junk ornaments throughout the next year. We could link here once a month. If you don't have a blog, I could set up a flickr page to post pictures on. We wouldn't exchange them, just make them for yourself and share the pictures, ideas, and "how to's". Then, by December you should have enough to make yourself a small "Junk" Christmas Tree. Does that sound like fun or toooooo much pressure?! Let me know what you think in the comments or email me.

By the way, I sent my ornament off to Laurie at the Whistlestop Country Store. She's a fellow Nebraskan, only about 60 miles from me and I "met" her on the JR site. I can't wait for a chance to get to her shop!

Christmas Button Tree

I sorted through some of my sweet old buttons and picked out just the gold metal ones and put them into this thrift store find. (I did throw in a few other metal ones because I didn't have enough gold.) It has become our "desk tree" and I'm enjoying it.

Have a great weekend!

Gingerbread Houses and Log Cabins

Last week my sisters, mom, and I had a big baking day but didn't get to the gingerbread houses like we had hoped. So my kids did them instead. All I did was make the frosting!



If you're not using a kit, we've found in the past years that big pretzel logs are the easiest to build with and look really good!



Of course, my kids are incredibly competitive so wanted to know who's is "best". In true Mom form I awarded the best to each in different categories. They're old enough to know how lame that is but that's what we Moms do!



Will's has an attached garage...



With a sun deck on it!



Claire's was a kit that I found on sale at the grocery store. All you need- ready to go.



I'm telling you, if you have little kids---or grandkids---when you see these on clearance after Christmas, pick one up!! Who cares if the candy is old next year, you'll NEVER eat it. The ease of this for little kids is awesome and it turns out so cute! I mixed the frosting for Claire and gave a little "advice" but then she did the rest and she's 10. What's really nice with the kit is that you don't have half a bag of candy left over.

Now, to find a place for the creations is a bit of a challenge!

I hope all of you are finding time to prepare your hearts also this Advent for the birth of Christ. It's so easy to only get caught up in the "stuff". I know because I struggle with that EVERY year!

OK, Here It Goes

A picture of me. EGAD, never thought I'd post one on my blog, but I like seeing other people on their blogs so here I am. And, of course I had to take it in my laundry room, standing on a laundry basket with flourescent lighting so I'd have excuses for how I look! But, folks, that's where I spend my time so I guess that's really me. Bad lighting, weird hair day, and all.

This post though is because of the scarf. I made it yesterday and it matched my sweater I put on today, so I'm wearing it.



Scarf details. (For the record, my 18 y/o asked me if I'd make her one!) I used strips of fabric and yarn. Of course mine is all thrifted and vintage which makes me very happy! I just love to use a little of this and a little of that in a project.



I sewed 1" strips of fabric together wrong sides together. I let the edges stay raw because I like that look. I know that would grate on many people. If you're one of them, sorry. The ric rac is very old and so pretty. As is the black lingerie lace; old and beautiful. The black yarn I crocheted into a cord as I did with two shades of gray yarn and string together. Then I pinned them the way I liked to "wash away" stabilizer and sewed across with clear nylon thread in my machine and a light gold in my bobbin. I anchored about every 3-5".

I'm not sure the stabilzer was necessary; you could just feed each piece into the machine as you sewed. I washed away the stabilizer, let it air dry and then pressed it all back into shape. **If you make one and use the wash away stabilizer then think about what you put into it because a mish mash of fiber will react differently to the water when you wash it. I was nervous for a bit because the yarn all stretched out. But, after it dried and I ironed it, it's back to where I started. Whew!

I've been thinking about this for awhile but HuggyBear from Junk Revolution posted about this web site and that got me moving and gave me the idea to use the wash away stabilizer.

I practiced making a couple of bookmarks using the technique as described in the web site Favcrafts and I love how they turned out. But, because I used ric rac and fabric, it made my piece more "fabric like" and less scarf-like. They only used yarns and fibers in their scarf. That's why I decided to only anchor it ever 3-5" so it would stay softer and lay nice like a scarf. And, it did. Whew!