I saw something very similar these “Word Birds” in the most recent edition of Cloth, Paper, Scissors magazine and I knew instantly that I had to make these precious tweeters. I used recycled cardboard from Coke Zero boxes. (My morning crutch…) I love a boost of cold, caffeinated carbonation in the morning. Very unhealthy indeed, but it does the job while the coffee perks.
These are covered with decorative tissue papers and paper napkins. Then I embellished them with oodles of ephemera and bling… adding fishing line to hang them with and stringing some beads as well for a boost of shimmer and color. I hung them in my studio window for inspiration and the occasional grin they give me. I love how they swing in the breeze of a slightly open window or on colder days… the soft breath of the forced air heater. Super fun… Super easy, and super cute! I encourage you to make some tweetie birds for yourself!
From rags to riches… and making a silk purse out of a sows ear. I’ve been making these decorative hanging gems from the lids of frozen concentrate juice cans. … like this…
So far I’ve made nine of these funky mini mobiles. I’m using beads, mini mirrors, wooden circles, decorative napkins, charms, scrapbook embellishments, and more to complete them. It’s turning out to be a great way to use up some of my not-often-used bling, and it helps stretch and strengthen my creative muscle.
I’m having a great time trying new things and making gifts for family and friends… I’ll share more tomorrow of some of my other creations I’ve been working on. I’m busy with the pre-Christmas duties that need doing each year. It’s actually been more fun for me this year as we have our own home and we are all more comfortable and at peace because of it… and the vast amounts of space we now have for relaxing and creating. I can now easily leave my projects on my desks and come back to them and they aren’t in anyone’s way. I’m loving it.
Here’s another look at the mini mobiles… I’m getting ready to head out into the cold for some much needed Christmas shopping…and I’m actually getting excited about it this year.
I was hired to make approximately
250 price tags for my jewelry making auntie. Here’s about half of what I came up with. The rest are more of the same smaller ones that are in a variety of pastel colors… each with a seed bead on it’s string to add a bit of punch.
Here’s a close up of the steampunk, dress-forms, goth skulls, and little purses that I made into Photoshop brushes from sketches and turned into artful tags. What a great way to get your products noticed. I finished the last of them this morning and will be mailing them the day after Thanksgiving which is also my birthday.
This was one of the most challenging things I’ve undertaken in a long time and I found myself growing as an artist while working on them and once I got the hang of what I was doing….the ideas just kept flowing. I had an awesome time creating these price tags… so if you find yourself needing something to make your creations stand out at fairs and such… give me a holler. I’d love to do some commission work for you as well.
I hope you all have an awesome Turkey day and have a lot to be thankful for. I’m thankful for another year of upcoming creativity and that my family is healthy and safe. God Bless you all and have a wonderful holiday.
My recycling projects are still in full swing. I tinker with them between other projects. I try not to let too many paintings and such stack up before completing them. I don’t want to bury myself in undone do-dads.
This is made from two toilet paper rolls that I flattened and adhered together. I used a pretty paper napkin to decoupage it adding painted painters tape to the sides and glitter paints for accents. I topped it with a 3D flower embellishment with collaged leaves. To finish the top I used fun fur yarn around the upper lip and poke a hole in each side to string colored wire through for a handle. It’s great for collecting lots of things either hung from a peg or a nail. It’s a mini catch-all or super girlie pencil holder for your locker. The possibilities are endless.
Kinda cute huh!? And sparkles too!
Part of the inspiration for this is from one of my mom’s gorgeous flowers… What a couple of glorious blossoms.
Bet then again… if you know me… you know how I feel about PINK!
My whispers for today’s edition of Whispering Wednesdays are…
- This morning I taught myself how to made PDFs for the first time! /Flex!
- I found a new blog here…. Read NeiNei she’s a true inspiration.
- I’ve got some serious pain in my neck and back that has been getting worse by the weeks and now months… Dr’s appointment on Friday.
♥ Joy-O-Ween ♥
I made this painting for my mom for her birthday. She has an early October birthday and this isn’t the only time I’ve given her something spooky for her day. This turned out awesomely. In person it’s vibrant, the textures and prominent and the softness of her face really stands out. I tried something new on this one. I usually do the faces directly onto the wood but this time I gave it a base coat of paint. The colors blended extremely well this way and it actually eliminated the amount of work I needed to do at the end of the face shading process… plus it gave her a sweet look.
I have four more this size that I’m currently working on in a Winter/Spring/Summer/Fall series and I did the faces the same way on them. I’ll share them when I get back. I’m going out of town for a few days for a visit with my parent. Since I’m in the process of getting ready now I thought I’d do my Tuesday’s Toys post as early as possible.
Here’s this weeks show and tell!
Aren’t they just the sweetest for your feetest! There ya go sugar toes! See you in a few days with new Nom Nom to share. Have an awe-filled week!
Here’s today’s progress with my Love Shack painting. I got pretty far today considering that I was feeling rather sluggish. I need to adjust my meds me thinks. I’ll work on that tonight. I have a lot of delicious layers here. I started with a strip of cheerful wrapping paper near the bottom 1/3 of the painting. I also tore two hearts from the same paper and mod podged them to the top right. Then the second layer… crumpled up tissue paper. This not only helps tone down the glaringly obvious gloss look of the wrapping paper but it helps to mute the colors and gives it more of a background effect. Easy Peasy! You must try. =) Then the house. I traced the canvas size into my sketch book then did a bit of “layout” work to adjust the size and placement of the house. I liked the house so much I used tracing paper and cut it out and then traced over my cutout onto the collage paper. I picked a muted yellow so I could bring up the colors as desired. I also stamped the flowers and leaf images onto the house.
The roof is also collage paper cut into a fun design and sponged on the edges with black waterproof rubber stamping ink. The trick part is gluing it back together to look right. (I did this by gluing it to the tracing paper before gluing onto the canvas. Wa-la!)
The flowers are from a paperback novel that I glued, painting with gesso, then added the colors. I used an eraser tip to stamp the black dot in the centers and then used a painting tool to add the yellow middles.
Here’s a few close ups of several corners of the painting… It’s not done yet I want to add some more hearts and a few more things but it’s much closer to where I want it to be. I’ll sleep on it and I’m sure the rest will come to later.
It’s Whispering Wednesday … so shhh! If you listen very closely you’ll hear something!
- I’ve been collecting acorns that have been falling from the tree in the front yard… I have no idea why!
- I’m reading about Himmler at the moment … talk about a spooky dude!
- My hubs bought me the game Sims Medieval… fun stuff. Very interesting game. Check it out…
♥ Hanging out in the Sun ♥
This is a shadow box created using an upcycled paper towel roll. I sliced the roll lengthwise with scissors and used my spray mister to lightly moisten the cardboard. (don’t get it too wet or the layers will come apart.) I then flattened it out using a towel which also helps to absorb extra moisture. I layered the cardboard with text pages from a discarded cheesy novel using matte finish mod podge. Once the sheet of mod podge was dry I made a box out of the cardboard … I intentionally made it “imperfect” so I’d have a shabby chic box when I was done. After the box was complete I added extra strips of text papers to disguise the cuts and folds in the box. Next came the paint. I overloaded my brush with blue paint and globbed it at the inside top of the box. Then using my spray mister again I misted the paint just enough to get it to drip down the inside of the box. After this was dry I used a lighter shade of blue to finish the box.
I used twine to create the clothesline and made a flower from pieces of ripped collage papers. I enhanced the papers with acrylic paints, glitters and rhinestones, and added torn leaves to finish it off. Using a miniature clothespin I hung the flower from the twine.
For the bottom of the box I used Beadz and Martha Stewart confetti. I used a paper rose that I had which I painted yellow and highlighted with orange… I glued on a leave and added a twist of wire. I tucked some dried flowers along side the rose and put this all on top the ripped leaves that I had glued to the backing.
To finish it off I added the “dream” which is ripped from a torn paper tissue and then sprinkled the back of the box with some purple and blue rhinestones.
I love how this turned out. It was a really raw experience to create this as I started with “garbage.” You really and truly can go from Trash to Treasure. This will be on Etsy later today so I hope you drop in to smell the flowers… The dried purple Statice is scented with lavender oil so it’s truly a feast for the senses!
♥ This Just In! ♥
YAY! Just in time for a play date! I’m very excited about all of these goodies. I’ve been eying these art journals for about a year now and found them on sale at Jerry’s so I plucked two from the heap and tossed them in my online cart! What a joy. I’ve not been journaling at all since finished my last journal. I tried a Moleskin journal but I really was unimpressed. I favor the spiral journals for their versatility and ease of use, and now I have two to keep me busy for a good long while.
I’m in the middle of packaging and varnishing some orders that I got over night so I’m rather rushed. I do have a toy to share today other than the ones I just got via UPS. I bought this to varnish for my hubs boss… He makes large scale model airplanes… this is a thank you as he gave us a beautiful antique desk that will be used by our college boarder come autumn. I’ll take a picture of the gorgeous desk tomorrow. =)
Until then…. Come fly with me! Come fly, come fly away! See you tomorrow with more chatter. =)
♥ Laguna Ice Poppies ♥
Here’s the ACEO of the day. This is done with illustration board, paints, papers, tissues, texture medium, silver tinsel glitter, gesso and a glass of cold iced tea (for the creator!) I absolutely love this one! The colors just speak to me. I’m taking this to a bigger level today too. I grabbed a big flat canvas I’ve had for …ever… and started in. I’ll photograph as I go.. it’s drying right now… see!
This is 16″ x 12″ and it’s going to be a very beautiful mess while I create… I have had blues and greens and yellows on my hands for the past few days… it’s gotten down into the beds of my fingernails…yep, I DO fingerpaint! Sometimes the fingers are the best blender brushes you’ll ever find. And their always on hand! See what I did there? That would earn a much deserved groan in my house. But they’re used to me and actually wait for comments like that now. They know I’m out of sorts if I don’t make an odd comment now and again…. and again, and again.
I doubt this will be framed as it’s somewhat of a shabby chic style so I’ll likely drill holes and use fibers to hang it. I’ll probably put some fringe around the bottom too. I just love the textures of fibers, ribbons, stings and jutes, and yum! I think you know what I mean.
My Whispering Wednesday entry this week has arrived!
- I’m taking a nap for lunch today. I was up REALLY late due to some ‘kids’ in the back area parking lot causing a ruckus.
- My anxiety has been reeling it’s ugly head the past few weeks. I hope it’s not a sign of more to come.
Yes… another Spam can completed. I used text pages for this one. I let my paintbrush lead me on what colors to use. … actually I used a baby wipe for application on this. I used some paper flowers I had in a light blue that I painted turquoise and purple… and the bling in the middle of each flower is literally a “Bling” sticker by Jolee’s. I glued them on as the sticky stuff on the back of the stickers has a tendency to get old and fall off over time. Glitter paint by Martha Stewart is brushed onto the flowers and the rim is painted with purple nail polish… and trimmed with some purple ribbon. And done! These can hold anything! Pencils, pens, any “desk/school” related item. They would also make awesome windowsill planters for herbs or small tabletop planters for nightstands, desks, tables, etc to accent your bedroom, dorm or girl cave. Each one has pretty much created itself so far and I’m working on the forth one today… Think Day of the Dead… Oh yeah! Talk about fun and funky.
Here’s the Chaos in Pink that I’m dealing with today. I have a ton of “little” projects going which makes for more mess than I can deal with. I tried to clean it up yesterday and had part of it done when I got a second wind of creative energy and all the cleanliness just hopped out my window… (that’s what I get for always having my window open!) I really need to get some of these things wrapped up and taken care of because it’s messing with my brain’s feng shui. I’ll have to get this cleaned tomorrow for sure… if not this evening. Today’s toy is my hippy headband… This is like a Where’s Waldo picture with cheats… if you look close enough you’ll see the beaded band I put around my hair when it’s driving me nuts and the fan is on blowing it in my eyes.
That’s it for today… I have many irons in the fire today so I need to go check to see if paints and glues are dried so I can move forward again. Until tomorrow! I hope you’re in a beautiful mess too!
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