Lucky Enough to be Different

Hello to all my visitors!  It's so nice to have you here.  It's been very quiet around the blog lately.  Slowly spring is coming to our world and I've been trying to get my garden cleaned up.  I haven't done much inside creating but my mind is full of garden ideas.  I did manage to spend a little time trying out a new-to-me product though. 

I stopped into my favorite paper arts store, The Queen's Ink, a couple of weeks ago and Patti had just gotten in a new water color product.  It's called Color Burst from Ken Oliver Crafts.  I've never seen this before.  It comes in a small bottle that looks like the kind of bottle eye drops come in at the local pharmacy.  There are 6 small bottles in a package.  It's a powdered form of watercolors and  has very intense colors.  I'll show you what I made and then explain what I did.

 

 

 

I started with a piece of watercolor paper that was leftover from another project.  I spritzed it with water and squeezed the bottle of dry powder which puffed out onto the paper.  Some areas had more powder than others which is what formed the darker spots on the paper.  I spritzed it with more water and brushed the color around to cover all the paper.  I was just playing at this point with no intention of turning it into a finished project.  But I liked the intensity of the color and how easy it was to use.  I put the paper aside to dry.  A few days later I was in my work room and saw it sitting there and got an idea for how I could use it.  I have been spraying papers using paper towels under them to catch the over spray.  Some of the paper towels are kind of cool with different spray patterns and colors left on them.  I keep those with the idea of using them someday!  Some day!!  Well, I got the idea to spray some towels with green and yellow Dylusions sprays to match the intensity of the watercolors and tear them into strips and roll them into paper beads using a skewer to roll them on.  I've been wanting to use paper and fabric beads in some mixed media but never did.  I guess all the stars aligned and I jumped in and did it. Sometimes that's the best way to do something, don't overthink it! I then tore some strips of paper, glued them down and put the paper beads on top.  I found a phrase in Tim Holtz's new collection of chat phrases, cut it up and glued it down.  I love this phrase, "If you're lucky enough to be different, never change".  To finish the card off I sprayed it with some Perfect Pearls Pearl Mist to tone it down a little and give it some shine and  used black embossing powder to line the edges. 

 

Here are some close ups.

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

I really like this watercolor powder.  It can be used the way I used it, lightly spraying the paper with water and squeezing the bottle to apply it, or dissolving it in water and making a spray, or applying it with a wet brush.  Anyway, you use it you'll get wonderful color because the pigment is so intense. 

 

I'm entering this project in Mixed Media World current challenge "Bright Colours".  Check out their blog if you love mixed media!  It's a great source of inspiration.

 

That's it for me today.  I hope you have a wonderful day, thank you for taking some time to visit and I hope you have time to do something you love!

 



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.