Fun with Decoupage

My sweet oldest baby girl is now 11 years old.  It's hard for me to wrap my head around how this happy little toddler could possibly already be a "tween!"  Ugh!  To celebrate her birthday, she wanted a slumber party with a "Night in Paris" theme.  I came up with an art project for the girls, in keeping with the theme.

Using flat canvases (available in packs of 8 at Michael's), we made decoupage collages with antique papers, old sheet music, French-themed scrapbooking papers, and all sorts of fun embellishments (including lace, of course!).  Here's the sample that I made so the girls could see a finished project:

I did several layers of paper, used lots of distressing ink, added lace and flower trims, and at the very end, embellished with bronze-colored Stickles (I love that stuff). The whole process took a couple of days, so that each layer had time to dry.

Here's the busy project table that the girls used at the party:

And here's the birthday girl's project, almost finished:

This was a fun, multi-step project that kept the girls busy in small doses over the course of the evening.  I think they enjoyed it, and their artwork really looked fabulous!

All that said, if anyone has a magic potion that will turn my tween back into a 5-year-old, please pass it along!

Eye Candy: Dreamy Pastels

These trims make me wish that I could actually sew!  I unpacked them and they were in a big, frothy pile on my living room floor, and they looked so soft and gorgeous.

I may need to put together a kit of some of these pastel gems for my next giveaway....

Hope you're having a great week!

Winner!

And the winner of the lace giveaway is.... Comment #2: Creative Wings!  Congrats to you!
Thanks to all who entered!  I'll have another lace giveaway soon.

Sneak Peek!

Oh, boy!  I just got some new laces in, and I'm so excited about them.  They are definitely some of the nicest pieces I've ever found.  I'll be listing them in the shop as fast as I can, but here are a few sneak peeks of just a few of my favorite pieces:

Don't forget -- if you're interested in the lace giveaway, you've got one more day to enter!  See the post below for the details.

Lace Giveaway!

It's giveaway time again!  This time, there are two prizes for the lucky winner:  a goody bag of 5 yards of vintage eyelet trims in fantastic pastel colors, and a set of two tags, each with 4 yards of vintage French Valenciennes lace!  That's a lot of lace!  Enter now through noon central time Friday, July 22, 2011.  You can enter by leaving a comment on my blog, and if you blog, Facebook, or tweet about this giveaway (with a link back to my blog) you get an extra chance for EACH (so, you could possibly have 4 chances to win).  Just tell me all about it in the comment you leave.  Entries will close at noon on Friday and I will randomly draw a winner.  Good luck!!

New Pretties in the Shop and Other News

 

Happy  Friday!  I hope you've had a great week.  I'm just popping in to post a few pics of some new items that I've added to the shop recently, and share a few updates as well as news about an upcoming giveaway.   First, the pretties:

And, in the Dishy Vintage Weddings shop, I've started listing some wonderful pieces that were salvaged from a great vintage wedding dress from the 1960's:

 
In other news, I've decided to discontinue my newsletter through Constant Contact, primarily because I rarely sent one out, but also because the service was expensive (especially since I wasn't using it every month).  I really appreciate those of you who signed up to be on my mailing list.  If you'd still like to keep up with blog/shop news, I hope you'll check in here, or on Facebook, where I will try to post often.

I've also decided to close my Artfire studio, at least for now, to focus more fully on my Etsy shops.  (I did some "deep thinking" about the business while we were on our California adventure, and decided it was time for some streamlining.)  

Anyway, with that said, I think it's time for a giveaway!  Check back on Monday for pics and to find out how to enter!

Have a great weekend -- mine is going to include margaritas!  :)

Birdsong Tag Swap

My tags are finished!  Hooray!  I'm excited to get these tags in the mail, and I can't wait to see the tag book that Karla will put together.  As I mentioned before, this is my first tag swap, and I think I'm hooked!

I decorated the backs of the tags, too, and added a bird to further go with the bird theme.  The nest on the front is made from vintage lace, tulle, and strands of perle cotton, which I hand-stitched on linen embroidery fabric and then cut out and attached to the tag.  The "eggs" are vintage rosary beads.

Big thanks to Karla of Karla's Cottage for hosting such a fun swap!

A Tale of Two Tags

I've been hard at work (off-and-on, before and after vacation) on tags for my first tag swap.  I've participated in several match-box swaps (super fun!) but I've never done a tag swap before, and for some reason, I'm really nervous about it.  I guess I just want to be sure I'm up to snuff with all of these talented tag swappers!  I signed up for Karla's Birdsong Tag Swap, so the theme involves birds.  To be honest, birds aren't usually my "thing," so I was at a loss for what to do.

In the beginning, I found clip art of a vintage sheet music cover that I loved (thanks, Graphics Fairy!)  I played around with paper, stamps, and trims, and decided that the tag would look something like this:

But then I had second thoughts.....  I really wanted to stitch something -- add a  hand-stitched element to the tags, preferably using some of the ridiculously large lace stash that is ever-growing around here.  But what to stitch?  I decided to try to create a hand-stitched nest out of lace and trims.  I was pretty excited about this idea!  So I got out a few special trims, and I stitched and stitched until I had...... a big flat flower.

Ugh! Nothing nest-like about it.  I started over.  This time, I used less lace, added some tulle and a few strands of perle cotton embroidery floss:

Still kind of flower-like, but better, I think.  I glued a few vintage rosary beads into the center for "eggs."

Once the nests were done (or, almost done -- I've got 7 nests to finish!), I laid out the paper and trims again, and decided on this design:

But in keeping with the theme of over-thinking these tags, I've decided that teal-blue paper is too dark (sigh), so now I'm thinking of switching it out with a lighter blue, for a look kind of like this:

Anyway, this has been a fun project -- it's nice to be creating again.   I'm not sure why I've been so fickle and nervous about this little project!  But the tags have to be in the mail Monday, so I've got to finish them all this weekend.  I'll post more pics when they're all done.  Wish me luck!  :)

California Dreamin'

Well, I'm back!  Sorry I've been gone so long!  We have returned from our big summer California adventure: a trip to visit family that also included trips to Legoland, Disneyland, Palm Springs, Sequoia National Park and Yosemite National Park.  It was a whirlwind and such a wonderful, fabulous time!  Yosemite was so beautiful, it completely exceeded our (already very high) expectations -- we could've stayed there much longer.  It certainly was hard to come home to the 100 degree heat. 

If you're suffering in the summer heat, here are some pics from the beautiful California mountains to help cool you off:

As always, as wonderful as it is to travel, it is also wonderful to come home.  We are happy to be home safe and sound and are looking forward to the rest of our summer.  I hope you are having a great summer, too!

And now, back to work!  If you haven't had a chance to check out my Facebook page for Dishy Vintage, you might take a moment to pop over and take a look.  Right now, there's a special sale coupon code for Facebook friends!  Also, I'm planning to announce another giveaway soon -- probably in the next two weeks -- so stay tuned for that!

Happy creating!
:)