April 2012 Blog Posts (16)

Tophatter is quickly becoming the new place to shop for unique handmade goods.  Hundreds of items go up for auction every single day in an exciting and fast paced live auction setting.  The nature of a live auction is fast and furious which can make it difficult to find the items that you want to buy.  I have put together this buyers guide to help anyone find that is looking to…

Spoil Mom with a Gift from Shabby Cottage Shops! Enter this week's Boutique Scrabble Giveaway...and three more Mother's Day Giveaways at…

I've always wanted to add more flair to my parcels and over the last couple of years I've done quite a bit of experimentation! This time I've started using little stickers and including a care guide to most orders. A great source of inspiration for packaging items is Pinterest and The Dieline to see how the professionals do it.

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Strawberry Ring - Miniature Food Jewelry By SouZouCreations Etsy

http://www.etsy.com/listing/62648404/kawaii-food-ring-strawberry-cookies-tea

How cute is this?! There is a cup of tea, a teapot and a 2 yummy strawberry cookies! The teapot and cup look like strawberries.



I lacquered the wood with a…

Woo Hoo! Here's the first Wink Artisans Tutorial... I'm so excited about this! For this tutorial, I'm reusing a broken earring and a copper bracelet found at a yard sale.  I've paired the two items along with sterling silver wire to give them life one more time.  Want to see how I did it?  Check out…

http://rioritajewelry.blogspot.com

If you make one batch of dough you'll find it makes roughly 2-3 large pasties and 1-2 small parcels. You could if you wanted to make them all really tiny and eat them as warm snacks. I haven't added any herbs or flavours to the dough because of the curry filling but you could add basil or oregano for a herbed Italian taste!

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Beautiful felt Matrioska tissue Papers, totally handmade by me, and available soon at my shop…

Hello: please check my blog for news and great pictures of the latest of my work

http://liliavanini.blogspot.com/

It's colours remind me of old copper coins I've occasionally dug up from the garden - on their way to oxidising as a thin layer of green forms on the surface. It's got a high glossy texture to it and I think it works best on statement pieces but I'll be glazing some mugs with it soon.

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Apple Pie $10 www.etsy.com/listing/96684807/kawaii-food-ring-apple-pie-miniature

There is an apple pie with a piece missing!

It is on a silver tone adjustable band that will fit most ring sizes. It measures about 3.5 cm…

Vintage Japanese Wood Stamp Tokyo Kabuki

This vintage Japanese wood stamp is from the "昭和" "showa period" . The "showa" period is from 1926-1989 but these are at least 30 years old. There are 待望 taibou = wait eagerly for / looking forward to, の no = ~'s and 大立物 = great figure. 東京 = tokyo, 大歌舞伎 ookabuki / 大dai = big and 歌舞伎 = kabuki play (classical Japanese dance-drama).…

Vintage Japanese Wood Stamp Tokyo Kabuki

This vintage Japanese wood stamp is from the "昭和" "showa period" . The "showa" period is from 1926-1989 but these are at least 30 years old. There are 待望 taibou = wait eagerly for / looking forward to, の no = ~'s and 大立物 = great figure. 東京 = tokyo, 大歌舞伎 ookabuki / 大dai = big and 歌舞伎 = kabuki play (classical Japanese dance-drama).…

Thursdays Marketplace is blooming with color this week! What's your favorite color, pink, blue, french blue, white, yellow or ??? Visit all the shops this week, you'll find a wonderful selection of indoor and outdoor home and garden decor to help you spruce up your home with beautiful spring colors at Shabby Cottage Shops!

This week's "…