Traveling Treasures

I spent a long weekend visiting my family in NJ. Coincidentally, there were two antique shows going on when I was in town. Lucky me! We even brought my 3-year-old niece with us, for better or worse.

Here's a look at some of the treasures that came home with me (I had to leave two old books with my parents because my suitcase was already full).

The lace tablecloth will go perfectly with a new dining table display I set up before I left. I picked up a piece of old fabric, some jewelry bits and bobs, and two bisque dolls. I know I should have bought more of them.

The old tin with cats was too cute to pass up. And so were these little mugs! I have 5 total, with another sheep and chick.

We stopped in a thrift shop and I found four boxes of these old stick-on letters. I think they were used for putting names on glass doors and windows, because I can't imagine who else would need so many of these letters. My sister thought I was crazy when I opened one of the boxes and said "jackpot!" Some of these will end up on etsy, whenever I can get organized enough.

Here's what my niece enjoyed doing while I was there - dressing up and dancing ballet with me. She made the pink tissue paper flower and greeted me at the airport with it. She was so excited! I'll get to see her again next month, so saying good-bye wasn't nearly as hard this time.

The Bees Knees

It seems like every other project that I see in a Somerset magazine uses beeswax. Since I'm always wanting to learn new techniques, I thought I'd dive in and give it a try. I bought a chunk of white beeswax at Michael's (in the candle/soap making aisle). I didn't want to buy a wax melter just to try this technique - it was bad enough that I had to buy a chunk of wax big enough to cover every project I've ever done. I still have a couple of those wax tart burners (with the lightbulb in the bottom and the little pot to melt the wax on top), so I thought I'd try that to melt the beeswax.

The hardest part was getting the old hardened wax tart out of it, but then I cleaned it thoroughly and broke off a chunk of the beeswax. It took about 30 minutes or so to get it melted.

I took a little box and covered it with vintage paper, lace, flowers, a jewelry piece. Then I dipped a paintbrush into the melted wax and started covering the box. I made a little tag to embellish the box and covered this, too.

I think with a little more practice, I'll get the hang of what materials the wax looks best on. Now I want to work on some little trinkets to put inside the box.

Ribbon Bookmarks

About a year and a half ago, I found Andrea Singarella's blog. It was love at first site. Her art is so soft and beautiful. The first project I saw was her velvet ribbon bookmarks with vintage baubles. (Check it out here.) Since I am a hoarder collector of vintage bits and bobs, I wanted some ribbon bookmarks for myself. I scoured the local bead stores for the ribbon clamps, but found only one package of two. So, I made a pretty little bookmark.

I was shopping at JoAnn's on Saturday, and found a few packages of the ribbon clamps on sale, so I bought what they had. Now I can make more! My MIL has a birthday this week, so I made a beaded cross for her and turned it into a bookmark.

I'm so happy that I was able to get my hands on these ribbon clamps. I didn't want the hassle of ordering them online and trying to figure out what size ribbon they would fit. Another toy I bought this weekend is a hot fix rhinestone setter. I'm hoping to embellish jewelry, fabric, and glass with it. Stay tuned!