Precious Paper

Last year I bought some beautiful vintage french wallpaper from Sue at Vintage to Victorian. I was so pleased to have got them, as vintage wallpaper is virtually impossible to find (well, round my parts, anyway). Since that time Sue had enquired on a few occassions whether I'd done anything with it yet, and I always had to say no. Not that I didn't want to, but partly I couldn't bear the thought of cutting into it - you know how it is. I would periodically get it out and carfully unroll it and just gaze, then carfully put it away. The colours are just amazing, not faded but just the right amount of aged-look to them.

I had bought the beige floral one to line the back of my china cabinet, that's been done now. It was quite painless as I only had to cut one piece and I've blue-tacked it to the back of the cabinet, so I can easily remove it if I change my mind. You can see it in the background here. I still have some left which is earmarked for another cabinet.

I didn't have anything in particular in mind for the blue, I just got it because it was so lovely, but a recent puchase of this old chocolate box gave me the perfect opportunity to use some. The box has a nice shape but a lot of water damage to the paper and not really pretty enough for me.

Now it is... I carefully removed the top, repadded and covered it, then replaced the red bow which I thought went well with the colours. It still looks old and battered but now very pretty too, just how I like it.

Another piece was used as a mount for a vintage postcard with some lace and a few flowers added for decoration. I did actually paint the frame cream, but it didn't look nice at all so I quickly scrubbed the paint off before it dried. At least I know that now!

Some smaller pieces were left over so I prettied up a rather plain glass cruet set. I don't think I'll be using it any more!

Even the tiniest little scaps were used to make this flower:

Which now adorns an old index card box. The box itself I covered in a scapbooking paper which I gave a wash with a wet tea bag and added some lace and trim.

I love these 'new' things and I'm glad I finally got around to using some of the paper - and happily I still have a lot left for plenty more projects.

With a wet and windy weekend in store it looks like there might be more crafting on the agenda.

Hope yours is good!

Lucy x