Display Box and Sledges

Ooooh I was at "Mösi's flea and antique market" again and guess what? I came home with a lot of treasures again.
Not only because the owner René and Yvonne are such nice and sweet people but also because they've got A WHOLE HOUSE STUFFED WITH TREASURES! :)

My heart was dancing when I spotted an old metal sledge and an old puppet sledge with a weed basket in it and I also found an original baroque chest! These great pieces I will work on pretty soon to get them done for the christmas market.
Yes you heard it right! I'm already working on my christmas market products and I even was missing the snow on saturday while working on graphics for christmas cards and tags. Plan is to attend three christmas markets. One with my mom, one with my mother in law and one probably on my own. So I will have to keep it up to be able to sell on all three of them.
But I got back to summer by now and of course there will be many pieces and products for summer before.


First I would like to show you what I did out of this old garland showcase I've found the last time I was at Mösi's.
On this one I was working for quite a while because I had to paint it in a lot of steps but I think that it was worth time and effort!

Actually I wanted to do a 3D collage to it but when I saw the case shining in white I changed my mind. I thought it looked just beautiful as it was and I did not want to add much more to it.

This is how it was looking before. Fir wood, painted in a dark brown.

I did major cleaning on it, ripped the inside (paper with glued on fabric) out, grinded it and painted two layers of matt white paint.

The edges got distressed, the wood got waxed.

For the inside bottom I sewed four squares of two different (beautiful in my opinion!!) fabrics together and did a little "upholstery".

Then I glued on an old christmas tree candle holder (on which I ripped off the candle holder) and posted two cute vintage pictures of birds, which I found on Karen's blog (The Graphics Fairy) to the "ex"-candle holder and voilà.

My husband asked me: "Do you really want to sell it? I think you should use it to present your necklaces at the store."

Huh? This seems like a great idea to me! I decided to use it as a showcase for my jewelry but still, it is for sale because there are many purposes that this case could be used for. :)

Next to it I did two more of the "summer" tags. These are also made with images off of Karen's blog (The Graphics Fairy).

These tags go wonderful with the showcase because I used the same fabric on them.

Ok. For today I will enjoy summer and let winter be winter because the weather is just splendid!! Unfortunately I've got much work to do and will miss paragliding school once more. Have a wonderful day!

Love, Dina

Tags go multifunctional

What a week! But I finally found some time to relax this past weekend. Of course I could not sit still for longer than an hour or two.

I was working on some cool vintage tags using two beautiful images I found on Karen's blog , The Graphics Fairy.

I ripped the paper around the images and distressed the tags and the images with distressing ink and glued the images onto the tags.

Then I ripped some stripes off of fabric, scrunched them and bound them erratic (is that an english word??) onto the tags. On some I also used lace trim.

I used little metal keys, hearts and knickknacks to decorate.

Those tags also look great on a bottle or for decoration of anything. Even on or in books they look awesome.

I thought I would leave them blank (without any inscription on them) because they look very "summer-like" but I will also do some more with inscription.

And here there are some of them.

They are for sale on my shop too ;)

Photo Challenge

For today I decided to participate on Brenda Photo Challenge, organized by Donna.
Donna came up with the theme "May Flowers" and since I'm all in love with flowers and plants it was a blast. Unfortunately all the flowers where in bloom some weeks before they usually do but I caught some cool single macro shots... at least I think they're cool ;)
On the Brenda Photo Challenge post you also can see other entries. Just click on the link below the last photo of Donna and enjoy :)

So here are mine.
Click on the photos to enlarge.

And here is one I did just "for fun" :)

Bedside Tabels Makeover Part 2

Way too long a go I posted about the bedside tables (Makeover Part 1).
The knobs arrived two days later but I just did not get to finish these two little sucker-punches. ;)

Well here is part 2.
The paint of part one dried properly and I started out doing a little distressing on the edges first using a steal brush and afterwards a sandpaper (nr 120)... sorry for my hands are distressed too...

Then I cleaned the dust and the splinters of the paint as always with a vacuum cleaner and a dust cloth.

If the surface is clean and dry you can start to decorate.

I did some decoration before and after waxing. Anything that has to be glued and painted on I did before waxing.

Now this is a cool thing I want to share with you! I got these beautiful and neat metal findings from Dime Store Emporium that are oxidized by hand and glued them onto the front edges and the front door.

Also I glued some pretty cute lace with shell buttons on it on the front of the drawer

I thought that it would be cool to paint some vines on the front too, so I mixed acrylic paint in the same greenish color as the metal findings are.

After the paint was dry I noticed that the holes of the old knobs where not in the middle of the drawer and the front door....wow! Custom and handmade furniture with non measured holes??

What to do now? My vines where looking pretty crooked.

So: NEVER rely on the carpenter that was measuring the holes before you checked on them... ;P

I did the laziest thing I ever could do.

NEVER do the laziest you can possibly do...but sometimes it's the best thing! ;)

I did so.

The paint was dry and I just added some more vines to the left and the right, they made no sense by the way but I knew what I was going for...

Afterwards I did a massive amount of distressing with sandpaper and pretended that half of the vines vanished throughout the years.

For a smooth finish I applied one layer of clear liquid furniture wax with a towel. Take care of the glued on items by leaving a little space around them while waxing. 

I made new holes for my pretty furniture knobs and shortened the screws with a metal saw.

Because I thought it would look neat I distressed some gift tags with distressing ink and glued a rusty heart on each of them and bound them with a thread on the lace.

DONE!

 ...Tadaaaaaaaaa!

These two bedside tables are for sale and available on Mad Tea Parties

If they won't show up in the shop please check later on it again.

Unfortunately they have to be picked up in Vaduz (Liechtenstein) because I can't handle to bill the postage to you... sorry for that!!

Love, 

Dina

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Bedside Tables Makeover Part 1

Last week I incarcerated a nerve or something on my right shoulder so I was a little bit handicapped but I thought I will feel better soon. Well, this morning I woke up and found myself incarcerated on both shoulders.... the hunchback of Notre-Dame is alive!

So this is why I could not really do anything but I managed it to steel brush and grind some bedside tables I started to redo some weeks ago.

To do the whole tutorial on one post would be too long of a story anyways and I have to wait for the knobs I ordered to finish them so I decided to post the first part today. The second part will be up as soon as I got the knobs which I found on MIK Funshopping. I had a hard time on picking one of them because I think that they are all wonderful!

The bedside tables I preserved from being trashed at a removal are hand and custom made and differ a little from each other. They had this good old mountain cabin look which in my opinion is looking good in a mountain cabin on two thousand meter up high and nowhere else. ;)

I removed the metal fittings and knobs which where in a different style on both of them and cleaned the wood with the vacuum cleaner and a dust cloth.

Afterwards I grinded them gently with sandpaper nr 100 and afterwards with nr 180 for a smoother finish and preparation. Please never forget to wear a dust-mask while grinding! I know they smell but it's better than getting a black lung of all the dust!

After grinding a major cleaning has to be done! Otherwise the paint won't stick properly to the wood.

Again I used the vacuum cleaner and a dust cloth.

When all the dust is gone you will see if there are any spots that have to be grinded again. Depending on the previous treatment of the wood and depending on what kind of paint you use it's not necessary to grind all the way. Ask for advice when buying the paint! There you can get useful tips.

Since I'm kind of lazy sometimes I didn't mind that I found a paint that worked on lightly grinded ground.

I started to paint all the insides (drawers and tables). Oh, and even if it's annoying don't forget to cover the floor with plastic before doing such projects!

Since I was up for a shabby look I used a brush with middle thick hair. There also get some useful advice at the place you buy your material. If you are up for a smooth look it's better to use a roller or a brush with thin hair. The thicker the hair the shabbier the look and it won't cover up all the way.

For my project, as I said, I used a brush with middle thick hair and I only painted one layer because I wanted the wood to shine through my paint.

I used a white matt indoor paint on a water basis.

While grinding I found this number on the inside of one of the tables and I thought it would be cool if it would shine through so I didn't use a lot of paint around it. I thought this was kind of a neat detail!

Make sure the drawers and doors won't lean against anything while the paint is wet unless you would like to include this effect into the finish of your project... ;)

Let it all dry proper before continuing.

Ok. This was part one. I know, I know: that was the boring part and at least I would wait for the second part to know about the finish. Well lets hope the knobs will arrive soon!

Love,

Dina

About Mad Tea Parties

Some would name the month of November grey but my guess is that this month is offering an abundance of inspiration in many ways. You just have to listen to it. This is how the idea of "Mad Tea Parties" was born on a grey November day.

I started out with the idea of sewing frame purses such as clutches but starting with nothing but the idea in my head was disillusioning! I trashed a lot of tries but I got closer and closer!
This would be the moment to post a picture of my first few tries but I guess it would get too embarrassing! hehe
Besides I started out making little brooches and hair clips out of small rosettes and meshes of fabric leftovers. It was a lot of fun because I used the naked hair clips left of my hairdresser years. Don't worry; I've never used them in three years so they are new and in great shape ;)

After a while and a lot of research I made the first useable and good looking frame purse and I think it got really neat, didn't it?

First usable frame purse

The purses got better and better and I started to use a lot of different pattern and frame sizes and next to it I started out making jewelry.
Then I made my first pattern for a handbag with handles and fitting purses with the same fabric, so the first collections where born.

Some months later I saw these beautiful and old bedside tables that where about to get trashed and since I'm in love with shabby chic and similar styles I adopted them to be my guinea pigs.

And this is how Mad Tea Parties developed and grew and I'm proud of every single piece I've made so far!
Also I'm very thankful for Jessi at Coiffeur "Phoenix" in Glarus (Switzerland) and Cati at Piercinstudio "Beauty of Pain" in Triesen (Liechtenstein) for selling some of my collections and pieces!

So I hope for a lot of new projects, ideas and new pieces and hope you'll also find something interesting on my blog or in my little shop on Mad Tea Parties.

About me

Hi there! :)

I NEVER wanted to create my own blog.
Well now I'm here trying to get use to all of these functions and gadgets and I have to admit once more: I'm not a computer person at all!

I'm Dina, married and I'm living with my husband, our border collie "Abigail" and our cat "Nala" in Vaduz (Liechtenstein) and we are a real bunch of artists.
Abby is our newest family member. We got her in the middle of April with eight months.
I fell in love with her the first second I saw her and so did my husband.

Abigail "Abster"

I was born in Switzerland what may excuse my "school"-English although I was living in the state of Minnesota for almost one year... my English got worse since I didn't use it much over the past few years but I'm trying to get into it again.

Actually I've learned the job of a hairdresser but stopped it right after finishing education. Guess that wasn't what I was really up for.
I got into music by singing and composing and with it back to my favorite hobby: being creative in so many ways... I started over again with drawing and painting, started with collaging, graphics, filming, photographing and soon sewing and some crafts projects where following.
This is how I one fine day got to "Mad Tea Parties".

Besides all this creative stuff I've been drawn to old things, books, listening to music, watching a good movie, going for walks and training with Abby and all of this with a good cup of coffee  :)
I love snow, thunderstorms, paragliding, nature and my little but beautiful garden.

So this is about it for now. I hope you'll have a good time reading my posts and I hope they'll turn out interesting and/or useful. ;)

Love, Dina