Angel Collage and a Giveaway!!

 I had every intention of decorating some of my handmade trees and finishing a couple of custom orders yesterday. 

I ended up helping my son who was 

TEXTING every time I looked outside!!

He comes by it honestly, as I am also 
very easily distracted!

He was supposed to be raking and to keep him on task, I spent about 3 hours in the yard with him!

After all that, I was exhausted and the last thing I wanted to do was sew more trees!

That just seemed too much like work!

But there I was, painting a tree stand and the white paint made me think of a frame I was going to be using in a mixed media collage.  

I decided to paint that frame, then I pearl glazed it and then something happened

I GOT INSPIRED!

 I fell in love with Victorian Christmas images like this last year and knew I wanted to make a special piece for Christmas this year.

I've never made a collage before but have wanted to for SO long!

This beautiful image was the first piece collected.

I purchased it from a sweet etsy seller whose shop is appropriately named "I talk to angels" .

 I picked up the background paper at JoAnn Fabrics the little snowflakes at Hobby Lobby.  

The lace border came from etsy.

 My friend Julie Ann Hood 

of Splendidly Sweet, 

designed these adorable 

little mitten ornaments

and I ordered two pairs from her.

They are still available in her etsy shop.

I knew they would be so sweet on my collage.

The mother of pearl brooch (above) and
large beaded brooch (below) 
were purchased
at a rummage sale!

Lucky me!

 I gathered little lace ruffles for the 
bottom corners 

to give another 3D element,

and a little frill!

 

 The element that tied it all together was the frame, which I purchased at the estate sale of a dear friend last month.  

 

Like me, she collected all kinds of pretty things.

Sadly, I didn't know we liked so many of the same things until after she died.

I think she would really like this use of her frame.

I assembled everything that I had so far onto the collage last night but something was still missing...

My angel needed a tree with packages to give away, so I made them today.

I'm really proud of it but still tweaking a little!

NEXT, 

MY BIG NEWS!!!!

I'M 

HAVING 

A 

GIVEAWAY!!

I'm in the Christmas Spirit.

I didn't sign up for any ornament swaps because I never have before and I forgot all 
about them!

Maybe next year!!


Anyway, I feel like sharing 
something that I make with someone 
in Blogland for Christmas,

SO, 

I will choose a winner at random...

AND!! 

The winner will receive their very own retro
fluffy tree handmade by me!!!

The deadline is December 3rd. 

Winner to be announced on December 4th.

  The prize is a 12 inch undecorated tree to 
decorate yourself.

I will give you your choice of colors.
 
(pink is a popular choice! ;)

They make such pretty centerpieces... 

If you'd like to see an example, click my etsy shop in my sidebar.

Here's how to enter:

FOLLOW ME!!

&

LEAVE A COMMENT!!

SO EASY !!!  GOOD LUCK !!!

I hope everyone has a happy week and a Happy Thanksgiving!

I can't wait for the
FOUR DAY WEEKEND!!

It will be so wonderful to have extra time to work on fun things like decorating and crafting!!

I honestly wish I could get paid to stay home and make collages! Ha ha!!

xoxo,

Jennifer

Blog parties I joined this week are:

Sentimental Saturday

Happy Pink Saturday to Everyone and many thanks to Beverly for hostessing the pink party!

Today, I want to remember my parents, 

Toni and Richard Jones.  

 They married on November 19th, 1960

 and had twin girls several years later.  

My twin sister, Janet and me.  I'm on the left.

My parents and me with our Bishop, Raymond Lessard at my confirmation in 1989.  I was 23 and converted a year after my mom and dad.

My father died in 1991 - Twenty years ago!

It seems impossible.

My mother passed four years ago.

Now that Thanksgiving and Christmas are approaching, I can't help but think of the big holiday gatherings of my childhood.

For many years now, my son and I have been invited for dinner at my cousins.  

It's kind of turned into a tradition that my cousin Susan, the hostess, gets a little teary before the blessing when she mentions that my grandmother was the original hostess and that we miss our family members who have died and she looks at me and then I get teary eyed too.

Our parents and grandparents are gone now and the younger generation has become the older.

We once sat at the children's table in the living room, but now we sit in the dining room and eat on the good china and have wine with dinner ;)

Now, on to a pink subject!!

Are you thinking about decorating for Christmas yet??  

Are you dying to decorate?

Have you already decorated???

I know I am getting in the spirit

.... and PINK will be a big part of Christmas around my house!

I can't wait to pull out my 

treasured pink Santa

He was a once in a lifetime $10.00 estate sale find.  I rummaged through a sweltering attic two years ago in July to find him!   

I will be displaying the tree I made for myself

last year when I started my tree crafting.

  My mother LOVED pink and aqua years before shabby chic was the thing, and had an aqua living room and dining room with a pink tablecloth.  

I think of her whenever  I see the combination.

I'm making and selling trees and I'm finishing up custom orders this weekend so that I can finish and photograph the special trees I've dreamed up for my etsy shop.

If you'd like a pink tree, I have one in stock now and have lowered the price.  

Click the link to my etsy shop on my sidebar Keep checking to see one you might love for your own.  

There will be more pink, and aqua and even a peppermint tree and maybe a lavender tree... 

The custom order I worked on tonight might be the cutest tree yet.  

I made it for my friend, Janice.  She and her husband founded the company I work for and are both retired.  She drops in sometimes and happened to see a blue tree I had sold and asked me to make a similar tree for her sister.

She wanted lights so I fashioned the ruffles around some neat fiber optic mini lights.

Did you know you can trim fiber optic lights if they are too long?  

I found out tonight... 

I had fun making a vintage Christmas corsage style tree topper with a sweet little angel.

I couldn't stop admiring it when I had finished it this evening!

I truly wish you and your families a blessed Thanksgiving with lots of love, laughter and good eats!

I'm thankful for so many things and one of those is my little world here in Blogland.  

To all the friends and kindred spirits I have found through blogging, your comments and posts inspire and uplift me on a daily basis.

Love,

Jennifer

A Spot for a Convalescing Cutie....

  This is my beautiful Victorian Bed.  I purchased it from a friend's antique shop.  She knew it was perfect as soon as I said I was looking for a full size Shabby Chic style bed!

It's so short that I can't imagine anyone taller than me sleeping here, and

I'm 5'2"!!

 As far as Shabby Chic goes, it's the "real thing".  Someone painted over what I can only suppose was once a gorgeous rich cherry wood.

Just threw this in for cuteness sake....
Something about a fresh made bed, that always attracts the kitties.

My babies, Sadie and Pippa.

Sadie got spayed this week.She's a tiny thing
and it took a long time for her to come out of the effects of anesthesia.  

Watching her do so was a trip! 

When I say she's the real thing, I mean she has the scars to prove it...

 Just a few shots of the shabby parts

Cherry wood showing through.

They don't make em' like this anymore!

Check out the gorgeous detail.

Carvings and Curves!

 

Purr-fect Spot for a Convalescing Cutie....

 I found this pretty pink chenille bedspread at an estate sale a couple of weeks ago.
My original plan was to make cottagey seat covers for my dining room chairs.  

The kitties and I are enjoying it on the bed for now!

Miss Sadie is doing well.  She has even been outside a little with me close by. 
She takes her medicine like a champ.  She is the sweetest, most docile thing anyway.

Miss Pippa will have her turn but she's still so tiny - only 3 pounds or so.

Much as I love my girls, I don't need more kittens!  

Only wish my babies would stay little forever....

Have a wonderful week!

xoxo,

Jennifer

P.S.  I have some exciting updates coming soon for my etsy shop!  That will be my next post!

Can you believe it's Wednesday, well nearly Thursday already??  That makes it time for "Share The Love Wednesday"!!  Wouldn't miss it!!

Also linking to Show and Tell Friday this week!

My First Etsy Treasury!

Recently, my blue Christmas tree was included in this 

beautiful etsy treasury by songbird58.

Appropriately named,  this lovely treasury is called

 "Christmas Past" .

I've never been in any treasuries before so I am thrilled to 

find myself in this one.  

Etsy is my favorite "store".

I just can't seem to get enough etsy.

The blue tree is available for sale in my shop.

I plan to add more of my fluffy nylon net retro trees in the 

coming weeks.

Thanks for looking and have a great week!

  

Jennifer

I am sharing the love today at Very Merry Vintage Style.

Mod Podge Colored Chandelier Crystals

Maybe some of you have noticed bloggers writing about various projects that use Mod Podge mixed with food coloring to color glass?

Have you also noticed how things kind of end up going "viral" in blogland, especially thrifty, easy crafts?

I noticed this on photo on Pinterest a couple of weeks ago.  It was "pinned"by several people.

I googled a bit and found several blog posts going into detail about how to Mod Podge and bake glass in order to add color.

Creative Little Daisy gave a little tutorial that helped encourage me to try it out.

The colored coating on the glass won't be food safe or water proof, so you won't be eating, drinking or cooking with those pieces but it's very easy to change a piece of clear glass into a piece that looks like vintage depression glass!

I knew I wanted to try this out sometime and it just so happened that I had finally gotten around to painting an old chandelier the night before.  

Here are some before pic's.

This had been salvaged out of an old house by our office handyman, Robert.  There was nearly no finish left on the metal.

Still, the birdcage shape and intricate details were beautiful!

 I decided to spray paint it using Heirloom White by Rustoleum.

That paint is another viral trend I read about in blogland!

Rust Oleum should now add the phrase 

"As seen in blogland" to their label! Heehee!

If you ever blogged about that paint back then, thanks! It was easy to spray and covered in two coats.

Last night I was looking around and found this picture!  

So gorgeous!

I am not sure of the original source 

but this photo really inspired me!

I had to try it, but what color to use?  

This chandelier will hang in my bedroom, so which one - pink or aqua? 

I guess I spied red first and just rolled with it, in my excitement to try this project!

I already had a bottle of Matte Mod Podge.  I poured about 1/2 a cup into a bowl and added about a drop of red food coloring and stirred well.  

Note:  If your mixture is too thick, add just a drop or two of water to thin.  I needed to thin mine a bit.

At first it was a little too red, so I added more glue.  It lightened up to a nice pale pink then. 

I decided to do a test first on just one crystal.  I brushed the mixture on with a soft brush and placed it on a parchment paper covered metal baking sheet in a 175 oven for just a few minutes.  I didn't time it, but it was probably 10-15 minutes.

When I came back, the crystal drop was pink, it was dry and it looked o.k.   I was willing to risk all my crystal drops in the name of having a cool project to blog about!

 I decided to try dipping the crystals in the bowl so there wouldn't be any brush marks.

At first I dipped the whole drop, the round top crystal and all.  

 

After a while, I decided it might be really pretty and easier to just coat the dangling teardrop, leaving the top button clear and decided I liked this better!

This is a messy job and food coloring will stain your counters.  Use lots of paper toweling! 

Because I didn't want them to lie down, I went to great pains to hang the drops from a cooling rack that I set on top of another rack in the oven.  

I placed a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper underneath to catch any drips that might want to fall onto my oven floor or the coils.

 

Going into the oven, wet and still a dripping a bit.

I baked them at 175 for about 20 minutes.  With the heat this low, you can't burn them so if you go over, it's not going to matter.

The only small mishap was that once I pulled the crystals out of the oven, some of them swung toward each other and they stuck together instantly, but they pulled apart easily and weren't damaged.

Pretty pink drops coming out of the oven

 A note:  Resist the urge to peel or pull on any bits that stick out a little.  You can end up pulling all the colored coating off.  It is literally dried glue.  

Remember your Elmers bottle that you had in grammar school?  It will pull off, though not as easily as Elmers since it's baked on.  Getting it all off once you start that peeling is difficult!  So don't go there!

The finished colored drops are not exactly clear. They are sort of opaque.  They're not flawless, in spite of my effort with the rack but they are still very pretty.

 They turned out the prettiest soft shade of pink.

 

 

I have to order 20 more drops to finish my chandelier.

  I haven't decided whether I will color the remaining crystals or mix and match clear drops with my pink drops.

I will be sure to post pictures once the chandelier is up but here is what it looks like now.

These pictures were taken in my closet... It's pouring rain and there was more light there than any place else in the house tonight! 

  

I could also hang the chandelier from the clothes rack 
for the best view!

Clear crystals cost just under $1.oo each.  Colored crystals purchased from the same store average between $2.50 and $3.50 each.  It's makes a big difference when you need 35 pieces to outfit a chandelier that you only paid $25 for!

I got my prices and will order my clear crystals from Antique Lamp Supply.

I hope you enjoyed my impromptu pink project!

As always, my favorite projects are done spontaneously with things I happen to have on hand because I'm somewhat ADD and drift from project to project!

Have a wonderful rest of the week!  Fall temperatures and clearer weather are expected here after tonight and I can't wait!

xoxo,

Jennifer

BTW, don't forget it's Share the Love Wednesday at Very Merry Vintage Style!!

I am joining Transformation Thursday at Shabby Creek Cottage for the first time today too!

Yay!  It's time for Show and Tell Friday at Cindy's Romantic Home!

It wouldn't be Saturday without Beverly's Pink Saturday!!

I'm joining in for the first time at Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch




Yesterday, I was invited to join a new linky party over at The Vintage Farmhouse.  Please check out Creative things Thursday!