Queen of Star Shine and Glimmer

Only a few hours left until the new year here on the west coast so here are one last post and project for 2012. A touch of whimsy to welcome 2013.

 

 

In the past my son and I have made paper or pipe cleaner crowns to celebrate New Year's eve. I was thinking of what I wanted to make this year when I became inspired to make a fancy frosted crown. I woke up in the middle of the night thinking about it and got started as soon as I got up this morning. I was so excited I even skipped my usual morning hot chocolate.

 

 

For the base I made a circle from a wire hanger then covered it with a strip of black poster board folded in half then stapled it to hold the wire in place.

 

Then I cut out various shapes from glitter card stock and glued them onto the base. The diameter of my mini crown is about 5 inches.

 

 

Each section is backed by another piece of glitter card stock to make it sturdier and also makes it look nice on the inside.

 

 

To give my crown a vintage frosted look I thinned white glue with water, brushed it onto the glitter paper and covered it with crystal glitter in two sizes. The large one gave it texture and muted the silver while the smaller one gave it extra fairy sparkle.

 

 

I also frosted a few glittery green stars.

 

 

 Next I sorted through my jars of baubles and trim.

Tried bits of this and that. Glued and unglued stuff.

Had a waffle for breakfast.

 

Until finally...

 

 

A frosted winter crown for the Queen of Star Shine and Glimmer.

 

 

In honor of my first word for 2013. Glimmer.

 

Glimmer, to me means a subtle glow, unsteady perhaps and sometimes faint but luminous and stunning in its own way. It is a sliver of hope in the darkness. Elusive and mesmerizing but never garish or overt.

 

When I was making my mini falling star bottles this Fall one of the words I cut out from the dictionary to make a label was glim-mer. Doesn't it sound magical? Like a light mist of stardust falling from a velvety night sky.

 

 

I like this word because I have never been the kind of person that constantly burns bright. My passion for anything waxes and wanes dramatically. In my relationships, my art, my whole life in fact, it's always a balancing of light and dark. When I try to stand out and shine darkness never seems to be too far behind. It is simply a part of who I am and the way things tend to turn out for me. I've learned that the brightest light can also burn.

 

 

 

So rather than say this is going to be my year to shine I'm going to embrace what I know about myself and find beauty in moments when I can simply BE. To be comfortable in the shadow of clouds as well as playing among the stars. To be content to whisper my own unsteady light. To glimmer.

 

 Which brings me to my second word. Gratitude

 

Gratitude for blessings, lessons and opportunities. Gratitude for what's good as well as what's not so good because they all make me who I am. Gratitude with a touch of Glimmer. I'll see where they take me in 2013.

 

(Oh and I'll try to post a picture with my crown on too.)

 

 

I wish you love, blessings and inpiration.

 

Happy Beautiful New Year!

 

 

 

spooky monday post

 

I really miss doing Spooky Mondays with Wendy's Adventures in Wonderland. I had a lot of fun doing them one year (or was it two?) and I miss it this year. So in the spirit of Spooky Mondays I decided to do this post.

 

I love silhouettes. I like to use them in my art and definitely love them for Halloween. I have a set of owls, bats, crows, cats and a picket fence I cut out of black foam years ago that I still use every year.

 

I just came across a book by Jeffery Rudell posted on MAKE. A few years ago he transformed a client's home into a haunted house using spooky paper silhouettes.

 

 

I wish my house had the same amount of windows as this house does.

Actually I would love to have the house period.

 

But I think I can do something with the windows I have.

I love this one with the headless lady and her chair and tiny bird.

 

How about this creepy butcher's window?

I think I'll skip the hanging body parts but I love the kitties.

 

 

There are more pictures posted at MAKE along with a few downloadable silhouettes.

Or you can try to order the book HERE.

 

Let me know if you try it. I still have to put my old ones up and I'll see if I have time to try some of these in my front windows.

 

Happy Spooky Monday

 

 

 

 

 

 

pretty parasols

When I was a little girl my grandmother would often walk me to or from school. Whenever it was sunny she always showed up with two parasols, one for her and a little one for me. I loved walking around with my parasol, I think it was a red plaid one, and even today I can't resist picking up a pretty one to add to my collection.

 

I still can't wait for the first rain so I can use one of my umbrellas. Many of which have accumulated in the trunk of my car. I wish more ladies used them here in sunny California like they seem to in the south. I think there is some strange unspoken rule that says umbrellas are just for the rain and only little old ladies use them on a sunny day. How silly is that?

I have been revisiting my parasol fascination again and I recently came across this really fun project at Dollar Store Crafts.

It looks super easy. I really wanted to make one first before posting it but I couldn't wait to share. I'm also still on a hunt for the right umbrella. So here is the project. Thank you to Disney from Ruffles & Stuff for creating it.

Materials:

• boring old umbrella (on hand)
• Dollar Store shower curtain liner $1
• An old button

Cost Estimate: $1

1) First you want to measure all the way around the bottom of your umbrella, and double it for how much curtain liner you will need (plus extra for a flower, and top ruffles). For example, my umbrella was 120" around, and I cut four 2" sections that were the full length of the curtain, for a total of about 280 inches. No need to add seam allowance because it doesn't unravel! Yay!

2) Then sew a straight stitch (on your machine's longest stitch length) down the middle of all the strips, and pull the bottom thread to gently gather.

3) Hand stitch them onto your umbrella, wherever you like! So easy!!

*   *   *   *

I also wanted to share another beautiful wedding with you. This one was posted on Green Wedding Shoes. What I love about this wedding isn't just the way they used all these beautiful parasols...

...but the theme for the wedding was also a vintage carnival! So if you need a little inspiration for your carnival booth take a look at what this couple did. I also added links to Le Mysterieux Carnival's homepage under CURIOSITIES. You'll find another amazing carnival wedding, artists and even an old  TV series about a mysterious dark carnival.

Hope you're having a great week. It's been crazy hot here, 110 this weekend and our air has been bad due to several wild fires. Good time to stay indoors and work on our blog party!



delicious autumn anticipation

Have you had a chance to see all the amazing Artful Bag ATC's my ladies created this month? They are all so wonderfully talented and just simply lovely lovely people. A few of our ladies from the east coast are dealing with that horrible hurricane so we might not hear from them for a while. Let's hope that they are all safe and sound. You are all in our thoughts and prayers.

When I looked at the calender stuck to my fridge this morning I was almost surprised to find it still said August. I have been happily immersed in Autumn anticipation. Hunting for fall magazines, crafting Halloween goodies and prepping for Autumn blog parties.

crafty trunk

Shhhh!! I'm suppose to be finishing up my pictures for Friday's blog party (Where Bloggers Create), and also going through my list of errands. The big Harry Potter movie marathon starts tomorrow so I wanted to get all my other things done today. But....

Ever since Celia over at Adventures of the Striped Stockings posted THIS a few days ago I have been obsessed. Celia took her daughter to see the movie Judy Moody And The Not So Bummer Summer. Judy's Aunt Opal (played by Heather Graham) is an eccentric artsy character and this is her craft trunk. Isn't it just fabulously amazing?!

Being the mom of a Harry Potter crazed teenage son, I would have never thought of Judy Moody...and I would have missed this wonderful trunk, so thank you Celia!

Well of course I had to think of a way to make my own magical crafty trunk. At first I wanted to make one I could really use and take with me whenever I go out of town to visit my mom for a few days. I found this case at the thrift store a few months ago.

It's 15x12x6 and solid wood. It's actually a cassette tape holder (remember those) and what I love is that all the little dividers are removable. I was already using it to hold a lot of my ATC stuff but I decided to turn it into my new crafty trunk.

By the way, the trunk from the movie came from the Metropolitan Opera and is about 4 feet tall. Now somewhere in the back of my mind I think there's an old trunk about that size in my mom's garage. Hmmm...

I turned the case on it's side, took out some of the dividers, glued on paper, trim and started stuffing it with all sorts of crafty goodies...

Because this case was already way too heavy before I even started filling it, I realized it wasn't going to work as a travel trunk. So I just had fun with it and made it more decorative than practical.

I recycled a little drawer from another cabinet, made a nook for magical books, threw in bottles and boxes of this and that.

Remember my altered Sweet Tart box bag? It fits right onto the lid and even works as a little file holder.

So I may not be able to take my trunk on any trips but I love having it in my studio, and I can play with it anytime I feel like dreaming about being a hip eccentric guerilla artist.

Plus...

I can still hunt around for another trunk I can really use on the road (maybe an old suitcase). Now back to editing those pictures and getting on with my errands. Be back soon :)

more sun, less clouds

Thank you for all your lovely words on my last post.

I know we all go through doubtful cloudy moments now and then
and it really helped to hear from you.

Once I got over worrying about things so much, I grabbed my favorite silly headband, plopped it right back on my head and got to work.

It's hard not to smile when you're wearing a bright pink flower on your head!

I wanted to take a picture with it on, but I still can't get this silly
arm of mine to go that high.

My wand is almost done and I tell you I like this one so much better.

I can't show you all of it yet in case Lynn might be reading this :)

The first wand I made was so wrong it made me laugh. It looked like a paddle!

I definitely needed to downsize.

So I left it for a while and tried again last night.

And I had so much fun making it that I'm going to make another one

...maybe to share with one of you later.

Are you doing anything special this weekend? I'm having company so now I have to clean and make room for my in-laws somewhere amongst the glitter. We are going to visit our favorite British pub with them tomorrow and all I can think about are bangers and mash! Now it's time to find that old duster of mine.

Have a beautiful sparkly pink weekend whatever you do.

pink saturday, ruffled valentine treats and heart on a string

Is it Friday already? Where did the week go? It has been a busy busy crazy week here. The nice electrician was here and all our lights and plugs and all that stuff is working wonderfully again. I finished up the project I'm doing with my brother and I actually made a few more things for Valentines Day.

Oh I just adore pink again. Now that Spring is not too far away and there's so much pink around for Valentines Day I just couldn't help myself. I am even linking up with
Pink Saturday again this weekend so hello again to everyone.

I played with more paper hearts and streamers and thought a set of old fashioned paper heart lollies would be fun and sweet. I think I'm addicted to making these paper ruffles.

They can go on top of a lovely place setting for a romantic dinner, or tucked into a sweet bouquet of flowers. I might even try sticking one on a giant cupcake.

And there are even more pink hearts below.

I finished another one of my napkin girl collages.

This is "Heart On A String".

It's part of the same set as the one for my anniversary giveaway which is open for another week. Also mixed media collage on 8x8 canvas.

She is now in my Etsy shop along with the paper heart lollies.

I'm so excited about the next Artful Bag Challenge too. I just finished doing the pics for my bag and I can't wait to show you. I had so much fun making it. I think I'll post it on Sunday but I'll keep the January challenge open until Monday the 31st then I'll do the drawing for the book giveaway. Have a lovely and creative almost February weekend.

♥

Happy Pink Saturday.

sweet paper ruffles

Hellooo dearies! Thank you thank you for your wonderful sweet wishes and warm congratulations on my bloggy birthday. I loved reading your comments and felt so much sparkly, glittery magic coming from all of you. What can I say...you guys are awesome!

I have been having a love affair with paper. Mainly with napkins and streamers. I love to crinkle and crumple them into frilly, frothy, frou frou ruffles. I used napkins to make skirts for my collage girls, like the one for my anniversary giveaway. I've made a few other ones which I'll post very soon.

I love the texture of crepe paper. The way you can sculpt it by folding it here and pinching it there. It's so light weight that you can easily make layers and layers of ruffles.

I thought it would be fun to make vintage style Valentine hearts with my paper ruffles. The one I used here is a silver grey. These are like the one I sent to Fran with the magazine she won. After I cut out my hearts and edged them with ruffles I added a sweet little frosted flower and some glittery letters.

Voila! A set of sweet ruffled hearts with another one of my favorite words. I love things to look a little tattered and worn so I also crinkled up the sheer gold ribbon I used to tie on to each heart.  I thought these would even be fun for a birthday or tea party. Maybe hanging from a lovely old tree.

I had to try them on my chandelier of course. It's been so overcast that I had a hard time getting the right light to take a decent picture. I am making a few more ruffled heart whimsies that I'm actually putting in my Etsy shop, along with this one, once I get proper photos taken. So this is a little sneaky peek.

♥

I hope you have been visiting the January Artful Bag Challenge page. There are lots of simply adorable and creative bags being added that you have to see. I'm so happy the first month went so well. Don't forget there's a giveaway at the end of the month and yes you can still add your link all the way till the 31st. I'll do the drawing at the end of the day and announce the winner when I post February's bag on the 1st.

The next artful bag theme is Alter It.

I'll be back with more ruffle-ly sweet pink Valentine goodies!