Junking

While in Phoenix, this past week, I stopped by two very special, vintage, 'junking' shops:  Sweet Salvage and Melrose Vintage.  And oh my!  I just love both of these vintage, chippy paint, junking stores.  They are both very different, but very wonderful!

My first stop was @ Sweet Salvage.  This shop is on 7th Street.  And only open 4 days a month.  Yeah, you read that correctly.  4 days a month.  The third thursday thru that Sunday, this vintage, retro, 'junking' store opens its doors to an eager community.  I took my oldest granddaughter, and she loved it too!  We are now planning another trip.  {smile}

I picked up these bed springs.  Well, I also picked up a vintage skirt, some cheese graters, a window, and a few other little trinkets. {smile}  Now, when I brought these home, my husband was speechless.  Rusty bedsprings?  You paid cash?  Yes, I did!  I have plans for these bed springs.  I want to create a decor piece with them.  My current 'plan' is to distress a wooden frame, insert a burlap covered matt board.  I want to attach the bed springs to the burlap.  I'm thinking with a staple gun.  I also want to string lights through the bed springs.  I'll take pictures, during my process and share those with you, soon.  {smile}

And right down 7th street, is this charming, vintage shop: Melrose Vintage.  This little shop is open a few days a week, Wednesday thru Saturday.  This beautifully decorated shop has vintage, french furniture, antiques, decor items, Rachel Ashwell fabrics and paints, and a scrapbook section.

I picked up three different Rachel Ashwell fabrics at this vintage shop, along with a whole roll of this sweet pale pink seam binding.  I know, how super beautiful!  I don't have any 'real' plans for the fabric, but these beautiful, pink blossom fabrics, will add just the right amount of shabby chic-ness to any project.  {smile}

I also picked up some pattern papers, these paper blossoms, sequins, tins, and 2 rolls of this beautiful frayed-edge fabric.  The tins are pretty shallow, so those will make wonderful holiday ornaments.  The roll of fabric will be used for another fabric strip banner.

Thank you for stopping by.  I will be baking cupcakes tomorrow for a party.  I'll take a photo or two and share those with you, too!  Have a great weekend, and hopefully you get a chance to create something beautiful!

Glacier Painted Tin

Howdy!  I want to share a craft I am making for my upcoming Arts & Craft Fair in a few weeks.  For those who follow me, I love vintage country chic.  And I love sharing what I create.  So, this craft fair is the perfect venue just for that {smile}.

Let me warn you now.  This craft takes a few days.  But, I believe it is well worth it {smile}.  I think if it can be crafted in 10 mins or less, it doesn't really have any heart.  [Let me apologize for those of you, who love 10m in challenges.]

To begin, I took a plain, hinged lid tin.  Its the size of an Altoid tin, but without the metal embossing. I used my chalk paints to give this plain tin some dimension.  I first painted Burlap chalk paint.  Let it dry for 8 hours*.  Then I painted Cotton chalk paint over that.  Let it dry 8 hours.  Then I painted Glacier chalk paint.  Let it dry 8hrs.  Then, I let the whole tin cure for 24hours**.  

[*I live in the desert, so my drying time is shorter than those living in another part of the country.  Typically chalk paint needs to dry for up to 24hrs.]  

[**curing time allows to the paint to bond to the surface.]

Now comes the fun part - distressing!  I took a sanding block and sanded the whole tin.  I allowed the sanding block to dictate where I would distress more.  It felt more random and natural for me to do it this way.  For the dry distressing, I used two different grits of sand paper to distress smaller areas.  I also did a wet distressing for finer paint removal.

You will have to look close.  But look close.  The larger patches on the top are NOT sanded down to the metal.  Thats Burlap chalk paint peeking through.  Also, there are some small patches were the (white) Cotton chalk paint is peeking through.  There are a few places were I distressed down to the metal.

Ok, now I need to seal what I did in the distressing.  So, I sponged on the sealant.  Let it sit for  20 mins, and then took a cloth and buffed it.  Now it needs to sit for 24hours to cure.  This project will test your patience.  But all good things take time.  Also, if you start on Friday after work, you should be able to complete one by Sunday evening. {smile}

Because I couldn't wait for my curing time, or to take a photo, the top is not actually complete.  The paper and embellishments are just placed on top of the tin for photographing.  I will actually adhere them later today, after the sealant has cured.

I took a scrap piece of stacked pattern paper, and tore all the way around the piece I wanted.  I sponged the edges with Corduroy distress ink by Ranger.  I added a scrap piece of aqua crochet trim.  Tied a vintage vanilla button with kraft twine.  I love how vintage, aged, and sweet this tin turned out.  It looks like something you would find on your grandma's farm.  Tucked away in the attic, or lost in the barn. {smile}

The inside is a little prettier.  I used Corner Shop pattern paper collection by Tilda.  I love the aqua pattern paper in that collection.  Some of these pattern papers look like vintage wall paper, while others are just sweet and gorgeous!  Let's take a look:

I used my 1/2" corner rounder to make the corners fit a little better.  I left the bottom empty.  So, no matter what you place inside, it will fit {smile}.  I used pattern papers that have this glacier/aqua color in them, to coordinate with the outside color.  

For the inside of the lid, I took a scrap piece of pool party seam binding and some white crochet trim and machine stitched them to the pattern paper stack.  Then I tied a trio of buttons with cream twine.  The buttons are adhered to the lid with hot glue, so they will lay as flat as possible, and hopefully don't get pulled off {fingers crossed}.

Thank you for looking.  So far, I have three Glacier painted tins and two Shell (a pale, soft pink) painted tins.  I haven't quite decided if I am going to paint more, or simply decorate them with pattern paper.  If I paint them, I need to start painting very soon.  Hmmmm.  But I will post a few photos of them once I have them completed. Look for these little cuties for sale at my next craft show @ La Cueva High School, in Albuquerque, NM, on Saturday May 2, 2015.