Winter is over and spring has sprung with lots of inspiration

Hello everyone… Welcome spring and new adventures.

I have been off the grid for a bit. Well, the blogging grid that is. It's been a busy winter. And what a winter it was. I'm going to do a quick catch me up.. so be prepared 6 months in a flash…..

******One quick disclaimer.. At this time I have no affiliation with any products or shared tutorials. Other than maybe belonging to a shared interest group. I simply share this information to pass on knowledge.

Give me a hammer, a flame and a piece of metal and I'm in heaven.

My latest project was been this air chased bracelet. The inspiration came from this tutorial video posted in a metals group I belong to. Kharisma is a wealth of inspiration and energy. It's fun to watch her videos and get all caught up in her enthusiasm . This was so much fun that I have made a few more.

My Mule Team earrings. I am addicted to this process. Sarah Boo's Musing shared her process here. As you can see I did not get the red but love the purple and coral tones I did achieve. I have my notebook out and taking notes. Will be changing up the water (used tap here) to bottled and distilled. I used my MAP torch. Going to try it with butane and propane. Sounds like a whole blog post dedicated to the process.

In my Charming world.. I participated in a bird, a caged bead, game piece, watch parts and a gift card swaps. At one point this was sitting on my bench.

Up close and personal… charms, charms, charms…. Fabulous swaps and so much fun.

Lucky Squirrel white shrink plastic,  sharpie pen and rubbing alcohol. I created a faux bone effect with my chick in a dress by Invoke Arts. I wish I could remember what die the bird cut out is. Its a set of two and a fairly new die.. like released the last 6 months.

Bird pendant using Spellbinder/SLK Media Mixage  house die cut out of some 30 gauge copper and then embossed with Vintaj's India Archway and Woodland birds dies .

Caged bead swap. I made these brass cages first. Then reread the instructions to realize they needed to be made of silver..  No hurt feelings here. I was really debating on sending them any way. I like them so much. They are created with brass beads, bead caps and jump rings. I colored the center bead with Vintajs Opalite patina.

Caged beads that were the result of following the rules.. lol. Don't you hate it when you are so excited about a project and skim the rules.. Lampwork bead, wire, bead caps and balled heads pins.. Simple as that.

I hosted this swap in a charm group I belong to. Actually all these charms are for ArtCharms yahoo group. The rules for this was to create something from those pretty gift cards we all get. Here was my contribution.. Steak and Shake. It was hard to get a good picture. They are metallic and holographic. Plus of I loved that 50's feel.

 This was such an amazing swap. I will have to ask if I can share some of the others creations. I was totally amazed and what others created.

Game piece swap. Above in the tray is a pile of space ships. Those came from a game my boys had and I just couldn't get rid of them. Below monopoly. I used wooden house shapes and covered them with monopoly chance and community chest cards and then sealed them. Each one is different. Again another fun swap.

Last but not least.. watch parts. I just finished these up. This one was a struggle for me. I have many prototypes. Shrink plastic which I ran through my printer and then used watch gears.

Well folks that does it for now. Many, many more things to share and on the bench. But this turned out to be a long post. I just couldn't stop and or decide what to share.. so went for it all. Enjoy.

New Neighbors... fairies have arrived.

It started out as a simple project. I had this bird cage that I just love. The bent wire hearts on the doors just spoke to me. I have had it tucked away for some time. I was cleaning out my flower bed and realized my hen and chicks could use a cleaning out. I remembered the bird cage and thought how cool would that be.

I transplanted the hens and chicks and they took right off. Found the Dragons tail and it was coming together. How about a fairy house? I shopped around a little and just wasn't finding what I had in mind.

So the decision was to make one. With some basic plumbing pvc, (3 inch pvc drain pipe for the body, 3 inch to 1 1/2 reducer for the roof and a 1 1/2 cap) and my all time favorite clay, Aves Apoxie.  I set out making my fairy house.

I mixed my apoxie clay and then rolled out a thin layer, covering the drain pipe. I then took a texture plate made by wilton for the stone texture. Pressing it around the clay covered pipe base. The clay needs to cure over night. While waiting on that I covered the roof (reducer) with mosaics.

I painted everything a very light blue and then did a wash of raw umber to highlight the stones and give a aged look to the roof.

I picked up some little fairies at a estate sale recently. She fit perfectly looking out the window. I had gotten this far and something was still missing. That is when I added the flower boxes on the windows and also decided I need to have a door. The door is covered with apoxie clay and texture mold was used to give it that wood look.

I see more of these in my future. It was fun creating and I have already thought of so many other things I would do.  I am on the search for some more miniature succulents to add to this.. I see my little fairy garden expanding.

I thought I would end showing you what I used. Also how my door and windows came about. A big thank you to my husband for cutting them out for me.

Mojo's getting there

I committed to this project in hopes to regain some of my Mojo. I'm feeling creative again. The project is a 2 for 2 swap through Retro Cafe. I love their mini houses.

I spent a day papering and painting the houses and then just couldn't figure out where to go from there. So I put them up for a few days. I decided to start with creating in my box. Here is my blinking king cake baby playing in the pumpkin patch.

I have these vintage pipe cleaner snowman heads and bottle brush trees. With a little bit of mica flake glitter and diamonds dust a nice winter scene appeared.

This one is a little more out of my box. I'm really not into birds but as I was looking  through my stash I realized I have several different owls. His nest is made from these copper flat wire strands and some faux moss with a few feathers tucked in for some nest fluff. Adding the stick to the frame just pulled it all together.

This one is a little more out of my box.. little cutsie for what I usually do. I have this stash of worry dolls and thought they would be fun to use. With a blue dew drop roof inked with black stazon and then covered with some vintaj antique cooper patina. I hand stamped a no worries banner and the little brass legs made it all fall together.. I am excited at how these turned out. Even had a quick second where I thought about keeping them.. but ahhh thats part of the challenge. I'm sure they will find good homes and be enjoyed as much as I did creating them.

House charm

I am lucky enough to have a upcycle store near me called Learning from Scratch. I purchase all sorts of items from there. In this project it was wooden square beads used as the base of my house.

This project had been in the back of my head for some time. Recently a article in the special issue of handcrafted jewelry inspired me to to pull out my tub of gathered items and create..

These charms will be swapped out at a charm swap I am hosting at my Michigan Altered Book Association (MIABA) meeting on Saturday in Kalamazoo.

Another Create Day

This workshop was presented by Belinda Spiwak. We made ATC's with lots of dimension covered in resin. This was way out of my box. For some reason I have a had a fear of resin and I'll admit it, I'm not a big fan of making ATCs. Love to collect them though. It was a great class for my last day. Belinda was charming, set up a wonderful workspace, shared a treasure trove of goodies with us and made everyone feel relaxed. Everyone created some wonderful pieces. A must do with Belinda if you are interested in resin.

We used Tim Holtz dies from Sizzix and the Vagabond. This was a fun class. It was my first experience with Smooch and Little Windows Resin which I see myself using more of.

Another fabulous retreat day.

Here is my house for a swap. This was a fun project to work on. It was nice to participate in a project that for the most part everyone came through.