More Free Vintage Graphics!

Here are some more cool graphics I scanned from a vintage Products catalog dated 1901! My mom found this catalog for me at an Antique store and knowing my obsession for ephemera, Thanks Mom!  I have edited these to the best of my ability (which is not the best!), but I still think they look pretty good!

Right click on any image to save!

First up are some great pocket watch graphics:

A couple fancy combs: 

A ruler for good measure :)

Scissors fit for a queen!:

Vintage ink pen:

Spoonful of sugar...

I love this one! I guess they did have charm bracelets in 1901!

Gorgeous hand mirror:

Salt or Pepper??

Victorian Medal? Not sure about this one but it's cool! 

Old timey luggage tag! Add your own text on this one! 

Any guesses?...

 This is a Shaving cup! Everything was so much fancier back in the day!

That's all for now but this book has literally hundreds of pages of images! So stay tuned!

Thanks for stopping by!

-Liz :)

**Slight Disclaimer Here: It is my understanding that these are public domain images since they were copyrighted prior to 1923, but please use these at your own risk. These can be used freely for personal use without worry, but I would encourage against using any image for monetary gain without proper knowledge of their source. I will not be held responsible for any copyright infringement.**

Dollar Store Snow Globes!

The Dollar Challenge is back, Christmas style, with this super easy, $3 Snow Globe:

What You'll Need: 

1. A glass jar (this rounded jar from dollar tree works great and mimics an actual globe)

2. Glitter

3. Strong, waterproof glue (I used E600)

4. Small waterproof decorations (ceramic, glass or plastic work best)

5. Water!

I got all my supplies at the Dollar Tree! I used a rounded glass jar, three colors of glitter (all came in the same package) and a small figurine of a boy building a snowman 

First, glue your decor to the inside of the lid of your jar:

Then, sprinkle a generous amount of glitter into the jar:

Now, add the water! Add slowly to avoid too much glitter floating to the top

This glitter was pretty buoyant :(. Not too worry if your glitter floats just use your finger and gently tap on the surface of the water, this will knock the glitter back down. 

Fill the jar almost to the brim to make sure the globe will be completely full. 

Once the glue is dry on your decor, screw the lid back onto the jar, some water will overflow, this is fine! 

Then turn back over and enjoy! 

Let it snow!!

You could also use other things besides just glitter for the snow, like sequins or table scatter, or even fake snow from a craft store! 

Thrift stores are another great place to find small trinkets and figurines for your snow globes! 

Be Creative and Happy Holidays! 

Thanks for stopping by! 

-Liz :)

Thrift Store Upcycle

Check out my latest thrift store upcycle:

One thing I often find on my thrift store hunts is vintage cross-stitching. Usually these are slightly "grandma-ish" in subject matter, but when I found one that spoke to me I knew I had to do something with it! 

Here is how I bought my cross so the titch:

Yea, I know pretty ugly frame and equally ugly mat. So I  86-ed both! Then I had to decide how to re-frame it in a more modern fashion! Since embroidery hoops are hot in interior design I thought it would be perfect to frame my cross-stitch in a hoop just like how it was originally made. 

I hung my new thrifty art in a corner by my work area that needed a little something. And this was the perfect something! This cross-stitch spoke to me for a number of reasons: 

1. I love owls!

2. I do NOT love mornings!

3. I am allergic to just about everything you can be allergic to!

So this piece was pretty much made for me and i just couldn't resist. 

Next time your at the thrift store dont just past by those grandma looking cross-stitches, some of them are kind of cool!!

Thanks for stopping by!

-Liz :)

3D Decoupage Christmas Wreath

Wreaths are the quintessential Christmas decor, and since they are such a holiday staple everyone is always trying to put their own spin on them, including me! Not that I don't enjoy the traditional greenery and bows, but it is always good to shake things up! And since it is no secret that I love vintage, I decided to go to my favorite vintage source for some inspiring graphics, The Graphics Fairy! There are a bunch of awesome Christmas and holiday graphics on this site, but since I am a 50s junky I immediately gravitated towards the retro images. 

Check out how I used these awesome graphics to embellish this classic ribbon-wrapped wreath:

1) First, I made the wreath: 

I used festive red and white ribbon I got at a thrift store to wrap the entire foam wreath. I secured the end with a greenery pin: 

Then I just kept wrapping, again fastening the end with a pin (my favorite thing about using foam is no glue required!)

Here is a close up of my wrapped wreath:

2) Next I got my graphics: I picked these off the Graphics Fairy:

-a retro kitten with a candle

-a retro santa

-a retro reindeer

-and a retro candy cane (x4)

I printed all my graphics onto white cardstock

3) I cut out all of my graphics, using a craft-knife to cut out any inside sections: 

4) To add a festive border and some stability to my graphics I backed each image with some shiny gold cardstock! I did a rough trace around each image on the back of the gold paper leaving a small border. Then I cut these out and mounted the images with some double-stick tape. (remember to trace the images face-down!)

5) Now time to assemble the wreath! I used some regular pins to attach each image to the wreath going through the paper and into the foam, using about 2-3 pins per image. 

6) Last, I added some sparkly gold garland to hang my wreath and it now adorns my fireplace with a command hook!

Happy Holidays Everyone!

Thanks for stopping by!

-Liz :)

My Haunted House!

Although Halloween is over (nooooooooo!) I promised photos from my Halloween party, which I had after-the-fact on Saturday (best decision ever, because as soon as November hits all of the Halloween stores slash prices!!). So since I promised I guess I will just have to do one more Halloween post!! And then I promise this is it, and I will move on to the less gruesome holidays fast approaching :).

So to decorate my house (ok, apartment) for Halloween I decided on 3 themes, yes 3, because 1 is boring! First in my living room which is the first room you walk into I went with overall dark palette and what ended up to be a mash-up of Black Forest/traditional haunted house/seance room. I know that doesn't seem like it should count as a "theme" but it worked! Check it out:

Lights on

Lights off!

Another room shot. I including our animatronic spider in this one. He dropped down suddenly in response to noise so we placed him on the overhang right in front of our front door for a quick scare right when guests walked in. And we did get a couple people! 

Seance table!! The Crystal ball is a large glass dome shade I bought for a dollar at Goodwill. It is illuminated by a simple push on light from the dollar store! The tea lights are led and also from the dollar store. I placed these is 4 glass jars from goodwill. And the cards are from a deck I got as a souvenir at Harry Potter world in Universal Studios.

I had this vintage bird cage which looked creepy on its own, so I hang it from our overhang and added some dollar store crows for extra creepiness!

I utilized our fireplace by putting a large fuzzy spider in the fireplace and lighting it with a white strobe (the effect was ally cool with the low light we had for the party. Then for the tile in front of the fireplace I laid some tattered green mesh from the Halloween store and some plastic rats and snakes!

This was one of my favorite areas! I got the frames from goodwill, and printed the creepy old photos offline from thegraphicsfairy.com. Then I added two led candlesticks placed inside a couple of my vintage baby cups. Some black roses and spiderwebs finished the look!

Here is another vignette I created by simply opening a couple of reference books I already had to creepy diagrams and then added cobwebs and spiders!

This was supposed to be our big scare but unfortunately it decided to stop working the night of the party (it totally works again now!) I got this animatronic snake that strikes, hisses, and rattles its tail when someone passes by too close from the Halloween store half off!!

Creepy filter!

The second area I decked out for our party was the kitchen. For the kitchen it seemed only natural to go with a mad scientist theme!:

the Laboratory! 

Again with the filters!

View to the living room.

I made a number of "specimen" jars with some of my old canning jars I have picked up at thrift stores. Simply add water, mix in some food coloring to the desired color, and add some plastic props like creepy bugs!

The laboratory was also a candy bar! Because what is more Halloween than candy?! I used different containers, some new and some thrifted to serve different kinds of candy. I only used thrifted items like the metal stand and tray for wrapped candy, and placed unwrapped candy like twizzlers and of course candy corn in some new (but still inexpensive) glass jars and containers.

Plastic eyeballs filled another jar, and the large faux mercury glass urn from homegoods held fun size kit kat and crunch bars left over from tricker-or-treaters!

This was definitely the creepiest jar! I got the fake fingers from the Halloween store half-off!

I found this rounded bottom jar at Goodwill and immediately thought dome. I used an embroidery needle stuck into a piece of foam as a mount for my plastic fly. Then I placed that on a glass saucer with the dome over it. 

The last area I decorated was the patio. This was definitely my favorite:

Blacklight!! I got at blacklight bulb that I used in one of our floor lamps and a long light that could be mounted to the wall. Then it was glow-in-the-dark craziness! I pretty much bought everything I saw that said glow-in-the-dark, from the two faces (I actually made these!), to g-i-t-d plastic spiders and bats, and even g-i-t-d duck tape! 

I also got black-light paint from the Halloween store that I used to make creepy signs on foam core with sayings like "Help Me" and "Your Next". I even got a little artistic with it like the dripping painting on the top right. 

I made the faces with felt cut-outs from the dollar store by glueing them onto foam core that I had sprayed with glow-in-the-dark spray paint!. 

Well, I guess that is all for Halloween this year! Now it's time to start planning for next year! Muahhahaha! 

Thanks for stopping by, 

-Liz :)