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Showing posts with the label crafts

Finding Treasure in Handkerchiefs

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Recently I decided to clean out the master bedroom closet.   It is a long narrow walk in closet and the coldest place in the house in the winter.   It was now or wait until spring.   I began with the usual – going through the hanging clothes and then the shoes and last the boxes that never got unpacked from the last move.   That was when the fun began!   When I opened a small box of handkerchiefs I could almost smell the lilac fragrance my grandmother was so found of.   There was a stack of my mother’s and grandmother’s beautiful handkerchiefs I had forgotten about.   Both women loved the femininity of the embroidery and lace on batiste and fine linen fabric.   They never went anywhere without a clean ironed square in their purses.     Finding those handkerchiefs got me to thinking about handkerchiefs in general and I did a little research.   It seems that King Richard II of England , who reigned from 1377 to 1399, was responsible for the original squares of fabric for nose

How to Make Handmade Tin Foil Ornaments

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A friend called and wanted help organizing a holiday sale for about 10 artists (I’m included) and the group wanted to have a Christmas tree decorated with each artists’ handmade ornaments.   I thought, “Great, another project! But why not?”   Several days later my ornaments are ready with directions so you can make some too!   It was such fun and did not take much time!   They could   also be insets in boxes, gift tags, book covers and more.   A great stress reliever too! Materials:   cardboard, tin foil, 2” wide silver electrical tape, a blunt tool (could be a medium ball point pen), a punch, acrylic paint, paper towel, brush, water, latex gloves, silver thread  Materials Needed  1.          Select cardboard (from backs of notebooks, inserts from packing, lightweight cardboard boxes) or heavy cardstock will work.   Remember you have to be able to cut it but you don’t want it so flexible it bends too easily.    2.        Select some shapes – circles, squares, triangles, rectangles