Saturday, August 28, 2010

Snowman Picks



I was a bit surprised this week to find that my local craft store is already carrying Christmas stuff. I didn't look too much but I did see these adorable snowman sticks. You can't tell from the picture but their really iridescent and oh so sparkly. They were super cute but as I stood in line I realized that their noses bugged me. They looked like a 1 inch long spaghetti noodle. Of course it takes a lot more than that to deter me so I just bought them anyway, took them home and cut their noses down and then painted them a metallic orange. Way better!

Friday, August 27, 2010

Pink + Red = Beautiful!



I absolutely love a pink/red combination. Did you know that you can't buy pink and red bakers twine? I'd bought a mixed bunch of bakers twine by Martha Stewart a year or so ago and one of the colors was pink and red. I used it all up almost immediately and I've never found another source. I ordered red and white twine and it came yesterday so today I dyed a bunch of it pink and then I hung it to dry. It came out beautiful. I dyed extra to sell at my workshops if you'd like some too.

This was our last week of summer and I took W-F off of work to spend it with the family. What didn't we do? We slept in {until 10!}, went to the beach, ate outside, went out for fondue, spent time at the park and got some movies in. Tomorrow afternoon we're heading to SF to visit either a museum or the aquarium and then we plan to have dinner at the pier. On the way we're making a fast stop at Addison End Papers so I can run in and check out their studio sale. I've never been to one and I'm so excited. I've got to conserve a bit though because the Niles flea market is Sunday and that is one good flea!

In between all of that good stuff I've been doing small 15 minute or so projects, nothing big but it's been enough to satisfy my art cravings.

I hope you're enjoying the end of summer. To quote one of my favorite singers {Van Morrison}, "These are the days".

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Total Redo



These little ornaments, gift embellishments, whatever-you-want-to-use-them-for shadow rounds were what I came up with for the dollar store challenge for Somerset Life. These originally started out as royal blue sports themed party favor games. You know, the ones with the holes on the bottom and the bb's that you try to settle into them. The football, soccer and basketball backgrounds were used as a template for the new backgrounds placed in each one. Lots of gesso, paint, paper and 3D items and they're completely unrecognizable at this point. I kept the theme of having something that moves freely inside each one. I think my favorite is the baby themed one. One has a picture (repro) of my Grandpa. They were really fun to make and they end up being about $0.17 each. I know I've said it before but I really like the calls that Stampington puts out there. I've made a few things I'm really happy with that I likely wouldn't have thought of otherwise.

Have a great weekend!

Sunday, August 15, 2010

I Love My Clothespins



I've been winding my embroidery floss around clothes pins for ages. When I was younger I would wrap each skein around the paper card and write the color number at the top. At some point I realized that I didn't care what the color number was nor did I like the way the floss came off the card. A big bag of clothespins will set you right up. If you hold the pin in one hand and give the floss a rip with the other it comes off so easily.

Before wrapping them with floss I painted and stamped them. They looked so pretty I decided to put them in an old bread pan by color.



Another small project I've been staying busy with is my little chalkboard pins. I love making these to clip onto baskets, etc. so that I know what's inside. Of course clipping one on this project was just for fun.



I have some other completed projects to share this week that I think you'll like. You might even want to try making a few yourself.

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

My Latest Findings



I missed the July flea market because we were camping so I could not wait for this past Sundays show. I didn't get a ton of stuff but I love what I did get. I'm always on the look out for boxes for small storage and this old chippy box fit the bill - it's metal and the interior is dirty velvet. I threw some of the small odds and ends that I picked up inside.

When I saw these old door parts I thought they'd make great necklaces. You might not see the potential right now but give me some time...



I know that I paid way too much for this tiny metal wagon, $30 in fact. The color and the little fenders were so adorable though and I hadn't burned through all of my cash so I splurged. I can use it in my studio for 100 different things too so no worries on putting it to good use...



On the last aisle I found some pretty old Christmas ornaments...



I also found a great grain sack pillow that had to have been dyed a dark eggplant. I hadn't seen it dyed before and it's beautiful.

That's a wrap ladies!