Wednesday, January 7, 2015

A winter wonderland project for a very cold night...



Hello Everyone,

I'm popping in to post a project in between trips to the basement to stoke the fire.  In my neck of the woods, we are in the midst of a cold snap.  The weather peeps are predicting a low of 10 to 15 below zero overnight.  It's totally ok with me if they are wrong about that! 

Here is my latest project.  I dug into my pile of alterable items and my stash of vintage postcards and family photos for this one:

 
My "vase" is a peat pot, covered in gesso.  I pulled some die cut paper doilies out of my scrap box, sprayed them with water and Distress spray, crinkled and uncrinkled them, dried them, and glued them around the peat pot.  I tied on a charm rescued from a broken bracelet with some rustic twine. 

Flowers just didn't seem right for this time of year, so I cut a bouquet of  dimensional
snowflakes and stars with my Silver Bullet electronic cutter, (my favorite crafting tool) and sprinkled on some glitter.

This is one of my favorites from my collection of scanned vintage family photos.  That's my mom and aunt and two of their cousins on a toboggan in front of the family farmhouse.  I just love it, especially the scarves my mother and aunt are wearing on their heads.  My grandmother really knew how to bundle a kid up.  She put the same scarves on my sister and I when we were little.  Probably on my brothers, too, if she could get them to stand still long enough!  I might just have to find a wooly head scarf if I have to go out in the cold tomorrow. 

These two images are winter themed vintage trading card from the late Victorian era.  I have a collection of them that were collected by my many great aunts and uncles.  I scanned these two, edited the color to sepia tones, inked the edges with Brushed Corduroy Distress Ink and added a border of Rock Candy Distress Stickles.  Finally, I mounted them on a background of bright white cardstock.
 
All of the sparkly elements were mounted on white plastic coated wire.  I created my own "frog" by cutting a piece of corrugated cardboard from the Christmas trash(We recycle it, so I didn't have to dig through the trash. Not that I'm above that.  I had to go digging at work today, to find the center of the tape dispenser.  I threw it away with the empty tape core!), rolling it up, and painting it with gesso to blend with the peat pot.  You can see it here, in this view from the top:
 

I discovered the extra long corsage pins while digging in my charms box.  I think their pearly white beads add the perfect finishing touch. 

One of my goals for 2015 is to enter more challenges, so I am linking up to the following challenges:
Frilly and Funkie Anything Goes Challenge,
Lessology's Challenge number 43, Cardboard Central,
and
Try it on Tuesday "My Favorite Things" challenge. 

Thanks for spending some time with me today.  I hope you are cozy, and find time to be crafty!

Elizabeth
 
 


17 comments:

  1. Oh my! What a fabulous project this is! I just love how everything came together so beautifully.

    Thanks for joining us at LESSology!

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  2. Wonderful project. Love it. Old family photos are interesting. Thank you for joining us at TioT.

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  3. Thank you. I enjoy using some my vintage family items in my artwork.

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  4. Oh my what a brilliant paper and cardboard creation. I love the "flowerpot" filled with photos as flowers. Thank you for playing with our challenge over at LESSology :)

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  5. Thanks! It's snowing here today, so this project looks right at home on my mantel.

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  6. A really brilliant project, love it and a great tutorial, thank you for joining us on the TIOT challenge hugs Bee.

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    1. Thank you! One of my goals for the year is to post more photos.

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  7. This looks beautiful! Stunning with that colour scheme & deffo winter inspired!!! LOOOVE how you incorporated the cardboard into your project.....good on you entering more challenges for the year! Good luck with your goal & THANKS for choosing us at LESSology for the first one in 2015:):)

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    1. Thanks! It was nice to make a small dent in the pile of cardboard heading to the recycling center, especially since the color worked with my project better than the florist foam that was my other option.

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  8. Wonderful project! Thanks for joining us at TIOT! Valerie

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  9. This is adorable! I love, love, love all the glittery stars and snowflakes! What an adorable project! Thank you for sharing with Frilly and Funkie!

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  10. THIS is amazing! It's cold in my neck of the woods too so I totally related to your post and your piece! I will be taking photos in the snow tomorrow for a post and I'm NOT looking forward to it! Really love all the glitter and the vintage look to this. Those pins rock too! Hugs for playing along with us at LESSolgy and hugs from NY!

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Your kind comments are very much appreciated!