More Buggy Things

These are a few more of the Bug Plaques I've made. I think over time I've probably made at least a couple of dozen......bugs are fun!

Most of the bug plaques start out with a wooden base of some kind, then I make the polymer clay tiles and texture them to my liking.

I've been playing around with nail polish as enameling for a while now and really like the way it looks with the brass glowing through the color.

I like to use brads and stuff like old nails to add more texture to the plaques. Plus, it's a great reason to muck around in old junk shops!
Thanks for stopping by and having a look!

Year of the Cicada and other buggy things

This is the year the cicadas come out of their seventeen year sleep, rise from the ground and cause havoc...they eat, work hard at making little baby cicadas and lay their eggs in the smaller branches of hardwood trees.
Aside from the yuck factor I feel when I think about a plague of cicadas, they are also pretty fascinating creatures as are most insects......if you happen to like buggy things as I do.

Inspired by the seventeen year locust, this is a plaque made from wood polymer clay and brass findings. The beautifully made cicada is a raw brass stamping I found online at Vintage Jewelry Supplies. I enameled him with nail polish applied with fine brushes. Nail polish remover will clean the brushes okay, but best to have a couple for dedicated use and don't spend a lot of dollars on them as they don't last long!
The clay tiles were cut out with cookie cutters and textured
with various stamps and tools with interesting patterns.
The color is painted on with acrylics.
The leaves are also brass stampings enameled with nail polish.
The wooden plaque everything rests on was primered, then painted with gold acrylic paint and then a layer of Quinacridone Gold was washed over the top to give it a richer look.

What the Bee Knows 2

Altered Matchbox Triptych inspired by P.L. Travers, the author of the 'Mary Poppins' books and a wonderful collection of her articles from 'Parabola' magazine called 'What the Bee Knows'.
A very interesting and long-lived woman, she met many other famous writers, artists and poets in her time, including Peter Llewelyn Davies, (J. M. Barrie's son and her publisher) and W. B. Yeats.

The lavender came from my garden as well as the wee twigs.
Thanks for stopping by!

Accordion Pocket Book for ATC's!

The fabulous Alpha Stamps has some wonderful themes this spring, one of which is "Pocket Books".
Here is one I made that will hold some favorite ATC's or maybe lovely small postcards.

I started out with the Square Accordion Chipboard Book. I cut off a couple pages because I wanted a slightly shorter book, but you can make yours any length you choose.
I chose my papers according to what combinations pleased me to look at when the book is fully opened and cut them to size. I glued all the papers in front and back and set the book aside to dry.
Note: All the papers used were from the  Graphic45 French Country Paper 12x12 individual sheets.

While the book was drying, I cut out the basic pockets making sure to cut slightly large to accommodate a glue line and an ATC and matched them to the papers I thought they looked best on. I carefully glued them (edges only....remember you have to leave enough space for an ATC to fit in the pocket!) on and whilst they were drying I cut out lots of individual flowers from the Sunflower Scrapbook Page and glued them in sort of random pleasing spots around the book, keeping in mind a general balance in the overall look of the book fully opened.

I trimmed a few of the pockets with the Black Zig Zag Dresden Border and the Thin Dresden Border.
I also sprinkled a few lovely bits of the French Country Die-Cut Banner pieces on the pockets and the back and front cover of the book. To attach the ribbons, I glued them to a couple of the banner pieces, let them dry and then glued those to the book, front and back.


And of course, I had to put something in the pockets.......
I cut out some of the images on the A La Carte Scrapbook Paper page.
They're so pretty, I might just leave them in there and make another book for ATC's!

Thanks for stopping by!

An Altered Tin

Looking into the Wood.....an altered Altoid tin.

Inspired by the great Russian illustrator Ivan Bilibin, who illustrated some of the most beautiful fairy tales of the twentieth century.

Spring Flower Ornaments and a tutorial!

After a couple of false starts, it looks like spring has arrived in southern Virginia! Everything is greening up and smelling sweet. I got inspired to create these flower ornaments and I'll show you how I made them. (There will be links to all the supplies at the end of the tutorial)

I started off with a little wooden block (1 1/2 x 1 1/2) and a couple of wooden finials. The larger one is about 1 inch tall and the smaller one is 3/4 of an inch.

I covered the square with a paper that would make a good background for the ornamentation that will be applied on top, (I used Mod Podge) painted the finials and after they dried, I drilled holes in the top of each one wide enough to accommodate my wire. I inked all sides of the block.

I glued the large finial to the top of the block and the smaller one to the bottom.

You should have a piece that looks like this:

And obviously, from the picture above (and because I forgot to photograph it), you can cut and glue the images of your choice on to all four sides of your block. The images I used for these blocks are from the Secret Garden Collection from Graphic 45.

Next, I enameled some lovely raw brass stampings of flowers (these lovelies came from Vintage Jewelry Supplies) with nail polish. Any colors you think will go with your papers, bits and bobs will do. The nail polish gives the stampings a richly colored translucence that the gold of the brass shines through nicely.

Whilst waiting for the polish to dry, cut out any paper images you want to attach to your blocks. I wanted a little dimension to mine, so I cut out some butterflies for one and bent their wings up a bit to make it look as if they had just lighted upon the block.

On the other blocks I used some pretty paper flowers I got from Alpha Stamps.
What I did next was measure my bit of wire to the depth of the holes I drilled into the finials and marked them with a sharpie.
A good tip to keeping your wire glued tight in the hole is to bend a small bit over into a 'u' shape and squeeze it closed with a pair of pliers. This gives the wire a little tooth and helps it adhere well in the hole and makes it more difficult to pull out.

Next step is to glue your enameled flowers in place. Because you have a finial on each end of the block, it becomes difficult to keep your ornament upright. I solved this little technical problem by finding a container deep enough to hold the ornament and used two rulers to beep it in place while I worked on it.
When you glue your flower in place, make sure that the hole in the center of the flower is lined up with the hole in the finial.

Because you have to tip the ornament upside down to glue the flower on the bottom finial, make sure you glue the flower on upside down as well. Otherwise, when you tip it back up the color will be facing the wrong way.

Also,  you may have noticed in the picture with the nail polish and the flowers, there are two size flowers. I glued the bigger one to the top (bigger finial) and the smaller flower went on the smaller finial.
You can also bend the petals to get the effect you want. I do this before I glue them on the piece.

While waiting for glue to dry, I get my wires, one measured for the top and one for the bottom and play around with arrangements for the beads and doodads I want on the top and bottom wires, keeping in mind the sizes of the bottom and top flowers and finials. Generally, I like to keep the top fairly simple and make the bottom a little more complicated because it pleases my sense of proportion, but everyone is different, so you must please yourself! When I am ready to cut the wire I make sure that I have my components above the line I've measured indicating the depth of the hole in the finial. For the bottom wire, I trim the wire down, leaving a small length past the components long enough to make a small loop for attaching a single bead and head pin.

I do the same thing for the top of the ornament, but leave a bit more wire to make a bigger loop to accommodate a ribbon. Add your components and make your loops.
I use dimensional fabric paint in pearl to add some detail to the top and bottom of the block, and after it dries, give it a touch of color with a Copic marker.

Add your extra touches like the paper flowers and butterflies and tie your ribbons on.

A nice little gift for a spring baby shower or spring birthday. Thanks for stopping by!

SUPPLY LIST 

From Alpha Stamps
Wooden Finials (medium and small)
Orange Daisies
Old Fashioned Roses
Tiny Purple Roses
Silk Ribbons
Old Curiosity Shoppe Butterfly Paper

From Vintage Jewelry Supplies
Multi Layered Flower
Large Raw Brass Flower
Huge Raw Brass Flower
Bell Shaped Bead Cap

ADDITIONAL SUPPLIES
Graphic 45 Secret Garden Collection Papers
E-6000 Adhesive
Glass Pearls
Czech Glass beads
20g gold wire
Dimensional fabric paint (Pearl)
Jacquard Lumiere Metallic Acrylic Paints in Olive, Pearl White and Metallic Gold