I’ve created this Creation of Beauty Hang Tag for the Words of Wisdom challenge over at the Gingersnap Creations blog. The challenge is to utilize some favorite words of wisdom (profound, funny, or otherwise) in a creation.
For this Hang Tag I’ve once again utilized a combination of both paper goods, ephemera, and digital touches to create this Altered Art piece. I love the vintage photo of the girl…she’s so lovely. And she is perfect for the quote by Ralph Waldo Emerson too, don’t you think?
I just thought I’d share something today since, for some reason, I was thinking about the ocean. I love the ocean…love beaches and almost any place near the water. So each year on our anniversary weekend for the past few years, the Hubs and I go someplace that is by the water, and preferably with a beach. We live fairly close to Lake Michigan and Lake Erie, so our destinations frequently end up being in a town by one of those lakes. And each time we go, I collect sand, shells, and other little natural objects as sort of souvenirs. When we get home, I choose a Mason Jar or some other bottle to put my sand and other beach goodies in, and I label them on the bottom with the town we went to and which year. They’ve become my collection of “Sands of Time in a Bottle.”
I have 4 of these Glass Bottles and Jars full of beach memories so far. They sit on my kitchen window sill, so that I can see them everyday, and in my own way, I’m close to the beach. I would have had 5 of these, except one year we got rained out on our beach day and I couldn’t collect anything to bring home. But that’s OK.
There’s always next year.
This is yet another Christmas gift I made this year (OK, well it’s last year now). This is a paper collage piece that I made for my mom using a vintage photo of her and my great grandmother.
This is made mostly with scrapbook paper and stickers, but I used a clear acrylic clock stamp as well, along with a brad for the center of the clock image. And when it was finished I framed it in a black frame for Mom. Just another little special photo memory captured in time. 
I made my sister, Chantele a special Christmas gift this year. Being that I’m the one that got her hooked on Twilight (the books, and the movies!) I decided all her gifts would be vampire related this year. I got her a Twilight shirt, along with the entire first season of The Vampire Diaries on DVD. That show is my latest vampire addiction so I figured I’d send it to her and see how she liked it. But I also made her this special Twilight-themed framed art I’ve called, Bitten.
This is made primarily from scrapbook papers that have a Twilight theme. I also added some ribbon and gems, and a Bella and Edward photo from the first movie in the saga. She loved the gift and I was so happy to make something special for her. Now maybe next year I’ll need to make something related to The Vampire Diaries.
I spent time in the studio again yesterday. I never get in there as often as I’d like, and then when I do it’s hard to get me out of there! Got some fun projects done, including this one, my little Fairy Topiary (click image to view full size), which I’ll add to my collection of Fairy Crafts.
I started with a small white, enamel bucket, about 2-1/2″ in diameter. In the bottom of that I add a piece of Styrofoam, which I cut to fit. Next I created the topiary, beginning with a reused end of a craft swab (waste not, want not, right?) that I painted green. I stuck on a small Styrofoam ball to the top of it, which I also painted green. Then I hot glued on some craft flowers until the ball was covered, and added a pink satin bow to it too. Then I stuck it into the Styrofoam in the bottom of the bucket.
Then I needed to create the fairy, which started with a vintage photo of a girl. Again I used a discarded craft swab to attach to the back of the photo, which I’d printed on cardstock. Then I used some craft picks to create her wings, which are made of pink tulle and beads. I simply taped those onto the back of the photo. Then I stuck that into the Styrofoam in the bucket as well.
To give weight to the bucket to hold everything in place, I put in glass flat marbles that you can get in any craft store. I have had these sitting around for years and had plenty of them. So I just poured in enough to go to the top of the bucket. They add a neat texture and some shimmer, which I like. They almost look like the tops of bubbles in there. Once those were in place I finished the bucket off by adding a pink satin bow to each side.
The whole thing has a sort of Shabby Chic feel to it, and a vintage touch too. I think something like this would look great as a table decoration at a bridal shower or baby shower or something. But my little fairy is going in my studio so I can see her everyday.
OK, this project was totally just for fun. I had an old Twilight calendar sitting in my studio for the last couple of years. I wanted to repurpose some little images that were on the back cover. So I decided to use some glass tiles and turn the photos into pushpins!
Now please excuse the quality of this photo. It is very difficult to get a good clear photo of these 1″ glass tiles. Between the texture of the glass and the small size, I can’t get a perfectly clear shot. But I think you get the idea.
I just took my pictures and cut them out with a 15/16″ square cutter. I used silver tape (for Memory Glass) to adhere the photos to the back side of the glass tiles. Then I stuck upholstery tacks to the back of the tiles with hot glue. Probably some E-5000 glue would have been a better choice, but I was in a hurry. LOL
They’re cute little Bella and Edward pushpins that are now on the bulletin board in my office.
In the summer issue of Somerset Life that I picked up over the weekend, there is a wonderful tutorial for making vintage roses out of coffee filters. I’ve done a Coffee Filter Roses Tutorial in the past, but that one was for a much quicker and simpler rose–one that is easier and less realistic. The one is Somerset is much more realistic.
I am always on the lookout for new flower tutorials and I loved theirs so I had to try it out. It was time-consuming to make, but it turned out so pretty…even if it wasn’t as pretty as the ones in the magazine.
Click to Enlarge
Click to Enlarge
I wouldn’t want to make a bunch of these, just because they take so long to make. But they really are pretty and would look so nice just sitting in a vase–one all by itself, or two or three. And they would make really nice gifts too, which is what the designer in the magazine was using them for. They’re very affordable to make too since you’re just using coffee filters and things you probably already have one hand.
Check out the magazine next time you’re in the bookstore to see the full tutorial. Somerset Life is one of my favorite magazines…but of course I love almost all the Somerset publications. I only wish they were cheaper!
Not sure really what inspired this Go Fish altered hangtag, but I had fun making it.
I started out with a large, plain white hangtag, which I stamped with a text design using black ink. Then I used some scrap wallpaper to add the wave element on the left side (top) of the tag. Next I drew a simple fish shape onto some textured blue scrapbook paper; into that, I drew the letters that spell out the word FISH, leaving a little space in between each letter so that I could cut them out. Then I cut out the letters and glued them onto the hangtag, spelling out the word FISH and also creating the shape of a fish. I added some smaller paper fish shapes that I drew and cut out, and also some punched paper holes. And I finished it off with a brad for the fish’s eye, and just a bit of blue ink on the edges for a distressed look.
OK, now I’ll be honest up front. When I started this little crafty project, I intended for it to become a glass luminary. But when I got finished, my tealight was too big to fit in the opening! URGH! So I took my lemons and made some crafty lemonade…and decided to turn this into a little vase instead.
I took one of the jars I had in my studio, one that looks like an old-fashioned “vintage” milk bottle and cleaned it well first. Then I took a craft doily that I purchased at Michael’s, sprayed the back of it with adhesive, and then adhered it to the bottle. After it had a chance to dry, I added some craft flowers and a pearlescent gem to the front of the doily. And that’s all there was to it!
Since this is a very short bottle, it will be perfect for flowers with very short stems, like the lilacs that are blooming in my back yard right now. It is difficult to find cute vases for flowers that are short, so this will be just right. And the next time I get wanting to make a luminary, I am going to be sure to measure the opening of my bottle first!
When my studio was robbed a couple of weeks ago, I didn’t realize at first that anything more than my stereo was missing. That was bad enough, since it was almost brand new. But when I was able to spend more time in there a couple of days later, I realized that a lot more was taken. It’s not like I have an inventory of everything that’s in there, so really only blatantly obvious things would come to my attention.
Well, when I sat down to try to do some crafting, I realized that several of my jars of buttons and flowers that I’d created to store these craft supplies were also missing (among other things). Several mason jars of flowers and old-fashioned jars of buttons too. They seem so insignificant, but it was really very upsetting to discover them missing, after spending so much time (not to mention the money to buy those supplies) separating the flowers and buttons by color and putting them in their own fun-looking jars.
So anyway, I’m short on buttons and flowers now, because in total they took a LOT of supplies that I use very often when I’m creating. And I’m also short on jars. So I decided to make one new one today from a jar I happened to have on hand.
None of my missing jars were decorated (which makes it even more puzzling why the thief would take them), but I thought I’d do at least one that is. So I cut out a strip of burlap and sprayed the back of it with adhesive. Then I wrapped it snug around the jar. Then I took three craft flowers and assembled them with a brad and added them on top of the burlap. And then I just dropped in the one lone tube of new flowers I’ve bought (so far) to start to replace what was stolen.
I like the way this looks. Just a fun little way to jazz up a plain glass jar. And the vintage-looking zinc lid is nice too. All of my missing flower jars had lids like these, but they were plain square mason jars. Not valuable really…to anyone but me. 
They’ll eventually get replaced…one jar at a time.
