Antiquing in Andover!

In early summer I went to visit my friend Wanda's space at Made in the Shade in Andover, NJ, which is about 20 minutes from my store. Wanda has the sweetest and most vintage chic items, it was so much fun waltzing around her booth.
Notice the adorable ballet slippers, I have a ton of pairs from a friend, which I am waiting to adorn with jewels and millinery, after seeing these ballet shoes, Wanda inspired me to decorate mine.That day Wanda had given me a extremely large bag of vintage doilies, laces, trims, and cloths, which I have been using in my stitched projects and in some of the workshops I host at Piddlestixs, my store in Historic Lafayette, NJ.
After leaving her space, I decided to incorporate my visit into Piddlestixs Vol.5 which will be ready at the end of the month! To learn more about Wanda and to see more of her store pick of Piddlestixs Vol. 5 at the end of the month!

Magic and Joy,
Lisa!

The Halloween ATC Book!

Here is a project I wanted to complete last Halloween and finally finished it the other day. Its an ATC Accordion book, a variation of a project from my book; Altered Art Circus, Quarry Books!This is a fun and easy project to create using your left over collage images, scrapbook papers and embellishments. In the book I chose a circus/carnival theme, for this one I chose a gothic, yet whimsical Halloween theme using some images from my book, which I photocopied, digital images I made, vintage images and re-made ones, adding bits of paper, recycled leather, vinyl and trims.
The base of the accordion book is made from 2 pieces of matte board (the stuff from frame shops) and sturdy cardstock, which was cut into a 3 1/2 by 2 1/2 strip, folded and sandwiched between the two pieces of matte board, then layered upon with more papers, images and embellishments, I added an additional cover using a hole puncher and jump rings.
I know Halloween has passed, but there is something so magical and Harry Potter like of this holiday, that I can't stop creating around it or incorporating some of its mystery into my other works, mixing it into my next fave season, Christmas!

Try following this project and creating a holiday atc book, a wonderland atc book, or a santa's workshop atc book, so many possibilities out there to explore, a fun project to also do with your children or friends.

For instructions on how to make this and collage images, visit the ATC chapter inside my book: Altered Art Circus, Quarry Books. Visit my flickr for additional collage images inside my free vintage images folder.

Any questions, please let me know,
Magic and Joy,
Lisa!

Cupcake Liner Dolls, The Fashion Plate

Here is another example of my cupcake liner dolls, his time using more frou frou and embellishments to resemble a fashion plate illustration, using one of my restored fashion plate images found on my flickr site.

In addition to more crepe paper, I used pastel yellow bakery string and extra millinery, mostly vintage. Many of these components are available in either my artfire store or at my store front: Piddlestixs, located in Lafayette, NJ.


Here is the link to my flickr site for the vintage images set:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/moonfaires16/sets/72157603511546861/
Here is the link for the project instructions on how to make these dolls:
http://faerieenchantment.blogspot.com/2011/11/cupcake-liner-dolls-cupcake-liner-dolls.html

Cupcake Liner Dolls!

Cupcake Liner Dolls!

Here is a perfect sugar craft recycled project for a rainy or snowy day at home!

All you need is cupcake liners, a photo copy of one of my fashion plate images, millinery, trims, glitter, crepe paper and glue.

Turn into ornaments, dolls, garland and more!

Materials:
-Various cupcake liners in colors of choice
-Chip board or sturdy card stock
-Photo copy of Marie Fashion Plate image (found in my flickr site)
-Crepe paper or crepe paper streamers
-Bamboo stick (wood cooking skewers)
-Trims, ribbon
-Various millinery
-Glitter
-Zip dry and glitter it, Beacon Adhesives
-Hot glue gun, hot gun
-Scissors

Directions:
1. Pierce holes into the center of the cupcake liner using bamboo stick, thread the bamboo stick with the liners, layering each one on top of each other, leaving a little space, hot glue in place.
2. After you are satisfied with the skirt height , cut the access bamboo stick, leaving 2 inches sticking out of the top liner.
3. Download fashion plate image, shrink to desired size, print, cut out and glue ontop of chipboard using zip dry, cut out and place on the top of the cupcake liner, hot glue to the 2 inch left over bamboo stick using hot glue, let set.
4. Pleat crepe paper, fold in half and hot glue around the image base.
5. Add millinery, trims and ribbons to your doll.
6. Finally rub on some glitter it glue on parts of your doll, sprinkle with glitter, shake off excess and you are done.

Tips and Tricks:
-If you don't have wood bamboo skewers, layer the cupcake liners on top of each other, gluing sides together or use tooth picks, or strip of sturdy card stock or chip board.
-Use vintage greeting card images in place of the Marie Antoinette image.
-Use your childs or family members photos instead.
-Spray paint the liners for holidays. For Halloween use black liners, a vintage image, chipboard wings and black glitter.
-Make a Christmas tree using green, red or pink liners cut to fit, add mini bulbs or glitter dots.
-Make extra large ones using various sizes of liners or coffee filters.
-Transform these into ornaments, cake toppers or garland.


Hope you are inspired to recycled your party wares!
Magic and Joy,
Lisa!

Up-Cycled Doll: Ginger's Wedding



Here are the vintage dolls before they were repaired and dressed! These upcycled dolls are vintage from the 1950's, early 60's which needed some repair, clothes, decorating and magic!Here is the doll I named Ginger which I repaired and turned into a vintage upcycled wedding/bride doll, before her make over.Here is Ginger after her make over. I upcycled her by cleaning her up, fixing her hair, added embellishing to her dress, hand stitched vintage pearls, jewels and millinery to her. I poofed out her dress with lace, tulle and added appliques to her main dress base, here is her story: Ginger has always wanted to get married, dressing up in her mom's wedding dress and sisters soiree dresses as a young girl. Then one day she met her Prince and now its here day to get married!

Hope this inspires you to upcycle one of your vintage dolls!

Magic and Joy,

Lisa!

Halloween Carnival Boat!

With all this bad weather, Halloween was canceled for the tricker treaters since there was too much snow, ice and now power throughout the state of NJ and neighboring states in CT, PA, NY, MA, so as a tribute to my favorite holiday I wanted to share with you the Halloween Carnival Boat, made from vintage images, scrapbook paper, card stock, recycled items and other fun spook-tacular delights!

Welcome to The Halloween Opera Carnival Follies Boat, this is another boat I have made in my series of Dream Boats, made from a paper mache box and other magical supplies.
This boat is an upgrade of the first, with an actual carnival scene on top, complete with moveable ferris wheel and carousel, which spins around. This piece has lots of hidden elemenst waiting to surprise you, look for the Halloween Opera Carnival at a port near you! Many of the images to make this project are available on my flickr site or my collage cds!

Have a magical day,
Lisa!