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The day before Thanksgiving I paid a visit to our new Home Goods to see if I could find some pretty new napkins for our Thanksgiving table. What I had been using for the last 10 years was looking a little tired and I wanted a change. I found my napkins and saw some fabulous placemats for $10 each that I thought would be pretty for our Christmas table, however I did not like the price. Now mind you this is for a table we do not eat at, it's for my Christmas decorations which I will share with you tomorrow. And anyway when I went back to Home Goods today, the placemats were all gone which removed any temptations I might have had to even purchase them. I actually was quite pleased.
However, the Christmas placemats that remained were ho hum, nothing to get excited about, and they were at least $3 each and I needed six of them at the very minimum, and I certainly didn't want to store them until next Christmas.
So I spent a long time finding six placemats that I didn't even like and didn't want to purchase, but on the other hand, I didn't want to run all over town to find what I wanted. While standing in line with what I did not want anyway, I spotted some shimmery striped wrapping paper that was more along the lines of what I wanted. Shiny and bright was on my menu. So I scooped up the $2.99 roll of wrapping paper, dashed across the street to Michael's crafts and found some construction paper for .99 cents a sheet and came home with my goodies.
I measured an old placemat I already had and cut out six rectangles of the construction paper. Each sheet of construction paper gave me two placemats. Then I cut out my wrapping paper a tiny bit larger than the construction paper rectangles.
I used spray glue and sprayed a strip of glue down the left hand edge of the construction paper and then carefully laid the wrapping paper right on the edge. With the left side secured, I lifted the wrapping paper back and sprayed the outer edges of the other three sides of the base paper and then a couple rows in the middle. The wrapping paper laid right down. I ran my hand over the newly made placemat and they were perfect. I trimmed any excess wrapping paper and now I have six pretty and festive placemats. I also have a lot of the wrapping paper left to wrap gifts with.
I'm estimating these six placemats came to a total cost of $4.50. Tonight I'll get my table set for Santa and I'll show you how it all came together.
Thanks for visiting.
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
Thursdays 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
I love images of Marie Antoinette, maybe because I love Frenchy type things and you can't get anymore French than Marie. I started out with some aqua ornaments. I wanted the vintage glass ones, but they are really expensive so I opted for the ones from Joanne's that are already 50 percent off. They are genuine plastic, made in China, which I'm trying not to buy any of that stuff this year, but I made something with it that I hope to sell so I told myself it was okay.
These were just plain balls, and I wanted them to have a more vintage look so I brushed some gesso on them.
Then I blotted it off with a paper towel. When it was totally dry, I took my thumb and massaged the ball. This exposed some of the finish below but still left a lot of cloudiness. Next I sprayed it with Deft lacquer in the satin finish (available at Home Depot).
I found an image of Marie on the internet and printed the wallet sized photos (9) of the image. Next I placed it on my copy machine and reduced it to 60 percent. This gave me the size image I needed for the ornament. Once Marie was copied and cut out, I cut the corners since I didn't have an oval shape to work with and I wanted to cover a little more area of the ornament anyway. Then I snipped little cuts around the image so it would lay as flat as possible on a round surface.
Next I decoupaged only the back of the image and stuck it on the round ball trying to keep it as smooth as possible. Then I sprayed the image of Marie with more Deft Lacquer to seal in the ink.
Now I was ready to embellish. I glittered around the image, and by the way, I did two sides of the ornaments, and then I tied some pretty faded blue seam binding around the top of the ornament. I used Tacky Glue to attach it to the top so it would not slip off. I tied a pretty bow, embellished with some junk jewels and Marie is ready for her debut.
Thanks so much for taking a look. Tomorrow I'll show you a neutral version I did with this same technique with some old sheet music.
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
Thursdays 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
In case you don't speak French, mon reve translates to "my dream." I don't speak French either so I had to look up the meaning of the phrase.
That said, these are my latest pair of French signs. If you recall, these are the recycled cabinet doors I found at the salvage yard. There were two of them, and I experimented with the Modern Master's crackle finish. You can find the tutorial here. Then I did a reverse mod podge transfer method for the image of this beautiful lady. You can find that tutorial here. The image is from Graphics Fairy. I emailed the photo to Fed Ex office and had them resize it for the area I had to work with.
I love my French signs to have an old world look to them and that's why I chose to do the reverse mod podge. It gives an aged patina, and you can see some of the paper rubbed off, but that's okay because I was going for a very old, antique look.
Next I applied some of my pretty rose appliques and then I printed some lettering. I wanted these to be perfume signs from the get go, but the width I had to work with on the lettering was only 4 1/2 inches so I kept it short and sweet. The signs are identical except that the image of the woman is a mirrored image, one from the other, and one says eau de parfum and the other one says eau de cologne. I am pointing that out because my husband thought they were identical.
Here are the backs of the signs. As you can see, I don't disguise the fact that these are cabinet doors. I use this type of door for the specific purpose of getting some extra architectural details that add some interest.
Thanks so much for your visit. I always love it when you drop 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
Thursdays 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
Last week I showed you Fran's beautiful coffee filter roses that I found at the Little French Flea Market. She explained to me how she did them, so I thought I would play around with them a little this week and I came up with my own slightly different version, but it is very similar to Fran's.
I started with white coffee filters because that's what I had on hand. In fact, I had everything I needed to do this whole project. I used the left over coffee my husband didn't drink and dipped the filters in it to give them a little more character. Once dried, I folded each filter into quarters and cut a heart shape. I used four filters gradually making each heart shape a little bit smaller. The centers of the roses are a quarter of a filter.
I used garden twine, but you could use wire too. I unfolded each coffee filter heart and snipped a little bit more to accentuate the cuts so I would have more defined petals.
Put a tiny snip in the center of each cut filter and poke the wire through the largest cut filter. Dab some Tacky Glue, then place the next smallest filter, dab the glue, then the next smallest filter, and so on and so forth. Once you have placed all of your coffee filters (at least four of them or five if you prefer), dab some glue on one of your quarter cut filters. Don't forget to stagger the heart shaped cuts so your petals end up mimicking a real rose. Wrap the quarter piece around the wire that is protruding up through your filters to place the flower center.
This next photo is the quarter piece for the flower center. Wrap that around the wire.
I used one-inch cloth tape I found at Walmart that I found in the first aid section. It's white and goes nicely with the coffee filters. Once all your filters are placed where they belong, squeeze all your coffee filters up toward the center of your wire stem and press them up close to your flower center quarter filter piece you just glued around the wire. Remember that each coffee filter got that dab of glue? Once you squeeze it upwards, the glue takes hold. Now cut a couple pieces of the cloth tape and wrap it around the filters and the wire stem. Once the cloth tape is in place, fluff your petals back out.
Here I set the flower in a glittered silver nest. Some of the roses got silver glitter sprinkled in their centers and some of the petals got outlined as well. These are great for package ties or tie them on your tree stems. You could even use them for napkin holders. Give these a try. They are inexpensive and easy peasy. Have a wonderful day.
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
Thursdays 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
I used spray glue and sprayed a strip of glue down the left hand edge of the construction paper and then carefully laid the wrapping paper right on the edge. With the left side secured, I lifted the wrapping paper back and sprayed the outer edges of the other three sides of the base paper and then a couple rows in the middle. The wrapping paper laid right down. I ran my hand over the newly made placemat and they were perfect. I trimmed any excess wrapping paper and now I have six pretty and festive placemats. I also have a lot of the wrapping paper left to wrap gifts with.
