Vintiquities Workshop Halloween Charm Swap Linky Party

Awhile back I told you about a charm swap that was happening over at Vintiquities Workshop hosted by none other than Thespoena McMcLaughlin. Our charms started arriving a few days ago. What a awesome package. The goal was to create 15 charms, you could either make 3 sets of 5 or 15 different charms. Today we are having a linky hop to share what each of us created.

Here is a closer view. I made a double wrap bracelet out of a strip of halloween fabric and attached the charms.

Just as exciting as the charms was seeing the packaging they came in. Everyone created a fun little display for their charm. Here are my contributions to the swap. I chose to make 3 sets of etched copper discs.

Here is the set fresh off my work bench.

To see what the other participants created go here to find the link hop list.

Apothecary Challenge

When Laura Carson of Artfully Musing and team designer for Alphastamps posted her Apothecary Challenge I thought why not. Boy what a challenge it was. It just kept growing and growing. Here is what I started with, a grape crate.

And this what I ended up with. My darling husband got right into the challenge also. He added shelves and this trim I found laying around. He figured out how to add some doors. I just had to have doors. I covered the inside of the crate with some flocked scrapbook paper.

Here it is with the doors shut.

I'm going to start out with this is a long post with many photos. There was just no way I could share and not really share... so here it is. I would love to hear what you think.. please leave me a comment when your through. There are two separate challenges. Both using items made from images Laura designed for Alphastamps. The first challenge was to create at least 3 potion bottle from her images. The other a much grander challenge was a apothecary cabinet. I started right in creating my potions bottles. It took awhile longer to come up with a cabinet. In her video Laura uses paper mache boxes. This was not the direction I wanted plus I wanted something compact and that I could close up when done and store.

This is where I will make this a little like Where's Waldo and let you search for potion bottles. My apothecary bottles from Laura's apothecary sheet are, Frog Slime, Sleeping Death Powder, Bottled Ghost, Rotten Pumpkin and Poison. In there I also have some glow in the dark dragon eyeballs, zombie fingers, werewolf fur, bottle blondes and much, much more.

I do like the creep factor.. so along with your search you will find cockroaches, spiders and webbing, a rat or two and a plate of brain.

Here are a few up close and personal pics of bottles.

And some more.

More.

And one last one.. Here it is with the lights on. I can't finish this posting without stating after many failed attempts at photographing. I ended up taking most of these in night mode.

Please let me know what you think.

Cackling Witches and moon flowers

It's been a busy week. So busy that I forgot to share this project with you. Feels good to jump back in and play. My first project since my rotator cuff surgery in June. Still not at 100% but sure felt good to get my hands dirty again. I'm participating in a couple of swaps over at ArtCharms. One is a halloween and the second is the monthly color dangle which is, what else but black and orange with copper findings.

Our challenge for the Halloween swap was of course Halloween and copper findings. I chose this profile witch image stamp. I have been wanting to get the etching pot out for some time.

I created a moon flower dangle. Of course copper wrapped. I'm excited to get these back. I think I will have some wonderful additions to my halloween charm tree.

Junque Jewelry Charms

I recently participated in a Junque jewelry swap over at ArtCharms. I completed 2 sets. One was using a green beaded necklace.

You can see the bundle of beads from the necklace after I had disassembled it here.

The other set was created with some 1996 Atlanta Olympic Pins that I was lucky enough to run across a stash of them at a local recycle store I shop at called Learning from Scratch.

Here is a short pictorial overview of how they were created. Here are the components I started with.

Some of the steps I took in coloring and assembling. First time I used Ranger Vintaj dye patina. It has some interesting effects. To get the full color you really need to let it sit over night. It does change from the initial look of first application. Overall I am happy with the coloring.

This swap has gotten me interested in what else I can create from unwanted pieces of jewelry. Has me looking at sales for more.

i spy a charm

It's been a very unusual winter here in Michigan. With a total snow fall of what we can get in one day. The middle of March is here and we are having mid to high 70 degree weather. Then today I wake up to fog.. fog so thick its scarey. Ok enough of that...

I love charms.. I look at things thinking that would be a cool charm. I have acquired quite a large collection of Art Charms. My UFO (unfinished object) project this week is related to this collection of charms. I put together a necklace.

I participate in several swaps a year. It's fun to see what others come up with for the theme or how they use a object.

Lets play a game of I SPY... see if you can find a charm you may have created for me.

I had received a cloth necklace in a swap. I wanted to use that as my base. I wove it through a length of oxidized silver link.

I mixed my metals. Using mostly silver, copper and black. But as you can see there are a couple of golds in there too.

I attached the chain to the cloth by sewing it and then tied knots. This served two purposes. One to hide the stitching and the other to adjust the overall length.

I'm not sure each charm has found its exact placement yet. I'm sure I will fuss budget around and move one or two.

I wore it to town yesterday and received great revues. I'm sure it will become one of my go to pieces.

Ancient Egypt

Here is a swap I jumped in last minute.. These charms are made from roof flashing, alcohol ink several layers of sealer with stampings in between.

Steampunk and charms.. what more could there be..

I love the whole process of working with metal. The hammering, layering and connections. This charm went through several upgrades til I came to a combination I really liked. Hammered copper hearts layered with several types of gears

Charms..

Belinda Spiwak over at Crazy Art Girl's Musings hosted a charm swap for those of us attending CREATE. I had so much fun designing my charms. My bird in a nest was assembled by twisting several strands of fine wire. Then I wove the wire into a nest, added some small seed beads for eggs and had this cute little bird bead to sit on her eggs. My flower is created with lucite flower beads that I purchased at this adorable bead shop I found in Downers Grove called Bead Heaven. If I ever get unpacked I will share what everyone created.

Steampunk???? Did I hit the mark

Heres my try with a steampunk theme. I'm still tweeking it out. I have been playing with ideas for more than a month. Way more prototypes than I usual produce.. lol. Need to finish it up.. so I can get them made and in the mail. For a swap I'm playing in over at FairieDustDreams. Can't wait to see what the others have come up with. Well back to some more tweeking.

The last haunted house page arrived today for a swap on my yahoo group AlteredWithOutLimits. So I thought I would post the covers I have created. We have 10 players and they have come up with some interesting houses.

The house is cut out using the Sizzix little haunted house die. Each player had the option to use or cover up the window and door cutouts.

I will be posting houses in the next couple of days.

Charms

Faux tin transfer charm

Halloween charm swap....

Charms traded for in several swaps

Charms I have made and traded for over the years. The first picture is charms that I made for a faux tin type class I taught. Second is a halloween swap I hosted with my local gals for halloween. The last picture is a collection of charms I have collected that are created by others.

I love Halloween... I work on Halloween all year round. This is a fun bobbin floss swap I hosted on my AlteredWithOutLimits yahoo group. They all turned out great. The size was a challenge for some of us... ; P

Had so much fun working on this over the weekend. As it snowed (yuck). Was getting used to the high 50's - 60 weather last week. I chose to go with a more Victorian feel than build a "steampunk image" Can't wait to see what the rest in the swap have come up with.

 

I finally finished this for a 1 for 1 swap I am hosting on my yahoo group AlteredWithOutLimits. This month our challenge was to create a beeswax collage. This was so much fun I could see myself getting hooked on doing these.