Tuesday Treasures~

I got this wooden corner shelf for only $2... I don't need it, but for $2 bucks I had to have it~these two metal thingies..for $1 each... These two ornate gold plastic frames.... .50cents each.I also picked up this sit & stand stroller at a yard sale for $15... (this photo is from a baby website) It is a Joovy Caboose stroller and sells new for $200! The one I got was red & black--- I took all of the fabric off so I could give it a good cleaning.... stay tuned for the reupholstering job I'm going to give it! hmmm this makes 4 strollers I have at my house-- and only 2 grandkids!
Head on over to Diane's blog to see more Tuesday Treasures on her linky for "2nd Time Around Tuesday" Also.... if your wanting to see even more treasures stop over at Rhoda's blog "Southern Hospitality" If you have linked to my blog and wish to view more.... you can click here

Mixed Media Monday~

This weeks challenge was: Music.
I like love to hear birds whistling~ music in its purest form if you ask me. So here is a little altered/assembled piece that represents the music I love. Here is a close-up....Here is the complete piece...You can view more art pieces by checking out the weekly challenge site for mixed media art here---> Mixed Media Blog. If you have linked to my blog and wish to view more you can click on this link right ---> here.

Keeping busy~

I picked up this lacing toy for my 2 1/2 year old grandson recently and personalized it for him..... He is over the moon for cars, so I used some Disney Car stickers as the centerpiece of each lacing shape. I just painted on a clear finish over the top to keep each sticker from being easily picked off--another one of his favorite things to do. He is so helpful~

Paper mache pumpkin

Over at the blog "Expressly Corgi" they are hosting a "Get 'er done Friday" linky party...go check it out!
Well...I've always wanted one of those vintage paper mache pumpkins, but geeze, they want a small fortune for them. Sooooo I made my own, here is one I whipped up rather fast, just to see if it would work. I think it turned out alright.... I even gave it a lid. I used wire for the handle, some vintage black ribbon and of course I just had to glue some leaves and berries to it as well. I've already started making a few more... they are easy-peasy. I would like to find some websites to get cuter faces to select from, this was the first one I saw, and now that I see it painted on my pumpkin-- I don't care for it to much~ Isn't that how it always goes?

Halloween spell books~

I've made some halloween spell books...I think they turned out super caute! Here is how I made them it if anyone is interested:
Rip/tear off covers from old books that you think are kinda spooky looking. The ones I've chosen are slightly embossed. You'll be using these as the covers to your book of spells.I found an old recipe book with old, yellowed torn pages for the innards of my spell books for the huge sum of .10cents. I could have used the original book pages, but I wanted an old, well used look to my little spell books. I used a grommet punch and made some holes in the books covers. If you squeeze and wiggle the punch at the same time it will eventually poke through the covers. (you can also drill through them) I placed the newly torn off covers on top of the pages of the old recipe book to get an idea of how much to cut off of the pages. I cut the pages larger than I needed so that the worn edges of the pages could be seen easily. After cutting a stack of pages, I stapled them together and glued them into the covers of the new book. Then I laced up the sides of the book. Once the book was put back together... I needed to put the new title of the books on the covers. I printed out the words "Spells" and "Love" onto cardstock. I covered the printed words with some packing tape and used a blade to cut out the letters. With the stencils made I simply put my finger into the embossing ink and smeared it into the stencil opening, then I just applied embossing powder and heated it up and.... taaaaaaaaaaa daaaaaaaaaa! A silver embossed title on the book of spells~ easy-peasy!Here are the two books again...I lurve them, cute & spooky!big hugs,
Cheryl

Tuesday Treasures~

I had a wonderful time hitting yard sales this past weekend, it seems like there was treasures to be had everywhere. Here is some of my new loot~ A bunch of buttons, all this for $5.Two little peat pot baskets .25cents each.Three gold-toned bathroom thingies. The two tissue holders were .50cents each bought from the same yard sale. The little jewelry box was .50cents found later the same day clear across town.A stack of cooking books for .50cents each. (under the bowlie of buttons)Three seashells-- .50cents, 4 hankies for .25cents each and an old metal tin for .50cents. Two pinkeeps for .50cents.This rectangle glass and metal pedestal thingie was $3. It is a curious piece isn't it?And finally.... this fabulous vintage bird cage for the mere sum of $15 buckeroos~ She had originally said $25 bucks... and I went and sulked while looking through her boxes of books... I overheard her tell one of her family members "Oh, I'll just sell if for $15, just to get rid of it"...gasp.... I yelled from across the yard, "I'll take it for $15" and now its mine, all mine!Here is a photo of the base...caute!Head on over to Diane's blog to see more Tuesday Treasures on her linky for "2nd Time Around Tuesday" If you have linked to my blog and wish to view more.... you can click here. I've been busy making Halloween decorations for my home...fun stuff!~

Mixed Media Monday~

This weeks challenge was: metal.I've added some faux metal pieces to these glass jars that will be part of my Witches spice cabinet that I'm making. I am loving the look of these, heaven help me...that only means everything is going to get the metal treatment until I've tired of it! Here is a close-up of the black widow spider in the metal band around this old glass bottle~ You can read more about the little glass jars with the skulls on them here. This metal looking band was made using tape, a plastic spider and some paint.You can view more art pieces by checking out the weekly challenge site for mixed media art here---> Mixed Media Blog.

National Sewing Month~

September is National Sewing month....who knew? okokok The Faerie Wysperer knew-- thats how I know~ The Awtemnymf is having a give away on her blog to be drawn on September the 24th if anyone is interested in joining in. Three things have to be completed first... blog about the giveaway and link to The Faerie Wysperer and write something that you love about pumpkins... My favorite thing about pumpkins? Why pumpkin cookies of course. Here is the pumpkin recipe that is a MUST TRY-- seriously, you'll thank me-- your family & friends will thank me... generations for years to come will thank me! It is that good...trust me!

Goofing around~

I am still working in my yard like a crazy person, so much so that I totally forgot about getting my entry form submitted to my local fair to enter all the things I've been making this past year. *gasp* all that hard work for not.... oh well, I'll box the stuff up I've made and enter it next year for sure!

In between working in the yard and watching my grandkids I've been playing around making some Halloween decorations for my home. I've been wanting to make a spooky spice cabinet... and tonight I started working on it. I picked up this shadow box this past summer and pulled out all the decorations that were inside...

Here it is with a new paint job. The antique gold/yellow is so bright in this photo, but in person it looks like its rusty! A perfect beginning for my spooky spice cabinet~I took three small jars and added some skulls to the lids using e6000 glue. The skulls were once plastic rings, I just cut the ring parts off and glued them in place.Once the glue had set up a little bit...I spray painted them with some textured spray paint. I think it made the lids look like rusty metal.I added some black paint to age them up a bit and added some red rhinestone eyes to the skulls. I also dripped some black paint down the sides of the jars. I hear witches are a messy-lot~ Now I just need to fill them with some fun spooky stuff and add some labels.

The cabinet is off to a good start~

Tuesday Treasures~

This past weekend I went to a mile long yard sale. Slim pickings.... Here are a few things I picked up... I got a bolt of burlap for $1, a box full of ornaments & tassles for $2here is a close-up of the ornaments-- caute!Tiny pink wings & a tinkerbell ribbon skirt for $1, a long barbie dress that has sheer fabric and netting that I'm going to cut apart and make fit my 7 month old grandaughter for only $1. I picked up this antique wooden oval gold frame for $1 and this darling vintage corner shelf for $1, isn't it adorable? I imagine some young boy made this in woodshop back in the day.... it has some veneer missing but thats an easy fix with paper clay and of course painting it will just put it over the top cute!More wings! All of these were from different yard sales. The black wings $1, the blue wings $1 and the feather wings....$1! Happy-happy-joy-joy... I love me some wings~ Head on over to Diane's blog to see more Tuesday Treasures on her linky for "2nd Time Around Tuesday" Also.... if your wanting to see even more treasures stop over at Rhoda's blog "Southern Hospitality" Holly is hosting a Thrift store Thursday linky party on her blog "Homebody" as well... ~ Lastly, Brittney is hosting a Goodwill Goodies linky party on her blog. If you have linked to my blog and wish to view more.... you can click here.

Faux Soldering

When I created these bubble Christmas ornaments...I wanted to cover the seam where the bubble was glued to the cardboard to give it a nice finished look.I pictured them being soldered.... Well if you've ever soldered before, you know that it heats up not only the solder & copper foil but whatever it is that your soldering. Seeing how the bubbles are made out of plastic, soldering wasn't an option. Sooo-- with that said, I had to do a faux soldering treatment on these little fairies in the bubbles. Here is how I did it, so easy-peasy.

I laid some masking tape onto some cardstock paper... then just cut that into 1/4 inch sections.Then I just pulled each piece, tape side in the ink through the embossing ink and then covered each with a generous amount of silver embossing powder. Hit each one with the heat gun and wah-lah, instant soldering that is ready to be applied to my plastic bubbles.Here are the bubbles with the soldering pieces glued in place~

Easy peasy~

Mixed Media Monday~

This weeks challenge was to make something using circles. If I had to pick a favorite shape, it would be the circle. Here are mine... The completed ones are at the bottom of this post~ I needed some heavy duty cardboard to build these upon... so I used a scrabble board that I cut up into circles. I pulled off the scrabble paper and glued on some vintage sheet music to be used as the backdrop. I left the burgandy paper that comes on the back of the scrabble board as is, as I love the vintage look it has already. I painted circles onto the sheet music using iridescent paint, glitter paint and translucent paint, they really look 3 dimensional with the different paints added. I then made some nests using black felt as the base. I cut apart a huge store-bought nest so I could use the thin sticks from that. I applied hot glue to the felt and then just layered on the sticks and some green moss. I then hot glued some fairies with transparent wings into each nest. This one pictured below is my favorite. Of course I had to add some round beads and some sparkly rhinestones to each one~Once the innards were completed... and in keeping with my more is better mantra... I encased each fairy sitting in a nest inside of a bubble.... I used the e6000 glue (love/hate relationship with that stuff) then I set about to cover the seam where the bubble is glued to the scrabble board. I wanted to solder it... but that would melt the plastic bubble, so I opted to do a faux solder treatment on each one. (tutorial here)Then I just hot glued on some vintage looking do-dads and taaaaaaaaa daaaaaaaaa instant caute! I am so entering these in the fair next month!Anywho, you can view more art pieces by checking out the weekly challenge site for mixed media art here---> Mixed Media Blog.

Transformation Thursday~

I got these vintage t.v. trays from a yard sale where everything was free! I loved the roses on them but the black was scratched and covered in grease from years of use. Gross-- but I took them anywho! They even had the metal rolling storage stand for them :-)They have been in my garage for about a year, then out by the trash cans for about a month.... until I decided to try spray painting them. I was going to trace the flowers and cut a stencil to cover them and spray paint everything white.... but seriously, I'm crazy-- but not that crazy! So I opted instead to cover the entire rectangle part of the tray and paint everything else once the trays & legs were degreased. Taaaaaa daaaaaaa, now they are Shabby chic t.v. trays and I lurve them!
You can view more transformations over at "Shabby Chic Cottage" and also over at "A Soft Place to Land" Kimba is hosting a "do it yourself" linky party. The Coloradolady is also hosting a Vintage Thingie Thursday. And last, but not least...Leigh over at "Tales From Bloggeritaville" is hosting a Thrifty Thursday linky party~ If you have linked to my blog and wish to view more... you can click right here to go have a lookie~lou.

Happy Birthday...

to me...

happy birthday to me

hand me a fork,

pass me my cake

happy birthday

tooooooo

meee~

(second verse same as the first)

Play yard~

Jen is hosting a "Before & After Party" on her blog: Sanctuary Arts at Home and...Sara over at the Thrifty Decor Chick is also hosting a before & after party as well! I think I've just about gotten my side yard completed... so I'm joining in on the party! Here are the before photos of what the side of my house looked like just about two short months ago. (we live on a corner lot) I have been working very hard on this new addition. I put in a cinder block retaining wall and then added a fence on top of that. That alone took one whole week of 10 hour days to complete.... yes, I laid the cinder block myself... it is easy peasy seriously~I dug up the entire lawn area, tossed out the grass & weeds and leveled out the remaining dirt. Our property is on an elevated lot, it was no easy task. Where the gate is in this photo below (see the circle with the goose on it?) is now an opening into our existing backyard. Bags & bags of morter.... truck loads full of cinder block. I had to tear out a long brick planter, cut down and dig out the root of a huge pine tree.... just to get it to this point....

Anywho, now it is an area that I head to first when I go out into the backyard, I think it turned out caute! Below you can see the play house I found at a yard sale for $50. The dark green shade sail was another yard sale find for $10. The bricks I had piled on the other side of the house just waiting for a project like this! The deck is about two weeks old... the step down into the yard was just completed today~ Here is the view from the opening of where the gate used to be.... I moved the same gate to be used way over there...see it?

I've made the brick walkway go around this crepe myrtle tree... I added the retaining stones around the tree as well. Next year I have plans to add a plywood circle/seat on top of those and add a cushion for a round seating area~ I am using some of the plastic baby gate panels as my deck railing. I am just going to use wire ties and attach them to the gazebo panels. I don't want my grandkids to tumble off even though the deck is not that far off the ground.

Of course I needed to get new patio furniture for this area... I got this 6 piece set that was originally $650 for only $250~ The gazebo was $15 at a yard sale. It has a fabric canopy, that won't fit anymore since we had to enlarge the gazebo to fit our deck. I am going to string wire across the entire top of it and just use the rolled bamboo for the gazebo top. I've moved the fountain I had beside the pool into this new area. (craigslist, $75) It is sitting ontop of the old air conditioner cement slab-- that was an unsightly eyesore-- until now. Now, I love the cement slab! I am eventually going to do a mosaic on the cement. I also moved the arch and filled in the back with chicken wire, it will eventually fill in completely with star jasmine. I still consider this area a "work in progress" There is a lot of things I still would like to do...like dig a large hole to place the small trampoline into, cover some of the dirt area with faux grass.... fill up the fountain with water and actually turn it on. Work, work-work... and I love it! If you have linked to my blog and wish to view more... you can click on this linkie right here.