We'll Always Have Paris

"We'll always have Paris". That's a favorite quote from a favorite movie, and also the inspiration for a decoupage project that I'd like to share with you today.
I picked this chair up at the local Goodwill for $3. It was partially painted purple and had a few loose joints but the lines were decent. At that price, I figured I could find something to do with it. And I decided on decoupage.
Aside from a few painted accents, the chair is completely covered in paper, mostly vintage. I used lots of old sheet music, some reproduced vintage French love letters and wall paper from the 1930's and 1940's as the foundation materials. Accents include a vintage heart shaped doily, a postcard from France, and some magazine cutouts.

One of the details that I most enjoyed doing was the back slats of the chair; each one tells a little Parisian story
This one shows a couple in parting surrounded by love letters, a photograph of the Eiffel Tower, and an old airplane.
The one beneath it highlights a dreamy looking starlet with more photos of the Eiffel Tower, another letter, and lots of roses.
This one depicts a young couple married in Paris, with a photo of the Cathedral of Notre Dame and of course, another Eiffel Tower shot.
This one features a photo of a lovely young woman gazing into the mirror, memories of Paris in her thoughts. Other images from this scene include a party photo, the Eiffel Tower, a love letter, and lots of roses.

This was a very time consuming, but fun project, and I'm quite pleased with how it turned out.
It has found a home at the desk where I work on paper projects. Between the chair and my mood board there's plenty of inspiration close at hand.

Until next time,

This post is shared on "Show and Tell Friday" at Cindy's gorgeous blog, My Romantic Home. You should check it out....lots of great ideas to discover!

Refrigerator Art

I love it when I find something useful, pretty, practical, and inexpensive, and this little find certainly fits the bill. The other day I was at Ocean State Job Lots and found these great

little magnet sets. I believe they were designed for school lockers, but what great refrigerator magnets they make!

You see, I enjoy using my refigerator as a canvas for whatever "art" strikes me at a given time, and currently, I'm into displaying black and white

photographs there. Unfortunately, the typical decorative kitchen magnets just don't cut it with B&W photography! But

these little goodies are just perfect with their graphic shapes and black and silver color, and while they're wonderful on their own, they're even better combined with other types of fasteners. I thought I'd show you some of my favorites today.
In the photo above, I've combined one of the black magnets with a magnet made from a vintage brooch from the flea market. I'm planning to make a couple more of these as soon as I come across the right junk jewelry to work with, but I think that will be enough, as they could really make the display busy in a hurry! But a little bling goes a long way and a few of them certainly a bit of punch to the arrangement.
For these photos, I'm using magnetic photo holders that I found at a camera shop several years back. They've also been one of my "best little bargains", as I've used them to display numerous photos through the years. The holders are sized for a standard 4 X 6 print, however my vintage black and white pictures are a bit smaller. To compensate, I simply backed the snapshots with a piece of black paper, and for a little something extra, I cut a phrase out of a magazine to use as a caption for one of them.
For this photo, I repurposed a magnetic mini-chip clip in a metallic silver tone.
For this one, I used a magnetic binder clip from the office supply.

It's fun to let your imagination run loose when it comes to magnets and fasteners for this type of display. For the only color image in the grouping, I used magnetic childrens' letters to attach a

magazine page with a great photo of some delectable looking cookies. Other good fasteners could be fashioned from clothes pins, checker board pieces, or Scrabble tiles. I'm sure once you think about it and browse your home with a discerning eye, you'll see lots of potential fasteners that will look 100% better than the designated refrigerator magnets you can buy in a store, so have some fun with it and create a display that is uniquely you!

Until next time,