Grungy Primitive Muslin Bags

I am feeling a little nostalgic. I don't post much on the blog anymore because I re-focused my creative energy into to my art blog (Art Chick Studio). In doing more art, I just don't do as much crafting anymore...though I do still love primitive crafts. So I just thought that from time to time I might share some of my favorite primitive crafts with you.

For now, I'd love to share one of my absolute favorites: Grungy Primitive Muslin Bags. I have used these in a multitude of ways over the years. The following are some of my faves. I think the Flour and Sugar bags were the first grungy muslin bags that I created.

In most of these I simply added stenciled words onto the bags. In the bottom one, with the heart, that was an iron-on I created from a graphic. Most of these are meant to be purely decorative--like the Sugar & Flour Set, and the Drieds & Herbs set. The candles in the bag can be used, and then the bag re-used for something else. 

But you can also use muslin bags to create other things--things you might not even recognize as muslin bags once you're finished. Like these Primitive Britches.

Or how about this Primitive Grungy Bunny Bag?

You can even make things that are maybe a little bit more Shabby than Prim. Like these two creations.

As you can see from these examples, I've had a lot of fun with muslin bags, grungy and otherwise. It's always a fun creative challenge to see what new ways I can come up with to use muslin bags in craft projects! 

What do YOU like to do with your muslin bags?

Primitive Christmases Past

Time for another post about some of my favorite projects from Primitive Christmases Past. My last post was about Primitive Christmas Mitten Ornies. This one is just about favorite craft projects for Christmas in general.

This first one is a primitive ornie that I see all the time on Pinterest, so I must have done something right with it. I had actually made it to post on my Art Chick Studio blog in 2010. But after I finished it, it looked rather prim to me, so I posted here too. Any of you who have followed my blog for awhile, you know I don't much care for sewing. But this kind of project is small enough that it doesn't get the better of me. And it's less stress too because it's prim--so I know it doesn't have to look perfect to be prim!

Primitive Snowman Face Ornie

In 2013, I decided to make a mini Primitive Christmas tree out of a cinnamon stick and homespun. I'd seen other prim crafters do something similar with a cinnamon sticks, so I wanted to give it a try. It's probably the smallest and easiest little tree I've ever made, and I think it turned out super cute.

Primitive Christmas Tree Mini 

How about this grungy primitive reindeer ornie from 2011, made from a muslin bag? Look, he even has pip berries for antlers. How cute is that?!

Grungy Reindeer Ornie

And hey, let's not forget about my Primitive Snowball Face Ornie from 2010. I had so much fun making this. actually made quite a few of them for an ornie swap I joined that year. It was really fun though and I love the little carrot nose, and the hat made out of a baby sock!

Primitive Snowball Face Ornie

 So there's my little treasury of Primitive Christmases Past. I hope you liked the little stroll down holiday memory lane. And I hope you are on Santa's Nice List this year so that he will bring you lots of wonderful Christmas goodies. Ho-ho-ho!

 

Primitive Christmas Mittens

I've been so busy lately, since I started a full time long-term art teaching substitute position--I haven't had time for blogging, or even crafting. I am teaching all day then doing lesson planning each night, and trying to squeeze in work for master's degree classes too. The Hubs sees me so seldom that I doubt he even remembers my name!

But that being said, I have a rare night with not a lot of lesson planning to do, so I thought I'd do a couple of blog posts on some favorite Primitive Christmas crafts I've created in years past. I'll schedule one post for later so you will actually get at least two posts from me before Christmas!

For this first one, I thought it would be fun to post a sampling of the Primitive Christmas mitten ornies I've created. I love doing things with mittens because they are just cute and can be made inexpensively, and they're quick to make too. 

This first mitten ornie is from 2010 and it is one of my more popular Christmas posts, and I've seen this mitten show up on Pinterest a lot too. I love the color combo on it and that little bit of sparkle from the mica flakes.  I think the Primitive Heart gives it just the right touch. Click below to see the full post.

Primitive Heart Mitten Ornie

This next mitten ornie is from 2010. I decided not to grungy this one--just left it plain and simple. Sometimes simple is just better. And I like the added rusty tin snowflake too.

Primitive Snowflake Mitten Ornie

This one is also from 2011. I love this one because it is grungy, AND it has a primitive snowman face. What could be better?!  And the little touch of primitive homespun, and a rusty tin bell too, make it extra cute.

Primitive Snowman Mitten Ornie

 Finally, this last one is from 2014. I decided to do this one up with pip berries, a primitive candy cane, a prim star, and some mini pine cones. This one is grungy too, and I think it turned out pretty well.

Primitive Mitten with Pip Berries Ornie

So there you have 4 Primitive Christmas Mitten Ornies from Christmases Past. I hope they find you getting in the Christmas spirit. Another Christmas post to come! :)

Favorite Fall Primitives

Hey, all. I thought since I haven't posted in awhile I would put together a post to highlight a collection of my favorite Primitive Fall projects from the past. This will be a way to share projects with my longtime readers, and new readers, that I have really loved creating since I started the Tattered Sisters blog. And hopefully it will get you inspired to make some new Fall projects, since Fall is finally upon us!

So let's begin with one of my favorite creations, and one of my most read posts on the blog. And that is, for my Ginger Citrus Simmering Spices.

If you've made these, you know already how wonderfully delicious they smell, and how they really make your home smell like Fall! If you haven't made them yet, what are you waiting for? And if you need the recipe, just click on the image and it will take you to the blog post where you can find it.

Next up are my grungy Boo Bags. 

These were so easy and fun to make. You know I LOVE Grungy Goods anyway! But these were great because I made them as little treat bags just for Fall or Halloween. If you'd like to make some too, just click on the image and it will take you to the Boo Bags post.

Let's also remember the Primitive Putkas in a Jar that I made. I love finding new ways to use Mason Jars, especially for gift-giving. So when Fall is at hand, these are a really quick, easy, and very fun gift to give your primitive friends, especially if they like scented items.

Just scent your putkas, put them in a rusty frog jar lid, add some homespun, and it's a gift! A really good smelling gift too.

Here's another fun craft I made awhile back, my Grungy Primitive Pumpkin Ornie.

Any of you who have read my blog for awhile know that sewing is NOT my favorite thing. But on occasion, I do like to make ornies, because they're just cute and they require minimal sewing. I loved making this little guy, and I see his face show up in my Pinterest feed a lot, so I know other folks like him too. :)

Oh, I also loved making this Primitive Pumpkin Jack Dough Ornies.

 

And their mini Pumpkin Jack Dough ornies friends. 

I love dough ornies! They are so fun, and pretty easy to make too. And they make great gifts. I make all my Dough Ornies with the same basic recipe, which you can find here:

Primitive Dough Recipe

And let's not forget, this Pumpkin Muslin Bag was a super easy Fall primitive craft.

They are also perfect little treat bags for Halloween. Click on the image to view the full blog post on how I made them. And you know, you could make a pumpkin face stencil to make the faces on these bags and use rubber stamp ink or paint to make a whole bunch of these bags in relatively short order. You could even get the kiddos to help!

And one last item as I travel down my Primitive Fall memory lane, this was one of my favorite primitive freebies that I created to share with you.  My Fall Pumpkin Tags.

That pumpkin tag freebie is still available for FREE download. Just lick on the tag image and it will take you to the PDF file that you can download and print, in case you missed that original post. 

I hope you enjoyed this little treasury of my favorite Fall Primitives. Which one was your favorite? I also hope you have an absolutely fabulous Fall this year as well!

Happy Fall, Y'all!

Grungy Taper Sconce

I know I haven't been doing much primitive crafting lately. My heart has been in my painting and that's what I'm doing the most right now. But I did have the urge to make a little something while I was in my studio over the weekend, so I thought I'd share it with you today. It's this Grungy Taper Sconce.

I used a rusty tin scoop as the sconce, then tied on some muslin. I added my grungy primitive candle taper in a mini rusty tin bucket to hold it in the center of the sconce. Then I added some pip berries (a candle ring) around the mini bucket, and I finished it with a little primitive crow pick. I just need to add a hole at the back of the sconce so I can hang it up. :)

Vintage Girl Kraft ATC

I created this ATC awhile ago but I don't think I ever shared it here. So considering how lax I've been in posting these days I just thought I'd share this now.

You know I love Vintage Photos, so when I can use them in an art or craft project, I'm thrilled to. And I love the photo of this lovely young lady. I grungy'd up a Kraft ATC blank and then added the photo and embellishments. There's even some black ribbon woven through the card on each side of the flower. Once I'd finished with that it seemed done to me. :) I don't create that many ATC's anymore. I really should start to do more again.

Grungy Heart with Pip Berries

I finally (finally!) made it back it to the studio after over a month! I've been rather obsessed with working on my genealogy lately. But my creative spark got big enough to need to play in the studio yesterday, so that's what I did. I had bought a plain muslin heart at JoAnn's last week--it was $2.99 regularly but I think it was 40% off. I am not a fan of sewing unless I have to, so this was great. A blank canvas just waiting to be made primitive. I meant to take a Before photo but forgot, of course. Here's the finished product though.

To make the Primitive Heart grungy I actually used watered down acrylic paint. Normally I would use my Grungy Sauce made from instant coffee etc. But I was already in my studio and didn't plan ahead enough to do the grungy part ahead of time in the house. So I watered down some paint and brushed it on with a foam brush a little at a time, dabbing off excess as I went. Then when I liked the look I used my heat gun to dry and set the paint.

Next I scrounged up some Pip Berries to add. The button was already on the heart, so I just used that to attach the pip berry sprigs to. Then I grabbed some homespun and and tied on a bow. And that's all there was to making this cute grungy heart that is perfect for Valentine's Day, or any day really.

Primitive Mitten with Pip Berries Ornie

I was feeling a hint of the Christmas spirit sneaking into my studio over the weekend, so I decided to take advantage of it and make a couple of things. This one is a grungy Primitive Mitten with Pip Berries ornie.

I used some dark spray to create a quick grungy effect to the mitten. Then I added some sprigs of Pip Berries. I had a grungy primitive candy cane sitting around in my studio, so I stuck that in the mitten too. And then I added a little star pick and some mini pinecones, and finished off the ornie with a homespun tie. 

I won't be decorating for Christmas until right after Thanksgiving, but it's fun to get in the spirit a little early, don't you think?

Primitive Sunflower Topiary

As I was trying to decide what craft project to do in the studio this weekend, I was walking around the house and spied some grungy fabric sunflower bowl fillers I had in a bowl on my dining table. I grabbed one and decided I would use that somehow in my project, though I didn't know how at that moment. After I got into the studio and looking around in my stash o' stuff, I found a Rusty Tin bucket and knew then that a Primitive Sunflower Topiary would be perfect.

I used an old stem from some Pip Berries as the sunflower stem. I used a couple of pip berry sprigs as the leaves. And to the rusty tin bucket I added some Fall-colored homespun for an extra pop of color. Spanish Moss surrounds the flower, which I use a lot in my crafts. And voila: Sunflower Topiary.

Pumpkin Pickins

I bought some little faux pumpkins at Wally World during the week, so I thought I'd play with them in the studio a bit over the weekend and see what I could do with them. My intention was to grungy them both up to be primitive. But I decided to do different things to each one in the end and came up with two very different pumpkins.

This first one is kind of grungy. I had intended to put cinnamon on it, but then I changed my mind and decided to play with ink instead. I used a dark brown color first because the pumpkin was a very bright orange color. Once I'd gotten that on I took an orange-ish color of Distress Ink and added some highlights back in where needed to contrast with the darker brown. I also used just a wee bit of orange acrylic paint in the pumpkin seams to brighten them back up a little. The result is below--and it does have a bit of a grungy appearance, just not as grungy as I'd  normally do.

 This next photo shows the two inks I used to create my grungy effect on my pumpkin.

This next pumpkin isn't really grungy--and not really even prim. LOL. But I had fun making it anyway. I used some mat medium as my adhesive, and then I sprinkled on some bronzed mica flakes for a shimmery effect. It's definitely got some sparkle going on! Kind of looks like a Fall fairy came along and sprinkled on some fairy dust. :)

These were fun little pumpkins to make. I love Fall, so it's always fun to make more Fall crafts.

Grungy Primitive Pumpkin

I saw a post on Facebook recently that showed how to make a small pumpkin using a roll of toilet paper that had been cut in half width-wise, then wrapped with fabric strips. I wanted to try it out for myself, but I really didn't want to waste an entire roll of toilet paper to do it. What can I can say--to me, toilet paper is a valuable commodity. ;) But I knew I had some Styrofoam balls tucked away in my studio, so I decided to give one of those a try. And this was the result. 

I cut a small slice off the top and bottom of the Styrofoam ball to help it sit flat, and look more like a pumpkin. Then I used a fat marker to hollow out a column down the center of the ball, so that I could wrap the fabric strip. I just shoved it down the center of the ball and pushed out the foam.

I used one very long strip of torn fabric--it wasn't muslin, but I'm not even sure what kind of fabric it was. It's just what I had on hand (it's what you see under the pumpkin in the photo as well). I tucked the end of the fabric into the center of the ball and then started wrapping the strip of fabric around and around, overlapping each strip a bit as I went all the way around. Once I got the ball all wrapped with fabric, I tucked the remaining end in the center of the ball too. I somehow managed to tear a strip of fabric that covered the entire ball. I don't think I could have planned that--it was just luck. :)

After that, I picked two colors of spray I had in the studio--one was Glimmer Mist by Tattered Angels in Copper; the other was a dark brown color--I believe it was by Mr. Huey's. I used the Copper color first, since it results in a nice dark orange color on the fabric. I sprayed it all over the pumpkin. Then I just added some of the brown spray here and there to give the color some variation. I dried it all with my heat gun, then went out into the yard and found a stick that could be my pumpkin stem and I stuck it in. 

Voila. Grungy Primitive Pumpkin! You could really make several of these fairly quick and they'd make great table decor for the Fall. You could do more to embellish it, of course. Add some rusty wire, or a leaf, or pip berries, or any number of things really. But I was going to for simplified here. Primitive and rustic. Sometimes that's really all we need.

Faux Primitive Gingerbread Ornie

I was looking for some of my muslin bags over the weekend while I was working in my studio. When I finally found the box I was looking for and started digging through it, I found some air freshener blanks I had purchased several years ago (and from where, I cannot recall) inside the box. There were two different packages in there: one was a Mason Jar shape and the other was a Gingerbread shape. Yay! I love finding things in my studio that I forgot I even had. LOL.

Anyhoots, I decided to paint the Gingerbread shape so that he'd look like a Primitive Gingerbread man. And I just love how it turned out.

What's cool about these air freshener blanks is that they are thick and they have texture to them, since of course they are actually made to hold scent. So after painting this one, it really has the look of actual gingerbread. I love it! I painted it brown first, then I grungy'd up the edges with some Distress Ink. And then I used black and white acrylic paint pens to add the embellishments, and I finished it off with a homespun tie. I could easily punch a hole through the top to hang it as an ornie. Or it could be a bowl filler, or sit on a shelf. Such a fun little prim ginger project. :)

Primitive Sheep Grungy Tag

I felt like making a Primitive Hangtag over the weekend, and since I didn't have time to do much crafting after a full day of painting in my studio, this was the perfect solution to a quick prim craft project.

Just a simple grungy'd up hang tag that I stamped with a cute Primitive Sheep stamp, and then I embellished it just a bit around the edges with a black pen. Cute and prim, and super easy!

Simple Ditty Bag

I'm still kind of on a stamping kick where my crafting is concerned, so I created this Simple Ditty Bag using a recent stamp purchase to share with you.

The Willow Tree is part of a stamp set that I got on Blitsy recently. I think the text sentiment came with that too, if I recall correctly. I grungy'd up the Muslin Bag first, of course, then I stamped it. Simple, cute, and prim. My favorite combination.

Twinkle Twinkle Primitive Card

After finding some great Primitive Rubber Stamps, which I blogged to you about last month, I finally got a chance to get back into my studio and put some of them to use. Although I used stamps that I found a few days after my other stamp purchase when I did this project. This was my first creation with some of the new stamps. It's a grungy Kraft card, which I turned into some Altered Art, primitive style.

I created this using three different clear acrylic stamps. The Mason Jar is one, the Stars are another, and the text sentiment is the other. The Mason Jar stamp is small (this is a 4x6 card) and is by Dear Izzy. I don't remember where I purchased that one, but it comes with a few even smaller stamps that have text and so forth. The Stars and the text sentiment came together I got them from the Unity Stamp Company.

I stamped the stars first, then stamped the Mason Jar, and then the text. And to add the yellow to the stars I used a little watered down Tim Holtz Distress Paint. The grungy edges were created with a Walnut Stain Distress Ink, also by Tim Holtz. I decided it would be neat to use the stars to create a matching envelope as well. More stamped projects to come soon!

Grungy Taper Bucket

I know I've been a bit lax in posting lately. It's just that I've been much more in art mode than in craft mode lately. Between working on art projects, art journals, and adding stuff to two online shoppes (not selling prims though)--not to mention blogging on several blogs and posting on several FB pages, it is very difficult to find time to do it all. So it seems I get a bit hyperfocused on a few things at times and can't always seem to find time for the other stuff. It's really just how my brain works is all. But I'm still here and I do have something to share with you today!

This is my Grungy Taper Bucket. I took one of my grungy primitive candles and added it to a mini Rusty Tin bucket, added a few little extras, and voila--my candle in a bucket.

Now I will say that this is meant to be decorative rather than functional. I just think it would look cute sitting on a shelf or a table with some pip berries nearby, like I added in the photo. Just something simple and cute, and easy to make. It would be great as a gift too.

Oh, and just in case you need a reminder on how to make my Grungy Primitive Tapers, just click on that link and it'll take you right to the page.

Speckled Eggs

I decided to have a little spatter and speckle fun in my studio yesterday. I had some egg-shaped gourds in a basket in my kitchen, so I thought it would be neat to get out my Grungy Sauce and make some Speckled Eggs!

 I just dipped an old toothbrush into my ever-ready Grungy Sauce and then pulled the bristles back to make the sauce spatter all over the "eggs." Then when they were dry I filled a rusty tin bucket with some Spanish moss and topped it off with the "eggs." A perfect little Primitive Easter table decoration.

Primitive Grungy Chocolate Easter Bunny

I was poking around in my office the other day, which also is a hiding place for some of my primitive goodies, and I came across some plain Chocolate Easter Bunny wax melts that I had tucked away. They really did look like chocolate too. Well I decided to hand rub them with some cinnamon, because that's just how I roll.

You know how much I love Grungy Goods, so why not grungy up some "chocolate bunnies?" I think they look super cute. I doubt the cinnamon will stay on there forever, but I was just doing it for fun anyway. They still smell chocolatey too. :) I'm not gonna melt them. I'm just gonna put them out for Easter because they'd look cute sitting in a basket, don't you think? Amazing what I can find in this office of mine!

Grungy Valentine Treat Bags

With Valentine's Day fast approaching, I guess it's only appropriate to create some heart-themed goodies. So I've created these primitive Grungy Valentine Treat Bags to share with you.

To make these Grungy Goods, you'll need some grungy'd up muslin bags, and you'll need some primitive graphics printed onto iron-on transfer paper. Just as a reminder, you can make your own Grungy Sauce using my Grungy Sauce Recipe. Create any designs/word combinations you'd like and print it onto your iron-on transfer paper. Be sure that if you use words you use the option to reverse the text when you print--otherwise your text will print backwards! I chose a cute prim gal holding some hearts, and also a primitive sheep with a heart on my bags.

Easy, peasy to make and great for gift-giving this Valentine's Day!

Grungy Sauce Recipe

Hey, gang. I'm re-posting my Grungy Sauce Recipe because for some reason, people have trouble finding it on the blog. Even though it's in the Primitive Recipes category, some folks can't seem to find it. I think it's because it is posted in my Grungy Hang Tag Tutorial. So I want to make it easier to find and just post that recipe all by itself. Not sure why I didn't do this a long time ago! :)

Grungy Sauce Mix Ingredients:

• Instant Coffee (get the cheapest you can find...I always buy generic)
• Vanilla or Imitation Vanilla Extract (again, go cheap if you want to; I use good vanilla for baking so I always have some on hand. But if you're not a baker just get cheap imitation vanilla!)
• 2 Cups Hot Water (I just nuke it so it's hot enough to dissolve the coffee, but not hot enough to burn my fingers while I'm working.)
• Ground Spices (this is totally optional and I only use it occasionally; I mostly use cinnamon)
• A Bowl
• A regular spoon or teaspoon

 

Mix up your grungy sauce. Take the 2 cups of hot water and to that the instant coffee--twice as much as the directions tell you to. Mine says 1 TSP for each 8 oz cup, so I use 2 TSP for each cup. You want the grungy sauce good and dark, so really, you can add as much as you want--so add more if you want to! Also add 1 TSP of vanilla, and your ground spices, if you're using them. Just a little sprinkling of spices will do.

Once it is mixed up, you can use it right away, or you can let it cool off first. If you're going to be dipping things into it, I'd suggest letting it cool first so you don't burn your fingers! I store my sauce in an old jar in the refrigerator. Occasionally, I also put some in a spray bottle and keep that in the frig too. The spray bottle is great for when you just want to spritz some grungy sauce onto a finished project; whereas the sauce you have in a jar you can pour into a bowl and use for dipping things, like hang tags or what not.

There are many variations to this recipe out there. Some people use tea instead of coffee. I think I tried that a few times, but I prefer the instant coffee because it's just easier. You can't really screw this up, so don't worry in that regard. Have fun with it.

Now go forth and get grungy!