Signs For The Rehearsal Dinner

I needed a couple signs for my sons vintage themed rehearsal dinner in November.  The dinner will be at a little cafe around the corner from my house and since parking is limited at the cafe I needed to direct my guests to the abundant parking by the lake.  I actually thought...Pay a professional sign store to make the signs!  

But, I just couldn't, not without giving it a try myself

It's not that us "Do it yourself" folks are cheap (Ok, maybe), it's that we know we can turn something from ordinary into unique and fun....Well, basically we can do a better job!

Bless the Graphics Fairy, this was a new graphic that Karen posted of a hand holding a piece of paper

I took the hand, enlarged it, cut it out, then glued it on foam core

Now, I took my garage sale sign (We all have some of these) and painted it a light blue

 I then printed out "Parking" and using some  old tracing paper

 Transferred the outline to the sign and filled it in with paint pens

And hot glued the hand on top

I needed another sign at the cafe to announce that this was a private party

Way back in March I found this sign at the thrift store for $8.00

After a transformation, I used it at my booth when I was a vendor the Fancy Flea

Time to transform it again for the rehearsal dinner   

I mod podged sheet music and then printed off the words onto paper and used a heart rubber stamp in the middle

So, there you have it......Park by the lake

And no party crashers allowed

And this is why I love blogging.... Because I think you all "Get it", sure I could have paid someone to make professional signs, but we love doing something different and thinking out of the box, we refuse to settle for the ordinary !

Happy Creating!

Carol

Transforming A Barrel Magazine Holder

I transformed this old barrel magazine rack a few years ago

It was pre-blogging so I don't have a "Before" picture, it was basically brown and ugly 

I gave it a coat of white paint and added authentic vintage decals I found at an antique store

I'm showing this to you now because I am going to sell it in my booth.  Remember the kerosene heater table I transformed.....

.....Well, I loved it so much I wanted to keep it, but I have a rule, if something comes into my little house, something has to go out to make room so........

...........Out goes the magazine rack! 

I've also decided it's time to start selling all of my decorating magazines, I have boxes of them.  For years I would flip through old magazines for inspiration and now with Pinterest and blogs, I'm finding all of the inspiration I need

I will never stop buying them because sitting with a cup of coffee and reading my favorite magazine is something I really enjoy

The truth is I've run out of room under the guest room bed to store them and I never go through old copies any more.

This brings me to a question, do you keep all of your old magazines, or do you find yourself turning more to Pinterest and blogs for inspiration?

Happy Creating!

Carol

My Antiques Booth

It's been a long time since I've showed you around my booth at Orange Tree Antiques in Winter Park, Florida.  Excuse the pictures there is no natural light in my booth.  

OK, go ahead look around.....

Now don't mess anything up LOL, I just spent all of yesterday doing a total reset.  

Linen is my top seller

A new group of altered vintage bottles

3 times a year I pull everything out of my booth and start over. Those of you that have booths know that they end up getting cluttered, plus we get bored with how they look and redoing your booth always guarantees an increase in sales.....Watch, now a customer is going to have the nerve to come in and buy stuff and mess it all up again LOL!

Happy Creating!

Carol

Projects For The Wedding Rehearsal Dinner

Many of you have asked how the wedding plans were going, I can't believe my sons wedding is less than 4 months away!  So, I thought I would show you a couple projects I have been working on for the rehearsal dinner

The Rehearsal dinner will be at a local outdoor cafe around the corner from my house.   It's where the kids spent a lot of time when they lived in Orlando before moving to DC.  This is going to be a vintage themed, relaxed, dress for the weather, (Pretty nice weather in Orlando in November) dining under the stars, event. 

I made one of these vintage book candle holders way back in November right after the engagement.  Yep, crazy excited Mom...... I was already planning the rehearsal dinner in my head.

I was trying to think of something unique and different for table centerpieces that stayed with the vintage vibe, the full tutorial is HERE.  After I drilled out the holes for the candles and decorated the cover I added ribbon and vintage brooches.....A little shabby and a little bling!

The books will be center pieces on the large tables. For the smaller tables and scattered around the venue I made waterslide decal pictures of the love birds and put them on votives.

The waterslide decal tutorial is HERE, I printed pictures on the decals then put them on votives

I have a lot more wedding projects to show you.....Hope you don't mind a little wedding DIY between "Regular" DIY!?

Happy Creating!

Carol

Fabric Backed Shelves, From Drab To Fab

Bookcases and shelving units sell well in my booth and if I add a back to them they sell even better....And if I do something special to that back....Well, they sell even BETTER!

This time I decided to add fabric dipped in starch

I took this very average thrift store shelf

And a favorite Mary Rose fabric dunked in starch...A full "Fabric and Starch" tutorial post is HERE and should answer all of your questions.

I laid the fabric soaked in starch over a board I cut to fit the back of the shelf.  When the fabric dried I used my brad nailer and attached the board to the shelf

While I was on a fabric and starch roll I did this shelf too

I loved the yellow color, so I dug out some yellow floral fabric, then cut the backboard out of a thin board I had laying around

Dipped the fabric in starch and let it dry on the board 

Then with Billie's help (She's actually no help at all, but when you're that cute you don't need any skills) I brad nailed it to the back of the book shelf

This was a really easy way to dress up the shelves

Both are headed to my booth at Orange Tree, I haven't decided what to charge....

......But, whatever I decide it will be more than I would have charged before I gave them a backbone!

Happy Creating!

Carol