April! Airline Destroys Shadowbox! Fabric Collage! Snippets! Freebies!

Hello Friends!

April showers!!
Well, not really here, it is San Diego, after all!

This next piece is something I've wanted to blog about for awhile,
but wanted to make sure it got safely in the hands of it's recipients first!
My nephew married a delightful young woman last December,
they had a beautiful Christmas themed wedding,
and I wanted to make something special for them--
a shadowbox using bits of their wedding invitation along with
pictures of them during their engagement,
leading up to the wedding.
And I wanted to hand deliver it to them
at their rehearsal dinner.
I should mention that we live on opposite coasts.
I thought I would be safe in hand carrying it in
my onboard luggage.
Well.
Our connecting flight was on a smaller regional jet,
and hand luggage is stowed in the baggage compartment as you board the plane.
Well.
They unload the baggage compartment,
and send it up in a little elevator to the gate for you to pick up.
Somehow, some way, lucky me,
my bag got caught between the elevator and the shaft,
it wouldn't open, it wouldn't close,
the only way to dislodge it was to send it back down
and let it drop 30 FEET!
They claimed they tried to catch it...

I wish I had a picture of the suitcase...
But I do have this...
This is what the shadowbox looked like when I packed it:

This is what I received when I finally got my baggage:

They (the airline personnel) were very apologetic,

but I had worked long and hard on it,

and I had so wanted to give it to them in person at the RD...  :(

But...

there is a happy ending!

After begging for bits of the invitation from various relatives,

I pulled myself together to to try recreate it,

which was a bit tricky, 

now that they are married,

and I needed to work the wedding in.

 Well, I did,

and the happy couple just happened to come to San Diego last week,

and I was able to give them this:

 in person!!
They loved it,
and we had a lovely time together!

Catching up on some other projects...
I was in a snippet roll swap earlier this year.
I had wanted to do one of those for a long time,
and had so much fun making them!
They are quite addictive!
I love the idea that you can take bits and pieces of fabric and lace
and add to it and make something so lovely!

 

This next is a 4 x 6 fabric collage sampler

which I made for my partner in

Swap for All Season's monthly fabric sampler swap.

I made this very vintage lace butterfly the focal point,

not realizing but delighted to find out my partner loves butterflies!

 

Some Spring-y freebies for you:

Click to enlarge, right click and save!

More Friday fun to be had at Fabulously Creative Friday!  

Lots of great ideas at Show and Tell Friday!  

Lovely blues at Anything Blue Friday!

Lots of links to lovely pinks at Pink Saturday!

Creative living, decorating, and craft ideas at Inspired Sunday!

Lovely tablescapes at Seasonal Sundays!

Be inspired by Inspire Me Tuesday!

Vintage creativity at Vintage Inspiration Wednesday!

For links to lovely, shabby, chippy whites, stop by Blissful Whites Wednesday!

Beautiful greys at Grey Dey Thursdeys.

Lovely things to be found at

French cottagey links at Feathered Nest Friday!

 

♥♥♥ Thank you so much for visiting and for all your lovely comments!! ♥♥♥
Have a great weekend!

Altered Frame, Altered Matchbox Chest of Drawers

Hello Friends!

I have a couple of projects I made for swap partners in
my Marie Antoinette Mail Art group to share with you.

Both of these projects were ventures in new waters for me.

First up is a vintage frame which I bejeweled
with charms, jewelry bits, some fired clay flowers,
and some "antiqued" charms that I love,
which I bought at Vintage Marketplace.
I loved the shape and antique brass look of this frame,
and wanted to keep the embellishments "toned" down,
so as not to take away from the frame, but enhance it.
But I did want a few bright sparkly bits :)
Along the bottom of the frame is a chain with alternating rhinestones and pearls.
 

I will show you the beautiful frame I received from Laura next post.

This next project is a chest of drawers made from 10 matchboxes!

I have always wanted to try my hand at making one of these ever since

I saw the beautiful ones Laura made for Alpha Stamps.

Here's the 360 tour: 

My partner for this swap is Lisa, and I happen to know that peach is her favorite color,

so I thought this paper was perfect, with coordinating papers for the drawers.

The drawers were the trickiest part. 

The drawer pulls were made by threading a rhinestone drop on a loop pin,

threading through a beadcap and through a tiny centered hole in the drawer front,

 adhering to the front with a little dab of E6000

and threading a silicone pierced earring back to pin in the inside of the drawer

(also with a dab of E6000).  Whew!

The little perfume bottles are made from beads, so fun!

The picture is not of Marie Antoinette, but rather Mme. de Pompadour,

a great beauty and mistress of Louis XV.

I did love making this project, but it is a lot of steps

 and working with some teeny tiny pieces.

I may make a few more as I do love the finished product,

and finding tiny things to put in the drawers was so fun!

Spring freebie time:  

Ooh, and a last minute Easter one:

  

Click to enlarge, right click and save! Lots of links to lovely pinks at Pink Saturday. For links to lovely, shabby, chippy whites, stop by Blissful Whites Wednesday! Lovely, cottagey links at Feathered Next Friday! Party on at a very pinteresting party at Tutus and Tea Parties! And for all things lovely and vintage, visit Knick of Time!   ♥♥♥Thank you so much for visiting and for all your lovely comments!! ♥♥♥ Have a lovely Easter!

Happy Pink Birthday!!

Hello Friends!
And a big Happy Birthday to Beverly of Pink Saturday fame!

And best wishes for many more!

Speaking of birthdays, I participated in Heather's Happy Birthday Matchbox Swap

last month and had lots of fun making paper birthday cake boxes.

I covered the matchbox in pink music paper

and made a band with eyelet paper from Martha Stewart.

I glued a cake box that I made from a template on top,

embellished with lace, pearls, festooning and a couple of coffee filter roses I made.

I love making these little cake boxes,

they're so much fun to decorate and tuck a little giftie inside!

Here is one I made for my friend Brenda:

And finally some pics of my son-in-law's 30th birthday

when I made crowns for everybody.  I started out making one for him,

then one for everyone who had a summer birthday,

and from there the project ballooned out to include everyone!

Sorry for all the pics, I know this isn't Facebook, lol,

but I didn't get a chance to take a pic of just the crowns

before the guests arrived!

The birthday boy:

As he put it, that's my life on a hat!

His 30th birthday and pics of the things he loves: my daughter, San Diego Chargers,

Sacramento Kings, New York City, Macy's (where he works),

dinosaurs and flip flops (for fun).

A pretty bird for Chelsea and a cupcake for Aynsley:

 A travel crown for Bob, leopard skin and feathers for my wild child,
 and Wizard of Oz theme for Wende.

San Francisco Giants for Sean and Paris for Jackie.

Kevin's crown has birds and a nest,

that's me with butterflies. 

A road warrior crown for Mike and a retro crown for Jim who just turned 60.

Sooo much fun!

Everyone was a good sport in sporting their crowns.

Happy Birthday,  

Beverly, I hope you celebrate in grand style!

Here's a little birthday giftie for everyone:

Click to enlarge, right click and save!

Lots of links to lovely pinks at Pink Saturday.

For links to lovely, shabby, chippy whites, stop by White Wednesday!

Have a great weekend!

Pink Saturday, Cake and Freebies!

I have regretfully been absent the past two weeks or so
because my computer is out on the front lawn smashed to little bits.
Well, not really, although I would have enjoyed the smashing to bits part.
It has been all but worthless, won't let me upload,
taking off for lala-land whenever I click on something...
OK, OK, enough kvetching!!

I have been busy crafting, though:
I made this pretty little crown for my friend Brenda's birthday:



And this little piece of cake:



And inside I tucked a pretty little bracelet:



And I have fallen behind on my Friday freebies,
so here's a couple of cuties for you:




Please visit Pink Saturday for more lovely pinkness!

Have a great weekend!

Fairy Freebie Friday!

And it's time again for a new little fairy image:


So sweet!
Click, right click and save.

Scroll down for this week's White Wednesday and Pink Saturday posts!

Fairy Freebie Friday!

Here's a sweet little fairy for you...

She even matches my blog background! :)

Click, right click and save!

Stop by later today or tomorrow for my Pink Saturday post!

Asheville!

A long time ago, I lived in North Carolina--
how did I never make it to Asheville?!
Coming now from California,
where we have had a wet Winter and Spring,
and we think everything's nice and green here...
Ha! I now see how green Spring can really be!
Most of North Carolina looks like this:

But in Asheville, NC, there is a thriving, artsy little haven,
with lots of arts and crafts galleries, unique shops,
where the food in restaurants is grown locally...and organically,
and many of the items in stores are handcrafted,
and even some of the clothes in the little boutiques are handmade!

Let's take a little stroll:

Cute outdoor cafes:

Cute alleyways:

Library:

My daughter and son-in-law, the lovebirds,
and some of many public works of art:

Let's windowshop:

Paper flowers!

Chocolate stilettos!

Butterfly dress!

Let's go inside:

Paper dress!

How cute is this:


And the food was wonderful!

Breakfast, southern style, at Tupelo Honey:



Yes. Grits. But these were goat cheese grits, and so yummy!

And some random pics around town:




We loved our stay in Asheville...it wasn't long enough,
we didn't get to do everything we wanted...
but we'll be back!!!