Sculpting 'Miss Fitt' China Plates In Hurricane Lanterns

Brigham Young said "use it up, wear it out, make due or do without". For me it was easy to embrace the first two parts...but the 'do without' part...well I confess deep down inside I am thinking really..., is that necessary? Let me find a way. So, maybe finding a way is a form of using it up, making do. By that I'm not really having to due without. It has been said that 'necessity is the mother of invention'. Therefore, maybe while in the act of 'using it up and wearing it out' we are actually in the act of inventing or creating something?

So here is my latest 'use it up, wear it out' creative invention.

Yup,that's right, stacked, cast off, miss matched china plates and undesirable cast off glass pieces, in a super sized @ikeahurricanelantern. (Did I ever mention to you that my maiden name is 'Miss Fitt'?) So... maybe it's that I really have a soft spot for things that don't fit in. (And did I ever mention to you that I have really BIG curly red hair?) I think my hair was bigger than my body growing up...yeah...insight to my inner psychic...

 

 Here's more, stacking plates in an artistic fashion is not for the unenthusiastic artist, designer, merchandiser, or attemptee. One must approach this with sculpting in mind, which could take hours. Oh... I've lost you now...Seriously, I think this project took me four hours or more to get the edges 'right' which is a relative term. And further examines my inner psychic.

 

 

The time was split for me between mocking it up outside the lantern then placing them inside...and occasionally pausing for a snicky snack and to cool the jets!

 

 

Key to my vision of this leaning tower of porcelain was interesting scallops and edges along with creating or fashioning recesses that graded in and out with smooth and fluid transitions from plate to plate.

 

 

My daughter featured 'A Little Homevestures Christmas Inspiration' on @justdawnelle.blogspot.com there you can view more photos of my home this year.

 

 

We entertained for a group of friends and added a short hurricane lantern to this scape and incorporated candlelight on the stacked towers of plates. It was stunning! 

 

Merry Christmas!

I look forward to sharing more of my ideas and inspiration this coming year!!!!

See you soon!

 

Vicki

 

 

 

 

Christmas Ornament Chandelier

There  are so many gorgeous ornaments out there! They come in all different shapes and sizes we knew there had to be something more you can do with them other than put them on a Christmas tree. So we made a chandelier!!

We mixed the feminine, delicate, hand blown Egyptian glass ornaments with a rusty geometric piece of wire we found out in the yard. The result was quite stunning!

We thought it would be pretty cool to hang them in the shape of a tree and use them as an alternative to a Christmas tree or even hang them from a wreath hung horizontal. What do you think?

To see it in real life... stop by Stecher's Country Store!! Let us know you're going and we'll meet you up there!

Scrapbook Paper Frames

I love love love paper... there is just so much you can do with it and the patterns really are so fantastic. The funny thing is I don't scrapbook... but I have a huge pile of scrapbook paper. So recently I discovered a way to frame some of my very favorite pictures using scrapbook paper, masking tape, and a marker!

I thought I would share the idea!

Materials:

Paper cutter

Ruler

Masking tape

Scrapbook paper

Maker (I used Chartpak)

An amazing photo!

To begin I cut the 12x12 piece of paper down to 8x10. You can use whatever size you want, 8x10 is a great size though for a 4x6 piece of paper and to find a frame for if you wanted to.

Mark where the picture needs to go. The photos I was using were 4x6 so an 8x10 piece of paper gave me two inches around each side of the picture.

I used a small piece of masking tape to hold the picture in place before the masking tape was put down all around the picture.

Once the picture is in place, tape it down on all four sides using the masking tape. Don't worry about the tape overlapping, or going too far beyond the edge of the picture. That all gives it character in my book!

After the tape was down, I used a marker to "stain" the tape any color you would like! I used a Chartpak marker because of the bleeding qualities. I wanted it to look as much like stain as possible.

TA-DA! That's it! What do you think?? It was really simple, fast, and easy I went to town! I framed eight pictures in one sitting... it definitely added some much needed color and pattern to my house!

Now I'm trying to decide though how to hang them. Framed or not framed? I would love to see them all lined up in a grid in the same simple black frame. Or I could hang them from some string with clothes pins... hm... what to do what to do? Maybe I'll hang them on string with clothes pins until I get the frames!