souvenirs on a dime

I remember being small and at the sea shore with my family. There would always be that part of the day left-over for wandering in and out of souvenir shops. I vividly recall having very little money to spend on trinkets. My family still teases me that I once entered a gift shop with only ten cents and still exited with a bag! (it was a scrap of fabric!) I just returned from a day trip to Cape Cod where I still love to search for the junkiest of souvenir shacks, and I offer to you some easy-to-make souvenirs on a dime.

One empty taffy box from Cape Cod Salt Water Taffy gets snipped into book marks

and post cards.

Collected sand fills a honey bottle and is labeled with an office tag

Fill a jam jar with beach glass or paint and hang a small shell from a bottle. Not near the sea? Fill a canning jar with Epsom salt and enjoy its prismatic effect in a window.

Use colorful containers to corral supplies ...

If you like these ideas, you're really going to swoon over my second book, coming Spring 2014. Speaking of which, I have been writing so much that when my family and I went to a lobster-themed gift shop (The Lobster Claw), I actually said out-loud, "What a lovely curated collection of crustacean." {Yikes!}

happy summer wishes

xo
elyse

book 2 news and a project!

Hello little neglected blog! It's me, your author. I feel like I'm walking into a closed room full of dusty furnishings and wilted plants but I'm here to draw the curtains, open the windows and let some light shine in! Like many, blogging lead to the reawakening of many interests of which in pursuit has kept me too busy to blog. {Did that make sense? I need lunch ...}

Book 1 -- Buy it today!

Long-story short, in February my first book, Tinkered Treasures was released by CICO Books. Just weeks after submitting all of the text and projects, I began working out ideas for a second book. All through the year I experimented with ideas, developed a proposal and got the green-light. The span between this contact signing and deadline was relatively brief so I've been tinkering and writing like crazy and just moments ago, sent the final piece off to my editor. Exhale. Sure, there will still be lots of proofing ahead but the big bulk of the work is done.

I've got lots of summer fun to catch-up on but first I want to share a project for Book 2 that just couldn't make the trip in one piece. You see, I'm in Rhode Island and my publisher is in London. The way our process works is that I make all of the projects and ship them in batches to their offices across the sea to be styled and photographed. I also email step-by-step photographs to be illustrated and all of the text. Despite careful packaging, both times this project split into four pieces. It just wasn't meant to be included, I suppose. So here it is, the Pasta Shell Wreath.

Using craft or school glue, affix small shell pasta to a Styrofoam wreath form. Work in sections that you allow to dry or noodles are likely to go rogue!

Spray-paint the entire wreath white (may need a few coats). Note the partially snow-covered ground.

Allow to dry and hang from a strip of fabric to welcome summer! Looks like actual sea shells, don't you think?

happy july!
xo
elyse

novica giveaway winner announced

Another pretty example!

Hello and thank you to everyone who took a moment to enter the NOVICA giveaway. Using random.org the lucky winner of a $50 electronic gift certificate is BethElderton!

Thanks again and happy July wishes!

xo
elyse

Suggested links from NOVICA:

Women's Clothing from Central America

Blue Dresses

Short Skirts

Balinese Dangle Earrings

Peruvian Silver 950 Jewelry

Cotton Dress