Tutorial Tuesdays - How to make Fairy Furniture - Treasures Cabinet

Hello Everyone!

My niece is really getting into fairy things (hooray!) and I LOVE making fairy creations for her.  I am making furniture for her to go with a fairy house I made a while back.  Today I will show you how I make Treasure Cabinets (that are used as Fairy Trading Cabinets during the holidays and there will a post about THAT). 

Most of my fairy furniture is made from 'found things' but this cabinet is sold at Michaels for a dollar.  Kids LOVE that they can open the little doors and actually put little treasures inside.

What you need:

Little cabinet
Crayola Water Colors
Paint brush
Decoupage Spray - High Gloss- Acid Free
Fine Glitter or Fine Glitter Embossing Powder
Markers

Simply paint the cabinet with your watercolors.  Use less water to make the colors more vivid.  The wood is so fine that it acts like paper, so it accepts watercolor readily.  I like using watercolor more than acrylic since it seems more fairy-ish for some reason.  I usually wind up putting on several layers of color to make it pop.  Definitely let it dry before adding more color.  Put unusual colors together- like the ones you find in nature.  Pinks and greens with orange. Purple and fuschia with green.  Purple, green and yellow...just remember that watercolors will run a bit together and unless you want a brown color, put colors next to each other that blend well.  I like blues and greens fading into each other. 

After the cabinet is covered in color and dry, add decorative markings.  Swirls, dots, vines, etc.  I love to add markings that remind me of butterfly markings.  Remember that when you add the decorative touches, they will bleed slightly.  That is OK.  You will trace back over them with marker to make the effect you see on the back.

Once everything is dry again, take it outside to coat it in decoupage spray. 

While it is still wet, sprinkle on the glitter.  The more the better, I think.  It is easiest to open the little doors and spray the insides first and then move out.  Do not close the doors until they are dry on both sides.  The spray REALLY deepens the colors!

That is it!

Fill the cabinet with treasures and your special girl's imagination will take flight!

Happy Crafting,

Featured Etsy Seller- Meredith Dada - One of a kind beaded home decor

I came across this shop just a few days ago and it took my breath away.  I have always adored beads and miniatures and Meredith puts them together in the most gorgeous way!!

She is a stay-at-home mom who squeezes in her precious crafting time whenever she can (like so many of us!) and she first learned to love beads as child, watching her grandma make Barbie clothes and Christmas ornaments.
She has continued her grandmother's crafting and beading tradition in fresh new ways with lovely color combinations, making flowers and birds come to life through her art.

Check out her shop when you have a moment.  So many treasures to look at...

Enjoy!

An Explosion of Creative Energy

Some people ask me how I find the time to do all the different crafts and projects I have going on.  I am running a hand painted glass business, a sugarcrafting business and I am doing this blog, on top of all the other projects and gifts I create for loved ones.

The answer is simple.

I find the time to do these things because at one time, not so long ago, I was in the corporate world where there was nothing to look forward to but the NEXT BIG SALE.  THE NEXT BIG CONTRACT and I was only as good as my next quota.  Yes, I was in sales. I was darn good at it too, but...

Sometimes I would get home and immediately get in a hot bath and cry.  I know that sounds ridiculous and childish, but I did.
I felt like a part of my heart was dying.  I would watch Office Space and think, "I have to quit!  I have to get out of here!  I have to do something else!"  But I never did.  I felt like I would be wasting my college degree and wasting years spent 'paying my dues'.

My husband could always tell when I needed to create something but could not find the time to do it.  One night he brought home a big bottle of red wine and a large canvas and said, "Honey, it is time for you to paint."
I would cram in last minute projects to get my creative fix, but it never fully satisfied my desire to make beautiful things.

It was hard to create something lovely when I felt like crap.  I had so many expectations to live up to, so many dreams, so much stuff that in the long run, does NOT matter.
Thankfully, my daughter was born and I could not find it in myself to go back to work.  I just could not leave her for a job I hated! 
I kissed the corporate world good-bye, OK, it was not a kiss, it was more like a KICK and I started my new life.  Free of expectations from anyone but my husband and my daughter to be a great mom.

It was so liberating!!

And now that my kids are a bit older and more self-sufficient I can finally really CREATE.  Once I got started, I could not stop.  Years of pent up creativity are now pouring out and I am learning so many new things.

I have no idea if I will be any kind of success at this.  I have no clue if I will gain any sort of fame for what I do, but that does not matter. 

My heart is finally happy and when I take hot baths, it is to relax and recharge for my next creative adventure.
No more tears!

Happy Crafting!

Live in the Messy Moment

Do you love to look at gorgeous magazines?  I certainly do.  My favorites are Southern Living and Country Living.
The photos are beautiful and I find crafting inspiration on almost every page.
At the end of the day, I love to run a hot bath and just look through my magazines...I just lay there and linger over the pages featuring gorgeous, perfect living rooms full of lovely breakable things...floors completely void of toys and mis-matched socks.
Rooms that are full of artwork that matches the curtains, rugs that are clean and without sticky spots, kitchen that have sinks WITHOUT dirty dishes!  Cupboards full of perfectly matching plates, glasses (no pink plastic cups ANYWHERE) and counters that shine.

You know what REALLY gets me?  The crafting rooms that are featured in the magazines full of incredible storage, large working desks, perfect lighting...oh how I would LOVE to have that room.  I just stare and stare at the perfect little zen-like crafting space.


I linger over every perfect page...After a day of caring for my house, playing with my two awesome kids, making dinner, doing endless laundry and picking up the never-ending toy mess-  I linger...those pictures are so different from my life.

Last night, though, I really thought about why I love those magazines so much.  Why do long for that escape?  Well any person staying at home with two kids knows the answer to that!

However, it hit me that those people in the photos either do not have small children living at home OR they made their house perfect and sent the kids away for the weekend before the photo shoot.

I also remembered that this time with my kids is so short in the grand scheme of things.  It will go by in a flash and one day, my house will be perfectly clean- perfectly silent...perhaps then I will look at magazines full of messy rooms, crazy kids, dirty dishes and cluttered counter tops and linger over every cluttered page and wish I could go back...go back to that crazy life of staying at home with two small kids.

Perhaps I will mash some cereal into the carpet and spill some juice on the chair...just to try to recapture the moment of the most trying, exhausting, happiest days of my life.

Oh Lord, please let my kids give me many granchildren!!!