Getting Ready To Dress The Antique Mall Window

Now I think I'm a window dresser!  

I have a booth at Orange Tree Antiques Mall in Winter Park Florida.  The owner had a great idea to rotate vendors for 6 week stints to decorate the storefront window...Guess whose turn it is?!

Here's a sneak peek:

I'll be doing the window this weekend and I'm in overdrive getting ready.  The window is 9X2, so it's pretty good size.

The back drop for one side of the window is my old garden arbor, it was totally rotted.  Note to self, wood in Florida, doesn't last long

I got a new vinyl arbor, but never threw the old one out.  I washed it up, scrubbed it down with a wire brush, cut the rotted legs off and used door hinges to hook them together.   

Now I have my arbor as a back drop for one side of the window

 I want to keep the colors black, white, and neutrals

The Paris Flea Market sign was stenciled on a piece of old siding

I found these wooden hangers at the thrift, painted them black, laid a piece of lace over them, and sprayed over the lace with white paint

I've made a bunch of the big white flowers to fill in here and there.  I'll show you how I made them in a future post, just incase you need big paper flowers for something?!

So, this is just a sneak peek, I'm working on many more pieces 

I've been so excited about this, but have no experience, so I'm hoping the window looks as good as it does in my head.  I'll be back soon with pictures of the whole completed window and we'll figure out together if I have a future in window dressing lol!

Happy Creating!

Carol

Introducing ...A Blog For Kids!

This is so adorable, your kids, grandkids, nieces, nephews and any little person in your life will love this!!

Sew-Crafty Kids is the sweetest blog for kids!  It is filled with simple fun projects and video tutorials by

Jessie Mae and Charlotte

Oh My Gosh...These kids are Super Stars, they do the most professional and adorable video tutorials on everything from

Making POM POM Rings

To Learning Math Facts

And Constructing Toilet Paper Bird Houses

Here's how I know these adorable children

I met Jessie Mae and Charlottes Mom (Angelina) through blogging.  Her blog is JoJo and Eloise.  We commented back and forth on each others blogs for quite a while and then one day I mentioned on a post that I had a Mac computer.  She commented that she had just switched to a Mac. I told her if she needed any help to give me a call....So...She did, and we haven't quit talking!

I know you can all relate to similar experiences with meeting blog friends

Beautiful Angelina has 6!!!!!! children and home schools them all!  Super Mom also crafts with them and has taught them to sew. 

I hope you get a chance to share Sew-Crafty Kids with the little people in your life...I think these girls are going to be Super Stars..Hello Disney Channel, are you listening?....Then we can all say "I knew them when"!

Break a leg girls!  

(Angelina, would you explain to them that "break a leg" means "good luck" in show biz talk)

  

Happy Creating!

Carol

  

The Secret To Selling Frames

I sell a lot more frames than pictures in my antiques booth and when I did the series about selling antiques, "What Sells and What Doesn't", It seems many of you do too.

Pictures are hard to sell since they have to appeal to a customers specific style, color, taste, and decor.......

......But frames are a good seller!

  I previously used vintage sheet music or old copied pictures as a frame filler

The problem with filling the frames with anything, is that customers still thought I was selling a picture

So.....ARE YOU READY FOR THE SECRET????

Wandering around an antique store one day I saw a vendor had filled her frames with doilies....

Eureka.....Now the customers knew what was for sale.....THE FRAME, not a picture of sheet music or an old photo.  

As soon as I tried this I started selling frames like crazy!   I thought I would pass it on........I just can't keep a good secret!

Happy Selling!
Carol

Shabby Little Side Table With Plaster Flowers

This little vintage side table was a great find, it just needed a little love!

I looks like it was handcrafted.  

I added a ring of plaster flowers to the little door.  You can make the flowers in your own clay mold..Tutorial HERE.   Or you can make flowers in gum paste molds...Tutorial HERE.   I made a chalk outline of a plate, then "glued" the flowers down with vinyl spackle.

To make the flowers look like they were actually a part of the original piece, I filled in between the spaces with vinyl spackle......NOW, it looks like a hot mess, but stick with me......

You don't need a cake decorating tube, you could put spackle in paper you shape into a cone, snip the tip off and pipe on the spackle.

I used a couple coats of homemade chalk paint, globbing  a lot of paint over the flowers.  Then finished with a coat of clear Minwax, followed by dark wax. 

Now I think the flowers look original to the piece.

Have you ever noticed how big the old magazines were compared to the magazines we have now?

This is going in my booth at Orange Tree Antiques...I usually tell you a price, I'm really wavering on this one.....Maybe $55-$65?

I wanted to thank you again for taking a couple minutes out of your day to read my ramblings.  I love what I do, but sharing it with like minded people sure makes it more fun!

  

Happy Creating!

Carol

Partying with Miss Mustard Seed

Three Sewing Drawers Three Ways

I bought a sewing cabinet that was in pretty bad shape.....I hate to admit defeat, but like Humpty Dumpty, I just could not put it back together again.   So, like any good DIYer, nothing goes to waste, certainly not three perfect vintage sewing drawers!

This first drawer was painted with Heirloom white with a damask patterned knob from Hobby Lobby.  

The inside was lined with a matching  (How lucky was that) craft paper applied and coated with Mod Podge

This drawer was painted with an "Oop's" green paint

Then lined with a vintage patterned tissue paper.  Then I used a blender pen. The blender pen allowed me to apply graphics (From Graphics Fairy) to the front and side of the drawer; you can find the blender pen and 11 other transfer methods at the The Graphics Fairy HERE. 

The last drawer was also painted with Heirloom white paint.  I used a stencil and vinyl spackle to apply the raised pattern to the front and side of the box.  The tutorial is HERE.

All of the drawers got a light sanding then an application of clear Minwax followed by Annie Sloan dark wax 

Now, I wish I could have salvaged the whole sewing cabinet, but I will probably make pretty close to the same amount of money by selling just the drawers.  I put them in my booth at Orange Tree Antiques and priced them at $20 for the small drawers and $24 for the large one.

I sometimes have to stop myself when I'm doing a transformation and think......What will the monetary return be on the sweat equity I have put into this project?

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
On another topic
I love visiting you and I return every comment, (Unless I have already commented on your present post)  So...If you do not hear back from me, it's because there is no way to contact you.  I'm not on Google +, but I did figure out how to find some blogs on Google +.  It seems  everyone sets up their front page  of Google + differently?  If you do not hear back from me, please email me...I can't get to you, I try everything I can, googling, FB etc......Chris M, Kathy G, and many more.

  


Happy Creating!
Carol