French Inspired Wall Hanging

Oh this was so much fun to make.  A client asked me to custom make a wall hanging for her daughter's French teacher.  She wanted one of my Proverbs 31 reversible name banners with the teachers name SARAH on the front.

Yeah!  Would love to do something French.  I pulled out everything I had that was French.  Play with it all, then got down to building this piece.  Lots of layers.

Started with Paris.  The Eiffel Tower, then thought about the French marketing places and all those beautiful flowers.  Lots of flowers.

A small nod to Madame Pompadour and Louis XV.

Included a spray of pearls embellishing this panel with a delicate white satin rosette.

This panel included one of my tea dyed tags with french script stamped on it tucked behind the R.  Mulberry paper roses of pink and white are used.

Use layers of french papers on each panel.  Ripped, tore, and rolled back papers.  Created an aged patina using vintage photo distressing ink.

To soften this panel I added a lovely white feather, a hand-made stick pin and more mulberry paper flowers.

Tim Coffey designer paper was used as the base background on both the front and back.  It has a french feel to its design of aged paint and flourishes.

Charms of Paris and the Eiffel Tower hold a prominent place on the final panel.

The back of each panel has a portion of the Proverbs 31 scripture The Wife Of Noble Character.  Each piece is aged with vintage photo ink and curled by hand to create an aged patina to the complete piece.  The finished size of the wall hanging was just over 38 inches in length.

Hope you have enjoyed see this French inspired wall hanging.  Leave me a comment as they are always appreciated.

Valerie

Colors Of My Day: Blue

These little blue flowers are coming up all along the canal down by our lake.

How cheerful they are in the morning sunlight.

They don't last long, just a few days.

New ones coming up, showing their color and then fading away.

Our canoe among the flowers, waiting for us to venture out onto the lake.

I must get back to crafting.  Finishing up a French inspired wall hanging.  Hopefully, I'll get it done, video taped, photographed, and posted for you all to see by Wednesday. 

Many blessings,

Valerie

Storm Damage Leaves A Big Mess

We are all okay, including the horses, goats and chickens, but the storm that came through this morning did a lot of tree damage.

What a mess.  Besides a lot of broken branches, we had four trees come down completely.

Yes, I think we had a tornado come through.

My garden took a hit.

The 6 foot high sugar snap peas where completely knocked down to the ground.  Hopefully, I can set them back upright.  I'll have to start canning those peas tomorrow.

Roses took a beating, some stripped of every petal, but a few hung on.

I can still count my blessings.  At least we have power.  Many neighbors without electricity.  Bill and I rode our bikes and check on several of the neighbors.  Everyone is the area is fine.  No one hurt. 

Well, time to get back to clean up.

Gone With The Wind Hostess Gift

This was a lot of fun to design and make.  The client asked if I would make some of my lovely tags for her event.  The theme at her table was Gone With The Wind. 

Instead of producing a tag, I showed her the easel card idea.  She loved it.  Everyone at her table would be able to take one of these home with them as a thank you gift for sponsoring a plate at her table. 

I love Southern vintage style.

This design also allowed for the client to write a personal message to each person.

You can watch my YouTube tutorial on this project here.



I made a few extra of these easel Gone With The Wind cards and will be posting them on my FaithfulCrafter etsy store tomorrow.  Enjoy!

Nails Shape The Cross

About two months ago, in preparation for Easter, I wanted to design something that would act as a reminder of the price Jesus paid for our sins and our desire to celebrate His resurrection at Easter time.   I also wanted to start working with metal in my art pieces.  Nails shaping the cross tied together with wire struck me as a vivid metal art form.

My Easter series has vintage hymnal music, distressed with vintage photo ink, in the background.   Songs such as, "He Is Not Here, He Is Risen" and "Jesus Christ Is Risen Today" were used. 

The Nail Cross hanging art piece measures 6" x 3 1/4" with an additional 5" to 6" of metallic ribbon attached.  I've produced several different pieces.  Some in gold, silver, and copper.

A background effect was created to resemble the richness of the painted religious artforms of the Italian Renaissance period that I saw on my trips across Italy and the Mediterranean. 

I also wanted the over all appearance to have an aged patina effect to them.

My next series using this same nail cross and background technique has Gospel Hymnal music.  This one is Amazing Grace.  Of course, you can find these on my FaithfulCrafter etsy store. 

Hope you enjoyed seeing these.  Hopefully, they present a solid reminder of the price Jesus Christ paid for our sins, and the joy of His resurrection!

Springtime Affirmation Tree Tags

So I get a telephone call from my niece.  Can you make me some tags, they are like wedding wish tree tags, but these need to be affirmation tags for a banquet at her church. 

How many I ask? About 400 of them and 50 matching table numbers too she says laughing.  Sure, I say no problem, when do you need them by?  In four days!  Yikes.  Thank goodness my sister was visiting. 

We got busy right away, die cutting the affirmation tags and table number tags. 

Oh and let's hand-stamp them with pretty spring flowers using different colors.  Yeah sure.

She also wanted a bible verse on the front.  Yeah, sure why not.  Got busy getting those printed out and applied.

Due to timing, I had my niece's committee add the ribbons for hanging these little beauties.  After all, there is a limit to what a crazy crafting woman (me) can do.

Actually, these came out really cute.  Whew!

Shamrocks and Horseshoes

More lovely vintage postcards.  These celebrate St. Patrick's Day!

These very pretty postcards were printed in Germany.

This one dated 1908, with the little girl, is from a German-American Novelty Art Series.  Her cart is filled with a horseshoe, mushroom, shamrocks, and some, unknown to me, blue flower.   Both the girl and cart are embossed.  Gold foil is used to detail her dress, cart, and horseshoe. 

This card dated 1914, is so pretty.  Once again, those blue flowers.  Maybe they are forget-me-nots?  Gold foiled embossed lace anchor the corners of the card.  Horseshoes are gold foil and embossed across the top.

St. Patrick's Day Greetings heads this 1908 postcard.  Beautiful golden harp is in front of a green flag.  A cute white top hat sporting a pipe and bit of shamrock are tucked in its hatband.  Shamrocks float gracefully upward on the card front.  Gold leaf details the harp, flag staff and shamrocks.

Hope you enjoyed these treasures from the past.