Estate Sale Jackpot

Wowzers! Hubs and I hit the Estate Sale Jackpot yesterday! It was a blast. So much of what I scored was actually free and headed for the landfill! :::Sigh::: Don't people understand yet? Geesh! That's why my business ARTful Salvage was born. I cannot fathom how much is thrown away that is still usable. You can see some of my goodies on my other blog here. Someday, and maybe soon, we may find ourselves wishing we weren't so quick to throw so much away. If you want a good read about something that is timely and newsworthy right now check out the 4 part book series by Terri Blackstock, the Restoration Series. Let's just say the solar storms that are happening right now could have quite an effect. :)  Anywho......I digress. On to the bargains:

From the FREE piles and headed for the landfill comes piles of vintage linens and the like. Some are perfect, some are flawed. Personally I like the later.....aren't we all a little bit flawed? I like the history of a piece and the fact that is was lovingly used in a family, not stuffed into a drawer! Here are SOME of the pieces I was given!

chenille bedspread for cutting



sheets




Table Runner



hand painted on a Giant piece of canvas part #1

hand painted on a Giant piece of canvas part #2

Embroidery

Embroidery

Crazy Quilt pillow beginnings

Vintage Curtains

Pillowcases

Embroidery

Navy Crying Towel

Silk Shabby Chic Satin Pillow Case

Embroidery

Set of 20 pink embroidered doiles

Embroidery

Embroidery

Embroidery

Embroidery

Embroidery

Embroidery

My in the process bedroom makeover is going to be done in my 2 fave colors black and pink, especially deep hot magenta pink. I am making a quilt for the bed and want to cover it with co-ordinating piles of fun pillows. Ta-Da.....I found 8 pink pillows at this one sale.

Pink Pillows

Pintuck Pink Pillows

Crocheted Pink Pillows

I also bought a pile of some vintage fabrics to play with. I should have bought more but I couldn't carry much more! LOL  Besides these were by far my faves.

Beautiful Yards of Silk

Black glittery fabric



Fabric





Fabric



Then came the vintage sewing notions.....begin salivating now my friends. This girl LOVES ric-rac with a passion, especially vintage ric-rack. Well lookee here.....packages and packages of this delightful notion along with oodles of lace seam tape and a couple of goodies I had never seen before.

Lace Tape

Rick Rack

Loop Braid

Lace Tape

Rick Rack

Oh and this box of wooden spools of sewing thread and piles of vintage snaps, hooks, buckles and closures, along with a nifty button maker and button making parts.

Snaps and Hooks

Snaps and Hooks

Wooden Spools of Thread

Wooden Spools of Thread

Notions

One of my faves for $1 was this box of Work Basket mags from the 60's, 70's and 80's. Totally groovy! I love that they sometimes have iron on embroidery patterns. I'll share them at a later date. There is an amazing set of Oriental themed ones! Sweet!

Work Baskets

Work Baskets

Can you say FUN, day! I spent $20 total for all these goodies plus a few more that will make their way over to ARTful Salvage today or tomorrow! :)

Happy Valentine's Day!

It's finally here! It's my fave holiday! It's such a pink, red, sparkly, fluffy, candy eating, love filled, sqooshy kind of day! Just perfect for a hopeless romantic, princess mentality pirate girl like me! I am so excited! I plan to spend my night with the love of my life at my happiest place on earth - The Magic Kingdom. What could be better than spending time with your guy standing in front of Cinderella's Castle? And I can have a Dole Whip too! Score! :)

So, since I already shared all the easel cards I sent out to family and friends, I thought I would share what I made for my 2 guys for Valentine's this year.

For Wonder Boy I made him a Candy bouquet. I have always thought they were cute but way too expensive. I was pretty sure I could make my own version much cheaper and I did. I bought a Valentine bucket and shoved in 2 pieces of floral foam to fit. I taped the candy bars to the back of wooden skewers and shoved them into the foam at various heights. I did discover that it was tippy while I was working on it so I poured in a few flat glass marbles into the bottom for weight. After the candy was in place I topped it with some manly pink shredded paper and it is finished! Ta-Da. Easy Peasy! :) I'll probably wrap it up with some cellophane and tie on a bow before tonight.

Here is his card using one of my fave stamp sets from Stampin' Up, Unfroggetable. I think it is just corny enough he will like it!

For Hubs I made his card from a scrapbook paper pack I acquired from who knows where. It was all black, red, winged hearts and such.....so perfect for Valentine's Day. I love all the rhinestone sparklies and winged hearts. The envie is actually my fave part.....I think it is awesome with the black paper and swirls.

For his gift I baked his very fave thing.....his Grandmother's Pound cake. He LOVES this. It is amazing.....if pound cake is great on it's own.....this version has a topping made from vanilla wafers & Pecans.....topped with a vanilla glaze and garnished with Maraschino Cherries and pecan halves. And there's not a calorie in it.....honestly! LOL  Each batch makes 3 cakes and I made him 2 batches......think he'll be happy for awhile? So that's Valentine's Day here in FL! Wishing you oodles of LOVE today and every day! :)

LOVE is in the air......

....and it's taking shape in the form of Valentine Easel cards. 14 of them to be exact. Valentine's Day is my fave holiday. I LOVE everything about it: cards, hearts, flowers, chocolates, romantic gestures...... It's by far my fave ART holiday. This year I have discovered easel cards. Who knew? These are delightfully fun to make and the recipient can display them if they choose. Win Win! :)

So, I wanted them to be similar in design but yet still unique. I made the base cards 5 x 10, so the finished easel panels are 5" square. I pre-cut and scored all the cards in stages. I used German scrap, collage sheet images, BINGO cards, vintage hymnal sheets, vintage dictionary pages, and antique heart doilies, seals and gummed hearts from an estate sale find.

The envelopes are cut from scrapbook paper in various Valentine and sheet music patterns. I used my fave template that when folded up into a square envie opens up into a heart! How seriously cool is that? I placed the finished cards/envies in larger stamped red greeting card envies. My reasons were 2 fold.....one the PO charges more for a square envie (blah blah blah) and 2 an extra layer of protection with no marring of the heart envies. :)

I must admit I am very happy with the results and I hope my friends and family enjoy receiving them!