I just stepped away for a hot minute.........

My goodness.... I stepped away from my blog for a hot minute-- and almost 7 months have passed... eiy-eiy-eiy....

I have signed up to do a four day craft event in October with the gem and mineral club I belong to. The majority of items each vendor can sell should be "rock related" seeing how we are a rock club. When I initially signed up, the pandemic seemed to be easing up somewhat, and I was hopeful that the worst was behind us. Well, we all know now that the crisis is on the rise once again..... sigh.... I'm a maker, and as you all know, "A maker's gotta make" so that is what I'm going to continue to do.

I found these adorable little red pickup truck stickers with Santa driving at Hobby Lobby. Are they not the cutest?

I pulled off the 3 dimensional sticky tape on the backside and used E6000 to adhere the little truck to a wooden slab. I then glued itty-bitty rocks in the trucks bed in front of the Christmas tree. Adorable! Well, if your passionate about rocks that is :-) After the truck was all decked out, I hot glued pipe cleaner greenery around the slab... ta da.... instant rock collector Christmas ornament! I made a bunch of ornaments and packaged them up on various tartan papers. Each one has a piece of twine at the top to hang the ornament from-- I've got the twine tucked behind each ornament so it doesn't get in the way of seeing the cuteness of each piece.I am planning on having my table decked out with galvanized metal containers and bowls etc...I pulled out this fabulous Birds & Branches tray from my garage, hence the dust. I love owning this little piece of art....  even though up to now, it was just on a shelf in my garage! This particular tray is pretty large measuring in at 12 x 21 inches. They don't sell this size anymore, they only have the smaller ones available. If your interested in getting one similar you can check out "Star Home Designs" They sell some super cute items! I think the tray will tie in nicely with all the galvanized pieces I've been buying and stashing in bins to use at the event. Honestly, I don't even recall what I've bought :-P

Tree house part 2

I've been working a little bit on my tree stump miniature house. You can find part 1 here. I used paper towels soaked in a mixture of half glue and half water to create the bark on the stump.

I've still got the capability to remove the door, this makes it super easy to really get inside the miniature house and continue to work on it-- plus, once it is all finished, I will have easy access for decorating!The second floor is just two layers of super strong cardboard. I had to cover up the edges to give it a clean edge. The second floor is going to have a wooden planked floor. I'm needing to create two sets of stairs. One from the bottom floor to the second, the other from the second floor to the topside of the tree stump. Of course, I am wanting a spiral staircase... juries still out on that one!Here is another view.... I'm going to create a flagstone area on the flat part on the front of the tree stump. I'm also going to add rocks to the fireplace to spruce that up. I'm looking forward to getting the structure finished so I can get to the fun part of decorating it!

Happy New Year!

 

So I reread my post for the start of 2020 and realized I hadn't accomplished any of the things I set out to do. Who would have thought that doing every day normal things could put you in a situation that could potentially kill you. Wow. Shakes you to your very core-- if you linger in those thoughts for to long. 

For 2021, I'm not going to have any expectations or goals that I aspire too/for... I'm just going to choose a word for the year. Like so many-- I'm choosing the word: HOPE... and in conjunction with hope, obviously FAITH.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

With hope and faith, it is easy to feel that 2021 is going to be an amazingly beautiful year.

Time to Purge

I've been so bored lately, so I figured I'd go through my studio hoping to find something to inspire me to create- something... anything. I did come across a lot of things, unopened or literally only used once... Nothing motivated me to create with it. So, that inspired me... to purge. I did take a good long look at these things.... they look like fun, but I decided I don't need 'em. Tons and tons of these, I've never used any of them.....  The one on top peeked my interest, but I got over that and added it to the pile of things to get rid of. I think it makes a container???  A bunch of templates. More templates to create mini books.A lot of envelope templates. Not going to lie, I love envelope templates. I guess it is bordering on an obsession by the looks of my collection. I got some pretty crazy templates along with the patterns for the cards too. Old school alphabet tracers... Then I went through a bin of sewing kits...These looked like fun once upon a time... I used to LOVE to cross stitch.  A lot of these came attached to magazines as a little gift with purchase. I've got several duplicates...I think these were a little gift from a magazine too...I think I've come to the realization that I'm more of a shopper than a crafter. I've got a plastic tub that I'm going to add these things to and reopen my Etsy shop one of these days! That might be something to spend some time working on! I hear a lot of people are not happy with the reviews they are receiving due to the slow shipping delays- due to the pandemic. I'm not in a hurry to reopen-- so in the mean time, I'll just keep searching for something to peek my interest and purge what doesn't!

Labradorite Pendant

My new normal these days is procrastination... since I've mastered that- I thought I'd try mastering something new! I love looking at other peoples beautiful wire weaving/wrapping on Instagram... wishing I could create similar pieces. Then it hit me, I can! I just need a visual to recreate it. (or something similar) Sooooooo I've been printing out pages and pages of things to make from earrings to pendants.

In the corner of each picture I put a number so on the corresponding blank page facing this sheet I can write down the wire gauge I used and bead size and any pattern I've created.

I've been seeing this image all over facebook and pinterest... it definitely was added to the book of inspirational photos! It was a little challenging, but I think I managed to recreate the piece pretty accurately... Here is my finished pendant. I like how it came together... although I am still not a fan of doing the "netting" part. I'm not sure which image I'm going to try to recreate next, but it is nice to have a lot to choose from :-)

Tree Stump Miniature House

About a year ago I purchased two tree slices figuring I'd do something with them. I figured I'd take pictures of my wire wrapped jewelry on them, but that never happened. All I've done with them over the past year is put them in a bag to donate to a thrift store... and then take them out. Yep, a year of doing that. While going through my studio again purging items, I again came across these two tree slices... again, they were put into the "donation bag." Then I had an idea what to do with them, finally! Turn them into a miniature house! So out of the donation bag they came!

A miniature house? Yes, a tree stump miniature house. I haven't quite figured out how to do this just yet, I'm just going to wing it. The first thing I was needing to do was to get the bark cut off the edges. Once that was done I stained the wood to give it a nice appearance.

 Then using super sturdy cardboard I cut a base for the miniature house trying to replicate the look of tree roots that show on the surface of the ground. I cut a piece of cardboard to create the walls of the tree stump and cut long slits about 1/2 inch apart so I could get the cardboard to wrap around the shape of my tree. I only have two wood slices, so the center floor I made used two pieces of heavy duty cardboard glued together. I used tacky glue and nails to secure the wall into place. I cut holes into one wood slab and the cardboard floor so I can add stairs later.

Once the cardboard and slabs were in place I added balled up pieces of tin foil and tape to make the tree stump look more realistic. When the shape was how I liked it I added a layer of torn up paper bags to everything so I would have a smooth surface to work with. I also added a chimney to the right side of the tree stump.

 For the top of the tree stump I added a piece of leftover tubing from my outdoor drip system. I wanted a slight raised edge of my stump and this worked out perfectly. It is covered in pieces of glued on paper towels.

 To create the windows I used pieces of clear acrylic sheets that I had on hand. I framed the windows with illustration board and then covered it with drywall patch.

 Here you can see the front panel of my miniature tree stump. I'm still needing to cut out some windows on this piece and then figure out how to create a hinge so it can swing open and shut. You can see in this photo how I use the tin foil and tape to create shapes on the cardboard...

I think it is turning out super cute so far. Next up is to work on getting the interior walls done along with the tree bark on the tree stump itself.

New Garden

Our house is on a corner lot and I've taken part of the front side yard and fenced it in so that it not only makes the front yard look better... but it gives me room to grow a garden.

I am going to paint the fence... eventually... but I've got a lot of other little things I'm needing to address first. This side yard area was where I had a rose garden, after giving away all the rose bushes I had all of these retaining stones left. I dug up my grass along the sidewalks edge and created a long planter. Oh.My.Goodness. I'm in love!

I was lucky to have enough pavers to have it graduate up towards the house, which is great because my yard/lawn/driveway do that.

It was a lot of work moving the retaining stones, planting, putting down weed barrier, laying a drip system... and putting down the bark and rocks for decorations... I'm loving how it is turning out though!

 I have one more area next to the fence that I'm needing to complete then tie the drip system into a water line so I don't have to hand water this area anymore.

I'm going to use a cement form to lay down a cobblestone path to the gate-- eventually. I created an opening in the fence for my outdoor cats to use so they can go into the backyard. Here is my former feral cat Barney coming in the garden to join me...

  He is so good natured  it is hard to believe he was once wild.

He is like a puppy-dog... always following me around and wanting belly rubs... love him~

I was in a rush to get these tomatoes in the ground as they were pretty root bound. I only planted four out of the six I had bought as I need to buy more good dirt to turn the corner of the planter.

This new space is 25' x 25' and with that is a lot of new pickets that will shrink so, I dismantled a 8'x4' lattice to get the long thin pieces of wood to nail over the openings. I have a staple gun that also shoots nails-- so it was easy peasy to tack them up. Instant privacy. This isn't going to be your typical veggie garden. I'm going to have a few tomatoes and peppers growing in a planter and the rest of the area is going to be an area I can use all the yard surplus I have in the other side yard.

In this area by the gate I'm going to lay some red cement bricks to create an area for the wooden spool table and chairs. (I was eager to put them in this area but now are getting in my way!)

Everything except the plants I'm pulling from my other side yard where everything is stacked... I evidently over buy things for my yard as much as I do for my studio!

I have so many fun things to put in this area-- I grabbed some chairs and a bird bath.. all of which are getting in the way of making progress, so I had to stop bringing over the fun stuff until the not so fun stuff has been finished! Oh-- and I've got a huge tree stump with loads of roots that needs to come out! You can see it in the lower left part of the photo below. Just one more thing getting in my way of having fun!

I had to grab some cinder blocks and use them for stairs until I come up with a cute step down for this area.

We are expecting a long stretch of 100 degree temperatures, so I imagine other than watering-- very little is going to get done in this area for awhile!
big hugs,
Cheryl