Mitzi's Miscellany

Easy Sewing Pattern Tissue Flowers

I'm sure by now just about everyone has seen these sewing pattern tissue flowers somewhere around the web.  If you haven't actually sat down and made some, I'm here to give you a push!  They're so easy to make, and a fun way to add some vintage style to your home:

 

 

 

The Salvation Army or any thrift store is a good place to find old sewing patterns.  I was lucky enough to buy a bushel basket full of them at an auction once, and I've been using the tissue to wrap Etsy items in to ship to customers.

 To start, I cut a minimum of four pieces of tissue, approximately 6" x 12".  You can see I'm not a perfectionist when it comes to cutting:

 

 

Then I fold in an accordion fold, over and under:

 

 

 I used pinking shears on some of them for fancy edges, and cut notches in the center:

 

 

I tie a string around the center, then hook a florist's wire around the string:

 

 Twist the wire so it is attached well:

 

 

Begin carefully fluffing your flower layer by layer until it is finished:

 

 

To get a group of these flowers to stay put in a vase, I use dry beans.  They are heavy, but the stems will sink into the beans and stay in place pretty well.

 

 

This is a good "rainy day craft project".  And I can't believe I'm saying this, but it's actually raining here today!  I guess I'll be making some flowers inside, while my garden flowers get a good drink outside!

I'm linking to Finding Fabulous, Blissful and Domestic, Love Notes by Lauren, Say Not Sweet Anne, The Brambleberry Cottage, and Craftionary.

Mitzi

My Thoughts About the TV Show "Craft Wars"

Have you seen the show "Craft Wars" on TLC?  Hosted by Tori Spelling and sponsored by Michael's craft store, it's a craft contest that begins with three crafters that compete in a one-hour challenge.  One crafter is eliminated after the first round, then the two remaining crafters are left to compete during a four hour project/challenge and a chance to win $10,000. 

We've all been dying to see more of Tori Spelling on TV, haven't we?

 

 Photo Credit:  Facebook.com

I was excited about a craft show appearing during prime time, but now I have to admit I'm disappointed.  Let me tell you why.....

I don't think the words "craft" and "war" should ever occur in the same sentence, for one thing.  It's just wrong!  Crafting should be a fun and relaxing activity.

So far, they've made a toy box out of toys, patio furniture out of assorted beach junk, a sports bag out of sports equipment, and pet mansion out of ugly plastic pet accessories.  None of those projects are things I would ever try and they have not inspired me in any way.

Who would even want all this crap in their house?  Personally, this is the kind of stuff I'm trying so hard to avoid....

 

 Photo Credit:  TLC.com

 

A finished toy box project, albiet one of the losers.  Ugh:

 

Photo Credit:  Craft Fail

 

The entire set is awash in obnoxious primary colors.  Although I'm not afraid of color, the piles of stuff they drag out for the contestants shouts MADE IN CHINA to me, which turns me off completely.  There isn't one natural looking  material to be found anywhere.  Isn't burlap extremely popular right now?  Not on Craft Wars.  If their air conditioning ever goes on the fritz, the set would be in danger of melting into a giant gooey plastic mess.

Building a tiki bar and patio furniture isn't really crafting to me, it's furniture making.  When you go to Michaels for supplies, is this the kind of stuff you're planning to make?

 

 

 Photo Credit:  TLC.com

I object to the time crunch.  I suppose it's necessary for TV drama, but the result is messy projects and stressful crafting.  The contestants use words like "panicked", "stressed", and "We're running out of time!!!"  In contrast, think of Bob Ross and his soothing voice and low-key manner as he paints his landscapes.  That's the other end of the arts and crafts continuum, but I think a primetime show could be somewhere in the middle.

A birdhouse made of cards for outside use.  Really?

 

Photo Credit:  TLC.com

 

A gym bag made from sports stuff.  Sports stuff has always left me cold:

 

Photo Credit:  TLC.com

 

And last but not least, there isn't a hint of "vintage" anything, anywhere on Craft Wars.  That was the last straw for me!

My conclusion?  Craft Wars isn't for me.  I get much more inspiration from the bloggers I visit on a regular basis, many of whom you can find on my right sidebar.  And they don't need Tori Spelling for an introduction.  Just click on their blog names and pay them a visit!

Mitzi

My Latest Vintage Wallpaper Project

A while back I posted about  "pieces with potential" and showed a three panel dressing screen I bought that needed some help.  I indicated it would be transformed into something fabulous, but didn't give a specific time-line.  That was a good thing, because it took me longer than I planned to get around to it!

The screen was wood with veneer that had gotten wet at some point in time, causing the veneer to warp.  I wasn't sure what to do about it, but since the warped veneer was only on one side of the screen, I figured I'd just try to glue it down after softening it in the sun and using weights and clamps.  This method improved the situation a little, but there was still one side better than the other.

 

 

 

I spray painted the frame with a white primer, then Heirloom White by Krylon:

 

 

I've been acquiring rolls of flocked wallpaper that was popular in the 1960's and 70's, one at a time, over the last several years.  I'm a woman with a lot of patience!  After all, I plan to use these supplies for the rest of my life.  I decided to show off my lovely flocked papers on this dressing screen.  I cut rectangles from the papers and adhered them to the screen with pre-mixed wallpaper paste.

This is the side with the warped veneer.  You can barely tell the screen has an uneven surface anymore thanks to the busy wallpaper patterns.  Cheswick seems to approve:

 

 

This side turned out even better:

 

 

If you want to try a similar project, you might be able to turn a couple old folding closet doors  into a three-panel screen.  Sometimes Habitat for Humanity has a surplus store (we have two in our area) with donated items from home renovations and you might be able to snag a couple folding closet door panels there.  Then just attach them with hinges, paint the edges, and add wallpaper!

Mitzi

I'm participating in the following Link Parties:  Tutorials & Tips Link Party, Not Just a Housewife, Sweet Sharing Monday, Miss Mustard Seed, and Take a Look Tuesday.

"Growing" a Garden Lampshade

I mentioned in a previous post that I've sold a couple wicker Eiffel Tower lamps since I've been buying and selling antiques, and that I'm always on the lookout for more.  I also mentioned that I had an Eiffel Tower base in my basement, but no shade.  That got the ball rolling, and prompted me to take another look at what I had.  Well, it wasn't a true Eiffel Tower base, but it was still a nice looking white wicker floor lamp base, and I decided I shouldn't allow it to moulder away in the basement any longer.

 

The shade that came with the wicker base when I purchased it three years ago was just a silk shade with long fringe, and definitely not original to the piece.  That's why the base was stuffed in my basement.  I was hoping to find a wicker shade so I could "marry" them together and sell them.  But now that three years have gone by, I decided to put "Plan B" into action!  I always have a Plan B....

 

 

 

I had envisioned covering the large lampshade with silk flowers (Plan B).  I've done this with smaller shades and really liked how they turned out.  So over the last year or so, I've been picking up silk flowers at garage sales and from bargain bins for my flower-covered shade.

 

If you want to try a similar project, this is how to do it.  First, get a pair of wire cutters and clip the stems off your flowers near the head:

 

 

Take the flower apart and remove the plastic spacers in between the petals.  I do this so I can divide some of the larger flowers into two or three flatter flowers.  You get more bang for your buck this way from the really large blossoms.  With smaller blossoms, like daisies, you won't need to divide them:

 

Reassemble the new flowers and hot glue them together, adding a center back in.  With the additional flowers, you'll need to grab centers from ugly flowers that you aren't using in your project.  Usually there are a few flowers in a bunch that are worth sacrificing for their centers.

Next, simply start hot gluing your flowers all over your lampshade.  I started with the largest flowers and worked my way to the smallest. 

 

I decided to leave a few roses whole, and glued them on the shade for some height here and there.  Then I filled in all the gaps around the edges with leaves, but not too many.  It's just a matter of personal preference.  You might decide not to have any leaves.  It's all up to you!

I didn't like all the white fringe, so I scrounged up some pretty pink trim in my hoard/stash:

 

 

I think the pink trim adds a little more color around the edge of the shade so the white fringe isn't so dominant:

 

 

And here's my finished "Garden Lamp":

 

 

 

While I was taking these photos, a bee landed on the shade.  I'm going to take that as a compliment!

Mitzi

I'm linking to the following link parties:  Craft-o-Maniac, Sweet Anne Designs, and Making the World Cuter.

Lamp Re-Vamp

I purchased a great  table lamp with a turned wood base at an estate sale last year.  The shade was the color known as "puce", a once popular color but I wouldn't say it's going to be back in vogue any time soon, at least with that name.  I liked the way the lamp and shade looked, but for some reason I kept it at home instead of pricing it right away and putting it in my antique mall space.

 

 

 

Well, I'm really glad I kept it around, because I happened to find some ball fringe recently that was the exact same color of "puce".  What are the chances?  So over the weekend, I glued the fringe onto the bottom of the shade, and added some millinery blossoms to the center of the shade to jazz it up further:

 

 

I'm just one of those people who likes to embellish things.  A "more is more" kind of person, if you will.  Do you think the addition of fringe and flowers was an enhancement, or do you like the way the shade looked before?  Are we on the same page here?  Just checking.....

Mitzi

Vintage Fabric Brooch Tutorial

I often purchase old bits of fabric from unfinished quilts, especially yoyo quilts, which are my favorites.  All yoyo quilts start the same way:  with circles of fabric, hundreds of them!  I had a bagful of the cut circles that I had been saving for just the right craft project and today I found it:  a fabric flower brooch like the one pictured below:

 

 Look at the beautiful circles of old fabric I had to choose from:

 

 

To make this brooch, you will need:

Ten to Fifteen circles of fabric (mine were 3" in diameter)

A felt circle for the back and felt for the leaves

A pinback

Hot glue and a skewer or chopstick to hold the petals in place while gluing

Once you have your fabric circles cut, get a circle of felt ready for your base.  As you can see in the picture below, my base is smaller in diameter than the circles of fabric.  It's about 2" in diameter.  I used a circle of a felted sweater I made which was nice and sturdy, but you can use store bought felt.

 

 

Step 1:  Fold a fabric circle in half.

 

 

 Step 2:  Fold the circle in half once again.

 

 

Step 3:  Apply hot glue to the tip of the fold, then place the glued petal in the center of the felt circle.

 

 

Step 4:  Using a skewer, chopstick or other implement, press down in the center of the petal to make sure it sticks down well.

 

 

Step 5:  Keep adding more petals working from the inside towards the outside of the felt circle.  Be sure to fill in areas that seem less full so that the blossom has a full look all over.

 

 

Step 6:  If some of the petals stick out too far, you can give them a trim with scissors when you are finished adding petals for an even look.

 

 

Step 7:  Add your leaves and a pin to the back.  I just use hot glue for the pin, or sometimes sew it on before I start gluing the petals to the base.

 

 

 My leaves were also from a resale shop wool sweater that I felted and cut up.

 

 

After my first version was finished, I decided to try pinking shears on my fabric and liked it much better.  Can you see the difference (below):

 

 

I hope you can try this fun and easy little project!  I'll be linking to the following link parties:  Sugar Bee Crafts, Rook No. 17, Sweet Anne Designs, Primp, and Carolyn's Homework.

Mitzi

Burlap Covered Paper Mache Letter Project

If you shop at the big craft stores, you've probably seen the giant papier-mache three dimensional letters they sell.  I've always wanted to create something with them, and was pleased to see on the tag that they aren't made in China, but made in the Philippines instead.  Hopefully there are better working conditions in the Philippines than the Chinese factories. 

I decided to cover my letters with old burlap cut from a potato sack:

Potato sacks like the one I used should cost  just a couple dollars.  I cut up the sack and was able to cover all five letters with just one sack, with some burlap left over.

I used Mod Podge for Fabric for this project.  The 8 oz. bottle was enough for all five letters:

 I applied the Mod Podge to sections of the letters with a paintbrush:

 I stuck the cut pieces of burlap down on the glued areas:

I decided to spell "Howdy" because it's shorter than "Welcome":

 

I covered the sides, too:

 

The more I see the word "Howdy", the more I wish I had spelled something else.  I might go back to the craft store and buy some more letters!  It's a good thing this project is easy and fun.  I hope you are inspired to give it a try!

If you are in a crafty mood, visit my new crafting blog Mitzi Made It for a fun project that would make a great Mother's Day gift.

Mitzi

I'm linking to Petite Hermine, Nifty Thrifty Things, Making the World Cuter, C.R.A.F.T., A Bowl Full of Lemons, Sugar Bee Crafts, FaveCrafts, Snapdragon Diaries, and Flamingo Toes.

Vintage Ephemera Decoupaged Clipboards

I often pick up clipboards at estate sales and garage sales when I see them.  They are plentiful and inexpensive whether you search for them or buy them from a store, and make excellent little blank canvases for a decoupage project.  When not in use, they can be hung on the wall of your office or craft room as wall art.

 I've made several here that have a neutral background with a colorful accent that "pops" from it:

 

 

 

Besides the clipboards, you'll need the following materials:

Brayer

Scissors

Mod Podge (matte or satin)

Neutral background image and smaller colorful images.

Distress Ink and Walnut Ink for aging the images.

Buttons for embellishment.

 

For the background image you can click on my examples or pay a visit to The Graphics Fairy.  Or perhaps you have your own piece of sheet music or other paper ephemera you'd like to use.  Make sure the item has been printed or copied on a laser copier rather than an ink jet pinter, otherwise the ink will smear when you coat it with glue.  You can take the printed out images to Staples and use their color copier, which is what I do quite frequently.

Next, I like to age the background image a bit by spraying Walnut ink here and there.  Try it out on a piece of newspaper first to see what it will look like.  I also use Tim Holtz's Distress Ink in Antique Linen and Vintage Photo around the edges to further age the paper and make sure there aren't any bright white edges showing.

 

 

This is the type of image I like for the background.  Neutral and not too busy.  But you might prefer sheet music, book pages, or beautiful handwriting.  It's all up to you!

 

 

 

I coat the back of the background paper with Mod Podge, place it on the clipboard, and smooth it out with the brayer.

 

 

Next I cut out some selected colorful images.  I like the florals against the neutral background, but you might want something else.  Once again, The Graphics Fairy will help you out with free images!

From my collection of images I've selected some pretty roses from postcards to share with you.  The pink bow is very pretty too:

 

 

Click on these images, print them out, and copy them on a laser printer:

 

 

Cut out the parts you want and apply them to your clipboard by coating the back of the image with Mod Podge:

 

Teacup Images:  The Graphics Fairy

 

Once you have everything where you want it, a topcoat of Mod Podge is necessary.  I like to coat the entire clipboard surface for continuity, so I prop open the clip mechanism with a popsicle stick so I can coat underneath it.

 

 

Don't the colorful butterlies seem to fly off the background?  They came from a roll of wrapping paper!

 

 

I wish I could share them with you, but I fear copyright issues with the manufacturer.  If you do a little fishing around on The Graphics Fairy, you should come up with some other images that are just as lovely.

 

 

My last touch was embellishing the silver clip with a couple colorful buttons using E-6000 glue.  You might think of another way to decorate your clipboard.  I'd love to see what you come up with!

 

Mitzi

Crafting With Vintage Hat Boxes (Again)

Vintage hat boxes are easy to find, and sometimes you can pick them up for free at estate sales and garage sales, especially if they are damaged.  Often the tops will have caved in, but this is an easy fix.  I just run a bead of hot glue around the inside rim of the lid or bottom and it creates a very sturdy bond.

 

Not only are hat boxes easy to find and inexpensive, they are functional storage pieces.  I'm sure you can think of many things to store in your pretty hat boxes besides hats once you get them decorated.  They can be kept on top of an armoire in the bedroom, a shelf in the office, or in the craft room.  They're very versatile! 

I've made these before with a colorful palette, but today I'm sticking with a red, black and white color scheme and a flapper girl/art deco theme.  I found several hat boxes with a black, red and off-white color scheme, so I decided to go with that.  I used black and white photos of flapper girls from my collection of images and some I found on Google Images.

A selection of trims I used:

First, I attached the flapper images around the hat boxes with Mod Podge applied to the back of the images, smoothing them out with a brayer/roller.  I didn't topcoat the images because the boxes are basically paper, but it could be done if you wanted a more moisture resistant surface.  I put four flapper images on each box:

 

Although I wanted to use up some of my vintage trims, a trip to Jo-Ann Fabric yielded some really cool trim that I couldn't resist.  I made little rosettes by cutting some of the trim and layering it with smaller rosette trim and buttons.  I added the sequin trim with hot glue for sparkle around the rim of the lids and around each image:

 

The flower rosettes were added as accents here and there.  True to form, one of my Westies had to get involved:

 

 

Once in a while I like a change from all the pastel pinks and lavenders we use for ladies' things.  Black and red is spicy and fun, don't you think?

 

 

 

 

I hope this project inspires you to decorate some hat boxes with your own special twist!

Mitzi

I'm linking to Craft O Maniac Linky Party and the FaveCrafts Blog Hop.

Yet Another Burlap Wreath Variation

Burlap is enjoying a huge resurgence in popularity as a crafting fabric these days, isn't it?  I've seen some really great examples of burlap wreaths around the web, and thought it was high time I created my own version.

Usually my projects involve upcycling vintage materials, but the only old material in this project is the buttons.  The challenge for me this time was avoiding a trip to the craft store.  I actually rounded up all of these materials in my home and didn't have to purchase anything new.  The wreath form came from a garage sale long ago, and I've been buying burlap ribbon lately, not knowing exactly what I would be using it for until today.

 

 

I started removing the plastic wrap from the wreath form and straw began shedding all over, so I decided to leave the plastic alone.  Then I began wrapping the wreath form with one of the burlap ribbons until it was covered, securing it with hot glue.

 

 

 

So far I've only spent about five minutes on this project.  Next, I wanted to make a couple flowers.  I tried removing the wire from the large burlap ribbon and sewing a gathered flower, but it didn't turn out.  My "plan B" worked better, which was making loops of ribbon like one would make for a gift package ribbon and hot gluing them together:

 

 

For the centers of the flowers, I used one special button or two glued together using my E-6000 craft glue.  Then the flowers were glued to the wreath.  That's all there was to it!

 

 

I'm sure you can think of a variation on this basic idea:

 

 

I usually like lots of color, but I can go along with neutrals once in awhile too:

 

 

I'd say this wreath is a good one for in between seasons, like right now:

 

 

Have you been inspired to try a project with burlap recently?  I'd love to hear about it, so leave a comment if you have a moment!

I'll be linking to a couple linky parties this week including  Hope Studios, Make Your Everyday Beautiful, Today's Creative Blog, Savvy Southern Style and The Girl Creative.

Mitzi