Donna sent me mine and some gave me a little bit of a scare - I had no idea what I was going to do with them! Here's what she sent me:
Those shoe stretchers had me stumped. All I could see were hooves no matter how I turned them. So of course, I took one apart. hm, that's better. There is a big piece and a small piece to each one plus the handle. I painted them. Then I took another apart and painted those pieces. Now to put them together in an interesting way.
How about a card holder? Yes! I took the two smaller pieces, glued them together, then wound some twine about 1/2 way up. Stuck a fork in the top and voila! It can hold cards or recipes.
The larger pieces reminded me of wings. Let's see...an angel, a bird? I love owls so that's what I decided on. I used a wooden platter I had plus other odds and ends and here's my owl:
The hanger is one of the handles nailed onto the back. This lovely owl will go in my side garden on the fence.
One more to go - I know. I always need to prop up my reference photo when I'm painting so why not use the stretcher with the handle bent at a 90 degree angle? It was kind of wobbly so I wedged the other handle into the other end and now it's stable. It holds up a clip board perfectly. Whew, figured those out.
Next up was the old faded photo. It was so faded and just a bunch of men sitting on the steps of a house. OH! I know! I can turn it into a Halloween card. I painted a spider web and added some ghosts in the windows and turned the really faded man in the background into a ghost too. I painted a few other details too. Then I found the perfect graphics at The Graphic Fairy, printed them onto velum, and added those at the bottom and top corner. For the clothes pin, I added Halloween scrapbook paper and will use it to clip up my spooky photo.
The fabric was probably the easiest to decide what to do with. It wasn't big enough by itself but I had another piece of fabric that matched the small blue flower in it so I made a cute shirt using both.
Then there's the canvas bag. I had this larger bag I am using to put my stamps and ink pads in. I decided to use the little bag to put the ink pads in so I could easily find them in the bigger bag. I pulled off the lace since it didn't really go with my look, painted and added the details. Love my fox! Now, I can easily find the ink pads and it fits down into the big bag for easy storage.
This is probably my favorite out of them all. It will make a great addition to my love themed shelf/wall.
This was a fun challenge even if the shoe stretchers scared me at first. LOL. It really stretched my creative thinking. Be sure to visit all the other ladies to see what they came up with.
Vicky - Life on Willie Mae Lane - http://lifeonwilliemaelane. blogspot.com
Kim - Snug Harbor Bay - http://snugharborbay.blogspot. com
Kimberley - Seaside Ave. - http://www.seasideave.com
Donna - Distressed Donna Down Home - http:// distresseddonnadownhome. blogspot.com
Tania - Little Vintage Cottage - http://littlevintagecottage. blogspot.com