A Few Last-Minute Projects!

Wow! Only 3 days until my craft show up in the North Country! I have been working my @$$ off getting things ready and finishing up some last-minute projects, including using up some of the excess supplies I have had lying around. Remember those “vintage” style keys I found at Michael’s? I decided to make more decorative tags with them, since they have been selling well at the co-op. Whatever doesn’t sell at the craft show goes right back to the booth!

I also found some smaller keys with words on them in the scrapbooking section and thought they’d be super cute on the tags.

Another fun little project are these “Santa’s Key” signs. I had all these square red pieces of wood, that were left overs from “The Stockings Were Hung” signs. I didn’t want to throw them out, so I glued on some left over knobs (using E6000) and wrote Santa’s Key with a silver paint pen! I’ve seen this idea using hang tags with a key attached, but I thought a little wooden sign might be fun hanging next to the door!

You may have seen my little snowman clothespins, but I decided to change it up a little and try some gingerbread men. These have been sitting in a pile on my craft table for months because I didn’t like the way they were coming out. I finally figured out a simple face and I think they ended up being sort cute. I still like the snowmen better.

A last-minute trip to the thrift store turned up some cool folk-artish Santa’s! The one on the left had green and blue crayon marks all over it which were easily cleaned off with a scrubby. The one on the right had a little chip out of the center (the little white spot in the middle of the red robe) which was quite noticeable in person. I mixed up some paint to match the red robe and touched it up. Good as new!

I also found a few little vintage kitties, a cute little choir boy, another fun Santa, and this little wooden box. Just a few fun knick-knacks.

My favorite find was this wooden type set tray. Not sure if it’s a real old one or not but it’s still cool! I’ve always wanted one of these!

Guess that’s it for now…and I probably won’t be back til after the show. Hope everyone has a great weekend! Wish me luck!

“The Stockings Were Hung” Signs

So…my basement is an absolute disaster getting ready for my craft show next weekend! Every where you turn, it kinda looks like this…Christmas CHAOS!

And it continues to be a homespun candy cane sweat shop…

Anyway, this year I attempted some signs that were at the request of my friend Christine. I think they a are great idea for those of us who don’t have mantles to hang our stockings on! They came out very cute, but it was a total experiment. There are some things I’ll probably do different if I make them again next year.

So I started by purchasing these pieces of wood at Lowes. You could use any scrap wood you have lying around too. I spray painted them red and brown, but in the future I’d like to do a hunter green or a light green I think. I lightly sanded the surface and the edges. I used foam stamps for the letters. I find it’s easier and way faster to stamp them in bulk. Stamp the first letter on all your boards, then the second letter on all the boards, and so on.

After the stamping was done, I (Greg) trimmed the excess edge off. He drilled some holes for me, slightly larger than the width of the knob screws I was going to use.

Before doing the knobs, I wanted to do a few things while the board was still flat! I used a gel stain (Deco Art) to give it a bit of an aged look. It’s a subtle difference in the picture but is more noticeable in person.

Next I used these “push in” picture hangers (Lowes) because they’re easy to work with.

I used this metal punch to make sure the edges were all the down way in. Line it up with the edges and hammer them flat!

My favorite part…the KNOBS! I LOVE these knobs from Hobby Lobby! I always wait til they are 50% off (which is often) and buy them in bulk for projects. I had fun picking out the color combos for these signs! Anyway, I lined them up with the width of the board to see where to trim them, so that the sign will lay flush against the wall. I used a white paint pen to mark where they needed to be cut.

I had to buy a bolt cutter for this project ($14 at Lowes) but it’s a GREAT tool and I know that I’ll use it again. Totally worth investing in it.

It cut the knob screws with virtually NO effort! SO AWESOME! Forget hours of sawing with a hack saw!!!

I covered the knob screws with E-6000 (super-duper strong glue) and pushed them down into the pre-drilled holes.

And then waited oh so impatiently while they dried…

I am wondering if I should put a “…” after the work hung, like I have seen on some other similar signs online? Either way, I love them!!!

Some things I’d do differently are add more knobs and space the knobs farther apart. I’d also not do the brown, but maybe a light olive green or a dark hunter green. I was originally thinking that I wanted to do something neutral incase red didn’t fit someones color scheme, but I guess it doesn’t really matter around Christmas…cause everything is red and green! Maybe a blue & white one? Oh the decisions!!!

I am SOOOOOO excited for my craft show, mainly because I get to spend a weekend with my best friend. It’s always so much fun! Have a great weekend all you crafty super stars!

Making Country Signs Using Foam Stamps

Sorry it’s been so long! I have lots of projects to share, but they are all half-finished and/or not photographed! D’OH!

Anyway, I decided to share a “how-to” on my country signs since a few people have asked me how I make them. I recently made this sign for a lady at the co-op and decided to show you a step-by-step of the process.

Finding pre-weathered or barn wood is ideal. Since I can never find it, I just buy these pre-cut boards at Lowe’s. Use whatever kind of wood you’d like! Paint the board the base color you’d like and sand down to your liking.

For the letters, I use this heavy body acrylic paint. It’s wicked expensive but a little goes a long way, and I use it for tons of projects. It works great on the signs! Use a basic sponge for applying the letters.

Foam stamps usually come like this. Don’t try to tear them down the perforated edges- I have ruined stamps this way. Cut them!

Lightly moisten the sponge. Ring out all excess water…you don’t want it wet; just “pliable.” Dab in your paint and tap off the excess.

Carefully dab the foam letter surface with the sponge. This process goes quickly. You have to do it this way or else way too much paint gets on the stamps. Dipping the stamps directly into the paint will result in waaaay too much paint on the stamp surface, and squish out the edges when you press on it. Trust me!

Line up the edges of the letters with your other letters by looking down the side of the stamp and eyeball it. I don’t lay it out ahead of time…though I probably should! If you mess up, quickly use a damp paper towel to wipe off the letter that you messed up. It comes right off if you do it quickly, so you can re-do/re-position that letter and try again! *Note- that only works with smooth wood that’s been spray painted like the one shown here…it probably would not wipe off of an uneven surface easily, so just be careful!*

Press down evenly, and pull directly up, so as not to smear it!

Once done stamping, I like to immediately wash my stamps off in the sink to get the paint off before it dries. Use running water and just rub/wipe the paint off and lay on a towel to dry.

Once the sign is dry, use a gel stain or regular stain to “distress.” I use the gel stains because they are not as messy and sticky to deal with. Wipe off the excess with an old rag. Sand more if you’d like. Make it as old and distressed looking as you’d like!

The imperfections are what make these signs great, and one-of-a-kind!

The other one I made for her…

Here are some other signs I have made using foam stamps.

Well that’s it for now. I hope this tutorial was helpful! As always, I’d love to see pix if you try to make these! Signs are fun and make great gifts…give it a whirl!!!

 

 

Welcome to Booth #84 at The Carriage Place!

I am so excited to share these pictures of the new booth with everyone! My friend Christine came down for the weekend to help me set up and I am THRILLED with how it turned out!

A chilly but gorgeous spring(ish) day at The Carriage Place!

And here is it, all set up! The 3 large lamps hanging from the ceiling are not mine, and are going to be moved soon.

Vintage garden seed signs, just in time for spring!

I’ve hit up some great sales lately, including a church rummage sale where I acquired the limited-edition Normal Rockwell plates (on the wall in pic below) and that large, fabulous, enamel ware pan! Score!

A few cool items stacked up: a vintage black trunk, a heavy metal ammunition case, and a wooden carrier full of country star ornaments!

Love these tin flowers for spring and summer!

If only you could smell these sachets…they make the entire corner of the building smell AWESOME! They are adorned with a variety of vintage flower seeds art.

Got this charming little folk art soldier man at the rummage sale. I had to have him for the new space! I LOVE little folk art characters!!!

An antique sewing box, lots of enamel bowls, and some wooden shelves take up the space under the big table!

Gotta love dusty old bottles…

And a view from the main hallway!

Teeny and I, after a long day of setting up. Thanks again Teeny for all your help!!!

I also want to say thanks to everyone who has continued to follow my blog even though I have been less than faithful at blogging lately. It’s just been so busy getting things in order for the new space! I plan on doing lots of thrift store shopping and crafting as the weather continues to get nicer!

Have a great week all and thanks for stoppin’ in!

A Quick Booth Update!

First of all, I wanna say THANKS to the awesome people at Dollar Store Crafts for mentioning my blog on their Facebook page over the weekend! I would die without my Dollar Tree and am so happy to share my dollar store projects with some fellow crafters!! If you missed my post on “Country Themed Dollar Store Crafts”, see it here!

Well, it’s rainy and yucky here in WNY, but that’s okay because yesterday was absolutely gorgeous for moving my first load into my new space at the Carriage Place! They have a professional appraiser come in every other month, who happened to be there yesterday, and the place was buzzing! The boy scouts were there selling hot dogs, it was almost 60 degrees…. just a great spring day for antiquing!

I took a few pictures with my phone of what I have set up so far. Excuse the crappy photo quality, but I just HAD to share! It’s kinda bare right now, but my friend Christine is coming down next weekend to help me fill it in with all my little crafts and knick-knacks! For now I just wanted to get some of the bigger pieces in there.

I recently acquired a wonderful primitive lap desk (on the white table) which everyone was drooling over (including me)! Isn’t it frickin fabulous???

I thought these cute little tin flowers screamed SPRING! I am using my shutter shelf made by my step-dad for now until I get another shelf for the booth. It’s not for sale…I could never bare=e to part with it!!!

I put out a few wooden bunnies for Easter. I also got this little black trunk at a garage sale a few days ago. LOVE it!

I haven’t had much luck selling my signs at the craft shows, but I am hoping that they will do better here!

I put these signs up until I get the space filled with goodies!

It’s so much fun but a little nerve-racking at the same time. I met a lot of nice vendors who were encouraging and told me things looked great so far. Can’t wait to get in there this weekend and tinker around some more!!!

Have a great day everyone!

A Few Thrift Store Tid-Bits and Some Cool “Vintage” Tin Signs

Is anyone else getting that itch to go out antiquing? To garage sales, estate sales, and flea markets?? I’ve got that itch, BAD! I was at least able to make a run to the thrift store recently, and found a few little goodies!

I love these simple tin candle holders…

This dark navy candle holder with white polka dots called to me…for some reason I picture it with a rusty snowflake ornament around the neck, and displayed around Christmas/winter time.

A blue glass mason jar with cool designs…a no brainer!

I think this is one of those change holders, but you could really use it to hold anything!

And my favorite find…these wonderful little tins with vintage school children scenes on them! What do you suppose I use these for…any ideas?

Speaking of vintage tin items, I wanted to share some great tin signs I picked up at a wholesale gift show. I got them in the hopes that I will have a permanent booth by summer time. They are reproductions obviously, but I still think the imagery is so charming! They are pretty convincing as vintage advertising!

Sorry for the crappy pictures, but you get the idea! Aren’t they freakin’ FABULOUS?

That’s all for now. Have a great week everyone, and keep THINKIN’ SPRING! We are almost there!

Foam Alphabet Stamps

Happy New Year!!!!!!

Incase you’re wondering where I get all of my fabulous vintage art, you can find them at http://www.graphicsfairy.blogspot.com/, the most wonderful collection of vintage art and graphics on the web. AND you can use it, for FREE! It’s an AWESOME resource for crafting! Thank you Karen, aka,“The Graphics Fairy.”

So I have been moving away from stencils and getting more into foam stamps, mainly because of their versitility. Below are some examples of some signs I have made using various foam stamps…which I have become partial to over stencils. I have decided stencils are a pain in the @$$. The stamps make it possible for you to spell out any saying or phrase you wish, and make custom signs.

This one I made for my cousin Karen to give as a Christmas gift to her sis-in-law, who had a baby in 2010. Cute idea, huh?

That’s all for now. Thanks for checking out my stamps for sale. Hope everyone has a happy and healthy 2011!

Craft, Food and Wine Show 2010

The craft show went GREAT! With the help of my trusty friend/accountant/maintainance woman Christine, we sold about ¾ of the items and made about 20% more money than last year! There was a record 4000+ people who went through the show this year, thanks to the addition of food and wine, which drew in many more customers than previous years! Here are some pictures from the show! (be prepared…I went a little overboard with the pictures…)

Grubby tea lights and mini snowman clips…sold out!

All cinnamon shapes…sold out on the first day!

Sold ALL but 5 or 6 candles! They were hit!

Signs…not so much. The same thing happened last year. I only sold a few. I do have a few people who want to buy some for Christmas gifts, so that’ll be good.

All 3 wooden ironing board displays…gone!

The antiques sold very well. There were other craft booths, but none with antiques. Both vintage scales sold the first day! I love them for kitchen decor.

Christine and our mascot Melanie! Mel sure did draw in the people to our booth…I learned babies are a good marketing technique!

No one bought any of the little candles I enhanced with the texture fierro (brown and green ones along the bottom). I was surprised, because I thought they were really cute! Oh well.

Sold all but one of the country night lights.

I am an antique bottle junkie, and probably sold 1/3 of ‘em.

The vintage reindeer and santa went too…wasn’t sure about those guys. I love vintage Christmas ornies! Probably do more of those next year, if I can find them. I got those at the Amvet!

All the lil snowman magnets…sold out!

The penalty box was directly behind my booth space…SCORE! We used it as our little nook…or ‘office’…hehehe! The ledge made for a great transaction area, plus being a few inches off the ice made a HUGE difference in us not freezing out @$$’s off like last year! I am going to request the same space again for next year…it was SO awesome!

There’s one of my Craigslist scores…the tea cart used as a display.

Homespun candy canes and pins…sold out!

The drool queen!

I thought Christine was going to beat me because I sold all of my ironing board display pieces! In place of them are Christine’s little TV trays drapped with fabric.

The trip home was pretty funny. Even though we sold a ton, the truck was full of all the display stuff. Christine took one for the team and was wedged into the front seat with the boxes that wouldn’t fit in the back, along with my brown bag full of wine I bought. lol. Thanks Teeny…I luv ya!

Hope everyone is weathering this snow alright. It’s coming down like crazy here in western NY. Hope everyone had a great weekend! Thanks for looking…I’ll be back soon!

Tying Up Loose Ends: Ragball Ornies, Snowman Pins & Scrap Wood Signs

The clock is a tickin! With the show less than a week away, I’m trying to finish up all the half-finished projects I have lying around my disaster of a craft area, which by now has taken over the entire basement…sorry Greg. Hehehe…

I’ve had a huge bowl full of these homespun ragballs sitting around that I was going to sell as bowl fillers. I’ve recently seen them hanging on Christmas trees which looks awesome, so I added a hanger to each one so they can be sold as ornaments. Even the huge ones are very light weight and would hang just fine. Can’t wait to display them hanging up on the tree.

Remember how I said I was going to make snowman pins next year? Well…I had made a bunch of these snowman faces to make more magnets, but at the last minute, I decided to make em into pins instead! I love the way they came out, and you can even sort of see the sparkle in this picture!

I use this “Dazzle Tac” glue whenever I am making pins, because it secures the metal pin backs. They will NOT move or fall off. I have used hot glue for this in the past that the metal part pops off with even the slightest pressure…no good.

The little signs were made with scrap wood and a sharpie paint markers. I saw this saying once and always loved it…because it’s TRUE! hahaha. I am generally not a fan of hand-written signs; I prefer stencils or stamps. But with the black wire to hang it and a little homespun tie, I think they are kind of cute!

Remember this guy from the thrift store?

Here it is painted and distressed! Love it!

Well that’s all for now. Hope everyone is enjoying the long weekend…I know I am!

 

 

 

Happy Turkey Day!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL! I am sad I won’t be joining my family at home for this festive dinner but I am very happy to spend the evening with my boy, Greg. We are going to go out for Thanksgiving for the first time…which I am VERY excited about. No cooking and no cleaning! The only downside is no leftovers

I am so thankful for all the people in my life, having a good career, and a beautiful home. I am a lucky girl. Be sure to count your blessings today, and ENJOY that yummy turkey dinner!!!

In crafting news…I am finishing up lots of little projects and tying up loose ends. The craft show is officially a week away – the set up time is next Thursday afternoon. EEK!

I loved the way the mini snowmen clips came out that I am making another batch. All they need are their scarves!

Packaging them up…

I know I already posted this pic but I just adore these candy canes! Debating if I should make more, because they are fairly quick and I have a really good feeling about them…

And finishing up a few signs. These were the most popular sayings last year so I wanted to get a few more made before next week!

Have a fabulous day everyone and don’t forget to wear your stretchy pants today!!!