Altered Tin Necklace/Keepsake Box Class at Audrey's in Phoenix

I am sooooo happy to announce a new class that I will be teaching here in Phoenix. It will be held at Audrey's in Phoenix (the wonderful little shop I told you about in my last post) on June 27th and also on the 28th. We scheduled two dates so that students could choose a weekday or a weekend!

It is altered tin necklace that can also be used a little keepsake box.

This is a perfect example of how you can use the Annie Sloan Chalk Paint® in an art project.

The inside will be lined with lace and ready to hold a photo or quote that is near and dear to your heart. You could also put your drivers license and money in there if you wanted too!!

Depending on the color of paint you choose, you can get many wonderful looks!!

I have had a blast making these samples for class, and I'm even working on more! They make wonderful gifts too.

If you would like more information about the class please contact me at karenvalentinedesignstudio@gmail.com and I will email you a list of all the things you will get in the kit, a list of things you might want to bring with you and details about the times, cost etc...

or you can just contact Audrey's and sign up right away!!
I hope to see you there!!!

Goodwill Table Makeover

Welcome to our family room! LOL! That's me and hubby sitting on the sofa watching TV. There is only one problem. The coffee table is (was) always (and I mean always) covered in stacks of magazines and books. Between my issues of Country Living or any number of Stampington publications and the fact that my sweet hubby gets every single car and truck magazine published along with many other publications... well you can see how that could be a problem. I think I even moved some off so we could put out feet up there!

Anyway, I decided it was time for a change!!!

I searched Goodwill for a few weeks and finally found this iron base coffee table. It has two working drawers and the top is hinged so it opens to allow for more storage. Halleluiah! It was $29.99 and I used a 20% off coupon. The table was going to sit too high as it was, but my super talented hubby could take care of that no problem.

Hubby cut off the bottom few inches of the base for me making it the perfect height.

Now for the paint. I did a lot of thinking about this, and decided to go ahead and use Annie Sloan Chalk Paint in Old White because with latex paint, surfaces that touch each other tend to stick and ASCP wont do that. I went to one of my favorite shops in the valley for the paint. It's on Cave Creek and Cactus and is called Audrey's. Erin, the owner there is one of the nicest ladies you could ever want to meet and she was very helpful in answering all my questions.

The other thing I really love about the paint is how easy it is to get a distressed finished. I didn't even sand the edges. I just wiped the dry paint off with a damp rag. After a few days that wont work though, but you get a more realistic wear pattern with this method.

I swapped out the hardware with knobs I got from Hobby Lobby and viola! a table perfect for our needs.

No more clutter! Yeah!!!!!

Since I was already in a painting mood, I decided to finally take care of the speakers in the room.

They were just big black holes sucking all the light out of the room! LOL!

I used ASCP on these too. It was such a quick and easy project because I didn't have to sand them or anything! I found tan colored speaker fabric on-line and recovered the front covers with it.

(Oh look... More ASCP in duck egg blue. )

I'm really pleased with the way they turned out!

So I know that most people either love ASCP or they don't. The more I use it, the more I love it. I have even starting using it in my art projects and I am getting beautiful results. If you are in the Phoenix and want to try it for yourself go see Erin over at Audrey's. She even gives classes there!

Kits for Sale!

So, several of you have asked me if I ever sell kits for my projects. I actually have 4 kits left from the event.  They are $65.00 + shipping and include everything you need to make a lace and fabric book like the one shown in the photo.

Here are some shots of what is in the kit.

*You will recieve printed Instructions for the book. I will also include a free copy of my Fabric and Lace Book Tutorial that gives detailed instructions with photos on how to make a book from scratch. (normally $15.00)

 * 2 pieces of book board

*Felt and fabric for the front and back cover.
A photo to use (or you can use one of your own if you like)

*Fabric book pages completely sewn and ready to go. The hard work has been done for you!!!

*11 yards of lace and trim plus lots of extra fancy pieces to put on the edges.

*Pre-painted resin frame

* velvet ribbon
*flat faux pearls and faux pearl strand
*lace for spine edge
*beaded trim
 *2 decorative metal corners
*tiny lace flowers, and
*an ostrich feather

If you would like to purchase a kit, please send  me an email with your address. I will get the shipping costs and send you an invoice through Paypal!

Thank you ladies! All the kits have sold. :)

My wonderful time at "An Affair at Downton"

Well I am finally getting around to sharing photos with you guys of the amazing weekend I spent in California attending and teaching at "An Affair at Downton"I cannot express in words what that weekend meant to me. I had the time of my life and in doing so, did not take nearly enough photos!!

So I am borrowing a few from the very talented Tiffany Kirchner Dixon who was the photographer for the event. If you would like to see more photos of our fun weekend, you click here for all of Tiffany's photos!

 Friday night started with Vendor Night and our fancy dress up party! This is a sampling of some of the things I had for sale on my table. You could tell I was kind of a newbie at vendor sales when you compared my table to those of the other vendors, but at the end of the night I actually did pretty well!

A few shots of some of the other lovely wares for sale that night.

The costumes were all fabulous. Some girls went all out, and others were more subdued. It didn't matter what everyone wore though... We all had a fabulous time!

Friday morning we entered the ballroom to this lovely site. The tablescapes were stunning and there were gifts overflowing on the chairs! I didn't know girls gave out gifts to their table mates!! I'll know next time ladies!!!

The first class of the day was this sweet little sampler by Charlotte Lyons.
Unfortunately I was too busy chatting and laughing to get it finished!!

 Andrea Singarella taught the class right after lunch. It was a  pretty little necklace that I completed and have already worn several times!

 After dinner we had all the swaps. Some of them were absolutely amazing and after seeing what everyone made, I was wishing I had participated in more than one! Again pop over to Tiffany's photo gallery to see the rest of what these talented ladies created. :) Here are some of the photos from the swap I joined. We were to use an altered vintage coin purse. The book on the bottom right was the one I gave my swap partner Andrea V. I wish I had taken photos of it. It had fabric and paper pages with images of the Downton Abbey characters printed on the pages with some of their best quotes.

Aren't they all just stunning??? The necklace on bottom right of this collage is the piece my swap partner and dear friend Cindy from Lilly's Lace  made for me. I love it so much and I've worn it many times already!

One of the great things about events like this is that it brings all your friends together in one place! I hadn't seen Cindy in a couple of years so it was so wonderful to be able to hang out with her again!

Here's all the cute girls that participated in the Secret Keeper Vintage Coin Purse swap!

Saturday morning was my class. I was amazed to find that I wasn't nervous at all! I really love teaching and these girls made me feel so comfortable that there was no need... even though their were 62 students!!!

 Here are some of the works in progress. It was really fun to see that some of the girls took off in another direction and changed the design to make it completely their own!

 Some of the girls showing off their creations!!

Pamela Huntington's cute dress garland was our second class of the day. I was too busy playing to take any photos darn it!! We had a great time playing with more lace and ribbon!

Here's the whole gang!!!! What a great group of women they are. I truly miss them still and hope that I will be able to do another event soon when we can all meet up again!

Can you see the glow on my face??? It's because I was having such a wonderful time!!!

Sweet Salvage- Where in the World?

Yesterday I went for my monthly visit to Sweet Salvage. The theme this month...Where in the World?? It was a lovely visit as I traversed the globe, all while never really leaving home. :)  There were many wonderful places to visit. England, Italy, France and even Africa to name just a few.


Here are some pics of my favorite places that I visited!









 
Out first stop... Sweden. Think Jeanne de Arc magazine. Lovely light neutrals made for such a sweet and calm setting.

 Someday I would really love to own one of these old, beautiful ladies.

 My favorite color combination. :)

 Among many other things I love to collect are linens.

I pick them up whenever I feel the need. The older the better and if they have lovely handmade lace on them... Well.... (sigh)

 Now add old linens to a lovely old chair and that's a great photo!!!

They always have such great chairs and pillow there!

 Bleached coral is just so pretty don't you think???

 I swear one day I'm gonna do something like this just for a display. I just get happy when all see that string grouped together like that. (weird. I know)

 This is one addiction I haven't succumbed to yet!!

This little cubby cabinet was fabulous. In fact I love everything in this photo!!

 Now we are off to French Quarter of New Orleans! It's very ooh la la!!

 I was definitely attracted by bright shiny objects in this cabinet!!

 These sacred hearts were lovely.

Okay... again, is it weird that I find this really cool???

 My last favorite place was seaside. Pick a beach, any beach and I would most likely be a happy camper.

 Lovely color.

It was all just very cool. :)

There is definitely something for everyone's taste at the show this month. If you want to see more... you need to go there!!! I wish I could show you picks of everything but my blogs just not big enough.

I hope you enjoyed seeing some of my favorites.

Next week, I'm finally going to get around to showing you the fun we had at the Affair at Downton!!