A Series of Small Collections

I've fallen in love with this photo series:

A Series of Small Collections by jessicanples on Flickr.

Click the photo above to view the series. (you really should!)  I've been clicking through each photo over and over.  I think this one's my favorite (but of course it changes every time I notice another interesting bit):

They make me want to organize bits and pieces and then photograph them.  But what I really like about her series is that they are all other people's collections.  Knowing that they mean something to strangers makes them even more interesting.  There is a story behind every collection, for every tiny piece. It's brilliant!

Two

2 coins. a copper penny (from England) and a silver dollar.

Gift Wrap

Wrapping presents is my favorite part of Christmas.  Seriously, I love, love, love making boxes pretty, and while store-bought giftwrap can be very nice looking, I prefer to use things I already have. Well, I am also a complete cheapskate.

We've gotten a few boxes this season filled with brown paper stuffing.  I always love it when we get packages filled with brown paper because it has so many possibilities.  I can reuse it as stuffing,  or for making sewing patterns (which I do very, very rarely), or, best yet, wrapping paper.  I just got a pretty damask style stamping set, so I'll show you how to take crumpled brown paper and turn it into an old style-looking fancy wrapping:

I usually iron the paper before I use it.  It keeps the wrinkled-ness of the paper, but it also allows it to lay flat. I have a cheap, cheap iron that doesn't actually get hot, so its always on the hottest setting and won't burn anything, but I would recommend using a lower setting than you think you need and see how it goes from there.  But look at what a difference it makes!

Once it's flat and ironed, just stamp away.

I finished mine off with a cream cotton yarn, a pom pom bow, and a stamped chipboard tag:

Since ribbon can be so expensive, and I have a way-too-big-for-my-own-good stash of yarn, I've been finding alternate bow-tying material.  I've fallen in love with pom poms.  I also collect boxes throughout the year (I can't throw anything away) for potential present wrappers.  The below gift doesn't actually contain tea, but I love the twinings tea tins, and am amassing a quantity greater than what I use.

If you have a hard time tying a beautiful bow, you could always draw the ribbon:

But my favorite are the crochet motif toppers. Way, way better than those sticky bows you buy at the store and they only take about about 5 minutes to create.  And they make great tree ornaments, pins, or they can be reused as gift bows.  I have a box of little motifs, whether they be mistakes, or the wrong gauge, or I started something and then got bored with it.

Three

Three cats--this was more difficult than it looks, and it involved lots of delicious fish shaped cookies.

Four

Four cups of tea

Five

Five days, five silver spoons--one of my favorites.

Six days left

Six days left: six pearls.  These were fun to photograph!

Seven

Seven days left: seven silver rings

8 Stones

8 days, 8 stones

9 days left

9 glass bottles

10 buttons

Ten Days left: 10 buttons (my favorite is the glass crystal one, and the copper one, and...oh, I like them all)

11 Keys

Eleven Days: 11 keys

12 Twigs

Twelve days until Christmas: 12 twigs

I'm counting down the last 12 days before Christmas with objects that inspire me. Enjoy!

My Favorite Place

Some of my new favorites from trash beach.

Three Treasuries

We've been lucky enough lately to be included in some incredibly beautiful collections on etsy's treasuries.   I'm so in love with some of these pieces (and I'm not talking about ours!)

I love this necklace, this painting, and these earrings

Origami porcelain figurines! and chalkboard silver trays!

But this treasury is really my favorite.  I like this ring, and this necklace, and this print, and these insulators (I have a collection myself), but I really would have to say that I'm completely drooling over this collection.   I may just go and buy it myself. . .

Of course, you can click on the image to view the actual treasury on etsy.

assemblage, part 2

 Some of the items I was working on last week.  I'm very excited about the watch band bracelets (like the one above)

Now that I have photos, I'll be working on a shop update!

Old Things

We've got a table at the BIM again, and this weekend is the annual steampunk fashion show.  It's not actually at the tent (it's a few subway stops up) but we're going to make a few special pieces anyways.  I am excited to get into my boxes of old, antiquey trash and play around with some new things.   I've compiled some of my inspiration today, and I'll show you what I've been working on soon!

I love this keyhole bracelet from Daniellerosebean:

And these brass filagree bead earrings from EricaWeinerJewelry (but of course I covet everything in her shop):

I love this key brooch from Redheart13:

But the queen of assemblage is Sparrow Salvage.  Her pieces are always fantastically pieced together, and she has a great blog too! (And I'm in love with her new collection postcards)

So I'm going to be using up some of my collection of lace, leather, old chains, brass findings, and bits of broken old jewelry.

This is what my table looks like now:

I'm having so much fun!

Type Tray

Something very nice a dear friend gave me for my birthday.  It's taken me a while to fill it, and it's certainly not even full yet!  I am having so much fun finding things to fit in it's little spaces and I love the water stained backing in all the trays. 

you can click on the last photo to enlarge it and see the treasures!