Jewelry for sale on December 8th.

Just a little sampling of what will be for sale on December 8th at the (soft) opening of my new studio.
So much fun to play with silver!

Thank you for visiting!

Little House Pins and Ornaments

Hello all! Just a quick little post on some fun things I'm selling at my studio open house in December.
Yep, my studio is finally up and running! There will be a full post later on with before and after pictures of all the work we did, but for now, here's some eye candy!

These are little pins about 2 1/2 inches tall and full of glitter and little Swarovski crystals.

They were made from some wood scraps from my husbands shop, gesso'd and covered with paper scraps, then I used a great collage sheet from Alpha Stamps called Tiny House Trims Collage Sheet for both the pins and the ornaments pictured below for all the cute little doors.

You can see more pics of these cute ornaments and supplies on Alpha Stamps HERE.
I used acrylic paint to make everything look snowy and added glitter to the snow and lets face it, wherever I wanted to, because GLITTER. Little Swarovski flat back crystals added extra sparkle.
I used a lot of Diamond Stickles on both the pins and the ornaments. I wired the ornaments, but I also used ribbon to hang quite a few of them as well. So much fun!
I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and are snuggling down into the coming winter and holiday season!
Thank you for stopping by!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Tildy, the Empress of the Universe and her human companions want to wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving!

It Could Be A Fairytale.

This triptych is definitely telling a story. But what is it? When I started making it, I really didn't have anything in mind, but the more I looked at it, the more it became something.
I showed it to my sister and she said (roughly) "He's reading the flower like tea leaves and he can see her in it. Blue sky and green grass turn dark and wicked. Ooh."
Fabulous!
Better than anything I thought up.
What story do you see in it?

I started with the Arch Top Triptych 8 Inch.
I cut my papers for the backs of each piece and set them aside.

I cut four pieces of linen hinge tape about 4 inches long. (you can get it HERE)
Line up your triptych pieces and make sure all the bottoms are even with each other and attach two pieces of the tape to the chipboard to connect the pieces. making sure the tape is pretty even as well.
Then I turned the piece over and attached the other two pieces of tape, going into the dip between the chipboard pieces so I had a solid connection with the exposed sticky bits of the tape on the other side.

I glued the paper I cut to the back side of the triptych.
NOTE: the three components of the triptych are slightly different from each other, so I used EACH one as a template for the paper I cut. That way, all the bottoms and outside edges fit. I set it aside.

Next, I gave the arches a good coat of gesso. I love gesso.

After the gesso dried,  I painted the arches red. I really like Golden's Napthol Red Medium.
I let it dry completely. And then!!!
And then....because I wanted a little added richness, that super bit of drenched color, I painted a coat of Quinacridone Magenta on top of the red.
Oh, double biscuits, is it ever pretty!
I set it aside and let it dry.
After I stopped staring at it.

Then I started playing with bits of torn paper and the original image that got me going in the first place.
I made gently sloping hills and began drafting my collage, letting it unfold and bring in the red arches from time to time to check overlap and flow.
This is where I started.......

And this is where I ended up.
In the picture below, nothing is glued down and no fine details are added.
I usually take a picture at this point as a reference for where everything goes before I take it apart and glue things down.
Next, using matte medium (I use either Liquitex or Golden Matte Medium) I attach all the paper bits one layer at a time.
After it dries completely, I put on at least one coat of matte varnish. Two is what I do mostly, letting each coat dry thoroughly before applying the next one.
Varnishing your pieces is really important for permanency. Paper is ephemeral and varnishing gives it a lot longer life, and makes it as waterproof as paper can get.

After the varnish dries, I glue the red arches on the triptych. Make sure you glue them on the correct pieces.
After the glue dries, I applied another coat of varnish, back and front. (for this piece, this was the second coat of varnish.....I wanted to make sure the arches got a coat as well)

I added painted details, like all the little dots and swirls and painted in the stones on her head piece...

making sure I added those same detail dots and swirls to the wizard's panel for continuity.
and added a few metal findings at the top of the arches.

Don't for get to sign your work!
Also, for anyone that is interested, the image of the woman is called 'Head of a Lady in Medieval Costume' by Lucien Victor  Guirand de Scevola. Painted about 1900.

SUPPLIES
Arch Top Triptych 8 Inch


Graphic 45 French Country (for the sunflowers) Communique (cream and black harlequin for the hills)
Ella and Viv Watercolor Paradise Scrapbook paper (the sky)
Bo Bunny Double Dot Vintage (for the hills)
Acrylic paints
Varnish
Matte medium
Metal findings

Thank you very much for stopping in!

A Winter Christmas Theater

It's time (at least for me) to think about Christmas. Being a person that much prefers chilly weather, I love winter. It is beautiful nearly all the time and there's nothing like the feeling of a snowy day, a hot pot of soup on the stove and a real fire in the fireplace.
It's also the time of year when I feel the most creative and am more productive than any other time of year.
So hooray, and salutations to all the winter loving folks out there.
And let's talk holidays.
Love winter holidays. Christmas is a favorite partly because it gives me license to be extravagant, to celebrate a winter world with sparkle, color and cheer.
And now speaking of cheer, here is a vivid pink Christmas Theater!
Not a traditional wintery color, but festive nonetheless.
Here is the theater, stage set and ready for whatever story one would like to tell.

Below, I chose to fill the stage with a winter scene of house sparkling with lights and snowy window sills. Surrounded by bottle brush trees.

Here's how it began.....

I dry fit the pieces of the Gypsy Soul Laser Cuts Stage. 
I took them apart and cut and glued the papers I chose in place. The papers I used were all Bo Bunny from the Christmas Village Collection or the Double Dot Vintage line in Pink Punch.
I inked the edges of all the pieces and also inked in some 'folds' in the curtains by smoodging (my own word) ink on with my finger and a Qtip in places where I imagined shadows would be.

I glued the stage together and set it aside to dry.
I painted white snowflakes from both the Snowflake Shape Set and the Snowflake Shape Set Minis.
I did the same with the Pine Tree Shape Set.
Set them aside to dry.
I cut houses from the Christmas Village paper, added glitter to all the wee lights (I used lots of different Stickles glitter for that and White Lace Stickles for the snowy window ledges) and let them dry.
After they dried, I cut and scored pieces of card stock and glued them on the back of each house.

I used Stickles Diamond to glitter up all the snow flakes and trees, glued bits of cork painted white to the backs of the trees in various depths (only the trees I used inside the stage to give some depth) and did the same to the snowflakes I used in the stage.
I glued in all my bits, and added some extra details (cut and glittered) from the Christmas Village paper.

And the stage is ready to go!

Have fun playing!

SUPPLIES
Stage
Snowflake Shape Set
Snowflake Shape Set Minis.
Pine Tree Shape Set

Additional supplies
Bo Bunny Village Christmas Scrapbook Paper
Bo Bunny Double Dot Pink Punch Vintage
Stickles glitter glue in Frosted Lace, Diamond, Lime Green, Orange Peel, Christmas Red and Glam Pink
White Acrylic paint
White Dresden Trim (you can get it HERE)
Bottle Brush Trees are available at lots of craft stores.

My Happy Place

Just a quick update on the studio.
I am moving in and have actually set up my work table and desk as well as some of the rest of the furniture. What you don't see is the HUGE amount of boxes stacked up on the wall where the built-in is. We'll save that for another day!

Hope everyone is having a great day. Thank you so much for dropping in!