Little Pink Studio

My creative space: Where Bloggers Create tour

Hello, and welcome! I am joining in today for the first time in a few years to celebrate and tour all of the studios shared with the 7th annual Where Bloggers Create Tour! In case this is the first time you have ever visited my blog, let me introduce myself. My name is Cerri, and I have been the owner of a sweet little shop for the past eight years, The Little Pink Studio. I also run a monthly craft subscription service, The Little Pink Box, and am co-owner (and chief Mom in charge) with my oldest daughter in a planner supply  business opening mid August called It's Paper, Dear. This is where all of the creative things happen in our home. Since this is quite the photo heavy post, please grab yourself a glass of iced tea and enjoy! I will try to keep my rambling to a minimum.

My studio is in a large open area in the middle of our home. It is divided from our library by a huge floor to ceiling stone fireplace and opens to our kitchen on one side. Since it is only divided by the fireplace and a kitchen wall, there are not any doors to my studio. I have made separations with old windows and columns as you can see in the photos below. 

Behind the windows are some of my vintage mannequins, and we have installed little lights that shine onto them so that when looking in to the room, it appears as if you're looking into a boutique of sorts. 

 

For the most part, our house does not get great lighting due to being surrounded by trees, but this particular room always has wonderful sunshine. It makes it feel so warm and cozy. 

This is the sitting area side of the studio. The white love seat is from Ikea, and the pale blue settee and the little peach chair are vintage. In fact, all of the furniture in my studio is vintage except that love seat and a cube unit I have on another wall. 

The 3 paintings on the right of this wall of some of my very favorite things. They were all painted by my great, great aunt. She was an amazingly talented woman that sadly passed in her early 40's while living in a mental institution. She painted SO many paintings that mostly everyone in our very large family has at least one original painting, all the way down to my generation. The furthest on the right is my original and the other 2 are copies of my mom's and aunt's originals. They are truly stunning in person.

You might have noticed that my walls are covered in fabric. We hung an unbleached muslin fabric on all of the walls, which looks just like a linen. The seams are covered all the way around the room with different vintage laces over a vintage pale peach satin ribbon. It's probably hard to see in the photos, but I love the way it looks.

 My room is filled not only with supplies, but also my collections of pretty things I love. 

All of these photos were taken in October, that's why there is a Halloween garland hanging from the cupboard, and there have been a a couple of changes since then. Mostly, just little changes like a cube unit filled with vintage lace and fabric, and there are more raskog carts from Ikea. (they're painted pink now, too)

And this beautiful kitty isn't currently visiting us. He's at home in Nashville with his Mom. :)

So, I think that's it! If you have any questions about anything, please feel free to ask. If you want to see particular uses of items in the room or a closer look at something, let me know that too and I will do another blog post about it. I feel blessed to have a large space, and would love to one day host workshops or small creative gatherings in my studio. 

Thanks SO much for visiting today! I can't wait to take a look all around blog land at your beautiful spaces. 

Have a wonderful weekend, Cerri

 

A peek into the March Little Pink Box

Hello! I hope you all had a lovely spring weekend! I am popping in today to share a few peeks into the March Little Pink Box. We made 2 creative projects, the first being a sweet and shabby list journal with a spring theme. 

I was inspired by all of the list challenges that are so popular on instagram lately, but I wanted to make a book that was shabby, and contained cute, vintage illustrations, and vintage fabric. You know, all of the things we all love! 

I made journal cards with vintage images, a personalized illustration for the covers, and journal prompts printed on sticker paper. I also included all of the vintage fabric, paper bags, vintage lace and embellishments to create their books. 

Here's a look into my book and the pages and tags I have created so far. My hope is to make a new page or tag each day, spending just a few minutes to make something creative. 

I am looking forward to finishing my little book. Let me know if you would like to see more of my pages and tags as I make them. 

The 2nd project we created was a darling little bird house. 

We covered petite wooden bird houses with paint and vintage fabric scraps to make a patchwork style house. Don't you just love that little vintage bird?! 

I love spring crafting with all of the happy pastels and flowers, don't you? 

April subscriptions are available in the shop for a couple more days, so grab yours and join in the crafty fun. 

I was also able to create a few extra list journal kits! They're available right here. 

I will be back in a couple of days with a super easy tutorial for you, so be sure to check back. 

Until then, happy crafting! Cerri

 

A sweet art journal

Hello! Lately I have been asked to do a few different custom vintage art journals, and they always have various themes to them. I thought I would share one of the recent ones with you here today. This particular customer purchased this book kit for her Mom as a gift. I'll admit, the theme request stumped me for a moment. She wanted a book kit that would include angels, cats, lots of vintage ephemera, pink, and maybe a bit of travel as well. Once I started looking though, I found all of the things I needed for this special gift, I also created some custom collage sheets to include that went along with these themes, and I was so excited when I was able to find a PINK vintage book cover to use. 

The kit included lots of pretty, vintage papers. 

 

Of course we had to have some vintage millinery and buttons. 

Then there also needed to be some lovely vintage fabric and trims to make it a mixed media book kit. 

And because this gift was intended for a teacher, I included some vintage school scissors for her as a little extra. Aren't they cute?! I found a box full of old stock school scissors a while back and thought they were so neat. I also love that they were made in the USA! I'll be listing the rest of the scissors in the shop soon in case you would love to have a pair or two for your studio.  I was so happy to hear that the book kit I created was a huge hit and her Mom loved it! That is something I always love to hear. 

Back soon! Cerri 

Handmade gifts

Hello! While Christmas is not yet a distant memory, I thought I should pop in here and share some of the handmade gifts I created for friends and loved ones this year. Some were swaps, and some just gifts. I love to make gifts for people, and am always happy when I have the time to be able to do that. The angel piece above I made for my Momma. 

I participated in a stocking swap with my sweet and talented friend, Heidi. This is the stocking I made for her. (I'll share the beautiful things she sent me in a separate post, as they reallly deserve their own post!) We've both been bitten by the pretty planner bug so inside I included some things she could use in her planner, a vintage book, and some vintage trims. I also made her a couple of gifts to go along with the stocking. The stocking was a burlap stocking that I altered. It had ruffles at the top, and I dyed those the light pink, then added more layers of ruffles by adding the vintage lace in between each ruffle. I then covered the stocking with all sorts of vintage lace and a sweet image printed on fabric. 

I made these super sweet glittered deer head mounts for Heidi and another friend as well. 

I meant to make a few more of these, but ran out of time. I sitll may though, as they're not really just for Christmas, I think. 

I found myself smitten with the idea of making little shadow boxes out of vintage ornament boxes. Not a new idea, but rather my take on them. 

It seemed once I made the first one I really couldn't stop and was raiding our boxes of vintage Christmas decorations. I will just have to pack those ornaments away a little differently now. Ha. And yes, you read that right. "I will have to", meaning I have not yet put away our Christmas decorations. It's on the agenda for the weekend though. :) 

These sweet shadow boxes were actually easier to create than they were to photograph for me. They're very 3 dimensional, and there is lots of "snow" and glitter inside in case you can not tell. I replaced all of the vintage plastic with new transparencies as the plastic wasn't in great shape, and the transparencies are more clear. So each box is as if you're looking into a window with a little winter magic on the other side. I'll be looking for more boxes this year, in hope of making more of these next year. 

This little vintage elf was another gift I made. He lives w/in a small glass "cake plate" now. This is how he appears without the glass top, and below is how it looks with the top on. 

I had a few more of these planned as well, but you know, that time thing.... 

I am bound and determinded to still finish a December memories book as well, and will share that as I go. I can't wait to show you the wonderful old book I repurposed for it. It's so perfect! 

I have a few more things to share and will hopefully have them up on the blog before Valentines day. Ha. Maybe I'll even get more posted this week. I'm crossing my fingers. 

Back soon, Cerri

 PS, I have compltely caught up on orders that were waiting to be shipped while we were on holiday, so if you placed an order during the break, it's on it's way! Yay! Thanks for your patience with that. Y'all are the best, and I appreciate my customers so very much!

Hwy 127 sale, part two

Hello! I hope your week is off to a good start! I'm just popping in to share a few more of my finds from the hwy 127 sale. I really found so many great things this year, things for my shop, things for crafting, things for my home, and things for gifts! It was probably my most successful year yet! Even my Mr. found some things, which is great because I always feel a bit guilty when he spends all week driving us around, shopping with me, carrying stuff, and dealing with the heat, and then not find anything for himself! (though, I think he goes a bit too fast and misses things)

Anyway, it was a good year, and I haven't even unpacked everything yet! These are just a few of the things that I have unpacked so far. I have a small collection of vintage wedding cake toppers, and I usually display them in my home during the months of February (for Valentine's day) and September (our anniversary month) My favorites are always the chalk couples, and this was no exception. The gal selling it also gave me a a great deal on it because the bride and groom had come loose from the bottom. Nothing a little glue can't fix though, right? See the background in the photo? That's a super sweet vintage lampshade I found also. I think it will look darling on a milkglass lamp. 

I found quite a few vintage linens, and if you have been around here for long, you know I'm pretty much a sucker for any embroidered southern belle. Look at those pillow cases! Such pretty work, and they had never been used, so they're perfect. The lavender and pink pillow cases were also unused, and gorgeous!

I also have quite a collection of vintage dolls, mostly the smaller Nancy Ann dolls, but occasionally I will buy a baby doll if they're as sweet as this one. And like Frank from the American Pickers, I was the "bundler" at this stop. I was able to get the sweet vintage doll and the vintage silk lampshade below for $20 together! 

The next four days are going to be spent reorganizing (and cleaning) my messy studio. So as I get that done, I will also unpack more of my finds to share with you. Wish me luck on the studio thing, will you? I am bound and determined to get my studio as user friendly as possible. I have a beautiful studio, but find myself in my husband's "mancave", on the couch, in front of the tv, and using a portable craft table to  work more often than I would like, so I am definitely on a mission to get my space working properly. 

Be back soon! xo, Cerri

A peek into June's Little Pink Box

Hello! I hope you're having a wonderful weekend! Just wanted to pop in today and share with you a peek into last month's Little Pink Box. First up, for the Strawberry Patch market last month I created some deluxe cabinet card inspiration kits containing all sorts of embellishments that I thought went well with whomever was in the photo. They were a pretty big hit at the show, so I made some petite inspiration kits for the box. 

Here's another:

They have antique ledger paper, some very old silk fabric, antique and vintage lace, vintage appliques, vintage buttons, and vintage millinery. All sorts of things to create with.  (I will be putting some of the deluxe kits in the shop soon)

Each box contained a vintage mailing tube that I found at an "estate sale" for a factory that was closing a little while ago. I still kick myself for not buying even more stuff from that fabulous old lab/factory! Ugh. But these mailing tubes were used for sending lab tubes, and other things like that so they're quite sturdy. I added a pretty label to the front and thought they would be great for storing things in their studio like paint brushes or water color pencils. They would also be really pretty as vases, I thought! 

I turned these fantastic old tobacco boxes ("for a man's smoke" as it says on the box) into lace samplers. I forgot to snap a photo of the lace, but there were bits of several different vintage and antique laces. 

And the creative project kit was making these darling little bobbin dolls. The kits included all sorts of vintage images to choose from, the vintage clothes pins, vintage pink bobbins, and some embellishments. They also contained all sorts of words or "titles" to give the little dolls some personality. 

They were kind of addicting to make, I made my examples for the tutorial on the private blog (included with each month's Little Pink Box) but then I just kept making more. 

Little Pink Box has celebrated it's first year this summer and to celebrate I am going to do a couple of different things, so check back with me in the next couple of days. However, if you wish to grab a July box, they're only on sale for a another day or so. 

So, check back for a little celebration, and super easy but cute tutorial, and a shop update this week!

Enjoy what's left of your Sunday! xo, Cerri

Strawberry Patch Summer Maker's Market

Hello! I hope you've been having a lovely week! I never did get a chance to stop in and share with you the things I was making for the Strawberry patch summer market that I participated in at the end of June. Turns out, getting ready for a craft show is much more involved than perhaps I thought it was. ;) For the 2 weeks leading up to the show I literally worked around the clock. Every inch of my house was either covered in projects or booth prep. Ha. Even my Mom came and pulled an over nighter with me. My daughter helped, my husband helped, my niece helped. But if it hadn't been for my Mom I probably would not have finished every project that was on my to do list! Except for some supplies, everything I sold at the show was created specifically for the show, and covered a lot of the ideas I have had lately for my shop. 

The booth was small, just 8'x6', so I wanted to make the most of the space that I could.  The above photo is an overview of my little booth. I used a vintage table that my girls bought me years ago on Mother's day and another vintage piece of furntirue, those were the core pieces. Then we purchased a room divider that was already pretty and white from world market. We installed cute little shelves to it, and some hanging backets so inventory could be displayed there as well. I used an old ladder, and a few other vintage pieces for props. The rotating round piece on the table was a tool or nuts and bolts bin I purchased from Harbor Freight and painted. 

The following photos are by a professional photographer that was taking photos of the event. Her photos are just lovely! 

I took more photos, but hers were quite lovely and pretty much give you the general idea of how my booth looked. :) 

I am thinking about doing another show or 2 in the fall, and have already comitted to do the Handmade and Bound event at my daughter's college again this year. (That's October 4th in Nashville, TN) So, I am wondering if doing shows are in my future? Ha. We'll see. 

As for all of the new products, I have been slowly working on making more, photographing, and editing photos and should be getting new stuff in the shop very soon as well. I'll share more of that soon. 

I would love to hear your experiences with doing craft shows! 

xo, Cerri

Happy weekend, and some lovely images for you!

Hello! Just popping in with a couple free images for you to use in your art today! 

Just thought these gorgeous antique catalog images were perfect for spring. Don't you wish our flower catalogs were still this beautiful?

Just save the images to your computer and enjoy!

Have a wonderful weekend!

Cerri xo

A peek into the March Little Pink Box

Hello! I hope your week has started out lovely! We spent the weekend in Atlanta helping our baby girl buy furniture for her first apartment. Wow, it seems only yesterday I was still pushing her on the swings at the park. Time flies, it really does. My oldest daughter is applying for internships and will graduate college in one more semester. My baby will be moving out on June 6th, making me an official empty nester. Not quite sure what I will be doing with myself? 

But anyway, before I start rambling on about that, I wanted to share with you a look into what was in March's  Little Pink Box.  The above photo shows the first of two creative kits this month. This is the 2nd time I have ever had two different creative kits in one month, but I think the subscribers were happy with that. 

 

We made peat pot baskets with antique and vintage lace, and covered a paper mache egg with vintage lace and glitter. I love the look of the vintage lace combined with glitter. 

And of course, what is spring without some vintage millinery flowers, bird themed vintage ephemera, eggs, and glitter? :)

As always, all of the supplies both vintage and new are included for the creative kits in The Little Pink Box. 

Also included in the March box was this sweet little pink and yellow spring like inspiration kit. 

And because I was so excited about the little spring whimsy book kits , I included the beginnings of one of those kits in the boxes as well!

This was one of my favorite boxes so far, I think. I just love all of the cheerful pastels and vintage goodness that went into it. 

April boxes are on sale for 2 more days, if you would love to grab one, and as always the 3 month subscription comes with a free month of shipping. The April box would make a wonderful present for Mother's day as it will be themed around Mom's. :)

Also, I was able to restock ONE whimsy book kit, and it's available in the shop as well as the lovely spring inspiration kits. The above photo of book kit contents is just the tip of the iceburg of what's included in the full kit!

I've been working on some darling custom craft box orders lately, and I'll be back to share those in the next day or so. What have you been busy working on this spring?

xo, Cerri

Silver stars, blue butterflies, old paper, and pretty posies

Hello! I hope your week has started off wonderfully. Are you having any spring weather yet? We are finally starting to have some nice weather, and I could not be happier! 

I spent some time adding a few new things to the shop tonight. There's new ribbons, wonderful vintage sequin trim, old papers, and some pretty posies. Let's take a peek, shall we? 

That looks like a bit of spring, doesn't it? To see it all, or to order, please just check on "what's new" in the shop!

Thanks so much for stopping by! 

xo, Cerri