Heart Swap

I signed up for a swap on Art-Ventures where we are required to make a decorated heart. I started with the heart I had done for the Julia Andrus Book Study - Corrosive Effects. I wanted to brighten it up a bit and added some Siren Smooch Ink over the surface.

I had some little heart pieces with beads on wire, that I had not used and decided to do the faux sea glass ( Julia Andrus-Paper Transformed) on the hearts. I used pigment inks on each one then added clear embossing powder. I rubbed them with perfect medium and applied Pearlex powders, then clear embossing powder, heated them and sprayed with water to pit the surface. I wound this around the heart.

I dug out some little flower shaped beads and added a "gem" to each one and glued them on the heart. I took a picture of a little girl (sorry can't credit the site as this image is from my computer which is in the shop for repair) and cut it down to fit under the heart. I coated it with Judikins MicroGlaze which protects the image from water.

I attached some dangly beads to the bottom, then cut out a piece of cardstock in the heart shape and adhered it to the back.

Beading experiments

In a recent neckalce swap on CC Swaps I received a lovely beaded necklace which inspired me to try making one.

I have a friend who will be celebrating a milestone birthday soon, so thought I would perhaps give her a necklace for a gift.

Here are the two I made, one of which I also made matching earrings to make a set.

Pin Swap

On CCSwaps we are having a brooch/pin swap. Now I do not profess to be a great jewellery maker but I will give most things a try, so I signed up for this swap.

 I started with a blank jewellery piece that I had in my stash. I cut out an Image from Moonlight Journey and covered it with Judikins Microglaze. I then cut out a piece of acrylic in a circle to fit over the image and adhered it with Glossy Accents. I glued this to the centre of the blank. I added some tiny glass beads around the piece then attached a bead to the bottom.

Necklace

I am in a swap where we make necklaces and send to a partner.

Thinking of the postage cost I decided to make the focal point of my necklace from Paperclay. I conditioned and rolled it with a brayer then cut it out with a heart shaped cookie cutter. I then imprinted it with a stamp from Hero Arts. Coloured it with various Perfect Pearls and Pearlex. In the instructions, it says you can bake the Paperclay to dry it (275 degrees for 15 minutes) so I did since I was being impatient to get it finished!

I took a Jewellery charm thingy that I got at the dollar store and added some "gems" to it then glued it to the heart.

I strung some beads in coordinating colours and attached the heart with a little ring.I also attached a clasp although I don't think it was really necessary.

February Charm

The charm swap is continuing on CCSwaps and we are making another charm for February. I decided that I would use hearts for mine as of course Valentine's Day is during that month.

I took some beads and strung them together with various charms to match the beads. The left one is a heart from an old pair of earrings. The middle one is a charm to which I added the little gem. The right one is also a charm, but I coloured the middle heart and ribbon with Copic Markers. I hope my partners will not find these too simple, as I am still trying to learn about making charms.

Inchie swap

I have signed up for a swap on the Dream, Create Inspire group where we are using a frame from Blumoth Crafts. Eleven people joined the swap, and we create the inchies using a colour scheme and and in some cases a theme chosen by each person. We have two inchies, the centre and the frame to complete our own when we receive our inchies in the swap. I have decided to wait until I receive my inchies before completing the frame.

I coated the inchies with gesso then used Acrylic paints, Metallic Paints, Lumiere paints, Perfect Pearls, Pearlex, and some of my stamps and stamping supplies such as Smooch inks, and pigment inks to do the bases. On some I used molding paste, others I used papers and even some netting type paper.

The embellishments are scrapbooking pieces, old buttons, old pieces of jewellery, brads and other "doodads".

I am really looking forward to seeing all the tiny works of art that everyone makes and the completed frames.

Mini Memory for Heather`

I decided to get a start on September's Mini Memory, which is for Heather. Her theme is birds and butterflies and the colours are white and violet.

The theme was not a problem, however, the violet was as I think of blues (i.e. the flower). However, as a colour it can be a mixture of red and blues, so as usual I just did my own thing and hope that Heather will not be disappointed with the colour.

I started by painting a chipboard coaster with Gesso, then painted it with African Violet acrylic paint, toned down with some white acrylic. I then stamped the flourish stamp in frost white pigment ink and winter white embossing powder. After that I painted it with Mica watercolours in iridescent violet.

I have some Magenta chipboard pieces and I painted a bird with the two colours and crackle medium.

I also had some mini canvases so thought I would use it for the centre. Painted it with gesso, then added molding paste and smooshed it around with a rubber stamp. I added some Pearlex pearl white to it when dry, then dabbed some of the African Violet paint mixture over that with my fingers.

I attached the canvas to the coaster, then the bird. I rummaged through my stash of beads and bellies and found three feather beads and added them to the bottom of the canvas. In the picture the background flourishes look different but in "real life" they are white.

Artist of the Month

We have had another Artist of the Month swap in CC Swaps and this time it was Beryl Taylor style. I, as usual, jumped in with both feet since I was positive that my DH had bought me her book. Well, when I started my project I discovered that I did not own the book, so had to "wing it" when working on it.

I made the fabric paper using cheese cloth, wrapping paper and tissue papers (knew this part from a previous project). I then adhered this to a piece of felt and then to a piece of watercolour paper.

Since my sewing machine is out of commission I had to use glue and double sided tape to add all the elements.

I started by punching out circles from another piece of fabric paper and stamped them with platinum paint. I then punched a hole and added brads to the centre. I punched a second circle out of watercolour paper, sewed them together with metallic thread and added batting to puff them up.

The sides of the piece are lace, the top is a piece of metal tape which is coloured with various mediums, the bottom is a piece of eyelet fabric which I coloured with fluid chalk inks. I also coloured the lace flowers with the same ink and added some gems.

I punched out some heart shapes from a Cuttlebug embossed piece, which was coloured with the fluid chalks and highlighted with Goldfinger gold. I attached the large hearts to gold punched hearts, and the small ones I left as is.

The centre piece was another scrap of the darker fabric paper which I embossed with gold embossing powder. The heart is a doily coloured with the fluid chalks and highlighted with the Goldfinger gold. The final touch was a paper flower with a flower bead as the centre.

I drew Adrienne as a partner for this swap, and I must admit I am a wee bit nervous about it. She has done several items in the Beryl Taylor style so I hope she will not be disappointed with my effort.

Playing with spoons!!

Over on Linda and Rosie's Big Adventure blog they were running a challenge for altering cutlery. I decided to play with this idea as I have a bunch of spoons that I collected over the years.

On the first one I bent the handle, then added a piece of a dictionary page and coloured it. I added some coloured Crystal Lacquer then some Glossy Accents. I placed the picture of the little girl in the centre, added some more Glossy Accents. I then added some seed beads, a fancy bead and a piece of confetti. To complete it, I added a fan charm at the bottom.

Unfortunately this did not scan well and is more colourful, and looks much better "in real life".

For my second attempt, I embossed a spoon with twinkle and opal embossing powders. I took a grunge board letter and covered it with Sookwang tape and added Glitter Ritz and attached it in the bowl.

I stamped a the number one on a piece of scrap cardstock. punched it out and added a page pebble, and attached this to the top.

I then added a couple of confetti numbers and gems to finish it. I thought this one would be good for a Numbers swap currently running on CC Swaps, but since there must be some stamping I am not sure if one stamped image is sufficient. Will have to check before signing up for the swap.

Art Doll

This piece is for another swap.

I had some little wire mesh floral pieces in my stash and decided I would try making my art doll using one as the body.

I had some frames left from a charm swap and thought I would use one as the head. I inserted a face inside the frame, then glued a fan charm on top and glued this to the "body".

I strung some beads and charms together for the arms and legs and attached them to the body.

I think she is a modern day gal as she has her cell phone in her left hand!!!

I added an S shaped paper clip as the torso an attached a heart brad and gem at the neckline.

The waistline is a couple of paper flowers and a brad. I finished her off with some faux rivets around the edge of her hem and the arms.

12 Days of Christmas

We did another Twelve Days of Christmas swap again this year on CC Swaps, and were only allowed to sign up twice. I had been thinking about this for a while and had some silk scarves that a vendor very generously sent me when I commented on her instructions that she posted. I ordered some more from her and set to work on decorating them.

I coloured the white ones with dye inks and some with pigment sprays. Stamped with pigment inks and then heat set them, rinsed them and heat set them again. The black ones were stamped with Lumiere paint and heat set.

For the second set of gifts I bought some trinket boxes and altered them. I painted the tops then added acrylic gold mica flakes to some, tiny beads, buttons, air dried clay pieces (received from Adrienne last year) and various other things from my stash.

Tyvek experiments

I am participating in a Chunky Book swap where we have to use some Tyvek on one of the pages. Today I decided to play with some of it, but only did a couple of pieces as I don't have a lot of Tyvek. These started out as approximately 3"X3" pieces.

The top one was coloured with Perfect Pearls then stamped with green pigment ink, shrunk with a heat gun; then I punched holes in it and added the beads. 

The second one was coloured with pigment inks, sprinkled with glitter, shrunk with a heat gun, then stamped into it while still warm.