Today's Featured Shop -- Pieces of My Heart Mosaics

Today's featured shop is Pieces of My Heart Mosaics.    Therese  and Camille,  are mosaic artist sisters and they create beautiful mosaic pieces from vintage china for your home and garden.

Wedding or Shower- Mosaics - Picture Frame

Large Mosaic Bird House

Cream and Gold Tissue Box - Mosaics

Pendant -Necklace -Earrings - Vintage China- Ivory China Mosaic

Be sure and visit Therese and Camille's shop to see all their creations.
https://www.etsy.com/shop/thooker

Witches Stitches - Ageing fabric with Paint and Sanding

Hello all,

I am sorry but this is going to be a short one this week. I am in NJ, (I live in NC), taking care of family business.  

If you are a lover of prim like I am, the more prim it looks the more I like it. There is something so wonderful about a piece of furniture that has peeling paint or doll with a well-worn look. I like to think about who may have used or played with it over the years and what their story is. 

When I make my cloth dolls I tea dye them then I paint and sand them. This gives them a great aged look. Through trial and error this is the steps I use.

1 – Sew and stuff your doll.

2 – Tea dye the doll, making sure you use a heavy coating of tea. You may want to dye it a second time if the first one is not dark enough. You can use instant coffee to get a really dark look.

3 – After the doll is dry paint it with your choice of color. Make sure you water down your paint. Use 2 parts paint to one part water.  The thinner paint will sand easier during the next step.  Dry the doll.

4 – When the doll is dry use a med grit sand paper and lightly sand your doll. Make sure you sand all in the same direction, it just looks nicer when you are done. When sanding make sure you do not sand in one spot to long you will sand right through the fabric.

 5 – How much you sand or how little you sand depends on how old and worn you want your doll to look.

Note – Do not take a short cut and not tea dye your item first. If you don’t tea or coffee dye the item first, when you sand the light color of the fabric will show through and not look as aged as you may want.

This can be on any painted fabric surface. If you want to cover a stool or a book with fabric and have it look old and worn, you can tea dye, paint and sand it and it and it will l look as if it has been round for 100 years.

If you want your item to have an even more worn and well-aged look, you can sand in one spot long enough for it to sand through the fabric. Make the sanded spot small and then take a needle and thread and mend it. After all 150 years ago they did not toss things in the trash it he first sign of wear. They fixed and reused everything they could.  

We can take a lesson from our ancestors, fix and reuse!!

If you want to see what a tea dyed, painted and sanded item looks like just take a look at my etsy site. The link is at the bottom of this post.

Well I guess that was not as short as I thought it would be.

Have a great day and thanks for reading!

Faith - The Primitive Black Hat Society

www.etsy.com/shop/PrimitiveBlackHat

Handmade Spotlight - Handbags

Check out this great selection of Handbags. You can view this entire treasury by Clicking Here, or you can click on each item to see it in greater detail.

Generated using Treasury HTML code generator by Whale Shark Websites.

Tutorial Tuesday -- Sunflower Make-Do

Today I am sharing my Primitive Sunflower Make-do epattern with you. It is a large sunflower with a lady bug sitting on top of it.   It attaches to a rusty bed spring.  

To download the pdf pattern click HERE.


Enjoy,   Bette

http://www.bettestomorrowstreasures.com

Jacquie's Up-Cycle Nation: Behind The Closet Door

I just love the unexpected find!  For $0, I turned ultra-drab into an ultra-fab shabby chic treasure!

Some trash to treasure inspirations strike suddenly, without warning, under cloak of night; becoming a covert rescue operation.  Stranded on a curbside trash pile is a discarded bi-fold closet door. I drive by slowly, eye-balling the scene: looks clean. I use my shifty senses to survey the neighborhood (don't want to get caught in the act, pride goeth before the score...), not a soul in sight!  I put the car in reverse and load up my find!

The  key to good closet doors for up-cycle projects is solid wood.  Hollow core, pre-fab cheapies don't hold paint and won't withstand rehab abuse. To save time in the search for good doors, check your local RE-Store, a building supply store benefitting Habitat for Humanity.

The doors I picked up need very little work before the embellishing fun.  The outside of the doors are just the right patina of vintage white oil paint.  I will leave the "out" side as-is for days when I want a blank palette.  But the "in" side of the doors are smoothly finished with one coat of primer.  I want some 'pop' so I am going to give these doors a color wash.

 

Three cheers for short supply lists!!

*Sandpaper *Paint *Paintbrush *Rag *Embellishments

Using a wet rag, clean away any dirt and grime on the door. Lightly sand the "in" side of the door, wipe away sanding residue.

To apply a wash of color, not a thick coat, dilute paint with water. 

1/4 cup paint + 1/8 cup water is plenty for this project.

Apply paint one panel section at a time.

After each panel, use a damp rag to wipe away 75% of the paint.

Now the door is ready for embellishments.  (I know!  That was SUPER fast!)  Lay the door flat to attach hardware.  I know this seems like common sense- but believe me, I learned the hard way! 

  I never have enough places to hang stuff- so I am going to add vintage hooks and upholstery tacks to aid in my display needs.

My embellishments include a bevy of trinkets including vintage lamp crystals, cut glass salt shakers, and some wire tea light candle holders.

 Get creative with placing embellishments.  Put elements in unexpected places.  Use this screen as a place to display architectural finds that have been hiding in a drawer.  Display your collection of off beat knobs!  Go hog-wild!  It's your screen and it's just so happy not to be headed to the dump it will proudly wear whatever you choose!

The screen is now free to move about the home and patio!

 

LOVE  &  UP-CYCLE NATION!

Jacquie Wheeler

Hand of Bela Peck

http://www.etsy.com/shop/Handofbelapeck?ref=si_shop

http://handofbelapeck1759.blogspot.com/

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hand-of-Bela-Peck/294397987277061?ref=hl