Recent Thrift Store Scores

I admit it. I'm a thrift store addict. If I have a few minutes, and I'm near either an antique or thrift store, I have to pop in. Of course, I also have whole days that I'll devote to almost entirely to thrifting.  While those days don't happen often, I did get the opportunity to have one of those recently. And, because I also adore getting to see what other people discover at thrift stores, I thought it only fair that I share with y'all the treasures I brought home.
My first stop, as is my usual, was Goodwill. There, I found a nice wooden basket with jute rope handles. One of the slats on the bottom is cracked, but I hope to fix it with wood glue and then paint the whole thing (except the handles of course). As well, the revolving earring display caught my eye. I want to work it into my display at Southern Antiques and Accents, but am first trying to decide whether or not to paint it. Lastly, there was a lovely vintage pillowcase.

I've been collecting vintage linens for years now with the hope of someday piecing them together into a quilt. This one incorporates all my favorite colors. It gives me the warm fuzzies!

After Goodwill, I headed to a local charity thrift shop.
Their craft bins and prices never disappoint. The linen tablecloth will be used for art rags (don't judge). Then, there's the embroidery hoop, roll of leather, and letter stamps that are obvious craft supplies/tools. The wood candlestick was only a dollar and can easily be painted and worked into my home decor. The little patch thing on the far right - I actually have NO IDEA what it is or how it would be used. It does, however, have a few neat elements on it that I plan to remove for crafty reuse.

I don't always have the best of luck at the Waterfront Rescue Mission's thrift store, but it's always so easy to just pop in there when I'm near it. I scored this time around with a set of three embroidery hoops, a framed picture (for 99 cents), and a blank ledger.

From there, I popped over to one of my favorite antique malls.
I scored big time, especially in one particular booth that was selling loads of arts and craft supplies. There was the bag of lace, the jar of broken jewelry, some beading supplies, and a baggie of ric-rack. In addition, one booth had a small selection of old blank journals and receipt books.

I couldn't resist those lovely, old pages.

Now for another admittance - I've made myself refrain from through all those baggies and jars until I got this post up. It's going to be my reward for actually blogging. Ha! If I find anything spectacular or even remotely cool in them, I'll make sure to share it with you!

So, what have you discovered in your local thrift stores lately?

Finishing up #The100DayProject (plus giveaway and previous winner)

Yesterday, I completed my last pair of earrings for #The100DayProject. This project started on April 4th and encouraged creators to pick a project to work on/complete each day for 100 days with the intention of fostering more creativity. These projects were to be featured on Instagram with the project's hashtag and our own unique hashtag. I chose to make a pair of earrings, using  #Make100Earrings. As I said, yesterday was day 100. Previously, I've revealed earrings 1-20, earrings 21-40, earrings 41-60, and earrings 61-80 along with a giveaway for each set.

I have to admit that I went into the project fully expecting myself to fail miserably. I didn't think I would make it near 100 days. I did miss two days while I was out of town during this bunch but made them up as soon as I got home. So, in the one hundred days...I made one hundred pairs of earrings. I can't even believe it.

As I said above, the purpose of the project is to garner creativity by repeating a similar piece of work day after day. This repetition forces the individual to step out of the box rather than become mundane. I found this forced creative innovation to be true for the most part. Though, towards the end, I began to feel like all my ideas had run their course. A hundred days is probably the perfect number before the project becomes tiring. In any case, I present you with the last of my contribution to this year's project.

Days 81-84
Day 81: I don't even remember what I had on my desk previously, but I distinctly remember getting frustrated that it wasn't working out the way I wanted. Rather than continue to fiddle and fume, I stacked some beads on headpins. These turned out beautifully.
Day 82: After creating my own stencils with my Silhouette Cameo and page dividers, I traced the same shape onto some tin. From there, these teardrops were cut and sanded before being hung from the small coral beads.
Day 83: I've hung onto a couple of rolls of thin metal I got for cheap forever ago. It hit me that the metal was thin enough to be run through an embossing folder. From there, I aged the metal with patina, cut it to fit in the bezel, sprinkled on mica powder, and sealed it with Magic Glos resin. The violet beads are salvaged from old jewelry and flanked on an eye pin by copper spacer beads. 
Day 84: The flower fairy beads from Mermaid Glass have been in my stash for ages. I love them too much to use them...or some such nonsense as that. They're accented simply with bead caps and tiny Chinese crystals and moonstone-colored glass beads from ZnetShows.com.

Days 85-88
Day 85: Using random scraps of leftovers from cutting apart the tin days before, I paired up the pieces and hung small amethyst briolettes from the bottom. 
Day 86: For some reason, the polymer clay discs caught my eye. I was working from my travel box so I dug around for coordinating beads and came up with this combination.
Day 87: When I came upon a list of earring idea for this challenge, I noticed that I had made all of them except for one that mentioned these tiny spools. A few wood discs were added to the top and bottom since the holes were so large. As well, I glued on embroidery floss to add color.
Day 88: At the end of an extremely busy day, I thought I had already made my earrings. Once I realized I hadn't, I dug around in the craft room for something, anything different. These mokume gane polymer clay beads that I made eons ago were unearthed.  I paired them with silver spacers and cherry quartz-colored glass beads.

Days 89-92
Day 89: It was another long day. The beads for these earrings were in a small bowl on top of my bead cabinet waiting to become something. Earrings, they became earrings.
Day 90: We had another day spent almost completely outside, and I just wasn't feeling inspired. Finally, these came together. And, looking at the one on the right...it seems that maybe I cut the bottom wire. These will have to be re-made! I might even make them less sloppy.
Day 91: With summer in full force, I was drawn to these cobalt blue cultured sea glass conch shells from ZnetShows.com. The Czech glass beads I used with them have a feeling of sand to them. Now I want to head down to the beach.
Day 92: It was the 4th of July, and I wanted to make red, white, and blue earrings. I recalled that one of my tins used that color combo. To keep the patriotic theme, I cut the tin into star shapes. They're too cute!

Days 93-96
Day 93: I left out of town EARLY that morning. Late in the evening, when we finally checked into the hotel, I was just climbing into bed when I realized I hadn't made my earrings for the day. I quickly pulled together some of my altered and patina-ed Vintaj blanks and faux blue pearls.
Day 94: The size of these faux pearls are what got my attention. However, I wanted to make them dainty. The use of bead caps and the airy rings finished this pair.
Day 95: Inspired by my niece, my best friend, and the star beads; these earrings took me a little while to decide on. But, they fell together once the decisions were made. 
Day 96: Here's where things went wonky. I was still out of town and didn't have a minute to myself. So, these were actually made after I got back home. The discs are mica washers and are paired with pretty blue glass beads.

Days 97-100
Day 97: Like #96, I had to make these late. The metal teardrops were unearthed in one of my little drawers and were the inspiration for the earrings. They're pretty much a take on earrings #94, but with a bolder statement.
Day 98: The lampwork spacers in these earrings are from StudioJuls. Once I realized a small chain would slip through the holes, these seemed obvious to me.
Day 99: I was drawn to try to make a chandelier frame with wire. There are worse versions of these. While these are not fabulous, at least I tried and know what my weakness is. I'll try this technique again another time.
Day 100: Wanting to go out with a bang, I decided to a new approach entirely. I pressed conditioned scrap polymer clay into shallow bezels, stamped an image, covered it with mica powder, and baked the clay until cured. From there, acrylic paint gave accents and shadow before the whole thing was sealed with resin. They're stunning and make me wonder why I hardly every work with clay anymore.

Now for the giveaway from the last reveal. I received five entries:
And the random number generator chose a number between 2 & 6:

Angela, that's you! I'll be sending you an e-mail soon about getting your prizes to you. Congrats.

If you're interested in entering the new giveaway to win some of the earrings from this current selection, leave me a comment letting me know which of these earrings are your favorites. I do ask that you live in the US and leave me your e-mail address with the comment. I'll have this giveaway open until the end of the month and draw a winner at the beginning of August. Thanks for checking out what I made and for playing along. Good Luck!!


The 100 Day Project 2024

Yesterday, the 100 Day Project for 2024 started (it's not too late to join in!!) I mentioned last week that I would give you a heads-up ...