Fairy Dust Bottles How-To

Check out this easy how-to tutorial on how to make wee fairy dust bottles! Perfect for gifting, decorations, and party favors! 

I've been making my wee fairy bottles for a long while now and I use them for just about everything: they make cute necklaces, great gifts, and look beautiful hanging on a Christmas tree! I've also found that the aged labels (along with glitter--of course) make any ornament a thousand times better. 

This tutorial will take you step by step on how to make these wee treasures all on your own! 

STEP ONE: Print out labels on your printer. This has forever been my favorite font (Blackadder ITC), but get creative! The bottles are small and narrow so I like to stack and center the words. I always make a variety of labels. 

 

STEP 2: Brew a strong cup of coffee! But don't drink it! You'll need coffee to age your paper. 

STEP 3: Rip your labels up into tiny bits and put them on a cookie sheet. Feel free to add in additional bits of paper to "layer" your labels. You can see on the first photo, I aged and used a festive printed paper to layer the labels! 

STEP 4: Pour the coffee over your labels, let them slosh around for a moment and soak it up (don't we really all want to be doing that with coffee??) and then pour off the excess. If you are aging additional papers, just pour the excess back in the cup. The stronger it gets, the better aged your papers! Bake at 250 degrees until your paper is dry. It'll be like 10 min. For the love of god keep an eye on it. Disclaimer: I'm not responsible for any fires you start. 

Two comments about this step: 

• My children love this step! The house smells really good. Like old books and coffee.
• I have a new "fancy" printer and my labels smudged for the first time ever! I'm going to have to do some experimenting to see what the problem is, but the labels I made today are not as clear or pretty as previous years. I say this to illuminate the point that crafts are not "PERFECT." These are going on my tree at home, they will be fine, but stay tuned for printer suggestions. UGH. 
• I'm serious. I'm not responsible for any house fires or damage you may incur. 

STEP 5: Yay! Your labels are done! Get out your Mod Podge and your tiny bottles and glitter girl, cuz we are about to have some fun! 

I buy my tiny bottles at hobby lobby. They are cheap. I love to find a variety of sizes to play with!

**See how the labels are fuzzy??? Annoying!! Glitter will definitely help!

Okay, so here you see the full arsenal of fun. We are going to put random bits of magic into the bottles first, then we are going to affix the labels.  See the big jar of pixie dust bottles in the back?? I feel like we all need this in our lives...and glitter. ALL THE GLITTER!

STEP 6: I fill my bottles with MAGIC!! The bottles are filled with random things I have in my studio.  You could literally get dandelion seeds and put them in a bottle and label them. That's magic. I've also rolled up a tiny scroll of aged paper and shoved it inside a bottle with a secret message. Seriously, think outside the box! What do you want to put in your tiny magic bottle? 

STEP 7: To affix your labels you put mod podge on your fingers, affix it to the bottle and rub it over the top too. BOTH SIDES. I love glossy mod podge and that's all I ever use. Before it dries, sprinkle glitter over it. I use super fine poly type glitter. I also sometimes let one layer dry and add another. 

STEP 8: After the labels dry it's time for the tiny ties. You can use ribbon, twine or ripped lace/fabrics. 

 

I'll let these dry overnight and then I'll hang them on the Christmas tree (using additional ribbon--you could also put eye-hooks in the corks!).  

**See how clearly the "dead man's toe" looks? That's with my former printer...grrrrr.....

Meet Miz Rozie

I've caught the vintage camper (aka glamper) bug.  While most people that know me profess I'm not the camping type (true), I am a vintage girl all the way!  I've recycled a gamut of old furniture, junk, and of course, books, so why not a camper?

Miz Rozie is named after my daddy!  Larry "Big Lar" Rozen....who's acting ridiculous here because he's just finished hauling  two vintage Frolic's to my house within 24 hours--on Memorial Day weekend in fact.  He would have preferred to go fishing.  I told him I was going to name the camper after him and then I took his picture.  See, he's super impressed!  "Two campers?" you ask.... yes,  that's a long story for another day.   I sold the first one for a profit and kept Miz Rozie because she was in better shape.   The first one paid for this one.  Yay!




Miz Rozie is a 1969 Frolic made in Elkhart, Indiana.  I think someone tried to paint her camouflage.  How rude!  And then they stuck a deer and fish sticker on her.  UGH---the nerve!


I'm lucky because she came titled and with two sets of her original keys.  She also came with paperwork, including a cookbook. 




 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 
 
 

 

 

Let's go inside, shall we? 

She's got her original cushions and curtains, in good shape!  Orange, not my favorite color, but I have a plan.

 

You can see the color of the cushions better here....it's more of a ruddy orange or rust. 

Original oven and vent fan.  Keeping the laminate. 

Vintage built in fan!!!!

Original light fixtures, see the curtains?  The guy before me put in the back wall.  Keeping that, painting the rest after we seal around the windows.

Original floor.  Keeping it!

Original Dometic fridge works!  Painting it w/ chalkboard paint. 

There is an upper bunk above gaucho in the back.  Not sure you can tell.  The door with the mirror is the little bathroom.  Just a potty. 

 

I hate this light fixture (upper one).   My husband seems to think it's original but I disagree.  It's propane.    Does anyone know if it's original?  If not I want to replace it! 

Keeping laminate on table, changing the surround on it to silver edging so it looks more retro.  Everything will be painted.  I know, some of you like to keep original wood.  I must paint! Most will be cream w/ orange and turquoise accents. 

 

 

Yay!  It has the original emblems. 

 

Here's the hubby, he's so excited to work on it.  LOL.

Kids love it.  This is the first night we had her home and we plugged her in and the lights came on!  We were all super excited! 

Rudy the cat also approves

Here's the new color scheme.  Cream walls, orange and teal accents.  There will be decoupage involved.  I cannot resist. 

 

Stay tuned! 

Shabby book banner tutorial

I love the look of vintage, shabby banners and I wanted to try one with pages from old children's books.  This is an easy and fun tutorial that makes for a lovely accent with your Christmas decorations.  Depending on the book you use, you could leave it up year round. 

Here's what you'll need:
ribbon or twine, glitter, mod podge, hole punch, paint brush, paper cutter and/or scissors, pretty scrapbooking paper, an old children's book.  If you don't have all of these supplies, look around your house and make do!  This is a shabby project after all and does not have to be perfect.  A banner made from a regular book would be pretty also!

Use your paper cutter or scissors to cut flags.  Mine are definitley NOT all the exact same size, so don't worry about perfection.    Punch a hole at the top of the flag. 

Now do the same thing with your scrapbook paper.  Mine came pre-punched.  Lucky me.


Brush the paper lightly with Mod Podge.  Dont' go to heavy or the paper will curl.  You may also want to decide which side you like best if your banner will be hanging against a wall. 


Sprinkle liberally with glitter (as always)!

Do the same thing with your scrapbook paper flags.  If your banner will be hanging in the middle of the room, do this to both sides.  Let one side dry, then move on to the other.   If you don't have the mod podge and the glitter, skip this part honey!  Another variation would be to age the paper instead via coffee and the oven--this would be very pretty with pages from a regular book.  You can look at this past post for details on aging paper from old books:  http://booksenchantedblog.blogspot.com/2012/06/make-your-own-business-cards-using-old.html

Now you should have a big mess of flags.  If you are a planner, you can decide the order you'd like them to hang.  I counted out my Rudolph pages and I had 12, my scrapbook pages were around twice that so I alternated one Rudolph with two scrapbook flags.  You can space them evenly or just throw them up there any ol way.  Either way it will look lovely, I promise. 

I tied a ribbon from the back of a chair to a drawer knob so it would be an easy height to work with.

Then I tied the flags onto the ribbon.  I've done a couple of these, and the organza ribbon tends to slip around less than twine, but either looks pretty.

Now you have a pretty flag banner to hang wherever you like!  Whimsical and shabby!