Tagged: junking
Great Junk Journal Fodder Haul
I have already started making junk journals and such for the upcoming Christmas season. Although I really don’t need a lot of ephemera to make new journals, I did want to beef up my stash a little bit. So I picked up some really cool stuff in the last couple of weeks and wanted to share it with you. So without any further ado, here’s the stuff I hauled.
Cool old books and magazines. The pictures in these books are fantastic!
More vintage books with great graphics.
This book is not that old but…
the inside is chock full of vintage street signs. These will also be great to use in my mixed media projects or as embellishments in my journals!
Two more vintage cookbooks, but check out the insides of these…
great pages for journaling. The top one gets extra points because it’s a binder!
Vintage wrapping papers and tissue papers, because the one huge box I already have is apparently not enough! Again, these can be used in junk journals or in mixed media.
Vintage kitchen labels, a note pad and vintage sewing supplies. These are great additions to junk journals.
A box crammed full of vintage matchbooks. The matches have already been taken out so these will make great tags and embellishments for my journals. This photo doesn’t show the quantity too well but there are at least 250-300 old matchbooks here!
And lastly, a yummy box of old ephemera. There are all kinds of receipts in this lot. Also included were some cards of vintage rickrack and some old pens, some of which are fountain pens.
So all in all, I feel well stocked for a while and am ready to get on with making the journals. If I remember, I’ll show you some of the finished ones.
It gives me a great feeling to know I can reuse these old treasures to make journals and mixed media projects people will enjoy. Recycling is always a win-win situation!
Cute Christmas Graphics
A lot of people ask me where I find such cute Christmas graphics for my December Dailies. I tell them, “Anywhere I can”. I don’t say that to be evasive or cryptic, I say it because it’s the truth. When you work on December Dailies and junk journals, you learn to look at the things that pass through your hands carefully. You want great graphics for your journals, however, most people don’t really even look at the papers that pass through their hands.
Here are a few cute Christmas graphics that may make it into my December Daily this year and the place where I found them. Hopefully this will give you some ideas for collecting great graphics for whatever project you are working on.
From and old Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer book from a Salvation Army thrift shop.
I got a whole box of these cards for $1.00 at a church thrift shop.
Snowmen plushie patterns from the Goodwill Outlet (by the pound store).
Cut from a children’s Christmas book from the library’s free book cart.
Vintage greetings cards purchased at a flea market.
Vintage sticker that was stuffed into a bag with old Christmas ornaments from a thrift shop.
These are just a few examples of what types of graphics are good to use for journals and where you can find them. But don’t forget to look at napkins, coasters, food bags, labels, newspapers, magazines, flyers, food boxes and shopping bags. Great graphics are all around, you just have to slow down and look for them.
I hope you take your time this Christmas to see all the wonderful images marketing professionals put out there for us to enjoy!
More Makings
As my last post showed, I have been very busy making items for two upcoming shows. Here is just a quick little post showing some more things I have made. Enjoy!
Up-Cycled Child’s Skates
Up-cycled men’s skates. The blades had marks on them so I covered them with snowtex to hide the flaw.
Snowmen “Merry Christmas” plaques from some blank wood plaques that were languishing in our garage.
A wreath made from a metal ringy thing I found while out junking one day.
As you can see, at least 90% of everything Moss Cottage Vintage makes is made with recycled elements. It is good for the environment and let’s me create one-of-a-kind items my customers can cherish!
My First Barn Sale!
I am so excited. My dear friend Barbara Hall from LR Fox Antiques and Design invited me to be a vendor at her first annual Foxwood Barn Sale. It will be held on October 3, 2015 at 3483 Spring Run Road, Mechanicsville, VA 23111. The link for the sale’s Facebook page is: www.facebook.com/foxwoodbarnsale. Check it out to see the beautiful barn and grounds where the sale will take place as well as great merchandise from the other vendors.
Some goodies Moss Cottage Vintage will have at the Barn Sale.
Old Shenandoah Vinegar Crate. Sorry, Louie is not included!
Up-cycled notebooks made by Moss Cottage Vintage.
Up-cycled corrugated owl tags made by Moss Cottage Vintage.
One-of-a-kind collage plaques made by Moss Cottage Vintage.
Needless to say, in the next two weeks I will be furiously cleaning, pricing and making other goodies to stock my booth at this wonderful event. Please come to the sale and support Moss Cottage Vintage and all the other wonderful vendors!
Scrapping My Stash
Most people love to shop. I love to shop. I love to shop for anything vintage, shabby, chippy or retro. I can justify buying vintage items because I turn around and sell them in my shop or on Etsy. That is my real job. I also LOVE to shop for craft supplies. I have a little harder time justifying money spent on craft supplies because that is more of a money-making hobby than a job. I can only sell a few crafts in my shop due to merchandise rules. I try to sell crafts on Etsy but the competition is fierce! I do sell crafts at the Vintage Home Market Shows and the Christmas Show and the Fredericksburg Expo Center. But all in all crafting is not how I make a living.
So, that being said, I have decided to cut way back on my craft supply spending and “scrap my stash” instead. I am going to use up as many of the supplies I have on hand as I can. After all, I bought those things because I liked them and intended to make something with them, right?
My second* project I made while “scrapping my stash” is these cute Easter decorations. They will be going to the antique mall. I used up lots of bits and pieces I had on hand including the large puzzle pieces. Sadly they hardly made a dent in my stash!
Here are some close-ups of each piece.
I hope you like these Easter pretties. Look forward to more posts on “scrapping my stash” which I will be writing. In the mean time, take a look around you and see all the wonderful stuff you bought to craft with and get making!
*To see my first “scrapping my stash” project, please see my last blog post titled, “Goodbye Old Friend”.
New Places Haul
I had the opportunity to shop at two new-to-me thrift shops last week and I absolutely loved them! I spent the day out with a friend and we literally spent all day at these two shops. Thankfully, she looks for entirely different things than I do so we don’t get in each others way. There are things that will be sold by Mossy Cottage and there are things that will be used for crafting. So without anymore ado, here’s what I found.
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- The cutest Valentine’s Day fabric ever!
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- Stamps, pipe cleaners, envelopes, and old tape measure and various other craft supplies.
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- Close up of the stamps I bought.
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- Vintage gloves, rosy invitations, a jewelry keeper and a get well card.
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- Pyrex plates, a wood puzzle, satin lingerie keeper, glove box. pill box hat , figurine and child’s book.
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- Two cute bird tins, a green metal planter, a lidded jar and a bottle of Chanel No. 22.
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- A hand made jointed teddy and a set of six retro plastic coffee mugs.
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- This bunch of eyelash trim was a freebie given to me by the friend I went shopping with!!!
I also got a cute crocheted vest by Chico’s and an awesome black cashmere sweater. Those things are definitely for personal use! I just love everything I got and a lot of the Mossy Cottage items will be for sale at the upcoming Big Flea in Fredericksburg (see my upcoming events page). I hope you had fun looking and hope you get your own chance to do some thrifting soon.
A Sad Little Case
Happy Labor Day everyone! Wow, has the summer ever blown by fast. I have had a very busy summer which included a cruise and a white-water rafting and zip-line trip to West Virginia. I also went to many flea markets, yard sales, estate sales and thrift shops. It was at one of these venues that I found this….
It is a sad little suitcase, probably for doll clothes. It is an old one, and certainly one that has seen better days, but then again, haven’t we all? If you look at the top right corner of the case it even looks like a mouse might have sharpened his teeth on it!
Why would I even consider spending good money on this? I had three reasons. First, it is sturdy and the hardware is all intact. Second, it only cost $1.00. And lastly, it is so sad I just couldn’t leave it to a fate of ever being tossed in the trash can, unused and unloved. Yes, I really do get emotional about inanimate objects! But I could not leave it in this miserable state. I decided since I will never be able to afford a face-lift, this sad little case would get one instead.
First, a coat of white paint around the edges and hardware. Sometimes you have to get ugly (or in this case uglier) before you get pretty. If you’ve ever had foil highlights put in your hair you know what I’m talking about.
Then I applied a bunch of scrap papers around the whole case. This is a view of the top.
And here is the front. As an afterthought I decided to cover up any white paint around the edges and hardware with some distress ink.
It gives it a little more vintage flair.
I wiped out the inside, which was not so bad, but it needed a little upgrade too.
I just put some paper in the lid and in the bottom, but left the sides in their original state. I love how this sad little case ended up. Not so sad anymore! I am mainly going to use this case to carry art supplies when I go out (can anyone say, Donna Downey class in October!!!!). I was going to stamp some “arty” words inside the lid but decided I may also use it for displaying lace and such at vintage shows. I’m sorry my pictures do not do this little $1.00 beauty justice. She actually is quite pretty now.
So my challenge to you is to take a chance and spend that whole dollar on the sad little object nobody else will buy. You never know, it could be a diamond in the rough!
I Must Be Stopped!!!!
Guess what I did today. No really, guess. I’ll give you a hint. It’s Friday so I have to go to my shop in Fredericksburg to put some stuff in and straighten it up. We have a potential hurricane about to hit and I need to get “D” batteries for our lanterns. We are out of soy milk and cat food so I have to go to the grocery store. It’s the end of a very looong month and I don’t have any money left. I have a whole bunch of linens that need ironing and pricing. I have to dust and vacuum the downstairs of the house. Oh, and Adam has a DAC playoff soccer game this afternoon. So, did you guess what I did today? This is what I did…
What have I done?
I went to a great big church yard sale in FredVegas. This is all the great stuff I got. I ended up spending money I had saved for something else. Don’t worry Adam, you can always go to “Bob’s School of Forensic Biology” instead of VCU!
Baby Stuff
Tithing Money Box
This cute vintage piggy bank for tithes says, “For this I am thankful” on the side and, “My Blue Box” on the top.
Donkey and Goats!
I also got a pretty white-on-white baby gown with a slip and some vintage party noise makers.
Pretties!
Chocolate Tin
luxury!
This unopened box of Chanel No. 5 powder is staying at home with me!!!! The rosy linen towel has never been used. There is also a sparkly gold evening bag and a tiny silver plated urn. The lacy thing is like a crocheted egg cozy, however, I’m thinking it would make a great pocket on one of my upcoming homemade aprons!
Christmas Goodies
Because our house doesn’t already look like the North Pole exploded, I had to get more Christmas stuff. Check out the compete box of cookie cutters and the 1950’s print cloth. How could I just leave them there? But the cream in this lot is this..
Dancer
This 1950’s print hanky has all the reindeer’s names on it but it has a picture of Dancer. You can’t really tell from my award winning photograph, however, Dancer has actual googly eyes! You know, the ones that move around when you shake them. This is sooooo darn cute.
Toile pin dishes
Retro Rooster Kitchen Set
Old Bird Cage
Wicker Hamper
I had to display my rosy tea towel with the hamper so it didn’t look so lonely! So now you know what I did today. And by the way, the shop has been tidied, the lanterns have batteries, I got the soy milk and the FCS Eagles won the first game in the DAC playoffs. Go Eagles!!! Not such a bad day after all. So what will I be doing tomorrow? Ironing, pricing, dusting, vacuuming and going to the store to get the cat food I forgot!!!! Well, I never said I was perfect.
glitteronmyface 