Purses Galore!

I've always loved old purses. From my earliest trips to antique stores and flea markets, I've always been drawn to them. 

It's so much fun imagining about the person who bought them new. Was it for a special event? Something to complete a special outfit? Was it carried with a tailored suit, or a flowing skirt?

As you can see, I have a eclectic mix in my collection.

  

Here's a close up of my little 1904 St Louis Worlds Fair purse. I wonder if someone made it to carry to the fair, or if they were sold as souvenirs there? Can't you just imagine a lady wearing a long skirt and ruffled blouse, perhaps a fitted jacket, wearing gloves, and this little bag hanging from her wrist as she perused the exhibits at the fair?

Do you see the frog? Yes, it's a taxidermied (is that a word?) frog coin purse I found while in the Philippines last year. I decided since I collected purses, I needed that one!

Not all of the purses in my collection are old, some are sentimental, like the grey poodle purse that was crocheted by my sister. Some aren't purses at all, like the art glass "purse" in the back of this photo.

 Look at the length of this one!

I think I've mentioned that I collect vintage Florida souvenir items too. Here's a couple that cross over into my purse collection. A small mirrored compact from Bok Tower Florida and a small metal photo keeper with a sweet declaration printed inside.

 Acrylic purses from the 50's just make me smile. 

And can a purse collection be complete without a few Enid Collins in the mix?
I display them in my "purse room".. It's also my "sewing room".. You could say it's my Happy Place :o)

Do you have any special collections? I'd love to hear about them, if you do!


Thanks for stopping by and letting me share my collection with you. Have a wonderful week! :)

Dream Catcher Jewelry

I've been on a jewelry making kick lately. My latest adventures in jewelry making have been with dream catchers.

This is a bracelet that I made. I bought some vintage drapery panels at an estate sale some time back for the fabric and they still had hardware attached to them. Here's a side by side of the bracelet piece with one of the rings... sort of a before and after.

The rings are very light weight, some sort of metal. I wrapped one with aqua embroidery floss, tied it off, and placed a small drop of glue on the knot to secure it. Then using beige colored embroidery floss I did the dream catcher weaving within the ring. 
I wanted small silver feather charms to use with them, but of course, when you want to find something specific like that, you never can! (Do you experience that too, or is it just me?) I settled for small silver leaf charms and hung one from the webbing with a tiny jump ring.
The thickness of the ring itself, made attaching a jump ring an issue. I didn't have any in my jewelry finding stash the right size, but I did have a small bag of these tension clips. They were just right to clip over the ring on each side.
I dressed up the clips with two silver beads on each, attached a length of chain to each clip, and a lobster clasp to finish it off.

After making a bracelet I wanted to try a necklace, so I used the same method with a large ring sold as purse hardware. I changed up the colors a bit on it and worked some beads into the webbing since I was working with a larger ring. Here's how it turned out.

I used one of the same leaf charms. This one is quite heavy, but fine for a necklace. I used a large jump ring and a long chain on it, about 28".
Here's a picture of both for size reference. The small ones are light enough that they could be earrings, but I'm on a bit of bracelet kick these days.

My inspiration for dream catcher jewelry came from something I saw at Pinterest, but it's one of those pins that doesn't get me back to  an active website, so I'm not able to give proper credit... other than the shout out for Pinterest. But here's proof that Pinterest isn't just for pinning!


Thanks for stopping by! Have a wonderful week :o)

Elegant Paper Beads

I got an entire roll of wall paper from my sweet mother-in-law a couple of weekends ago. I just love it when she cleans out her basement!

I've been playing experimenting with it. I have some ideas and am trying a few different things. I finished one project. I wanted to share the jewelry that I made with you.


Because the paper is so thick, I used strips just 4 inches long, by 1 inch wide. I cut a coat hanger and used the wire from it to wrap the strips around. After gluing the ends I put them each in a binder clip overnight to dry. The next day I put each on a toothpick and painted them all over with Mod Podge to just give them a good seal. 

Don't you just love my high tech drying rack?
Here's a close up of one of them.

Once the Mod Podge was dry I strung them each onto a head pin with a glass bead from my stash at the bottom and tiny gold bead on each end.

I really had just planned to use them on a necklace, but I found some hoop earring wires in my findings stash and I really like the way the look as earrings.

I hung the rest of them from a thrifted necklace that I had.

I'm happy with the results. Sorry for not modeling them. It's Super Bowl Sunday, so I never got out of my sweats today! 


Have you made paper beads lately? Do you have any favorite crafts using paper? Mom says she has a second roll of the same paper that I can have when she finds it, so I'm open to suggestions on what to do with it.


I hope you had a good weekend. Thanks for stopping by! Have a wonderful week :)