Vintage Village

Well, I admit with the last minute project thrown in this week and Thanksgiving it took me a little longer than expected to get this kit done and ready to go but I hope it's worth the wait.  

click on photo to enlarge

  The Vintage Village consists of 7 structures, the smallest being only 2” tall and the largest, the church, 7 1/2" tall.  Three structures have window cutouts that have been made into shadowboxes to view little children from the Victorian era.  Each house is covered with vintage music and book paper and then embellished.  A bottle full of vintage mix glitter adds to the charm of the vintage look.  There is also bag of mica flakes just in case you want to add a bit of snow to the roof line or the trees.  The Village kit houses come in a flat pack as shown below.  The houses are very easy to put together once you understand the simple pattern and could easily be completed in a day.  The kit comes nicely packaged and could even be given as a gift.

The kit consists of:

7 tiny chipboard buildings (flat pack)

vintage music and book paper

ephemera pictures of children
bottle of vintage mix glitter

all embellishments and trims needed

6 bottle brush trees (4 1/2”, 3 1/2” and 2 1/2”)
bag of mica flakes
2 foam brushes

access to online written instructions and photos

you can choose to leave the trees plain or add a bit of glitter or mica flakes

the church has a tiny bell in the steeple

Kits will be posted for sale in the Etsy shop

Tuesday, November 30th at 8am pst

$44 plus s/h

shipping: $5 USA, $9 Canada, $12 everywhere else

A Lucky Day

Back in California today from a great fabulous weekend in Arizona.  I signed up to take a class with my friend Tim.  I am sure many of you have read about Tim's Artful Curio class where you get to dig through all kinds of junk (just my type of class) to create a curio cabinet with a glass door.   I found out he was teaching the very last session of the class in Payson at Paper and Metal Scrappers ,one of my favorite little stores, and I made a spur of the moment decision to take the class.  Crazy since I live in California, I know. 

the big table of good junk

Lets just say it was worth the cost of the flight just for a day away from my work table!  I had a great time visiting with friends Barb, Brenda, Kellie and Connie.  It was also fun to see what everyone chose to put into their curio.  One lady even brought a tiny purse that was given to her as a child.  I wasn't smart enough to bring something sentimental from home so I chose not to finish until I could look through my stash of ephemera and trinkets.  Sounds like a good thing to do on Thanksgiving after dinner don't you think?

Here's my box after we used paper and tissue tape to cover it.  Love the look of the Tissue Tape on the raw pine once it's inked with Distress Ink.  Totally transforms the tape.

I stole this pictures from Tim's blog.  That's my head at the bottom of the picture and my box.  I bet you could tell since if you look close you can see the word, "lucky" (appropriate, right?)  I promise to post some pictures once I am done. 

I am at the work table tomorrow...one of those "has to be done in 24 hours assignments" so my little village will have to wait a couple more days...sorry about that, but I promise to get things moving right after I finish. 
cheers! p

Details, Details....and a Labor of Love

Several months ago my good friend Joan and her daughter Paige asked me to help in decorating their wedding reception.  We enlisted Diana, another of my very talented friends to help.  Anyone who has taken on the challenge of a wedding without the help of a wedding planner and caterer can tell you that it is all about the details....hundreds and hundreds of details.  When it comes to so many details, Paula and I have often said, "we love a good list".  So I started a spreadsheet of all the things we needed, who was responsible to take care of it, cost, how many we needed, etc, etc.  Our list grew into several pages of all the tiniest details and information.  (When I start to get overwhelmed with a project it helps me feel better to get it all down so I can check things off that have been accomplished, and I have been known to add something to a list, just so I can check it off.)  I thought you might appreciate some of the many details.

When we were brainstorming and deciding what Paige wanted we soon figured out that the theme was all about light.  The colors were deep fall colors which gave us lots of flexibility.  The reception was held in another friends beautiful back yard.  Paige's dad was in charge of the canopy of white lights over the entire yard and another crew wrapped all the tree trunks with white lights. Diana and I for months had gathered clear glassware that were filled with candles and hung from all the branches in the trees.  That was a job all by itself to hang all the glassware.  My favorite was the cut glass punch cups.

The centerpieces were branches in a large hurricane vase filled with rice.  Hanging from each centerpiece branch were several pictures of the couple, cards with phrases or quotes, crystals, pearls and tea lights wrapped in ribbon and tulle.  Inside the vase we slipped more photos held up by the rice.  The entire arrangement was nestled in a ring of roses.  I must say we were happy with how they came together.

The gift table - I used my steamer trunk to display a few fun things along with an old typewriter and suitcases.  We clipped the picture of Paige and Sam to the hanging part of the trunk.

Entry - The guest book table we placed under this huge tree (also with all the glassware/tea lights hanging from the branches).  Notice the chandelier (one of 5 we used) and window hanging from the tree.   We put pictures of the couple in the panes of the window.  We lined the walkway with candle filled hurricane vases wrapped with tulle and ribbon.

Gate - We wanted to camouflage the side gate, so we made this huge drape and topped it with another chandelier.

Food tables -  Don't you love this patio with the fireplace!  We put candles and assorted fall sprays on the ledges.....loved it and it was probably the easiest part of the whole things.  In front of the fireplace was all the food tables.  Paige wanted something different and they decided to serve cookies.  I must say that at first I didn't think cookies would look that grand or wonderful.  I was so wrong, Joan and another friend made ALL the cookies themselves.  These were not just your typical cookies, they were all dusted with gold, dipped in chocolate or just beautifully presented.  Everyone LOVED it....it was so different and fun, which is exactly what Paige wanted.

Cake table - You can't see them very well in picture, but above the cake table we had 3 more chandeliers.....the effect was fabulous!

Chandeliers - We loved the idea of using chandeliers, but that can be pricey.  Two of the five I had purchased while I was in Texas at a Habitat For Humanity Home Store several years ago.  They were in in disrepair and in pieces and I just hoped that all the many pieces were there.  Two more chandeliers Diana and I found while out thrifting (both for $5) and we spray painted and added all the crystals.  The last one was made with a 7gypsies ATC/photo stand and crystals that we carted back from our trip to New Zealand in 2007.  It must have been meant to be....who else has those things on hand!!

Okay, I must say we were pleased with how everything came out.  All the little lights and candles were gorgeous and they best way to describe it was magical.

Thanks to Kathy, the photographer (...and also my very talented daughter in law) for the wedding photos.  She is simply fabulous!....check out her blog here.

Sparkly and Bright

Just a little preview of what's coming to the Etsy shop next week ...

merry, merry christmas

For the LOVE of dogs...

I have spent the last few days at the work table creating a couple projects for the upcoming 7gypsies release.  CHA is not until the end of January 2011 but we have to create 3 - 4 months out to prepare for catalogs and packaging.  Anyway, due to the fact that everything that is currently on the worktable is top secret until January I had to come up with something else to share today.

This is a canvas I created about 2 weeks ago as a birthday present for a friend.  My friend Liz love's animals and always has.  So I painted out a canvas (about 12 x 18") and wrote the names of all the dogs she has cared for throughout her life.  There's Bernadette and Wilma and Fred (he was of course, Wilma's son...get the Flintstones connection?) and Teak and George, Daiquiri (that's the dog she had when we met almost 28 years ago) and then there's the current Roxy and the ever loving Charlie who we are convinced has an eating disorder...a couple weeks back he ate a loaf of pumpkin bread right out of a gift basket she made for someone.
Okay, back to the canvas.  I added her real house number over the door and a heart on the door because there is much love found in their home (and not just for animals). The little dog drawing came from a dictionary (it was the only dog picture in the WHOLE thing).  The photo is a real, found in a junk shop by my friend Laura.  Laura loves old photos and I knew if anyone could find one of a dog it would be her, so about 9 months ago I asked and she delivered.  She sent me a few to choose from so I picked this funny one of the kid going out the back window of the car after the dog.  Thanks Laura! 

Love thinking up things to make for friends...no rules, use whatever product you want, just play.   Love that kind of creating (don't do it enough).  You can check out last years gift here.

Anyway, I hope this will do for a today until I can get back to 

creating something that is not top secret! 

I did get the new 7gypsies Holiday stamp set so maybe I will see what I can come up with using that.  Hummm...I just typed that so now I feel committed.  Let's see what the week brings. 

Oh, and maybe I'll give you a little teaser about a new kit going into the Etsy shop next week...silver glitter, old paper, small children, old lace.  Now that should get you thinking....???

Just plain fabulous...

We thought we might just share a picture that was emailed to us from one of the girls in the advent class, Anita.  She finished up her calendar and has it up and ready for December.  What a fabulous backdrop...love the window with the arched top and the two silver wreaths...so very good.  Anita picked up the fabulous swag at Anthropologie when we were there during our shopping trip and I believe the peace signs came from Pottery Barn.  Anita...can't wait for the next adventure (and you know there will be one).

There is one more PARTIAL junk drawer kit in the ETSY shop today.  Someone changed their mind on getting one so it is up for grabs.

Have a great weekend and we'll see you back on Monday!

The Event

We survived our big weekend!

What a great time we had on Friday and Saturday.  We decided to have a day of shopping before the class day, so Friday 14 of us carpooled around town to some of Paula and my favorite spots.  We had so much fun searching for good junk while getting to know each other.  

Rust and Roses

Melrose Vintage

Lunch at Postinos

Found, Domestic Bliss

Dinner at Liberty Market

THE CLASS - before

THE CLASS - during

THE CLASS - after

Okay, we think the class was good, but can we talk about the food!  First we have the Canada ladies bringing us Canadian candy to munch on, but then Sandra brings everyone their own bag of these to die for cookies.....and it's Ann's birthday and she brought us all some Pumpkin bread.  I think it was just a continuous all day feed!
All weekend long we got asked if we were doing the class again next year....or for that matter any other event.  I told Paula, it's kind of like childbirth, we need to give it a little time to let the memory fade before we can think of it again.
Thank you to all the sweet ladies that came and spent a couple of days with us....it was great!!

On a side note, we had promised that after the class was over we would gather all of our "leftovers" to make several partial kits.  We have searched, hunted and gathered a pretty full grouping of goodies that were in the original "Junk Drawer Advent Calendar Kit".  It is missing a few items from the original kit, but we were actually surprised with how much we were able to come up with.  

There are 2 options - 

Kit #1 - $119 - still includes - digital download of pictures and instructions, butter pat, silver ladle, bottle brush tree, locket, watch movement, watch face, wood plaque, glitter, all chipboard pieces, pre-punched pin tops, pins, full ephemera pack, bird, red and black ribbon, burlap (for pin board), tin full of beads, findings and treasures.

Kit #2 - $109 - includes everything in Kit #1 except locket, silver ladle and burlap.

Kits do not include - clear stamps, rhinestone buckle, fork, small gold frame.  Also doesn't include the items that can be purchased in Etsy - tags, wings, ribbon.

All will be available in our Etsy store at 8:00 am pst, Wednesday, November 10th. 
Well, that lasted for 15 minutes!  Maybe I should say congratulation's to those that got one!