Welcome to Aqua Chiffon! My specialty is taking castoffs found at thrift stores, on craigslist and at flea markets and giving them a facelift and hopefully a new life. I have a wide variety of finished projects as well as some purely vintage finds for sale. Feel free to look around!



Monday, July 4, 2011

Variety is the spice of life

I've been branching out from the wine bottles and adding a little variety to my inventory.  I'm trying to decide whether I have enough wares for a booth at the flea. 

Suitcase becomes cat bed

Cake stands and tiered servers

I'm told these will be dishwasher safe in a week.

Except the ones made with real china, naturally.

Knickknack nooks.

Everybody needs a little secret box.


Mug hooks and a pair of knickknack shelves.

Frames become trays.




Hoop groups

Shell plaques.

These turned out so cute, I may make some for myself.


Some finished hurricane bottles



I have loads more.  This is just a sample.

And some finished vases





I haven't settled on prices for anything at this point.

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Wine Bottle obsessed

My coworker who's getting married who inspired the glass wine charms?  Source of my new obsession - cutting wine bottles.  I found a tutorial on YouTube where you use a glass cutter, score around the bottle and use alternating hot and cold water to separate the pieces.  It takes some practice, granted, and you have to get a really nice line around the bottle to get it off perfectly, but I'm really getting the hang of it now!

Honestly, if I hadn't gotten a perfect cut on my very first try, I might have given up about 20 bottles ago.  But how could I not be encouraged by this?

Check that out!  Perfect.  And, yes, that's the same bottle I used to display the wine charms. 

There have been MANY fails.



But now instead of getting one good cut out of every 8 or so, I'm getting one out of every 2 or so!  I came up with a way to roll the bottle to make a smoother cut, and I'm going to have my dad help me tweek it a bit over the weekend.

Loving it!  I have been completely obsessed with getting bottles to practice on.  I got an email from a guy on craigslist today who has 20 CASES of empty bottles.  Woo hoo!

I'm trying to build up an inventory for the Pop Up Flea Market this summer in addition to practicing for the wedding decor.  Now that I have a gorgeous, organized new work space and the workshop isn't ridiculously cold anymore, I'm cranking stuff out like crazy!

'Tis the Season

An Easter egg project that I'm still on the fence about.  That was terrible grammar, but you get the picture.
Decoupaging fabric on a completely curved surface is no picnic.

Drawer doll house

I saw this project online and just had to try it.  You take two drawers, put them back to back, and turn them into a doll house!  I did this in a weekend.  My first windows and door and exterior stuff looked TERRIBLE.  I tried to make them whimsical, but they seemed more like a kindergartner did them.  So I found some pictures online and printed them off.  MUCH better.



Now I'm hot for more drawers.  These just had a flat front which made the roof a bit boring.

Tiles

The previous owners left a bunch of leftover 4x4 tiles that were used throughout the house.  I used them to make the numbers on my wall clock.

So I've taken a bunch more, printed out some photos I took and put them on the tiles.  I had a hard time figuring out what color to edge them with.  Naturally, I think everyone's favorite color is teal or aqua, but I decided I should be a little more neutral.

Aren't they cute?  And they're already pre-drilled if you want to hang them on the wall.  They even have felt on the back.  Very fun to make.

Friday, February 18, 2011

Come on, Spring!

My small project materials inventory exploded after 5 hours of thrifting yesterday!  See inspiration pictures below.  I bought glass vases to spray paint with stencil designs, frames of varying sizes, AND won some diamond tipped dremel bits for more wine charms and baby food jar candle holders.





Now if it would only warm up enough to spend more than 2 minutes at time in my workshop!  Too bad I can't spray paint inside...

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Glass tile wine charms

Inspired by my bride-to-be officemate, I made these wine charms from some glass tiles I had leftover from another project.  Seed beads make them distinctive from each other.  Share vino, not germs.


On sale at Pgh craigslist for $20 for the set.  Glass and vino not included.  'Smine.