Serendipity

I stole this from my friend Alane's blog:

Serendipity:(noun) the gift of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for.

 

Let me tell you how we met...About 2 years ago I was preparing to attend CHA Summer which was held in Chicago.  I was doing some research online about the upcoming show and stumbled upon some women from Duluth, MN that were going to dress up in crazy pink outfits and push a pimped-out shopping cart around CHA to gather donations for the Duluth chapter of Young Survival Coalition (a non-profit community made up of young survivors and supporters of breast cancer).  I remember thinking two things:

1.  Those women are just a little bit nuts.

2.  That's gonna take some guts to do that.

Fast forward a couple weeks or so and I am standing in the booth in Chicago and I see a group of women all dolled up in pink (no shopping cart though, I believe CHA would not let them bring it in) approaching...I see the t-shirts they're wearing and guess that they are the group I read about.  I don't remember who approached who, but what I do remember is they were very surprised I knew who they were and what they were trying to accomplish. 

Alane introduced herself and we began to talk about what their group was all about and why they were doing what they were doing at CHA.  We had a nice conversation and the group left the booth (here's where the serendipity comes in)...Alane came back to the booth to share her book she made about her journey through breast cancer.  Made from a 7gypsies Teeny Weeny book (only about 4 x 4 in size), it was about 4 inches thick with the most amazing artwork.

I still say it should have been published in a book.  I was touched by her personal story, her artwork, the use of innovative ideas, etc, etc.  I love when you can feel someone's heart by looking at their artwork.  Alane's book did that for me.

Fast forward again...I see that on Alane's blog she has posted another book she created, totally different from the first one.  I will post some of my favorite pages here, but you will have to go to her blog to read the story of the book...no matter who you are or what your situation, you need to read the story of the Book of Dreams and why Alane gave it that title...Feb 4th post, it starts with the words: So here it is

 

 Book of Dreams

by Alane Davis

Click to enlarge the pictures...that's when you will see the beauty of the book.

 

 I love how the pages are washed with paint and ink and how the number 1 is rubbed away.  The layers of dyed doilies and ephemera work together to create something that you makes you want to turn the page to see what's next. 

 love the random paint against the old book paper...

 The vibrant color of turquoise works so good with the pink and orange (I would have never thought to put that color combination together).  The little envelope with the fading word "secret" stamped over and over makes me want to know what's in the envelope!

You can't see from the front that there is a vintage button on the tag inside the pocket...love the detail.

 The rest of the pages of the book can be found on Alane's blog -post from Jan 17th.

Thank you so much Alane for sharing Book of Dreams and your story....paula

Amen, sister!

I don't know if you read the comments/questions people leave for us, but I do!  Tonight, one of our regular readers left me a funny saying after reading the post on the decoupage table top. 

"Friends may let you down,

your home team may let you down,

but decoupage never disappoints!"

love it

I am currently redoing my workroom space (Deb's studio is so wonderful she doesn't need a before and after) and I think this saying is going to end up on my wall...you just wait and see.

                                                                                               -paula
Sue, I could see this up on a wall at your house too!

Decoupage Table top

I thought I would share the instructions on making the table top that was so popular at CHA.  I used an old student desk I found a few years ago for the foundation but you could really adapt the top to any size desk or table (I think this technique would look great as a coffee table).

I wanted to have a pretty thick lip edge on the table top but that meant losing the ability to use the drawer in the desk.  I was okay with that, but just be advised.  The top is made with really inexpensive material, which was fine with me since the entire top was being covered with paper.

Constructing the tabletop (written by my husband)
1.  Determine size, measure top and add a minimum of 1 1/2 inches (3/4 inch on each of 4 sides) to allow for frame. It can be larger. Our original table top was 18"x30".  The minimum size, and a tight fit would have been 19 1/2" x 31 1/2".  We needed it to be 36" wide so we made it 20"x36" which allows for about a 1/4 inch front and back to slip it onto the table.   
2.  Cut a piece of 1/8 inch particle board to desired measurement of the top.  You can use thicker particle board if you want but it is not necessary because it will not be supporting any weight on its own.  The table underneath is doing the work. 

This is the size it was pre-cut at my local store

3.  Making the frame: Using pine 1 x 2 lumber, cut frame pieces to length,  2 pieces 36" long for the width of the top, and 2 pieces 18 1/2" long for the sides.  Note: I'm not sure why it is this way, maybe a big lumber conspiracy or something, but lumber is nearly always at least 1/4" smaller than the stated width and thickness.  So our 1"x2" pine really only 3/4" x 1 3/4".  That's why the side pieces ended up being 18 1/2" instead of 18".  It's best not to try and figure it out, your sanity depends on it.

4.  Apply wood glue to to the frame pieces and glue them to the underside of the particleboard top.  I used 3/4" brads to tack nail the top in place and I clamped it for a couple of hours until the glue dried.

Once the glue was dry, I took over to do the decoupage finish.

I cut a section from an Etiquette book (published in 1956) I found at a thrift store in Payson, AZ for 25 cents (it was half price day on books!).  I used the section on letter writing since the table was going in the booth in the new stationery section.  The chapter on stationery had pictures of handwritten cards that I cut out individually and used over the pages in the final steps of decoupaging the table top. This one is my favorite.  You might ask if I inked the edges of the pages...no, I was lucky the book just came that way and the Mod Podge enhanced the color.  Funny, I almost passed up the book because I thought the pages were too dark. 

I started by measuring the lip edge of the table top and adding 1/2" or so, so the paper would wrap onto the table top.  I cut pages from the book with an X-acto knife, then cut them to the exact measurement with my roller cutter (I like that I can cut them all at one time using this tool).  

You can see all the pieces of paper on the table top that I have precut for this first part.  I used a disposable foam brush and Mod Podge (matte finish) to glue the paper to the wood (see second photo).  I am only gluing the papers down in these first steps.  I will add the Mod Podge to the top at the very end once all the papers are in place.

Bubbles, bubbles, bubbles...when you are working with a liqud medium and paper (no matter if its vintage or not) you will have some bubbles.  I do my best to not have bubbles in the first place by:

1.  Applying the liquid medium, in this case Mod Podge in a thin even coat.

2.  Use a brayer or bone folder to adhere the paper well and "push" out any bubbles.

3.  Leave it alone!  I have found 9 times out of 10 the bubbles disappear once the paper is dry. You don't think they will, but they do.

Okay, so now the sides are done and we are moving onto the table top.  Again, have enough pieces cut to cover the top.  You don't want to be cutting paper with goopy hands!  Layer paper so that some are vertical and some horizontal.  I found it is best to lay out a section to see how the papers will work before I actually glue them down.  Once I was pleased with the section, it only took me a few minutes to glue it down before laying out the next one.  Again, I still am not putting any liquid medium over the papers, just under.

Once all the papers are in place and I have gone back and added in the pieces that I have saved out for overlays (the pictures of handwritten cards mentioned above) I am now ready to do the top layer of liquid medium.  I am using Modge Podge because it dry's fast and is easy to clean up.  

I covered the entire surface with a thin coat, waited for it to dry and then added another coat.  I have a Heat Dish from Costco that I place about 6ft from the table top so it dried pretty quickly.  I just stood the table top on it's side and turned it a couple times between coats.  If you don't have a Heat Dish then just wait a hour or two between coats.  Note: if this table top was going to be used as say a hard working desk or countertop you might think about using some kind of shellac finish.

Here's the table, now in my living room.  I may eventually paint the table underneath, but for now it's fine.

part of my collection of metal historical buildings and paperweights that picture a historical building

Hope you like the tutorial and that you will try it.  I would love to see what you do! -paula

What we did with 600lbs of junk

Did you think we had abandoned you? It has been so long since we left for CHA...in fact one week ago today we were just starting to set the booth.  I can't believe it has only been a week!  We had a great time even though the schedule is grueling.  We love meeting new people and seeing old friends we met at Gypsy Caravan, Creative Escape and the Memories Wholesale Events.  We are working out some dates for teaching in Arizona, Texas, Fresno (hello girls!), and LA.  We also will be back in Australia in May!
I though I would show you some photos from the booth before and after we set up.  I love a good before and after, don't you?

Friday, Jan 22 10:40am 

Deb arrives at the booth carrying what looks to be about 200lbs of junk from her house to decorate the booth with (I have the other 400lbs in my car).

Our hero's, Jorge and Hector that have the booth almost completely set up by 11:30am (and help us carry the 400lbs of junk from my car).  I can tell you from past experience that if your booth is not set up on time, it will cause a domino effect like no other.  Jorge and Hector know just what to do...we never even have to say a word.  We really could not do our job without them.

One of 4 large booth crates that the booth comes in. 

Friday, Jan 22 1:30 pm

Now the suitcases are open and we start unloading the props and samples.

That's Janelle working on one of the walls. Notice she is wearing her slippers! Although she could wear a potato sack and look fabulous.  BTW, did you see Project Runway last week?  They made some amazing garments out of potato sacks!  It's a great group this season.

This is Debbie's make and take area with the metal frame for the canopy.  That big gold frame will have all our ephemera collaged on foam core that I brought in may car.  I didn't have the samples of the new ephemera (which is FABULOUS) till the night before I left.  The UPS shipment got stuck in LA due to bad weather so Deb and I ended up putting it together in the hotel room.

Before

 

After

don't you just want this frame?

Friday, Jan 22 4:30pm

This is the other side of the wall...the tables are coming out of the crate.  I brought my green chair from my kitchen to have at the catalogue desk and the little table in the front is for the stationery wall.  The bottom is my bedside table and the top my husband made for the show.  I covered with paper from an old book (I'll show you how I made it in another post).

Stationery wall before

After

Saturday, Jan 23 12:20pm

Notice our hanging globe?  I ordered a large vinyl number 7 from Household Words on Etsy. 

Before

Avignon after

Venice wall

Our big gypsy chandelier hangs above the paper wall

Janelle made this display of ways to use paper tape from an enormous old ledger book.

The huge line to Deb's make and take...some people waited an hour to get to the table! 

Wed, Jan 27 5:30pm

The man at the Southwest counter wouldn't let Deb on the plane till she took 12lbs of junk out of one suitcase.  Now you might say, why didn't she move it to the other suitcase or the carry on?  but the zippers were already bulging on both bags. Deb had planned ahead and had a 7gypsies tote bag with her, so he stood there and watched as she unloaded the 12lbs into the tote.  She would have given him a tip if he had only made her remove 5lbs, but no such luck.  The FULL 12lbs had to come out of the bag and be hand carried (you know, this is nothing new to us).

Hope you liked the tour...now to unpack the 400lbs of junk I brought home :(

-paula

Behind the Scenes - 7gypsies style

As promised, we are getting you up to date on what we have been doing to getting ready for CHA.

Saying that we have been busy is an understatement.  It seems the prep for this show has been plagued with so many complications and craziness.   But, short of a national disaster we will make it.  Just to show you what I'm talking about, just yesterday Paula found herself working for hours without electricity, at one point she was working as fast as she can by candlelight.  Her husband snapped this picture for us.....

Yep, that is Paula in all her blurriness....so funny, go Paula go!

Paula gave you a brief history of our booth, that we have used for four shows now.  It was created and drawn by Steven Smylie (7g originator with Donna Smylie)  and built by Jorge and Hector in our distribution facility in LA.  As we said Paula, Janelle and I picked out the wallpaper on a conference call.  That was crazy, we loved what we picked yet were nervous about how everything would look together.  When we got the first section of the booth wallpapered, several people in the factory walked by and told us how good it looked.  As several of the other sections went up that were different designs I could see puzzled looks and I knew they were thinking, “what the heck are they doing?”, all the different patterns and colors.   When we put the coffee stained burlap up with patches (my personal favorite), that was the best!  I’m not sure others were sold on the idea at first but when we got it all together it was a hit.

Getting ready for the shows takes A LOT of prep and requires a lot of lists.  I get teased a lot about my lists, but I love a good working list and that’s how it all gets done.  Once we have decided what product will be displayed in the booth I work on getting it all to fit into the booth sections.  Then we decide where each section will be in the booth.   Here are a few of those lists, the booth layout, etc.  Yeah, organized chaos! 

After that, we work on what finished projects we want to show and what products to feature.  This is where we get the 7g Creative Team involved.  Each artist gets several assignments and the emails fly back and forth making sure they have all the product they need to finish their assignments.  Getting all the product in each artist’s box and getting it shipped is always a happy time for me....big check on my list!

Paula and I meet at our factory in LA, two to three weeks before the show to set the booth.  We actually put the product on the walls leaving spaces for projects etc.  

Did I mention that it is cold in the factory?  Well, cold when we prep in January and hot when we prep in June.  Here is Paula, she had gloves on but had to take them off to text her husband.  Notice the crates in the background, that is where the walls of each section slide into for transporting and storage.

A good part of three days is spent working as fast as we can in making sure we have all the details covered. There are so many things to think about, I am scribbling notes on anything available while we are working.  When I get home I create an even BIGGER list of all the things to do, etc.  

I wanted  to show you a few of the product boards for The Avignon Collection.  Paula and I went to Kansas City to teach in the fall and while we were there we brainstormed and sketched some ideas for how we were going to display this fun new line.  

We had the idea to put the product on boards that had canvas attached with upholstery tacks.  Here is how it started....

and developed....

into these fun product boards....

Here are a few other bits of the booth we have been working on.  Come to the booth and see what we are doing with this....

and this...

.....and this.

I think Paula and I have made more tags this show that ever...tags, tags and more tags!

So, back to work.....still lots of things to do!  Hope to see a lot of you there and if not we will send pictures.  Wish us luck, we are gonna need it!

                                  Debbie