Back on Track

Good Morning World,

it's been a while!
I'm back with some impressions of new products I'll be presenting and selling at the christmas Market in Sargans (Switzerland).
Unfortunately I wasn't able to realize all of the projects my busy brain came up with this year but I'll give my best to catch up!

I also was working on a lot of furniture but I haven't been able to take reasonable photographs due to a huge mess taking over. BUT getting there step by step. ;)

Here we go...

Much love!
Dina

Playing with birds and a stinky dog

Good Sunday! First of all thank you for 20'000 page views!! I feel so flattered! :)

This morning Abby came back inside all stinky. She perfumed herself with fox dung and felt oh so good. Yuck! Hello spring... :)

I still can't do much today but in a pain-free minute I managed it to take some pictures of the tags I did last week. They are very easy to make.
Look for pictures ( you can find royalty free pictures on The Graphics Fairy's blog) but make sure they are royalty free in your country too especially if you'd like to sell the tags.
Arrange them as you wish, print, cut, pierce and use hemp or burlap twine or a ribbon that matches the colors of the graphic. Done.
I keep using mat photo paper or marbled paper, mostly in brown. If you wish you can add age with a wet teabag or coffee ground. Just press it onto the paper and add stains. It's a lot of fun to play with it.
Tags are great to decorate all kind of things, not only gifts.

Have a great rest of the weekend!
Much love, Dina

But it's a Philippe!

You know, over here in Switzerland and Liechtenstein antique stuff is expensive. Waaay more expensive than in the US and if you have an original Louis Philippe furniture you better leave it untouched because you have an ORIGINAL Louis Philippe furniture...
I got one. It's a table with gorgeous carving and everything a Louis Philippe should have. I immediately
fell in love with it and just had to have it. Mösi gave me a more than great price on it and I had it for quite a while now wondering where I should paint it, because I don't have that much of space to work.

Last Monday my neighbors went on vacation and lucky me got half of the garage for myself. the quest was clear: paint the Louis.

Here is the before:

With Annie Sloan "Louis Blue" (how cool is that?!) I was on the right way. I used "Old White" for the carvings and a little bit of dark wax for an antique finish.
Mösi came over when I was done with it and I told him: "you will faint if you see what I did to the table!"
Brave as ever he followed me into the garage. I went: "Tadaaa"
Mösi:"I've seen furniture painted like this before and I know a girl that has painted furniture in her whole apartment.....(and his voice jumped at least one octave higher)....but it's an original Philippe!

...I know! And I like it this way! Obviously no one wanted him the way it looked before so I decided to give it a new spin. Ha!

And here it is.
Much love, Dina

   

Sneaky

Today I would like to show you some sneaks of some of the things I'm working on. Some things are done, waiting to get photographed and some of them are in progress.
Enjoy! :)
Much love, Dina

Time is a suitcase...

...loaded with good things.

Suitcase Rummage in Lucerne, Switzerland
www.koffermarkt-luzern.ch

Yes ladies, I did my first "suitcase rummage" at the end of the last year in Lucerne. "Last year" sounds so weird, or is it just me...
I got an invitation to it without knowing what it is but I was thrilled when I found out what it's all about. It swapped over to Switzerland fully now and there are popping up suitcase rummages all over the country for this year.

No need to say: I had a BLAST and my bags and necklaces seemed to be some of the hot sellers which made my heart sing! By the time I went home there where six small pieces left, so no rummage anymore. I even sold my decoration to a girl; a brooch I used to tag some lace. She wanted it really bad so I gave her a good deal.

On this occasion I naturally wanted to have a unique suitcase.
Here is what I did...

When I got the case the false leather outside was a bright orange-deer-brown and the also-ghastly, brown satin fabric inside was splotchy. Well, don't get me wrong, I guess it looked funky in the 70's. Unfortunately this was the only suitcase at the flea market.

The decision was made with ease, I ripped out the fabric inside and spotted cardboard underneath!
A cardboard suitcase! All right!

I painted the false leather on the outside with Annie Sloan Chalk Paint (yes, I did!) Duck Egg Blue, let it dry and then I brushed old white onto it. Just some strokes with an almost dry brush to bring out the highlights.
In this case I did not wax it for I wanted this dry and matt look, keeping in mind that the color could chip off and get wet. As a small decoration I used oxidized metal stamps (a butterfly, a leave and a tag).

On the inside I used Japanese Cotton Fabric (50% Cotton, 50% Linen), glued and sealed it with Mod Podge. You could use outdoor Mod Podge if you would like to be able to wipe a surface with a wet towel.

I did a quick upholstery for the inside of the cover with a light cream cotton fabric and then, decorated with a lace trim (for hanging up some earrings) and two bronze brooches (yes, that where the ones selling too).

Actually you could use such a suitcase as a decorating item in your home too where it could hold magazines, kids toys, books, remote controls, a cat (?)...or just shine.

And here it is in action! Much love, Dina

    

   

Paloma Wipe Off

First of all: THANKS SO MUCH! to Courtney of A Diamond in the Stuff for featuring me on her Time to Shine Link Party! And a big thank you to all of you who visited my link and made it the most viewed of that party!!

"Summer" is back driving us crazy with it's heat!! The best to do: Either don't move or...don't move!
Unfortunately I can't do so but I try not to get too active.

Finally I managed to order some more of Annie Sloan Chalk Paint and first of all I had to try out Paloma. This is a color with a great shade which changes from warm to cold depending on it's environment and ground.
I wanted to try another painting technique which I've seen on the Annie Sloan page and on several blogs, including Marian's Miss Mustardseed. Both of them explain it well and there are different ways to do it and that is why I won't get too much into details.

Another reason for using this technique is that I discovered the great wood of this chest while sanding and I wanted it to be seen.

I covered the surface with the paint and wiped off all the excess.

If you do it immediately after painting you'll get off most of the color. If that's too much coming off, you just let it dry a little bit and wipe the color off a little later.
You can play with that and it's so easy and fun!

Afterwards I printed two graphics of Karen's Blog The Graphics Fairy onto a white cotton fabric. There also are enough of tutorials where you can read how to do this. If you still would like to know, I surely can make a tutorial on this! Just let me know.

I used Mod Podge to glue one of the graphics to the cover and brushed another layer of it onto the fabric for protection. Be careful not to rub off the image with the Mod Podge.
Let it dry and THEN wax the piece but be careful around the fabric.

On the inside I did a little upholstery with the bird graphic sewed onto the fabric.

Done :)

Much love, Dina