Lively Leaf Designs

I have never seen anything quite as lovely as Melissa's  jewelery made from upcycled bicycle inner tubes, earrings, bracelets and necklaces take on a new life with her intricate designs and style, her use of fresh water pearls makes them totally eye catching and unique.

Bicycle inner tube earrings

Bicycle-inner-tube-multi-leaf-pod Necklace

black-rubber-spiky-bracelet

Melissa is offering a 20% discount throughout her shop till end of Sep, use coupon code "Summer20" at the checkout.

Pop over and see more of her lovely items and grab a bargain while your at it.

Melissa on Face Book

Lively Leaf Website

 Instagram

Customer Reviews

I am completely smitten with this piece! It is absolutely gorgeous and I can already tell it will become one of my staple jewelry. Melissa was also an absolute pleasure to do business with, I cannot recommend her enough.

Not only was this pendant a big hit with my niece, the seller made a special effort to get it to her on time when I mentioned it was a birthday present! I will be ordering more from this shop - have favorited some things for myself. Love the recycling aspect as well as the artistry of her designs.

Tattered Delicates on Etsy

Explore the whimsical world of TatteredDelicates and see what she has created with crocheted doilies, soft old linens,  cotton fabrics and more and as she states herself  "I do get carried away with embellishments, as my imagination haunts my thoughts with "more is better."  Pop over and feast your eyes on some of her other creations, you wont be dissapointed.

This white crochet poncho is a vintage cotton crocheted piece. It has been upcycled from a vintage table doily. Poncho has a simple romantic design. This has a soft delicate feel and will drape gently off your shoulders. The thread used for this vintage crocheted piece is the thinner more delicate kind.

Altered couture blouse romantically embellished in a victorian style with lots of fluffy white laces. 

Cute shabby handbag in a romantic Victorian style with lace and doily embellishments. This bag has a puffy like body. This creme colored fabric has soft round popcorn-like bumps filled with poly fibers. They're like little pillows. Embellishment with a vintage crocheted doily, buttons, couple pieces of fringe, cotton lace and ruffled lace.

Altered couture blouse romantically embellished in a victorian style with lots of fluffy white laces. 

Shabby chic bag in a romantic Victorian cottage style. Handmade with vintage cotton crocheted doilies, lace trims, vintage lace remnant scraps, buttons, beads, satin ribbon roses, my handmade fabric rose, old used fringe (has stains), tiny metal dragonfly and butterfly, and a brooch with vintage faux pearls and gypsy coins. The body of this shabby purse is a white damask fabric.

You could Tie This at Home

Yesterday I found in a second hand shop eight pure silk ties and had to buy them, why? ask me another, I have no idea I just loved the colours. So what can you do with ties? well I popped over to Pinterest and I am just amazed at what people have come up with, such clever and imaginative ideas and certainly food for thought. It did cross my mind to use them to cover one of my chairs, but at the moment I have no idea what I will do with them,but one day I may just have to try out one of these projects, I love the bedspread and the rug is well pretty. Have you made anything with ties? would love to see. Just made a new cushion cover and a small cushion from them, picture at bottom of page.  Bea now very comfortable, strange she never sat on this chair before!

Well Hello Doilies

My mother had doilies here, there and well everywhere she could find a place to put them and we all loved them, then I guess they just stopped being fashionable which is a shame. Unfortunately for me  I never quite managed to conquer crochet and always ended up with a tangled mess. So I can and do admire the intricate patterns that are to be found. Today you can go into junk shops and find them thrown into an old box left there until they are saved by someone who thinks "now what can I do with this". The other day I found two beige doilies which I thought were just beautifully worked. It was then that I put in on my arm and thought this with a few beads would make a gorgeous cuff. I added three pearl beads for the closure. This then made me want to see what others have done with their doilies and well as you can see below some really clever uses. I think that a few more doilies will be saved and put to good use. Have you saved any doilies  lately and what did you make?

Mine

http://www.etsy.com/shop/JoliesCutesies

http://www.etsy.com/shop/victorianstation

http://www.etsy.com/shop/caseclothed

http://www.etsy.com/shop/shuffledcloth

http://www.etsy.com/shop/RubyChicOriginals

http://www.etsy.com/shop/TatteredDelicates

Designs by Dana $20 pair of Gorgeous Armwarmers

I recently met Dana on face book and fell in love with her fabulous creations and we got to chatting as we girls do! and she told me about her love of fiber art which for her started at an early age, living then in Spain she saw an elderly lady dressed in mourning black sitting in front of a medieval castle knitting the most intricate and beautiful lace. The lady was so skilled at her craft that she didn't even look to see what her fingers were creating. It was almost as if her fingers had eyes. Dana was mesmerized and thought to herself “It’s like magic… and I want to learn how to do this! This was the start of her love affair with all things fiber.

She also mentioned that she studied flamenco dance and guitar and her work as you can see has been greatly influenced by the vibrant colours and music of Spain, Portugal and Northern Africa.

Designs by Dana are a completely original take on fabrics….  Creating clothing – rather, works of art that force you to see fashion in an entirely new way. 

Dana has not hung her shoes up just yet and here are her favourite pair ready and waiting.....

 Her clothes not only look comfortable, flattering and best of all unique. From original patterns for couture hats, separates and outerwear to reconstructed materials putting life into assumingly tarnished textiles.  The detail and care put into every stitch from Dana is what makes her line unlike anything currently dangling in your closet or what is found on the every-day store racks.

Huge thanks to Dana for sharing her story with us and for her fabulous give away of a pair of up cycled gloves (First picture on post) which will go to one of my lucky followers.  Now how to enter and you know I like to keep it simple..... so for the first time I am trying out Rafflecopter so bear with me and if there are any problems please let me know so I can rectify. So good luck and meanwhile Dana will strum you a little tune on her guitar.

a Rafflecopter giveaway