Bits & Baubles

Yes, I've made a few more trips to The Scrap Exchange in the last month or so.  What else can I do when their Facebook status taunts me with mysterious new treasures?  

I know that some of the things I bought may seem silly, but they jumped into my basket.  Things at Scrap Exchange seem to do that.  

I don't sew a lot so I don't have a lot of fabric scraps, especially the smaller printed, quilting like fabric.  I can get a handful of little scraps, all different, for under $1.  

Buy puzzle pieces?  Yep.  I don't have a puzzle & don't really want to run out & buy a whole box when I only need a few pieces.

I also bought a few laminate samples, empty tins & lunch tickets.  I dunno what I'm going to do with everything, but I'll have fun experimenting.  I also happened upon a Speedball lino cutter handle & a brand new Speedball carving block.  I just have to get the little nibs then I can carve my own rubber stamps for my art journal and mixed media pieces.  

The little wooden houses were .10 cents a piece so I thought I"d paint them, then attach the "chimes" from an old wind chime, similar to one that I revamped a couple of weeks go.

I don't remember where I got this wind chime, but it sounds pretty & I don't like to just get rid of things if I can "pretty" them up a bit.

The colors were a little bland to me, so I brightened them up a bit.  A little gesso to prime them, then acrylic paint.  I haven't sealed it yet.

I'm going to look around at The Dollar Tree to see if I can find a wind chime that I can take apart & use with the little wooden birdhouses I got The Scrap Exchange.

I looove the leather pieces that I was able to get for $1 a piece & have big plans for them.  Maybe a couple of journals, maybe a couple of leather cuffs. 

More leather, more fabric & I love, love, love the vintage Christmas bulbs.  I had to stop myself from snaggling all of the bulbs, but Mama said it's nice to share.

Here are a couple of ATCs that I made for an online swap using a few of the things I bought.  The theme was Valentine love (of course).

The base of the ATCs are playing cards which are the perfect ATC size.  A little fabric, paper, ribbons, sewing & here's one:

Again, I use a playing card for a base, but covered it with book pages, cheesecloth, paint and more paper.  Both of these have safely reached their destination of Wales, UK.  ATC swaps are so much fun.  I've only done it for 2 months & so far my creations have gone to Canada & Wales.  I love it!!

Look what came back to me:

How sweet are these?  I love how she told a story with those two ATCs.

I spray painted 3 of my old plastic patio chairs & had a little green paint left over.  I have intensely disliked the mailbox on the front of my house for a while, but the ones I do like are so expensive.  I sanded the mailbox, cleaned it, primed it, then sprayed several thin coats of paint.  It went from rusty & painted black (sorry, no before pics) to this.  I accented the design on the top with a little gold paint & cleaned the over spray from the address bracket before I hung it back up.  Once I started working on it, I realized that it was a really nice, thick mailbox so I'm glad I decided to paint it instead of buying another.  They don't make em like they used to.

I'm sure my mail carrier is just tickled by my "new" mailbox & I'm sure it makes his heart lighter & his step more jiggly just by looking at the happy new color.  Ok, that was dripping with sarcasm, but at least it's something a little different that the standard black or brass that he looks at all day.  I can also identify my house by the one with the apple green mailbox.

A few cards I made for Mom & Grandma for Valentine's Day.

I have a few things that I'm working on right now, but they don't seem to be cooperating with me.  I have them in time out so hopefully they'll be more cooperative when I go back to them.  Until I "see" you again, I wish you all happy days & fair weather.