Spring Pendant

Hi, everyone!  I'm so glad you are taking time to visit with me!  I have a beaded pendant to share with you today.  It's a design by Justyna Szlezak of Eridhan Creations.   You might remember that I used one of her patterns for my entry into the last A Time to Stitch blog hop.  You can see that pendant here.  I highly recommend the patterns because the designs are beautiful and different and the instructions are very easy to follow.  That said here is the Spring Pendant I made.

 

 

 

I call it the Spring Pendant because of the colors even though the actual name of the design is Sea Urchin.  I had actually chosen another set of beads for this project during a snow storm!  I loved those colors but when I started working on the pendant I just couldn't use them.  They were dark and I was craving light!  So, I put those aside to use in the Fall.  I don't usually do the same design twice unless I'm making a set, too many great ideas out there, but maybe I'll make a Fall Pendant!  So, when I decided to change colors I went to my favorite combination, lime green and turquoise.  This is a spring version of lime green and turquoise.  It's more olive and aqua!  I used some frosted white Super Duos in there too.  The 11s are a soft sea foam green.  What I really loved about this pattern was the use of the spike beads!  I love those beads and I had some in aqua so it worked perfectly. Both sides of the pendant are the same which is nice because there is no right or wrong side.   I beaded a double loop at the top and added a jump ring and a silver ball chain to finish it off.

 

Here is a closer picture.

 

 



 

 

I really liked the way the colors came together.  The firepolished 4mm beads were in my stash and I love the AB finish on them. I had been looking for the perfect project for them. The 3mm ones are a Picasso finish.  I thought the frosted Super Duos worked well with the shine of the 11s and the AB finish of the firepolished beads.  It was a fun pattern to work on and it really worked up more quickly than I thought.

 

So, there you have my first Spring colored project.  Our weather is just not cooperating this year.  It's unseasonably chilly for late March but at least we don't have snow on the ground and the daffodils are ready to burst forth!  So, baby steps, we'll eventually get there!

 

Thank you all for stopping by here today.  I hope you have a wonderful day and get time to have some creative fun! 





Showing the Green!

Hi everyone!  I'm a little late in my St. Patrick's Day greetings but I hope everyone enjoyed the day when "everyone is Irish"!  I have a quick post to show you what I created for the day! 

For this week's challenge over at I am the Diva, Laura chose the theme Green It Up.  Since I love the color green, I thought I would participate.  Here is my tile.

 

 

 

Working on the Zentangle tiles is a joy because the paper is so wonderful.  The surface is so receptive to the ink.  And, I love adding some color to the black and white.  I thought this turned out rather spring like.  I guess because I'm really developing a severe case of spring fever!

 

That's my quick share for today.  I hope you have a wonderful day and that you are having some lovely spring weather.  Things are starting to wake up in the garden and I'm loving it!

 

 

 





From Sample to Pendant

Hello, everyone!  I'm so happy to have you visit today.  I hope your day is going well.  I think we've finally turned the corner on this long winter.  Spring isn't far from us now!  I'm itching to get outside into the garden to start "spring cleaning"!  I do more spring cleaning outside than inside. 

Today I wanted to share a beadwork pendant I made the other day.  When I was planning my first geometric beadwork bracelet,  last spring I thought I would make a sample to see how it would go together.  I had decided to make one of Jean Power's Power Puff bangle.  Well, I really like the sample I made so I put it aside and started on the bracelet.  I didn't want to continue the sample and turn it into a bangle because in stitching it I decided to change the colors around and use them in a different order.  Well, it sat on my table and I kept thinking I should do something with it. I decided on turning it into a pendant but, as usual, I never got around to it until the other day.  Here is what it looks like finished.

 

 

 

The Power Puff bangle is a series of beaded triangles that are connected to each other with a short peyote tube. The whole thing is a tube so you can thread wire or cord through it.  I love stitching triangles for some reason and it becomes quite addictive for me to go from one triangle to the other.  This sample has the triangles getting larger by one row for each successive triangle.  You can also change the orientation of the triangles as you stitch.  That's my next trial!   I ended this sample with the start of the fourth triangle.  When I decided to turn it into a pendant I thought that would be the perfect place for a bead to end it off nicely.  I searched through my stash of torch-fired enameled beads because I thought I had one this color.  I also had some enameled head pins and one used the same green enamel.  As you'll see in another photo I had a spacer that was the same color also and I put that on top.  Here are some details.

 

 

I love enameling beads!

Here is the spacer.

 

 

 

I love the way the bead sits right in the partial triangle.  In the second photo you can see the graduated size of the triangles.  If I hadn't decided to change the color sequence I could have gone back to the original size and continued the graduated triangles.  There are several variations on this idea.  Also, you can tell I love this color green since I had so many pieces that worked with the beadwork!  To finish it off  I decided to use a purchased copper chain for a necklace.  I'm really happy with the result. 

 

 

The blog post about the finished bangle can be seen here.  I really love geometric beadwork and I haven't done any lately.  But, I have some ideas to work on so I think I'll be getting back to it! 

 

I just discovered that the blog Anything but a Card Challenge theme this month is Green with Envy, so I'm going to enter this pendant in that challenge.

 

Thank you for visiting with me today.  I hope you have a wonderful day and that you have some spring weather in your world! 





A Great Class

Hello, everyone!  I'm so happy that you are visiting today.  I have a quick post to share some of what I did over the weekend.   My daughter and I signed up for two classes with the wonderful Seth Apter.  Seth is one of our favorite mixed media artists.  His classes are always fun and I always come away feeling I've grown in my art.  This time we had a class on Saturday that concentrated on stencils and different ways to use them and different mediums to use them with.  Sunday was a mixed media class creating a piece that exemplified urban art.  Unfortunately, we had an ice storm that caused the class to be canceled and rescheduled for June when Seth will be at The Queen's Ink for another set of classes.  But, Saturday was fantastic! Seth gave us each a stencil from his collection that he designed for Mary Beth Shaw's company Stencil Girl Products.   We used stencils to create a reference guide of different mediums to use with any stencil in the morning and in the afternoon we used what we learned about the mediums to create our own mixed media creation.  

The reference guide was done on three sheets of watercolor paper.  We used inks, sprays, modeling paste, color interference paste, crackle paste and embossing powder with small stencils.  Two areas were painted with black gesso to show the difference between background colors and metallic mediums. 

 

 

 

We used mediums that Seth had already experimented with and his guidance was important.  Some of the pastes are new to the market and are really fantastic.  One that my daughter really liked is Prima's new Finnabair Graphite modeling paste.  It's the third up from the bottom left in the picture above.

 

 

This is what I did in the afternoon.

 

 

 

 

We layered the background with paint and then used stencils to create a design.  I love the window.  It's a Prima stencil that my daughter had.  I deliberately used the gold paste randomly.  I like the effect of a worn image.  The graphite paste that we loved is up in the corners.  Here's a close up so you can see the wonderful texture that's achieved with this new product. 

 

 

 

 

Very cool, I think!  Here's the last detail photo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

That gold modeling paste is very cool.  Wendy Vecchi has one that is very similar to the one we used. 

 

 

If you haven't jumped on the stencil band wagon you should give it a try.  It's great fun and there are so many beautiful stencils out there along with great products to use with them. 

 

 

Well, that's it for today.  Thank you so much for visiting with me today.  I hope you are having lovely spring weather where you are.  We're supposed to be getting more snow tomorrow.  But, next week will be much better, I'm sure ;)!



 

 

 

 



 

Flowers of the Frost

Hello, everyone!  I'm delighted to have you stop by here for a visit.  It's a snowy morning here and so the title of this post is rather appropriate!  We're almost into March and I'm dying to see some of the flowers of the frost.  What are they you ask?  Well, they are the tiny little bulbs that brave the cold of winter and pop up to bring brightness to the dull winter landscape. I've loved them for years because they are a harbinger of what is to come with the spring and summer.  I love my garden and every year I add new plants and shrubs.  I also add some of these little gems.  I tuck them into small areas where I can see them from the windows on  a cold blustery day.  Years ago I read the quote attributed to Gertrude Wister that says "The flowers of late winter occupy places in our hearts well out of proportion to their size."  I agree with that wholeheartedly!  So, I've wanted to do a project incorporating that sentence for a long time.  Finally, I've done one! 



I'm always cutting pictures and whole pages out of magazines and keeping them in file folders.  The biggest folder is one that is filled with flower pictures.  So, as you might imagine, many of the pictures are of those little gems of late winter.  That was the starting point of this canvas.  I covered the canvas with gesso and when that was dry I added fiber paste to some areas with a palette knife to  add some texture.  I used a combination of  paint and stains in Bundled Sage, Weathered Wood, Iced Spruce, and Shaded Lilac.  I also used Lindy's Stamp Gang Glitz Spritz in Cactus Gold add some shimmer.  When it was completely dry I did some stamping with Watering Can archival ink. A technique I learned from Seth Apter and that I use a lot is cross hatching with paint and a credit card to create some texture and color on a canvas. I did some of that, adding more color and texture to the background. I glued down the magazine clipping of potted snow drops and crocuses and then dry brushed it with gesso to blended it in and weather it some.  I printed the quote on cardstock and cut it out attaching it to grunge board to pop it out. I darkened the edges with Weathered Wood DI and used my finger to lightly rub some gesso over it.  I wanted to high light one of the snow drops so I used a stick on acrylic disk over one of the flowers.  I used a tag cut of the same CS and darkened  the edges of that and added it to the top of the canvas with a piece of ribbon from the stash under it.  I used the same ribbon along the bottom to ground the whole composition and keep it from looking as if it was floating in the air.  Here are some details.

I'm so pleased with how this turned out.  I enjoyed working on it and it kept me thinking that soon I'll see my snow drops and crocuses.  Of course, we need to get rid of the snow on the ground first!! 

Well, that's it for today.   Thank you so much for visiting with me.  I appreciate your visits and your kind comments very much.  I hope you have a wonderful day and get some time to be creative in whatever medium you chose. 

A Late Little Valentine Project

Hello, all!  Welcome to you all on this snowy morning in the Mid-Atlantic!  Boston and New England have gotten most of the snow this year but last night and today it was our turn.  Of course, ours wasn't anything like what Boston has endured this year but we can't handle snow the way New England can.  If we ever got 90 inches of snow in a season we'd never dig out!!  Anyway, I don't mind snow if I don't have to drive in it and it certainly is pretty out my window!

Today I want to share another Zentangle project.  My friend, Patti, designed a pretty Valentine Zentangle project and showed a group of us how to make one.  It's a cornet or a tussy-mussy holder.  Here's what it looks like.

 

 

 

Patti supplied the holder and the paper, we chose the tangles we wanted to use.  I added a pop of red throughout because I've come to like the black and white and one bright color in my Zentangles.   I didn't finish it until the day after Valentine's Day but next year I'm going to fill it with chocolates. 

 

 

Here are some details.  The photos aren't very good because the weather hasn't been very cooperative with the light!

 

 

 

As you can see, I've lined it with red card stock and used a red satin ribbon for the handle and the tassel at the bottom.  I'm really pleased with how it turned out. 

Well, that's it for today.  I hope you have a wonderful day.  I'm hoping to do some beading for a change!  Thank you so much for visiting with me and leaving your wonderful comments.  I really appreciate it. 

 





It's almost Valentine's Day!

Hi all!  I'm happy to have you visit.  Well, I'm over winter now and I'm so happy that it's the first week of February.   To me that means that March is that much closer!  And, happy day, my crocuses and daffodils are showing their green!!  Crocuses are my favorite flowers because they are the first ones I see in the late winter and early spring.  Of course, February also means Valentine's Day is right around the corner.  I've been thinking of what I'm going to make for dinner that night and what yummy heart shaped dessert I'll serve.  I always have made a special dinner and dessert for my family on Valentine's Day.  I spend the beginning of February planning and making things to celebrate this pretty bright day in the middle of a dull winter.  This year, there are still cards to be made and dinner to be planned but I took some time to make a Valentine card to put on the table in the family room.  Since the Frilly and Funkie blog has as their challenge theme "Be My Valen-twine"for the next few days I thought I would enter it in the challenge too. The "twine" is the requirement to use twine in whatever you make.  Here is what it looks like.

 I started with a piece of kraft card stock and used Wendy Vecchi's embossing paste and a new Memory Box stencil to make the background.  I tried a new-to-me technique I found on the very talented Astrid's blog.  While the embossing paste was still wet I sprinkled some of it with gold embossing powder and the rest with red glitter embossing powder and heated them.  I love the way the embossing paste bubbled and puffed.  I let the gold spill onto the red so I had a two toned embossing.   I cut a piece of red CS with the TH trellis die and used my finger to rub some gold Gilders' Paste on it.  I also rubbed Gilders Paste on the edge of the CS. I had the vintage Valentine clown image in my stash.  I wrapped the card with gold wrapped bakers' twine.  I glued the kraft CS to a striped paper that I had distressed and rubbed with Vintage Photo DI on the edge.  That was glued to a piece of red embossed CS which I rubbed with Gilders Paste.  Here are some details.

 

 

 



 So, there is my first Valentine for this year!  It looks great on the table. 

I have continued on with the #28patterns challenge which I talked about in this post. 

Here are two of the Zentangles I've posted the last couple of days.  

My initial done in Joanne Fink's Zenspirations style.

 

 

 

 

 

So, that's what I've been doing the last few days.  I think the Muse is beginning to wake up!  Must be seeing those crocus and daffodil leaves!!

 

 

Thank you so much for visiting with me today.  I hope you have a wonderful and creative day!