Gathering Dust

Must Have Craft Supplies

 

Yesterday afternoon, as I was planning the rest of my weekend, I made an executive decision that I was going to spend Sunday afternoon in my craft room- doesn't matter that company is coming tomorrow, that I have other projects (and laundry) scattered through out the house, that I have old stuff, er...inventory that should be tagged for the antique mall- if I don't plan and make time for things I enjoy, they just won't get done.

So, as I was playing in my craft room, I started thinking about my "must have" craft supplies- the things that if I lost them, I would go out and buy a replacement before I crafted again.

They are:

 

Scallop edge scissors- I think almost any background or border is more interesting with a decorative edge.  I can't cut straight, so I usually draw a pencil line on the back of my paper so I can line up the ridges of the scallop with something.

Often, after I add a scallop edge, I outline it with a metallic marker.  Again I use a ruler- I run the marker along the edge of the ruler so I get a neat border.

Little scissors with a sharp point to cut around details.  It probably would have been helpful to show the scissors with OUT the cover so- but trust me, the blades are small and sharp.

Corner rounder paper punch.  I like the soft edge it gives to a tag or bookmark.

On this tag you can see where I used all of my favorites- I used a scallop edge scissor to cut out different strips of wallpaper, and then edged them with a gold paint pen.  The fine details on the little girl were cut out with the sharp blade scissors and I rounded the corners.

 

Oh, and glue- I go back and forth between using a glue stick and using Incredibly Tacky.  A glue stick doesn't hold, but liquid glue can buckle.  Incredibly Tacky buckles less than any wet glue I've used.  Sometimes, I'll use both- a glue stick around the edges, so they don't buckle, and Incredibly Tacky for the rest of a piece. 

Can I call Incredibly Tacky just IT, so I can be like Rachel Ray and her EVOO (Extra Virgin Olive Oil)?

And why is the IT upside down in a parfait glass?  It just seems to flow better if it's stored that way. 

 

And the last thing- paper, I need lots of paper.

So what are your must have supplies?

Thanks for all the Sepia Love on Etsy- I've added a few more sepia summer listings to my Etsy Shop.

 

Sepia Summer

 

As I look around my "treasures"- stacks of paper pictures & lace from auctions and estate sales, I realized I have a lot of sepia stuff.  I'm using sepia as kind of a generic term for any color from cream to a tea stained tan.

 

I've spent (or wasted) some time this afternoon playing with lace, trim & beads and then got down to work and have listed some in my Etsy Shop.

  

I've also listed some old school readers with sweet illustrations- and now I'm off to play some more "Sepia Summer".

River Market Antique Mall - Booths to Love

 

I've long admired Mary Green's eye for GOOD paper, and how she puts together her ephemera books, so today I met her at the  River Market Antique Mall to watch her shopping for paper- it  is part art & part science. Mary gave me one of her books and I'll post about it later after I play with it a little bit.

  

At the mall I found some booths to fall in love with- this one has a real industrial look to it- wire, wood & metal.

 

It takes a certain eye to put together a look that has combines medical equipment with clothespins- but it all works.

 

It also takes talent to make a deer look pretty.

 

This is Gail Tritten's booth- I fell in love with the combination of white, wood & just a little bit of romance. 

 

This picture doesn't show it well, but the there's a vintage wedding picture "framed" behind a clock case.

  

Great collections of ironstone, brown glass & glass jars- everything looks better in glass.

 

Dealer Donnie Volkart has a great eye for the unusual and dramatic.

 

 

 

Kitty corner (or is it catty- corner?) from the antique mall, I saw this iron fence-cool, huh?  I think I'll stay on this side of the fence.

Welcome to My Antique Booth

 

Last week, when I was visiting with Sue at her yard sale, she asked why I never showed pictures of my antique booth on my blog.

I usually only show close-ups because from a distance, my booth looks pretty jumbled.  I concentrate more on small items than furniture, so my emphasis is on shelves and display space.  

Also, my display "talents" are more in the tabletop area- give me 10 items and a table and I'll do my best to arrange them, but give me five pieces of furniture and I'm clueless.

I did go to my booth yesterday for a little sprucing up and restocking and took some pictures.

 

So welcome to my booth...

Note:  If I had known that another dealer would have offered to take my picture in my booth, I might have curled my hair, put on makeup and wore something besides a dirty t-shirt.

Or maybe not.

This is a before picture- see, a mess.  My booth is an interesting shape- I have a wall about 8 feet, then about a four foot jog back in the wall and then another five feet of wall or so- so I have three walls but they don't make a typical room shape. 

 

It can be a little bit tricky to arrange the furniture, but it also offers a lot of possibilities.  I can divide my booth into different areas by style and color.

Before my redo, I had kind of a mess- my lighter colored garden stuff was next to my darker library style stuff. 

 

Part of my redo included a little patriotic display on top of this chicken coop.

  

And, I've got a green & white chippy gardeny area.

 

Here are a few little displays.

 

 

 

This is a grouping of thermometers.  It seems like every other time I buy a box lot at an auction, there's a thermometer in it.  On its own, one thermometer is kind of boring, but they get more interesting when you put a bunch together.

 

This is one of my favorite things in my booth- its a celluloid cover prayer book.  You can see it closed in the picture of the top the white table- it's next to some postcards on top of a white bowl.

When you open it, you find this pretty mother of pearl crucifix on a beautiful piece of tapestry.

So- that's some of my booth.  Can I talk you into buying anything?

Shopping SHOPPING shopping sHoPPiNg

 

I packed light for my trip to Virginia so I had some room to bring home some treasures.

But first, I have to show this great shopper's helper that Pamela made for everyone on our Leesburg shopping trip.

  

It's a decorated manilla folder with pockets for everything.

 

Pockets for receipts and business cards, and a pocket full of personalized shipping tags to tie onto your shopping bags.

Have you ever gone on a shopping trip with girlfriends and when it's time to split up, everyone's bags look the same? Problem solved when you tie a tag on your bag as soon as it goes in the trunk.

 

These are some of my purchases from Luckets- things I love- ironstone, pretty old books and wedding and class pictures.

 

On Saturday, Sue of Vintage Rescue Squad was having a yard sale.  I wish I'd had a truck- great deals on things too big for my suitcase.  But I did manage to snag some great old flower frogs to use a picture holders and this quad plate creamer.

 

The rectangular flower frog is perfect to display postcards like this wonderful card made by  Hope of Paper Relics.

 

Our next stop was Accessories of Old in Bethesda- recommended by Jessica  of Such Pretty Things.  Accessories of Old is  VINTAGE HEAVEN.   Everything is new old stock- walls full of buttons, barrettes, trims- all the stuff that makes our heart beat a little faster.

 

I was surprised by how much of it was made in Britian.

 

 

 

 

 

If you go to Accessories of Old (and you should), bring plenty of quarters for the parking meter, because you'll probably want to sit down and start digging.

The Best Birthday Ever

Yesterday was my birthday, and I had the best birthday weekend since I was nine years old and had a pirate themed birthday party with bandanas and eye patches.

 

I spent my birthday at Karla's Condo in Virginia. It was a weekend with lots of shopping, laughing, friends and SEAFOOD.

  

We started with a crabcake lunch and a view of the harbor at Koopers in the Fell's Point area of Baltimore.

On our way to Karla's Condo in Virigina, we stopped at a cute brick front antique shopping area in Kensington MD.  We didn't buy much, but had fun looking because it was picturesque.

Robin joined us for dinner.  Karla and her HH (handsome husband, as Karla calls him) took us out for a fantastic dinner at the Tower Club in Tyson's Corner.  The food- (more seafood- I had the sea bass), the view (17th floor), the service (everyone working there called Karla "Mrs Nathan")- it was all fantastic.

 

Karla gave me this beautiful charm bracelet that she made, and all the charms have a story behind them.    Pretty special to get a custom piece of jewelry for your birthday,huh?

The next day, we met a great group of blogging friends for a shopping trip Heather had put together.

 

Heather, Stephenie and  Lori drove together from Pennsylvania and Ohio (that's not really Heather Stephenie & Lori- just a birthday card they gave me).

We all met up with local girls Hope, Jessica,  Pamela, Amy, and  Andrea  at  the famous Luckett's.  At Lucketts, in a bit of serendipity, we ran into Karen, The Graphic's Fairy.  I follow her blog and download her clip art, but had never really thought about her being a "Real Person".  She is real, and a real sweetheart.

 

Our next stop was On a Whim antiques, where Donna, the gracious owner took a group picture for us in the Prom Dress room.  (I borrowed the picture from Karla).  The prom dress room is incredible- the best collection of vintage prom dresses I've ever seen.

  

Our next stop was downtown Leesburg- lots of fun shops, my favorite was Ekster.  Beautiful soft colors- grays, creams, browns in kind of a European/industrial/Texas Round Top look.

 

 

I have more to tell- meeting Sue  of Vintage Rescue Squad, a visit to a great shop that will have button lovers drooling, the shopping haul and fun gifts. But I think that will have to wait for next time- I still have unpacking to do! 

  

 

With Needle & Thread

  

I've temporarily traded in my knitting needles for a needle and thread for my "TV craft"- the projects I work on while I watch TV.  I've gotten some pretty old calicos and newer florals in auction boxes. 

I've been making yo-yos, and then taking the little bits of fabric that are left over and cutting out 1 1/2" squares to make a doll quilt. I'm pretending I'm pioneer woman who can waste no scrap of fabric.

 

I'm not sure how far I'll get with the quilt- working with 1 1/2" squares is kinda small- and  I'm not sure how fond I am of crafts that require me to wear glasses.

But I'm putting aside the needle and thread for a few days and tomorrow I'm going to Washington/Virginia to visit Karla.  We've got crab cakes on the waterfront, dinner at the restaurant that Karla likes to take pictures at, and antique shopping with a group of bloggers on the agenda- so somehow, I think we'll have fun.... 

On with the (Antique) Show

  

Thanks to everyone for their good wishes about the antique show.  It went really well- not only did I sell quite a bit- but I was able to get set up in about two hours and  at the end of the show I was able to pack up and be on way in about 45 minutes.

 

This is the back of my car after I loaded it- there probably was a little extra space, but not much.  Underneath all the shelves and stands and props are Rubbermaid tubs full of stuff to sell. I try to put lids on all my Rubbermaids so things cab be stacked on top of them, but I always leave two at the back that are open for larger items that won't fit all the way inside- like the sap buckets, a big wooden clock and some pictures.

 

That's the booth with tables in place.  It backs up to the stage, which is kind of nice because it gives me a place to lean things.

 

And with tableclothes in place.  I found out that the tableclothes that Karla and I made are just a little bit prone to wrinkles - or maybe a lot prone to wrinkles- but I'm just not going to carry an iron with me- I might get some of that spray on wrinkle release for the next show, though.  I did get quite a few compliments on the ticking, though.

 

The start of set up- kind of bare.

 

Good thing I have all these tubs of stuff to add to the tables.

People are always asking "what are people buying?" I sold most of the stuff in the first picture- the red white & blue display.  I sold some of the stuff in the picture above- the clock sold, the corks sold (but not the bowl) and the old marriage certificate sold.

 

None of these sold- despite the COOL graphic on the box.  I may just use the thread to start some of my own stitching.

 

None of these sold either.  They're tobacco silks or flannels- little Eastern style rugs that came as premiums with tobacco.

  

This child's wool bathing costume sold right away.  Really, how often do you see them?

 

The flour sack/feed sack quilt with yo-yos sold- it was one of the prettiest I'd ever seen.  There are hundreds of yo-yos- can you imagine the time that went into making it?

Other booths had some wonderful displays and items.  There is something funny about the overhead lighting that made some of the pictures have a weird tint to them.

 

To solve that problem, I just turned this picture to black and white.

 

Love these flashcards with great penmanship.  They were decorating a pair of French doors.

 

Glass, silverplate and chippy paint- a classic combination.

 

And I've never met a brown transferware pitcher that I didn't love.

I (heart) Logomachy Images

 

Logomachy is an 1800's card game.  I had never heard of it until Mary gave me a set of cards with my name on it.

  

Mary is quite the Logomachy expert and she's put together a CD with images from four different sets of cards- there are birds with letters, letters with different images...

 

...like D is for Doll...

 

The cards can be printed together  to make words or banners.  (The color of the cards is more intense than this scan shows- my printer was running low on ink when I printed PLAY)

Even the backs of the cards are pretty.  The tags at the beginning of the post use the backs of the cards, too.

 

Here's a link to the CD in  Mary's Etsy shop and a look at ALL the images available on the CD.  The crafting possibilities are endless....

Baby Dresses & Bird Books

 

I'm setting up at an antique show this weekend and had a stack of vintage baby clothes to iron and starch up.  When I got done, I grabbed a box of old baby hangers and headed outside to see what the yard would look like if baby dresses grew on trees. 

 

Actually, I headed outside because I don't think I could find an uncluttered spot inside to take pictures.

 

I've got a lot of the standard white baby chemises and some very delicate embroidered dresses, but I thought these were really cute.  They both look like they are hand smocked.

 

I love the pink swan hanger, too.  It has an almost Lalique look.  Hmmm...I wonder if Lalique ever thought about making baby hangers?

 

In the box with the baby clothes, I also found these cute little baby shoes.  People are always asking for tips on selling antiques- this is a simple one- stuff shoes with tissue paper before you display them

That seems pretty obvious, and I almost didn't mention it, but I know I'd been selling old baby shoes for over five years before I finally figured it out.

 

And...from the craft room....

Ever since I bought True Colors, I've loved the idea of handmade books.  This is one I started working on in Feb, with the idea of spring birds.  I don't know if it's done or not, that's the fun thing about making your own book- you can go back and add (or take out pages you don't like).

  

The basis for this book was a book made with ledger paper that I bought on Etsy.  I aged a lot of the pages with inks so they didn't seem too bright against some of the old paper I was adding to the book.

 

 

And...I've added some of my recent junking finds to my Etsy Shop. Here's a peek.