If You're Thriftin'

I'm unveiling my new idea, an ongoing live art project. The idea has been brewing for quite a while, so I may have mentioned it to you IRL. Please feel free to leave comments on the idea itself, regardless of your interest level.
The complete outline of this crazy idea is on the Thriftin' Page.
Here's the plan, Stan:

I'm compiling a list of things we're looking for. Check the list. Or add to it. Then when we're thriftin', we can be on the watch for things on the list. Fun.

Thrift Store Gold

Thrift Treasures

Here's the latest thrift store finds. Sea shell beads, plastic purple beads, and cool striped beads. There's two stores on the same block, so one trip can hit both. Under Five Bucks for the trip!

Lucy as Three Wise Monkeys

Lucy as the three wise monkeys.

A photo posted by Shelly Fowler (@seeshells64) on Feb 25, 2016 at 7:56pm PST

I finally got on Instagram!

So check out my silly pictures. 

I was watching Face Off, and on the third round of the gauntlet challenge, they had to create three make-ups, one each for Hear No Evil, See No Evil, and Speak No Evil. That reminded me of a set of toys I thrifted, so I thought I'd share them. 

Three Lucy dolls, with moving arms, shoulders, and heads. Got them for under five bucks.

I arranged them in the same three, you'll have to squint your brain a little to get my jokes.

Hear No Evil, first Lucy, is making a face like she just heard some horrible gossip and she's thinking 'why did you say that?'

See No Evil, middle Lucy, has a devilish grin, because what she shouldn't have seen made her blush, probably when someone's pants fell down. 

And Speak No Evil Lucy, well, that's probably Usual Lucy, that's clenched fist and jaw trying not to say a bad word. She's just a kid, she needs to keep it clean. ;p

Next

Stamp kit found at the thrift store for under $3!

In thinking about what kind of a business card I might want, I knew it would need to be something different, a little weird, memorable, something to represent me, my ideas, my art, my photographs. Something that the card itself will remind you of me.
One of my favorite ideas was to use something upcycled as the card itself, and collecting old board game bits led to the idea of using board game money.
Eventually, I will have a customized rubber stamp made to look like a business card, with my blog address, and store(s), stamp it on the back of old board game money, and cute, unique business card.
But until I actually have all the addresses, and get all my stuff figured out, I'm not going to NOT hand out cards, right?
I found this rubber stamp kit at one of my favorite thrift stores for $2.98! It seems to have come from a set, everything goes together, though there was no box or instructions, and it appears to be almost complete. There are two trays with lids with two font sets, one all caps; two rounded and two rectangular stamps to put the letters in; a stamp pad and a plastic tweezers thing.
Until I get the letters sorted out and the stamp made, I've hand written a few business cards. So...
NEXT is sorting out a bunch of tiny, tiny letters. Good thing I have a good light!

Thrift Gold

Good thrifty haul

All this for one buck. It can be time-consuming to look at all the bags of misc stuff at the thrift store, but sometimes you find a really good one.

Thread Thrifting

I heard recently that our local Goodwill thrift stores had started a 'bit wall' with all sorts of little sets of bits. This was important because I heard it from a fellow gamer, and we were talking about game bits, which are always needed, and I like to craft with them sometimes, too.
The 'bits' I found this time, was thread. Awesome sets of three-to-a-package DMC thread, on their cards, with their numbers written on already. I got four. Aren't they beautiful!?!

Felted Bag: The Inspiration

Thrifted Purse
Originally uploaded by seeshells.

I go thrifting fairly often. In fact, one of my favorite grocery stores is my favorite partly because of being right next to a little thrift store. So it's pretty easy to scan the thrift store quickly before getting the groceries. (not so quickly if I have a kid with me, I think they like thrifting even more than me if that's possible)
About a year ago I saw this cutie purse, which appears to be partly felted, and partly fun fur. Funny thing, I didn't buy it the first time I saw it, then I kicked myself for a week until I went back, and luckily it was still there! It is not a size I would use, which is partly why I didn't buy it the first time, but I bought it for inspiration. I took a bunch of photos of it, and gave it to a wonderful young woman who enjoys it very much.
This was way back before I could crochet, when I was just starting with the knifty knitter, but I really wanted to make something cute like this.

Creative Hands

Creative Hands Vol. 1 cover
Originally uploaded by seeshells.

I thrifted this book Friday evening, when Artist Extreeme (sometimes also known as The One Who Can Not Make A Decision) and I went on a multi-stop adventure.
I didn't realize until I got home and really got to looking at it that it is Volume 1. It gives a little taste of a lot of hand work, so it seems that it could be complete with those little bits. But I guess it's a 22 volume set. I hadn't decided if I might take it apart, for collaging or whatever, but if it's a set, maybe I'll keep watch for the rest of the set instead of ripping this one up. We'll see.
Flipping through it while AE was looking through the clothes, I found some cool things, and a couple parts that kinda offended me, in that this-ain't-the-stone-age kind of pro-chick kind of way. But it was originally published in 1966, so we'll forgive the stupid parts, and relish in the nostalgia. One page had photos of a few of the contributors. Funny, they all had the same haircut my mom had in the 70's, but I guess all brunette mom-ish crafty women had the same haircut in the 70's.
I scanned a few choice pages (hopefully without stepping on any copywritten toes), click on the pix to jump to my flickr to see the other scans.

One of my favorite pages is below. It's showing an example of how to find a group of colors to use together. The smaller photos are of a harbor, and the large photo shows the afghan that was inspired by the colors of that harbor. Cool idea!

Mama's Got A Brand New Bag

Felt Flower
Originally uploaded by seeshells.

For the last maybe 3 years, I have only purchased my purses at thrift stores. Kinda a nose-thumbing at fashion, and our spendy society. Plus, I love the thrill of the thrifty hunt!
Unfortunately, each purse seems to have gotten bigger and bigger, until I felt like I was walking sideways and always have neck pain. So I decided to get small! I've been looking for a small purse for the last few weeks (I thrift probably on average of 1.5 times a week), and one issue has been what to do about the wallet? I've been 'in progress' on a cool duct tape wallet, but I don't want to wait on that because I'm paused at a couple design dilemmas and who knows when I'll get those worked out. So I decided that a little purse with wallet area built right in would work great. For now. We have to be flexible about these things.

Purse Hacking
Originally uploaded by seeshells.

Last Saturday, the ArtistExtreeme (my younger son) and I had a little outing while most of the rest of the house was still asleep. Coffee shop, thrift stores, foreign food store (with Kinder Eggs!), it was a great morning. And I found this adorable little purse. Mostly adorable. I love denim, so that's a bonus. And it does have the wallet area, but not really a lot of other room. It had an area that must have been for make-up that I had to overhaul, and I wanted to take off any/all brand name.
The felted flower patch was one priority before I would carry it, as there was a metal logo stuck on right there that was not coming off without ruining the pocket that it's on. More hacks &/or decorations will follow, as now I'm considering the tiny purse a tiny portable canvas and a great way to continue working on my felt embroidering.
But I got the flower patch done yesterday, just in time to load it up last night. I'm off this morning for the last minute purchases that always accompany a vacation, and we leave this afternoon!
Nothing like baptism by fire! We'll see how the purse fares on the vacation. Of course, I will still be carrying a tote bag also most of the weekend, because I need my sketch pad for the Artist's Jam, and my coffee cup, and my camera, and a tin with more felt for the next project, and whatever I pick up at the convention. Oh, and dice! I'm sure I'll be carrying lots of dice!