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Posted on December 30, 2013January 3, 2015 by Wanda — Leave a comment

2013 A Look Back

2013 was a strange year for me. More on that another day. I wondered, and doubted, if I got anything accomplished. Did I make anything? Did I do any decorating? I really didn’t think so, but since there are so many linky parties for the year in review going on right now, I thought I’d peek at the blog and see just what, if anything I did do. And guess what? In spite of the year’s weirdness I did do some things! So here are the best.

In January, I felt quite clever for marrying a sewing machine base with a decorative, iron floor mat:

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In February, I stamped little wooden hearts with French script.

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March brought thoughts of Easter and I attempted dying bottle brush trees.

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Skip to May – Don’t know what happened to April – I turned Dollar Tree buckets into chic decor:

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And in June, I figured out how to cut fragile paper with the Silhouette Cameo. I couldn’t find a tutorial or suggestion anywhere on how to do this and, through trial and error, came up with a method that works. I’m quite proud of myself for this one.

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One of my favorite projects came in June. I finally put legs on an iron filing cabinet. This was a project that took probably 10 years to come to fruition.

Also in June, I brought nature inside.

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This must have been when my funk came. I thought it had been there all year, and maybe it was, but it must have hit hard at this point. The blog has a few entries, cooking, a few minor decorating projects and a couple of random posts, but I can somehow feel the blues just looking at the post titles. Has to be because that’s what I was feeling at the time. So let’s skip to September. I perked up enough to do the decorating project of the year for me. This one pleases me the most. Probably because is was a fairly major change for that room.

I must have spiraled back down into my funk after that because the rest of the year is pretty boring. More cooking and more randomness. But I believe the funk is gone now! It’s so unlike me to stay down like I did last year. If you’ve ever experienced that you know what misery it is. But that’s not what this post is about. I’m excited about planned projects for 2014. A pantry, some painting, a slipcover, a kitchen update, perhaps 2 bedroom redos, maybe – dare I hope – a big fruit basket turnover that involves the laundry room and a big craft/sewing room. Will any of these projects come to fruition? Who knows? I certainly hope so!

I’m linking up with these great 2013 round-up parties:

SAS Interiors
Southern Hospitality
Cupcakes and Crinoline

Posted on October 23, 2013May 24, 2015 by Wanda — 1 Comment

Gratitude – A Silhouette Cameo Project Revisited

Gratitude revisited. A Thanksgiving season project created with a Silhouette Cameo.

It’s been a crazy couple of weeks… months… years… Aren’t they all? But the blog is just sitting there waiting for something new. And I’m trying! I really am! Have been reorganizing the craft room/office for at least two weeks now, working on it whenever I can, so that will be coming up soon. Anyway, I thought I’d share one of my most Pinterest pinned projects, “Gratitude”. It was first published almost a year ago. Maybe it’s time to see it again for the upcoming Thanksgiving season.

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*Note – I’d just got my Silhouette. I still love it, by the way.

This might be my first real project. I’ve done other things, enough to dull the blade, but nothing worth crowing about.

I downloaded the 99¢ design by Samantha Walker directly from the Silhouette store. Cut it from brown vinyl and stuck it to orange construction paper, of all things. I had this old, leaf cross frame and they seemed destined to be together.

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Posted on August 8, 2013March 26, 2016 by Wanda — 2 Comments

Curbside find – Floor lamp base turned pedestal

Wednesday is normally craft day for the blog, but there’s been no time for crafting as of late. Obviously, there’s been no blogging time, either. Life’s still hectic with two more estate sales in the works, but maybe not as bad as it was over the past couple of months. At least I’m not moving mountains of junk out of the old shop or preparing for a yard sale. Thank goodness that’s all behind me.

Back in the spring I found, on the curb of a neighboring house, a chippy, all in pieces, broken floor lamp. Of course I grabbed that piece of junk! Ha! How could I pass up that piece of garbage? There are still a couple of pieces I’m trying to figure out what to do with, but this is what happened with the base.

I love old lamp bases! This post – Don’t pass up those lamp bases – shows a few of my favorites.

So what about you? Have you incorporated lamp bases into your decor? Have you turned a lamp into something else? Maybe a large candlestick or pedestal? Have you blogged about it? I’d love to see!

Posted on June 5, 2013August 16, 2015 by Wanda — 35 Comments

How to cut fragile paper with your Silhouette Cameo

How to cut fragile paper on your Silhouette Cameo : Just Vintage Home

Do you have the problem I had with cutting fragile paper like old dictionary pages on your Silhouette Cameo? I wanted paper strips. Fillers. Like this:

I kept getting a mess. The paper stuck to the mat and tore. An internet search didn’t help much at all. The suggestion I saw most was to use a mat that had lost most of its sticky. So I used a mat that wouldn’t hold card stock in place.

Note: I show all the trials and errors first. To quickly see the solution, scroll past all the small pictures.

Ever seen that before? I bet you have. (Oops. Didn’t mean to show any of the mess under the desk. Blushing.)

But even that was too sticky for this fragile paper. I don’t fully understand the relationship, but it even caused the knife to drag and pull. Not clean cuts at all.

Which, actually is kind of OK for what I was doing but, well, not really. And what happens when you try to get the strips off the mat?

Pulling it off like normal? Ugh. No. Maybe the spatula will help:

Not a bit. Ooo! I’ve read to bend your mat and sort of peel the mat off your paper with the spatula! Let’s try that!

So far so good…….

Arghhhh! The paper is still too fragile! Oh, I know! Maybe the scraper?

Okay, okay. Bad idea. So what to do?

Here is what you’re here for. The method that worked for me. It’s so simple! What will you need?

A cutting mat that has enough sticky power to it to hold cardstock
A sheet of cardstock
Krylon Easy Tack

Give the sheet of card stock one, maybe two, very, very, VERY quick sprays of Easy Tack. We’re talking about less than a second to cover the sheet. Spray it once and if it feels like the fragile paper will stick to it stop there. If not, give it another very quick spray.
Put the paper on the card stock. Go ahead and line up the paper to the card stock edges. If the paper is smaller, line it up with the top and left side. Or wherever your image will be cut. Is that clear as mud? Yeah. Thought so. Um… treat the card stock and paper as the one single piece that will be cut.
Place the card stock on the mat. Fragile paper side up, of course.
Adjust the cut settings. I use settings of — Print paper — Speed 4 — Thickness 2. I think the thickness is the most important thing here. You might have success with a thickness setting of 1. You just don’t want to go much, if any, higher so it won’t cut into your card stock.
Cut.

Hopefully it’ll come out looking like this:

Yes, that has been cut into strips AND using the same blade as before!

What a difference, huh? It peels right off. No scraping, no tearing.

Hope this helps some of you who are struggling with the same problem. I haven’t tried this on anything other than the dictionary pages here, but the same technique should work on paper with similar rag content. I’d love to hear if it works on Bible pages, tissue paper, etc. Let me know!

Category: Create

2013 A Look Back

Gratitude – A Silhouette Cameo Project Revisited

Curbside find – Floor lamp base turned pedestal

How to cut fragile paper with your Silhouette Cameo

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