February DIY: Jewellery Cabinet (part 2)

Earlier this month my jewellery collection filled the best part of a built in cupboard and about 6 boxes that sat on the mantlepiece. As I'm moving later in the year I decided now is the time to downsize, I can only keep what I fit in this upcycled cabinet! After drilling in the screws for the adorable rose handles I got to work trying to sort through the masses of jewellery. In the end I have necklaces in the side sections - the hooks came on the cabinet already. Sentimental and precious jewellery is in the bottom, one drawer for earrings (stored in a compartment box from Home Bargains, the lid cut off) with a few of my favourite nail varnishes in the back, one for hair accessories and the top part for brooches, rings and pendants. Now it’s like browsing a shop when I decide what jewellery to wear in the morning and I can actually see everything at a glance! This is definitely encouraging me to wear different jewellery so I'll be sharing more accessories posts soon. 

January DIY: Jewellery Cabinet Up-cycle (part 1)

While helping my Mum find furniture for her new shop (Pebble, opening March 1st!) I came across this vintage style jewellery cabinet in a second hand shop. At first I wasn't sure because the roses painted on it weren't quite my style (they were all along the top too) and the handles were a black bulky metal. I did love the the way it opened out to hold necklaces and has wee compartments for my (many) rings along with a little mirror in the top so decided it was worth buying and putting a little work into. I got overexcited and took off and binned the old handles before taking the first photo but you get the idea!

It's been a nice and simply up-cycling job, just a case of filling in the old handle screw holes, sanding the roses off and painting a couple of coats of white eggshell paint all over. I want to keep it plain as then the handles can easily be changed to fit the style of the room it's in. I decided that these pinky red ceramic rose handles (about £1.50 each on ebay) would be perfect for a slightly more modern shabby chic feel. The reason I've split this post in two is so I can show off the organised inside and finished outside in the next one without going into photo overload!

Bottled Treasures Photo Shoot

Since the new website has been up and running I've been trying to organize a simple photo shoot of the jewellery being modelled. They are so tiny and it's hard to tell the scale from the close up images. I think the new photos help you see the size and way they sit when worn really well. Amber was a great model and chose pink Fairy Dust, Poison Apples and The Crocheter pendants to keep as a little thank you. The photos have now been added to our website. Now we just need to get on with the new catalogues!

The New Bottled Treasures

At the weekend the new Bottled Treasures website was launched. The colours and logo are pretty much the same, I've just had some fun playing around with patterns, texture and shapes. I think it ties in better with the brand and look of Bottled Treasures stall at events now! We have a new shop system using BigCartel so it's much easier to keep track of stock and on top of orders and hopefully much easier for everyone to navigate and find the Bottled Treasure they are looking for. We have new photos too, with some fun lifestyle shots involving edibles and glitter! Lastly we have a new giveaway to celebrate, you can enter below to be in with a chance to win your favourite pendant.

http://www.bottledtreasures.bigcartel.com 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Snapshot

1. Went to the new Aberdeen Ministry of Craft fair, my Mum (Deep Blue Sea Silver) was trial running her new stall display - it looked amazing and was a great day all round! 2. New purple glitter heart drop earrings from Antoinette who was also at Ministry of Craft fair. So sparkly! 3. Currently in a cake free zone thanks to attempting to cut out sugary snacks and junk food :( 4. Pretty parcel from Ginger Pickle, a small treat for myself (makes up for lack of sugar!) 5. Lilac heart eyelet boots, a big treat for myself (perfect match for my Bottled Treasures logo, couldn't resist) a bargain from Sports Direct believe it of not! 6. Some new designs currently for sale in Offset 57 pop up shop in the Academy shopping centre.

Brooch Frame DIY

I first saw a frame used to display brooches at Peapod (vintage shop, Aberdeen). I have a small collection of brooches which sit in boxes and aren't often worn and thought this would be a great way of showing them off and making them into a pretty piece of art for the wall! I found a tutorial over at The Yellow Buttercup and started keeping an eye out for the perfect frame. A few months on and I came across this one, framing pressed flowers, for a bargain £5 in a nearby charity shop. This frame needed no painting, and the whole project took about 10 minutes!

I chose a blue and cream floral vintage fabric, and cut this with over an inch around the edge of the backing. I cut the padding to the same size as the backing and secured this by folding over the fabric edge and sticking with a glue gun. This makes your frame backing into a pillow effectively, perfect for pinning brooches to.

Pop this back in the frame (without the glass) and you're ready to pin your brooches in whatever way you think works best. I attempted a random sort of grid layout. I love how this has turned out, I think they'd look great in a group on the wall with different frames filled with various colour groups of jewellery. Much more fun than jewellery boxes and practical too!

Studio Chaos

So this is how the studio has looked this week with the freshly painted desk, new protective cloth and the organised chaos of two big Bottled Treasures orders (for Ginger Pickle and Green Heaven).  I have to admit this has been a bit more of a challenge than usual when teamed with a rebrand and website project, trying to declutter and catch up with admin! It's all finished now though, onto the next three batches of (slightly smaller) wholesale orders! So exciting that Bottled Treasures will be available from 5 stockists by February.