A Vintage Wash Board

It must have been about two years ago that I came across a metal wash board at the flea market. I bought it, not knowing yet what to do with it. It wasn’t very pretty but I liked it anyway. A view weeks ago I had a small amount of white paint left over and looked around in my studio to see where I could put it on. The wash board caught my eye and so some minutes later the thing was white. I distressed it a little bit and all of a sudden I had the idea, that it would make a great magnetic pinboard. A lovely image on the kind of crumpled top part would look great and my favorite fairy,

Karen the Graphicsfairy

had what I was looking for. I transferred a pretty French graphic using the gel medium technique. Then I glued magnets to the back of buttons, game pieces, a clock face etc. and the pinboard was completed.

 

 

For the soldered glass nugget below I had also used a French image from the Graphicsfairy.

I like how it turned out and will keep my eyes open for another wash board that I will use in the kitchen to hold recipes and shopping lists.

I still have to show you some more wonderful gifts I had received for my birthday. Two packages came across the Baltic Sea from two sweet Danish friends. Dear Dorthe at Den Lille Lade had made one of her gorgeous driftwood angels for me.

created by Dorthe

Then I got this altered curtain tie back from my sweet friend. Wasn’t that a great idea? It’s so pretty.

created by Dorthe

Furthermore, Dorthe spoiled me with this lovely domino necklace I had admired on her blog some months ago,

created by Dorthe

a cute bird and an altered spool.

created by Dorthe

This pretty card was also included. I still don’t have a clue how Dorthe manages to glue those fragile skeleton leaves onto her cards and collages. It’s totally amazing.

created by Dorthe

The second Danish package came from dear Anni over at Fabric Art. Anni had sent me this lovely cone, filled with a beautiful tag, sheet music and a pretty altered mold

created by Anni

along with this sweet Marie card.

created by Anni

All the way from Australia came a package from dear Suzy at Suziqu’s Threadworks. Suzy had created this gorgeous journal for me.

created by Suzy

Here are some of the lovely inside details but unfortunately the pictures don’t do the beauty justice.

created by Suzy

created by Suzy

My dear friend from faraway also sent me this pretty silver plated spoon which had been wrapped in a lovely piece of lace and a doily.

created by Suzy

I was overwhelmed already but found another gift in Suzy’s package, namely this fabulous fabric collage. It even has my name one it, how sweet.

created by Suzy

created by Suzy

Thank you so very much, my dear friends!

I’m blown away by all of your wonderful gifts. I had never anticipated that real friendships would develop over the internet and I’m very thankful for this fantastic experience. I would have never believed if someone had told me that two years ago.

There are a few more gifts I would like to show you but I guess this post is long enough already and so I’ll keep those for the next one.

Thank you for stopping by and have a great time!

HUGS,

Julia

 

Spoiled

I had planned to be back earlier, but since my last post the sun hadn’t been out here too often, and so it took a while until I could take reasonable pictures of the lovely gifts I had received for my birthday. I’m not complaining about the weather though. When I hear about the heat waves that some of you are experiencing, I’m pretty happy with the cool and rainy days we had. In the meanwhile the summery weather is back.

Among other gifts my dear friend Marie over at Lost Bird Studio had spoiled me with these gorgeous gifts:

created by Marie 

A fantastic fabric collage,

created by Marie

two pretty pendants and a gorgeous tag.

created by Marie

I have to show you a close-up of the pendants. The text on the large one made me giggle. Flea market girl - yup, that’s me :-).

created by Marie

 With this beautiful bag that Marie had created, I now can go flea market shopping in style and I will.

  created by Marie

Marie had kept her eyes open to find some treasures for me and surprised me with a wonderful spool she had found in the US, some pretty laces she had bought during her trip to Istanbul and a darning mushroom she had discovered at her local flea market in Germany. How sweet is that?

created by Marie

Thank you so much, dear Marie! You know how much I love everything!

Another most wonderful package came from dear Viola over at Shabby Chic Inspired. Viola had altered a small backgammon suitcase and this is the gorgeous result:

created by Viola

It was filled with all these pretty laces, buttons, a vintage book, cabinet cards and wooden letters that spell my name.

  The bird collage was another fantastic gift

created by Viola

and so was the lavender sachet, which is not only very pretty but also smells wonderfully.

created by Viola

Isn’t that dress form charm just beautiful?

created by Viola

This lovely card was also enclosed.

created by Viola

I just love everything, dear Viola! Thank you very much!

You probably agree that I have been spoiled big time and there are even more wonderful gifts which I will share with you in my next posts.

Enjoy your weekend and do something that makes you happy :-)!

HUGS,

Julia