Necklace

I've been playing around with casting plaster the last week or so. I wanted a large face to put on an assemblage I'm working on and thought plaster would be ideal. But in the meantime, I made a mold out of a doll hand and cast it to use on this necklace:
Once the plaster was dry (thanks in part to the magic of the microwave!) I painted it with a couple of acrylic washes, added the next and then glued it to the washer. The spikes coming out of the back are actually straight pins that I colorized using alcohol inks. The metal case for the necklace is made out of metal repair tape on top of heavy cardstock. I inked it with alcohol inks and then embossed it using some distress powder. It doesn't show very well in the photo because of the glare, but you can see a little bit of the embossing in the corner. I cut the pages and made the book, ran the ribbon (hand dyed using a combination of walnut ink and perfect pearls heat-set with an iron) through a hole that I pierced at the top and put the whole thing together.
Viola--a lovely grungy necklace. :)

Bird House No. 2

Here are my photos of my second altered bird house. This one I painted using ranger's distress crackle paints. Once the paint was dry and all crackled-up, I inked it with some dark brown stazon ink. The roof tiles are made of punched paper that I edged with brown ink. The green tiles were stamped before they were punched.
Each of the children have wings that were made from a stamp that I embossed with gold.



These were a lot of fun to do--I've got one more that I think I'm going to do, not for the swap, but just for me!

Back

Hi all:
I am back from an extended break. We had family in from out of town and then some technology issues, due to the floods, and then I was in Vegas!
But I'm back with lots of work. I've been making up some samples for Make-n-Takes for a stamping/mixed media retreat that's happening down in Nashville at the end of this month. I did a tag, a card and an ATC. Here they are:




I hope now that things have settled down and I'm in the swing for my summer teaching scheduler I can get back to posting regularly. I hope you are all doing well!

Heirloom Festival

My teaching schedules is up on the Heirloom Festival's site! You can follow the link, and scroll on down to register for classes. If you want to see photo's of the mini-technique book for both of the classes you can go on over to my flickr account (photos are labeled Perfect Pearls and Distress.) Here are the class descriptions:

Saturday, Class Area "B" 11:30 AM – 12:30 PM

Perfect Pearls Technique Tag Book with Wishful Thinking

Craving a little sparkle in your life? Well, Perfect Pearls are just the thing for you!
Come and explore their versatility while creating a technique tag book. We’ll learn 5 different techniques,
ranging from the basic image coloring, to the beautiful marbled metallic veins!
We’ll even get to play with the new Grunge Board as part of the process.

Cost $25.00 Supplies to bring: Craft Sheet, water bottle sprayer, heat gun, and glue pencil. Class Level: All

Saturday, Class Area "B" 1:30 –2:30 PM

Distress Technique Tag Book with Wishful Thinking

Do you love the vintage look? Wondering how to achieve it yourself?
Come and explore the wonderful world of Distress Products by Tim Holtz and learn how to achieve that well-worn vintage look
for your creations. We’ll be working with everything form the new line of Crackle paints, to his fun new texture hammer and
paper distresser, not to mention the new Grunge Board!
Learn seven different techniques all while creating a technique tag book for you to take home.

Cost $25.00 Supplies to bring Tape Runner. Class Fee includes basic tool kit. Class Level: All


I hope some of you will come and join me for lots of fun and shopping....I can hardly wait!

The last of my mini-book photos

I am finally getting around to posting the last of my min-book photos. This week I've been super busy trying to get the last of my stuff ready for classes the next couple of months. I made another min-book which I'll post tomorrow. It's amazing that during my "down-time" I find myself still playing catch-up. The days need to be longer. That's the only solution I can come up with.


I hope everyone is having a good weekend!

Mini Book Photos

As promised here are four pages from my mini book project. On each of the pages I tried out a different distress technique for the class I'll be teaching later this winter. I think my favorite page is the teal one half-way down. But I'm also in love with these buttons on the first page. I used alcohol inks on plain white buttons to get the vintage effect.


I'll post more of my pages tomorrow.
I hope everyone is having a safe flood-free evening and is staying nice and dry.

Tag, you're it!

I've been hard at work on some of my design team work for Retro Cafe Art Gallery. Check out these lovely and cute Christmas images!
I felt like making some tags, I used a bunch of the distress products by Ranger, including the new crackle paint.



I will have more to put up tommrow!