A Beautiful Life

About a year ago I visited a blog who had used napkins to cover some pretty hearts for Valentine's Day with decoupage.  They were absolutely gorgeous and I fell in love with the paper napkins she used.  Then a couple of months ago, while looking through my Jeanne D' Arc Living magazine I found a beautiful stencil that I wanted to use so I went to the website that was listed.  I fell in love with the website and placed an order for the stencil, and, of course, while I was there I had to look around to see what other beautiful things this website offered.  In addition to the stencil, I found a roll of incredible wrapping paper.  I mean it is drop dead gorgeous.  See for yourself.

Is this fabulous or what?  If you love typography like I do and antique graphics, you will fall in love with this paper too.  It's a very large roll, not the little ones you find at Walmart.  It's also printed on quality paper.  Can you just imagine this on a buffet table?  Not to mention the fact that if I received a gift wrapped in this paper, I would do everything in my power not to mess up one teeny weenie morsel of it.

This postmark is wonderful.  Postmarks are so popular right now.

So as luck would have it, I decided to visit the website again and guess what I found?  Those incredible French invoice napkins the blogger had used on the hearts.  Oh, be still my heart.  I immediately placed them in my shopping cart.  Oh the things I can do with this image.  I also found a grain sack pattern napkin that I plan to do something with too.  Have I mentioned I have an ephemera addiction?  My order of napkins arrived very quickly wrapped like a beautiful little package.  I felt like I was receiving a gift from a very thoughtful friend.

Take a look at these beauties.  I know all you crafters out there would love to try a project with these yourself.  I suppose if you can't think of a project, you could always use them at the dinner table too, but I think they are far too cool to get them dirty.

Now I suppose you are dying to know the name of the website so you can order these for yourself.  It's called The Beautiful Life and here is the link http://www.thebeautifullife.com/.  Ruth was so sweet.  I only ordered two packages of napkins, and I had a tiny bit of trouble with the check out (and I do mean tiny), so she doubled my order.  How sweet was that?  But I want you to know that is not why I'm writing this post.  I was already going to share this website with you.  It's a beautiful website and perfectly named.  Go for a visit and look around for awhile.  You won't be disappointed.

I'm partying at...


Mondays          Le Chateau des Fleurs       The Graphics Fairy    
                                      Between Naps on the Porch Metamorphosis Monday
Tuesdays          Knick of Time       Coastal Charm  
                                      Boogie Board Cottage    A Stroll Thru Life   
                                     Cozy Little House Tweak it Tuesday
Wednesdays     Savvy Southern Style         Ivy and Elephants
                                           
Thursdays        Embracing Change     The Shabby Creek Cottage    No Minimalist Here 
                                     Between Naps on the Porch Tablescape Thursday    
                                     Rustic Restorations Homespun Happenings
Fridays            French Country Cottage       My Romantic Home        Miss Mustard Seed
                                    Potpourri Friday     Common Ground
                                    The Charm of Home    Rooted in Thyme
Saturdays        Funky Junk Interiors

Sundays           My 1928 Charmer Sunday's Best

Chambre des Fleurs

I had planned on doing another pair of menu boards this week, but it looks like it will be next week.  I got very side tracked when I looked up images of vintage Paris perfume labels.  I came across an incredible label that became the inspiration for this sign.

I wanted to share a complete photo of the actual image but for some reason it said for personal use only, not to be transmitted digitally.  I'm not sure what that means since it's already on the internet under images and my understanding is that any document or photograph predating 1920 does not come under the umbrella of copyright law.

I tried to be pretty true to the image I found.  Some of my lettering is pretty primitive, but it's supposed to be old.  Right?  I used a white that looks very vintage for the background.  It was something I had on hand and it's just plain latex paint.

I printed the image (for my personal use of course) and then enlarged it to get the spray of roses copied.  Then I took the splendid blender and transferred it onto the old cabinet door board.  Because the enlarged image was highly pixelated, it was a little blurry, but it transferred just the same.  I came back with a liner brush and accentuated the image with a little freestyle painting.  I can't draw, but I can wing it if the image is already there.

All the lettering is antique gold and burnt umber craft paint with a gray shading (mixture of black and white craft paint).

I always do a cursory sketch of the letters on paper first to make sure the words will fit and it helps me place the lettering before taking brush to board.

Here is the image after the splendid blender.  As the day wore on, I felt like the image was fading.  I'm not sure why.  The image I used on my caddy a couple of weeks ago looks as good as the day I applied it and it's sealed with clear coat.

Have a wonderful weekend and please visit again soon.

I'm partying at...


Mondays          Le Chateau des Fleurs       The Graphics Fairy    
                                      Between Naps on the Porch Metamorphosis Monday
Tuesdays          Knick of Time       Coastal Charm  
                                      Boogie Board Cottage    A Stroll Thru Life   
                                     Cozy Little House Tweak it Tuesday
Wednesdays     Savvy Southern Style         Ivy and Elephants
                                           
Thursdays        Embracing Change     The Shabby Creek Cottage    No Minimalist Here 
                                     Between Naps on the Porch Tablescape Thursday    
                                     Rustic Restorations Homespun Happenings
Fridays            French Country Cottage       My Romantic Home        Miss Mustard Seed
                                    Potpourri Friday     Common Ground
                                    The Charm of Home    Rooted in Thyme
Saturdays        Funky Junk Interiors

Sundays           My 1928 Charmer Sunday's Best

Reverse Mod Podge Transfer on Wood

I've been experimenting with transfer processes a lot lately and although I'm not thrilled with the way this turned out, I learned some wonderful things that I will pass on to you.  I started with an old pine cabinet door.  I still have my blown up image and I am going to try this on a painted surface as well.

 Look how crisp the lettering is on the pine, and not only is it crisp but it's in color too!  I found an image on Pinterest and saved it to my computer.  I emailed my local Fed Ex office store the image and gave them the dimensions of my door and asked them to print it in reverse mirror image.

 They printed it on a kind of glossy paper and it was $14 to have them re-size and print the image.  Next time I will have them re-size it and then break it in half and print it on 11 X 17 paper.  That would have been approximately $5.  I copied the glossy paper image that Fed Ex did for me onto two pieces of 11 x 17 paper so it would be on dull paper and I could retain the expensive one.

 So here is what I learned.  You can see below I applied the mod podge but only on the printed part.  Then I laid it against the wood face down.  What I should have done was mod podge the entire piece of paper.  The reason for that is where there was no mod podge the color of my wood was a totally different color and you could easily tell I had pieced my image.

 See how I didn't get the mod podge exactly everywhere.  So I tried to cover it with paint and sand it back and now it looks old but not exactly what I wanted it to look like.  It's okay because I learned tons from doing this project.

 

I let the paper and the image set up overnight.  Then I laid a wet washcloth over the paper and began to wet the paper and roll it with my fingertips in a circular motion being careful not to rub off the printing.  When I felt I had rubbed enough off, I wiped the board down and set it aside to dry.  When it dried, I could see there was more paper residue so I repeated the process with the washcloth and the fingertip massage and the drying of the board.  It took me about six rounds of this process to remove all the paper so be patient and work slow.  My middle name should be Impatient, so if I can do this so can you.  I sealed it with a clear coat and had I not messed up with the piecing of the pattern, I would have been thrilled with the outcome. 

Thanks for visiting.  I hope you find inspiration when you stop by. 

I'm partying at...


Mondays          Le Chateau des Fleurs       The Graphics Fairy    
                                      Between Naps on the Porch Metamorphosis Monday
Tuesdays          Knick of Time       Coastal Charm  
                                      Boogie Board Cottage    A Stroll Thru Life   
                                     Cozy Little House Tweak it Tuesday
Wednesdays     Savvy Southern Style         Ivy and Elephants
                                           
Thursdays        Embracing Change     The Shabby Creek Cottage    No Minimalist Here 
                                     Between Naps on the Porch Tablescape Thursday    
                                     Rustic Restorations Homespun Happenings
Fridays            French Country Cottage       My Romantic Home        Miss Mustard Seed
                                    Potpourri Friday     Common Ground
                                    The Charm of Home    Rooted in Thyme
Saturdays        Funky Junk Interiors

Sundays           My 1928 Charmer Sunday's Best

Umbrella Pumpkins

Believe it or not, this was my second blog post when I started my blog.  I'm thinking maybe five people saw it, those being my daughters and friends.  So I thought I would share it again today since it is perfect for fall and Halloween.  Today I will be working on some new menu boards, and since our temperatures are still in the 100s, I am moving at a snail's pace.  Happy fall everyone!

We love to decorate for fall especially in our front yard.  I found these orange paper umbrellas at a sale a few months ago and put them away for the perfect Halloween decorations.  All it took was a little black craft paint to transform them into the perfect Jack-O-Lanterns.  Our little Cindy had a howling good time helping us.

                               
She even put on her spider tiara to really get into the spirit of the day.

                                                          And voila!  The end result.

Last year I did this with cloth umbrellas that I painted with orange spray paint which is readily available at this time of year.  I put them in between the shrubberies and let them peak out.  The neighbors loved them. 

I'm partying at...


Mondays          Le Chateau des Fleurs       The Graphics Fairy    
                                      Between Naps on the Porch Metamorphosis Monday
Tuesdays          Knick of Time       Coastal Charm  
                                      Boogie Board Cottage    A Stroll Thru Life   
                                     Cozy Little House Tweak it Tuesday
Wednesdays     Savvy Southern Style         Ivy and Elephants
                                           
Thursdays        Embracing Change     The Shabby Creek Cottage    No Minimalist Here 
                                     Between Naps on the Porch Tablescape Thursday    
                                     Rustic Restorations Homespun Happenings
Fridays            French Country Cottage       My Romantic Home        Miss Mustard Seed
                                    Potpourri Friday     Common Ground     Our Home in the Maples Rainy Day Party
                                    The Charm of Home    Rooted in Thyme
Saturdays        Funky Junk Interiors

Sundays           My 1928 Charmer Sunday's Best

Fall Shelf

I keep seeing great mantle displays all around blog land, but the fact of the matter is I'm too lazy to re-do my mantle right now just to have to put it all back together, so I decided to use an old cabinet door that is painted and ready to become a sign, and besides the outdoor lighting is so much better.

I can't even remember where I got this pumpkin, but I've had it for a long time.  It's the only pumpkin I have kept.  I love the spider and the whole design of it.  It's just the perfect size too.  Here I paired it with some twig balls and old garden tools.  These are the script flowers I made out of vintage paper.

This was kind of fun to put together.

Maybe next time I will try my mantle, but until then, thanks for stopping by.  I have included one final photo with a close up of the spider.  I so wish I could find this image.  It's one of the best spider illustrations I have ever seen.  It's probably from a historical entomology book.  Isn't he beautiful?  Too bad he's just a creepy spider.

I'm partying at...


Mondays          Le Chateau des Fleurs       The Graphics Fairy    
                                      Between Naps on the Porch Metamorphosis Monday
Tuesdays          Knick of Time       Tutus and Tea Parties       Coastal Charm  
                                      Boogie Board Cottage    A Stroll Thru Life   
                                     Cozy Little House Tweak it Tuesday       PJH Designs
Wednesdays     Savvy Southern Style         Ivy and Elephants
                                     Faded Charm Cottage       Fine Craft Guild      
Thursdays        Embracing Change     The Shabby Creek Cottage    No Minimalist Here 
                                     Between Naps on the Porch Tablescape Thursday    Fishtail Cottage
                                     Rustic Restorations Homespun Happenings
Fridays            French Country Cottage       My Romantic Home        Miss Mustard Seed
                                    At the Picket Fence     Potpourri Friday     Common Ground
                                    The Charm of Home    Decorating Insanity   Rooted in Thyme
Saturdays        Funky Junk Interiors

Sundays           My 1928 Charmer Sunday's Best

The French Cat

I recently purchased a book called "The French Cat" so I thought it was fitting to name this post after my book since I used my antique French invoices as a background for the Graphics Fairy Tuxedo Cat.  For this image click here. 
 
Here are my four finished plates.  This post took me longer to write than it did to do the actual work on the plates so if you like these, stick with me.

If you would like to use these invoices, feel free to do so.  I will include the link to the images for you on each plate.  I purchased the plates at the 99 Cent store.

 Here is the link for Construction.

First I cut out Tuxedo Cat and decoupaged him. Remember you are working on the back side of the plate. This is reverse decoupage. I copied my invoices onto 8 1/2 x 11 paper and cut a circle of my invoice image larger than the plate I was using. Place your second image's large circle cutout behind your first image and decoupage only on the center of the plate. Stick that down and press firmly over the image. Now for the sides of the plate, I cut several slits in my image going around the plate cutting only to the center of the plate. This helps to prevent bubbles and uneven decoupage.  Then I placed decoupage on each slit as I circled around the plate making sure to coat the edges so they would stick to the previously pressed down slit. Press firmly around the plate edge so you get nice contact. Now cut around the outside of the paper circle to make it even with the edge of the plate. Remember we cut the circle larger than the plate. I did three layers of decoupage letting it dry between each coat.

Click here for Edouard Rondeau.

Then here was my biggest mistake. My old invoices were very yellowed and I liked the color so I should have painted the back of the decoupaged paper with ivory, but instead I painted with black.  Anywhere I hadn't cut exactly on the edge of the plate the black showed from the front. So paint the back of your plate to match the front of the image. This will hide many imperfections if you didn't cut exactly to the outer edge of the plate.  I know this is long and drawn out, but I don't know a better way to explain this.  

Click here for Lefebure.  Pardon the glare in my photos.  It's hard to photograph inside of my house. 

By the way, Pat, one of my followers had a totally brilliant idea for saving Graphics Fairy images to my computer and I will pass it along to you as a suggestion. Whenever I want to include an image in my post for you, I like to link it directly to the Graphics Fairy's blog and not to the saved image on my computer. Many times (actually a lot) I have trouble locating the image with her search bar so Pat suggested I save the image as I normally do, but to also add the date of the post. This is making it much easier for me to locate the post on Karen's site.

Click here for Societe Generale.

Happy crafting everyone.  Let your imagination run wild today.

I'm partying at...


Mondays          Le Chateau des Fleurs       The Graphics Fairy    
                                      Between Naps on the Porch Metamorphosis Monday
Tuesdays          Knick of Time       Tutus and Tea Parties       Coastal Charm  
                                      Boogie Board Cottage    A Stroll Thru Life   
                                     Cozy Little House Tweak it Tuesday
Wednesdays     Savvy Southern Style         Ivy and Elephants
                                     Faded Charm Cottage       Fine Craft Guild      
Thursdays        Embracing Change     The Shabby Creek Cottage    No Minimalist Here 
                                     Between Naps on the Porch Tablescape Thursday    Fishtail Cottage
                                     Rustic Restorations Homespun Happenings
Fridays            French Country Cottage       My Romantic Home        Miss Mustard Seed
                                    At the Picket Fence     Potpourri Friday     Common Ground
                                    The Charm of Home    Decorating Insanity   Rooted in Thyme
Saturdays        Funky Junk Interiors

Sundays           My 1928 Charmer Sunday's Best

Pretty Red Shutter

Today's post is about a simple project.  I purchased a shuttered swing door at the salvage yard.  I loved the shape of the top of it.  I added a simple applique wreath and painted the shutter with Rustoleum brush-on colonial red.  I wanted texture to the paint so when I applied my Jacobean Minwax stain it would stick and give some character to the shutter.

 I kept the stain heavy on the sides of the slats to give it an aged look.  I love this fall wreath hanging on the shutter, but it would look great with a white shabby mirror or some Christmas greenery as well.  Below is the before shutter after the applique was applied with 5-minute epoxy.

I'm partying at...


Mondays          Le Chateau des Fleurs       The Graphics Fairy    
                                      Between Naps on the Porch Metamorphosis Monday
Tuesdays          Knick of Time       Tutus and Tea Parties       Coastal Charm  
                                      Boogie Board Cottage    A Stroll Thru Life   
                                     Cozy Little House Tweak it Tuesday
Wednesdays     Savvy Southern Style         Ivy and Elephants
                                     Faded Charm Cottage       Fine Craft Guild      
Thursdays        Embracing Change     The Shabby Creek Cottage    No Minimalist Here 
                                     Between Naps on the Porch Tablescape Thursday    Fishtail Cottage
                                     Rustic Restorations Homespun Happenings
Fridays            French Country Cottage       My Romantic Home        Miss Mustard Seed
                                    At the Picket Fence     Potpourri Friday     Common Ground
                                    The Charm of Home    Decorating Insanity   Rooted in Thyme
Saturdays        Funky Junk Interiors

Sundays           My 1928 Charmer Sunday's Best