Treasury Tuesday

Here is this week's collection of beautiful hand crafted products for your enjoyment.













See you next week with more things to amaze the eyes and soothe the soul.

Trash to Treasure

Ok so I finally got my act together to bring you the long hinted at Beach Project.....

So trashy find one was this bunch of shells - some collected over many years (childhood trips to see my grandparents on Long Island, NY), others from a trip to Galveston, TX while working in Houston for my day job and others purchased at garage sales from other peoples trips to interesting beachy places.

 

The second trashy find was this garage sale frame and cigar box.  Both of these are in nice condition and could be used as is for whatever but I decided that they were a little be plain in there current state.

Supplies: 

Shells

Wood Picture Frame

Hot Glue

Razor Blade Knife

Step 1: Sorting
You need to sort the shells and decide what your color pallet is going to be, what size shells fit your frame, is it going to be only shells or do you have coral, stone, sea glass in your collection of beach finds.  Do you want to add additional items?  Well now is the time to go get them out.

Step 2: Putting it all together
Now comes the time consuming part.  If your frame has a finish on it, sand it off so that the wood is rough thereby giving it texture for the glue to grab.  Dust off the saw dust before you start to lay out your design.  Start to lay out shells in what ever manner pleases your eye.  I found that I could only lay out a few shells before they start to slip off or out of place. Then glue those shells in place and move on to laying out and fitting more shells into place and glue those on.  As you go you will probably have drips and strings so stop and scrape them off with a razor blade knife.  This will keep your project nice and neat.  We do NOT want any tacky here....

Step 3: Finishing it off
Keep placing, adding and gluing until all of the spaces are covered including any small spaces where the shells do not meet.  These gap spaces can be covered from above with another shell or you could wind a strand of faux pearls around the frame to cover these spots.  Let your creativity run wild... until to have recycled art to wear and love.

Here is my finished frame displaying a vintage Hampton Beach postcard.  If you like this frame but are not up to the 3 or so hours it takes to create this 5 x 7 inch frame it is available for purchase in my shop:
www.verycreativecreations.etsy.com

Now for the cigar box that will become a sailor's Valentine jewelry box..... look for that one in the near future.

Treasury Tuesday

Here are the special Treasuries for this week:













Well that's all for now. See you on Thursday for the beach trash to treasure project.

Treasury Tuesday

Here are the beautiful things create by awesome artists this week:










See you next week with more of the beauty of Etsy....

Trash to Treasure

Ok, many things have gotten in the way of the Trash to Treasure feature I wanted to present today.  SOoooo... no beach project this week.  If I am lucky I will present it next week as an unscheduled special posting.

So in place of my beach Trash to Treasure I will present you with my next best thing..... an antique button upcycle.

This project is based on a tin full of antique buttons that I found at the local flea market.  Now I needed these special little beauties like I needed another hole in the head buuuttt who could pass them up.  I have thousands of buttons just waiting for their turn in the sun, so to speak.

 

So as I began to play with these small sweet metal pieces of artwork, I begin to think what can I do with these.  Finally I decided a bracelet would honor these best and show off the dainty beauty of these antique pieces of art. 

 So now how do I not ruin these scarce to rare pieces of fashion history to create this new piece of recycled art to wear and love.  Well I found pink mother of pearl flower beads in my stash.  These are drilled from side to side with a hole in the center just perfect for the shank of the button button to fit in.

After laying the design out and spending about 1/2 hour to an hour fiddling with it and stringing it.  Here is the outcome.  What do you think?

Now if you really like this bracelet and think you would like to own it, it is available in my shop.

 www.verycreativecreation.etsy.com

Be on the look out for the special beach post coming soon to you!

Treasury Tuesday

Check out all the wonderful things I found for you this week:











Enjoy and see you on Thursday for Trash to Treasure.

Reminder.....

Hey this is just a quick post to REMIND You to look for next Thursday's Trash to Treasure post.

I am in the process of gathering, organizing, taking pictures for this neat post base on summer at the beach.

This will be a great way to save memories and provide you with future gift items.

So look for this great idea next Thursday June 9th!!!