A Little Bit of Shabby Chic!

Oooh I've got the Shabby Chic bug!!  I blame my sister, she has started this off!!  I've been on the look out for anything that I can paint and shabby up!  I am only starting with small pieces for now though!

I picked up a little corner shelf unit at a car boot sale for a bargain £1 and thought it would be great to paint up!  I will be able to take it along if I do a craft fair as it is small enough to sit on a table corner nicely!  I sanded it down and painted the spindles in a chalky paint and then sanded it again and then waxed it to get a smooth finish.  For the shelves I just sanded them down and got rid of a few minor water marks and then waxed it and left it natural.  I am really pleased with it - here is a before and after photo!

I made the frame in the photo also - well I tarted up a plain old wooden frame!  I made a lovely puffy, satin flower and a little bit of bunting to decorate it after I had painted and waxed it.  I also distressed it alittle to give it a vintage look.

Hope you like them both as much as I do!

Thanks for stopping by!

A Heart Banner and other bits and pieces!

Ooh I've not blogged for a couple of weeks, I've not been up to much and not feeling very crafty!!   I have made a few things though which I will show you in a bit!

I'm also buying different glues to test them out as I am trying to find the best glue to stick leather.  If anyone has any recommendations please let me know!  Today I have bought Beacon's Tacky Glue and Aleene's Leather and Suede Glue and the other day I bought Bostix Leather Glue.  I know alot of people love glue guns but I just don't feel the love there and never find they stick things properly - maybe I just need to buy a better one that gets hotter!

So I've made a few more leather flowers - I made some smaller leather poppies and a couple of other leather flowers.

This one is a sunflower - I absolutely love the bright colour of this leather!!

 
On the flower below, I rubbed Treasure Wax into the leather and then polished it with a soft cloth.  The metallic in the wax catches the light nicely although hard to see it in the photo!

I also wanted a heart banner in brightly coloured cotton fabrics and couldn't decide whether to a have a go with my sewing machine (I'm not very confident on it!!) or hand sew one!  I decided that handsewn would give it a more shabby chic look!  It was more time consuming but I am pleased with the result!  I added some little red satin bows in between the hearts and this stopped them slipping along the jute string.

I have a nice large jar of dried lavender from my garden so I made a cute little Scottie dog and stuffed him full.  He smells lovely!  I also stitched in one of my homemade tags!

I ordered a new stamp from Malaysia and it arrived this week!  I wanted something that I could stamp on the top of card to put my brooches on, I think it makes them look more professional!

This is what it looks like on the brooch card

It's a bank holiday weekend here in England, who knows we may be lucky and get some sun.  I am hoping to go to a Vintage Fair tomorrow.  Whatever your plans for the weekend, have a good one!