Vintage Charm Party: French Inspired Vintage Spring Decoration

Good morning Friends ☀️

I hope you've been having a splendid week so far. I've been treasuring the time with my Annie and we went and spent time with my Mom and step Dad yesterday. It was so nice. 

I thought today I'd pop in (while she's still sleeping) to share a little craft I did recently. I wanted to make a little something for Spring/Summer. I had an old frame sitting empty and that gave me the initial inspiration to create something I could put in there. 

I started rifling through the treasures I have in my craft room. And I found a vintage pin I really liked. When I go to antique stores (a favorite past time) - I often look at the old jewelry, the pottery, the linens/doilies, and the old paper things like cards etc. As a scrapbooking enthusiast I love paper ephemera. 

The old pin is a floral one and even though it was missing a few gems in some of the flowers...I just thought it gave it more charm. I pinned it to the old doily piece I found. So I went through my scrapbooking papers for a backdrop. I glued the doily piece to the paper after I cut and measured it to fit the frame.  I also looked through some vintage French inspired papers & tags. I loved this French lady so I adhered her to the top corner. 

And since I was giving it French flair, I felt like it needed a French quote. So I found this one by Victor Hugo who wrote Les Miserables. 

I put it all together in the frame and took the glass out. 

And it now lives on our front foyer table next to a vintage Hull piece of pottery. 

This is our front foyer, however I recently changed the rug out (this one was really old). And we're going to be changing out the light fixture pretty soon for something a little more updated. So stay tuned for a the full reveal in the future on that. :) 

I love that it only took me minutes to complete this little project and I now have a one of a kind decoration from things I sourced in my own home. 

Do you like to be craftsy sometimes? And do you like vintage things, or more modern? I think I'll forever be a vintage girlie - as my daughter calls my style: Grandmacore. Lol 

I'm sharing this with the blogs Our Hopeful Home and My Thrift Store Addiction for Vintage Charm Party Wednesday. Feel free to join along!

Blessings

xoxo

Romance Necklace

Happy Wednesday my Friends! 

I didn't get to pop in yesterday, but I hope you all had a lovely Valentine's Day. It was a nice one here filled with lovely cards and goodies from my Hubby and Kiddos. I made a little dinner and Hubby, Annie & I snuggled in for some tv time and cherry dessert that I had made. My Aaron took his girlfriend out for a treat - and bought her roses and a teddy bear. ::sigh:: My teenager is growing up too fast!  

In this month of all things romance - flowers, hearts, jewelry.... I thought I would share the latest "scrapbook necklace" I've made. I took a mixture of scrapbook materials and jewelry materials and created a one of a kind piece! It's another part of my scrapbooking hobby addiction I guess. ;) 

 I have always loved vintage or vintage inspired jewelry. I think I'm just a hopeless romantic at heart. 

photo courtesy of pinterest

I have especially always loved clothing and jewelry from the Victorian period all the way through the 1930's to 40's. I loved the show Downton Abbey as much for the costumes and jewelry as the story lines!

Here I took some vintage looking floral paper and cut out an oval the correct size to fit on my jewelry base. I adhered it withe some jewelry glue.  I then found a brad I had that fit the jewelry look I was going for. I broke off the backing of the brad, as I didn't want the pearl bulging out -and glued that on as well. 

I didn't have a chain dainty or small enough so I just added a pretty ribbon for now. 

I usually like to make a homemade card to match the necklace I made, but I didn't get to that yet for this one. I'm working on plans for my Etsy store that I hope to open by the Spring. It will include items like this, as well as other paper crafting things. Semi-paper crafted jewelry, some as sets with matching cards for gift giving. As well as, special ready made scrapbook albums and small mixed media canvases. An example being an album  where you could keep heirloom recipes to treasure or give as gifts. I'll be sharing more over time.

I think this one looks particularly pretty on a soft pink roses sweater I like to wear. 

Here are a few photos of other necklaces I have made in the past. Next up, I'm working on a bracelet and some earrings. I will probably dabble in some more modern pieces over time as well. 

Another area bringing romance to my northwoods lately have been the beautiful skies over the bay:

Here a gorgeous sunset.

And early this morning this beautiful sky when I let Ruby outside. 

I hope this lovely February has been bringing you romance and many beautiful things that make you happy!  

**all vintage floral pictures from pinterest 

I will be sharing at these lovely parties:

Home Sweet Home

Cooking and Crafting with J & J

Pink Saturday

Scraptastic Saturday

 

Homemade Valentines, a Recipe, & something to Make you Smile

Hello Dearest Blogland Friends! 

Happy weekend to you! TGIF, right? I hope you have fun plans for the weekend ahead. I can't believe another week has breezed by and it's the weekend again already. Time flies when you're having fun and that's what I've been doing. Having fun catching up on scrapbooks and also paper crafting away making some Valentine's Day cards. So today I thought I'd share with you several things including the valentines I made recently (including one I kind of shared yesterday but will show again), a yummy recipe I made last weekend, and something that is pretty corny...but I think will give you a smile.  

ONE

Here's the 1st valentine I'd like to share today - and I have a few details about how I went about creating it. 

I had some kraft paper  cardstock and envelopes that I used for the base of things. Then I knew I wanted to use something vintage looking with a romantic feel - so I pulled a couple of different papers from this little book and trimmed them to fit my card. 

I arranged them how I liked them on the front and adhered them.

I wanted to embellish them further so I found another pretty paper and cut out a heart. I added a pretty dimensional butterfly sticker to its top. I then took a crochet ring and added this diamond brad to it. I adhered both embellishments to the front of the card.

I then set about filling the card. So I used some pretty floral paper and added it inside the card. I typed up a valentine message and cut it out with my victorian-look scissors and adhered it on top. 

I cut out another heart from other vintage paper and added a dimensional flower sticker to it and adhered that to the back of the envelope. I think it turned out rather pretty and soft and romantic.  ;) 

TWO

And this is the card I shared yesterday. I used a card that already had a floral background and some lace tape to make a pattern. I then glued on a pretty crepe flower and voila! A little embellishment of lace tape and flowers on the envelope and it's a pretty set. 

THREE

And for this card I used another floral blank card and added a heart that I cut out with decorative scissors. I then glued on this sweet yellow crochet heart.  I love adding dimension to the front. And to be cheeky I added "Got Love?" that I typed and printed up. I then wrote a response on the inside to let a sweet loved one know that lots of love is sent in that card. ;) 

I embellished the envelope with a couple of heart stickers. 

So pretty to also display next to romantic valentine decor - including a really yummy smelling yankee candle that lets one dream of lilacs and Spring....which still seems far away. ::sigh::

FOUR

Now on to the recipe portion. I made this yummy Boston cream poke cake last weekend and it was so good! I had a few different recipes about how to make this - as some called for extra pudding and some called for different kinds of  frosting. I found that the way this cake turns out so well is by making a basic yellow cake mix following its directions. Bake in 9x13 pan according to box directions. Once pulled from oven poke holes all over cake with end of a wooden spoon (or tool about that size). Then take one 3.5 oz instant vanilla pudding mix and mix in 2 cups of milk until well mixed and thickening a little. Pour over whole cake getting in all of the holes. Put cake in fridge for a while to cool and set up. Then take a can of chocolate frosting and microwave it for about 20 seconds until it gets thin enough to pour, but not too thin. Spread all over top of cake and then keep in fridge until ready to serve. Something about that canned frosting makes it a perfect kind of boston cream glaze.  Perfect for a Valentine Sweetheart. Yummy!!

FIVE

And just to make you smile - I'm sharing all of these corny vintage valentines I found on pinterest. Just for fun.  Happy almost Valentine's Day! xoxo

I'm sharing with Amy at Love Made My Home for Five on Friday.