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| Thought I'd revisit an idea I had a few years ago for pretty gift sets. I bought several bars of Pears soap this week; the traditional transparent one that they've been producing for over 200 years, which comes in a lovely sturdy box... |
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| I wrapped each one in a section of vintage floral wallpaper from my collection. This was held in place with a soft green ribbon tied in a bow, which I decorated with a coordinating vintage millinery flower. |
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| I then teamed each wrapped soap with a pretty vintage china saucer, which make sweet informal soap dishes. To finish, they will be individually wrapped in clear cellophane when I get to my shop tomorrow... |
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| A charming little gift that's just a bit different. |
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| *** |
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| Another craft project for this week involved this tiny cabinet...Not sure what this once was, but suspect it may have been a clock case? It had lost much of its wood veneer from the front and was generally quite scruffy...which I liked! I didn't want to lose its signs of age under a coat of paint or other such makeover, so I decided to revamp it with an antique hand blocked wallpaper. I only had this small scrappy piece in my supplies... |
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Anyone who has used antique wallpaper in crafts will know, that the brittleness of the paper can make them very difficult to work with. I decided that this fragile nature of the paper would hopefully work to my advantage in giving the cabinet a genuine antique look. I used PVA glue and carefully stuck sections of the paper down, not worrying about small tears or wrinkles, and actually ripping the paper now and then to scruffy-it-up even more. |
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| I decided to line the inside of the cabinet with antique ledger pages. I've had these squirrelled away for a few years now - They were part of a swap gift I received from Heather of Pretty Petals blog. They were just the thing to continue the theme of the little cupboard. |
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| I must confess I am quite pleased with the way that its turned out and I may just have to keep this project! I'm usually pretty good at offering my handmade (or hand-tweaked!) items for sale...in fact I don't very often have the time to make things for myself...But it does look pretty nestled on the old writing desk with my collection of Water Babies books... |
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| And then there's the fun of adding little treasures to the inside... |
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| Time will tell if it stays with me...Rather appropriate for an old clock case! ;-)) |
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| Hope you've enjoyed the beautiful sunshine today, Niki x |
