Magpie Ethel

Spring and Birthday Etsy

There is a lull of holidays that I craft for between Easter and Fourth of July.  During that lull I craft odds and ends of spring, birthday and whatever else I fancy.  Mermaids will be the next wave after that.

But spring is the season and it is coming to Etsy on April 19, 5:30 p.m. (pacific time).

So many fun characters fresh from the studio.

I have some bingo girls ready to celebrate.

Spring flowers are in full bloom.

Birthday swans are gliding along looking for a celebration with a ballerina as a passenger.

Hope to see you on Etsy this Thursday.

St. Patricks Day Goodies Jigging to Etsy

I've been busy with my glue gun and having some Irish green fun.

Spun heads, bingo lassies, leprechaun mushrooms and other fun goodies.

St. Patrick's Day Etsy.  Tuesday, February 23rd at 5:30 p.m. (pacific time)

Hope to see you there.

My Spin On A Trophy Head

Trophy heads are quite trendy. I see them everywhere.

These were at Hunt and Gather in Minnesota. Taxidermy heads always sell really quickly at estate sales.

 

Here is a trendy take on them. This one is from Z Gallery.

Here are some handmade ones that I saw at Junk Bonanza. Some are made of fabric and are a variety of animals.

This one is jeweled!

Here is my spin on the trophy head. I got a vintage Rempel hobby horse head the other day on Ebay.  Rempel makes the most darling ceramic figures and squeaky toys. I was excited to find a hobby horse head.  The stick was long gone, but the head is adorable.

I bought a wood plaque at an estate sale and painted it and added some scrapbook paper. I aged the scrapbook paper. The garland is an old paper lei with some swiss straw flowers.  Isn't this a great horse head?

Loved giving new life to this old hobby horse head.  A fun little project. Neeeiiighhhh and Happy Day!

Crepe Paper Project

I got a big ornate plastic frame the other day at an estate sale. I always grab them when I see them (if the price is right) as they are good for my crepe paper projects. That is the frame on the right with rest of my estate sale finds from a couple of weeks ago. Usually when I find the frames they are gold.

They spray paint well and I like how much crazy ornate detail they have.

In my Valentine stash I had part of an old crepe paper table cloth that someone had saved.  It was time to put the tablecloth to use.

I saved the cardboard backing to use as a template to make a new one.  This one was creased and it wouldn't work for my project. 

I picked up a can of spray paint at Lowes.  I was really surprised how many colors they carried of this brand! There must have been 50 different colors. The frame took two coats of paint. 

I spray mounted the crepe paper to the new cardboard backing and then popped it into the freshly painted frame.

I like how large the frame is and how the crepe paper adds a huge pop of Valentine color to this display.

A good afternoon project. It was also nice to actually put that scrap of crepe paper tablecloth to good use.  A super addition to my Valentine decorating stash!

On another note with old crepe paper scraps...here is a Halloween proect I did using the same sort of plastic frames and crepe paper.  Easy way to showcase some vintage graphics.

Happy Day!

Clock Is Ticking

 
2014 is just around the corner and I had to get a few New Year's gals ready to hit the road to Etsy. I went ahead and listed them. No heads up as I wanted to get them mailed ASAP for the New Year. They are on Etsy now.

How this year has flown by!

Wreath Parade

Every year I do wreaths to bring to my shows.  This year I made some really fun ones.

I have been making ornament wreaths for at least 15 years now. (hence the crazy amount of ornaments I have in storage)

The wreath above has two tiny vintage glass birds hidden in amongst the ornaments. I also made an assortment of crazy holiday wreaths.

What a holiday parade.  Many of them will be marching to my next sale at Crafty Wonderland this weekend.  Crunch time here and some insane crafting going on.

Tis the season.

The Forest

I live in Oregon which is known for the vast forests and many trees.  I think this lead to a bit of inspiration to craft some forests of my own...Magpie Ethel style.

A forest of sequin trees all shiny and colorful.

A forest of skinny chenille yarn trees.
A forest of gangly bump chenille trees inspired by one found at an estate sale.

A forest of colorful bottle brush trees. I dye all the trees and you can certainly tell that I like them non-traditional.

A forest of Styrofoam trees.  I like how you can stack the rings straight and serious or a bit wonky.

These trees store super easy. The rings stack inside one another and don't take up a bunch of storage space.
A forest of ornament trees. These come apart for easy storage too. All the ornaments hook to a center pole.

Quite the variety of trees in my Magpie Ethel world.

Always enjoy crafting up some new forest. Happy Day!

Leading the Holiday Charge

Oh my but I am deep in the holiday charge to get things ready for the holiday craft/selling season.

I got all the Christmas out of the attic this weekend. This basically means all holiday ornaments and decorations collected this year need to be sorted through.

In Kate's room (thank goodness she is at college) I have holiday items to be sorted through for a holiday mall space and Etsy.

In Ben's room (away at college as well) I have all crafted items ready for my holiday shows and Etsy. I have been very busy in the studio.

A rainbow of bottle brush trees. A neighborhood of putz style houses (and more to come).

A bunch of elves, snowmen and snowgals.

Party birds.

An assortment of pixie boxes. Lots more items crafted and tucked away in boxes. Hoping to spend the first part of this week in organizing and pricing mode. The holiday charge is on.

Wish me luck. Hoping the kids don't pop in for a  surprise visit..they would be sleeping knee deep in glitter and boxes.

Summer Camp

My daughter Kate is away at camp. She is a camp counselor for the summer.  Kate has gone to the same camp since elementary school (YWCA Camp Westwind, on the Oregon Coast).  She always wanted to be a camp counselor and this is her third summer doing just that.  She has also been a counselor with our local Outdoor School program. Outdoor School is part of our public school system where middle school students go to camp and high school kids volunteer to be counselors.  It is an awesome program.

With all this camp experience she has gotten quite the collection of wood cookies that campers and counselors make and wear.  PEEP is her camp counselor name.

I always try and send her some goofy care packages while she is away. I was inspired by the project from this post on Happy Loves Rosie blog.

This is my variation.  I used the giant size marshmallows. Food coloring is used to decorate the marshmallows so you can safely eat them. 

I was thinking she could use them for some crazy S'mores fun.  If not they are sure to just make her laugh at my efforts.

Miss that girl when she is away for the summer.

XO Peep.  Love you tons.

My Laundry Plunger

Remember when I went to Round Top and I dragged home a cool old laundry plunger?  It is there on the right with the wood handle.

I was attracted to this chippy rubber red and blue base. I had plans for this plunger.

Given a new life.

One of a kind and dang, dang cute!