Knitted cupcakes and flowers

Today in the village we held our yearly Garden Club Flower show.

The weather was not great, a very cold start with lots of rain, also our voting day, but lots of visitors came and had a look at the Spring Flower displays.

I booked a table for some of my shabby chic recycled pieces and also craft items.

My knitted cup cakes were a good talking point,one lady asked me if the real cupcake was inside,so the look on her face when I told her that inside was only stuffing was slightly interesting!

Knitted cupcakes

 Of course we had a little cafe with lots of homemade baking and hot drinks and this was a great place to catch up with some of my friends and people from the village.

Little decoupaged tins

 Later in the day the rain cleared and that was good for packing up.
The end of a nice day in Mapua.

Decoupage and transfers

The Garden flower show

Decoupage, transfers and shabby chic

Very popular techniques are the decoupage and transfers onto furniture in the Shabby chic course.

 Gilded decoupaged box.

 Lovely finishes with wrapping paper and napkins.

Black and white napkin glued onto box

Distressed shabby chic chair and new fabric

Distressed cabinet with lace fabric

Two furniture pieces once brown wood finish, now in light colours and  the chair upholstered with new fabric.
These pieces are a few examples of the Shabby chic course just finished.

wreaths made from grapevine cuttings

This year I worked in the local vineyard helping with thinning of the vines, leaf picking and the harvest.

I love the look of grapevine wreaths and I asked if I could have some cuttings in Autumn to make my own wreaths.

Last week I picked up some cuttings, but because it is late in the season and the pruning of the vines is nearly finished, the cuttings are dry and brittle.

So I soaked the branches in the bath for nearly two days.

Finished wreath

 

The soaking of the cuttings and a brick holds them down.

The start of the wreath.

 I used a long branch and carefully shaped this into a circle, with a little copper wire I tied the bottom of the wreath together.

 Next I wove the branches in and out around the first circle and luckily because of the soaking in the bath, the cuttings were pliable enough to bend.

More finished wreaths.

 I try to leave the tendrils on the cuttings and also some dried up grapes, this gives more texture to the wreath. I like the rustic handmade look, so much more interesting then the mass produced wreaths.
And made from cuttings from a local vineyard!
Maybe I will spray some white and turn them into shabby chic wreaths.
I will use the left over branches to make stars and hearts for Christmas.
In September I am part of the Shabby Chic market and they will look great on my stall.

The vineyard were I worked and one of the bottle of wines from the vineyard

Just before the thinning of the vines.

Shabby Chic market at Beacon Hill

The second Shabby Chic market at Beacon Hill Estate in Stoke, Nelson.

A beautiful sunny Autumn day and with 25 stalls a lot of variety of all things Shabby Chic.

This time I had my own stall as well and it was great not only to sell my handmade Shabby Chic furniture and crafts, but to have so many people visit the stall.

It was a great day!

a vintage dress near at the entrance of the barn

 Crocheted  bunting

A beautiful display

One of the Shabby Chic stalls

Easter Bird nests made from Cabbage Tree leaves.

Close up with a decoupaged egg in the shabby chic nest

This coming Thursday I am part of organizing a morning tea for the elderly in our village and because Easter is this weekend I like to have some different Easter decorations on the tables.

All the visitors will get a little Easter gift bag with chocolate eggs  from my friend Jean volunteering as the Easter Bunny.

In New Zealand the Cabbage tree is part of the New Zealand landscape and a native tree.

Also many gardens have Cabbage Trees, my garden has the cultivated smaller Cabbage trees.

The leaves are tough and the tree sheds its leaves and often those are dried up and also great to use as a fire lighter to start the wood burner.

The small wreaths made from Cabbage Tree leaves

 I collected some leaves and wove those into small wreaths. I used a spray can to spray the wreaths gold.

Coloured feathers.

Shabby chic bag tutorial " Where William Morris and Paris meet".

The view out of my studio on a rainy day!

Last Sunday we had rain after 6 weeks of no rain and this was a perfect day to do some sewing.
I spend most of the day in my studio behind the sewing machine making a shabby chic bag.
The image on the fabric is from a decoupage sheet I bought at Spotlight and I transferred the image with
"Picture This" Transfer medium for light and dark fabrics.
I cut out the image from the sheet and then covered the front with the medium.
 I placed it down onto the fabric and I let the image dry for a couple of days.
I wet the back of the image with a damp sponge and very carefully rubbed of the paper backing till all the paper fluff was gone.
Next I found some of my old lace and pearl buttons and some glass beads and I sewed the different laces around the image.

The next stage was looking for some nice material for the bag and in my stack of materials I found a piece of Liberty material with the "Strawberry Thief" print, one of William Morris designs.
I think Paris and William Morris go well together, so the decision was made to use this piece of fabric.
With a fine zigzag stitch I sewed my lace pieces onto the fabric.
Then I decorated with the buttons and beads and sewed the piece onto the front of the bag with a fine zigzag stitch.

On Sundays our local quilt shop in Mapua is open till 3 pm and I dashed out quickly to get a small piece of French print fabric before closing time. The rain came down in buckets and the village looked deserted, but the lady in the quilt shop said she had a busy day, so I think more sewers did the same thing and worked away behind their machines and came out to get some quick supplies.

I cut out a small piece of the "French" fabric and ironed some interfacing on the back.
Then I sewed it onto the back of the bag piece with a fine zigzag stitch again.

Next I choose I heavy weight material for the lining of the bag and used my trusted over locker to sew the two lining pieces together.

The bag needed a handle, so I cut a wide strip of fabric, ironed the strip and then folded the first part to the center, then the second part to the center and then folded the piece double and sewed the handle together on the right side of the fabric.
 This way I don't need to turn the handle inside out anymore, what I hate doing.
Next I made a fabric fastener in the same way as the handle, but used a much smaller strip of fabric.
I sewed the bag together with the right sides facing then turned the bag the right way out and placed the lining inside the bag.
Next I folded the lining and the top of the bag neatly together and pinned the handle and a fabric fastener in place and then carefully sewed around the top of the bag.
To strengthen the handles and fastener I sewed a few extra times over the placement of the handle and fastener.
Lastly I sewed the big pearl button on, so I can close the bag.

Voila! A shabby chic bag made on a rainy Sunday!!

Decoupage projects from the Shabby Chic course.

 The photographs are finished decoupaged pieces from the Shabby Chic class held at Waimea College.
The top photographs is a tray decoupaged with old music paper and finished with roses cut out of wrapping paper.
The face is a reversed image from a photocopy, interesting the black and white image has a green tint to it now.
The last photograph is a decoupaged tray with cut out teacups again out of wrapping paper.

Shabby Chic Frames

This week is a week of workshops at home. My open studio weekend as part of the Ruby Coast Art week  was success full, I sold well and had interest in my workshops of mosaic, shabby chic and jewellery making.
I really enjoy running workshops from home, because of my studio size I can only have three people max,but all my materials and equipment is in my studio and we always have a coffee break with cake of course.

Yesterday we did Shabby Chic Frames with home made chalk paints.
I like to use baking soda and plaster of paris, easy to buy at any hardware store and supermarket.
The baking soda is mixed with water and then acrylic paint is added:     6 teaspoons of baking soda.
The plaster of paris is mixed with water and then acrylic paint is added: 3 teaspoons of plaster.

I only mix enough for a frame. The consistency should be like cream and when I add the paint I stir well.
The baking soda chalk paint is gritty when applied, but can be sanded back to a smooth surface and I really like the effect of the baking soda, it gives the look of lime washed wood.
The plaster paint is chalky and had a mat finish and not easy to sand back, very durable.
I like to rub a candle on the surface first before applying the plaster paint for easier sanding.

Many different layers of paint can be applied and each layer sanded back to reveal the colour underneath.
The ladies enjoyed the workshop and have already ideas to give pieces of furniture a new make over.

The next Shabby Chic Course: distressing furniture

The next Shabby chic course started and with ten ladies working on different pieces it will be exciting to see what the results will be.
The first night is about distressing furniture and layering paint.
The sanding is the hardest part, but after cleaning the furniture with a soft rag, the painting can start.
A candle is used to rub onto the edges of the furniture, because the wax will resist the paint and the top layer can be easier sanded down.
Many layers of paint can be applied this way and each time candle wax can be applied and the paint sanded back to reveal the colour underneath.
One of the ladies is going to paint her bathroom cabinet this way and she started with blue, next green and she likes to apply two more colours.
Exciting to see that bright colours are used, Shabby Chic doesn't always has to be in cream and white.

Shabby chic course: finishing

 The last night of the shabby Chic course for this term.
The end results are really beautiful and all so different.
From a recycled frame made into a nautical picture, a decoupaged and gilded mannequin, a shabby chic table with a printed image and a decoupaged and gilded angel.
These are just a few of the amazing finished pieces the ladies worked on over the last 6 weeks.
Its great to see the creativity and the individuality of the work the ladies produced and I hope they will continue making more beautiful art.

Shabby chic course: antiquing

In the shabby chic course this week we did antiquing and painting 'shabby chic roses'.
Mostly I use burnt umber oil paint and odourless turps for antiquing, but  an acrylic burnt umber paint can be used thinned down with water.
The only disadvantage with a water base antiquing medium is the quicker drying time.
Another great way is to colour clear furniture bees wax with a little burnt umber acrylic paint and use this for antiquing furniture. The wax needs to be buffed up with a soft cloth.
The furniture piece doesn't need to be varnished anymore after waxing.
The "shabby chic roses" are simple folk art roses from France and looks nice painted in soft colours and sanded back to create an aged look.

Shabby chic Decoupage

Decoupage looks great on furniture, boxes, old vases and many other items.
I think decoupage objects add charm to the shabby chic interior, because it evokes feelings of the past and many memories.
Not only photographs, but wrapping papers,traveling documents, postcards, music paper and serviettes can be used. The list is endless.
It was great to see the many different ideas on Wednesday night and the ladies spend the time on cutting and gluing the images.
I used PVA glue mixed with water: 2 parts of glue to 1 part of water so to speak.
Mixed well in a glass jar with lid,the glue will keep for a while.
When gluing the images onto the object its very important to brush enough glue on the back of the image and then brush glue on top of the image as well and I use my fingers to carefully spread the glue and get rid of air bubbles.
Also a damp sponge can be used to take of excess glue.
Normally ink jet copies from the photocopier are a no no for decoupage, but two ladies used ink jet copies and the ink didn't bleed when the glue was applied, so that was interesting.
Next week we will antique all the pieces done during the course and try our hand at painting shabby chic roses!
The last photograph is a decoupage icon I did a few years ago.