A New Award!

Thank you to Tamara over at Riding on A Broomstick has given Witchy Thrifting this lovely award!

  It was so very nice of her to think of me for this and I appreciate it!
   And it is quickly followed by my first cop out. Ok, it's not so much a cop out as I just can't pick only a few of you. There are so many wonderful blogs I read and follow, and to me you're all super. So consider all of you nominated!
   In other news a lot is going on behind the scenes here at Witchy Thrifting and I'll be make a big(for me) announcement a little later this month. I honestly just can't wait to tell you guys so this whole thing is teasing me a whole lot more than you, lol.
   We should be back to our regularly scheduled thrifting tomorrow. I hope you all are being as bombarded with inspiration as I am!
  

Double Double Boil and Bubble

    I found this really awesome little tripod bowl while I was out and about at the thrift shops and one thing popped into my mind

  can you guess what it was?
      That's right- a cauldron. This little dish reminded me of a little cauldron and I couldn't wait to get started on it.
      The technique I chose for this one was to decoupage some metallic grey tissue paper onto the exterior of the bowl using Modge Podge (crafting gift of the Gods!) to give it a 'cast metal' look. This method was not only very cost effective but also gives me the option to change my mind and use a different technique later if I choose to. Since I didn't use a separate sealer, but instead just applied another layer of Modge Podge to the outside to give it a shinier look so the whole thing can come off after washing it with some water. I really wanted to have the option to change it because there are so many different techniques I could do with this one type of projects that I just know one I'm going to get the itch to do at least one other at some point.

I love how the edges of the paper give it an almost ruff look. This took me about 20 minutes to do (not counting drying time which added about a half hour) and cost me about $3.00 including the  bowl. Since it's a glass dish I can use it as a actual cauldron and put cauldron splashes, incense, or burnable offerings in there.
   I currently have a pretty big and totally awesome project in the works that I'll be telling you all about in the next couple of weeks (I am super excited) and I can't wait to show you how my 'traveling art trunk' suitcase has turned out!

Witchy Prowling Over The Holiday Weekend

   This weekend I did some scouting around some new thrift shops in my area (ok- they've been there forever but they were new to me and that's kinda the point of all this huh?). We had a blast and found some cool stuff.
   Here's some of the loot that I found. Some of it will be altered eventually and some of it will be left alone.
  First up is

     There is a circa 60's jewelry box that I think I'll be using to hold crystals and stones that I find. Also I found a Burberry wallet that HRH is going to absolutely love (I am trying so hard to turn my little fashionista into a thriftinista it isn't even funny- hopefully this find will get me some points).
    
      Then there is my favorite. It is a circa 60's-70's suitcase that I found that's going to be the basis for my own traveling craft trunk ala Aunt Opal and Celia (Thanks again for the inspiration Celia!).  It is in awesome condition. Here is a picture of the inside-

   I can't wait to get started on that one!
   Also while out hunting I came across some awesome little pitchers. I'm assuming they were for syrup, but I absolutely loved them and will find something to use them for, lol.

  I need to find a way to get the hard water stains out of the really round one, but I'm sure I'll come up with something! Oh and I found  a whole bag of those lovely glass beads that you see there, so I think I'll be whipping up a few sets of runes. I think I smell a giveaway coming soon, lol.
   Oh and I forgot to take a picture of it but I grabbed an awesome Oster blender too. With all the weekend /holiday sales going on I got everything for less than $20 and had a lot of fun doing it too!

Swish, Swish, Poof!

   Sorry this is so late but Blogger and Firefox conspired to make my past 2 days miserable, sigh. But I'm back up and running now so whoohoo!
   I was going to do my utensil into wand project in order of the seasons starting with Winter and moving on to spring then summer and so on, but lately fall has really been calling to me. I've been doing a lot of dreaming about fall weather and leaves changing color (not that I actually know what that looks like- but hey a girl can dream can't she?) and really getting excited for Halloween. So Autumn jumped the ship and swam out ahead.
    Now I used a new technique that I had never used before on these and it turned out pretty well I think.
    The slats in the wooden spatulas kept making me think of trees, so I used a wood burning tool to burn the lines and a few small details for the trees in (ever since Gumbo Soul over at Witchy Gumbo posted her wood burned spoons I've been dying to try it). Then I  used some watered down acrylic paints to wash color on for leaves and grass and then added some details in.

    Then I wrapped the handle in some pretty ribbon that reminded me of fall. Next I knotted some red and orange cording and made a chain of knot work that I wrapped around the handle and glued into place. It reminded me of falling leaves. Here's what the whole thing looks like.

     Since I'm doing these in pairs I worked on one of the forks next. Whenever I think of fall the first thing I think of is Halloween. While I was trying diligently to draw a rabbit for spring (I've really been wanting to do an animal for the forks- the prongs just make me think of ears, lol) a little cat kept peeping out at me. So I gave in and let the cat shine through. And what's more Halloween than a black cat?
    I used the same technique of wood burning the basic details in and then acrylic washing the main blocks of color in and then going back with solid acrylics for some of the smaller details.

  Then I used the same gold and pink graded ribbon to wrap the handle but added a cross wrap of thin black ribbon, double wrapping it at the top and adding a charm bead to mimic a collar and tag for my little kitty.

   

so yet again, sorry. This was supposed to go up yesterday morning but the internet was fighting with me. We've since made up and all should be running smoothly from now on !

My First Award!

 Magaly over at Pagan Culture was absolutely sweet enough to give Witchy Thrifting it's very first award!

 Now to me sweet has a couple different meanings. There's sweet as in 'aawwww how sweet', and then there's sweet in the Dude Where's My Car sense (yes I'm that kind of geek, lol), you know sweet. So I'm going to stick with Magaly's 2 groups of 3 rules, but I'm going to pick an "awwwww how sweet' group and a sweet group.
     This first group are a bunch of bloggers that while sweet in their own ways tend to give me the warm fuzzies on a regular basis:
Tamara over at Riding on A Broomstick. She's a really sweet lady and if you guys haven't heard of the plight of Marvin yet then head on over and help us send some peace to the poor little gator before he gets sent to the summerlands.
Gumbo Soul over at Witchy Gumbo  is one of the sweetest ladies I've ever met and so very talented that sometimes I hate her for it. If you like her creations remember to check out her business FB page so you can get some for yourself =).
 Robin Larkspur over at Wiccan Writes is one of the sweetest gardeners around in both senses. She's working on an absolutely magical garden for her daughters wedding that is absolutely beautiful!

Now this second group are a bunch of women that I would totally envision having an argument about tattoos with:
Dark Mother over at Dark Mother Goddess is completely bad @$$ and totally sweet. She kicks butt and doesn't even bother to find out the names...
Leanna from Can We Have A New Witch Ours Melted totally gives a 'f '. She so totally gives one that it's probably capitalized, italicized, and highlighted, lol.
YellowDog Granny of YellowDog Granny Blog makes getting up on Monday mornings almost worth it to me. She's pretty much how I hope to grow up to be.

So there you have it all, I hope you go and check these ladies out and learn how sweet they all are!

Custom Prayer Candle Box

     I know I dangled a project in front of you a few days ago. Well its finally complete. A custom prayer candle box! We've been working on this for about a week since a lot of the components take a couple days to set.
    It started out as this-

    Your basic frames that we found at the thrift store for about $4.00 each (or less).
     Then we did this to it.

    After all the staples were removed and the artwork taken out we then painted the frame.

  
  Everything goes with basic black. We used black craft paint and did about 2 coats on all sides. Then I got fancy with the silver leafing and sealed it all with some polyurethane to seal it. Then the Hubster made me a nice little open box to attach to the back which got the black treatment too. I then used epoxy to glue the glass into the frame so that it could be moved without the glass falling out. Then I pulled out the Gallery Glass and the leading blanks and got busy. Here is the final result-

  
We added a clasp on one side and hinges on the other so that it can be easily opened and secured.

     Since the art is done in Gallery Glass (I know- I should just buy stock in that company, lol) it can be changed whenever you want so you always have a fresh look or change it for the seasons or occasion. You could also use paper as well but I would not suggest using anything flammable if you plan on putting a real candle behind it. This one is actually from a drawing a did a year or so ago that I really wanted to see in actual stained glass. The frame is meant to hang on the wall and you can put small tapers or tea lights (real or electrical just please don't use real ones if your frame is small) to illuminate the artwork so that it looks like this-

     I am really happy with the way this came out, especially since it was a collaboration of ideas and work between me and the Hubster and coming from his initial idea. This will be going on our wall later today as soon as I figure out which wall, lol.
   And as you saw we have 2 other frames to experiment with and I think we'll be doing some different takes on this idea that are percolating in my brain as we speak.
   So what do you guys think?

Why Thrift?

    Why would I love to go to ratty old thrift shops, or paw through the stuff that other people didn't want on their front lawn?
    Why Thrift?
    My answer to that is simple, yet complicated. The simple answer is because it brings me joy. It brings me joy to hunt through the shop in search of that piece that will spark my interest and get my creative juices flowing. It brings me joy to take those pieces home and in some way transform them.
    The complicated answer is, well complicated. One part of it is that walking through a store and seeing pieces of other peoples' lives displayed trips my curiosity. It makes me wonder about them and what drew them to the objects in the first place. Why did someone own a green leather jewelry case and what did they keep in it?  Why would someone have 15 different cat mugs? What color wall would match fuchsia shelves?You can develop a very interesting view of humanity by looking at what they thought was too precious to throw away. Because that is in essence what you find in thrift shops and yard sales. The things that people couldn't stand to see thrown away but can no longer keep themselves. Sometimes they are things a relative has left them after passing, some times they are things that they need to get rid of to make room for new things to love, but no matter why they are giving these things up at some point someone cared enough about them to have kept them in their home and did not want to see them completely discarded. Which means when I go to pick them up and take them home I am taking on a bit of a trust, to take these things that someone cared about and make them into something that my family will make part of our home, and someday when we are done with them they will return to the thrift store for  someone else to find and make part of their home.
    Another part of it is being able to let my creativity run as wild as I want it to. Would I experiment and try gluing random things to a brand new item that I bought at a store?  No way. What if it didn't turn out? What if I ruined this item I just spent $10-15 on? I just wouldn't do it. I would keep my ideas bottled up and think about what I would do if I hadn't paid that much for the item. Buying items at thrift store and yard sale prices allows me to be as experimental and creative as I want with them without feeling guilty about spending some of my family's tight budget on a project that may not work out how I see it in my head (and trust me there are plenty of those, lol).
    And yet another part of it is my own sense of responsibility to Mother Earth (or Gaea, or whatever name you have for her). Everything that we as humans make or use comes in some way from her. It is either dug from her soil, cut while it is growing from her,  or taken from her seas or sky. No human made product is in reality a product of only ourselves. All of our creations are a product of her substance and our imagination. As we all know there is only so much of this that our Mother is going to be able to stand before too much damage is done. By finding these items and re using them I am, in a very small way, taking something out of the create and discard cycle that our society has created for itself. And I am honoring Mother Earth by not allowing the things we have taken from her to be discarded as worthless.
    So as I said, it's simple and it's complicated- but it's also a lot of fun!