Besotted Brand

Hey all, still working away at booth projects for CHA since I came home on Saturday from the pre-set with an even longer to-do list.  

darn it, I hate when that happens.  

Does this ever happen to you?   I spent at least an hour today looking for prototype paper I needed to send to someone.  I put it somewhere for safe keeping...well, I guess I was keeping it safe from myself alright.  At 4:30 I had an epiphany on where I might look (again)...this time I looked in just the right place and there it was. I made it to the post office with just a few minutes before the last pickup time. 

Today's projects had to do with vintage pictures I had copied at Kinko's last week...

even when it's complete it's hard to tell what it is!

 

And stretched fabric...love this small snippet.

 The beginnings of yet another display...

This one I can show you since it is current merchandise.

One by one, everything is coming together...checking things off the list!

I know you are all excited to see the new release... not much longer to wait!

Even though today has already been a very busy day, the postman brought a ray of sunshine right to my doorstep.  I ordered some stamps from Besotted Brand last week and they arrived today.  You know how much I love good packaging and Besotted does not disappoint.  I thought I could at the very minimum take you on the unwrapping journey with me since it gave me such joy.

Step No. 1 - Open the carton

 Step No. 2 - Pull out the bundle

 Step No. 3 - pull the bow and unwrap the bundle

 Step No. 4 - Lay everything out so you can see what was inside the bundle

 Step No. 5 - some nice close up shots

 Step No. 6 test out some of the stamps (this one is my favorite)

Step No. 7 - sit back and enjoy the moment before work calls again.

I am very happy with what I purchased...each red rubber stamp is mounted on it's own acrylic block for a beautiful impression. 
This is not a paid advertisement, I just like good packaging :)

cheers!
paula

Phase #1

Just so you don't think we are both dead and buried or that this blog has gone out of business I thought I better post a few pictures even though they still need to be a bit obscure.  I am leaving in just few minutes to drive to Burbank to pick Deb up at the airport.   I hate the 3 hours in the car but I figure I can stop at the big mall in Thousand Oaks for a few minutes so It won't be too bad.  When you live in a small town, going to the grown up mall is something of a treat.

The next two days will be Phase #1 of the 7gypsies booth set where we take all the lists (and let me tell you, there are many lists) of products, samples, ideas and bring everything together to see if it works (and fits).  Deb is bringing her camera to take pictures of each wall once its done so that once the booth is set at the show we can recreate what we have already done.   Wish I could show you more but this will have to do for now...and really it is never as good as seeing it in person.  What I can tell you is the projects that have been turned in by the design team have been exceptional.  Hopefully the sneak peaks will start next week so you can see the new product.  Seems we have all been inspired by the paper lines that are being released.  Both so different but total inspiration for some great gypsy creations.

Just a few glimpses of what I have been working on this week....

cheers!
paula

Fly Away

The week has been full of projects for CHA.  Three have gone out in the mail and three more need to be created.  Booth projects are happening too.  Cutting, sawing, gluing and dying (but I can't tell you what).  I've even been to Kinko's 3 times this week and that might be a record for me!  I've got my husbands full attention for 3 more days before school starts again so he is helping me with new shelves for the booth, putting crown molding up in our bedroom and has painted a table that needed some new life breathed into it.  I love project mode!

Totally inspired yesterday by the colored butterfly rubbings that were sitting on my desk.  Since this is product that 7gypsies currently carries I figured it is no problem sharing before the trade show.

So lets start with the dome.  I found this a long time ago at an antique mall in Ft Worth, TX.  It's small, about 7 1/2" high and 5" across the base.

 I painted the base black.

Once dry, I sanded the edges and added a bit of ink.

The butterflies-

You will need some heavy plastic.   I used the back of some Ideology packaging, works perfectly.

Cut out a few butterflies from the 7gypsies rubbing sheet.  

I cut 3 butterflies, one large, one medium and one small.

Rub onto the plastic...

and cut out.

You will need use a heavy wire to help the butterflies stand up.  I used 24 gauge.

So how do you add the wire?   On the small and medium size I was able to use paper tape to hold the wire in place.  On the large Monarch, the body is very small so I secured the wire with E6000 glue.  Once dry, I added the paper tape, then cut away the excess.

Front

Back

Here's the part when my buddy comes into the workroom from the backyard.  One of the best things about living in California in January is being able to run in the sprinklers and eat your lunch outside.  I admit I wish I was out there with him.

The Base:
The only Styrofoam I had was a Styrofoam ball, but I needed to make it work.  So I cut the ball in half which fit the base of dome perfectly.  I sewed a linen patch to the 2 layers of dyed muslin, then made some primitive stitches with dark green embroidery floss.  I used Archival Ink in black to stamp the word, fly.

I wrapped the edge of the base with dyed stretchy elastic and secured the end with an old straight pin.

Time to add the butterflies.

I just did a simple configuration with the largest being at the back and smallest at the front.  Once I was done I added a 7gypsies vintage pin.  I love these big pins!

Then a bit of natural elements and a vintage flower secured with an old straight pin.

Here is the finished piece sans dome since it so hard to photograph once the glass is added.

....And 35 photos and three different rooms later I finally got one that I'm not too embarrassed to post.

I decided to create another version of the dome using the same butterflies.  This time I bent the bottom of the wire about an 1" or so then used a bit of glue to keep it in place.  I also added a foam square between the butterfly and the button card.

 I definitely could cut the foam square down, but you get the drift, right?

This time I used tiny books (another collection of mine...tiny black leather books), a flower frog, a Photobooth picture from Darkroom Door, a cool vintage metal button from 1942 and a vintage button card.

Oh, I really like them both.  But only one can appear in the booth...hope there are a few of you out there that are attending CHA and can stop by and see which one I bring!

cheers!
paula

PS) Did anyone watch Project Runway All Stars last night?  Debbie and I are Project Runway Super Fans.  We love watching the episodes more than once and we even discuss them on the phone the day after it airs!  I am so excited to have Project Runway on again so soon after the final episode, all be it sans Tim Gunn.  But I can deal with that just to see all the designing.  I was only sad to see that Suede is not an All Star because I thought it was hilarious when he would refer to himself in the 3rd person..."Suede doesn't like that" or "Suede doesn't think that is funny".  We got so many one liners from that season!

Gypsy: the final chapter

Hope everyone had a great New Year!  We had friends and family over for a little celebrating, game playing, and eating of scrumptious food night.  Most of the kids even stayed awake till midnight to watch the ball drop in Time Square...of course the 4 year old was leading the pack since she loved the fact that no one told her she should go to bed at any time during the night. 

A comment was posted this morning about Junk Market from yesterdays post.  They do still have some events which you can find out about here.  I don't know how big they are but the wares seem well curated.  Looks like the current events for 2012 take place in Long Lake, MN which is where Junk Market is based...again, about 20 miles outside of Minneapolis/St Paul.   
Thanks for the updated information.

Well, enough about that, let's move on to the very last chapter of Gypsy.

 Debbie's beautiful post office that sits in her living room now.  

I refused to leave the store till she bought it.  One of us had to go home with it!

Oh, Diane's...old staple in our shopping trips.  Why, oh why did you have to go away?  We could always find some great, kooky crafting supplies in your "hotter than hell" warehouse.  Sweating as we walked the rows and rows of boxes...you never know what you might find...ribbon, googlie eyes, tiny flowers, metal charms...all gone.  Darn economy!

This is a pre-made long envelope (4 x 9 5/8") that is folded over and held closed with an arrow turn.  There is a pocket on the outside with a tag in it...

As well as a pocket on the inside that was created by sewing the envelope closed 6" from the punched edge.  That stitching line makes your fold secure and the contents of the pocket stay in the top half of the envelope.  The blue paper is the back of a piece of Monopoly money that I stitched into the the same seam.  The side that you cannot see is the  where I wrote the journaling.  

 On one of our trips we dyed buttons and tags with RIT dye (thanks Ann for the lesson).  This was a good place to keep some small samples from that day.

 The reason I stitched the envelope at 6" from the punch edge is so I could add a photo to the backside of the brown envelope in the 4 x 6" space.

Always love a page with fold out flaps.  Super easy to do.

1. Cut two long strips of cardstock to fit your page.  
2. Score 1/2" from an edge.
3. Fold at score mark (this will be the hinge for the fold out).
4. Add glue to the 1/2" edge and add to book page.  Repeat for the other side.
5. Cover up the seams with the main paper, which in this case is black and white stripes.

This is our very first picture we had taken together.  I believe we were at a thrift shop in Payson, Arizona and this green and gold velvet couch was just sitting out in the hot sun waiting for someone to take it home.  We didn't buy it, but it was a great place to take a picture.

  This might be a bit easier to read than trying to read it in the last picture.

 I didn't cover the back of the book, I just left the black book board and added this sticker, "Dedicated to: Ann, Ellen, Deb and Patty...great gypsy friends".

Well, that's the end of the book.  Love sharing it with you since it is near and dear to my heart.  

I have finished 2 1/2 of my first 3 gypsy projects that have to be turned in...we all got an extension till Tuesday because of the Holiday.  That doesn't happen too often!  

But still, so many things on my list to complete before the CHA at the end of the month...only 4 WEEKS away! 

This is such a super busy, creative time of year for us...making new samples, seeing all the new samples from the rest of the 7gypsies design team, putting the booth together, gathering the needed supplies...let's just say I had to get out a large dry erase marker board we use for Pictionary to make a huge priority list of projects and deadlines that need to be completed.   The great thing is that it always works out no matter the stress of getting to the end result.

Let's hope 2012 follows suit.

cheers!

paula