Altered Oranges~

Here are some of the fairy houses from my backyard that the fairies live in during the winter months. They live off of the orange pulp until it gets warm again for them to live amongst the plants on the ground. During the hot summer months they abandon their hollowed out orange houses and flutter freely amongst the plants and flowers in my garden. The orange tree is still full of these hollowed out houses, every now and then I see a squirral eating the last remnants of the orange that the fairies have left behind... and the weight of the squirral causes the hollowed out orange to fall to the ground... and I collect them. I finally got around to altering them... the fairies love them... they even hung around long enough to get their photos taken... and you know how hard it is to take a photo of a fairy! Here is one of my favorite little fairies~ Here are the rest of the Altered Oranges~

I've linked up to: The French Cupboard, and My Romantic Home.

Vintage dress form

This past Saturday while hitting some yard sales, I came across this box full of vintage dress form parts. The box was only $3, well worth the 50/50 chance that the dress form was complete.I took one of the pieces into a hardware store to buy some wing nuts to put the adjustable dress form back together. Nothing fit the screws on this vintage piece. The store clerk thought it was metric, but even those didn't fit. I had to buy bigger wing nuts than the actual screw size and add tape to each screw to get it to hold. It cost me $1 for a bag of nuts. It was a smidge wiggley so I tied it together to help keep its shape. She is very petite standing at only 30 inches high. Her measurements are 30/23/31... gasp, I think thats the size of my leg. :-P She is beautiful just like she is.... but....I am planning on using this dress form to showcase some of the vintage bling I have tucked in boxes here and there in my studio. The ones that are to beautiful and perfect to pull apart, you know the keepers. Sooooo I covered this form with some batting that I essentially stitched together on the form to give me something to poke and pin my pieces to. (my friend gave me a huge bolt of batting) Thank you-thank you!I covered the dress form with a piece of a vintage bedspread that I picked up last summer for $1...so all together this is a $5 dress form/mannequin. Now, I've just got to hunt down where I put all the little beauties that I want to put on this... I've begun the huge task of starting to paint the full wall of shelves in my studio. *insert tear stained face here* Such a huge undertaking... totally making me regret starting. Oh well, like I always say, "You have to start to finish." Someone punch me~

Mixed Media Monday~

This weeks mixed media challenge theme is: things you love~ So many possiblities... especially with two adorable grandkids.. I chose to use things I love to play with in my studio.... So, I made this~I spray painted the chicken wire with copper paint and then used green embossing powder on it to give it the look of verdigris. Oh... and I also love to do things in multiplys... if I'm going to pull stuff out and make a big mess....then I'm making more than one! Here are three more....and the one pictured at the top of this post and two more. Six in total~I ♥ the following, and I probably use these things every single time I do anything artsy-fartsy in my studio: spray paint, embossing powder, chicken wire, foam core, moss, glue, fairies, flowers, rhinestones, bits of jewelry, scissors, glitter, buttons, text from old books, ribbons, flowers, and round shapes~

Gifts galore~

Today was a good day~ okokok, everyday is a good day, but today I got a huge gift... okokok, I bought it, but wait until you see what it is! You'll surely agree that it was a gift!-- What do you think is in this box that I bought for $10?

Nooooooooooo... probably not what you've guessed. Hold onto your glue guns girls.... THIRTY ONE POUNDS OF BUTTONS! Yes... I did weigh the box! I've already take out one ziploc baggie full of old vintage buttons *swoon* Soooooo many buttons... so little time to do anything with them!

I'm going to share something really special that I've been getting in my backyard lately. A true gift... an amazing gift. (at least I think so) Would you look at these hollowed out oranges that the fairies that live in my backyard have made. Are they not little works of art?

I hear they like to live in them in the winter months living off the orange pulp until it gets warm again. During the hot summer they abandon them to live freely amongst the plants and flowers. My neighbors orange tree that hangs over our backfence is full of these hollowed out houses. Every now and then I see a squirral eating the last remnants of the oranges that the fairies have been living on over the winter... and the weight of the squirral causes them to fall to the ground... and I collect them. I think I'm up to 20 something last count. I am sooooooo going to do something with these little orange houses!

I've linked to Lemoncholy's Flight of Fancy Fleamarket Friday linky party.

Mixed Media Monday~

Here is my contribution to this weeks theme of playthings. I made 5 things using the theme of games as my playthings. This one is bingo~ I apologize for the photos being sideways... sometimes the gremlin in my computer likes to turn the photos.here is Monopoly~

and this is dominos~

and of course jacks... don't you just hate stepping on those?This one is not a game... its just plain ol' bubbles~These will all go into a box with all the other stuff I'm needing to solder, its just to darn hot to purposely turn on something that generates heat!

Roses~

The French Cupboard is having a "Show off your Rosettes" linky party. I am so linked up! I lurve me a good rose! I've made roses out of paper~zippers~fabric~ (and yes, I'm calling these roses)grograin ribbon~ (this was copied from a store bought rosette)I've even pulled apart silk flowers and added some shiny pink fabric and glued it back together~ I have dozens & dozens of roses bushes in my yard as well. I can now proudly say I'm a Rosarian~ My house is chalk-full of roses as well, I've created a photo slide show showing off just some of the many rose covered things throughout my home.

There is always room for one more rose~ Miss Chloe Rose!

(This was taken at her Pirate birthday party)

Miss Mary Hayes~

I made this to join in on an "art challenge" being hosted by Mary from the blog "Green Paper." This is the original you were to use... using all 3 images in what-ever you created.I kept it simple as I've got a bazillion projects going at once right now... I used the photo in my Halloween photo album.I used two images of Mary, giving Mary the appearance of stepping out of the photo. I used colored pencils on her dress and face.I cut out the blue flowers and glued them so they looked like Mary was holding them in her hand. I've got those layered as well giving it a 3-d effect.Lastly, I just laid the photo over the envelope. So, I've used all 3 images... Here are a few more pages of the album....Most of these are old family photos... Just plain'ol xerox copies colored with colored pencils, photo corners and various Halloween stickers glued into a vintage album~

Mixed Media Monday~

This weeks theme is "something blue."

I made two pieces... This....& that. (this will be soldered one of these blue days)

You can view more blue pieces here.

Resin Charms~

I've made more resin charms. These are fun to make, but for someone who likes to finish something to get immediate satisfaction it takes a toll! These are made using a bracelet that I pried the faux stones out of.... I am going to add a dangly from the bottom rings~These are made using pieces from an abalony shell necklace. I want to add something around the edge so I can add more resin to them to finish them off. As they are now, I think they look like a fairy standing in a puddle of water. I'll need to redrill the holes once they are finished~Here are some abalony pieces painted red and two round pieces that came from necklaces~The two oval ones below are from a watch band that had faux plastic stones in them. I added the wire to create a hanger for each one. The one at the bottom had a polished stone in it, I am going to put a pin back on this one... the diamond fairy is just a colored piece of glass that I added a fairy to~

These little teardrop fairy charms are my favorite. Each teardrop is only 1 inch in size, the fairies are only about 1/2 inch tall....and yes, I did cut them all by hand~

I only mix up 2 tablespoons of resin at a time, a little goes a l-o-n-g way, I always have some left over. These are what I've made using the left over resin.I always have forms ready for use to pour the extra resin into them. The first layer is normally just pure resin. I keep adding left over resin to each mold everytime I have extra. I add an image then wait for more left over resin to finish them off. These have 3 layers of resin. One clear coat, the next one sealed in the image, and the last coat of resin has glitter. I used an egg mold on these ones~These ones were made using a plastic painters palette as the mold, again using left over resin~All of these will be tossed into a jar with my other resin charms. One of these days I'm going to do something with them! I've linked up to the blog "Life with Lori" and her "Get your Craft on Thursdays" linky party.

Making coasters~

While straightening out my garage the other day, I came across a box of tile I had bought at a yard sale about a year ago..... I got the box of 8 tumbled edge tile and 6 small tile pieces cut from a large tile for only $3. The gal told me she intended to make coasters with the tile and never got around to it. Small world as I was wanting tile to make coasters with. Ser·en·dip·i·ty I tell ya~ Well, I wasn't quite in the mood to make the coasters when I bought the tile at the time so I stashed them in my garage.... better to have it so when you want it you just have to shop your own stuff... Anywho, I cut out some fairies, Mod Podged them onto the tile and then sealed each with several coats of clear varnish. Here are the tumbled tile~

Look at the face on this little cherub... so funny!Here are the cut tile coasters, I don't like these ones as well as the tumbled tile.

These worked up super fast once the fairies were all cut out. Wouldn't this be a fun project for a Sunday school or girl/boy scout troop? Easy-peasy! I've linked up to Cindy's Show & Tell~