Dress Form Linky Party, Yep, I am going to take the leap

I am going to make the leap into 
"Big girl" blogging!
I'm going to have a one time Dress Form Linky Party 
February 7-13th!

 I wanted to give you some time to get the girls (Dress Forms) ready for the party.  Old, new, homemade, altered, big, small......All forms are welcome.

Link up as many dress form posts as you like, old posts, new posts..No sense reinventing the wheel if you already have a dress form post


I even followed Debbiedoo's tutorial and made myself a blog button, oh ya, I'm getting real fancy now!
The back ground graphic I got free at "Free Pretty Things for You" and the dress form was from "Graphics Fairy"

<center><a href="http://thepolkadotcloset.blogspot.com/"><img border="0" src="http://i461.photobucket.com/albums/qq332/carollturner/Screenshot2011-12-27at91546PM.png"/></a></center>

I'm a little nervous, I have never done a linky Party
 (I have no idea how, but I'll figure it out LOL)
My biggest fear is no one will show up and then I will be the big

LOSER BLOGGER
Now, I know some of you don't have dress forms and wouldn't be caught dead with one in your house, but for those of you that do, I would be eternally grateful if you would participate and save me from
The Blogger Hall of Shame!!
If you think your readers might enjoy participating, you can grab my new Fancy button for your side bar
And don't worry, I will hound remind you of the party in my posts

So, what do you say, are you in???  
Happy CreatingCarol

Smalls For My Antiques Booth

Anyone who has an antiques booth, online, or Brick and mortar store would love to sell only big ticket, big profit items. The reality is, the "Smalls" as we call them in

 The biz (Groan) make up a large percentage of our sales.

"Smalls" are all the little items we sell to fill up our shelves and fill in around the big ticket items

Over the Holiday I spent a fun day working on transforming some smalls

A small tool box 

I painted yellow and then applied a waterslide decal with graphics from the Graphic Fairy

Two vintage metal frames 

Got a coat of white paint and rose prints from an old Avon address book

An Old Avon jar, always a good seller when I...

...Spray the lid heirloom white and lightly distress

An antique mirror went from brown

To a fresh white with rose waterslide decals

A wire boot

Got a coat of white paint and along with the little picture some ribbon and bling 

Candle sticks are a great seller...

...When I paint them white and hang a couple crystals on the arms.  I get my crystals from Freedom Crystal

And that completed a day of smalls!

All ready for my booth at Orange Tree, nothing is priced over $20 

A note for those who might want more details:  I prepare everything before I paint by wiping it with a deglosser, you can find it in the paint department.  I spray one coat of primer and then 2 coats of  Rustoleum Heirloom white.  Depending on the piece I follow with one coat of a clear satin acrylic spray or wipe on poly acrylic.

Happy Creating!

Carol

Fabric Flower Bridal Bouquet

When My future DIL was here for Christmas she told me about the latest trend in bridal bouquets for vintage themed weddings, I just had to try making one

Before I get started I want to thank you for your feed back on my New Years post,  "The meanest comment I received in 2011".  Your comments were hilarious! 

So, the future DIL is planning a vintage themed wedding.  She reads my blog (Bonus points) and saw the fabric flowers I make being used in bridal bouquets

So we set off to get the supplies....an assortment of fabrics in her colors

We picked light weight polyester lining fabrics, laces, and tulle.  Then we went through my bling box and picked out an assortment of vintage pins.

I used a plastic flower holder from the craft store.  You could use a wooden dowel, but since I did not have one on hand I used part of a vintage hanger

 I cut, hot glued, and pushed it through the holder

Then covered the handle with ribbon

I used a half styrofoam ball

And pinned fabric around it

Then removed the lace the holder came with and replaced it with antique tulle and hot glued the half ball on the holder

Time for some fun!  I made up 9 fabric flowers the tutorial is HERE

And pinned them on to get the placement right before hot glueing them in place

I filled in with antique and vintage laces and tulle then added 13 vintage rhinestone and pearl pins

We have no idea if the bouquet will work with her dress

But she might be able to use it somewhere in the wedding decor

The reception venue has a fireplace mantle where the DIL wants to display family wedding pictures

My Dad was 17 and Mom was 21 (Cougar) when they got married

Maybe this new trend will replace tussie mussies in our romantic decor

It would even be pretty next to my dress form in a milk glass vase

Since the wedding is in November my dress form will watch over this lovely bouquet until we decide its fate

UPDATE:  Here is the wedding, with the bridal bouquet

This project took many hours to complete, but who's counting when you're having fun!

Happy Creating!

Carol


Linking with
Angelic accents
My Girlish Whims
Savvy Southern Style
Ruby Jean
Knick of Time
Sugar Bee Crafts
Coastal Charm

My Meanest Comment in 2011...But, Oh So Funny!!!

I wanted to end 2011 with a good laugh!

Last March I posted about a gun rack I transformed into a plate rack

I LIKED the way it turned out

Now, wait for it......You'll get a "Bang" out of this!

First I have to tell you, I had tons of Google hits on this post and I  think it was the Boys wearing camouflage  looking for a gun rack and one of them did not like what I did with a gun rack!

The comment came in as Anonymous....Surprise.  I didn't publish it, but I did save it just for you!

Here it is just as I received it bad spelling and all!!

Of all the things to do with a gun rack... Why would you 

turn it into little miss muffets` half assed attempt at 

decorariting an old ladies senior home! Forget the plates 

and load it with depends, cause the only person with taste 

that bad is going to need them!

By Anonymous on How to turn a gun rack into a plate rack 

on 7/6/11

Are you snorting with laughter?   

Now, I subscribe to the saying "If you don't have anything 

nice to say...Don't say anything at all"

But, I got the last laugh, I sold the plate rack to a   


20 something hip girl  

....And from what I could tell she was not wearing DEPENDS 

AND SHE CERTAINLY DID NOT LIVE IN AN


Old Ladies Senior Home 

Ok, so I had one bad comment, but I want to thank you for 

4721 Kind, sincere, and inspiring comments I received in




2011




Happy New Years




And




Happy Creating!




Carol 

Vintage Paper Covered Suitcase and Shelf

I had such a great Christmas. What a whirlwind of fun!

My last project before Christmas was to transform this train case screaming"Make me over"

This time I got my "paper" from Crafty Secrets an online craft store carrying vintage paper and art stamps.  They Sent me a CD to tryout filled with vintage patterns and extras.

You can use the graphics on the CD just as they are or you can put them in photoshop, alter the colors, and layer on extras, like I did with the rose...Complete with great instructions!

The color of this suitcase was in the ball park of the paper I choose

I simply printed the vintage pattern onto regular copy paper

Then Mod Podged it onto the suitcase.  One little tip is to brush the Mod Podge onto the suitcase and then lay the paper on top, if you get to heavy applying the Mod Podge, it may make the ink run...Bummer!

I finished the suitcase off by hot glueing (After trying many glues, hot glue was the only thing that did not bleed through and discolor the ribbon) ribbon over the seams and giving it a spray of Walnut ink for a little age.

I also used printed vintage paper from the CD on this cute little shelf

Both are headed to my booth at Orange Tree.  We are in season at the antique mall between snowbirds and tourist, I'm having a crazy time trying to keep my booth stocked, and loving every minute of it!!

Happy Creating!


You won't want to miss my post on Thursday.  I'm going to reveal my meanest comment (Hysterical) of 2011!

Carol
linking with 
Ruby Jean
Ivy and Elephants