Top Tips for 'Vintage'-look Florals

I'd like to welcome guests arriving
from DEEconstructed's blog post!
 this post about working with flowers
originally appeared on HOMEWARDfoundDecor in February...
I hope you enjoy it!
 

 Welcome to Day 18!

 along with chocolate, the number one Valentine's Day gift is flowers.

and as much as i love a huge bouquet of fresh roses (white, please),

i really love using vintage florals in my decor. but they can be pricy!

over the years of styling retail displays and creating products for sale at vintage shows,

i've discovered a few tricks for using flowers in a way that makes them look more 'vintage'...

 * bunch 'em up into an old fashioned 'tussy mussy'

this bouquet (also shown in the top photo in this post) is a mix of about 20 fabric/silk flowers

and MOST of them aren't old. 

grabbed for pennies at garage sales, thrift stores, and even the dollar store,

those flowers form the 'base' of the bouquet, packed tightly into a bunch.

then the actual vintage flowers are inserted so that they sit above the others and at the edges of the bouquet

those are the flowers that you focus on when you look at the bouquet

[the white sweet william and deep pink mini roses, for example]

the stems are held tightly together with rubber bands,

then are wrapped up in a large vintage white doily. 

the top edge of the doily is left loose and looks like a collar around the flowers.

i also wound some vintage seam binding and ribbon around the stems,

finishing them off by dangling a cubic zirconia engagement ring and a vintage crystal.

 * create a domed arrangement

a styrofoam or floral foam ball is shoved tightly into a vase as the base of this arrangement.

snip flower stems to @ 2-3", and begin inserting them into the ball along the vase edge. 

work upward and place those flowers very closely together. 

[your flowers should all be the same type for this to look best - all roses, or tulips, for example]

the roses in the arrangement shown above were not vintage,

but here's a trick to making them LOOK vintage:

1. put on some gloves, and create a bleach solution of 1/4 cup bleach to 2 cups water. 

2. mix in a plastic spray bottle with a 'fine mist' spray option on the nozzle. (not 'stream')

3. take your new fabric flowers outside, and prop the flowers up in an bucket or paint can.

[you want them to be sitting as they will be when displayed]

4. sit the bucket of flowers on a large piece of cardboard or dropcloth to catch the overspray.

5. VERY LIGHTLY spray the bleach/water mixture over the flowers from @ 12" away.

spray from the TOP, and let the mist of bleach/water fall down onto the petals. 

6. let them dry, then repeat. 

7. for the second spray, move in a bit closer and focus on the ends of the petals of the large flowers.

[you may have to remove the stems from the bucket and hold each one]

8. let dry. then use in your decor!

this method will cause the flower petals on the outside of the blooms to fade and wrinkle a bit,

just as they do over time in vintage flowers.

* you can make even cheap fabric/silk flowers look more 'real':

when placing your flowers into containers, tweak the stems...

bend them and twist them just as real flowers do when growing in a garden.

have some facing downward, some reaching upward.

pull a few of the blooms open - stretch out the outer petals
[hair spray will stiffen them up so they hold]

and pull a few petals off of one bloom... scatter them on the table below the arrangement. 

it just looks a bit more 'real' that way!

Create a Cake Using Dishes?!

today, i have a 'Fast, Cheap, & Easy' TM Tutorial

showing you how to create some fanciful food decor

using everyday dishes & serving pieces!

the tutorial is at the bottom of this post.

first, the story and some inspiring photos...

many years ago, i saw this delicacy pictured 

in an issue of Mary Engelbreit's Home Companion Magazine.

[a moment of silence, please, 

to honor the passing of one of the best creative publications ever]

 i was inspired!

and immediately grabbed some spools of ribbon and some of my white dishes

and created my own version on my dining room buffet. 

[i even topped it with our wedding cake topper!] 

it was darling and it was ridiculously easy!

over the years, i've made many other versions in various sizes and colors.

here are some white delicacies that i whipped up for a photo session:

 you can create this in literally MINUTES!

really, you can. 

here's the tutorial:

 * vintage trims and jewelry make fabulous additions, 

as do mini cookie cutters and candy.

 you can certainly use glue dots or tiny drops of hot glue to hold the dishes together

and double-sided tape to hold the trims on, if you'd like.

* color is limited only by your imagination!

* you can also use vintage tin cans (like cookie tins) for this...

use them with their original patterns & graphics
OR

spray paint them all one color (perfect if they are textured tins)

Eye Candy

yes, some holidays are ALL about candy...

a few years back, i hit the motherlode:

24 boxes of white candy canes at the dollar store

[12 canes per box X 24 boxes at $1 each =
288 pieces of sheer white sweetness for $24 bux]

i'd been searching for those babies since i first saw photos of uber-stylist

tricia foley's white holiday decor in her book 'white christmas'

see the photo that's sitting under the candy-cane heart in the image above?

that's a tearsheet from a magazine that featured tricia's images. 

it's been in my inspiration file for over a decade.

not only do i use my white candy canes at Christmas,

but i use them for Valentine's Day, too!

uh huh. i make candy cane hearts with 'em.

two little drops of hot glue hold two canes together in a heart shape. 

eeeeeeeeasy. lots of people do this.

but then, i add a lil' something...

like tiny scrabble letters that spell LOVE,

a miniscule heart cut from old sheet music, or a button

 and then i display them with other fun food things....

along with a heart, i tucked a crocheted doily into a white popcorn box 

and it looked for all the world like buttered popcorn!

 one day when i was playing around making candy cane hearts, 

i must have been hungry

because i also created some other things that i dubbed 'Foo Foo Faux Food'
[and um, yeah, that product name is mine]

i was inspired by miss Betz White's famous felted cupcakes

and created my own from scraps of sweaters in my studio

[i didn't sell them, just made a few for me.]

and oh, how i love that vintage lace shirt cuff that i had - 

it looks just like a fancy-schmantzy lace cupcake paper, doesn't it?!

 if you want to learn how to make these, please buy Betz's wonderful book!

in the collage photo below, you can see a few other faux food items

that i made along with the cupcakes, popcorn, and candy cane hearts:

 

* teeny-tiny cupcakes (that look more like bon bons)

* a snowcone from fuzzy chenille yarn that was

wrapped around a styro ball and tucked into a paper cone.

* hot chocolate, made from a bundle of chocolate brown velvet ribbon, 

coiled in a wire teacup and topped with a sprinkle of white mini pom poms.

this is not high-functioning craft, i tell you... 

i was just playing around with stuff i was finding in my studio.

when i was done (about an hour later), 

i created a sweet little vignette on the table in front of the window.

 and it was Eye Candy that i enjoyed for the entire month of February. just for me.

[and yes, i got hungry every time i looked at it...]

i encourage you to just create!

for YOU. for your KIDS. for your FRIENDS.

not to produce products to sell. not to compete with other people.

just give yourself the gift of time to play once in awhile.

this Valentine's Day, give yourself a little Eye Candy!

Have a Heart!

Valentine's Day is just under a month away, my friends...
so i'd like to share some of my favorite simple projects for home decor and gifts for those you love!

a few years back i had some fabric scraps sitting in a basket in my studio -
scraps of burlap, and chenille & matlasse' bedspreads.
[amazingly, NOT sweaters!]

it took almost no time at all to sew up these small stuffed hearts
and then use a black fine point Sharpie marker to write sweet words on them.

  i use them to decorate with in my own home, and have also given them as gifts and sold them.

y' know, now that i think about it... why NOT use sweater scraps?!
  

find my easy tutorial for making these sweeties in this post

On Lucky Street

Welcome to Day 13!

as expected, the event i attended yesterday in the San Diego, California area

was OVER THE TOP INSPIRING!

the building has been transformed from an old printing company warehouse to a vintage mecca,

the perfect location for vintage markets, craft classes, photo shoots, and event prop rentals.

here are just a few of my photos of the amazing sets, decor, and props:

the next event will be held February 22-24 and even more details will be in place then:

the interior is being built out to resemble a charming country hamlet!

the marketplace hosts @ 20 vendors of vintage and re-purposed furnishings, decor, and apparel.

i could LIVE there. seriously!

visit Lucky Street Productions on facebook for more information about events, classes, and rentals.

Pretty In Pink

Welcome to Day 12!

 i am off on an adventure today, 
attending a local vintage show that promises to inspire me to no end!
this one:

while there, i'll be meeting up with a few friends 
who have all been vendors in the vintage industry...
[my peeps, my girls, my tribe!]
and i expect there will be a lot of great fun & laughter, 
as well as rapid shutter-clicking to capture it all in photos!

i can't wait to share it with you in an upcoming post!

in today's countdown post, you'll see some inspiring photos
of pretty pink Valentine's Day decor in my own home, from years ago.

you'll find today's post on
 

facebook!

[click button above for link to the HOMEWARDfound facebook page,
and look for the link to the newly-posted photos in 
the Valentine's Day Countdown Album!]

 stay tuned for the next post in our daily countdown, coming up tomorrow

here on the blog or on ONE of these social networking sites:

Spell It Out!

wanna' share the love?
with a few straight cuts through wood and a sharpie marker,
you can create your own sweet giant lettered tiles!
.
before i share this tutorial.... 

remember this photo of my cement tile backerboard chalkboard from this previous post?

 see the part at the bottom that says

"use OLD WOOD GUTTER as chalk rail" ?

that's where this story begins!

we were hanging that chalkboard in our new home,

and discovered that the chalk rail just wasn't going to work there.

[it was in a hallway and the rail would have been ankle-height - need i say more?]

so i was holding the piece of old gutter, turned to walk into the family room...

and right on the enamel table in front of me was a Scrabble game tile holder with Scrabble letters in it.

they spelled out our last name. we've all seen this done, right?

i'd seen them sitting there every day,
BUT THAT  DAY

with the big ol' wood gutter piece in my hands

a big light bulb went off in my head as i thought of something NEW:

"the gutter looks like the game tile holder. just - bigger.

why not make letter tiles - BIGGER!?"

and so, we did:

we sold a LOT of them at vintage shows in the Pacific Northwest that summer!

i still have some of my own, and have a lot of fun making different words for various seasons.

*nope, there are no numbers on my versions. they are not called Scrabble tiles. 
this product is 'inspired by', not a copy.

now you can make your own versions of these giant letter tiles  
with my quick & easy tutorial!

supplies: 

a piece of wood (details below)

sandpaper (fine grit)

sanding sealer spray

a black Sharpie fine point marker

clear varnish spray

please READ THE INSTRUCTIONS IN THE PHOTOS

and then the notes under the photos...

 finish grade vertical grain douglas fir runs about $1.50 per linear foot - 

less than $10 for a 6 foot board, which yields 14 letter tiles.

[if you want to have a LOT of letters, grab two boards or a longer length]

quick note:

yes, you CAN use reclaimed lumber, old flooring, old fencing, 

or whatever you want to use to make your letter tiles.

the douglas fir grain & color gives the best 'just like the game pieces' look, though.

and yes, the guys in the lumber department at Lowes & Home Depot WILL cut it for you!

all you have to do is ask them to, and give them the 5" measurement. 

[you may be charged 50 cents per cut, but hey, it saves you the work!]

 sand the edges FIRST, then the tops - the tops look better that way.

then spray the sealer on the side that you will be lettering, and let dry.

[you can seal the whole thing if you want, but it's only necessary to keep the Sharpie marker ink from bleeding into the woodgrain.]

figure out what you want your letters to spell out, 

and add a letter to each tile using the black Sharpie marker.

 a straight ruler and a smooth curved jar lid will help keep your lettering crisp.

seriously, let the marker dry - if you don't, it will run when you spray the varnish on!

let the varnish dry 30 minutes, then flip & spray the back. spray the edges, too.

let dry at least an hour in a warm place to 'cure' the varnish before you use them.

now you have letters to make a sign with, or a trivet, or coasters

you can adhere hooks to the back and hang them up, or....?

and if you head to a salvage yard or the ReStore, you might just find a length of old wooden gutter to display them in:

feel free to PIN this image below for the whole tutorial!

shared online:

Common Ground

funky junk interiors | diy salvaged junk projects #414