Thrifted Treasures

This past weekend I scored some pretty fun things... I managed to pick up some pirate treasure. The two brass candlesticks and the metal box were a combined total of $4. Here is even more pirate treasure. Some vintage pieces of jewelry, some vintage faux pearl necklaces & a baggy of loose pearls. The bottom of this photo has a lot of brand new still with the tags on them strands of beads. All of this for $2~A huge box of sequined-elastic-loveliness for only $3. The round spools are still sealed in the shrink wrap from the store~ Yards and yards of beautiful trim for only $2~
Sequins, thread, rhinestones, pin backs & wiggly eyes...all new in their packages for only $1 for all of this!
Paint brushes, scissors and 6 ribbon bolts of vintage velvet ribbon for $2~
Brand new never opened glitter, all of this for only $2~
I scored this huge lot of sewing stuff for only $2....
Now, where to put all this treasure!

Spoon Charms

I've been making some more spoon jewelry. It is a lot of fun. I encourage everyone to try it! Here is a little vintage bird brooch that now resides inside a spoon. I made this flower out of an earring and part of a watch band and some rhinestones~ A vintage baby shoe that I added a blue rhinestone too. Here is a little wire nest cupped in the spoons bowl. I inked the spoon with some pink ink and then sealed it before adding the nest~I added pearls and a little cherub to this spoon. I also added some pink glitter to this one, which I sealed so it wouldn't come off all over clothing and your face. I am always walking around with glitter on my face!Here they are all together~ I've got about 10 more spoons cut ready to go. It isn't as fast to make these as you would think. Ok, for me it isn't anyway. I layer the glue to make sure its going to never-hopefully-ever come apart.

Altered spoons

About a year and a half ago, I bought a bag of silver spoons for a couple of dollars. I've had them in a glass jar way up high on a shelf in my studio....mocking me for quite some time now.... until now. My hubby had been using a dremel and never put it away, so I took it. Yep, its mine now. That'll teach 'em. I started by bending the spoons by hand, some snapped clean off-- ooops, who knew I was so strong? Below you can see the spoons in different stages of being bent. If your going to try this, bend the handles a little bit at a time and let the metal rest.... seriously. I find the older the spoon, the hotter the metal gets when you bend it... which causes it to weaken and snap off. You want to keep a little bit of the handle so you can bend that to the back and make a hanger to thread a chain through.I then used my dremel to cut the handles off of each spoon. Here are the spoon's bowls cut from the handles. Thats it, now they are ready to be altered into charms. I'm keeping the handles to make into something-- not to sure what just yet.
Here is just one of the spoon charms I made--- I also made the necklace display out of cardboard, spray adhesive and velvet~ Here is a close-up, I simply adore it. I am so keeping this one for myself! I was very lucky this weekend in scoring some more silver spoons at an estate sale. For .50¢ each I bought them all! Much to the chagrin of several women walking up behind me.
I'll share some more spoon charms when they are finished.

Altered gift box

I whipped up this little altered gift box recently using another one of my favorite family images. (hubbies family) I picked up this star shaped box a few months ago for .50cents. I measured from the center point down each side 2- 1/2 inches and used an x-acto blade to cut out an opening to create a little shadow box. I covered the inside and the bottom of the box with sheet music from the 1900's.
Once that was done, I just keep gluing bits and pieces until it was completed. I had in mind a box of perfume that I was going to place inside of this box. Of course, it was bigger than I remembered it to be....

Happy Birthday Chloe!

A very Happy Birthday to my little grandaughter Chloe Rose~ I made the birthday girl a special hat to wear, along with two noise makers for her and her brother to play with while they celebrated her big day.
Has it been two years already since you were born? My-my-my, where does the time go? To celebrate Chloe's 2nd birthday, we spent the afternoon at the park... feeding the ducks, feeding ourselves and opening presents. She had red velvet cake for her birthday cake. Nothing but the best for this deeply loved little princess. With each piece of wrapping paper Chloe tore off of each gift.... she would say "here Momma" or "here Nana" or "here" anybody who was near, and hand off a small bit of paper. Such a funny kid. Happy birthday you little love bug~

Valentines

Here is a lovely assortment of valentines that I received in the mail~ From left to right they were made by: Vivian, Betty & Laura... bottom row: Julie and Lynda. Lynda also made and sent to me, all of these pictured below. The quality of her work is outstanding :-)
This cute tag below is from Deb, you can't see it for all the candy! its in the lower left hand corner~
I also did a "big-box" swap with Laura. Look at all this loveliness~Here is a peek inside the container... Here is the valentine card/tag that I made. I think I made something like 24 of these~
And lets not forget the 20 monster truck valentines I made for my grandson's preschool class :-) I sent Lisa 13 tags and I'm getting 13 different valentine tags from various people, I'm hoping those come sometime this week :-)
I also want to show this over-the-top-fabulous felted notebook that I received from Angela. It is incredible! (my computer gremlin insisted on turning this photo on its side....) Angela sent this to me all the way from Devon, England. Inside this little felted beauty is a notepad and a good sized pocket, for candy no doudt! I really adore it Angela, thank you so much :-)I've also been meaning to share this fabulous trophy that I won from Kecia who hosted a "Top Hat Derby blog hop" ummm in December. Anywho, here is the fabulous trophy in all its glittery glory!Here is a photo of some of my top hats that I made along with the trophy I won. (both photos were taken from Kecia's blog)Happy Valentines day everyone... remember, if you don't get anything you liked or wanted for Valentines day--- not to worry, the day after valentines day everything is 50% off-- go buy yourself twice as much!
I've linked up to Bluebird Papercrafts Valentine linky party.

Handmade Valentines

My grandson wanted some "Monster Truck Valentines" to pass out to his classmates at his preschool. Of course, no monster truck valentines were to be found..... So, I made him some :-) I found this wonderful side view image of a monster truck online.....I looked through some of the images of my grandson that I have on my computer and found one that with a smidge of fixin' I could use. The photo on the left is the before photo. On the right is the photo in which I filled in some areas with more skin and more of his red shirt.Then I simply printed a copy of the new altered photo, cut it out, and glued it so it appeared that my grandson was leaning out the Monster truck window. Easy peasy! Once the main image was complete, I copied three per sheet onto some cardstock. I wanted the truck bed to be able to hold a small valentine coin, so once all the monster truck images were individually cut out....I made a slit in each truck bed with an x-acto blade to make it possible to tuck a valentine coin into each one. I carefully glued each truck again (keeping in mind that the truck bed had to have a open pocket) to yet another sheet of cardstock which had a red/white polka-dot paper adhered to the back of.... Again, I cut each truck out..... whew. Once the 20 monster truck valentines were cut out...twice, I made a heart stencil to create a glittered heart that my grandson would have in his hand on each valentine. I just dabbed glue inside the stencil and added fine red glitter to each one. Nothing to it :-)I also made 20 lady-bug lollipop/finger puppets :-)He is so sweet... he loves it when I make him things. He informed me that he wants me to "make" him his birthday present (whatever that is) and he wants his mom to "make" him his birthday cake. Such cuteness~
I've linked up to the blog, "Seven-Thirty-Three's" What are little boy's made of linky party. I've also linked up to the following linky parties: Someday Crafts, Funky Polka Dot Giraffe, My Craftie Life , Trendy Treehouse , Make it Yours Day, HOH , A Glimpse Inside, and lastly, Bargain Hunting with Laurie.