In Search of Good Junk

In our travels we come across many places. Some that inspire us, some that celebrate gypsyhood in all its many ways and other that are just downright cool because they dare to do things differently. We want to share some of these adventures with you in hopes that you will continue to seek out what inspires you and celebrate the spirit that drives us to live the creative life. Oh and if you're ever nearby you can stop by our featured spots and see what we're so excited about.

First stop is Lakeside, Arizona to Embellish Boutique...

We love this place as much for the ways they find to display the product as the wide range of supplies you'll find here. They sell everything from scrapbooking goods (lots of 7gypsies!) to salvaged hardware and other finds. We had to walk through several times just to take it all in because there are little treasures everywhere you look.

The flea market style of merchandising is an open invitation to dig through the mismatched tins & baskets to look for your next gotta have it trinket.

And the cash wrap bar finished off with salvaged tin and topped with loads of products to play with made a fabulous centerpiece for the space. Thanks Tricia for letting us explore!

Embellish Boutique is located approximately 2 hours North of Phoenix. It's a beautiful drive through the mountains and is definitely worth it!

Embellish Boutique

1355 W. White Mtn Blvd

Lakeside, AZ 85929

928-368-4037

Nestled in Cambria, California (a little town by Hearst Castle) this store has a vast selection of "antiques, ephemera, bit & baubles" Sound intriguing?

Plan to give yourself some time to look through the vast selection of glass jars and cigar boxes containing all kinds of trinkets. You'll find it almost impossible to leave empty handed~ we never do! And here's a little secret... the packaging of your purchases alone is worth buying. We have a hard time unwrapping it when we get home.

Visit their website for more inspiration and you may want to time your visit with their upcoming holiday open house Nov. 7 & 8th. Be sure to say hi to Bonnie and tell her the gypsies sent you!

http://www.2birdsofafeather.com/

Product Challenge~ New feature!

Beginning in September, we will be issuing a challenge each month to YOU, our creative gypsies.

We will pick one of our favorite 7gypsies products~ it could possibly be one you may have in your stash and are wondering what to do with it or something brand new that you can't wait to get your dirty little gypsy fingers on.

The challenge will be to see who can use this product in the most inspiring way.

Think big, try something new, and don't be afraid to push the limits~ it's the way of the gypsies!

The point being we want you to PLAY with a variety of products that you may not realize you love until you've tried them! And if that isn't enough, we will be giving away some gypsy swag (i.e. lots of cool 7gypsies products) to whomever posts the most creative use of the product in our monthly product challenge gallery. So stay tuned because we will announce September's product challenge at the beginning of the month with directions for how to enter to win!

But to get those creative juices flowing we sent out a challenge for our Metal Page Edges to 3 of our talented creative team members just to give you a preview of what to expect. But before we show you what they came up with let's give you a brief description of what these little wonders are.

These edges are made from soft, flexible metal. They are super easy to work with because you can punch holes in them, cut them with scissors, bend them and best of all~ they are adhesive backed! They come in a variety of shapes and colors... see the photos below of our silver scalloped and black lace designs or click here to see the full selection.

The most traditional use for these, of course is to decorate your page edges. Simply peel the off the paper backing to expose the adhesive then place the metal edge along the side of your page, cover, photo, etc. and pinch closed. Super simple and they add a vintage touch to your project.

Curious to see what we're talking about??

In the above photo our creative team member, Renee, trimmed the edges and used them to embellish her layout. If you look closely you will see that she has SEWN the metal to her page. Yes, sewn! The metal is so easy to work with that you can send it through a sewing machine.

Metal Page edges can also be sanded to give them an aged look like on the cover of Paula's journal above. You'll notice she has trimmed the edges so that they are 2 flat pieces then sanded them to expose the metal underneath the silver coating.

We love the pieced together look that Paula has created on her canvas edge. It was super easy to do but oh so creative! Simply trim your edges to varying sizes, punch holes using a hand punch and piece different colors and patterns of metal edges together using brads. Once all of the edges have been assembled together you can easily peel off the backing to expose the adhesive and wrap them around the canvas edge for a look that's SO GYPSY!

The metal edges can also be transformed with paint and sandpaper. Simply cover your metal edge with a layer of paint (yes you can paint them to match any project) and when dry lightly sand to expose the metal under the paint. You can further embellish with stickers as shown above or by adding your favorite rubons or even stamping a design onto the metal surface!

GYPSY SECRET: When altering your metal edges like Ann has below, be sure to peel the clear protective coating off of the front of the edge first. Otherwise you will be wondering why on earth your paint isn't sticking!! Trust us, we've been there before!

We are hoping these few simple ideas have inspired you to make this 7gypsies exclusive product a funky addition to your next project! Click HERE to give them a try!!

A Visitor to the Gypsy Camp!

As part of our new blog features we will be inviting a guest gypsy to join our camp for the month~ someone we've met along our travels or who inspires us to create in new and different ways. We met this particular gypsy girl last year at the Gypsy Caravan event in Manhattan Beach and she's been on our radar ever since because, quite frankly, we love what she can do!

Meet Ranjini Malhotra...

A little bit about Ranjini in her own words:

What I want the readers of the Gypsy Journal Blog to know about me first of all, is that I fell in love the day I set my eyes on 7Gypsies. I can't express the excitement I felt when I saw their products and packaging. I was smitten and it's been a long lasting love affair! I still cherish my "Gypsies in Paris" book and refer to it constantly for inspiration.

I describe myself as a fairy godmother, magical glitter dust keeper, story teller, dreamer, tea-taker and artist. Of course, I am a gypsy at heart too! I love combining vintage finds with new products to create something unexpected. My favorite activity, aside from savoring a hot cup of tea and curling up with a book or a magazine, is to comb flea markets and antique stores for the perfect treasure to utilize in my next project. (sounds like our kind of girl!) What appeals to me about the paper arts is the journey - I find ultimate satisfaction in the process and act of creating art. The world is an unlimited source of inspiration and creativity, and like a gypsy, I keep my eyes open for inspiration everywhere I travel.

I am mommy to a very cherished little girl, Alekha and an adorable goldendoodle puppy named Murphy. Bobby, my husband of 15 years - good-naturedly puts up with "the scrapbook stuff" overflowing in every room of the house.

Ready to see some of Ranjini's creations? We sent her a box of assorted 7gypsies products and papers and told her to create what inspired her... no rules (hey it's the only way for gypsies!!) We anxiously wondered what she might be able to do with her stash of goodies but what she sent back blew us away!!

Here is a photo of one of the projects using our medium portfolio...

We love the funky combination of papers including our NEW Barcelona (red dots) and several patterns of the Victoria collection papers. She also does a great job of incorporating vintage and new. Here's what Ranjini had to say about her portfolio.

I used muted colors for the cover then with the Victoria papers on the inside, it bursts into color. I love using pieces of vintage jewelry on my work and added a paste brooch on the front for an elegant look.

This next Cabinet of Curiosities was one of our favorite projects for many reasons. We smiled when we saw how cleverly she incorporated the packaging from the products into her project... a longstanding gypsy secret of ours!! We also couldn't help but notice what a stash of 7gypsies products that Ranjini has because she added so many of our favorite vintage 7gypsies products to this that we didn't even send her.

This was inspired by the work of Artist Joseph Cornell, who was an American artist known for his assemblage art. I basically took an unfinished pine compartmented box with a hinged glass lid, painted it, and filled it with gypsy treasures. One thing I love about 7 Gypsies product is that the packaging is as old-world appealing as the product itself and can be beautifully displayed on its own; I admit that for me it has lent itself to a bit of hoarding. I look at the products and packaging as little pieces of art in themselves, and I wanted to show off how lovely they would look as an imaginary collection of treasures amassed by a wandering gypsy, a cabinet of curiosities gleaned from her visits to far off places.

The inspiration for this last piece entitled "Birthday Fairy" was a vintage image I have of an actress in theatrical costume - she almost looks like a circus performer to me. I took one of the parenthesis shaped chipboard pieces and covered it with various papers from the NEW Barcelona collection. I painted gesso over the paper to tone the color down a bit. I then cut out the vintage image, glued it to the chipboard on top of the paper and added details and journaling with a pen. I sanded over the pen. I covered chipboard pieces from the ATC decoratif chipboard in silver glass glitter and added those as well. My favorite part of this piece though is the fabric flower I hand cut from a dinner napkin printed with phrases in french. I fashioned a flower from it with just a few stitches, I added a beaded center and then positioned a miniature silver frame from 7 gypsies over the center (vintage product~ no longer available) and stitched it in place (I loved using the frame for something other than its intended use!) I then brushed glue onto the flower edges and sprinkled silver glass glitter. I added one of the velvet brads to the top of her hat and also added some seam binding ribbon.

Ranjini also created a few other fabulous projects that we will be posting along the way. But you can follow her work or download her vintage images at her blog: http://www.scrapologie.blogs.com

Thank you Ranjini for stopping by the gypsy camp and inspiring us all!

We've got a lot to share...

July was a hot month for the gypsies!  We announced our winner for the Ultimate Binderie Giveaway, attended CHA in Orlando and release some of our favorite products ever!  If you haven’t had the chance to peak at them, then you MUST click here!

We thought it might be fun to take you on a photo tour of the booth:

We created a whole section inspired by our new Victoria Collection filled with samples by our creative team...

We were delighted to display this darling bird cage fashioned by our own Paula Cheney and finished off with birds of various kinds all made by the creative team using the new Victoria Clear stamp as their inspiration! 

We also challenged our team to alter artists' canvases to reflect the look & feel of the victoria papers.  Here are a few of those canvases displayed in true gypsy form on a stack of vintage suitcases and adorned with handmade paper flowers...

Another Victoria inspired sample...

Our Binderie section got a whole new look flanked by many of the decorated Binderie Punches~ including Ultimate Binderie Giveaway winner Carol Weimer's gypsy trunk punch.

We also added to the gypsy market feel by finishing off that section with a patched fabric umbrella embellished with gypsy charms and bells...

Some cute altered art using our brand new Naked Pockets...

And here's one of the hot new products that had everyone talking.  The Artist Printers Tray!  Imagine the possibilities for filling each of those compartments...

We had a whole wall dedicated to the trays...

And finally, here are a few ATC & Photo Displays created by our artists...

Oh~ and you may have noticed a few changes to the way our blog looks!  

We have decided to give you a whole new blog bursting with fun ideas and inspiration straight from the gypsies.  

We have a lot of new features we will be introducing throughout the month including NEW product challenges, NEW guest gypsy artists, tours of our creative team member’s studios, some of our favorite places to gather inspiration and LOTS more!  These features will be a part of our gypsy journal every month so you’ll be blessed with more gypsy goodness then you can handle... is that even possible?

AND that's not all!  We wanted to leave you with a fun little behind the scenes video we shot from our warehouse way back in June.  Catch a glimpse of the magic that goes into getting our booth ready.  (Ok, well maybe not magic, but a whole lot of work!)