A little frugal decorating

A few days ago, Miss G. came home after a day out to the movies and shopping to use her Christmas gift vouchers.    She was ooooing and aaaahing over an item she has seen in a gift shop but decided that as she was in debt to me, she wouldn't buy the coveted item. She is in the middle of redecorating her bedroom in a French/slightly shabby look and has some very nice items already.  (That's why she is in debt to me.)  It just so happened  I was going to the same shopping centre the next day and was able to have a look at the coveted item.

I took one look at it and thought, I can make that.  Here are some of the things I used, the only bought items were the little glass jar with a lid which cost $1.50 from a cheap shop and some Rub Ons.  As I make most of my own cards, I knew the extra letters and numbers would get used sometime in the future.

The item Miss G. was coveting was a square glass bottle with a cork stopper.  Inside was a tiny little roll of antique music with the words LOVE in black lettering on the outside of the glass bottle.  A piece of cream satin ribbon was tied in a bow around the neck of the bottle.  Sorry I don't have a photo as I didn't like to take any in the shop.

Here's what I did.  First I put the Rub Ons on the jar.  This was the first time I'd tried using them and found letters went everywhere but where I wanted them.  A second attempt was successful.  (It does help when you draw a line to position the letters evenly before adhering them).  :)

Miss G. had already measured the length of the little music roll she wanted so I cut the antique music sheet I downloaded from the The Graphics Fairy, to size.  (The music was a French Christmas Carol.)

I used a round pen to fold the music around to get the shape without bending the paper.

Miss G. informed me at this stage I had cut the music the wrong way so I fixed that.  I put a piece of double sided tape on the music to hold the roll together and popped it in the jar.

I didn't have any cream satin ribbon in my stash so Miss G. chose some vintage bias binding instead.  I wrapped it around the lid of the jar and over sewed where I wanted the overlap of the bias binding to hold it in place.

I then fashioned a false bow and stitched through all layers of bias binding to secure.  The stitching was hidden by sewing a button on top.

The finished product.

I'm looking after this little decoration in my bedroom until Miss G. has paid off her debt to me.  What an incentive to do some cleaning for me.  :)

I'm linking this post to "Frugal Friday" over at The Shabby Nest.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone,

Anne  xx