Now that’s better!

 

The primitive Christmas tree is back UPRIGHT, and now TETHERED to the bard door behind it (which is BOLTED to the wall).  This baby isn’t going anywhere now!  So, now I can show you what all the tree is decorated with:

I’ve got these handmade, stuffed fabric stars with little word banners on them tucked in here and there. 

And little red stockings filled with gingerbread and candy canes:

You have to look closely, but I’ve got strands of these handmade, homespun rag garlands draped along the branches:

Thsese big handcrafted wood folk art angels with different designs and in different colors:

Rag ball ornaments handmade from homespun fabric:

Primitive snow dolls:

Giant primitive painted jingle bells and handcrafted holiday sayings ornaments:

I ran out of room to put the big handmade wood ‘believe’ stars on the tree!

You can buy the ornaments directly off the tree, and there are baskets and boxes of extras underneath.

This is the LAST red punched tin tree topper star that I have.  When this one sells I have some blue tin stars for toppers.  (I forgot to bring them to the store!  But I’ll have them next week)

And here are the neighboring trees:

Detail pictures of the rest of the trees and Christmas product to follow!  Stay tuned!  Get a pen and start making your shopping list!

OUR WEBSITE : www.cscrafts.com/aj.html

OUR BLUJAY STORE :  http://www.blujay.com/folk_art_originals

 TO PURCHASE OUR ONE OF A KIND HANDCRAFTED PRODUCTS, E-BOOKS AND CRAFT SUPPLIES; PLEASE VISIT OUR ETSY STORE : 

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5876981

~ primitives ~ trash to treasure ~ shabby chic ~ cottage ~ Paris apartment ~ repurposed home goods ~ repaired ~ restyled home decor ~ reused ~ recycled art ~ handcrafted gifts ~ one of a kind ~ artist originals ~ second hand style ~ junk market style ~ flea market style ~ beautiful junk ~ beach cottage décor ~ unique home décor ~ vintage home décor ~ unique gifts ~ custom made gifts ~ custom made home décor ~ personalized signs ~ Sophie’s Cottage ~ grubby candles ~ how to craft books ~ Shabby Paris apartment ~ baby gifts ~ personalized gifts ~ AJ Finsand ~ upcycled ~ rebuilt ~ flea market chic ~ gift baskets ~ custom orders ~ vintage ~ collectibles ~

Updated wood wall sconce

 Not bad ‘as is’, but I wanted to fix it up a bit . . . .

I spray painted it black and gave it a light sanding to let some of the brown show through for a distressed look.

How PERFECTLY do these square grubby pillars that I just made fit ?!?!?

I still feel like it ‘needs something’ . . . just not sure WHAT!  Was thinking about one of the carved wood embellishments like I used on the blue apothecary chest.  Not sure if that is ‘rustic’ enough for the look of this piece though???

For now, it’s hanging on the wall in the store ‘as is’ and I look at it every day and ask it what it wants!

Does it look a little TOO plain to you too?  What does it need?  Maybe a painted mustard color star in that ‘balnk space’ above the candles????

OUR WEBSITE : www.cscrafts.com/aj.html

OUR BLUJAY STORE :  http://www.blujay.com/folk_art_originals

 TO PURCHASE OUR ONE OF A KIND HANDCRAFTED PRODUCTS, E-BOOKS AND CRAFT SUPPLIES; PLEASE VISIT OUR ETSY STORE : 

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5876981

~ primitives ~ trash to treasure ~ shabby chic ~ cottage ~ Paris apartment ~ repurposed home goods ~ repaired ~ restyled home decor ~ reused ~ recycled art ~ handcrafted gifts ~ one of a kind ~ artist originals ~ second hand style ~ junk market style ~ flea market style ~ beautiful junk ~ beach cottage décor ~ unique home décor ~ vintage home décor ~ unique gifts ~ custom made gifts ~ custom made home décor ~ personalized signs ~ Sophie’s Cottage ~ grubby candles ~ how to craft books ~ Shabby Paris apartment ~ baby gifts ~ personalized gifts ~ AJ Finsand ~ upcycled ~ rebuilt ~ flea market chic ~ gift baskets ~ custom orders ~ vintage ~ collectibles ~

Primitive table makeover

                                            Another very BASIC thrift store table.  This one I decided to re-do in a more  primitive direction.

Gave it a quick sanding with the orbital sander, then spray painted it with flat black paint.  Once the paint was dry I gave it a quick once over with a coarse sanding sponge to distress it and let some of the brown show through.

It’s now happily displayed amongst the fall decor in the store!

 

 OUR WEBSITE: www.cscrafts.com/aj.html

OUR BLUJAY:  http://www.blujay.com/folk_art_originals

VISIT OUR ETSY STORE: http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5876981

~ primitives ~ trash to treasure ~ shabby chic ~ cottage ~ Paris apartment ~ repurposed home goods ~ repaired ~ restyled home decor ~ reused ~ recycled art ~ handcrafted gifts ~ one of a kind ~ artist originals ~ second hand style ~ junk market style ~ flea market style ~ beautiful junk ~ beach cottage décor ~ unique home décor ~ vintage home décor ~ unique gifts ~ custom made gifts ~ custom made home décor ~ personalized signs ~ Sophie’s Cottage ~ grubby candles ~ how to craft books ~ Shabby Paris apartment ~ baby gifts ~ personalized gifts ~ AJ Finsand ~

Little thrift store shelves

Found two of these little shelves at the thrift store.  They were sitting with the deeper shelf at the bottom, and I assumed that was how they were meant to be.  To my puzzlement, they have keyhole hangers to make them hang THIS way.  They looked like they had probably been white originally, then painted brown and faux distressed (poorly!) with black paint.  Nothing I can’t fix though!

Doesn’t it ‘make more sense’ to use it sitting (or hanging) THIS direction?  The deeper top shelf the other way just overshadows the narrower shelf.  And you can’t really even see the trim around the sides and back of the smaller shelf set the way it was intended.

I gave it a good coat of black paint (spray; because of all the little corners from the brackets).

Then sanded it a bit along the edges.

Would make a nice little ‘desk shelf’, don’t ya think?

I’m especially fond of shelves that can SIT on a table OR hang on the wall.  Never enough wall space in the store for everything I want to put on it.  And yet, for selling purposes, people are usually looking for shelves to hang.  So little ones that are flexible work perfectly!

OUR WEBSITE: www.cscrafts.com/aj.html

VISIT OUR ETSY STORE TO PURCHASE OUR HOW TO E-BOOKS:              http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5876981

Folk Art angel ‘make do’

 I’m not much of one for sewing.  I can sew.  I just never do.  A few years ago I bought a bunch of sewn doll body blanks from a gal I knew via the crafting boards.  And I finally actually got one of them made up!  Here she is:

First, I stained her.  This is her shown in the e-book recipe for my grubby stain:  here

The tutorial for how I did her eyes is HERE.  You can use your regular craft paint and fine line permanent markers for outlining the eyes on fabric, just like you would on a hard surface.

Then I did her hair using my own recipe for textured paint.  You can buy that e-book HERE.

I used a scrap piece of wood to make her wings.  I’ve had this piece laying around for Soooooo long that I don’t even remember what it was left over from.  I just knew that someday it would make a great pair of angel wings.  (someday, being the operative word there!)  I painted them with antique white paint, then sanded.

 I wanted to give them a little bit of a ‘lace look’ so I used this foam stamp and some copper color paint and randomly, VERY lightly stamped and restamped the wings.  Once that paint was dry, I brushed on my weathered wood wash to make them look gray and weathered.  (Sorry, the wood wash is the only recipe I don’t sell.  But you can buy a can of it at the store.  Postal regulations make it too difficult and expensive to ship)

Next I painted a wood star the same copper paint color I used on the wings.  Put it in place with a bit of tacky glue.  Then I tied on the wings with a single strand of jute twine.

I just cris-crossed the jute across the front and back a couple of times, then tied it off in the back.

 

She still looked like she needed ’something’ more . . . so I went digging through my box of misc. junk and found this little key to tie onto the front.

 

 She sat on my work table for a couple of days while I pondered what else to do with her.  She was ‘okay’ as she was, to just lean onto a shelf.  I thought about mounting her onte a plaque, but in the end decided to just give her a wood base so she could stand alone.  I used a broken 1/8″ dowel glued into a block of wood that I had painted black and sanded and stained.  Cut a TINY hole at her base, squeezed in some tacky glue then pushed her onto the dowel.

OUR WEBSITE: www.cscrafts.com/aj.html

VISIT OUR ETSY STORE TO PURCHASE OUR HOW TO E-BOOKS:              http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5876981

Oregon summer travel plans????

Planning on hitting the road in Oregon this summer?  If so, and you’re going to be down the the Harrisburg/Corvallis area, plan to take a little side trip to Junction City and visit my friend, Christina’s wonderful primitive store, Buttermilk Junction.

You can see more pictures of her store and read about what’s happening in her blog:

http://www.buttermilkjunction.blogspot.com/

OUR WEBSITE:  www.cscrafts.com/aj.html

 

Primitive inspiration

While I’m recovering from this darned pneuminia and not getting any work done this week to share, here are some pictures of a wonderful primitive cabin for you to enjoy.

http://community.webshots.com/slideshow/563174625mdlTRM?mediaPosition=1

 

Candle lantern re-do

Got this little wood candle lantern base at the thrift store a while ago

Cleaned it up, painted it black, sanded it a bit, added a grubby taper candle and a thrift store glass globe.

I’m guessing it originally had one of the taller ‘more typical’ type of glass globes.  And I have some of those that I could have used.  But this squatty one fit and made it more unique!

OUR WEBSITE:  www.cscrafts.com/aj.html

New ‘grubbiest ever’ candles!

New in the store: 4-15-08

The grubbiest primitive candles I’ve ever made.  Votives, pairs of tapers, and pillars in dark, dark, DARK brown (almost black) and cinnamon dusted.

The recipe for these candles will be added to our existing e-book for how to make your own grubby candles at no additional charge.  SO, if you already have the book, just go back to it and find the additional recipe, 

If you don’t already have the book, let me take this opportunity to plug it! 

If you are a crafter doing shows and/or selling wholesale, or a store owner wanting to make your own grubby candles to sell in your store . . . you NEED this e-book!  It will save you a lot of ‘trial and error’ (wasted time and money!) and you will be able to earn back the cost of the book by selling even just a few candles.  You can easily crank out a couple hundred dollars worth of candles in one day! 

For someone wanting to make just a few candles for themselves, I would probably say it would be cheaper for you to just BUY your grubby candles from someone else who makes them.  Reason being that it won’t be worth your time and money investment for just a few candles.   (more time than money)  But, of course the book is available for purchase to anyone.

Here’s the link to the e-book:  http://trash2treasure.wordpress.com/2007/09/01/how-to-make-you-own-grubby-candles-e-book/

OUR WEBSITE:  www.cscrafts.com/aj.html

 

Back to reality!

Had a couple of hail storms on my final project marathon day.

That’s the mat at our back door after about two minutes of hail.

Still, I managed to finish up a good amount of projects.  This old (and very outdated!) wood end table had some pieces missing, which Michael replaced:

A couple of coats of black spray paint, a sanding of the edges and a new knob turned it into a nice primitive piece with lots of space for displaying treasures. 

OR put a pillow on the lower shelf for kitty to nap on!  DRAT!  You can’t even see the fun primitive  ’architectural star knob’ I put on there in the picture!

Pardon the paint table backdrop for the photo.  I just don’t really have the time to ‘nicely stage’ each before and after photo.  Got this outdated candelabra at the thrift store:

Wanted to add more bulk to the base but I didn’t have any round pieces that would work, so I inverted a wood bowl!  Spray painted everything flat black, then sanded a bit for a distressed look.

Of course I’ll add some of my handmade grubby candles before I sell this.  But they are at the store, so just not added yet.

Again, forgive the ugly silver tarp background!  Since so many of these items are going to the spring shows instead of directly to the store (where I would display them all prettied up before taking a picture!) I just have to grab the pictures ‘wherever’!

I picked up this wire shelf a couple of years ago at a yard sale.  I’ts great because it FOLDS FLAT!  But, because it DOES fold flat it got stashed so far back in the project shed that it got lost for a while.  It’s shiny plastic coated metal.  I just gave it a good coat of flat black spray paint, and not it looks more like wrought iron!  A great Paris chic piece.

 I’m anxious to get back to work at the store today!  Feels like I’ve been gone forever!  Should have a couple of orders arriving today or tomorrow too.  Busy week.  Lots of product at the store to still box up for the shows, but the trailer is getting full!

You can’t see all the way back, but there are at least 24 of those flip top plastic storage bins at the far back (what Michael calls the front!) of the trailer.  Now THAT little matter of semantics makes for some interesting conversation too!  Because when I say I want certain things at the BACK of the trailer, I’m meaning loaded in FIRST.  But he is thinking of the opposite!  So now I try to say ‘to be unloaded last’ or ‘unloaded first’ then it should be clear as mud, eh?!?!

OUR WEBSITE:  www.cscrafts.com/aj.html