Love those Browns...

A bit of this, a dash of that..... That's what this post is about. I have some "pretty pictures" for you to see. This is from a recent "antiquing" day with Heather. She has already posted her pretties, so, I guess I am playing catch up :)

It is no secret, I "Love" Ironstone, and all those shades of white, cream, and brown. Love, love, love it!  Speaking of "Those luscious Browns", a little later in the post, I'll show you my "rose making" inspired by the sweet "Ann", of The Tin Rabbit. If you haven't been over,  you must see her blog.  Gorgeous!  But, here are a few more pictures of the shopping trip.

Couldn't pass up the old ironstone sugar bowl.  No lid, but who cares?  Love all those luscious shades.  The brown transferware dish was a great find.  It is now one of my favorites.

I know, don't you just love this simple white jewelry box with the sweet pink velvet and satin lining?   HMMMM?  I was lucky enough to purchase all the jewelry inside, as well.  3 rosaries, a few chains (for creating vintage jewelry), a few pair of earrings, and a gorgeous blue stone chain.  Ah yes, and one sweet Christmas tree pin wich needs a stone replacement.  But, it is an oldey and so very sweet.

Oh, and the lovely millinery, we couldn't believe the luck!

So, as a continuation of "the browns", I popped over to Ann's blog and saw her tutorial on making coffee filter roses (thanks Ann, I love it!).  So, I thought, why not?  I dyed my coffee filters in coffee, cut them up, as per her instructions.  Cut some hymnal petals, and then started on my first rose.  It turned out so-so, not tight enough, not enough petals,  needed more glue.  You know how it goes ~ you have to do a few before you get the "hang" of it.  But alas, I persevered, and was very happy with the last few I did. 

I did decide to add one thing.  I thought wouldn't it be great to hide a few petals of pictures inside the roses?  How fun to walk by the roses and look and know you can have a peak anytime you want...:)  I have a few other ideas that I am going to try.  More on this at a later date :) :) :)

So, off to the printer I flew, printed out a few pictures of the grandkids (in sepia), inked the back side a bit, and tucked a picture petal or two inside the rose. Here's a sneaky peak of the one petal.

I just love the fullness of these roses.  The lusciousness of "ALL THOSE PETALS".  And you can have as many as you want ~ from something so inexpensive as a "coffee filter". 

I plan on making more roses tonight.  It is an easy thing to do while watching TV.  I DVR'ed a movie from Hallmark to watch tonight, so that, with my roses, and a "cuppa" something warm sounds just right....

Hope you all have a wonderful week.  The snow is just about gone now, the tulips and daffodills are starting to pop up, the birds are all pairing up and building their nests.  I can't wait to add some other flowers to these rose beauties.....

Thanks for stopping by, and Blessings to all,

Kitty

xox

A Beautiful Life Art Journal ~ Done!

I am so excited to do this post. It's taken, well, let's see, Heather, Pretty Petals, posted the workshop in September of last year? (gasp!) As they say, better late, than never. And, OH AM I GLAD I FINISHED THIS! This "labor of love" was frustrating, at times, but taught me so much about collaging, and layering, and stretching your mind/imagination. I highly recommend it to those of you who were a bit intimidated. It also taught me to part with "my pretties" for a bigger purpose! You know, they are not all piled up or stored away in boxes. We all have a bit of the "hoarding instinct" when it comes to pretties. :) :) :)  The very best part for those of you who missed it back in September, Heather has decided to offer this on-line class, once again.  So all you, who missed it, come join the fun.

I messed up my page order, from the beginning :) :), but, alas, it is MY journal, so I guess that is just fine. Freedom of expression, as they say. The picture above is the cover, and I used all of my best laces for this, girls, as well as gorgeous millinery flowers. I wanted something to treasure, and using really "good stuff" makes your heart pitter-patter!

Below is a picture of the thickness of the book, after binding! Scrumptious, isn't it? For those of you who have completed the class, you know what I'm talking about! (~sigh~)

Now here is where "I messed up". For some crazy reason, I put one of the "Beautiful Ladies" on the back cover, which left the first page open. I decided to do somewhat of an index page. It lists the categories found in the journal, topped off with ribbon roses. A vintage lace sleeve is stretched over the vintage wallpaper to create a pocket. Inside the pocket, I have a copy of my favorite postcard,"Love's Messenger", and a little author paper (Me!). This pocket will allow me to store future "treasures", as I find them. Of course, old millinery glittered up with old German glass glitter tops off the page.

Now here is the first of the "Beautiful Ladies". She is the "Corset Girl", and I had fun glittering her up! I used a bit of ribbon I purchased from Andrea at Everyday Beauty and old millinery. In the bottom right corner, I added two little cherubs and corsets that were copied from an old advertising card. I thought it was just the right "surprise" for this page. (Please excuse the shadows, I tried to photograph on a sunny day.)  Underlying papers are vintage wallpaper and pages from an old victorian magazine.

Here is the second "Beautiful Lady". She has the most beautiful smile, and her face just glows with excitement! It gives you such a warm feeling to look at her.  She's topped off with (what else?) more millinery.  Layers of pages, journal, wallpaper, etc., lie underneath.  Gorgeous old lace edges the page.

The next 2 pages are "Oh How I Love".  These are the pages you put "your pretties" on.  It was hard deciding, not only what to put on them, but placement of the items.  This is where the task of collaging comes in.  How do you place them and make it all look like it works together?  I started with vintage wallpaper.  The silhouettes I received from Lili at LiliM in a swap.  Heather made me the "You are Treasured" that I used on the corner of the picture, quite awhile ago.  Old buttons,  jewelry, and velvet strawberries add to the page.  One of my Inspiration pins (in green) happily joins the grouping.

Page 2 is the other side of the page above that had the victorian lace sleeve stretched over it.  This, once again, allowed me to use it as "a pocket".  I have a letter that Heather wrote me as a little girl, in the pocket.  I also added to the pocket a page from "The Secret Garden" (one of my very favorite children's stories).  I received this in a swap from my dear friend, Madai of Wren Cottage. 

The next 2 pages are "Sweet Friendshp".  Heather gave us all of the images and copies of sheet music and wallpaper.  Everything you need to finish this beautiful journal.  I adore this sheet music used here.  Layered, once again, wallpaper, sheet music, and a title page from "Let Us Be Friends".  How appropriate is that? 

I didn't stray very far from her instructions on these pages.  Adding just the right amount of ribbon, millinery, and lace does the trick.  The image of these 2 girls is just beautiful and says it all.  Friendship is such a valuable commodity in today's world.  I treasure all of you, my dear friends.  It's been wonderful getting to  know you in the last few years.  What commonalities we have, in spite of our backgrounds, distance, careers, families.  I treasure you all.

"Blessed Family".  Two small words with such a big big meaning.  A page from an old Victorian magazine entitled "The Happy Home" starts it off right, don't you think?  The beautiful poem about standing together.  Yes, that is how I feel about my dear family.

And antoher gorgeous image of a mother pushing a baby carriage, with her two little ones playing happily.  I glittered up the page a bit and added a few millinery flowers.  Added the sweet calling card that Heather supplied in her images.   Wa-la!  A gorgeous page.  Simplicity at its best.

So, now, here was the test.  A page of my very own.  No instructions, no images to use.  Just my own mind and creativity.  Birds are one of God's creatures that I am in total amazement of.  These sweet little bundles bring such joy by not only their song, but just of their sweet appearance.  You'll remember this postcard from my first page.  It is entitled "Love's Messenger".  The background page is an image from Karen at The Graphics Fairy.  I immediately loved it when I saw it and knew I would be using it for something very soon.  It is actually an album cover. A few feathers, a jewelry dangle with a heart, and some nice old buttons.  That did the trick for me.

So, that is the end of the journal post.  I still have the "Keepsake Box" to make to store it in.  That is a post for another day, as I have yet to begin making it! LOL! 

I derived much satisfaction from making this journal.  So you ladies that are holding back, go for it.  You'll be so happy you created your very own "A Beautiful Life" Art Journal....

Blessings,
Kitty

A Beautiful Life - G-O-R-G-E-O-U-S - Art Journal....

You ladies have to pop over and sign up for Heather, Pretty Petals, art journal tutorial. It is amazing! That journal she is doing is absolutely divine. I know I'm going to do it. I've always wanted to do one of these journals, but never took the time. Perfect timing, don't ya think?

Spread the word....

Blessings,
Kitty

xox

Show and Tell Sunday - Millinery Flowers!

Well, I'm a little late in jumping into this Show and Tell Sunday...... But I just LOVE the thought of it. Although I haven't been collecting millinery very long, I do love it and have to share a few of my pictures with you. Thank you Cerri from Little Pink Studio and Miss Analise from Sugar Sugar for hosting all of this fun.

The above picture is 3 of my favorite pink roses. I covered them with a pink veil, just for fun.

Heather, my daughter, gave me these delightful little violets. I just love them. So dainty! I put them on the saucer of a cup and saucer set Madai from Wren Cottage gave me in a recent swap. Don't they look so pretty?

And these sweet velvet flowers and dainty pink flowers sit in some new cups I bought at Preserve Cottage at her "April In Paris Tea Party" this past weekend. Just love the cups, they are just so sweet.

Well, Don't mind how I uploaded these pictures. I had the alignment set wrong. But, here's a new hat I just bought from Cottage at Doe Hill. Love the very pale pink flowers mixed with the white.

This is all my "pinks" that I dumped into a beautiful pot. They look scrumptious together, don't they? The pink velvet one on the top is my all time favorite.

Well, that's it for me, girls. I will have a ball going around looking at everyone's millinery! Enjoy!

Kitty