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Tuesday, October 6, 2009

A Zipper Brooch A Couple Wtches And A Fairy

My youngest sister bought a huge bag of sewing things for me last year at a yard sale. It was full of old spools of thread, most of them wooden, lace edgings, beads.....and zippers. The other day I decided to find something to make out of them. I found zipper brooches. How simple and so easy anyone can make one! I decided not to use needle and thread, but to go with putting them together with my hot glue gun. Since I didn't have the patience to look for directions, I started cutting and gluing it into a shape that looked right :D I only had one green zipper, so my flowers don't have many leaves....



These are what I started with, and after I used pliers to pull them apart.

And after I started the cutting and gluing.

a turquoise center with white petals. I made these petal pieces longer than the other flower.



a brown rose with a rhinestone button center. The reason it has a button center is because I made a mess of this one, and hid part of the mess with a button! After I took the photos I used the blow dryer to heat it up and melt some more of the messy glue. It worked pretty good, it looks a lot better now. This was the first one I made, but it's my favorite.

a navy blue zipper with soft yellow petals and a couple green leaves. Cute!



Now this one is beautiful in person :D Such a bright red color! This is the easiest flower to make.

The backs have felt and pin backings. Use these as a lapel pin, on a choker, a purse, on a bracelet, or a headband.








One of the witch lanterns I made using a large lantern we got after Katrina. We got our money's worth....a month without electricity, ha! I spray painted it with red oxide primer for instant rust, but forgot to sprinkle it with cinnamon like I usually do. I got the image of the young girl in the witch costume from Stacey at Primarily Primitives. Thank you Stacey! I printed her out on a 4x6 photo paper, and even though she had a witch hat, I cut a new one out of stiff black paper. It's an oval with a curved slit cut in it to fit over her head, and a triangle for the top of the hat. The cape is made of a piece of black tissue paper, and another piece of red. All I did was pinch the paper into a shape that worked and glued it on, then cut a strip of black tissue paper I tied in a bow and glued at her neck. The back half of the glass chimney has a small piece of that white fake white spider web stuff glued to it and a small spider from a pack of confetti. There's a tiny pumpkin that was in a bag of silk leaves( a few of those in there,too!) that I bought at a yard sale this week-end. I added a few more things, including a penny I add to all my captured fairies and witches :D It's finished with a torn strip of black tulle and some silk leaves and flowers.




Isn't this one precious??? This little girl came from Vintage Resources...Adopt An Ancestor images . I made her dress peach and gave her a black glossy paper hat and a black tulle cape. She has a gazing ball that used to be a tiny Christmas ornament, and a small paper mushroom, a bell on a golden string, and a few other bits & pieces. I typed out the words hocus pocus and cut them out and dropped it in.



I know I made her earlier this year, but I took this one apart and re-did it. Looks a lot better now, lol! I added the word believe,too. I don't know where I got this free image.

Hopefully I can come back tomorrow; I still have no computer, and still sharing this one that belongs to my adult daughter.

kudzu

8 comments:

Robin S. said...

I saw flowers like those at a boutique in Vermont last summer. They were going for $38!

daisydal said...

Cheri,
You never cease to amaze me!! You truly have a God-given talent and such a keen eye for creating such beautiful things. I love those zipper flowers and I think you have the most beautiful captured fairies and witches I have seen. Thank you for letting us have a glimpse into your little piece of Heaven and taking the time to share with all of us!
blessings-sherri

Jean Tuthill said...

Your creations are amazing! I love the zipper flowers and the fairies and halloween witches are so cute. Dusty is doing much better now, he had his stitches out today and is acting more normal now. He'll be good as new in no time. Thanks for your sweet comment, and yes, he did sleep on my bed last night! We played lick and tickle this morning and I knew he was getting better!

vintagesue said...

what a smartie you are!!! what a wonderful way to make art from something that would just sit in a drawer forever....I LOVE your idea. very creative.
thanks for sharing.
sue

Kudzu said...

awww,thanks ya'll! I'm thinking of a step-by-step for each....the fairies and witches, and the zipper flowers :D So start ripping out those zippers in your old clothes and pull out the ones you've been saving for "something" !
kudzu

Mei Tan said...

I love the zipper brooches. Seen them somewhere else - tutorial but can't find them now.
I am passing you the "One Lovely Blog Award" - its at my blog here - http://wireblissmei.blogspot.com/2009/10/long-overdue-blog-awards.html

Dottie said...

Yeah for the glue gun! Those zipper brooches came out so cute. And the witch and fairy are adorable too.

Soinspired said...

I am amazed at your zipper buttons. What a great idea. I've got dozens of old, old zippers from my mother and grandmother they saved many years ago. I even have big heavy duty coat zippers they had ripped out and saved. I will definitely make some of these as Christmas gifts for the girls here in my office. Gosh, you could put these on pillows, lamp shades, signs... Thanks so much for your continued inspirations! So many ideas, so little time!