New item: Dainty Yellow mobile home collage

This collage is a little different than the others in the mobile home series, as it's a colored line drawing of a trailer instead of a photograph. The original image had adorable little white stepstools at each door and some wrought iron curlicue adornments in the back, but cutting those out proved to be impossible...or, at least, not entirely worth the major major effort it would have required.

One thing I love about découpage is you can change the source images to suit your purposes. The stepstools and wrought iron were cute, but they didn't work here. And that's okay. Dainty Yellow is still pretty dainty even without them.

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New item: Little Man mobile home collage

Continuing our mobile home series, we découpaged a cutout of a vintage compact trailer onto some gorgeous craft paper that looks like weathered, painted wood. We then hand-stained a wooden frame and put the piece inside. The frames are very inexpensive and the measurements not so precise. The glass didn't fit right away so we had to do a lot of chipping, carving, and chiseling to get it in. The end result is very pleasing, though.

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New item: Necklace and hairpin set - Flew the coop

We had so much fun making this little pair. The necklace features a bright blue metal birdcage pendant, with its own swinging trapeze perch and working door, that I adorned with a purple organza ribbon. It hangs from an 18-inch handwoven silvery satin cord with gold metallic threads and a lobster claw.

The hairpin is a simple chromed bobby pin blank, to which I glued a vintage 1950s bright yellow celluloid bird cabochon.

Worn together, it looks like your pet canary has escaped its cage and nestled securely in your hair. How fun, and so perfect for spring.

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New item: Recycled sterling silver ring: Vintage glass cabochon in coral

We made another adjustable recycled sterling ring, this time with a red cabochon instead of a blue one. The results are pretty satisfying and we think this ring will sell. (Though maybe not as fast as the first ring, which sold within hours of listing!)

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New item: Upcycled whiskey bottle with cork stopper - Crazy plaid

This cool, old-timey bottle was on its way to the recycling bin when I rescued it from certain destruction. It appears to be handmade glass (though I'm not completely sure) and looked great even before I adorned it with alternating strips of colorful craft paper and a thin coat of high gloss protective acrylic.

I think this would look fabulous in a kitchen or bedroom, or it would make a fantastic bud vase. Do you like it?

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New item: Upcycled medicine bottle - Greens and blues

This upcycled veterinary medicine bottle would make the perfect stash jar for people who have things to stash. It's waterproof, airtight, and filters UV light. It's also decorated with hand-cut patterned paper and has a thin coat of acrylic gloss on it for extra protection. I hated the idea of throwing such a cool bottle away--imagine how many medicine bottles just like this one are sitting in landfills? Yikes. Why not turn it into something you can use over and over again? So we did.

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SOLD: Recycled sterling silver ring: Vintage European glass cabochon in peacock

We took a vintage 1960s European glass cabochon and adhered it to a sterling silver, adjustable ring that is made out of 100% recycled silver. The ring has three-dimensional flower blossoms and leaves and catches the light in a very pretty way. We think it would make a great cocktail or party ring, and just in time for summer.

This item has been sold.

New item: Upcycled napkin rings - Red and white floral

Like our other upcycled napkin rings, these are made of upcycled paper towel tubes and pretty paper. This is easily our favorite set we've made. The red and black go beautifully together and we think they're awfully sophisticated, considering what they are. How cute, and just in time for summer!

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New item: Upcycled napkin rings - Spring green

We've made more upcycled napkin rings out of paper towel tubes, pretty paper, and lots of acrylic paint and gloss. It's so much fun to take something that would otherwise wind up in the garbage and turn it into something that's...well, maybe not useful, per se, but at least pretty. Are napkin rings ever really useful? Maybe not, but they sure are cute.

Since we have no shortage of pretty paper, acrylics, or paper towel tubes, we suspect we'll be making lots of these in the future. The muslin bag is hand-stamped with blue dragonflies for that extra warm weather touch. Fun!

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In progress: Upcycled napkin rings, decoupaged pill bottle, paper plaid jar

Currently we've finished two more sets of upcycled napkin rings and a cute little blue plastic prescription pill bottle that we découpaged and made all spring-like and cute. We're also carefully applying hand-cut pieces of paper to a beautiful whiskey jar for a charming plaid effect.

Stay tuned for pics, and in the meantime, why don't you check out our store?

New item: Upcycled napkin rings - Chocolate floral

We sold our first set of upcycled napkin rings and created a custom order for two more sets. Inspired and glad to see that people would willingly pay for decorated slices of a discarded paper towel tube, we created yet another set.

This one was made with pretty, chocolate-brown Japanese chiyogami paper on two rings, and brown dotted craft paper on the other. We hand-mixed a gorgeous sky blue in acrylics for the insides, and gave each ring a thick coat of textured high gloss acrylic. As a finale, we hand-stamped some dragonflies on a pretty little muslin bag for easy, cute storage.

Adorable and just in time for spring.

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New item: Trailer-and-a-Half 1940 mobile home collage

This framed découpage piece was kind of a happy accident. We originally intended for the car to appear to be driving off into the edge of the frame, but mis-measured the dimensions. The result is a funny, surreal half-car towing a shiny trailer from an ad circa 1940. The somber yet pretty background gives it a kind of sophisticated feel. Although it's not what we intended, it's somehow better than it would have been.

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New item: Blue Ben mobile home collage

We découpaged a bright blue and white trailer onto a red, white, and blue plaid background and stuck our creation in a hand-stained orange-red frame. The end result is quite charming and we're very pleased with how it turned out. We think this would make a great gift for the Fourth of July!

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Made my first Etsy sale!

Well, that's pretty awesome. A very kindly buyer not only bought my upcycled napkin rings, but custom ordered two more sets!

So exciting!

New item: Wooden keepsake chest - I've got a secret

We had so, so much fun making this little piece. First we hand-stained a small two-drawer chest with a pretty French blue. Then we used découpage techniques to apply red, patterned paper to the sides and top. We then découpaged a pretty white tulip on the back and lined the drawers with complementary striped paper.

The finished result is quite pleasing to the eye, as well as practical. We almost didn't want to sell this one. Almost.

New item: Black, white, red floral napkin holder

We took a clamshell napkin holder and decoupaged it with very pretty papers for a peekaboo effect through the outside of the plastic. Then we gave it a few coats of acrylic paint and glaze and called it a day. It turned out even better than we expected and we're very pleased with the finished result.

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