Rachel Ashwell...she's back!

I'm sure you all know and swoon whenever the name Rachel Ashwell is spoken.  She's the original Shabby Chic chick.

The last I had heard of her she closed down all her stores and had packed things in.  But guess what...she's back!  With more shabby chicness than ever!

I had no idea that she's opened several new stores under than name Shabby Chic Couture.

I doubt I'll ever be able to shop at one of her beautiful stores, but her blog has loads of gorgeous inspiration.

Rachel's 'dressy' jeans~

A beautiful layered bedskirt~

Rachel has also written a new book that's due out soon~

Pre-order yours HERE.

I live with two crazy cats so the upkeep of all that white shabby chicness would be difficult for me, but I try to add little touches of it here and there where I can.  Are you into the shabby chic vibe?  Can you handle all that prettiness?  Leave a comment below.

*I do not own any of the images used in this post, they are all from the following sites: https://www.rachelashwellshabbychiccouture.com/ and https://www.rachelashwellshabbychiccouture.com/blog/.  Please visit and enjoy~

Shabby Chic Bracelets

A couple of weeks ago I promised that even though I was going to bring more focus to my sewing projects that I'd still share crafting projects with you.  And I try never to go back on a promise....so let's get the Mod Podge out and craft!

If you've just had a manicure I suggest you get out some rubber gloves because this one is going to get a little messy.

Here's what I used for this project:



I always forget one thing for these supply photos (sigh)
in this case it was scissors, they'll come in handy
when you need to cut your lace~

Steps:

1) Tear or cut your napkin in half.

2) Take one large, tacky, gaudy, and quite ugly bangle and smother it with Mod Podge

3) Smoosh one of your 'half' napkins on top and wrap it to the inside

4) Don't worry if at first it looks crazy messy, because now you're going to start smoothing it out, tearing away excess paper, and adding to any spaces that are bare

5) And if you've ever Mod Podged before, you know what's next....throw another layer of the stuff right on top of your newly smoothed out napkin



getting messy!

6) Now, you can leave it at this and just let it dry and you'll have a perfectly nice new bangle in the morning, but I wanted to add something extra special....crocheted lace!!  Cut a length of lace to go around your bangle plus an extra inch or so.

Messier!

The lace should start to stick right onto the Mod Podge.  Add a little to the ends so that you can make a nice fold in the lace and lay it down.


Really Messy

7) Once you've got it secured you can add another layer of Mod Podge on top of the lace, making sure to secure the edges of the lace down.

Please ignore my brush, it was the only one I had left.
This will work much better if you use a normal sized
smaller sponge brush.

8) Prop your bracelet up on something and let it dry for a few hours.  Check out my handy dandy dryer I pull out whenever I'm Mod Podging (Styrofoam and toothpicks) :

You can see, I did some smaller bracelets too using a contrasting peachy napkin as the base.  These are the same napkin's I've used for everything from covering pencils to coasters and picture frames to Easter Eggs .  I left one of the smaller bracelets without lace just to add something different to the mix.

Voila!  Some shabby chic bracelets!

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What do you think?  I love it when something so ugly turns into something sooooo pretty!

If you  haven't entered my Thank you Giveaway make sure to head over there now

 and enter your comment.  There aren't many entries yet so your odds of winning

 an Etcetorize blouse and matching bracelet are very, very good!

As always, check out the linky party page.  So many great ideas, just a few clicks away!