Works In Progress

I've got a lot of silverware to play around with thanks to my father who cut the silverware for me. I've previously cut all the silver pieces myself by hand--- no easy task and very slow going. I've been hoarding collecting silverware where ever I find it-- to make jewelry out of. They are selling rather well at my online store, "The Tarnished Crown" cheap plug, I know. He cut the handles off of spoons so I can make some more pendants... look at all those beautiful spoons! :-) Here is a couple that I've made using really big spoon bowls. These measure in at 3 to 3 1/2 inches long. These will be sold for $10 to $12 each.The bottom right one with the pearls is my favorite out of this batch :-)
The handles which were cut off are lovely. My dad bent the handles back onto themselves and made those into pendants and or key fobs. Aren't they beautiful? I've wire wrapped the tops and added some vintage beads to give them a little bit of pop. These will be sold for $5 each~ I've got lots & lots of pieces to work with.... These little darling vases are made from hollow knife handles. (I've big plans for those)The tiny souvenir spoons I recently purchased, I cut by hand myself. Twenty five in total-- not that I'm counting.Here is one I made into a pendant... these are tiny and measure from top to bottom at 1 & 1/4 an inch. These I'm selling for $5 each.I also used the other end of each spoon making a lot of cute blanks to add something to-to make little pendants. Shown in the photo above.
Those little decorative pieces with a medal will be sold for $5 as well. Is it just me? or is there seriously never enough time in the day to do all the things you want to do... along with those things you need to do? Oh bother..... I did manage to get my Christmas tree up. And yes, It is wedged into a corner behind a chair. (tethered to the mantel of course)I decided not to do anymore "Christmas" decorating other than the tree & stockings this year.... notice the cat under the tree. Nothings sacred....geeze. If I see one hair ball under that tree... someones going to get it!!! I did manage to wrap about 1/4 of the gifts I've already purchased.High on my list of things to seek out and purchase is a cute cash register for my 2 1/2 year old grandaughter Chloe. I have one at my house which she plays with for literally hours. She'll put money in it, close the drawer and then open the drawer and take money out. I gave her a lot of used gift cards which she likes to slide in the slot that is in between the drawer and the register itself. lol.... How does she know how to do that at this age? cute. Well, I've got a bazillion works in progress-- and I guess thats normal for me. I better get offline and try to finish at least one of those projects! I'll be posting things to my Etsy site in a couple of days unless something shiny & glittery distracts me.

Photo Tags

This past summer I bought a large box of assorted goodies, amongst the treasures was a huge lot of old 3"x3" black and white photos. After looking through them several times, and no clear plan on what to use them for, I stashed them away. Finally, I had an idea. Photo tags! How cute are these?The photos are of a young newlywed couple. I've got photos of their friends & their wedding day, their honeymoon at Niagara Falls... their new car, their first child....all very sweet. Tucked along with those photos were some that are a little older... I made those into cute tags too.Now... what to do with all the photo tags I've made???.... well, I stamped a crown and the words "Thank you" on the backside of each one.... then I tuck these in with the purchases from my etsy store :-)

Gold Gilt Frame

Look at this fabulous gold gilt frame I picked up awhile back for only $3. It is very heavy and extremely ornate with a light pink velvet mat (which is wet due to the fact I was trying to clean a dirty spot, I hope it comes clean) I love the gold on this frame--- but I just knew I'd love it even more if I painted it white. I slathered the frame willy-nilly with some crackle medium. Waited 25 minutes and painted it white. Once the paint dried, I aged it using some stain. I added 100 year old sheet music to some foam core to use in the opening of the frame....Here it is all finished. I added the glittered "Merry Christmas" sign which I bought at our local Dollar store. Cute. And yes..... that spot will get loaded up with stuff ;-P I've linked up to this holiday party.

Treasure hunting...

I managed to find some treasures this weekend... I am on the constant look out for them....argggh. I just wish the best yard sales had big X's on them so I knew the ones to go to rather than waste my time at the duds! Anywho.... here is my loot~ I got a large lot of souvenir spoons... A tiny assortment of jewelry and a fabric hosiery/jewelry box. I bought two small wooden sorting cabinets. These are perfect for holding small trays of jewelry that I'm currently working on. At a outdoor swap meet--- I picked up this gem. A drill press. Love it. After this photo, I soaked it in a hot soapy sink to get it spic & span. Look at this fabulous table that I bought for only $5! This adorable table almost didn't make it home with me. I seriously have no room for it in my home. Isn't it dreamy.... *sigh*... it does need a little bit of gluing and a whole lot of white paint, but you surely see the potential don't you!! *woot-woot* The gal selling it told me... "You could toss a table cloth over it and you wouldn't even notice how it looks." Oh my goodness, that was the funniest thing I had heard in months. She actually went inside her house and brought out a table cloth she had used on it and covered it--- *that still makes me chuckle*

Pirate loot bags

Over the summer I was lucky enough to come across a bunch of black velvet bags. They were being sold for .10¢ each, I couldn't pass them up.... thats practically free!I used some maps to cover the labels on the bags cords. I'm going to write names on these at a later date. To cover up the embroidered area on each bag, I glued maps to a thin piece of cardboard and cut those out--- inked, embellished with a black spider and of course added some crepe paper trim....I simply hot glued that in place. Taaaaaa daaaaaaaa instant pirate loot bag!Keeping it real....there is always a cat close by lolEight more months to go until the next pirate party~

Playin' shop

My etsy shoppe has been very successful so I've had to create more spoon pendants to list. I'm listing the following at $10 each. I've also lowered the prices on some of the items previously listed, it makes me nervous to have them there and not moving...lol... Here are the latest ones I've created:This pink one is my absolute favorite...A few seasonal ones....Some flowers...Some made using vintage Blessed Mother medals...I am also going to be pulling from my hoarded stash a lot of things that I just don't need anymore. You know, things you buy and haul home only to find you already have 20 of them..... ok, that might just be me. I've got vintage jello molds, antique photos, lace & embroidered pieces, dominoes, scrabble tile.... and I'm finally done holding onto the large lot of gold dresden foil trims... okokok, I'm keeping some of it! I'm crazy--- but not insane!
A big thank you to Tami for featuring me on her blog under the heading...."Awesome Artist Alert" How utterly flattering Tami, Thank you very much!!

New Wood floor

I added some wood floors to the Barbie house I've been working on.I drew guidelines along the floor and used elmers glue to adhere thin wood strips to the floor of the barbie house. Once it was all glued in place, I sanded it and applied a stain to the wood. Once the stain was dry, I sanded the wood floor again giving the floor an old worn look. I then added a clear semi-gloss finish to the newly stained wood floor. I added two levels of wood floors, the bottom level is brick.Now, I'm working on making a fireplace.Barbie is hoping to move into her new home sometime in June...

Halloween Recipe Books

I didn't do much in the way of anything "halloweenie" this year--- although I did get a custom order for three Halloween Recipe Spell books. I had a hard time finding large old books to convert into spell books this year. I come across very old small books all the time, but these ones needed to be able to hold large sheets of paper with recipes printed on them. Cute idea huh? I pulled out some vintage wrapping paper to line the inside of the books.... sometimes you've just got to use the good stuff.Here they are all ready to be shipped out....I hope the gals who received these love them :-)