La Cage Aux Fleurs

I've wanted a birdcage for the longest while but have either not found one in good shape or for the right price. I finally found one over the weekend for a price I could live with ( of course because I'm looking I won't find one as inexpensive as I want) at an antique store. It started out like this before it was ready for its appointment with my very first ever can of, "I think I'm in love", Oil Rubbed Bronze spray paint. Where have you been all my life? 

 

I wasn't sure what I wanted to do with it but then I remembered that the first of each month is Frenchy's "French Obsession" party at Chateau des Fleurs and since there's pretty much nothing I can't tie to a movie title, the movie "La Cage Aux Folles" popped into my head ( trust me, a psychiatrist would change professions after playing word association with me!) and I knew I didn't want to do anything birdy with my birdcage because that would be um, LOGICAL, so I decided on "La Cage Aux Fleurs" since I'm currently obsessed with flowers. Still with me? It's exhausting huh? 

Here's what I ended up with ( didn't get pix along the way because my camera battery was charging):

Inside:

 

I made flowers from book pages and some kraft colored paint masking paper, put a black button in the center, and an antique gold rhinestone on top of the button. Made a couple more flowers from just the book paper. I had some ribbon I'd saved from a present that I wrapped around the top of the cage and another piece I tied to the loop thingy on top. 

At the same place I got the birdcage, I found a mason jar of chandelier crystals so I cleaned up four of the biggest ones and attached them to the cage with jump rings. Inside the birdcage there's a nest attached to a branch that I found at Michael's on sale for $1.49!!  I propped that up inside the cage, and what's on the bottom are the scraps I tore from around the circles I cut to make my flowers, along with two more book paper flowers. I used all my bits and scraps!

The center front decoration is from a bag of ephemera I bought at a stamp show...some wired bead strands and a fabric flower. I hot glued the edges of the ribbon to the cage so they'd spread out.

Mr. Chocolate is relieved I didn't intend to keep an actual bird in my birdcage! 

A Little Bit of This...A Little Bit of That

is probably how I would describe my "making". Paper, general crafts, re-purposing, some knitting  / crocheting, mixed media, beads, wire, jewelry a little sewing. You name it, I pretty much play with it. I've been wanting to make one of the bib-style necklaces we've seen around blogland and Etsy. So here 'tis...I was not sure if I'd even finish it so I didn't take any pics along the way.

 

I kept it simple and made rolled rosettes from tee shirt scraps and layered organza flowers with a metallic bead center. I wanted it lighter for Summer so instead of adhering to felt like I've seen a lot of the tutorials do, I made a sandwich of a scrap of a flour sack towel, iron on fusible stuff and a scrap piece of muslin which gave it body but not weight. Glued the flowers randomly, trimmed it close to the edges, and sewed a length of chain on each side. Finished off getting the length I wanted by stringing beads onto stringing wire and added the clasp. 

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If It's Tuesday...

it's time to

Thank you for stopping by, have a chocolate, and take a look around. I'm in and out so will be by to visit you soon!

Win a Silhouette!!!

Yes, you read that right. I've been seeing these opportunities pop up and Just A Girl 
  has an opportunity for you to win one!!! If you don't know what a Silhouette  is, go to their site and check it out in full detail.
The winner will get $325 worth including the following items:

• Silhouette Craft Cutter
  
• Software for Windows XP/Vista
  
• Power cable and USB Cable
  
• Two cutting mats
  
• Two cutting blades
  
• $10 gift card to the online store
  
• Instructional CD and manual 
  
  
  So go NOW to Just a Girl  to find out the FOUR ways you can enter to win! Why are you still here? 

Thank You Jennifer!

Jennifer from The Craft Barn, surprised me with an award, and I'm especially honored because the award recognizes:

and I'm shocked and amazed that anyone would think this applies to my blog! So thank you Jennifer, I am blown away!

The Rules:
•Thank the blogger who awarded it to you.

•Sum up your blogging philosophy, motivation, and experience using five (5) words.

•Pass it on to 10 other blogs which you feel have real substance.

My blogging philosophy? I'm not sure I have one but here goes:

Creativity, inspiration, fun, sanity,positive

I'm what you would call a "wordy girl" so limiting it to five words is a challenge. I use 5 words to say hi. 

And now the fun part...the 10 blogs I feel have real substance ( which is not to say that if you're not on this list I don't think you have substance, but I gotta pick 10 )

1. http://allthingzrelated.blogspot.com/ 
2. http://www.centsationalgirl.com/ 
3. http://diaryofacraftaholic.blogspot.com/ (aka Craftaholics Anonymous)
4. http://justsomethingimade.blogspot.com/ 
5. http://kojodesigns.blogspot.com/ 
6. http://modpodgerocks.blogspot.com/ 
7. One Cheap B*tch 
8. http://roomtoinspire.blogspot.com/ 
9. http://somedaycrafts.blogspot.com/ 
10. http://mmscrapshoppe.blogspot.com/ 

Final Fourth Project...#3

Unless of course I make something last minute next week which I probably will since I called this final. I thought my mantle needed some "bunting". What do you think?

I made coffee filter and crepe paper medallions and used up some patriotic bear iron on transfers I picked up "because they were a steal deal" words that are a permanent fixture in my vocabulary! It's more "cute" than I normally do but at the same time it's vintagey and oh who cares, I like it.

For the coffee paper medallions:

• 4 natural coffee filters for each medallion
• 3 " circle cut from scrap cardboard...mine was a cereal box I cut on my Cricut
• White crepe paper
• Red and blue w/ white star scrapbook paper scraps
• Buttons
• Self adhesive rhinestones

I scrunched the coffee filters, opened them back up, stacked on top of each other and then folded in half, stapled...opened, folded in half the other way, stapled. I don't know why I did this. It seemed like a good idea.

I used a glue stick to attach my crepe paper to my cereal box circles. To me it's the perfect medium for this because it holds the crepe paper yet you can still pull it up without ripping if you need to re-pleat. I just glued down an edge, made a fan pleat, put some more glue stuck on, made another fan pleat and so on. I went around twice to give them some body.

Cut out cirles from the red paper, and then slightly smaller from the blue / white starred paper and crumpled the latter. Stick those in the middle of the crepe paper circle; stick to the coffee filter base. Punched a rustic star from some scrap kraft paper. I added a white button, and because I'm blingy that way, an antique gold self adhesive rhinestone.  I punched a hole on either side of the medallion and added an eyelet so it wouldn't tear when I went to hang it.

For the canvas pennants:

• Scrap canvas, muslin, whatever
• Iron on transfer
• Pattern ( I made one from a scrap piece of paper)
• Eyelets

Cut pennant; iron on transfer, punch holes on either end, place eyelets, string to rest of your banner.

"Fourth" Project #2

Welcome to those stopping in from









 I hope you'll look around and make yourself at home. Virtual chocolates are calorie free!



Told you I didn't buy only one of the table leg / post thingys I used in my first project. I like things in twos I guess...they don't have to match, but coordinate. So I started with another bare one and added a wood ball to the top of this one:

Painted this one cream and dry brushed with gold. I also went around the raised edges with a gold paint pen. I decided I wanted this one to hold an image so I Mod Podged a piece of cardboard that was an insert for a vinyl monogram (re-use, recycle!) with the blue star scrapbook paper and I had some gold paint left on my brush so I went around all four sides with it because....because I did.  I was feeling a vintage vibe and found a piece of clipart in my graphics program that I liked, printed it out, mounted it to a scrap piece of red paper and then to another scrap piece of black mat board:

 

Almost there...I MP'd another scrap of the star paper onto a wooden clothespin, hot glued that to the post ( I don't know what to call it) added some adhesive rhinestones to the drum and remembered I had some stars and stripes wired ribbon and:

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Another Award? Really?

Thank you so much to The Very Best Housewife ( who says she's not but I'll bet she is) for passing on this lovely award to me:

for which I am both surprised and very grateful. So THANK YOU very, very much! That means I've completed #1 on the list of things that come with the award which are:

1. Thank and link back to the person who gave you this award.

2. Share seven things about yourself.

3. Pass this award along to fifteen bloggers who you have recently discovered and who you think are fantastic for whatever reason!

4. Contact the bloggers you’ve picked and let them know about the award.

And means I have to do the hardest one on the list now which is #2 because I just hate hate hate telling things about myself. But it would not be very nice or in the spirit of the award not to do it now would it, so just for you VBHW:

7 Random Things about me:

1. I just made a ginormous batch of salsa
2. I use made up words like ginormous 
3. My two BFFs share the same birthdate ( ok maybe that's about them but I'm using it!)
4. I hate tomatoes in their natural state but love everything made from them like my ginormous batch of salsa. 
5. I never claimed I made sense
6. I have been known to spontaneously start singing show tunes. This is a problem because
7. I can't sing

We now return you to the fun part of this award ceremony...#3...pass this on to 15 bloggers I've recently discovered ( you may have been at this longer than me, but if I just found you you're going on the list!). Drumroll please:

1.  a Latte with Ott A
2. Bluebird Notes
3. Cheketts/Myers Clan
4. Cherished Treasures
5. Creative Mind of Sylvie
6. Cut or Copy and Paste
7. Frou Frou Decor
8. Green Gracie Home
9. I Heart Naptime with Chocolate Sundaes ( ok that one was an obvious choice right?!)
10. Lulu Kellogg
11. My 3 Monsters
12. Pittypat Paperie
13. Roses Petite Maison
14. Stepping Thru Crazy
15. Tattered and Inked

So again, thank you to VBHW and please go visit these great blogs!

"Fourth" Project #1

For whatever reason,  I've never done a lot of decorating for the 4th. No conscious reason...maybe it's because we're not usually home but this year I was determined. So here's the first of we'll see how many projects! This started out as a table leg or banister part? Not sure which...I found it at my favorite salvage place for a dollar ( and of course bought more than 1):

I painted it red with appropriately named "Americana" acrylic paint, and then dry brushed it with white. I made a medallion for the center using crepe paper and a circle cut from a recycled cereal box covered with scrapbook paper. It needed something for the middle so I painted the center of a bottle cap with the red paint, put a gold "4" sticker from my sticker stash and then filled in the bottle cap with "Diamond Glaze" by JudiKins. This gave it a dimensional / enamely look:

I went around the raised areas of the leg/post thingy with a gold paint pen and then Mod Podged some scrap strips of the scrapbook paper. I originally thought I was going to put flags in the hole at the top of the leg/post thingy but that didn't work out so I Mod Podged a washer with more scrapbook paper and glued it to the top to make a base to support a votive candle holder and:

Not the best pic but here it is on my mantle ( next to my crystal candlestick I got for $4 to which I glued a piece of milk glass I got for $5 at the Salvation Army thrift store!)

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Save The Date...July 16...You're Invited!

 A special invitation to those stopping in from:

To what am I invited you might ask? To this I will answer:

Which will be my first ever link party! But it's in July you may ask? To which I may answer "We're crafters / and artists and foodies...literally butchers, bakers and candlestick makers" and Christmas has a way of sneaking up on people like us who plan to make all of this amazing stuff. 

So, I thought we'd have a link party to show off great ideas and projects. There are a lot of us new to blogging since last Christmas so don't worry if you may have showcased a project before.  Please feel free to share:

• Home Decor Items
• Cards
• Ornaments
• Gifts You're Making
• Recipes (especially chocolate!)

• When: Friday July 16, 2010 ( and the third Friday of August, September and October,  then weekly on Fridays  in Nov and December)
• Where: http://answerischocolate.blogspot.com/

I hope you'll come share in the fun, and please feel free to invite people and/or post about on your blog!

Father's Day: Wall Art

I didn't put this up earlier because I didn't want you know who to see it before he got it. But now that he's got it ( and likes it) here's what I made Mr. C. for Father's Day:

I'd been wanting to try out Sabby in Suburbia's photo transfer tutorial, and when my husband found a photo of a favorite childhood memory, his favorite bike, I thought it would make the perfect subject to use.  I've had this cabinet door I found on an excursion to a magical place called  Earthwise Architectural Salvage in Seattle, which I knew I wanted to use for a piece of wall art. Originally I thought I was going to do something w/ chalkboard paint on it but I decided the wood was too pretty as is. 

I converted the photo to black and white in my photo editing program and printed on regular printer paper. Then using Sabby's tutorial, I covered a plain canvas board with Mod Podge ( I didn't even paint it...it was already primed and gesso'd) , stuck the photo to it printed side down ( remember to print any text mirror image!) and let it dry for 24 hours. Then wet the back of the paper and rubbed it off. I then added a scrap of scrapooking paper:

I then spelled out his name and the word bike with some pewter letters I had on hand and superglued them to the canvas. I really like how aged this looks. 

I didn't leave the cabinet door completely alone...that's not what we do is it?!  I cut a piece of scrapbook paper to fit the center panel and Mod Podge'd it on:

The sun  decided to make a rare appearance and mess up my picture, but you get the idea. And yay...another use for my still ginormous roll of carpet tape, which I used to adhere the canvas to the cabinet door.

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Here's his card, using images from The Graphics Fairy along with a transparent frame from Colorbok's Nocturne collection.

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