I made these soldered pieces a few years ago for a magazine project that ended up being canceled. As I was cleaning out a box from the move the other day, there they were. Wire with flowers, beads, and the soldered charms that I made in the 'home' theme that they requested. I'm not sure what to do with them now- maybe tree ornaments? Suggestions?
I remember as a child sitting in front of the Christmas tree and staring at all the cute ornaments. I wanted to get rid of the ugly ones. Now that I am older I have wanted to have a Christmas tree with nothing but cute handmade things on it. Something that would be fun for the little kids in my family and future grandchildren to look at when they visit and to help decorate with their own creations. Making ornaments happens all year long whenever the inspiration strikes. I have quite a few doodles of other creatures to make soon.
Last fall I started to felt a little green bird and got bored with it before I finished it and moved on to an idea I had for a mouse. I gave the mouse who suspends from beaded and twisted wire to my friend Annie during a handmade ornament exchange. I do plan to make another for myself. In the picture it's hanging on the pink tinsel tree I have in my art room that I decided to keep up all year so I can play around with putting things on it here and there~ it isn't too big and sits on my counter.
I looked at some of Jenn D. creations for inspiration and then went back to the bird and added feet, a hat, and felted a nest that it sits in.
The last one I made was a little spunky monkey. He's sitting in my post card rack that I just painted red. Some of the cards on display that you can see have been sent to me over the years by my friends. The top right and bottom left cards are from Tracy, the bottom right from Barbara, and the top left from Konni who passed a couple years ago. I think handmade items are the best! Don't you?
It's been fun making things to decorate our new house. Our last house was all windows in every direction so there was hardly any wall space available to hang stuff.
I bought a bunch of canvases at a local art convention and have been experimenting with a variety of paints and texture. I like wrapped canvases so I can choose to frame them or leave the painted edges. I really have no idea what I am doing but it sure is fun.
This was my first painting of a Monet scene from a couple years ago that I framed:
Here's my second of another Monet scene that I framed but haven't put on the wall yet:
This one of Wild Poppies is very textured and quite tall. The fabulous Carol Nelson posted a tutorial of her wonderful poppy paintings so I experimented with her techniques and this is the result. The edges are textured and painted so I will not be adding a frame.
Here is a close up. I had a hard time trying to smear the texture right:
This one is not finished as I haven't figured out what to do next. Ideas? So far I think it looks like a flame.
This one I did a few months ago and it is also quite tall. I call it "Into the Fire":
Bill and I like to visit art galleries and one day we saw some rectangle paintings that were $3,000- way out of our budget. He wanted that type of painting for over the piano so I made this for him. He wants to frame it but I am not sure I am done with it yet. So there it sits.
I like to take pictures of poppy pods so this one is a funky version:
Just playing around with some different textures. What is it? I don't know! Kinda looks like the bottom of an ocean to me:
And this one I did in 20 minutes and I think is my favorite one so far. It is of my kids mom who has been gone nine years. This is her as a child walking along the shore:
I have been thinking of taking these felted sparkly rings and making a rainbow necklace by laying them down flat and tying on beads between them with some fun skinny ribbon or maybe with black thread....hmmm....or maybe I should turn them into some kind of funky belt...can't decide so there they sit LOL...ideas?
When I get really excited I sometimes say "giddy up" LOL. My friend Candy sent me this funny stamp. I found three of these wooden crate things at the thrift store~ perfect for my wooden stamps. I might paint them someday...probably orange!
I feel like a dork. Here is this half made scarf and it is three times as wide as it should be and I don't have the guts to tear it apart and start over. Not sure what to do with it. Cat blanket? Knitted bag? Ideas?
I got this English made silver candy dish from Goodwill for I think $2. Been working on a little stitched wall hanging...maybe I'll have it done by Christmas LOL
When I was about seven years old I used to ride my bike over to my friends house. In the corner of her bedroom was a bouquet of paper flowers. I always wondered where she found sheets of paper that large. I don't remember ever visiting a craft store when I was young so I had no idea tissue paper was a regular crafting item.
A couple weeks ago I thought about those paper flowers and decided to make some. Helen and I stopped at Jerry's Artarama, picked up several colors of the largest sheets we could find and played like we were seven for a couple hours...fun!
1. Cut Japanese rice paper into random flower shapes (I found a booklet of 100 sheets at ACMoore in the art supply area)
2. Place one cut flower on waxed paper and watercolor
3. Carefully pick it up and hold it from underneath
4. Pinch the center while twisting and overlapping the petals.
5. Place flower in a styrofoam egg carton to help hold the shape while drying
6. When dried, add details with a fine tipped marker
7. Embellish center of flowers with glitter, buttons, beads, rhinestones, etc.
8. They are beautiful added to any scrapbook page, ATC, card, etc.
This was my technique that was in the 2006 Creating Keepsakes Hall of Fame Book. I have been making them for several years now.
I think they would also look great on wired stems! Enjoy!
Flat toothpick rock...I use a billion of them to smear on E6000, for clearing dried paint from the top of the lids, cleaning dust from crevices, etc. So I opened a new box the other day and put them in one of my cute paper bowls. As I was cleaning off my table, I had two cut out pictures of Gidget (love to catch her mid yawn) and I shoved them into the toothpick bowl so they wouldn't get thrown out by accident. Later I went to get a toothpick and started to laugh at how goofy it looked so I added a felted flower to match her tongue and it now sits next to whatever I am working on and makes me smile. She is such a cutie pie!
