Thrift Treasure

I love thrifting.  It is treasure hunting, ecological, inexpensive (if you just buy what you need) and appeals to my creativity.  I think I have found a terrific treasure. 
First, a little background.  We have just moved into a new house and the kids are getting their own rooms.  I have been working on a series of projects to reflect each of their personalities. The little one predictably wants a PINK and PURPLE room.  Preferably with FROZEN princesses everywhere and a lot of glitter thrown in to boot. 
Pinterest has a lot of great ideas for updating thrift projects.  And I found a terrific update for my little girl's room, a chandelier, can you get more princess than that?

Check out this old brash finish chandelier I found at the thrift store.  In this photo I am starting to remove the glass panels by melting the solder between the panels and gently pulling them out.  It took a bit of patience with my trusty soldering iron but I managed it with no prior experience.  I am setting them aside--maybe I will be able to make something with them?
Here you can see all of the glass pieces off.

And here is the finished piece, pink, per request.  I sprayed it with Krylon Paint plus Primer glossy pink.  It is pretty tricky to get an even coat on such a detailed piece.  After the paint was dry, my daughter and I went to the store and picked out the embellishments; beads to hang for sparkle and cording to trim the area on the platform the beads are hanging from.  I also painted the 'candlesticks' with turquoise glitter.  The last touch was to purchase dimmable LED bulbs.  Her room has a dimmer and regular LEDs do not dim well.  OK, really the last touch was to hang the lamp but that was Dad's job.  Thanks Dad!

Happy Valentines Day!

In honor of valentines day I am posting a couple of small projects with romantic themes. 

First are three small hearts (~4 in.) for a hearts for a Dollstreet Dreamers heart exchange.  Each heart is made with a different African wax print fabric that I hand drew and then machine stitched. I painted each portrait with kissing lips using Jacquard acrylic fabric paints and added detail with Micron and gel pens.  I embroidered X's and O's, the traditional letters representing hugs and kisses on each heart.  I then embellished each piece with beads collected from South Africa and the United States.

 My second project is for yet another ATC swap with a mermaid theme.    The cards are drawn with colored pencils and ink on card stock.  These drawings are inspired by my daughter and her love of princesses.