The Graphics Fairy!

I've discovered a wonderful blog! The Graphics Fairy daily offer up free high quality vintage images, graphics, and clip art. There's over 2000 images on here to pick through for use in craft projects, collage, DIY, scrapbooking, Home Decor, etc. Again I say, wonderful!

Some samplings! (You'll have to visit her site for the large downloadable PDFs!)

Anniversary Embroidery

My sister and her husband celebrated their 2nd wedding anniversary July 19th. I'd been working diligently behind the scenes to get my gift finished in time, but it was hopeless. I've just been too busy, so I ended up giving them their gift one day shy of a month late.


I embroidered their initials with a scrappy flower onto a tea-dyed embroidery fabric with a wooden embroidery hoop which I painted white to contrast the dyed fabric. I chose orange to compliment the black and white because on a recent trip to Ikea with my sister, she purchased orange curtains and an orange throw for their bedroom. I hope they enjoy it, I certainly enjoyed creating it for them!

Here are some details:






And the finished product:

Free Clothing Swap Lamp Gets Powned

Several months ago I picked up two large lamps for free from a clothing swap at my mom's church. They had enough redeeming qualities to let me see potential in them, so I took one and my mom took one. The lamps had that 70's look as if they tried to make the lamp look like a giant fancy candlestick and candle, and eventually I got frustrated trying to find large enough lampshade (lampshades are expensive!) that would compliment the intricate design. And even if I found one, I was afraid that the silvery-pearl glaze, frosty flower design, and brassy base would still look more "tacky" than "antique-y".



Finally, a few days ago, I found a gigantic, beautiful lampshade for $6.50 at MCC Furniture Thrift store! It perfectly covers the "candle-look" on the neck of the lamp that was apparently so popular in 1970's lamp decor... I was very pleased, but not as pleased as I was when my friend gave me a can of gloss cream coloured spray paint she wasn't going to use. I decided to spray paint the tacky right out of my lamp.

The finished product!

The result? I love it! The details are still visible, like the flower design on the bowl of the lamp, and the intricate filigrees on the base and neck actually stand out more than they did with all the distracting shimmer glazes and silver-brass. I think the result looks solid and clean, but still holds on to the "antique" appeal.

Recycled semi-hideous canvas painting

Whilst cleaning out and organizing my parents’ spare bedroom/junk room, I found a bunch of canvas paintings all rolled up and stuffed away. They were found at my dad’s shop, aka a delightful haven of junk. I looked through them and discarded any that were too ruined to be of use, and set aside the ones that actually had potential to be framed.

There was one that I was torn on, whether it was hideous or just charming enough. I decided it was charming enough to not get chucked, but I only liked the flowery portion of the painting and not the cheesy pastel coloured sky with lady in dress walking in the distance that looked like something straight out of the mint-and-peach bathroom of our old house circa 1990:

 

So I decided to salvage the parts I liked, and since I had a collection of smaller frames waiting to be filled, and the colours of the flowers would work well in my bedroom, I framed selected portions of the painting to this effect…

I was pleased with the results! But I still had a bunch of pretty bits left… the scraps from fitting in the frames. So I decided I was up for another quick project, and further salvaged the scraps by sticking them to some sheets of magnet and creating some purdy decorations for the fridge: