Wine Bottle Vase

Inspired by the ART of Manon Gignoux.

With a wine bottle, a few scraps of recycled textiles and some random hand stitching, I made a vase.

 

Live Well

Karen

Spinning Fabric

Thought I'd try spinning some fabric strips today. 

 A reclaimed cotton gauze skirt torn into strips.

 

 Spun together with some blue wool.

 Another in purples.

Made some pretty interesting yarn.

karen

Crewel Folder

So, I decided to go ahead and use those crewel samples this morning rather than hoarding them away.

In my last post I mentioned that they were very dusty, so after I laundered them and they were dry, I cut out my favorite parts and pieces and machine stitched them in a random pattern onto some reclaimed muslin. (2 rectangles of the same size)

I added some machine stitched text, 

 and some vintage buttons.

After I had all the crewel and embellishments stitched onto the muslin, I then stitched the crewel covered muslin panels to a larger piece of purple linen from my fabric stash. One to the left and the other to the right on the purple linen, creating a front and a back to the folder.( so the panels are side by side on the purple linen)

 I made a little flap and added a super sized snap.

 Next I cut a piece of quilt batting and another piece of muslin the same size as the purple linen. I sandwiched the batting between the linen and the muslin and layered on a smaller piece of muslin for pockets before stitching them all together.

There it is. A completed folder.

 It's just right for holding my reclaimed packing paper that I've been using for my doodles.

Here it is all loaded with paper and snapped shut.

All finished and no hoarding of materials.

karen

Bernice The Bunny

Hi!

Meet Bernice.

She came to life in my sewing room yesterday.

She was once a grain sack, a curtain, and a bed skirt.

She likes being a bunny better than all those other things.

And she loves her carrot!

Do something silly today.  It will lift your spirits.

Karen



Green Living

I made a quick stop at the thrift store today and came home with some wonderful new treasures which I'll share with you on another post.  Today I want to ramble on about how I've decided to recycle more, waste less and just make an overall effort to live a greener life. Although I've been using recycled materials in my crafts for years, I'm now taking it to a whole other level.  My Mom called me yesterday to let me know that she has a big stack of old newspapers for me, but she forgot to save her used dryer sheets this week.  My daughter stopped in for lunch today and complained that she has "trash" all over her kitchen that she's saving at my request. I know this might sound a bit like I'm some kind of hoarder and I guess I am to a certain degree, but not the kind you see on TV. I try to keep it all organized and I actually use these materials, not hoard them. Here are some of the things that I'm recycling at this time.

These used tea bags make the most beautiful papers for my journals.

After they are dried I open them, compost the tea and save the papers for my journal.

They're pretty and they even smell good.

I haven't done much composting in the past, but it seems like such a waste not to, so today I started a compost pail. It will be used in my garden.

I bought my first dozen of free range brown eggs today.

I wish I would have photographed the eggs before I cooked them. They were such a beautiful brown.

The shells went into the compost pail and I saved the carton for packaging up some small handmade Easter gifts.

SIMPLIFY is my new favorite word.

Who knows, I may end up raising chickens next.

Hope your day is simple and comfortable.

See you soon.

Karen

Recycled Doily Sachets

If you ask me, nothing smells better than lavender.

I always keep a supply of French lavender buds on hand for making sachets.

These were all made from vintage linen doilies.

I picked these vintage doilies up at an estate sale for 3/$1.00.

These are about 10 and 12 inches in diameter and hold quite a lot of lavender.

These small sachets were made from thrifted doilies.

They are about 3 inches in diameter.

Each sachet holds one tablespoon of lavender.

I purchased all of them for just 29 cents.

They are adorned with tiny vintage flowers.

Jack likes the smell of lavender too, and fresh bed linens, and hamburgers and bacon and......

What's your favorite fragrance?

Karen



Primitive Valentines

Hi.

I'm taking a short break from the jewelry making as I wait for some supplies to arrive.

I don't usually do much decorating for Valentine's Day, but as I rummaged through my craft supplies, I figured, what the heck, I have all of this STUFF,  I may as well do something with it. So, my next few posts will be devoted to handmade valentines.

This is my rusty heart tart tin hanging thingy.

It consists of three rusty heart tarts, a piece of driftwood, some jute twine, antique tattered lace, a couple of white stones, vintage dictionary text, and some Martha Stewart clear glue.

I drilled holes in the ends of the driftwood and the tops of the hearts.

Then I glued the lace and text to the hearts and hung them from the driftwood with the twine.

I like the way the rust was soaked up by the glue and is peeking through the lace and paper.

It gives it a real primitive look.

The stones add some interest to the overall look.

It's been a while since I've played with ink and stamps.

In the past I had used coffee or tea to give my tags an aged look, but this one was soaked in vanilla and smells wonderful.

You can't get more primitive than this.

Valentine's Day is less than two weeks away, so I will be posting more ideas on making valentines using recycled odds and ends.

I hope I've inspired you to make some decorations of your own.

See you soon.

Karen





Recycled Vintage Jewelry

Happy Groundhog Day everyone!

How embarrassing...sometimes when people ask me where I live, I almost hate to tell them.

What is your town famous for?

Okay, now that I got that out of the way, I'm going to ramble on about using vintage jewelry to make new jewelry.

For years now I have admired all the jewelry I've been seeing made from recycled vintage jewelry.

It's always quite costly, so I started picking up odds and ends at flea markets and thrift shops with intentions of making my own.

This is a necklace that I've been working on.

It's quite long and I was having trouble fitting it all into one photo so that you could actually see everything.

To tell you the truth, I've been having a tough time getting decent photos at all.

As you can see, I made my own chain by wiring together freshwater pearls.

I used some brass chain as well along with a few brass charms and findings.

I picked up this old button in an antique shop a while ago.

I love it even with it's imperfections.

The rhinestone piece looks like it may have been an embellishment from a vintage hat.

The white stone in this photo adds interest I think.

This part dangles from the bottom.

It's part of a vintage earring that I picked up at a flea market.

There's even a bit of vintage lace incorporated into this necklace.

So far, this is my favorite of all the necklaces that I've made.

Well, I've rambled on enough.

See you soon.

Karen