Make Your Own Decorative Boxes

I have a post coming up soon entitled "Feathers In My Food." I think you'll want to see the creation I made. ;-)
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Many years ago when I was crafting every single day after coming home from my office, I decided I wanted some boxes covered in beautiful papers and fabrics. Understand now that I absolutely devoted most hours outside of work to crafting. I absolutely loved it. So today I thought I'd share how to make these kind of boxes below. I'll give you the dimensions and instructions. The rest is up to you. You can use fabric or paper; it's up to you. I've shown you two of ones I've made. The purple roses box is fabric, and the red and pink roses is that gorgeous paper I love so much from The Gifted Line by John Grossman.

They are approximately the same size. I'll give you the instructions and measurements but it's up to you to do the construction. These little boxes are more for show than actual storage boxes; although, I keep pencils in them or my sealing wax and Dyno Label Maker in the other one. But I wouldn't keep anything heavy in them. Again, just for show. ;-)

You'll need foam board. I used 3/8" so that I could "score"—meaning to go a bit of the way through the foam board without cutting all the way through so you can bend it. You'll need to bend it but keep it together. For my size box below, I cut a piece 16" long and 8 & 3/8" wide. I scored it at 6 & 1/2" from the one end and then 9 & 1/2" from the same side. Or in other words, I scored it 6 & 1/2" from each short side. I then bent it carefully as to not split it. Be very careful. Then I cut another piece of foam board 28 & 3/8" long and 2 & 1/2" wide. I scored that piece at 6" and at 7 & 3/4". Using glue to attach together the 2 ends of the LONG piece I scored.

You cover it with your paper or fabric before you start making it, just after cutting it out. Then you glue. I used a glue gun. You can use any glue you want that sticks though. After covering the large piece and the long piece, you glue it together. Then I hot glued a ribbon around it to secure it.

I've read this so much I'm not sure if it makes sense to you, but if you want to try this and it's not clear, email me and I'll help you all I can. It truly is easy.

These boxes are 6 & 1/2" front to back and 8 & 3/8" wide and 2 & 1/2" high or deep.

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I love this living room setting. Just the way the homeowner has everything arranged, very cozy.

A beautiful approach to a rustic door.

Okay, no privacy here at all. I'd feel like Sasquatch was always watching me.

Just simple eye candy for you.

Be still my beating heart. However, I would keep wondering when it is going to come crashing down on my head. Looks a bit heavy.

Smiling at ya!

I don't know whether this is a fabric or a painting but it's one of my favorite photos of roses.

Just a beautiful setting for you. Very peaceful.

Sweet vignette at a bistro.

An old Victorian in San Francisco, my favorite city in the whole world. I love shopping there.

Did you hear that the mailboxes in the hometown of an Olympic Gold Medal Winner in the UK gets its mail boxes painted gold? Usually the boxes are a bright red. But what a sweet idea to help the hometown men and women celebrate a hometown victory. Bless their hearts for doing this for them!

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Lunch with the Chicks at Cafe de Coco #2

First one thing: I accidentally deleted some things on this blog a few days ago and haven't had time to put them back on. My blog roll was one of them. I have 160+ to add back on but that's going to have to wait until I get back from our camping trip starting today. I was using a different browser, which is just a tad different from the one I usually use, and tried to see what a new template would look like. I was in shock when instead of "previewing" it, it actually changed it. When I put the regular template THAT I SAVED(!) back on several things were "wrong" and several things had been deleted. So that's just one of my minor dilemmas at the moment. I have them all on my Google Reader (thank goodness!). I'll add them back later as I said. Also if you'd like me to add yours, just let me know by leaving a message on this post. But read the sidebar on the right about me adding blogs, which USED to be on the left. *Sigh*......................

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More photos of Cafe de Coco. Isn't this cute? Prices were a bit more than I was willing to spend that day but they had some things I would really have loved to buy.

That little dress form was one of the things I would have loved. And the shelf actually.

And this bureau.

And this! I don't think it was for sale though, just a display piece.

Dried flowers strewn around the tops of one brightly colored wall.

Another display piece that would have fit on my front porch actually!

Lots of little froufrou things for the shabby home.

This is just as you come in the entry door to the cafe.

The whole vignette is simply to-die-for! Just adorable. Very Parisienne. That little chair and dresser are absolutely adorable.

And how about this darling chandelier?! Well, it isn't actually a chandelier but it hangs so prettily with glass ornaments.

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Random Thought:

Men and women definitely do not speak the same language. Think about that and I may have more on it at a later post.
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Master Bedroom Redo July 2009

We now come to the new painted bedroom. As I said before I had the walls filled with "fluff" because I didn't like seeing the beige color but with loving the pink so much I've pared down the wall "fluff" this time.

I took about 20 yards of pink tulle netting and draped it above the bed swagging down with bouffant poofs tied with organza ribbon and topped off with pink paper roses. Lovely I think but then it's MY bedroom. :-)

A closer view of the wall behind the bed shows you a canvas painting I purchased and what I did with it. It isn't very big at 8" x 10" but when I saw it on Gail's website I knew it was mine. I snatched it up surprisingly quick! I didn't want to frame it because the last picture I had framed was $350.00 after a 50% discount. Love Bunny almost passed out from that experience. So I decided to be creative. (Shopping at my own house again.)

I couldn't find a mat in a 22" x 28" without getting a costly custom one so I decided to just put another picture frame around it inside of the larger frame to "frame" it. Then since Gail sent me 2 printed pictures of more of her art I "fun-tac-ed" it to the wall. A snippet of leftover pink garland and it was finished. Then a sign I bought last year from Catherine was put on one side and an embroidered piece I did about 25 years ago went on the other side.

I had 5 pom-poms in the bedroom but only hung 3 back up. One in this corner and 2 on the other side of the bed wall. I added a pot of violets on the little corner cabinet I confiscated at my daughter's last year and painted shabby white. Instead of the Paul deLongpre prints thumb tacked to the walls in this corner, I added 2 cottage prints. The roses curtains are some that I had in the family room but replaced with white ruffle-y ones in there now. (See post from a few days ago.)

Decisions for this wall were the hardest to decide on. I have several message boards on which I display tags and gifts from my sweet ebay group and I wanted them in this room. Also my wedding dress, the news clipping from our marriage that my sister had framed and gave to me many years ago, some vintage baby clothes (mine!) and my doll clothes from when I was a child are hanging on that wall. Boxes of ephemera, photos and stationery are stacked in here and on the chair I refurbished a few months ago.

A shelf remains but the vignette is a tad different. I added a scarf, poofed it out, added the faux greenery, 3 crowns I made and some cards my hubby gave me. The letter "C" was a gift from another woman on my ebay group. I love that hand painted wood letter and since my initials are both"C" it can be used as a family initial also.

My side of the room with the 2 pom-poms in pink.

And lastly, a close-up of the painting over the bed.

I've decided to show you my message boards up close. Birthday greetings, tags from sellers, pretty calling or business cards, "just because" tags, beaded fripperies from Berrtie, tags that simply say they love me and cute pictures I've collected from various places, just anything I think is beautiful and worthy of being pinned to my boards. I even have special thumb tacks on which I've glued ribbon roses onto their heads. Nothing and I mean nothing goes on there that isn't beautiful!

Middle message board. Embroidered and painted hearts from my sweet ebay group chicks. There is so much love and support in there it's a miracle. I love them all and I think the feeling is reciprocated. ;-) We truly do lift each other up above the fray and hard times in life.

Third message board. Old ephemera, hand painted cards, note cards collected over the years, a little hanging heart hand painted by Celeste, just lots of flouncy stuff.

And this. You wonder what it is? Well, it's a bath "puff" that has come unraveled. It is such a bright pink fuchsia color that I can't part with it and besides, I use Oil of Olay bath/body wash and it smells so wonderful that it fragrances up the entire area in which it hangs. Yummm...... Sigh........

Cottages and Roses Paintings #1

Before the main event below begins, let me say one thing.

For quite a while now I've wanted to do a tutorial on photography. I've made notes and note of things and narrowed it down to a few very simple points that might help other women on their road to taking excellent photos. I didn't do this with an air of superiority because the Lord knows how lacking I am in anything "superior" but I truly did it with the intent of helping women achieve beautiful photos for blogging and/or ebay or whatever your intent is with your photos. With that intent in mind I've finished it after several months of note taking and thinking and about a week of actual "working" on it intensely and came up with it yesterday. With that being said, you'll now find it on the right sidebar just below my laundry room. It is not meant to criticize! It is truly intended as a help to those of us who struggle through this relatively new experience of blogging, selling, digital cameras and all things 21st century. I say go forward, chicks, and conquer this one because there will be a new one by a new entrepreneur any day now. How wonderful it is to live in these times of new inventions!! As Charles Dicken said and it is certainly true in our times today: "It was the worst of times and the best of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of light, it was the season of darkness." I don't know about you gals, but I have a bright future ahead for me. I'm positively loving living at this time of the world. Be of good cheer, be happy, be kind, be prayerful, be a friend, be a doer. We have much waiting for us if we get through with the help of our Lord. I don't fear because I know he is in charge - no one else.
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I was searching the web a couple of weeks ago for some cottage or roses prints and came across this artist and just adored her work. In some of her paintings she seems to replicate the old masters, but in some she's just as froufrou-y as the rest of us. She even has a few "country" or "primitive" paintings. Those aren't my favorites so I didn't include any of those in here. So take a look at the first of many I'll be displaying in the next week or two. I think you'll love her as much as I do. Her name is Barbara Mock if you'd like to "google" her paintings.
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A lovely white picket fence with a rose arbor along a stone path.

A bouquet of dusky pale pink roses.

Some victorian women on a lake watching a regatta through a garden gate nearby.

A country shelf with pansies, tulips, a gardening sign and a bird nest.

The quintessential garden shed.

Potted flowers.

Another "old masters" looking painting of lush flowers.

A garden spot most of us dream about from time to time.

A spot to repose inside a potting shed.

A tablescape vignette.

More to follow soon...........

Redecorating is Tiring!!

To those of you who have sent me emails asking me how I go like the energizer bunny - I don't, sweet chicks! I'm losing steam rapidly. I have been getting up around 4:30 or 5 am every day for weeks just because I can't sleep knowing what I want/need to do. But my "mental energy" is abounding and astounding! Today's post will be short - got lots to do. Now, what I'd like is some suggestions. I'm putting my 3 Susan Rios prints on this wall - the partly new wall. I think the 2 french wire baskets are too big for this and the 3 tiered white plate stand I want to showcase some faux pastries on is too big for any plates I have. Sooooooo, my little bunnies, what do I put on a 13 1/3" round plate holder - 3 tiers so I'll have to do "3" of whatever? I don't think I've seen 13" plates anywhere. Then what do you think of the little chair with books and that victorian house with foliage and roses in it on top of that?? By george, I think I've got a vignette just in that quick photo below!!! Hah.... And I can assure you the rest of the house is suffering......but NOT for long. I'm on a roll today!!!!!!!!!!!

Porches and Conservatories

Is this cute or what?! I love that porch swing and can't remember ever seeing one like before. A vintage piece for sure. But the porch itself is wonderful also with its ancient teacart and pillows, birdcage. stone floor, rug and flowers jutting out of an old vase. But the unique thing I find about this porch is the stripes painted over the header. Those aren't common to any porch I've ever seen. A person could sit here and look at that view for hours with those comfy old cushions.

Imagine the fabric it took for this lovely "room." But I don't think I'd want to clean them! It gives it a tent feel and just so warm to relax here. It it quite large for porches but I can envision it enclosed with glass for year round use. The fabric is blue as is the floor not covered with the large rug. Just lovely.

The enclosed room above reminds me of my friend, Sharon, who lives in Florida. She paints the tiniest most beautiful heart charms and loves victorian things and antiques and is NOT one bit afraid of color. You should see her house! But this seems like something Sharon would like because of the deep colors and the furnishings in this room. I especially like the drapery added across the opening to more garden area.

Simple is the only way to describe this darling vignette. Two vintage chairs with pillows, an antique tea cart and tricycle between 2 windows on a weathered shingle house. The bleeding heart hanging from the porch adds a bit of cheer to the scene. Tea anyone?!

This room is a bit more whimsical in its colors scheme - bright yellow, bright bold colors and fabrics. Plus the brick floor adds flair to the room. It looks tropical but it could be in any climate with the glass enclosure and heat running to it.

Golden sun beats down on this front porch leaving a glorious warm glow on the wood floor and the settee cushions. This is the perfect example of an old fashioned porch in any part of the U.S. - ionic columns supporting pink geraniums, pots of hydrangeas spread around with more foliage, baskets of more flowers, wicker seating, warm colored pillows and a beautifully old fashioned porch light. Of course the green shutters makes the white siding just pop out at you.

Somehow this is reminiscent of classical greeks - the statues, the columns and the fabric coverings on the entries onto this beauty. Purple and blue are favorites also. A jewel of a hammock stuffed with flowered pillows along with the chairs. The ceiling is painted with the vines and echoes the lushness of the yard beyond and within this room.

What wouldn't each of us give to have an old english conservatory like this one?! It looks like a greenhouse attached to the back of a home. Tropically lush with a trellis highlighting a golden back wall. The lacy grillwork adds much to the ambiance of the room and the glass roof lets the sunlight come through to warm it but there are also beams from which to hang pots of flowers.

Same home, different view. Looking out over the gardens from the dining area of this room is the vintage folding chairs looking like they are straight out of a Lawrence of Arabia movie. The delicately lacy pot stands holding lovely pink blooms.

A close up look at a vintage chaise lounge with a downy like cushion, wicker basket to hold your tomes and magazines a tiered planter to have your fragrant flowers near you and vines and flowers climbing the trellis adding even more lusciousness. Then a gnarly tree table near by for drinks and a sun bonnet in case the sun gets too bright. The stone would warm up to keep you toasty on a less than warm day also.
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