I had intended to post this much sooner, put we had a doozy of a snow storm here which I was writing about below just before the power went out. So here it is, I hope it gives you a little break from the winter doldrums, and perhaps an idea to cheer the inside of your home bit:)
Here in the Pacific Northwest we don’t often get a snowy winter, and when we do it’s either a light dusting or doesn’t last more than a day or two. But this time we got well over a foot, and to top things off an ice storm and the Governor declaring a state of emergency. So what better time than now to share these spring windows with you. When I was rummaging through my photos and came across these I felt like I could breath a little.
These windows came about after we had gotten a shipment of paper bags that were glued shut, not very useful, or so I thought. I’m one of those people who have a hard time throwing things away, (although I have gotten much better, thanks to all the times I’ve moved!) I know, or I think I know that somehow there is a use for things,sometime down the road. This time I’m so glad I didn’t throw them out! I patterned these garlands from inexpensive silk flower leis. I used a flower cookie cutter as my pattern and traced them onto the unusable bags and bright colored tissue paper. Then I cut up some straws and strung them onto fishing line, and hung them at different intervals in the windows.
After looking at them again I thought they would be a fun project to decorate for a shower or kids birthday party. They would be very pretty in all one color too. Oh, and of course you don’t have to use paper bags. Any paper would do, light weight paper will give a more delicate effect, but heavy weight paper would also be nice.
Have fun, and remember spring is almost here!!!
While we had our retail store I had a lot of fun coming up with display ideas for our windows. They were particularlly challenging because they were big and long. The windows wrapped around the store, without much space for creating traditional displays. So I thought I would start sharing some of the ideas I came up with. They are all simple, and use inexpensive and recycled materials. And can be adapted for most any season or space, even at home.
Here is the first one I would like to share. It was a project I designed for a fall window display, I wanted to stay away from the typical leaves and pumpkins. Not because I don’t like the typical fall symbols (it is my favorite time of year), but because I had to cover so much space I needed something that wasn’t going to take me forever to put up, or cost me an arm and leg. I love going back to childhood projects, and I remembered making “stained glass windows” from tissue paper and black construction paper. I took that idea and made it bigger.
For my materials. I used brown butcher paper, and fade proof tissue paper. I wanted them to fill the window space so I cut the butcher paper to fit the height of the window, I cut two pieces for each panel. The next thing I did was to lay the two pieces of paper on top of one another and secure to my surface with low tack masking tape. That way the big pieces of paper wouldn’t move around while I was cutting. Then I started laying out my design, I went with a random pattern using the width of a yard stick to measure out my borders.
After I had the design cut out, I lifted off the top layer, then started gluing the tissue paper down. After the tissue was glued down I placed the top piece back on, being careful to line it up correctly. Then I used double sided tape to secure the top to the bottom.
These windows turned out to be one of my favorite, and were so simple and fun to create. I’m glad to share them!
I experienced my first holiday craft bazaar this past Saturday and thought I’d share a few pictures. It went well, I didn’t sell much, only a few things, but received a lot of very encouraging feed back. And in these early stages of infancy I will take everything I can get. I went home excited about what I’m doing and not discouraged, and I really couldn’t have asked for any more.
And it’s true.
You really don’t ever know what’s going to happen, and chances are if you don’t step out and take a few risks, most likely nothing. That has been my lesson these past few weeks. From making a simple comment on a tweet, I was given the opportunity to be a guest blogger for American Craft Magazine on a series called “Why I make”. Writing this post is not only giving me some exposure that is always desired when you are trying to create your own career. But also gave me the chance to share a bit about why I feel making is so important. (Not to mention it turned into mini therapy session!)
So here is a link to the post, I hope you enjoy it, and be sure to check out some of the other artists. It’s a great and inspiring series, well worth exploring.
To prevent myself from experiencing the week after Arts Walk doldrums, I decided I would catch up on some unfinished projects that were being neglected while working on my printing. This is one of them and I am very happy to say it is completed!!
I have admired these capiz chandeliers for some time now, but they have always fallen out of my price range. Until a few months ago I ran across instructions to DIY your own, out of WAX PAPER!!! Ha, this was right up my alley! The most difficult thing about this project is time, other than that it couldn’t be more simple and incredibly economical! Who doesn’t love that!
All you need to get started is two to three rolls of wax paper, an iron, sewing machine, white thread, and a lamp shade frame, easily found at a thrift store. A circle cutter or punch is a good idea to have too. First thing is to prepare the lamp shade frame, by removing the fabric, then adding and additional piece of wire in the center so you will end up with three tiers to hang the strands from. You can spray paint the frame white but I don’t think it is necessary. Next start tearing the wax paper into sheets all about the same length, then iron three piece together. Just like you did when you were a kid, minus the crayon shavings. Once that is finished, determine what size circles you want to use and start cutting. I didn’t count how many I circles I used but it was a lot! For this project it is better to too many than not enough.(I sewed the extras together to make a garland, very pretty). When the cutting is done you can start sewing the circles together, just measure on your frame how long you want it to be. I used the ends of the thread to tie the strand onto the frame, you can also thread a needle tie them on that way. I my customized my chandelier from the original tutorial, but I think it works great for my space. And I am very satisfied:)
Trixy