You all know that I have an Etsy shop. It's been my passion for about a year now, and I finally got my first special order. One of my repeat customers (I am so thankful for her) asked me if I could make her an upcycled notebook with a vintage feel with some sort of inspirational saying on the front. That was my direction, and this is what I came up with.

I took some My Minds Eye Laundry Line paper and a little bit of vintage lace and the rest just fell into place. I absolutely love My Minds Eye. They have so many beautiful floral patterns that it's almost hard to choose which one to start with let alone cut up. The large daisy is from the Oriental Trading Company. I've ordered quite a bit from their scrapbooking embellishment line. They've certainly come a long way from the party favors. The small brown paper flower is of course Prima with an added a vintage button and a piece of hemp cord tied in the middle. The tag was traced out and stamped with sentiments from The Scrappy Cat vintage line. Love them too! I heat embossed some of the words to add a bit more interest and added Kaiser Craft pearls to anchor it a bit.

The inside got a little attention as well. I made a small library card pocket from a template downloaded somewhere off the internet. Sorry I don't remember where from, but I find quite a few templates on line. I also found the bookplate online as well.

My loyal customer was very pleased with the outcome, and I couldn't be happier. It's all in the details.

Thanks for spending some time with me.

Have a great day!

Hugs,

M.

Grateful

Thank you just never seems like enough, but I wanted to take this time to show my appreciation to all those men and women who have given more than expected for all of us.

Thanks to Cathe Holden at Just Something I Made for allowing the use of the above image.

Hugs,
M.

"Green" never looked so festive...

We all have those magazines laying around...the ones we don't ask for but somehow end up in our mailboxes...sometimes three a day! I know I have tons hanging around all over my coffee table waiting for me to peruse them or get rid of them, but I always have a hard time tossing them out. It's paper no-less, and we all know how I feel about paper. Anyway, the other day I sat down to watch one of my favorite shows, and wouldn't you know it, it's a repeat. So, I pick up one of those catalogs and start browsing through only to find that everything inside is way out of my price range. What to do with it? Why not recycle it, but into what? I thought with all the colors on the pages they would make great bows, so I took a store bought bow apart and was amazingly surprised at how easy they are to make. I started in and after about twenty minutes I had four already done.

My two oldest daughters, ages 7 and 9, also made a few for their teachers. They are just that simple to make.

Supplies you will need:

Magazine page

Scissors

paper fastener/brad

something sharp

double sided foam tape that can be cut to size

Step 1:

*Cut your magazine page into roughly 8 or 9 strips. Perfection is not necessary.

*Take one strip and cut approximately two inches off the top so it's shorter than the rest. This will be the first strip you start with.

Step 2:

*Loop the strip like shown. *Flip it over and loop the other end.

Step 3.

Poke a hole through the middle and slip it onto your paper fastener/brad.

Step 4.

Continue looping the rest of the strips and adding them one by one to the back of the first.

You can add more strips or less depending on your preference. Once you have all the strips you want, just split the prongs on the brad to secure.

Step 5.

Place a piece of double sided foam tape to the back so that it can be attached to a package easily at a later date.

And there you have it. Beautiful bows from all those over-priced sales catalogs.

Please post a link to the bows you've created!!

Thanks for spending some time with me! Have a great day!

Hugs,

M.

Ornaments Galore

Still working on items for the upcoming Christmas Fair. My favorite items to make are these adorable cones. This one is victorian style with an image of Marie Antoinette. I added Prima glitter flourishes, a crown with crystals and tucked a little tulle on the inside. The purple around the top is just a piece of paper that I fan folded and then glued to the inside. A little different than the last few I've made. I thought it added a nice touch.

These next set of cones turned out a little more festive. Again, I added the fan-folded paper along the top with chipboard bulb ornaments attached to the front. Some ribbon and red string finish them off.

I also made these gift card holders using an old soap box as a template. I went ahead and traced the soap box onto paper, reglued them and punched a couple of holes on the top to string ribbon through. Embellished each and voila, complete. These were so easy to make.

I'll post some more later as I've got to get the girls onto bed. Thanks for spending some time with me.

Hugs,

M.