Thanks to some linky love from Mollie over at Wild Olive I’ve found some new blogs floating around the net. Here’s something awesome I stumbled upon the other day over at the Quilted Cupcake. Isn’t it so fun?!
I just might have to ‘transform’ my Singer now. It’s my ‘juice pouch’ sewing machine now that I have a fancy pants Babylock. Might be fun to dress it up a bit.
Posted in neat spaces, other crafts, repurposing, sewing
Tagged buttons, quilted cupcake, sewing machine, singer, wild olive
Had some fun this week wandering about Toronto. I’m going to have to make time to do this again really soon! There was way to much to see and I ran out of time for all the fun things I wanted to accomplish. In Kensington Market we stumbled upon Funky Junky, an awesome vintage store full of fantastic stuff. I was camera-less but snapped some photos with my iphone.
A collection of vintage cameras and accessories. Beside them was an ancient Singer sewing machine, the old weighs-a-ton black model with the fancy gold writing. Yeah, that’s my description.
Suitcases and other travel worthy things. Super cool stuff. The white one was really cool but when we opened it there was a blow dryer inside! Beside them you can see the collection of phones. Around the corner from those was a big box with Gem’s Roadster in it! Complete with FM radio in the trunk. There was also a stack of old video games, including Intellivision! We had that. I remember my mom bought it on some financing plan it was so expensive when it first came out. Of course Atari took off and poor little Intellivision was left in the dust.
Here’s some random kitchen stuff. It was easy to lose track of time in there with so many fun things to look at! The best part is it will be even more fun to make sure to pop back in every time I’m downtowm and see all the new treasures. Definitely taking my camera next time.
While Nate was napping on Sunday Wesley and I got a little creative. I cut the diaper box into a robot costume for him to play with. We covered it in some foil so he’d be all silver a shiny. Little did I know what I was getting myself into. When I asked him if he wanted to come with me to the craft store he said yes and asked to bring his ‘robot box’.
We picked up some decorations for the front (buttons and stickers) and back (stripes aka ribbon). Then once Nate woke up we headed over to my Aunt’s house to visit with my cousin for a bit while she was in town. My Aunt’s dog was not impressed with the outfit. Sorry it’s blurry, robots move fast!
Wesley asked for some cheese and crackers and then was presented with the problem of trying to eat them while being a robot!
Later I had to run out for some milk and other things and robot Wesley tagged along once again. *sigh*
I’ve been doing a lot of shipping lately with the sales in my shop and after a few handwritten return address labels I thought I’d get a bit inventive. Plus it saves space on the package. So I printed some return address labels on Avery label paper. Then I gathered some other paper materials to stick them on to. I started with an old atlas.
Then I grabbed some other things to reuse like Nate’s recent art work and some flyers from the newspaper.
It was super easy I just peeled off the sticky label and placed it on the backing paper so it would have a neat border. Then I cut around it leaving a bit of the backing paper showing. Other things I thought would make really neat backing papers are wallpaper scraps, paint chips and old stamps, sadly I didn’t have any of those lying around.
I used packing tape to just go over the whole label when adhering it to the packaging, I wanted to make sure they stayed on as some are going far, far away. Glue, a tape runner or a Xyron would work too.
Posted in other crafts, papercrafts, repurposing
My in laws are doing some renovating and I noticed some old sheets in the basement protecting the wine from all the dust. So I went ahead and asked for them! They’re a little beat up, used for painting drop sheets in the past it appears but I’m hoping to find some usable chunks of fabric.
I’m hoping I can get a skirt out of those, or at least one of them.
This one is just awesome! It was stuffed into a vent in the ceiling and appears to have some moldy spots on it hopefully I can still get some fun use out of it.
As if playing around on etsy isn’t dangerous enough already, the other day while poking around I clicked ‘shop local’ and stumbled onto some pretty neat stuff. My favourite was JewlezyBug so I’m sharing her first! Julie has created some really cute characters and uses some interesting materials. She paints on rocks to make neat pendants and uses pages from old books and phone books as the canvases for her whimsical paintings!
I sent her a message on etsy and she seems really fun and agreed to do a GIVEAWAY!!!!! Soooo free stuff to someone who’s in need of cuteness! Julie is willing to giveaway one of her prints, see them all here in her flickr pool, just leave a comment here telling us which one is your fav (they’re numbered 1-90). I like this little guy.
I asked her a little bit about herself and she sent this little blurb, thanks for sharing!
“I have always doodled and painted for as long as I can remember. I am drawn to bright colours and happy motifs that catch the eye and make you smile. I like my art to make you feel good and brighten your day. I use old books and phone books as my back drops because they visually stimulate the eye and provide texture to the art. I feel my art is a reflection of my inner child just wanting to play. I take inspiration from colour, from my day, nature, from the people in the my life and from my furbabies (4 cats and 1 dog: Jewels (hence the name!)”
She also has a blog where she shares her new creations, fun crafts and her cute animals. I love these ribbon curtains she made.
I’ll do some magical random winner picking Sunday night and announce Monday morning! Ohhh the suspense, I’d better set my iphone alarm . . .
Posted in fun finds, other crafts, papercrafts, repurposing
Tagged art, Etsy, oshawa, papercrafts, pendant, recycling, repurposing
So I finally managed to finish my tote I’d been working on for ages. Now that I’ve been sewing more and more things I got some ideas on how to finish it well. I was going to do things a certain way but now I’ve discovered much better ways to go about it. It’s actually a squarish bag but I didn’t use interfacing (in hindsight I should have) so it’s a tad floppier than it should be. It was a great use of some fun scraps and I love the vintage doily touch.
There’s a pocket inside with 3 compartments and then there’s one big one on the back. I’m sure it will be super useful! Now I just have to find time to use it with my growing collection of totes and bags.
So a fan/friend Heather gave me a bag of fabric the other day, people are starting to do that, it’s great! So she dropped it off and I started to sort through the pile.
There were some fun finds inside, including this fabric that made me and my bff had a big chuckle over this funky striped one. Until Heather informed us she made shorts out of it back in the day!
So we kept sifting through the pieces of fabric and I was sorting into ‘keep’ and ‘donate’ piles, and then I reached in and pulled this little beauty out! It’s so horrible! It’s a silky shimmery thing and it was pretty hideous. We couldn’t really figured out how the front would hang, I’m not sure it’s 100% complete, there seem to be some unfinished edges.
After getting over the initial shock of how remarkably icky it was I thought of New Dress a Day, which I’ve recently subscribed to. Marissa has decided for 365 days she will create a new item of clothing from a thrifted item, all for the grand price tag of $365. She does some really amazing things. Some of her ‘finds’ I would just walk by as fast as possible. Here’s one of her recent creations.
Starting with that she creates these 2 awesome pieces!
So I sent her an email and offered her the challenge of modifying the hideous dress I found in a gift bag of fabric. She accepted and yesterday I was off to the post office and mailed her a big envelope full of ugly dressness! Have fun Marissa.
Posted in fun finds, repurposing, sewing
This time I’m over here at The Monster and Me. Check out their fun blog and enter my giveaway! Up for grabs this time is a medium Kool Aid Jammer tote.
Go check them out and enter the giveaway!
Posted in other crafts, repurposing
Tagged feature, giveaway, kool aid jammers, the monster and me
Remember this? That I was soooo excited about? Yeah, it’s been sitting neglected in my craft area all this time. That’s a little embarassing. Last night, for a change from taggie blankies and juice pouch totes, I picked it up and finished the little sucker.
The handles are made from a belt I thrifted and the main white fabric with the brown plantlike print was on crazy sale for $3 for a big huge remnant. I love the little detail of the brown inner fabric peaking out at the top. I’m pretty happy with the results considering it was my first attempt.
