Surprise News

I just got an exciting surprise!

I can't wait until I can tell you all about it.

Have a wonderful day, be back soon.

xoxo

Cari

The Big Reveal!!

O.K, I talked about it enough, now let me show you what I made...

I am of course referring to my soldering class with the famous Sally Jean Alexander (who is absolutely adorable and sweet as pie, by the way)

The class was a Christmas House Necklace class. We made 6 pieces, 4 of them were 2 sided.

Sally gave us about 40 minutes to do our artwork. Ugh!! I don't usually work that fast. It turned out to be a good thing though. I found out I work, maybe, better under pressure.

Some of the ladies that came were super organized and ready to go, I only brought 2 old magazines and a couple of sheets of images.

So, these were my first two charms, I used vintage rhinestone chain and velvet ribbon for the larger one, and a vintage pale pink sequin on ancient text for the second one.

My soldering was, well... lets just say ugh!!

These are the next two I worked on. They are super cute little glass bubbles with Holiday words I cut from magazines, the backs are dimes. Yes, 10 c pieces, dimes!!

These were really NOT easy to solder.

Here are my last two pieces, I love the decorative edge Sally showed us how to do on the smaller one. I used vintage sheet music and just cut the title off and then put it on top of seam binding ribbon and accented it with a Dresden star. My soldering is finally starting to get better.

My house, I am in love with. I am usually my biggest critic but, I love the way this turned out.

Finally, my soldering skills start really kicking in and I'm finished. Ugh. So, I quickly made another charm out of a small dominoes tile just to keep practicing. It turned out even better than the house. Yeah!! I even managed to get the jump rings on. Whew!!

I had such a fantastic time.

I met wonderful ladies who were really funny and talented.

If you ever get a chance to take one of her classes, I highly recommend it.

xoxo

Cari

Crafties In Progress

Sweet Pea at itsawhimsicallife started her "spoonful of creativity a day" campaign. I thought it sounded like a great challenge. Click here to read all about it.

Then, I got sick and didn't post any of the little crafties I worked on. So, here goes:

This is my first attempt to make a little felted witch. She'll be perfect for a swap I'm in.

Inspiration came from Julie Collings absolutely amazing book Pretty Little Felts. If you don't have it click on the title to link to her fabulous etsy shop. This book is filled with inspiration for hours!!! Then I started working on Christmas ornaments.(Also from Julies book)These ones aren't quite finished.

Every year I like to make ornaments to give to my family and friends. I love to be able to go to their homes during the Holidays and see little pieces of my heart hanging on their trees from years past. I did manage to finish a bunch of these. Now, all I need to do is add a copy of a vintage baby picture to the centers and ribbon to hang them.

Yeah!! ONE thing I can cross off of my enormous Christmas list. Back to Halloween! I started work on these. They will be adorable Holiday felt rings for my girls(and maybe a swap or two) when I'm done. These are ALSO from Julies book. (see what I mean about inspiration for hours.) The next day, a super friend of mine asked me if I could make the crepe paper flowers I sell in my etsy shop HALF of their size. She has been in love with them for awhile but didn't know what she would use them for. Then, she joined an ATC swap and realized these would be the perfect accent if they were only smaller. So, here they are (in progress). I can't decide what to put in the centers. A normal hole punch is too small. I don't have enough tiny vintage mother of pearl buttons for them all either. If you have any suggestions, I would LOVE to hear them. After I figure out the centers, I'll be listing some of them in my shop.

Oh yeah, black ones are on their way too.

Then, last but not least, I got an urge to spruce up a little composition book.

I just love these! I love the size, the weight, just everything!! I used vintage sheet music, vintage trim, vintage mother of pearl buttons, seam binding ribbon and a super funny vintage french pharmacy label. I don't know if you can read it but, roughly translated it says "The big, cheap, pharmacy." and the pharmacists name is Armand PAIN!!! I don't know if I would go to that pharmacy.

I really enjoyed the challenge of creating something new, with different techniques, everyday. I'm sure I'll keep doing it. I'm just not sure I'll be able to post everyday. So, I'll post when I can.

I hope you enjoyed seeing what I've been up to. Please give me some suggestions for the crepe paper centers.

Thanks, enjoy the upcoming weekend,

Cari

Tussie Mussies

I have always been enamored by Tussie Mussies (or cones).

I love them.

I have always wanted to make them.

I finally did!!

First, I was inspired by Halloween. I love this German Silver Glitter.I added a vintage Chandelier crystal to the bottom and some velvet ribbon and a chenille stem.

Then, of course I had to make a pink fru-fru one.

I took a piece of vintage floral wallpaper and framed it in this premade silver frame.

I think it turned out sweet. I had to line the back edges with velvet ribbon because they stick out away from the cone and you could see the glue.

I didn't want any nasty bits showing.

I accented my Tussie Mussie with some vintage lace, vintage velvet flowers, and vintage rhinestone chain. Voila!!

I don't know why I waited so long. These were so quick and easy.

I guess sometimes we make things seem bigger in our heads than they really are.

If there is something you've been wanting to do for a while, do it!!

You'll probably be surprised at how great it works out.

Have a super weekend,

Cari

A Fabulous Swap Opportunity

Harley at KoalaFuzz is hosting a 13 Days of Halloween Swap

She has rounded up some sponsors to donate prizes for her swap.

How exciting!! So, if you sign up for her swap, you not only get to have a fabulous partner and lots of goodies swapped. But, you also get the chance to win a fabulous prize from one of her sponsors.

Well, she found me on etsy and asked if I would be willing to donate. Of course, I said "Yes!".

Here is the little item that she asked if I would donate.

So, if you like what you see (heck, even if you don't), hop on over and sign up and check out the prizes from the other sponsors. I think some of them are offering discounts in their stores to participants. I know I am.

Accidental Gifts

Hi everyone!! I've been so busy around here lately but, I did want to take the time to show you some unexpected finds.

Look at these super neat maps from the 1950's. O.K, there's a long story that goes with them. I'll just give you the short story:

My father has decided to become a nomad. He bought a trailer and is going to move from place to place (forever I guess). Needless to say, he needed to clear out some stuff. He gave me a bunch of the old National Geographic that my grandpa had in his library forever. I wasn't sure exactly what I was going to do with them, they have sentimental value. So, I was browsing through them and look what fell out of one. I immediately searched them all and I got 8 amazing vintage maps from different areas of the world. Pretty cool unexpected surprise.

Here's another unexpected treat.

On Fathers Day my hubby and kiddos decided to go to my grandma and grandpas house. My dad was coming too. My kids just love my grandpa. He's turning 92 in August. I needed a vintage dictionary so I asked if he had any old books he didn't want laying around.

He did!!

Leave it to grandpa. He had all of these books lined up on bookshelves in the garage with price signs already attached from former garage sales. He was getting ready to send them to the Salvation Army. Ugh!! somebody missed these at a garage sale. He had them priced at .25c each. They are his old Hymnals (sheet music) from when he was a kid. His father was a minister. Lucky for me he had two of one of the books because I don't know if I could cut it up otherwise. All of these books are from around 1905. One is in such good shape the pages look almost brand new. Not exactly what you want for crafting but oh well, beggars.... ya know!!

Well, that's it as far as found treasures go.

I hope everyone is having a fantastic summer. I have less than 3 weeks till school starts back up. The girls already have all of their new clothes and all of the kids got their school supplies at Wal-Mart. Not normally my favorite place but boy do they have great specials.

I'll sure miss these crazy kids when they go back. I think I'll take them to Disneyland today.

Hope you stay cool and have fun.

Cari