I had planned and made a promise to myself after my last blog post that I would pull up my "socks" and post more regularly. The spirit was definitely willing... the body however, not so much! I've spent the good part of the last three weeks down with a wicked cold, sore throat, laryngitis and ear infection that plunked me firmly on the sidelines covered in Vicks, slurping hot toddies and sleeping round the clock.
Honestly, I can't remember when I felt so miserable and had a "bug" that wandered on its own "merry" (ugh) way through my body in slow motion!! The pain in my ears (and the fact that I could hardly breathe) got so bad one night, I ended up in the Emergency dept. at our local hospital. All they could do, after a good "look see" was tell me it was going around, give me antibiotics, told me to steam, stay in bed, keep warm and sent me home. I was back at midnight again... this time with blood seeping from one of my ears as in "ruptured ear drum"! I will spare you the nitty gritty's but it hasn't been the most pleasant couple of weeks in my life. However, today is the first day that I have felt like myself again (by gosh, I am actually going to live LOL) so I decided to pull a few fun things things I've made out of my art/sewing room to share with you.
First up are some pillow with neat French graphics on them. Kinda the "in thing" this past year. I purchased some good pillow inserts at the local fabric store (I was surprised at how expensive they are... even on sale) along with some Osnabruck fabric. I messed with the graphics to change them slightly to make them larger and darken them up to ready them for fabric transfer with HP T-Shirt Transfer paper. I dug around in my lace stash to find some antique lace (had just enough for two pillows) and decided to make the large, two and a half inch buttons from polymer clay. And here they are, all finished, gracing the antique chairs and couch in my living room...
You can find some neat French graphics at The Graphics Fairy if you are so inclined to make some for yourself or as a "different" Christmas gift for a friend or family member.
Remember all those Reader's Digest books I inherited? Well, I found another use for them. I was visiting an antique store this past summer and saw a book that was all bashed up but decorated with fabric roses. It looked interesting just randomly sitting on an old side table in the store. At $25.00 a pop, I decided I could make it myself!! It sits "nonchalantly" on a table in my living room that is covered with my great grandmother's beautiful lace tablecloth (and was on my wedding table when hubby and I got married).
A couple of years ago I inherited a whole box of fabric flowers and ribbon from my sister in law who was clearing out some of her "stash". She thought I'd be able to use them so gifted me with the lot. I sorted out what I wanted and stashed it away in one of my translucent shoe boxes that I keep on the shelves in my sewing room. I knew that some day a project would come along! Don't they always???? LOL
So here's how to make one of these books yourself. You can't be squeamish about bashing a book up to do this. Use a book that has no meaning for you or is so bashed up all ready that you are "recycling" it into art and giving it a second life.
Tear off the cover and the spine. Take some brown ink (Tim Holtz has some great ink pad colours) and splatter it all over the book... spray it with a fine mist of water to spread the ink around. I took a page from an old German book, crumpled and inked it, tore it to size to fit the front page of the book and glued it down. Once everything was dry, I simply took a wide piece of wired ribbon to tie around the book and hot glued some roses to the top of the book. That's it!! A quick and very easy little project.
Now I must get my list ready and get out to those sales today... Hope all my American friends had a lovely Thanksgiving and happy hunting in the Black Friday sales...
Cheers,
Sharon