Skull ATC, Bird Stickers, Ticket Stickers, Gelliprint Tags

Hey, hey. It's the end of the day on Tuesday and I think I did a good job today with managing my time. I usually have babysitters on Tuesdays and/or Thursdays for about 4 hours so I can get work done, listen to my podcast playlists, fill orders, run errands, do art, and basically have alone time. I love being able to make a list of tasks that I've been meaning to get done and actually doing ALL THE THINGS. It happened today, it just so happens that the last thing on my list is a blog post. So here's my update!

I did a little bitty swap with an old Craftster buddy, AlwaysInspired. She just wanted some blank craft stickers (of which I have a whole roll), but I wanted to make something for her. So I made this skull ATC with paint, inks, gelatos, etc. The base is another gelliprint from Audio. I was pretty pleased with how it turned out, especially the light peony doodles in the background.

 This grouping of birdy drawings made me smile. There's something about feathers. These are also for swapping, and they're all drawn on sticker paper for extra function and coolness.

 Also, swapped these altered tickets. (I got the idea from another craftster pal, Smmarrt). They're alien cats, because I love cats and I love weird things. Also, I made these into stickers using my Scotch ATG. Fun fact: there was also a blue ticket in this set, but I turned on my fan and it vlew off the table, presumably into an alternate universe, because I couldn't find it.

Last, I made some gelli-printed tag stickers out of blank labels that aforementioned Smmarrt sent to me. They turned out soooo cute and I can't wait to make more. They're gonna be perfect to use in my planner.

So, I hope everyone had a beautiful, peaceful MLK weekend. Mine was pretty okay, and I got to spend time looking after my poor unfortunate, pained husband who was separated from his wisdom teeth last Thursday. Until next time, I'll be making art when I can and sharing it here :) Have a really, really good week.

Pet Portraits: Kitties Banner in a Matchbox

I made these a while ago for a wonderful swap with Leslie of Leslie's Art and Sew. They are little acrylic pet portrait paintings of her four kitties!

 I had a lot of fun painting each of her cats, they are all super good-looking cats. The backgrounds are made with Tim Holtz distress paints... I think I'm addicted to those, pretty much.

 Anyway, I hope everybody has a great weekend! Mine will be filled with hard work getting the chicken coop ready for the peeps.

They are growing...and eating...and pooping...so much. They are turning out to be very sweet little birdies, though, especially Yum Yum. She's also the biggest!

King Easter Bunny Egg Shrine

Easter is ALMOST here. It's this weekend... and I'm kinda sad it's going to be over soon because I've been having so much fun making bunny crafts. This is a wee egg shrine to the king of the bunnies (Elahrairah!)

It;s made from a paper mache egg that has been cut open on the side. They're hollow, so there was a nice little cavity to fill with glitter and bunny-delight.

I tried to shine the light right up in there so you can see the pretty glitter inside :) I think that glitter is my favorite part!

The edges where I cut using a hack saw were kind of rough, so I lined the border with seed beads. Then I glued on some resin flowers. Doesn't that dresden make such a good crown?  Tee hee!

And in other news... THIS! I bought this ridiculous golden crystal-encrusted bunny ring for myself and I'm in love with it. It's so much sparklier in person. It's fitting for this weekend, but I'll probably just wear it all the time. Got it from this Ebay shop: Seperwar. Happy Easter, friends!

Squirrelly Scene Altered Coaster

My, my, it has warmed UP in Alabama this week... I was complaining about the cold, but now I remember the hot! Here comes spring. I made this altered coaster for the Alpha Stamps Spring Fling 4x4 Swap. 

 Check out my moon beads :) If you want more info on the swap, see the newsletter!

I hope everybody had a good weekend. I did! 

Alice's Wonderland in a Box

How's about something flowery and bright to shake us out of this dreary winter junk?! Have a look at this little Wonderland in a Box I made using Alpha Stamps products.

 I used all sorts of different flowers and leaves to go along with a few images from some Alice Collage Sheets.

 The paper mechanics were such that the box was able to open and shut originally, with some pop-up action, but once I started getting carried away with the embellishing and bloomifying, I abandoned the movement in favor of ludicrous flower content. The levels I made ended up being really great, providing plenty of surfaces to hot-glue flowers and beads and characters. Hot glue was best for this project, so I didn't need to wait for glued-on items to dry before putting in the next layer.

 The flowers were my FAVORITE part. They're paper, and Alpha Stamps has tons of styles of them, some colored and some just plain white. I used the white, because it is SO fun and pretty to paint them yourself and end up with whatever colors you want. To color them, I dipped the flowers in a glass of water, dabbed them on a paper towel to get the drips off, then just used a paintbrush and watercolors to color them. When the paper flowers are wet, they absorb the colors so readily...and the colors blend so nicely... Then I just clipped them up to dry overnight.

 There. Now that's enough flowers to brighten up my chilly winter. I kind of want to crawl into that little box.

And these little character stands are the perfect thing to extend the scene outside of the box. Just glue on a character, and you have a little toy :) Easy peasy. I think these would be fun to use with my monster stamps!!!

Anyway, I hope you're all doing well. And if you want to make a cheery box for yourself, here's a product list:

-Gardenias White

-Tiny Paper Roses

-White Roses with Heart Shaped Petals

-Mini Rosebuds Ivory

-Small White Apple Blossoms

-Old Fashioned Roses White

-Acrylic Leaves in Tin (Fall Harvest AND Spring Green)

-Acrylic Flowers in Tin

-Alice Characters CS

-Mad Hatter's Tea Party Paper Dolls CS

-Seed Catalog ATCs CS

-3'' Cube Box

-Character Stands

Singing Bird Stage - Altoids Tin Lid

I like to pry the lids off of my altoids tins before I alter them, so sometimes I have an excess of tin lids... I think they're perfect for itsy bitsy little scenes. I made a sweet little birdy stage :)

Isn't this little birdy cute?  Man, I wish my budgies played the banjo. That would be adorable.

Pipo is a pretty good singer a capella, though. Popcorn doesn't complain.... much.

You can find most of these items in the Alpha Stamps February Kit! 

Supplies list:

Blank Altoids Tin (lid only)

M for the Magpie CS

La Belle Epoque CS

Romance CS

Valentine Banners CS

Bird Words CS

Chipboard Banners

2mm Silk Ribbons

Lightweight Flowers (Silver)

Tear Drop Mix

The Young Queen of Hearts Altered Altoids Tin

 I had the pleasure of participating in another awesome wicked Craftster swap which was themed "Wicked Children." The whole idea was to come up with a list of villains or wicked characters you'd like to see depicted as a little kid. My partner had a pretty awesome list, and I picked to craft a young Queen of Hearts from Alice in Wonderland.

 I don't often draw people...So I was a little nervous working on this, BUT I think I captured the deviousness of the little queen as she stews ideas about playing croquet with hedgehogs and flamingos.

 I saw these little resin roses at Michaels and thought they went with the theme perfectly.

 I used a pop-can tab for a wall hanger on the back.

And in other Alice in Wonderland-related news, I found this tremendous monster of a caterpillar in my yard today, on a big toadstool, blowing smoke rings from a hookah. He looked just like Absolem, but green. He refused to be photographed smoking, so I had to make do with taking pictures on a stick. Really though, he's an imperial moth caterpillar and he weighs about 3 lbs.

Just kidding. He was huge, though.

Toco Toucan Altered Altoids Tin

This month's challenge over at the Unique Crafters Challenge Blog is GLITTER AND SHINE! 

I made this altered Altoids tin lid with all sorts of sparkly, shiny fun stuff. The clouds in the background are cut out of American Crafts glitter paper, which is unlike any other glitter paper I've used. It's so smooth and totally not the normal glitter texture. Nothing falls off of it, and I think I'd describe it as more glowy and reflective. Seriously, it's awesome. I have to find some more of it.

I also slapped on a border of beads, along with glitter glue on the inside rim and some rhinestones.

Here's a shot of the polyclay toucan I sculpted before the acrylic paint job. 

"My favorite color is shiny." 

The bottom has a dangling pendant with lovely, sparkly glass stones :) I couldn't resist adding just another glitter and shine element.

So, if you've got the hankerin' to create something shiny this month, don't hesitate to enter it in the Unique Crafters Challenge! You can win some radical supplies. 

Happy August 1, folks!

Retro Camper Altered Altoids Tin Lid

Hello, friends! I'm in Texas right now visiting with my sister. I probably won't do much serious crafting while I'm here, but luckily I have a backlog of projects to share for the next couple of weeks. I made this altered Altoids tin lid for onegroovyday for the Craftster IYP swap. She loves retro campers...

Check out the glitter and beads along the edges... I love glitter glue because it covers the edges of the paper lining the back of the lid. Looks more finished that way.

Here's the back, there's some chain so the tin can be hung on the wall.

I made the little camper from white polyclay and then painted it with acrylics. The little lines I did with a micron pen. I was pretty pleased with how it turned out.

Aaaaaand the decorative topper piece is made out of matches. I put some clear nail polish on the tips, hoping it might make them less flammable... Does that make it less flammable, or more? Oh well. Just keep it away from open flame :) I have tons of loose matches about from making altered matchboxes, so I've gotta use em someplace. They look nice, right?

Anyhoo, I hope everyone is having a splendid week so far. I am. I went to Sea World yesterday evening with my sister and it was great. We're going to go about 3000 more times before I leave... I want to feed a dolphin.

Red, White and Blue Pin up Altered Matchbox

It's July! And that means another challenge over at Unique Crafters. To celebrate Independence Day, this month's theme is "Patriotic!" As part of the UC design team, I decided to make a little altered matchbox. I'll admit, this theme was a bit of a challenge, since I'm not sure I've ever crafted in a red/white/blue color scheme and I didn't just want to do a monster in an Uncle Sam hat :)

 I went with a vintage pinup image, because pinups are so Americana, and I felt like it worked with the theme. I thought of eagles and maps and fireworks and stuff, but came back around to this. I got this image from an Etsy shop called itkupilli (lovely collage sheets!)

The feet are little beads, and I did more embellishing with paper flowers, brads, and wee metallic stars. 

So if you're up for making something festive and patriotic, don't forget to head over to the Unique Crafters Challenge Blog and enter it in July's challenge! Happy 4th of July :)

Wicked Forest Altered Matchbox

 Oh, you all know I love to do Craftster swaps :) This time around, the swap was an altered matchbox with a "Wicked Forest" theme. I love matchbox swaps because it's such a challenge to fit all your big ideas into a teeny weeny matchbox... Good thing I like to work small... The quote I used for the outside of the matchbox is "All things truly wicked start from innocence." by Ernest Hemingway. I thought the quote was a perfect fit for my little box.

 You slide off the cover revealing a leafy green, lush watercolored box.

 Swing open the doors...

 And a wee fluffy and friendly squirrel greets you! The piece folds out...

 To reveal a plethora of cute fluffy forest friends.

But wait...

Holy crap! The reverse side shows how secretly sinister they are!

I know they're pretty scary, but the theme was wicked after all. The animals are watercolor and ink, drawn and painted just for this matchbox. I showed it to Bobby and he didn't want me to send it off to my swap partner... But I did anyway.

Happy Wednesday, everybody :)