Make Your Own Vintage Bottles

Years ago, I found these hymn racks in an antique store.  I brought them home and put them up in my bathroom.

They have sat empty because I haven't been able to find anything to put in them.  I wanted something that made sense in a bathroom.  I tried old advertising, but they flopped over.  I was in an antique store when I saw some old bottles with some of their original apothecary  labels still on.  I loved the nostalgia look of them.  I thought they would be perfect for the bathroom hymn racks.  Then I looked at the prices.  They were a little too steep.  I thought I could duplicate them with thrift store finds.

 Each of these cost less than a $1.00.  They have great shapes and are flat enough to fit , but they are boring.

 I went to Graphics Fairy and found some great vintage labels and printed them on white, pink and tan paper.

 I cut out the labels and glued them on with rubber cement.  Now they looked too new, so I roughed them up with steel wool and stained them up a little with coffee.  Now they look like found vintage objects.

The aqua bottle is one I tinted using the technique found here.  Start to finish my vintage bottle project took about 15 minutes.  Now that is an easy DYI project.

Mama Thrift

Simple Valentine Display

   I have to admit, I am not a fan of those  holiday garlands or bunting.  It is just to crafty crafty for me.  Plus you have to cut out and glue all those little pieces.  Too tedious.  Thrift Chick, however, likes them.  She has been after me to do one.  She suggested a Valentine display.  I knew if I was going to do a display, it was going to have to be simple without a lot of cutting and gluing.  Enter playing cards, shipping labels,  and gumdrops.

    The garland is hearts from a deck of cards.  I printed the letters on shipping labels and cut them out.  Notice I used the word love instead of Happy Valentine's....a lot less cutting!

    Red and white gumdrops....I couldn't find valentine ones so I picked just the red and whites one out of a large bag of spice drops.  The lengths we go to for holiday decor.

   Kitschy vintage valentines....so fun...so fake.  I printed off vintage valentine graphics on cardstock and cut them out.  They look pretty good don't they?  My mother has a framed collection of valentines from the early 1900's.  My grandmother taught school before she was married and they are from her students.  Thrift Chick and I salivate over them every time we visit.

    My favorite silver trumpet vase.  I found it at an antique store marked $14.  The store owner thought that was too high and gave it to me for $4.  She thought it was too tarnished and worn to charge full price.  One person's trash, anther's treasure.

  A little vintage, a little kitsch in just a little bit of time...my kind of DYI decor.  Happy Valentine's Day!

Mama Thrift

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Pillows and PomPoms

   Thrift Chick found these vintage handkerchiefs with a map design last fall.  It was a two for one find.  She has a love of old maps and a passion for handkerchiefs. She snapped them up. (Actually she almost start hyperventilating when she saw them.)  They were so unique she was afraid to check out the price.  Amazingly they were each priced only for $1.

 

    Because they are so kitschy, we decided to make pillows out of them.  We went with a pom pom trim to give them that retro campy feel.  Boy, are trims expensive.  The most expensive part of this project was the red pompom trim.

    Aren't they fun?  Don't you wonder who carried around map handkerchiefs.  Most vintage handkerchiefs are very flowery and feminine.  I just imagine a pile of gorgeous floral hankies with these two buried at the bottom.  Someone saw their potential and snatched them up.  Thank goodness they preserved them for Thrift Chick.


Mama Thrift

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A Touch of Blue

   Winter decor obviously means white.  I felt like I was drowning in a sea of white.  I thought I should add a touch of color.  However, I wanted it to still have that icy winter feel.  I really wanted some aqua glass balls. With Christmas over, I knew my chances of finding any at a reasonable price were slim.  I decided to try tinting glass.  I had these glass bulbs I found at the Goodwill for $1.

   Working from a tutorial I found here at Momtastic, I began by mixing up food coloring and a tiny bit of water to get the icy blue I wanted.  I then mixed in about 1/2 C of Mod Podge.  It looked like this when I was finished which made me a little nervous because that was definitely not icy blue.

   I then poured a little in each bulb.  I turned and twisted and turned and twisted until every inch was covered.  I then poured out the extra and put them upside down in the box for about 30 minutes.  I did learn it is key to get the excess out or you will end up with darker splotches.

   I then put the upside down on a parchment paper lined cookie sheet in a my oven at 250 degrees.  After 15 minutes, I turned them over and left them in the oven for another 30-45 minutes.  The results were amazing.

   Now Thrift Chick and I are eying anything we see that is plain glass.  The possibilities are endless!


Mama Thrift

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Knockoff Try Number 2

  This is a reality blog.  We pledge to show you our good, our bad and our so-so.   So in the interest of honesty, I bring you my second attempt with a knock off decor item.
     I saw these wooden balls on the West Elm site.  Unusual, weathered and looked to be quite simple.

West Elm's weathered wood sphere

However, $34 for the large and $19 for the small seemed a bit steep for wood sticks in a ball.  I thought  I could duplicate it using sticks and a Styrofoam ball.

   I saw these balsa wood sticks at Hobby Lobby on sale for .60 cents each.  I thought I could cut them, stain them and stick them in the ball and tah dah...a weathered sphere.  Well it started out all right.

   Then when I started to put the cut sticks in the ball, the ball just fell apart as more and more sticks went in.  So on to Plan B...hot gluing them together.  It was messy and time consuming and very painful.

  

   The final product looks nothing like the inspiration.  I like the unusual shape and the dark wood quality, but you can see the hot glue.  My son suggested I spray paint it.  I may do that after my burned fingers stop smarting.

   Maybe sometime in the future I will have evolved to the level of the crafters at Knock Off Decor.  In the meantime I will continue to treat you to my attempts.  maybe they will inspire you...or make you smile... or make you feel better about your failures. (Not that I am saying you have failure....maybe I should say less than desired outcomes.  Do you have "less than desired outcomes"?)

Mama Thrift

Book Pals - Pete the Cat

   We have just made our second book pal and we are in love.  If you haven't read the picture book series Pete the Cat  by Eric Litwin and illustrated by James Dean, you are missing out.  To get an idea, click on the books and rock away.  Just imagine a class of first graders singing away...you will fall in love too.

    We knew we wanted to create Pete, but weren't sure we what to do about shoes.  We thought we might find infant shoes at a thrift store, but no luck.  Then we found these at Marshall's.  Perfect!

   We dug some blue fabric out of the fabric scrap box.  It was a little dark, but we thought it would work.  Mama Thrift just cut it out by eyeballing it.  She is so good, she only had to re-cut the head twice.  The eyes and nose were from felt and the mouth and eyebrows were black floss.  My job was the stuffing the body.  I love the final result.

    Since Pete is a four footed friend, we are left with four rockin' shoes that while very cute, do not match.

   We have decided to have a giveaway.  If you think you want to make your own Pete, leave us a comment and we will select someone at random to send them too (Of course, the most comments we have ever had were five so your chances are pretty good.)

   "And we 're rockin' in our thriftin' shoes.  Oh we're rockin' in our thriftin' shoes"   Catchy isn't?

Thrift Chick