Even MORE Fun with Frames!

So I finished finding a bunch of great shots from all times in my life to fill up that vintage mirror frame.


I also spray painted some more pieces:











I used a combination of epoxies and staple guns to get the fabric onto the back of these up-cycled frames. I thought it was a great use for those that have gone with missing backs or glass for some time.

Fun with Frames

Inspired by my upcoming Tuesday night "ladies' crafts night" chez moi, where I have asked the invitees to vote on either stencil tee projects or 'fun with frames,' I decided to get going with frame fun ahead of time.

First project? An old plastic picture frame (wish I had snapped a before shot) was transformed in seconds with a thick coat of Chrome-like finish bumper spray paint.




Inspired by the photo below, which you can also see on the CraftGawker all time favorites and my Wanelo "Make This Sh*t" collection.



I have an old mirror frame, a legitimate antique, That I found at a garage sale about five or six years ago. No matter how many times I move, I can't part with it and I don't dare paint it, as it has such wonderful rustic character and dark original wood. The face lift i gave it this evening is easy to undo and finally makes use of the negative space it has been framing on my wall. The pictures of the project are horrible, so maybe I will take some nicer ones in the natural light tomorrow. I used my eyeballs (for measuring and straightening, I just didn't have the usual energy to be anal,) a staple gun, black leather cord, and clothes pins for a new way to showcase favorite photos. Wifey seems to be in a lot of them.




I had awoken the crafty beast within. I couldn't just stop at two projects, after all, they had both been ridiculously quick and easy.

For as far back as i can remember, I always coveted my older sister's large bulletin board that hung in her room in my family home's attic. It had photos, concert tickets, dried flowers, and pins on it. There was also an awesome vintage wood gold frame on it with nothing in it. It was always just the old frame, no glass, no backing, and no hardware. I don't recall when, but i took it. I have also carried it with me for years, treasured, from room to room and home to home.

When I went off to college, I inherited that very bulletin board my sissy used, and it survived many years until a particular move when it was dented and broken on one side while in the back of a pick up truck. I remember crying in the driveway as I watched my dad throw it away after all those years. This board below is from a Staples, and is thankfully decorated enough so that I rarely remember its "inauthenticity."


Anyway, I decided to give the beloved gold frame an update as well, with some vintage fabric, a pair of scissors, a pen, a hammer, and a staple gun, anything is possible!





...and these are just THREE of the 6,000,000,000 crafty creative things you can do with frames. More to come, certainly, after ladies' night.

Blankie for Henry, almost done!

I still need to weave in the loose ends, then hopefully crochet on a blue border! But here it is, reaching from my toes to my belly lying down in bed while working on it!

One night's work!

Knitting is BRILLIANT. Look how far the blanket has already come from one night's work:

Another Baby on the Way...

...means another baby blanket on the way. Sticking with green, as I did for Ruby's baby blanket, Henry Ryan Kinlund's blanket will be a simple pattern of alternating green hues in thick stripes with a blue modeled border...pending my neighbor teaching me how to crochet a border on to a knitted blanket!

What did you have for lunch? STAMPS

I had a lovely lunch break today, one hour full of stamping joy (yes, there is such a thing.) Mom and I crafted in the kitchen, after hurriedly scarfing salads and pursuing "competition" in the felt food industry online.

Check out some of the new tag ideas! All hand-made, some even hand cut!

Like riding a bike ...

Turns out, a year later, making tutus...exactly the same! A word to the wise, do NOT use wired ribbon for a waist band, which I was forced to do as after hours of searching my mother and I could not find our ribbon stock anywhere in the attic. My fingers are raw! Here's a picture of the first, 2010 season, finished tutu:



Fern Gully-Thanks for the name idea Shannon F.!

Fabulous Felt Food!

Mom and I had an impromptu felt food photo shoot this evening after family dinner. Here are some of my favorite shots.
Various individual pizzas

Breakfast!

Oreos and milk, THE perfect combination.

Cheeseburgers!

French macaroons boxed up and ready to go from the Patisserie!

Various cookies 'fresh from the oven.'

Mixed Media Nudes for Sale on Etsy

Two large-scale pieces of Vanessa are now for sale on Etsy! Visit the shop!

We're back!

We're back for another holiday season of fabulous craft fairs. We're also moving into the digital age. Please check out our new Facebook business page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Burlington-VT/Petits-Cadeaux/132040496851055?v=app_2373072738#!/pages/Burlington-VT/Petits-Cadeaux/132040496851055?v=wall.

We also have an etsy shop of course, but nothing is posted as of now for sale, since we're focusing all inventory on the craft fair circuit in Vermont. Items will be available on the website after the new year.

We can make customized versions of anything we offer: body and face scrubs, soaps, toys, miniatures, tutus, fairy skirts, wands, headbands, felt food...Please feel free to contact us at petitscadeaux@gmail.com with your requests!

Kate

Petits Cadeaux in stores! Well, one store

**Check out the Grand Opening of Vermont Food & Gift on Main Street in Winooski, VT on Friday December 4th, where you will find Petits Cadeaux's "Whole Body Scrubs" and tutus/fairy skirts for sale!**

Here's a run down of the "Whole Body Scrub" Spa Line:

-They are made with all natural ingredients, many of which are also organic, and essential oils
-The scrubs are either salt or sugar based, with a few signature blends that include both
-The scrubs are rich, emollient, and leave light lingering scents and full moisture all day, yet are gentle enough for extremely sensitive skin and daily use with a blend of almond oil, grape seed oil, vitamin E, apricot kernel oil, plant-derived carrier oil, and vegetable glycerin.

The 10 signature scent blends:

Salt Based:

-Green Tea and Cucumber: invigorating with green tea and cucumber scent.
-Lilac & Jasmine: lilac and jasmine flower essential oil scent.
-Manicure/Pedicure: lemongrass, peppermint, and spearmint essential oils
-Sore Muscle Scrub: soothing and relieving blend of rosemary, eucalyptus, spearmint, and lemongrass.

Sugar Based:

-Sugar Mama: unscented.
-Orange & Ginger: orange and ginger essential oil scent.
-Tunisian Queen: rich and moisturizing with orange, lemon verbena, and lavender essential oils and organic coconut oil. With dried French lavender flowers and organic raw can sugar as an exfoliant.
-Date in Paris: true rose essential oil scent with crushed dried rose buds as an added exfoliant.

Other Blends:

-M.M.M. Coffee!: a sensational blend of salts, sugars, and finely ground coffee for exfoliation with sweet lingering scents of oatmeal, milk, and honey. The caffeine aids in cellulite reduction and skin firming and tightening. Also works wonders on underarm odor and ingrown hair bumps.
-Gorgeous: a light but exotic blend of plumeria, pekaki, and gardenia flower essential oils with a sugar and salt base.

PROCRASTINATION FASCINATION

Sorry to spread the gospel, but once you visit this site, you will not do anything productive for at least two hours. It's worth the risk though. It's where I am now going to do all future holiday and birthday shopping. It's insane. It's really hard to pick favorites, but here are some:

http://www.fredflare.com

So I'm not a pi beta phi...

But I am a Pi Delta Phi, French Honors Society!...anyone? Yeah, it's cool. But I live with two lovely Pi Phis, and here are the fruits of "our" (meaning my) labors from last night's crafting festival. These gifts are intended for a new "little sister" in the Pi Beta Phi family line that I currently happen to live with. It's hard to make puffy paint and a glue gun look classy, but we pulled it off!

[Pillow, front and back, and pin box]

Petits Cadeaux Spa Scrubs

Remember Petits Cadeaux (little gifts?) If you don't, that's my 'business' which essentially appears once a year at the Lake Champlain Waldorf School [http://www.lcwaldorf.org/] Winter Craft Fair. We (my mother, Carin Hoffman, and I) are going to be there again, selling old favorites (beeswax candles and ornaments, dollhouse miniatures, handmade wooden children's toys) and some new items (hair accessories, lotions, spa scrubs, balms.) The line of spa products is all natural, made using many organic materials, and deliciously scented. My passion is the scrubs, which include salt and sugar variations, in such new Kate-Post-original scents like "Bisous," a coconut oil sugar scrub with a mild yet wildly sexy fragrance full of exotic flowers. Come to the fair to try out "Zen Garden Salad," "Let Me Be Your Sugar Mama," "Tunisian Queen," and many more yourself! The L.C.W.S. Craft Fair takes place Friday December 5th, 2008 ("parent's evening) and all day Saturday December 6th.