BEHIND THE PICKET FENCE - in Costa Mesa with GinaMarie

A couple of weeks ago my good friend GinaMarie and I took a ride down to Costa Mesa to visit a vintage market.  I was very good about not buying too much but oh, the cute things I left behind!  I did buy a couple of tiny clutch sewing kits made from leather which I plan to add some metal paint to as well as decorating the leather portion.  The inside still contained all the needed sewing needles, thread and small buttons.

I thought I'd include the links to some of the shop owners' cute displays I came across.

www.threespeckledhens.com Located at the Paso Robles Event Center and having a sale on October 4 and 5 of this year and May 2 and 3, 2015.  Mark it on your calendar!
 www.frenchatheart.com French at Heart.  Very cute french jewelry items, including french patriot saints incorporated into her jewelry.
www,fancyfeatherdesigns.com  Handmade pillows, tote bags and wine bottle bags using some fresh designs.
      
www.marylisatreats.blogspot.com      Lisa Rainey Marois selss silver place setting she picks up at estate sales.



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Shrink Plastic Pins

I made a few tie pins for co-workers a few years ago and never took photos or posted.  That is now on my list of things to do!  I have some extra pins at work that I need to photograph and upload.  In the meantime here's a link to some really fun projects as well as detailed directions.

Shrink Plastic Photo Jewelry

Little Girl Tags - aka Girl of the Moment

I had a little fun stamping these cute little girl images on some handmade tags I made when I had some leftover heavy cardstock.  The girl with the cape is a Unity Stamp and the party girl is from Stampendous.  

This first tag is just stamped and colored with markers.  I used some bold funky colors for my supergirl image.  I think they show the awesomeness of girl power!  

Unity Stamp - Girl of the Moment

I wanted to try a little something different and used some shimmerpaint and tried to patiently wait for it to dry before I could stamp the girl. 

Unity Stamp - SuperGirl!

For my party girl I painted a little white gesso on the tag and punched a border.  The gesso really made the colors stand out against the white manilla cardstock.  So cute!  

Birthday Girl Close-Up

Party Girl Tag 

Baseball Dress for My Niece

Sometimes it's more fun making the perfect gift instead of spending hours at the store trying to find that something special for someone.  My beautiful niece knew she was expecting a little girl and even had her name picked out.  She chose some really great colors for the nursery and so I was trying to stay away from the cutsie pink & frilly usual girly stuff.  When I looked at her registry I noticed there was a cute knitted hat that was white and had the stitching that looked like a baseball.  Did I tell you her husband is a coach.  Well when I saw that hat, I knew I could get her something with a baseball theme.  I happened to be at the fabric store a couple of days later and find an end piece of some baseball fabric with red background.  There was just enough on the bolt to make this dress.  I already had the pattern and was able to find some find some brown bias tape in my overflowing stash.  Here's the play by play of the creation.

Simplicity Pattern Number 3508

Baseball Fabric Closeup

The  finished dress for Daddy's Little Girl

Papaya Collage

Today I needed to make a hostess gift and decided to just do stamping and not do a lot of cutting and layering.  I think stamping took just as long but I like the fact that I used the basics of stamp, ink and paper. I do like putting colors together, maybe it's because I grew up with the Crayola box of 64 colors!  Besides color coordinating, I like being able to put together various images that fit the types of images the gift receiver likes.  I used the Papaya Collage, Dictionary, and Morning Meadow stamp sets.

Supplies I used:  Vanilla Cardstock; Ink- Lucky Limeade (leaves), Pacific Coast & Gold (frames), Close to Cocoa and Baja Breeze (bird), Tangerine Tango (butterfly and Thank  You), Creamy Carmel (background Dictionary stamp) and Pink Passion (rose).

Estate Sale Finds

I've been wanting to learn a little calligraphy or just learn to make a fancy letter here and there.  Yesterday at an estate sale in Seal Beach I found a couple of calligraphy books (well, actually there was an abundance of books) but I only purchased two.  Along with books I also picked up quite a few tablets of calligraphy practice sheets.  I also purchased tablets of watercolor paper, aquarelle watercolor crayons, a box of envelopes, some pretty handmade papers, packages of handmade paper, some pretty pearl buttons, and a punch bowl (with cups!) all for the grand total of $20.

The weather in Seal Beach was beautiful, the little shops we walked by were cute, the two we stopped in were amazing - one store was 80% vintage jewelry and all in cases so it was eye candy just to walk by case after case and admire all the vintage jewelry.  They also had some lovely vintage art on the walls, wish I had the kind of home and decor to house it all it but I don't.   The next cute store we browsed in was all beach themed.  Very cute and calming -  I would love to have a beach house!

Jewelry Classes

For the past 3 and a half years I have been teaching various classes at my local community center in Monrovia.  I have really been enjoying teaching beginners jewelry because once you have the basics, you can create just about anything.  I have a small assortment of handouts but there are just so many ideas and free tutorial out there in cyber space that I thought I would try to put all my favorites in one spot so that my students can easily find the links that will get them to the sites with all the wonderful information.