Sometimes cheap isn't always better

While looking through my Oriental Trading Company's catalog I noticed some white masks... inspiration struck... "That would be so much fun to paint a mask and bejewel it".  Sounded very whimsical which is right up my alley!  I hadn't even looked at my local craft store for masks, I sat down and ordered them right then because when I have an idea I want to execute it right then and there, although I had to wait for shipping time.

When they arrived I wasn't impressed with the quality of the plastic but I pushed forward.  I went to my local hardware store and bought "plastic primer" which worked fantastic.  My problem was that the masks were still too flimsy.  I ended up going to my local craft store and found exactly what I wanted.  I wanted to do a full face mask but then I also wanted to do a few half face masks too. 

While I was at Olde Towne Art discussing my idea with other artists one of the ladies reminded me that Mardi Gras was coming up.  Wow I couldn't have timed that better!  So my ideas have shifted a little to now include feathers and and sequins.  My first thought was to do a full face white pearlescence mask with white feathers and lots of pearls. 

Here is my work table.  The champagne colored pearls laying across the mouth of the white face ended up outlining her lips.  I can't wait to post some finished photos!

Another new endeavor

Chain mail jewelry!

Last fall I went to a little craft fair at my local YMCA.  I really didn't expect to find much or get many ideas... but that's when you find the good stuff!  I met a young man by the name of Daniel Wayno who had the most beautiful, and interesting, jewelry.  Having worked with lobster clasps, crimp beads and split rings I understood the time it went into making these pieces of jewelry.  They were made completely from jump rings!  I was so intrigued.  I ended up buying one of his more intricate bracelets (and my picture doesn't do it justice):

You can see more of his work here: DeviantArt

Since Christmas has past and I can once again focus on the creative ideas that are exploding out of my head I decided to order a book on how exactly you create chain mail jewelry.  I received this book yesterday and couldn't put it down last night:

Here are some pictures from the book, I will probably try these earrings first:

And I just LOVE this bracelet:

So thank you Daniel and all of the artists out there who inspire me... now where are my pliers?

For the New Year I bring you a late Christmas poem

I consider myself a very organized person.  We moved here only six months ago and we already have all of our boxes unpacked and everything in their place, so I thought. 

When I found this Christmas poem last week that I wanted to share with you I knew I had the perfect picture to go with it.  Here lies the problem.  I couldn't find my photo albums to scan the picture into my computer (the picture is from 1992, before digital).  So I began looking around the house for my photo albums. 

Now mind you, one of my hobbies is photography and before digital cameras I would print most of my pictures and put them in photo albums.  I knew I was looking for at least seven albums so they won't be hard to overlook. Hmmm.  The only boxes we hadn't gotten to were the ones in the attic, but these consisted of "attic stuff".  I thought maybe the movers put my photo albums in the attic so I went up there.  I sorted, organized and relocated every single box up there and NO PHOTO ALBUMS! (This is a lot of work for one blogpost). 

I gave up and forgot about it.  One of the things on my "to do" list is to scan in some old negatives I have (remember 35mm film?) so my brother and I could get a good laugh at ourselves as youngsters.  This afternoon while I was looking at my negatives I found the picture! So now I may share with you the poem The Christmas Cat by Marcia K. Leaser

On padded feet the little cat
came silently creeping by.
Dad swears he never saw him--
neither did Sis, my mom, nor I.
But nonetheless, the whiskered pest
sneaked past four sets of eyes.

When next viewed, our furry friend
was grinning and purring with glee.
I looked at Dad, my sis, and Mom,
and they three looked at me.
Then we all laughed,
    for the sly little cat
was atop the Christmas tree.

He wasn't actually "atop" the Christmas tree but he was mischievous like that!

Rest in Peace my beloved Riprap, AKA "Rippy"

Cupcakes!

When we were in Illinois for Thanksgiving I went to my favorite craft store and bought this cupcake ribbon.  I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it but that became my inspiration.

When I think of cupcakes I think of pink.  Why? I don't know, it's fun, it's girly, it's a happy color for me.  What color goes with pink... brown... and the inspiration started to take shape.

Since I like texture and mixed media I decided to quilt the bottom part of the cupcakes.  But first I needed to pick out six different fabrics that would go well with pink and brown.  I have a huge stash of fabric so it wasn't hard to find fabric, it was just hard to narrow it down to only six pieces!  For the back of the cupcakes I just used muslin because no one was going to see it anyway.

I free form quilted each square before I cut out the cupcake design.  I decided to quilt with the muslin facing up so I could see what areas I had already done, on busy fabric this is hard to see.

After quilting:

I still hadn't decided where I was going to use the cupcake ribbon but I continued on.

Now for the fun part: creating the icing!  I created chocolate, strawberry and vanilla icing using a texture medium and iced my cupcakes.  I also knew I was going to use glitter because glitter will make anything look girly.  Glitter and pink, you can't get much more girly than that.  After that was done I held the cupcake ribbon in my hand and it hit me... put it right in the middle! So that's what I did.  Plus I had brown and pink ribbon in my ribbon stash that I could use going vertically.

Here is a close up of two of them:

Who Wants a Cupcake?  is now for sale at Olde Towne Art in Portsmouth, VA.

Photography and flowers

I love taking all kinds of pictures but I always come back to my flowers.  Flowers are so beautiful and from different angles they take on different looks.  God created this whole earth and I believe He gave us flowers to show his extreme love for us.  I like getting as close as I can for a flower shot and it's a bonus for me if it has a bumble bee or a butterfly on it. 

In my photo folders I used to have my flowers labeled according to location but, being the organized person I am, I decided to create folders of flowers according to their color which is working out a lot better for me.  Here is just a small sampling of some of my flower pictures created in mosaic form:

Faith, Hope and Love are living - Christmas, Christmas, everywhere

For Christmas I have asked to turn this blog into a book (super easy at blog2print.com) so I need to stop posting for a while so the manufacturer doesn't get confused!  But I did want to do one more post.

*** Update:  I've figured out how to turn my blog into a book without needing to stop posting for a while, YIPPEE!!  So on with the posts!! ***

I have mentioned Ideals Magazine before and how much I love to read the poems and short stories contained in them.  While I was organizing my books last night I came across this poem taken from Christmas Ideas 1951 entitled Hello, Again by Nina Gertrude Smith:

Hello, again, it's Christmas!  in the postman's ring,
In a little child's face, on the snowbird's wing:

In the "sh-sh-sh" of secrets; colors, sounds, and smells-
In a stranger's warm, sweet laughter hear the golden bells!

Christmas in the sacred story of a Yuletide's song,
In a new re-captured glory righting every wrong.

In the joy of giving, giving... Christmas in the air; Faith and hope and love are living-
Christmas, Christmas, everywhere!

A sneek peek at our Christmas card this year (just ordered!)

Holy Nativity Religious

Send special Valentine's Day cards from Shutterfly this year.

View the entire collection of cards.

Happy Second Sunday of Advent