Vintage Alphabet Party

This month's  challenge letters were D, E, F

 I just chose one letter this month "E" and am running with it. I love to share vintage images, so here is a couple of favorites for Easter. Right click to save these copyright free images and use them in your own art, there is plenty of time before "E"aster arrives April 5th

I'm also sharing a post and tutorial from a couple years ago for the letter "E" for "Easter Eggs"

"E"asy to create too!

 Starting with a wire basket I found at a thrift shop...I loved the handle! 

 I used styrofoam eggs, and used pinking shears to cut lots of fabric strips.

I prefer to use Fabric-Tac glue, it seems to work the best.

 Starting at the top of egg glue 2 strips in a "X" fashion

Then work the next strips overlapping until egg is completely covered.

I also used snippets of lace and crochet on some of the eggs. 

Added some raffia to the basket and viola!

Shabby Eggs~~

Join us over at the party~
http://etsycottagestyle.blogspot.com/2015/02/the-vintage-alphabet-party-february.html

2013 re-purpose upcyle projects in review

As 2013 comes to a close and I have neglected my blog during the busy holiday season, I am playing a bit of catch up on some of the projects I worked on this last year that I never posted about.  I love the thrill of the hunt finding treasures that can have a new life. Some of these I sold on my website, but most I kept for myself!

Starting with the pic below, this is a big haul that I made at a farm sale last August. Most of these pieces came out of an old barn and were literally rusty, dusty, dirty but truly vintage treasures! That little yellow watering can my granddaughters loved to use it as it was just their size!

Starting with the spools, I cleaned them up, painted, added some vintage sheet music, some cup hooks, lace and a soft pink rose~viola, a jewelry tower below.

The banana rack below was a simple project with painting, water slide decal
and a bit of distressing for  great retro cottage charm

You may have seen these other pieces incorporated into my fall and summer porch decor, the rusty scale (I love this, it fits so well as a decorating element))

 

The plant rack I painted yellow

worked great for both summer and fall decor

I think my best and simplest find was the wood carrier as I did nothing to it except fill it with seasonal charm! Below are the fall and Christmas displays I used it for.

at Christmas another purpose

Then the vases...those were for the glass bird feeders. these were so fun and they sold well both locally and off my website.I collect the pieces for them all year. Tutorial coming in the spring on these too.

 

A picket wood piece I picked up at yet another farm sale

 

A simple fix of "flipping" it upside down, painting, lettering and distressing gave it a nice "frenchy" appeal 

 I never did get to the ladder in the top pic, it is intended to use as a garden junk element. So when the weather gets nice, I will put my thinking cap on. I also have this chair back I am excited to work on.

I would love to hear your suggestions on this piece!

Whew! Now it starts all over again...the thrill of the hunt, and the vision of something wonderful for 2014!

Happy New Year to all my Junkin friends!

Free images for your creative muse!

It has been a while since I shared some of my digital art with my blogger friends-----

Here are a series of vintage postcards that I cleaned up the colors on and overlaid  on a toile background.

They are free for you to use in your personal tangible projects. Commercial users please give credit to my etsy shop Cottage Rose Graphics

Click on each image to enlarge and right click to save.

Vintage Ice Cream Social

A fun party going on at Etsy Cottage Style Blog

This is all about a July Ice Cream Social, so I dug into my graphic files and found a few vintage postcard images depicting summer fun with ice cream!

Enjoy and feel free to snag and save any of these images for your personal use

Got something fun to share at the ice cream social?

pop over and share it with us:)