Vintage TV Accent Shelf

I'm joining in on a new linky party this week over at the Sassy Sites blog. It's the Trash 2 Treasure Tuesday party. For this party we share items that might have gone into the trash that we have turned into a treasure instead. My first project here is something my husband and I did. It's what we use as a Vintage TV Accent Shelf.


Vintage TV Trash to Treasure Shelf



This "shelf" actually use to be the cornice over our home's front door. Our home was built in 1890, and we have completely gutted and remodeled every room in its interior, and we've installed new windows and siding on the exterior. It's only taken us 15 years to do that. ;)  When the Hubs was getting ready to re-side the house, he had to take down the original cornice, which we decided to keep and use later on inside the house...even though at the time we had no idea what we'd do with it.

Since the living room was the last room to get remodeled, it took us until then to figure out what to do with that cornice. We decided it would look great as a shelf under the flat screen TV we bought when we finished the living room. So the Hubs cleaned it up and put a poly-finish on it, and then we picked out some hooks to put on it. I figured it would be the perfect place to hang Christmas stockings each year, since we aren't lucky enough to have a fireplace.

We both love our Vintage TV Accent Shelf.  It doesn't look too shabby (*wink* actually it does look a bit shabby chic) for being 121 years old. You can see there's a rectangular shape in the middle of it, where we assume an old street number plaque used to be (though it was nowhere to be found when we removed the cornice). At some point I'm going to make a decorative plaque for it, and I'm going to put 1890 on it--since that's when our home was originally built. But for now that little space is just a little ghostly shape, echoing our home's vintage past.

Dylan's Hero

Time for another entry in the Twisted Fate Photography blog's photo challenge. This week's theme is Heroes. So my entry is Dylan's Hero.

Dylan's Hero Photograph


Dylan is my grandson, who is about 4 in this photo (he's 7 now). Dylan's hero (or at least one of them) is his grandpa, who also happens to be my hubby, John. John has always been there for Dylan..takes him everywhere and does all sorts of fun guy things with. Dylan loves to do all the stuff his grandpa does, whether it's fishing, camping, fixing something in the house, or crawling underneath the house!

I love watching Dylan and John together. And it truly warms my heart to be blessed with such a wonderful grandson, whom we get to see as often as we'd like--since he only lives two houses behind us! He and his sister, Destiny are the lights of our life!

Vintage Clothespin Magnets

While I was in the studio this weekend I was brainstorming ideas for things to make from some vintage clothespins that I had in the house. I finally decided that they would look neat if I gave them a Shabby Chic look and made magnets out of them. So here are the results of my inspiration.


Vintage Clothespin Shabby Chic

Vintage Clothespin Prim


For the first vintage clothespin, I wrapped it first with a piece of scrap lace trim I had in my collection. Then, at the top and bottom edge of the lace, I added a strip of gathered lace trim, to make it look a little more frilly. Then I added a satin rose to the top of the clothespin, and some satin ribbon to the bottom lace edge. Then I just added a magnet to the back. Very shabby chic-looking, don't you think?

For the second vintage clothespin, I started with a strip of cream-colored burlap to give it some texture. To that, I added a piece of my favorite vintage-looking rose-patterned fabric. And I simply topped that off with a burgundy satin ribbon, and added the magnet to the back.

So basically, these are not only recycled and re-purposed vintage clothespins, but they are Altered Art as well. And so fun and easy to make with things I already had on hand in my studio.

Vintage Queen Hangtag

Crowns are the thing right now at Gingersnap Creations, so I've created a hangtag to enter their Crowns Challenge.  I'm calling it my Vintage Queen Hangtag. It's also going into the Tag Tuesday Postcard Challenge.

Vintage Queen Altered Art Tag


I started with a plain white hangtag, which I then used a decorative corner punch on to give it some added detail. Then I used brown ink and a text rubber stamp to create the background, and I distressed the edges with the same brown ink.

I found a vintage photo of a young girl, which I then Mod Podged in place on the tag. Then I added a transparent paper image over the top of the girl photo. This image has the little bird on it and reads Carte Postale at the bottom, which means "postcard" in French. I love the way the photo of the girl looks through this transparent (vellum-type) paper.

For embellishments, I added a crown using a 3D-O to make it appear in relief (raised up from the background) and I added rhinestone gems to the crown. I also added a rhinestone gem above the bird. I added alpha stickers to spell out q-u-e-e-n.  And then I added a pretty flower at the bottom of the tag. I finished it off with some coordinating satin ribbon.

I think the tag itself has a very vintage feel, and a very shabby chic feel as well.

Fairy Card

Time to think just a little bit toward warmer weather and summer! So I created this greeting card with a fairy and summer theme, and I'm using it for the 3 Muses Hot, Hot, Hot Challenge.

Fairy Card Paper Arts

I started with some green and cream scrapbook paper with a pattern on it. That is what makes up the card itself. I just cut 2 pieces, 5x7" in size and punched holes in the left side of both. Then I hunted for a nice image to use, and found a postcard in my stash of goodies that I've always loved. The image is Ophelia, from an oil on canvas painting from 1865 by Arthur Hughes. She looks so pretty collecting summer flowers and with her beautiful red hair.

Then I decided to turn her into a fairy, so I found some fairy wings with red and yellow in them. I cut a slit into the image and tucked the fairy wings inside, then I Mod Podged the image to some coordinating scrapbook paper, which also has yellows and oranges in it. I tore the edge of that paper and then glued those to the base of the card.

Next I added some alpha stickers to spell out FAIRY, and I also added a paper flower image, which looks like a nice, orange poppy.  Then I accented everything with yellow and orange rhinestone gems, some in her hair, some on her clothes, some on the wings, and one on the flower. I love giving things a little bit of sparkle with gems.

I finished it off with some gold organdy ribbon tied into the holes I punched in the side of the card. I think this will make a nice birthday card for someone this summer.

Cherish Altered Heart

Well, seeing that it's Valentines Day, I thought I'd get one more heart-themed project in before the clock strikes midnight. And I'm using it for the Ginersnaps Creations Charms Challenge too.  It's my Cherish Altered Heart project.  My beads will have to serve as charms in this case...I didn't have any actual charms to play with.

Cherish Heart Altered Art


I started with a plain wooden heart, which is about 3" high. It's the same wooden heart I used for my Love Altered Hearts project.  I added a piece of teal and cream colored patterned scrapbook paper that I liked. Then I added a vintage photo that I scalloped the edges on.

Next I found a piece of chipboard that had the word Cherish on it, in a metallic teal font. It matched perfectly so I glued that at the bottom of the vintage photo. Then I distressed the edges of the heart a bit with some brown distress ink to give the heart a wee bit of dimension. I also added a teal paper flower, with a rhinestone gem in the center.

To finish this off I added 3 swarovski crystals as my "charms" to the bottom of the heart, one in a teal color, and two in clear. I love the way those look on the heart. They almost give it a shabby chic feel, don't you think? Oh, and at the last minute I decided to turn this into a magnet so I could hang it on the frig. Love it!

That Simple Dance MJ Bookmark

I was definitely in Michael Jackson mode over the weekend. First I created my King of Pop Canvas, and then I decided to create this altered art style bookmark, which I call That Simple Dance. This was inspired by the 3 Muses Quotation Challenge, in which we were to use a quotation in our art piece. I decided to use a line from one of Michael's songs as my quotation, and it's one of my favorite of his songs, Blood on the Dancefloor.

Simple Dance MJ Bookmark Paper Arts


The base of this bookmark is a textured piece of pink cardstock, and on that I've scalloped the bottom edge. I found a photo of MJ in one of his classic poses, up on his toes, and he's wearing his glittery socks too. One thing's for sure here--Michael knew what he was doing with those socks. One immediately knows whose feet those are when you look at this photo. I cut the photo to size and adhered it to the bookmark, then added a music sticker to the bottom edge of the photo.

Next I took some black scrapbook paper and used that as a base for my quotation, which is printed on white cardstock. "To Escape the World I've Got to Enjoy That Simple Dance," seemed like a very appropriate quote for MJ. I glued those to the bookmark, then I added some silver-looking brads to the top corners of the framed quotation. And I finished off the bookmark with some matching pink and black satin ribbon.

Grungy Button Bag

I created this more rustic, country primitive bag over the weekend. It was inspired by the Gingersnaps Creations Coffee & Cream Color Challenge. It's just a fun Grungy Button Bag.

Grungy Button Bag Primitive Crafts


I started with a plain muslin bag, which I used my Grungy Sauce Mix on to get it good and grungy. (Note: if you'd like the recipe for my Grungy Sauce Mix, you'll find it on my primitive blog in the Grungy Hang Tag Tutorial.)

Once my grungy bag was baked and dry I created the flower for it, following the Burlap Flowers Tutorial I blogged about. I changed the finishing of the flower because I wanted a flatter flower to allow for the button to go in the center. But I did create the basic flower following that tutorial. I used 3 types of material to create my three-layered flower. The bottom one is a cream-colored burlap; the middle one is a muslin-type material that I grungy'd up using Coffee Shop Glimmer Mist; and then the top one is a floral cotton. I sewed the button on through the flower to the muslin bag. Then I just added two more buttons, in coffee and cream colors, to add a bit more visual interest and to finish it off.

Really, you could use this bag to store some craft buttons in, or anything else. You could also use it as a gift bag.

King of Pop Canvas

I love it when I get a chance to bring my art and my favorite musical artist together in an art project. In this case I'm bringing Michael Jackson to an altered art style canvas, inspired by the Gingersnap Creations Kings & Queens Challenge. I've called it simply, King of Pop.


King of Pop Michael Jackson Art


I started with a blank white canvas that is 5x7" in size and created the background by first painting it with black acrylic. Then I took some metallic white fluid acrylic and dry-brushed that over the black to give it some texture.

Next I created the torn paper pieces that I would add to the background. They are made from watercolor paper, which I've stamped with a sheet music design in black ink, and then I distressed the edges with black Distress Ink too. I glued those in place on the canvas.

Then I added the Michael Jackson photo sticker, which shows the King of Pop in one of his classic concert outfits, which he wore while performing Billie Jean.  I also created the glitter glove from cardstock and glitter and added that. And I created Michael's classic black fedora out of black scrapbook paper too, and added that over the stamped paper.

The final embellishments were glittery crown stickers, which I already had on hand, along with rhinestone gems, and sparkly white letters, which spell out King of Pop.

I have a wall dedicated to Michael in my home office (the other wall is dedicated to posters from my favorite movies and TV shows...and I have a little area dedicated to Elvis too). So I will add this piece there. I love how it turned out.

Peony Love

I had so much fun creating my Sunflower Landing digital image the other day that I decided not only to make more...but also to create a brand new category for these, which I'm calling My Digital Sketchbook.  I'll include images here that I want to appear as if they came right out of a real (rather than digital) sketchbook. For the most part I will use my own digital photographs to make these digital sketches.

So my next digital sketch I've created is called Peony Love. I'm also using this for the City Crafter Challenge Blogs' Love Challenge.  We needed to use the word Love or a symbol of love in our creation. This started off as one of my Peony Photographs.

Peony Love Digital Art


Once again I used PhotoScape to digitally alter this flower image. I love flowers, so they are always a favorite theme in my photographs. And flowers always make me think of love too...since flowers are very often given as a token or gesture of someone's love. Call me sappy, but I love those kinds of gestures!

Sunflower Landing

This is a digital image creation that I made from one of my own sunflower photos, Dylan's Sunflower, that I took last summer. I'm calling it Sunflower Landing. I've created it for the 3 Muses Black & White Challenge.  We had to use the Black & White theme, but that was really our only limitation, and how we interpret that theme is up to each artist. Any medium can be used for the 3 Muses challenges too, which gives us a lot of wonderful creative freedom. And in this case, it gave me an excuse to play around with digitally editing and altering my own photos, which I really enjoy.

Sunflower Landing Digital Art

I wanted to create an image that would appear as if it came right out of my sketchbook. So I took my sunflower photo and first changed it from color to black and white. Then I gave it a bit of extra contrast. And then I gave it a watercolor pencil effect that has no color. Next I wanted just a little pop of color, so I added the colorful butterfly to the sunflower's leaf. And finally, I added a frame to the photo that makes it look as if I've torn it out of my sketchbook.

I used PhotoScape to edit this photo. Normally I would use PaintShopPro, but I only have that program on my laptop, and I keep PhotoScape on my desktop PC for when I want to edit photos from there.

I really love how this turned out, and it makes me want to do more with digital editing of my own photographs. It also makes me want Spring to hurry up and get here, especially after the 10-12 inches of snow we got yesterday!