Easy Basket Idea...

My Mom gave me these hole punches that she no longer needed, and it gave me an idea... I thought they'd make some really pretty baskets!

Once you figure out which one you want to use... you will need to punch to designs next to each other so they look like one continuous design. Then your first cut is going to be where I have the arrows drawn.... and your second cut is where the stitch line is- this line can be moved depending on how tall you want you basket.

I wanted mine short..... but you can still see the pen marks from the arrows on the sides...don't worry!

Use heavy paper- I'm using something colorful so you can see it better! But a thicker paper will work better. Anyways roll this piece around a Round pen until the paper is curved....

Then decide where to cut it. You do need some to overlap so you can glue it together. Let it dry.... and then this is where it's just like Marlies' pitchers. Glue piece to paper, cut out and paint. (I'm skipping the details, if you need more.. just ask:)

And here's mine..... I started these a Long time ago.... and have just finally gotten around to finishing painting them. LOL... took me forever to decide what color I wanted them... they have been white, linen, cream, moss, green, silver, and then finally vintage white...

These are going in The Painted Lady..... one day...... And what are they going to hold?

But my mini sea shell collection, of course:)

Hope everyone has a great weekend:)

...until next time...

Rearranging, and then Rearranging again....

Last night I aged the stuff I had painted white yesterday......I just dry brushed different colors onto what ever it was that I was painting.....The column is from a cake decorating set.....The candle sticks and finials are just wood pieces and buttons glued together and painted.

I just love how they turned out!


This morning I pulled the glass house out.....And Wouldn't you know that that dang piece of felt is about an inch too short!! *&$#*!!! Guess I'm gonna have to use it as a rug instead!

Then I put my thinking cap on and ended up using a piece of real floor tile. We still have a lot left over from when we did the hallway....so it shows up quite a bit. It's so easy to cut, and it's already sticky! You can find them at most home improvement stores...and I've even seen them (by the case) at the Dollar General, and Big Lots.....

Then I had to put everything...well a lot of it....back in and play with it. Just how many times can one reorganize a room before we finally like it??? LOL

And before I go....I just gotta share these with you!! Aren't they awesome...... :D

.....they're not miniature...but thought you'd like to see it anyways....

...OK......what else was there......

Finials....I've been trying to find things to use as finials and today, while looking through my Van Dyke's Restorers Catalog.... I found that they use finials on door hinges...and it got me to thinking that those might work, huh....So I'll have to look into that...No fancy door hinges in my house...Yes, I've already looked. ....and if you don't have above said catalog, I recommend getting one. There's sooooo many ideas for just about everything! Door straps, locks, ceiling tiles, furniture hardware....Like I said, lots of neat stuff to look out. I'm not sure about today....but I know I got this catalog for free a few years ago. It'd be worth checking it out.

....Someone asked about the signs....and thought I'd give you a quick tutorial...... Start with a Popsicles stick, and stamp your words onto it. Then cut it to size. Next... flip it over, and paint it what ever your base color is going to be. Let it dry. Then stamp your word(s) onto the painted side. Sand the edges....and then go back and ink those same edges...smudging is good....Smudging makes it look older.....let dry, And DON'T use hairspray to set it. I did this with my first set, and it made all my letters run. The bf said it only adds to the age/character of them, but me being a perfectionist, I had to redo all of them:)

Ok...That's it for today, I'm going to go rearrange the glass house a few more times, lol!

....OHH yeah! I remember now.......Whatcha think about me naming the glass house The Painted Lady?? I was listening to something the other day and they were talking about this row of houses called 'the painted ladies', and I really liked the name. It kinds of represents all the ladies who have painted/ and repainted things to be resold at 'this little boutique'......

Ok....I'm leaving for real this time.......

Until Next Time..........

Something new to try......

A little while ago, I promised you a tutorial.....

I'm sure by now, you've seen the jugs that everyone has been making.....the ones that originally came form Marlies's blog. You can find it here: http://marliesminies.blogspot.com/2009/03/pattern_13.html

We'll, the other day I got the idea that I wanted to see what else I could do with paper, so I went on a hunt for an idea. In the Summer 2010 edition of Flea Market Style, I found a little bird house that I knew would be perfect to do in paper! ~This is what I came up with:


And it's soooooo easy! You ready, all you need is some paper, a quarter(or similar sized coin), glue, scissors and paint. Oh and a piece of thin wire for the handle.

Trace the quarter onto a piece of card stock(thick paper, scrapbooking paper, ect)...cut it out, fold it into 4, and then cut out 1/4 of it. This will be your pattern. Trace around it onto another piece of paper, and cut out. Curl the paper around the end of a paint brush, and then glue the paper into a cone shape.

Then I fooled around with the cylinder (The rectangle piece of paper with the star cut out) until I found a size the I like and glued it together. Then I glued the smaller strip into a circle, and then glued the circle to a piece a paper...... At this point, you'll have 2 pieces to paint. I painted the paper with the circles glued to them before I cut them out. Paint both the inside and the outside of the birdhouse several times, to build up the strength of the paper.


Cut the circles out and paint the bottom and the sides

Then glue the birdhouse inside of it's base....

The hook is just a piece of wire that I twisted up and glued to the top.... Once the glue dried, I painted it silver, then dry-brushed it white to match the rest of the birdhouse!

I gotta tell ya! I love these!! And there's so many things you could do with them. You could paint flowers on them, you could use grommets as the hole.......think of the sizes you could make. I'd love to see what you come up with!!!

((In reference to the last pic, I have a question! That dresser that everything is sitting on needs knobs, any suggestions as to how I could make some...I need a lot! LOL And should they be aged or brand new??

Like the wood bird house? LOL. I tried to put my pinkie finger inside it to paint the house and it spilt it up the front. The bf said it adds characters!! I think I agree!))

Until Next Time........

The Book Tutorial~ Part 2

The covers to these books are even easier than the first part! After you have found your cover paper......cut it into a one inch strip like this.....

*OH~BTW: I suggest using a Sharp paper cutter.....mine is so dull from cutting tiles, it barely cuts paper anymore, and this book's pages are a little rough around the edges, sorry about that!

Ok...back to what I was saying....
Then, start to fold it around your book. Make sure you go back and reinforce your fold lines....

Make sure it's snug!

And then cut off the extra piece.

Now you should have this.......

I just use a glue stick for this part, and glue the inside of the cover. I then put the pages in the book, starting at the middle. The outside pages will get glued to the inside of the book.......

And now you have this:

The last part is to decorate the cover. I find book covers online, shrink them down and print them out....I also do the title in Microsoft~ and glue those down the spine.

*These little books do not read from page to page....it's more or less just an idea of it. You can open the book and read any one of the pages, but they won't flow from page to page like a real book.....I do try and make the first page using the very first sentence...but other than that, it's Just fun to have.

I hope this helps, please let me know if I need to explain anything further. I told you they were easy, just time consuming!! Have fun, and don't forget to post pictures of any books you make!!!

The Book Tutorial~ Part 1

I've been promising Mercedes a book tutorial for a while now....and figured I better get to it!!! Here are the little books I make......I like having readable books, makes life more interesting!!

And here's a side shot of the binding...

OK........So First......You gotta find a story. A lot of the older books can be read online if you know how to find them...Just google readable Dracula or whatever, and you should find it with no problem. I also use paragraphs, or parts of a book to do this. So once you have your 'words' take them into Microsoft works, or whatever program it is that you use to write letters with. I shirk them down first, trying to make it as small as possible, but where you can still read it.....Then I put them into 6 columns. There should be a tab for this in your program somewhere. You will see that it gets real short, real quick....Don't worry....Just copy and paste what you already have over and over again, until the whole sheet is full......and print. Don't forget to print the same thing on the back side, just flip the paper over and hit print again!!! Here are a couple of examples....

See...You Have to have at least 6 columns for this to work!!! (This next example has 8)

Now, you cut them into strips.....look at the picture, I can't explain it any better......

Then they need to be cut the other way into 1 inch pieces....See the next picture for what I'm talking about.

Now, you need to fold those pieces in half.

OK...make sure you put all the pages facing the right way...I tell you this because I've learned that the hard way!! I put the folded sides down and line them up using the table. Then I clamp it together. I normally use this nifty clamp thingie that I have....but of course it's MIA....So I used 2 clothes pins and then 2 more clamps to make sure it was as tight as I could get it!

Make sure you have your folded edges facing out!!! And go grab some craft glue! I've used Alene's Tacky glue.

I run a bead of glue down the edge and then use my fingers to smooth the glue out. It may look like you have to much, but that's ok! Let this dry overnight. This is what creates the binding of the book.

Once it is dry....You can open the pages like this....do you see the 'binding'?

I'll be back with the second part in a minute.......but first you have to go find some paper to use for the cover. I use scrapbook paper, but any kind will do.......

Shadow Box Tutorial

Thought I'd tell you how I make a shadow box. I'm sorry there's no measurements......as I have said in the past..."I just wing it"!! LOL....Let me show you....
*First, I used a piece of Bosawood for the background. I'm using one that is 3 inches wide. I drew a line down the middle.....then I drew a line 1.5 inches from the bottom, and then another line 3/4 inches from that.....(I did this on both ends, so I can make 2 boxes) In that 3/4 inch line, draw your roof. I can't explain this in words.....but if you look at the picture, you will see what I mean. **The measurements on this don't have to be what I said....you can use this idea to make any size you want!

*Next, using my exacto knife, I cut out both background pieces.

*Then we have to start the sides. (I'm using left over bosawood mini 2x4s) I start with the roof top. I use a extra piece of wood to hold things in place- you can see my index finger is holding this piece still. Then I line up my roof piece and cut it along with the straight line we drew earlier. Do this for both sides, then glue.

*Do the same thing for the bottom piece, just line up the outside edges and cut. You see I didn't cut the top bottom sides of the roof. I wait for everything to dry, then flip it over and cut it down. It's just easier that way.

*Next is the sides. I place the piece of wood over where I need it and draw a line. I cut this a hair bigger....it's always easier to sand it down, then having to cut another piece. Do this for both sides, and then glue into place.

....so far we have the back piece glued to the frame of the shadow box. I glue the pieces onto of the background piece...Not next to it.

*Next, it's the inner long pieces......Again I eye-balled this...cutting a little bigger, then sanding it down to fit snugly....Just sand a little at a time, and dry fit it, till it fits. I use an emery board to do this kind of sanding....Makes life a lot easier!

*Then we have to cut the piece that fits inside the 2 pieces you just cut. And after that, we have to cut 2 pieces that will make up those bottom squares. (Eye-ball, cut, sand, and glue) I'm using another piece of wood as my way to make sure that both sides are evenly spaced from the outside.

*The last step is cutting the piece that runs in between the 2 squares....(Yup! Eye-ball, cut, sand and glue)

Now all you have to do is decorate! I gave this one a coat of gesso first, then painted 2 coats of pink, then dry brushed a coat of white, then sanded it down and don't forget to finish it with a coat of sealer.

Have fun! And if you have any questions, just ask.....

*Oh, and don't stress out if you end up with little gaps, you can fill these in with a little bit of glue and no one will know the difference!