inspiration is everywhere ... and one thing leads to another ...

It's been a busy week in my studio ... so much inspiration and so many things on my "to do" list now that the kids are both in school.

I have been so inspired by an idea in Real Simple Weddings magazine (2010) ... in one article they showed chalkboards being used as props in a "photo booth" at the wedding reception. Our friend's daughter Breann is getting married next summer and I'm working on her wedding stationery and a few other things for the reception. I bought a bunch of old frames at the second hand stores and started painting them this week..

I painted all of the frames a flat white and added wood inserts that I painted with blackboard paint. I found a beautiful fabric that we are going to use as the backdrop for a "photo booth" at the reception ... the fabric is also my inspiration for the colours and design of the wedding invitations, etc. 

 I'm going to store the glass from the frames in a safe place so that after the wedding Breann and Kyle can pop out the blackboard pieces, add the glass back and use the frames for their wedding photos.

This week I created the calling card for Terri Smith ... the winner of last week's contest! I made the card to promote her blog and etsy shop as she requested. I did a couple of changes to my original design to work with her blog colours and font ... Terri and I are both pleased with the way that they turned out.

You can visit Terri's blog at here .

While I was working on the card for Terri I realized that I could use one of my existing invitation designs to complete a mixed media piece that I had started a looong time ago.

 The invitation became the piece I needed to complete the "i" block in this 6 piece series. With the series completed and no where to hang it in the house, I decided to add it to my etsy shop yesterday.

 

The "f" canvas is my favourite part ... I made a bunch of these little fairies a couple of years ago and have been looking for ways to use them!

Do you like my new photo frame? It's a freebie from Shadowhouse Creations and I got it from here . I talked about Shadowhouse Creations in my last post. I spent a few nights this week with the tutorials and textures from this site ... it is so much fun and it was great to just play with some of my pictures. Here's some of my fall inspired photos that I created ... I also made the photo frame above into a square for these pics ...

 

Don't these just make you want to get out your fall sweaters and pack up your summer linens?

Speaking of summer linens ... I started tearing up some of my daughters old linen dresses last night ... ones that they have out grown years ago and I couldn't part with because I love the fabrics so much ... yep, found another use for them when I was reading one of my GreenCraft magazines yesterday ....

there was a great article by Maize Hutton on how to make frayed flowers ... here's mine so far ...

I checked out Maize's blog and she has a tutorial on how to make these here if you are interested in creating some yourself! I still have to add some ribbons and scraps to these ... I think that I'm going to tea dye some newer ribbons to make them look old and add pin backs so that I can add the flowers to couple of my purses.  These frayed flowers are a great way to use up some of those vintage buttons from my collection. I think that I will try to find some pictures of the girls wearing the dresses that I'm cutting up. I want to make hang tags using the photos and add the tags to the flowers that I'm going to make for gifts ... my Mom and Mother-in-law will get a kick out of these!

Hope that I've given you some inspiration too ... have a great weekend!

photo textures and giveaway winner

It's been a busy week in my studio ... so much inspiration and so many things on my "to do" list now that the kids are both in school.

I have been so inspired by an idea in Real Simple Weddings magazine (2010) ... in one article they showed chalkboards being used as props in a "photo booth" at the wedding reception. Our friend's daughter Breann is getting married next summer and I'm working on her wedding stationery and a few other things for the reception. I bought a bunch of old frames at the second hand stores and started painting them this week..

I painted all of the frames a flat white and added wood inserts that I painted with blackboard paint. I found a beautiful fabric that we are going to use as the backdrop for a "photo booth" at the reception ... the fabric is also my inspiration for the colours and design of the wedding invitations, etc. 

 I'm going to store the glass from the frames in a safe place so that after the wedding Breann and Kyle can pop out the blackboard pieces, add the glass back and use the frames for their wedding photos.

This week I created the calling card for Terri Smith ... the winner of last week's contest! I made the card to promote her blog and etsy shop as she requested. I did a couple of changes to my original design to work with her blog colours and font ... Terri and I are both pleased with the way that they turned out.

You can visit Terri's blog at here .

While I was working on the card for Terri I realized that I could use one of my existing invitation designs to complete a mixed media piece that I had started a looong time ago.

 The invitation became the piece I needed to complete the "i" block in this 6 piece series. With the series completed and no where to hang it in the house, I decided to add it to my Etsy shop yesterday.

 

The "f" canvas is my favourite part ... I made a bunch of these little fairies a couple of years ago and have been looking for ways to use them!

Do you like my new photo frame? It's a freebie from Shadowhouse Creations and I got it from here . I talked about Shadowhouse Creations in my last post. I spent a few nights this week with the tutorials and textures from this site ... it is so much fun and it was great to just play with some of my pictures. Here's some of my fall inspired photos that I created ... I also made the photo frame above into a square for these pics ...

 

Don't these just make you want to get out your fall sweaters and pack up your summer linens?

Speaking of summer linens ... I started tearing up some of my daughters old linen dresses last night ... ones that they have out grown years ago and I couldn't part with because I love the fabrics so much ... yep, found another use for them when I was reading one of my GreenCraft magazines yesterday ....

there was a great article by Maize Hutton on how to make frayed flowers ... here's mine so far ...

I checked out Maize's blog and she has a tutorial on how to make these here if you are interested in creating some yourself! I still have to add some ribbons and scraps to these ... I think that I'm going to tea dye some newer ribbons to make them look old and add pin backs so that I can add the flowers to couple of my purses.  These frayed flowers are a great way to use up some of those vintage buttons from my collection. I think that I will try to find some pictures of the girls wearing the dresses that I'm cutting up. I want to make hang tags using the photos and add the tags to the flowers that I'm going to make for gifts ... my Mom and Mother-in-law will get a kick out of these!

Hope that I've given you some inspiration too ... have a great weekend!

in the studio - sneak peek Friday

My friend, Jennifer, over at studio jru started this cool link party called "in the studio sneak peak friday". It's kinda like "where women create"! Jennifer asked us to show where we create and what we are working on ... so here we go ... here's my creative space .. my "studio" ... welcome!

 

My studio is on the main floor of our house ... the space was originally designed to be a dining room but when the house was being built we had the builder make some minor changes so that it could be used as a second main floor office space. I love my area and it is usually cleaned up every night before anyone gets home from work/school because everyone walks by my studio door.

 

Now I do have to admit that the vast majority of my supplies are in the basement on ikea shelves because I would not have enough space to "create" if ALL of my supplies where in here too!

Here's a bunch of shots around my studio space ...

... can you tell that we love antiques in our house? ... here's some more detail shots ...

can't imagine life without my computer ...

... some of my Somerset Studio magazines ...

... favourite scrapbooking albums are stored under an old sewing machine that I had converted into a table to hold one of my printers and my stereo ...

... I still have to hang pictures in my office ... so hard to pick which ones to hang - I'm thinking of a bunch of shelves so that I can "lean" art on the wall and change them up from time to time ... I love this print from Katherine Quinn (that still needs to be framed) ...

... I keep projects "organized" in piles or containers around my office ... some projects are waiting to be completed, some are waiting to be photographed for etsy and some waiting to be started!

 

 What have I been working on lately? ... I'm so happy that I just completed my quilt square (see above) for my "flying friends" quilt project last night. I just mailed it off to Sonya McCllough this morning and I'm hoping that she gets it in time so that she can start to put together a quilt for Kelly Rae Roberts' baby. I was originally going to add a bird to this design but I loved the way that the nest and three denim eggs turned out and so I left the mama bird out! I think that I may have to make another one of these for myself ... I had so much fun sewing the ribbons and yarns to make the "nest"!

I hope that you enjoyed the tour! You can visit other studios too by clicking on the in studio sneak peek friday button!

sewing kit in a bottle

Here's a cute little idea I came up with at the cottage while we were on holidays. I found myself doing a couple of little sewing "jobs" and was getting tired of pulling out all of my sewing supplies to find a needle and thread. So I created a mini sewing kit using a vintage jar and an old tee shirt to keep in my craft cupboard.

Here's how I did it:

1. I took the top off the jar and used the metal ring as a template to cut out a circle from an old tee shirt. The circle was about 1" bigger than the metal ring. The tee shirt was a onesy that one of my daughters wore as a baby and had a cute embroidered carrot on the front and a bunny on the back. Note that I tried to centre the carrot in the middle of the circle. 

2. Next, I cut a second circle from a solid part of the tee that was slightly larger than the glass top.

3. Carefully, I sandwiched a piece of wool (cotton batting would work too) in between the two fabric circles and the glass top as shown in photo three.

 

4. I whip stitched the two circles together and

5. fit the finished piece into the metal ring to use as a pin cushion.

6. I decided to cut out the bunny from the back of the tee shirt with pinking scissors so that I could use the it  to store a few sewing needles inside the jar.

7. In the last picture you can see that I added some spools of thread, a fabric pencil, a measuring tape and my sewing needles to the jar ... now I just have to find a small pair of scissors and my mini sewing kit will be complete!

inspiration - Tinsel Trading Company, New York

While I was in New York the other week, I stumbled upon this beautiful and inspiring shop at 1 West 37th Street called Tinsel Trading Company. I love antiques and vintage findings and this store has it all ... you would think that you just travelled back in time to the 1940's when you walk inside. I took a couple of pictures of the store windows but I think I would have shot another dozen pictures if I was not in such a rush to get inside to see all  of the treasures! This store has vintage European notions - threads, buttons, ribbon, metallic trims and fringes - that have been sitting (mainly unused) in the basement of this store since the mid 1900's. Check out Tinsel Trading Company's website for more details about it's history at http://www.tinseltrading.com/aboutus.html

Here's my friend Karen sitting in from of a wall of trim ... and here's some more pictures from inside the shop ...

We only had carry on luggage with us for the trip so I could only purchase a couple of things ...

here I am in the cash desk after making my purchase - a container of German "Emporium Pure Glass Glitter",

silver metallic thread (on it's original wooden spool - so cool!), a glass jar full of vintage buttons (I've collected vintage buttons for years and this is the biggest stash of pink pearl buttons I've ever seen at once) and a book called "French General Treasured Notions" by Kaari Meng.

 

The book was just published and it is all about crafts that were inspired by notions from this store!!! I saw the book at a bookstore in Grand Central Station about an hour earlier and decided not to buy it as I figured I could get it at home. Of course, I HAD to have it after being in the store. Unfortunately, the store was having a book signing the next day and we would be back home in Canada ... so I was unable to get my book signed (no autograph from Martha Stewart that day either ... good thing I didn't buy any lottery tickets that day!). Oh, that reminds me, if you check out the Tinsel Trading Company's website you will see that Martha loves this store too and it has been featured on her show and in her magazine quite a bit.

There is a little sequined bird project in the book that I think I will have to try ... as well as a button charm bracelet ... but the most inspiring part of the book for me right now is the photography and the graphics! I'm trying to put together a couple of small memory books from our New York trip and I'm going to give the memory books a vintage theme inspired by Tinsel Trading Company's visual displays and notions.

If you ever go on a trip to New York City ... I highly recommend visiting this store ... it is walking distance from both Times Square and Grand Central Station.

 

The store also reminded me to dig out one of my vintage button projects that has been collecting dust waiting to be framed. I sewed vintage buttons to a piece of heavy weight handmade paper (the paper is 30" x 23") ... it took me about 2 summers to complete it (as I only worked on it on rainy days at the cottage) ... hopefully, we will be going to the Christie Antique show later in May and I can find a suitable frame for it.