2 of My 4 Babies

Rosie

and Frankie. (Can you see his snaggle tooth? Hee, hee)

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Been A Long Time Coming…

but I finally added some fun things to my Etsy store!

Like tons of cute matryoshka’s!

And some fun pendants!

Some kanzashi…

And some pretty little straight pins!

(you can click on the pictures to be taken to the sections of the store.)

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I Like Tiny Dolls

I can’t help it, I’m 31 years old and I love me some tiny dolls.

Like these. These are called Dunny’s and I’m throughly in love with the designs.

Or these Dunny’s that are a little more “tough”.

This is called a Sonny Angel, I turned him to the side because he’s sporting a tiny weiner.  I might totally dork out and create a tiny dress so he can be a little more appropriate.

This is a Kimmi Doll, in the style of a Asian Kokeshi doll.

I bought these at Epcot years ago, my husband (who was my boyfriend at the time) took me there for my birthday. That was the day I knew he was “the one”.

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The Box of Dreams

About a few months ago, my Mom and I had a lovely girls day where we spent the day perusing craft stores. She’s a crafty girl like me and we both love to make things. One of our favorite stops is to a small store in St. Louis county called Red Lead. Red Lead specializes in hard to find materials and has a gorgeous array of papers and stamps.

One of the items I picked up that day was a small plywood box with a removable plastic cover that slides out. It was exactly what I’ve been looking for to display the countless little knick knacks that I’ve collected over the years. I painted the box white and then cut small pieces of paper for the back of each partition.

I didn’t start this project with any sort of plan in mind, I just started glueing and placing items that felt right.

Here’s the first box the upper left hand corner.

The focal point of this one is the vintage “Little People” person. I got the doll in one of my whimsy swaps that I participated in over on Craftster. My swap partner had told me that when she was a little girl, she was sick and bedridden quit often,  her “Little People”  were toys that were very special to her. The circles in the background were from a big jar of vintage whimsies that I bought from Naughty Secretary Club on her Etsy. I also like the couple under the big mushroom.

Here is the lower left hand corner box, which might be my favorite.

Like I said, I went into this with no plans. The birds in this part kept coming in. There’s a total of four, the larger pink one was a cupcake pick that I just snapped the stick off. On the back wall is a vintage Japanese bird pin. This part ended up with a “sweet” feel.

This is the first of the two larger areas, they seemed to take the longest! On  the very right side against the “wall”, is a huge rhinestone button that was my Mother-in-Law’s from her dress shop. I like the blue princess phone on the left wall too.

The teacup needed something in it to add some height, the rubber pig was perfect.

Do you see the ninja? :)

One of my favorite parts of making the whole box was getting the skull with glitter into a vintage measuring spoon. To the right is a tiny bottle filled with loose silver glitter.

Can you see what the Eskimo’s sign is saying? I also like the flying pig!

And here’s the last one, the lower right hand corner.

That’s a vintage spool that I wrapped with some embroidery thread. The tiny timer is also vintage and actually works.

Finally, I took some pictures of the angles so you could get a better idea of the little touches on the inside sides.

Whew! This was a huge post!

I loved making this and it took me a few weeks to reach the point where I was happy with everything.

I have a favorite box, what’s yours?

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Do Not Let Your Dogs Eat Your Embroidery Needles

I will start today’s post with a sad story that ended up ok. I promise!

A few years back, when my Shih-tzu Rosie was just a puppy she was a trouble maker.

(Rosie on the left, Frankie on the right. We walked them to the Snow Cone stand where they shared a Doggie t-bone flavored snow cone.)

I was also a totally irresponsible person and left a threaded embroidery needle on the couch without thinking. DUMB! Rosie ate the needle and it thankfully passed through her whole digestive system where it got stuck at the (ahem) very end. I cannot tell you the guilt that I felt but I was also so thankful that she ended up not needing surgery. After a doggie emergency room visit, $600 and a week of antibiotics just to make sure she was as good as new. Do not be as foolish as I was, we were very lucky.

After that incident, I made a needle book so I would keep my needles all in one place. I am very, very good about taking a needle out and then putting it back the second I am done. The thought of hurting my baby girl again sickens me.

Here is the needle book I made a few years back.

I used cheap acrylic felt and a daisy t-shirt iron on. The felt melted a little bit when I applied the daisy.

It was never very pretty and it didn’t wear very well. It totally did serve it’s purpose though.

Last week, I broke out my secret stash of vintage sheets that I bought months ago and started piecing bits together to make this, my new needle book.

I made the cover just like I would a mini quilt. I pieced the strips together, sandwiched the layers, quilted and bound the edges. Easy and a great beginners quilting project.

Here’s the inside:

I used felt again but used an 80% wool/20% acrylic blend for the “pages”. I like to used darker color felt because it’s easier to see the needles in the pages. The closure is a basic purse closure that I got at Joann’s.

I bound the needle book together with the grommets. This was my first time using grommets, they are a total bitch to work with. Seriously, my fingers were sore after the whole thing and punching holes into the book was scary. What if I made a mistake and ruined it? Thankfully I didn’t and the grommets were well worth that hassle as they do a great job of holding everything together.

To finish the look of the book, I made another Kanzashi and decorated it with a vintage button purchased from my favorite, local antique store.

Cute and functional, LOVE IT!

(I would like to take a moment to explain that we’re still learning about our fancy new camera and cannot seem to master the white balance. It’s like looking at the world through rose colored glasses, right?)

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Matryoshka, Matryoshka

I’ve been obsessed with cute matryoshkas for about a year now and I still can’t get enough of them. I hoard cute matryoshka fabric, ribbons and all sorts of various supplies and I just can’t bring myself to use them.

A while back, I got my hands on an unfinished set of them and decided that instead of painting them I would use the second to smallest one and make a mold out of it using a basic putty mold medium (you can buy the mold maker putty anywhere, I picked mine up at Hobby Lobby).

At first I was thinking of using resin to fill the mold but I settled on using plaster-of-paris. I really like using plaster, it’s super cheap, it sets up really fast and all the dings can be smoothed out with a nail file.

Once I got a good stash of matryoshka’s, I settled down with my acrylic paints and just kept painting.

Each one is an inch and a half tall and sealed with Sculpy glaze so they each have a lacquered look.

Each gal sports a tiny, tiny jewel at their neckline. I found the super tiny jewels in the nail polish isle at Walgreen’s!

Everyone is different; different heights, hair colors, and outfit color combinations. I might drill a hole in one or two of them and glue a ring from the top so they can be worn on a necklace.

What else could I do with my tiny girls?

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Happy New Year!

2 weeks late. I know.

I had every intention of posting pictures of these 2 weeks ago, but life got in the way. I bought these a year or two ago in a little vintage shop a few blocks away from my work.

Aren’t they just lovely?

The pipe cleaner arms and legs are thick chenille, the dress and hat are foiled paper and the head is ball of tightly spun cotton. I’ve looked over these carefully and I’m 99% sure that each face is handpainted.  The “Happy  New Year” is typed on a piece of thick cardstock, something similar to a manilla folder.

I’ve tried in vain to recreate these, I just haven’t found the thick pipe cleaners or the correct size of cotton bead. I don’t think I’ve found the right resource, please feel free to share your resource ideas if you have them!

And then I decided to add a little color to the photo with these vintage, unfoiled glass gems.

So pretty! And if you need some glass gems for yourself, you can get them where I did, from vintagerecreations on Etsy.

Then I took it a step further and staged a fancy tea party.  I couldn’t help myself!

I hope you enjoy these little girls as much as I do, they’re going back safely in their jar to be broken out next year!

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Obsessed with Flowers

I guess I’ve been obsessed with blooming flowers because everything in St. Louis (my hometown) is gray and freezing cold. As I write this it’s 12 degrees with a windchill of 4. BRRR!

One of my other lovely Christmas presents from my parents was Martha Stewart’s Encyclopedia of Crafts which is a treasure trove of inspiration and projects. I decided to spend most of my weekend holed up in my craft room watching bad TV, drinking soda and crafting. Friday, my good friend Steph came over and we made Kanzashi, Saturday and Sunday I bent over the table making these beaded flowers. (I cannot lie, my back is SO sore!)

These are made from seed beads and 34 gauge wire. For those of you not in the know, seed beads are the tiniest of beads and regarding the wire, 34 gauge is just a step above thread, it’s very thin, flexible and prone to kinking up. (Helpful hint, the higher the gauge the thinner the wire.)

This bouquet will be living in my craft room but I’m going to make a bouquet of all white flowers for a small vase for my bathroom!

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Kanzashi!

One of my many, many Christmas presents this yet (I’m very spoiled) was this book called “Kanzashi in Bloom: 20 Simple Fold-and-Sew Projects to Wear and Give” by Diane Gilleland. I was thrilled as I’ve had my eye on it for months now and none of my local bookstores carried it. So frustrating!

Once I got my paws on it though, I went crazy!

Kanzashi are made by simply folding squares of fabric to create petals and then assembling those petals to make a flower. Traditional Kanzashi are made from silk and are much more elaborate than these. Do a Google image search to see some more traditional Kanzashi and if you’re interested in creating these, I highly suggest you get Diane’s book. The directions were very clear and her writing style is like a friend sitting next to you. Love it!

Here is the first one I made out of orange cotton and embellished with a vintage button.

The next few were all about perfecting the technique and having fun with colors and buttons.

Pink with a big silver bubble button.

This is made from a brown and blue batik fabric that you might recognize from a previous post, it’s the back of the quilt I just finished!

This one looks like it has a wonky petal, I just didn’t adjust it before the photo shoot. This one is also the tiniest as it’s an inch and a half!

I’m mixing up petal styles here, also look for the tiny seed bead stamen.

Here, I sandwiched the petals to make things more interesting.

Then I got super crazy by sandwiching petals and added beaded stamen.

And now for my final flower this evening which included a technique that I’ll be talking about more very soon. This is a linen flower where I airbrushed the fabric with my new Color Artz airbrushing kit before folding. The airbrushing deserves its own post and it will get one.

Now that I have all these beautiful flowers, I’m going to put them on everything! What would you adorn with them?

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Merry Christmas!

It’s just a few minutes before it’s official but I wanted to pop in and wish you and yours an amazing, love filled Christmas!

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