My mother liked to use the term charm bracelet as a verb. That sounds weird but it’s actually a handy thing. You can use it to describe anything that accumulates with purpose over time.
I’m going to charm bracelet my way to a decent set of matching flatware.
When it came to Christmas, the Hendersons took their inspiration from previous generations and charm braceleted a whole new set of family traditions.
After seeing a sign-the-tablecloth last year, I decided I wanted to take a similar charm bracelet approach to Thanksgiving. But because I hardly ever host a Thanksgiving dinner, I wanted something that could hang on display for a few weeks. Something I could build on a little each year. Something festive. Something…turkey.
One of the printers I work with gave me some overrun on a piece that was printed on the most beautiful watercolor paper. It was too gorgeous to throw out, so I got my watercolors out and painted it unicorn colors. Yes, unicorn colors is an established pallete.
The Martha Stewart folks at Plaid sent me some samples of their liquid gilding, and I have to say, it’s pretty good stuff. It stinks, but it’s good. Just a little bit here and there really makes the paper sparkle. Way more effective than gold acrylic but less fussy than genuine gold leaf. Not that anything is wrong with gold leaf, mind you.
No template here, just a quick fold over, some fringe snips along the edge, then a little twist to help ruffle the feathers. Easy Peasy. The hard part is stringing it in a way that doesn’t tangle. I used a simple needle and thread with a few sequins tagged on for sparkle. Because I plan on adding to this each year, I have reconciled with the idea that I will probably need to snip and restring each year. And I’m OK with that. Strong paper and small holes…it’ll be fine.
I can’t wait for this thing to grow a bit more next year. I’ll be looking for strong-yet-nifty bits of paper all year round.
Happy Thanksgiving 🙂
So beautiful! :O
These are beautiful! I’ve added paper feathers to my “To Craft” list!
I was so inspired by your magical feathers that I made some for myself (with just a little tweaking). I do love how you strung yours but I had some thicker string and I just taped mine. Thank you for the inspiration!
Whew, there for a minute I thought you had cut up some old books, BUT YEAH, you re-purposed some misprintings. Love the feathers by the way…..love your blog to…..what’s it like to be so cool?
I’ll let you know when I get there, JI 🙂
But seriously…no book cutting for me. I have used some damaged ones in the past but I’ll steer clear. Did you see what happened when Lauren Conrad cut up books for a craft project? There was rioting in the street!
love your paper turkey feathers! i might have to follow your lead… 🙂
Thanks Stella. I’m glad you like it as it will be updated shortly. Pumpkins gettin’ bumped for Christmasness!
Love your turkey feathers Aunt Peaches, can’t wait to see the string in a few years! BTW, I think I forgot to mention how nice I think your changing header is, very eye catching and very you!
I love how you took a basic craft and dressed it up with sophisticated colors and a little gilding! I’ll be featuring this on The Crafty Crow soon!