You Made My Heart Warm And I Won!!!

Hello my dear friends,

I am sorry for not posting this earlier, but I have been quite sick in bed. My back went from bad to worse and I couldn't stand or sit for 4 days now (I am writing this standing). On top of my back pain, I also ended up getting a very nasty cold and cough that made me feel even worse. And the worst thing about being sick is, it was my daughter Ashleigh's 21st birthday on Sunday and we couldn't really celebrate it. I was so sad!

My beautiful baby daughter Ashleigh the day she was born March 13th 1990.

Now I would like to tell you all, how HAPPY you have made me with all your kind words about my last tutorial. I am over the moon that you all like it so much!! Thank you all for your comments and all your well wishes. You made my heart very warm!!!!! I hope I can make a new tutorial some time soon again.

You will never guess what I woke up to on Friday morning............. SNOW!!! Again it had snowed all night, after all the rain we had during the day before - the snow had almost all gone - and now more of the WHITE BEAUTIFUL STUFF!!

This is my backyard at 7 am in the morning!  WONDERFUL!!!!

It looks like a million ice fairies had visited my backyard. They must have danced there all night and covered everything with a blanket of their best sparkles and glittering dust. I now have my very own little Winter Wonderland even if it is only for a very short time.

And last but not least ....

I WON !!!!!! ( as I dance around my kitchen - but only in my mind) Or rather I got picked!! I am so thrilled!! I am one of the two lucky winners of Sonya's giveaway!!!

For those of you that don't know Sonya, she is a lovely lady and you should drop by her blog and take a look - you won't regret it - it is great!!!

http://countingmyblessings-sonyawalker.blogspot.com/

Now I am going to go and rest for a little while. I wish you well and look after yourselves!

I hope you have a creative and peaceful day,

Karen B.

A New Tutorial ~ Hymn Page Feathers

Hello my dear friends,

unfortunately I hurt my back whilst shoveling snow on Sunday morning. That meant that I had to rest a lot by lying down, because sitting was the worst thing I could do. So whilst lying down I took the time to write up a tutorial of my hymn page feathers for you.

 

 

I love these feathers so much! When I look at them I imagine being embraced by them and any worries being taken away from me. I also imagine feelings of comfort, warmth and safety. I chose to use hymn pages because this is how I imagine Angels wings to look. What better choice than paper written with songs for God, made into angel feathers? Of course you can make these feathers out of music sheets, book pages, dictionary pages, or any other kind of paper that would suit you or your creation best.

The feathers are very easy to make, they take a little time, but you will love them when you are done. I have made a few feathers out of different papers so you can see what they will look like.

 

 

Some more hymn page feathers.

 

 

 

This feather was made from a very old German book. The writing is called "Alt Deutsche Schrift" ~ Old German Writing. My grandmother used to write like this and taught me how to read it.

 

 

This feather is made from a dictionary page.

Now let us start ...

this is what you will need:

 

 

- Hymn pages  (music sheets, dictionary pages, book pages)

- Scissors

- Tacky glue

- Wire cutters

- Cloth stem wire wire 22 gauge (mine was 45 cms long)

- Piece of card for the template

- A pencil

To start off with, print out the template. I have given you 2 sizes, a larger feather and a smaller one. I will have all measurements listed for both of them.

 

 

 

Cut a piece of wire 35cms/20cms long long and bend the wire in half, so that one end is 3cms longer than the other.

 

Take a piece of paper of your choice, and draw a line of glue down the center and place your wire into the glue, leaving the single piece of wire of 3cms out at the bottom.

 

 

Now place your second sheet of paper on top of the first, press it down firmly and leave it to completely dry.

 

 

After it is dry, cut out your template and lay it on your sheet with the wire centered and draw around it ~ now you can cut the feather shape out.

 

Next cut a fine strip of paper about 5 mm wide and the length of a page, spread some glue on it and wrap it around the uncovered wire, starting at the top. When you get to the end of the wire, wrap it around one last time, cut it the excess off and let it dry again.

 

Now comes the fun part! Taking a pair of sharp scissors, and cut fine diagonal lines into your feather towards the center where the wire is but be sure to not cut all the way down to the wire. Cut all the way around your feather... and voila you are done!!! Sit back and take a look at your beautiful creation!

I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial as much as I have making it for you and just remember that these feathers will be delicate after you have made them - they are made from paper after all!

And last but not least ...

 

 

 ... a new pincushion I would like to share with you.

Made from a vintage baby cup, some old lace and a boot button for the center of the flower. I love the look of old tarnished things! I always wonder who they used to belong to so many years ago.

Have a peaceful and creative day,

Karen B.

My Busy Weekend

Hello my dear friends,

I have been very busy over this past weekend. Apart from shoveling snow I was also trying to accomplish all of the things I was hoping to do. I love sitting down and crafting. I get such a buzz out of creating. BUZZ, BUZZ, BUZZ!! Standing back and looking at what I made, just makes me feel plain and simple good about myself.

My wee old bird cage was the first in line and I managed to repair it. Now it is ready for any little feathered friend to call it home. I absolutely LOVE this cage - it is just adorable! All that was needed was some old steel wire (I didn't use the new brass wire I had bought for it in the end, it was just didn't look the way I wanted it to) and a little something old, which I did find amongst all my vintage treasures in the form of an old brass hinge which was another find of mine at a church sale some time last year. I had bought a small wooden box full of them for just 10 cents - what a deal!! I can't wait until it's that time of year again - church sales, garage sales, rummage sales - so much fun!

My next project was actually a two-in-one. I wanted to learn how to make a felt from an old sweater. I found a suitable brown men's sweater that came all the way from Ireland in a second hand store. I did some research on the net, and decided to try and make felt in the sink and not in the wash machine. I think that in the future I will prefer it this way for making smaller items. It takes a bit longer this way, but you do save energy by doing so and I love doing things "the good old way". Not only did I want to learn how to felt but I wanted my first felting project to be a birds nest. So, I sat down, pictured what I would like it to look like in my head and then started. It took me about an hour from start to finish - mainly because I decided to use three different strands of wool to embellish my nest with before I started felting.  The felting part wasn't too difficult and when I had the effect I wanted, I left it to dry on a heating vent over night.

And here is my first felting attempt. What do you think? I am sure I will have another try again very soon.

Amongst felting there was another project that needed my attention. My daughter Caylagh needs to be Cleopatra for a school project, so Sunday morning was spent creating her costume. I ended up gluing over 250 gems to a large fabric collar that will resemble the large jewels that Cleopatra wore. I can't tell you how happy I am that I had decided not to use a glue gun. This way my fingers are all very happy and unburnt.

And last but not least ...

I also started to work on my old dress form. I bought this old girl from a little old lady. At first I wasn't sure about buying her - I was worried about spending too much money. I had no idea how much a dress form should really cost, but looking at her twice I gave myself a push and paid $50 for her. After stopping at Fabricland on the way home and seeing how much new dress forms cost, I was more than happy to have spent my money.  When I got her home, I took a closer look at her and decided that the fabric was just ugly and didn't really smell that good either. So, what to do? After seeing so many beautiful recreations of dress forms on many wonderful blogs, one of them which is Lisa's (Tarnished and Tattered), I knew my old girl needed a makeover.

   This is Lisa's recreated dress from, so beautiful!

You can take a look at Lisa's "mannie makeover" here:

www.tarnishedandtattered.blogspot.com/2010/01/mannie-makeover.html

I am sure  this project will take me some time, but I am also sure that once she is done I will absolutely love the new look I would have given her.  I haven't decided yet as to how I am going to decorate her  but that's OK because at the moment I am working on getting all the old fabric off of her first, since it is is glued very, very well to the inside of the individual pieces and I dont' really want to take her apart. (I am worried, I won't be able to put her back together again!) When I am done with my old girl, I will share the result with you.

Unfortunately I haven't been able to work on a new tutorial this weekend. As soon as I do, I will post it for you, my dear friends.

I hope you have a peaceful and creative day,

Karen B.

Roses In Winter

Hello my dear friends,

today I would like to share one of my new makings. I have been working on some new roses from a tutorial I had found at Anj's blog "Snowybliss".

Anj makes her roses from patterned fabric and I really like the way she created them - I just put my own little twist to them. I decided to use tea dyed muslin and I also added leaves to the stems. Being a hand quilter for many years, I prefer not to use a sewing machine when I craft, because I just love to sew by hand. It is so peaceful and rewarding for me.

This is the link to Anj's blog:

http://snowybliss.blogspot.com/2010/06/long-stemmed-fabric-flowers.html

Why not go and take a look at her lovely creations and her great tutorials?

I am planning to make more of the roses soon. For my next bunch I would like to maybe dye the muslin with food coloring and see how they will turn out. Of course I will show you the result of this.

Another task for me is to fix my wee old bird cage. The swing needs to be rehung again and it also needs to have a new hanging hook. I would have loved to have used something old for this project, but unfortunatly the antique store that I was planning to visit had suddenly shut down. I ended having to buy new brass wire and I am hoping to  find something old and tatty hiding away in one of my boxes that I can incorporate in the project.  I do hope that with time the wire will age and tarnish to match the rest of this beauty.

I have also been working on a few other things this past week, which I am planning to make into small tutorials, if they work out. Hopefully I will be able to work a lot on this weekend and will be successful, so I can share something new next week some time.

And last but not least ...

I would like to share some old pictures from my collection with you.

                          A young woman working in a millner factory, threading large spools.

                                       Two younge victorian girls working hard in a sewing factory.

A little girl playing with her baby doll.

I love these photos because they are not staged in any way. They were taken in a moment of life and I find there is nothing better than that.

I hope you have a  peaceful and creative day,

Karen B.

My New Treasure Has Arrived!

Hello my dear friends,

the mail man was just here and my newest treasure has arrived! I bought it off of eBay a few days ago. I am so excited !! Take a look!!

It's been packed very well, that's good. Hopefully nothing is broken.

OK, we are getting closer!

Any idea as to what it is yet?

Yay, it's my newest bird cage. It is small, and old, and tatty, and just wonderful!!

Even our cat Lexi seems to like it as much as I do.

And so does Iris, our other cat.

This bird cage is perfect in every way, even thought it has lost it's hook. I will need to repair it a little bit, so I can rehang the swing. The only thing I have to figure out now, is how am I going to decorate it.

And last but not least ...

here are the vintage doll shoes I spoke about in my last post. I have, of course, given them a new life as... you guessed it - pincushions.

I kept them as simple as possible because I didn't want to do anything that would over power the original look of the shoe. I like them! What do you think?

Have a peaceful and creative day,

Karen B.

Fairy Dancing Shoes And More

Hello my dear friends,

whilst visiting one of the second hand stores where I like to search for my treasures, I came across a little pair of old leather girl's ballet shoes. They looked so sad stuffed in a corner of a shoe shelf and I knew I just had to take them home with me.

At first I wasn't sure what I was going to do with them, but then I decided to make them into fairy shoes. I had found some beautiful old leather flower earrings at a church sale last year sometime. My daughter Caylagh decided that they were perfect for these little shoes. By adding some green silk leaves and some lace, the task of recreating these precious shoes was done.

(Unfortunately I didn't take any before pictures this time, but I will try and do so in the future.)

I am really happy with the way these have turned out and I hope you like them too!

And last but not least ...

in one of my previous posts I told you about a bag of baby shoes which I had bought at one of the local antique stores. In the same bag I found a small vintage doll shoe which I then gave a new life as a pincushion.

This is the shoe. There was something else in the bag too. Inside one of the baby shoes were three more little vintage doll shoes. They were old, almost completely crushed  flat and very brittle. It would have broken my heart to just throw them away, so I sat down and very carefully started to work on them.

These are the shoes -  just 2 inches long. The two left ones are a pair that have been sewn together with tiny stitches - so small that I needed a magnifying glass to see where I had to cut them apart, so I wouldn't damage them too much. It took me over 15 minutes to separate them without ruining them. Of course I had to turn them into something I just love to create! I am sure, my dear friends, you might guess what that would be. I will show you the result in my next post.

Have a peaceful and creative day,

Karen B.