Alice In Wonderland Tea Party -long post.

Alice In Wonderland

I know when I Google that title or enter it in the Pinterest search engine, I get ALL KINDS of amazing ideas for just about anything you can imagine, or even not imagine.

In all honesty, I've never been a fan of Alice In Wonderland. I think she's a darling girl and how CUTE are most of the characters?? I just can't seem to follow the story and keep my patience. LOL!  That's not really saying much about me though, it can be a challenge for me to follow a typical conversation too.

I do love the artwork aside from the story. I even love some of the more modern takes. Graphics 45 has a stunning scrapbook line that doesn't look anything like the traditional Disney design. It's stunning.

So why am I carrying on so much about Alice In Wonderland then?

Let me back up the story just a bit here. 

I have a friend who belongs to a sorority type club and they have a yearly fund raiser called Ladies Night Out. I went to it last year for the first time and had a blast. I wanted to donate something this year for their raffles. My friend said they'd love any donations. The next day she made an unusual request. Could I maybe make something with this year's theme of Alice In Wonderland? Sure! (did I really just agree to that?)

Hmmm...I could try. Don't ask me why, but I'm up for a challenge - sometimes. I just happen to have a Cricut cartridge with the Disney Classics characters on it & Alice was one of them. Now to think of what to do. I could do plastic drink tumblers. That would be cute. No. It wasn't my cup of tea. ;)  I guess I was trying to think of something out of the box. Maybe something no one had seen before, at least not in this fashion.

I definitely needed my hubby's help on this one but I was sure we could do it. I worked on this right up to the last minute. I do that with just about any event that I've making something for. It's a given. If you keep following along with me on my blog, you'll begin to see that.

Are you tired of waiting for the reveal?

I know the teapot lamp isn't original for any Alice in Wonderland theme. After I finished mine, I found a ton of them on Pinterest. BUT,  I didn't see a one with a Mad Hatter's Hat as the lamp shade. Not even when I googled it. Can you tell in this shot that's what it looks like? I didn't realize that I was dead on with the camera when I took the picture. It's kind of hard to see the brim.

Want to know a secret?

When you turn the light on, there is a secret message that can be seen. And would you believe that this lamp shade did not come in this shade of green? I bought an ivory colored one at a thrift store and spray painted it. Then I made the brim by hand and spray painted it too.

I couldn't find any ribbon in the color or width I wanted so I resorted to using tulle. I actually love the look it gives it. 

I made the tag that sticks out of hat band with the 10/6. Do you know what that stands for? Some of you may, but many of us Americans, we do not. I had to look it up. LOL! It stands for the price of 10 Shillings and 6 Pence in Great Britian money before the days of the Euro. gosh, I hope I got that right. Hopefully I won't get slammed for not having my facts right about that if they're wrong.

Since I don't know the story that well, this probably isn't depicted properly, but I thought the flowers were awesome for the look I was going for when I spotted this flowered tea pot in a church thrift store that I sometimes check out on their Half-Price Tuesdays. I picked it up for $2.50!

How cute is little Alice with the big flowers having a tea party? I know I should have done some placement of the characters differently, but it wasn't until after I had them stuck on there that I realized it, and there was no way in Wonderland that I was going to try to take the vinyl characters off to move them or cut new ones. It took me the entire day to make all of them & moving them would have messed them up. Some of those pieces in the layers are super duper tiny. Yep, they're good right where they are.

I handed it over today & my friend acted genuinely tickled over how it turned out, or else she's just a superb actress. I admit that it didn't turn out exactly like I had hoped, but I didn't think it was that bad. I think my favorite part is the hat/shade.

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Creative Crafts Thursday

Don't You Just Love Shoe Cobbler's Forms?

The old shoe cobbler's forms. Is it just me or do they seem to be popping up everywhere these days? 

Not that I was a frequent garage sale, flea market, thrift store or auction person, only up until just the past few years, but I had been to a few in my time. However, in all that time I don't recall seeing these interesting pieces of human history. 

Now? Probably thanks a lot in part the internet, blogs and Pinterest, you see images of them everywhere, & I notice them frequently in my local thrift store these days, as well.

I never really thought much about them after discovering them. I had purchased a child sized metal one at a garage sale a number of years back and thought it was just the cutest thing I'd ever seen! Clearly I finally came out from under that rock I was living under for way too long. HA! HA!

It wasn't until I was reading one of my favorite blogs called Homeroad, that a light bulb went off. Actually, she (Susan, Homeroad's owner/author) had the light bulb moment, I just did my own take on it so I could try to sell it. Talk about being an opportunist, eh? Yeah. I'm complaining in one blog post about people stealing my ideas and then turn around & talk about ME using others for my own gain. The difference being that I'm giving credit (& links) where it is due (when I can remember where it came from) not to mention that her post was from well over a year ago and she wasn't selling hers. 

K. Nuff said 'bout that.

Read Susan's post on how she displayed her Cobbler Shoe Forms. Please... go look. I'll wait, but come back.

CUTE! Right? Too cute!

Here is how I turned her idea into a portable piece.

My hubby secured them to a piece of white bead board for me and then I added a vintage frame to it. I painted the old world looking numbers on them because the position of the shoes made me think of dance steps. I know, I sometimes have a strange way of thinking. My husband thought they should be L & R for Left and Right, but that's what everyone would expect. I don't always do what's expected. It takes some people a while to catch on to my way of thinking sometimes. hee hee!

 
I thought Susan's idea of hanging your purse or scarves on these made them practical. That's the kind of ideas I like, functional while being a piece of artwork and definitely a conversation piece!

While I have been working on some stuff for an upcoming spring craft show (my first spring show) Alan & I have also been working on finishing up in all the rooms that we replaced the windows in. We replaced 10 windows in our house this past fall and they were all a bit smaller than the original ones that were HUGE! So there has been quite a bit of drywall added, taping, mudding sanding and finally some painting & trim now. It's not really anything exciting, but it really adds something to this tired old room. Can't wait until we can replace the carpet that has been ugly since the dawn of time - or at least the 1980's.

I hope I can have some pictures of this to show you in the future, at least the living room anyway. I love how it's turning out and hope that it can all get completed. We have problems with finishing any project completely. 

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Primitive Style

I have a couple of similar projects that I managed to finish up this week. They're those kind of projects that have been lingering around for much much too long.  If you ask my family, ALL my projects linger around too long! That is fairly true too. Sad. I know.

I bought this wooden box last year and have fought & fought with it since the day I brought it home, because I started working on it that day. 

It was originally a burgundy color and it was pretty in its own right, but it was chipped badly. I tried to sand off the vines that were painted on, but they weren't going away that easy. Then I had other issues that just kept making matters worse with the finish. I really did not want to make another crackle painted piece, but this one left me no choice.

I was determined to turn this into a sell-able piece once and for all. I'd like to believe - mission accomplished.

 

Next, I had this napkin holder that I finished last year and tried to sell it all by itself at my craft shows. It had many lookers, no takers. 

My original plan for it was to include the matching Salt & Pepper shakers. I thought they were darling since they looked like little milk bottles. But even though those were started, they didn't get finished in time to go as a set. I kept having problems with the letters not turning out, time and time again, they just wouldn't work for me. I gave up in frustration. 

I have a craft show coming up in mid-April so I need to get some new stuff done for that. I'm also trying to finish up some tables for a customer, but I'm having conversations with them that are much too "colorful" to repeat. I've had to use paint stripper 3 times on  one of them and it still has lots of paint left on it. It's one of my most hated projects EVER. Have you ever had a project that feels like it's never ending? 

Do tell.

 
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How was your Valentine's Day?

 

 
I hope you all had a nice Valentine's Day yesterday and had someone special to share it with. I almost didn't because my hubby thought he was going to have to work late. I'm glad he didn't, even though we didn't end up doing anything special anyway.

I made these cards for my son and daughter. No real thought went into making them. I just used a file from the Silhouette download store for my Cameo and cut them out.

The one on the left is actually a deep red, but looks like a dark pink in this picture. He would not stand for that!

This one was for my hubby.

I had some problems cutting the front for this card I wanted to make for my husband. I thought for sure I had fixed the image I was using to make an easier cut than what I was getting, which in turn was hard for my Cameo to cut cleanly. What a mess, and it didn't turn out pretty, but that's what my sweetheart got and yet he still thought it was over the top! 

I found this image on a blog that I came across and I thought for sure I had bookmarked it so I could reference her blog in my post. Maybe if she comes across this, she can let me know who she is so I can reference her here. I even checked my Pinterest files and it's not there either.

I have a few primitive styled projects that were finally completed this week, so I'll be posting those in the coming days. If that's you're kind of thing, be sure to check back! 

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To Post or NOT To Post

THAT is the question.

I tend to start quite a few of my posts with a bit of mystery in hopes of catching your attention and drawing you in. I'm not sure it's working for me, but it's how I do some things - in a cloud of secrecy.

Secrecy. Kind of like the projects I make. I could post all kinds of projects that I work on here on my blog. Trust me, it PAINS me not to. I'm a Leo, so I love attention. But I have run into a bit of a problem with the wonderful world of the web. I find that it's a double edged sword. While it can be an amazing place for inspiration, and don't think for one minute I don't get a ton of my own inspiration from it, it's also a place where millions of others get theirs and perhaps, even from YOU. I guess if I was making a living from my blog and thousands of followers were hanging onto every word I wrote, and every project I did while getting compensated from companies just for making those projects, it might be quite different. But I don't make a living from my blog. It's been a year since I signed up for AdSense and it will most likely be another 4 years before I see my first check from them. 

So, where I make my money in the meantime, is from selling my projects that I make at local craft shows, and to family & friends. Since the world of Pinterest has taken off like a bat outta....well, you know (LOVE Pinterest, by the way) it's anybody's game. I don't mind others getting inspiration from what I made. In fact, I find it VERY flattering & rewarding! But when I'm selling MY idea at a craft show only to discover someone else at that same show is selling my idea too, I question my decision for posting it too soon. Especially after they tell me they found the idea on someone's blog or Pinterest. E'hem. yeah. 

I actually had that happen one year, even before Pinterest was a ".com" in someone's eye. I guess I never had the forethought that something like that could happen, especially at a small town craft show. Know what? It does.

I guess the point I'm trying to make here is that I struggle with deciding if I should post my projects on here for fear of losing sales to others that might be beating me at my own game because of factors I may or may not be able to control. I know it can draw traffic to my blog and it does to a certain extent, so don't think I will ever, ever, ever stop posting stuff I make on here. Eventually I do put them on here.  It just might be out of season, you know, when no one else cares about Christmas stuff in July. LOL-jk, but I had done that last year if you check out this post.

IF I was really motivated, I would make something to show and something to sell at the same time so that I'm happy both ways. Nah, I don't see that happening either. LOL! 

So as not to make this a totally boring text-only post today, I've decided TO POST this project.  I mean, if you've stuck with me this long, y'all deserve something for your endurance!

I think this green bucket would be pretty sitting on a spring porch with a huge bouquet of white daisies in it or pink gerbera ones, don't you think? 

It's probably been about a year ago that I purchased this bucket thinking I was going to do something amazing with it. Instead, it just took up space this whole time in my dining room. Well, I did paint the plain wooden handle and the inside of the bucket (including the rolled edge) black, as it was all green.

I had good intentions on cutting something out in vinyl for the front with my Cricut, but I couldn't seem to find a design to fit the look I was going for in all those cartridges I own (75+?). Well guess what? My sweetheart of a son bought me a Silhouette Cameo for Christmas! It also came with the Design Studio software that is usually extra. I whole heartedly recommend making that purchase if you want to try doing any of your own design work or even just making changes to existing designs & no, I'm not getting paid to make that recommendation either. I just took a couple of the designs from the massive Silhouette online catalog and combined some of the elements together to create this one and added Welcome. I'm still learning on how to make words curve correctly on tapered curved surfaces. There's a knack to it that I haven't quite mastered just yet, but I'll get there. 

 

So thanks for sticking it out through more of my babbling and such a small amount of inspiration.



 
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