Autena Vintage: October 2012

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Wordless Wednesday...The Way Out

...of the cave.

Sunday, October 28, 2012

Swap, Part Two

Last week, I wrote that I was participating in the Button Floozies Fall In Love With Buttons swap. I showed off my creation while eagerly awaiting my partner, Becs' creation. It arrived a few days later and I wanted to show it off.

It was packaged in a muslin bag with shabby chic decorations...a piece of crochet lace, ribbon, a greeting tag, and a silk flower (a bit smooshed from the mailing).

She used scrabble tiles and lovely, aged rose paper, along with more lace (can never have too much lace, right?) there is a tiny rhinestone button at the center of the lace, though the photo did not do it justice.

Here it is from the side, so the edge is visible.

Opening it was so fun...great buttons from her collection of antique ones!

Here they are out of the tin. Super colors and variety, don't you think?

A little close-up of some of my faves.

The pretty purple flower in the front is the same sort of rather unusual button that I sent to her, with a different color and flower. Look on the right next to the red button!

Great minds think alike, eh?

Wordless Wednesday...Autumn Morning in Ohio

Friday, October 19, 2012

SOLD ! (or not)

The Vintage Village is a Ning social network I belong to. It is for antique, vintage, and collectible enthusiasts and there are many sellers of these categories on there, but also, I imagine, others who are just interested and do not have a shop. It is a fun place with lots of information as well as items for sale.

Last week they put out a notice that they were going to do a group participation on Tophatter, a live virtual auction site and anyone who wanted to place items up for auction could do so. Well, that was hard to resist, so I eventually listed two items. I chose two that had been for sale for a while and that I could do without. There was no charge to me--don't know if there was one for the group as a whole.

I ended up in the standby category, rather than the main area. but if someone places a bid on an item in standby, then it goes into the auction when everything else in the main area has been auctioned off. You place a minimum bid on your stuff--anywhere from $1.00 on up. There is no reserve, so if you, for instance, place a dollar as the minimum, and there is only one bid, it sells for a dollar. SO, be careful about that!

Here is what sold for $4.00, my minimum. It is probably worth more, but it was free to me and I was not that attached to it.

This is what did not sell...a lovely Monet leaf brooch. So back to the shop it goes.

I did not attend the auction. It began at 8 P.M. and went for 2 1/2 hours, with many attendees. That is the other thing-you can just watch the proceedings without actually attending the auction, or you can enter and chat with all who are there. It is fast paced, especially for popular items.

ReneeVintage

Most of the stuff being auctioned, at this time, are things like jewelry, craft supplies, fashion, and handmade. Some are closed to sellers (though you can attend and bid on any of them) and others are open, meaning you can sell items appropriate to the type of auctions it is.

I haven't yet bought anything, nor have I placed any more things for sale. but it is a fun place and you can get great deals too.

Swap

I am a follower, and occasional writer on a blog by the name of Button Floozies. It is a fun place for button enthusiasts and has lots of followers, some of whom also post button stories or information.

Recently they offered their followers the chance to participate in a button swap, wherein you decorate an Altoids tin with the theme, which is Fall in Love With Buttons, and fill it with buttons appropriate to the theme. The participants are paired up and the pairs swap with each other.

This is the first time I have done this sort of thing and I had a fun time decorating and filling my tin. I sent it to my swap partner and since she has received it, I can now show you what I made.

I winged it really, in the decorating. The only things I knew for sure were that I wanted to use an old piece of sheet music I had and I wanted to use four buttons on the bottom as "feet." Searching the web for pointers on how to do this craft, I had a pretty good idea, having watched my mother create her collages and decoupages all of my life.

The cutting and gluing of the top is done and now it is time to do the same on the bottom.

For the inside of the lid, I chose a piece of bookplate with a lovely scene of a man, surrounded by all sorts of plants, holding up a blank sign, which will eventually be filled in with a tiny photo of a rhinestone button.

Fast forward ahead a bit and see how the inside turned out.

Decorating the top was so fun.

The "flower" is a vintage sparkly clip-on earring with the back removed. It sits on a strip of green velvet ribbon and has glass leaf charms on either side. The copper coil is supposed to be a tendril (though I wished I'd made it a bit thinner) and a pink ladybug was added near the bottom.

Here it is from the side, where you can see the lace that surrounds the lid edges and the ruler stickers around the bottom edges.

Here is the bottom, with the button feet!

Now that the design is completed, the choosing of the buttons begins.

I tried to mix it up, using various fall-like colors and designs, when possible, as well as different materials: glass, plastic, wood, metal, ceramic, and rhinestones. Very colorful, yes?

Okay, time to prepare it for packaging.

After wrapping in tissue and then bubble wrap, I tied it up in an antique lace handkerchief that was white until I dyed it in some tea. It turned yellow rather than pale brown, which was my intent--probably because I used camomile tea! The hanky belonged to my great-grandmother and has her initials on it.

I closed it with an old broken bracelet and hung a pendant that came from a necklace I took apart for crafting. The tag came from the French General Freebies I received and posted about previously.

Now I am eagerly anticipating the button tin from my swap partner. It should arrive this week and I'll post it so you all can see what I received in exchange.