Karla's Cottage

These jewelry trees have been so delightful to create!

I can’t believe that I haven’t ever made these before.  But am sooo glad that I did this year!

And I made quite a few.

Most are sold- THANK YOU!

But I will have a few to add to the Boutique.  ( www.karlascottage.com )

I don’t think I even got photos of all of them.  And there are a couple in my car that I brought back from the Good Juju holiday weekend.  I’ll add those to the Boutique this week.

Here are a few that I did remember to photograph.  

After blowing through all of my stashed frames, I started using trays, book covers, and even plates.  It was a frenzy.  The dogs are lucky that they don’t have bejeweled trees glued to their fur.

How to make a tiny snow globe

I cannot get enough of making Sugarplum Fairies.  While I reuse the vintage scans, I never make the same girl exactly the same twice, each is a unique little sprite. 

I wanted some of them to have snow globes and found packages of tiny, round glass jars at Hobby Lobby.  They had tops meant to hang on necklaces, but I didn't want to use those.  

Instead, I thought a button would be cute to use as a base.  There were NO trees to be found that small, but I have discovered that the little bottle brush trees that I bleach and dye are pretty easy to trim to fit.

First step is to put a pinch of glitter or mica flakes into the jar.  Then a bit of glue around the rim.  

After that, I twist my tree into the globe as far as it will go.

The super sharp, Tim Holtz scissors are ideal for cutting the wire of the tree.  I trim it to the edge of the glass.  (Make sure you don't trim it so short that the tree gets lost inside the globe, the bottom should be even with the hole or slightly longer.)

After the tree is cut, glue a button base to the opening.  Having the brush of the bottom of the tree at the very edge of the glass gives you something to glue the button to, and keeps the tree in place.

Aren't they cute as a button? Ha.

 

 

 

$1 garage sale tree makeover

Here is an after close up of a tree I found this summer at a garage sale.  I started with the after, because the before was so ugly, I might have lost your attention.  

It was definitely in the “walk on by” category of garage sale finds.

Here it is in all of its glory.  But if you look closely, there is potential.

Those are little vintage shiny brites that were used on the original creation.  And the tiny, wooden train isn’t that bad. There was a salvage pile, a toss pile, and a package up and sell at the mall pile.  
I also cut off all the non working lights.

The next step in this glow up was white spray paint for a flocked look.  I painted the board it sits on too.  After the paint dried, I carefully spritzed it with spray adhesive and generously sprinkled mica on it.  After it dried, I shook it upside down to get out the loose flakes.

Then, it was time for the fun stuff.  Batting was wrapped around the tree to create snow as well as something to glue deer hooves into.  I cut some sticks from my yard and made trees from them, plus added some bottle brush trees.  

The wood itself wouldn’t have been easy to attach anything to.  By using the batting, I was able to give the skinny legs of the deer and the twigs a better base for glue.  I also tried to cluster them, so I could glue everything to each other for even more stability.

Keep in mind, for any glue project, the surface you attach something to is only as good as what you attach that to.  For instance, if I hadn’t really, really, really glued the batting to the wooden circle really, really good, it wouldn’t matter how much glue I used on the deer and trees.  If the batting came up, they’d fall off.  

So, there was plenty of glue underneath it all too.  And lots oozing about here and there.  I gave it a coat of mica flakes to hide that mess.

The gold and silver packages got reused, and tied up with brown string with little, vintage bells.

There are birds and pinecones in the branches.

And a star on top.  

I like it so much better now.

This tree will probably be at the Good Juju sale today, I still haven’t decided if I’m selling or keeping.

There is an extra sale date for this weekend!  A party on Thursday night.

Then our regular dates of First Friday and Saturday.

Dollar Store Santa Hat Redo

This hat is from Dollar Tree, and while I am a huge Disney Fan, it isn’t exactly the look I wanted for the holidays.  Typically, I’ll glue a couple flowers onto a red, furry hat or some antler headbands, because you know, Christmas fashion is important, right?

But this year I was inspired by a falling apart, vintage, white mink stole I came across.  And of course, the first thing I thought was- “This must go on my Santa Hat!” (I have also been using bits of it on some Sugarplum Fairies that I made)

The fabric on this pink hat is pretty thin, so I snipped off the white band instead of adding to it.  I was worried that the weight of the fur would make the existing trim droop.

Since I detest sewing, and how do you sew through a pelt anyways,  I used Fabric Tac to add my fur trim.  First, I put a piece of cardboard covered in plastic inside the cap so the glue didn’t adhere the front to the back.  

 I trimmed the fur into pieces to fit around the hat and glued them down, using clothespins to hold them in place.

The adhesive made it just a little stiffer than I might have liked.  The Ultimate glue dries nicer, but I didn’t know if that would hold.  I wish I’d tried that first.  But this is okay, just not great.

 I added  velvet petals from an old rose I pulled off a vintage hat and centered an Angel in them.

Before attaching the fur, I buffed the edges really good with my fingers to get off any bits of fluff that might have come loose while cutting into it.  I sure don’t want tickley pieces landing on my nose while wearing it.  It doesn’t seem to be shedding, so I think it’s good.

The original pom pom got cut off and I half assed made one from folded fur, glued together and adhered to the tip of the hat by wrapping gluey ribbon around it tightly.

I might add some bling or more flowers after I try out wearing it, first I want to make sure it isn’t heavy or uncomfortable.  I wish I could find a velvet hat to redo, I’d prefer that, but since I do not want to sew, or to spend much, this on is just fine.  I’ll enjoy it!

Two bonus shopping dates for Good Juju

This season, we have TWO bonus shopping dates at Juju in the West Bottoms.

One is for Small Business Saturday (this weekend).

The next is a little party with drinks and prizes on the night before our regular First Friday and Saturday event in December.

I’m not sure if I’ll need to do a whole turn around of my booth between them, but I will be restocking. 

Which is what I have done since the November sale.

Rich took a consulting job in Ohio and took the truck with him, so I had him bring in enough bigger pieces of furniture to last me a while before he left.

So, I did a little bit of rearranging, then added boxes and tubs of more items.

Included were lots and lots and lots of trees.

Bleached trees…

dyed trees…

trees in cups…

trees hidden inside bottles…

trees on bottles…

Trees with deer…

On candlesticks…

On boxes…

And even more. I have bags of trees too, so you can pop your own onto what ever display you’d like.

Oh, did I forget to mention the old school, jewelry trees on velvet?

 

Have a Lovely Thanksgiving!

Sugarwings and I jumped ahead into Christmas celebrations before Turkey Time.

Again. 

We have a Thanksgiving celebration planned with most of the  family, after some twists and turns to accommodate my husband’s schedule (he took a consulting job) and travel plans for part of our North Carolina group.

Before all of that, the Grandfairy and I had our first cocoa party of the season and did some crafting too. This is Sugarwings’ clever take on a gingerbread house storage box.  We will keep our Nutty Buddies in it.

And why on earth do we consider Nutty Buddies a Christmas treat?  Well, they are named after Buddy the Elf, of course.

At least in our minds.

Red and Green aren’t my typical colors, but when it comes to cocoa parties, I’m all for the shades of a traditional Xmas.  The teapot was my mom’s, the tray was one my boys set out with cookies for Santa on it, and the tablecloth has been around since I splurged on it at Kmart in the 1980s. Back when we were on a tight budget and most things I decorated with were handmade.

 I remember the turmoil of the purchase.  This was back when I’d put toys on layaway at Kmart and pay on them for months before Santa swung by to pick them up.  Buying a tablecloth was not in the budget.  

Sometimes you gotta do something special for yourself, and this bit of floral fabric was a major indulgence that I treasured.  And still do. 

(By the way, Spray N’ Wash is great at getting cocoa stains out of so called “family heirlooms.”)