alter it monthly and creative spirit challenge

My brain seems to have gone and taken a detour again. With all the excitement I had creating my apothecary jars and between preparing for my son's birthday and our trip out of town I forgot to link my post to my 2 monthly challenges. Which was the reason I created the jars in the first place. Oh the little sojourns my mind and I go on sometimes..

So I apologize for reposting here to those of you who have already seen them (and were so kind to leave such lovely comments). I can't tell you how many excited emails I received from many of you telling me about all the jars you're happily emptying out of your fridge! And for my new visitors here again is my latest project.

I'm linking this to Alter It Monthly were our theme this month is ethereal/magic/supernatural and to Cindy's Celebrate Your Creative Spirit Challenge.

These witchy apothecary jars are made from jars I found in my fridge. I coated each one with Gesso, grundged them with acrylic paint and drizzled them with beeswax. I created the labels in Photoshop and aged them even more with distress ink. The lids were painted black and I found drawer knobs at Home Depot which I added on top. They were so much fun to make!

If you would like to see the original post scroll down 2 posts below this one.

Please visit Alter It Monthly and Whimsical Musings for more creative fun.

creative spirit, leaves and wishes

Pinch me. Are those trees rustling in the wind I hear? Not just a light breeze but actual gusts coming through our riverside city. It's 63 degrees at 10 am. 63!! And the weather guy said there's a 20 to 30 percent chance of showers. That's not much but the sound of it alone is delicious.

I can't tell you how much the sound of the wind lifts my spirits. Yes it's been a mild summer. Well mild for us here in the California central valley. We did get a few 100 plus days last week but overall it's been unusually mild.

After I dropped off my son at school this morning I took a quick walk around the yard and found lots of these scattered about. Poor little guys are a little spotted. I think because it never stayed hot enough all summer. There was more humidity in the air than usual. But it's still glorious. Falling leaves. Pinch me.

I found a couple of bottles in my craft cupboard last night. Just the plain kind you get at the craft store. I've always wanted to alter a bottle. I've painted some before but I wanted to get the look of an antique without making it opaque.

I got the idea to cover it with Gesso and after it dried I used my Ranger Distress Ink pad in Vintage Photo. Then I covered it with an antique decoupage finish. I love the way it looks. It's not completely permanent like glass paint so I don't plan to get it wet or handle it a lot.

But it was a fun experiment and I got to use a ribbon rosette I made ages ago, bits of vintage paper, buttons, old lace and another coffee filter flower. I'm adding this project to my friend Cindy's monthly Creative Spirit Challenge. Make sure you stop by to see all the other great projects.

And speaking of dear Cindy. Look what came in the mail for me this weekend! Cindy made me these beautiful ATCs just because she's such a sweet person. I knew she was sending me the one with the adorable pink dress (in honor of the Dress Up challenge we do every month) but the second one was a lovely little surprise. Oh and I love the word WISH. It's magical and delightful and full of possibilities. I love them! Thank you Cindy.

*   *   *   *

Today I'm grateful for...

The wonderful September WIND outside my window and for WISHES.

I wish all of you a magical pinch-me-it's-almost-autumn day.

music is magic

I just finished a new project so I'm joining up with 2 new fun challenges.

Cindy at Whimsical Musings launched Celebrate Your Creative Spirit today.
I met Cindy a few weeks and we got to be fast friends over a few conversations
regarding 'snow'. She's also from one of my favorite cities, New Orleans.
Cindy's blog is full of whimsy, creativity and objects of beauty.
Go visit her to see all the other creative spirits and join the fun.

I'm also joining Alter It Monthly hosted by Carol, Gillian and Zuzu.
This is a great monthly challenge for altered artists and anyone learning to
do altered art. I like having a challenge that's not digital which
will push me to create something new with my hands each month.
This month's theme is MUSIC.

I created a tiara inspired by the gorgeous ones in the book Crowns and Tiaras.

I had an old party tiara from New Years, I took of the the upper half and just used

the band which I painted pewter then added gold glitter.

The vintage girls are a freebie graphic from Sommerset magazine.

I liked the whimsy and thought it looked like they might be singing.

I used vintage sheet music to make their wings

and crowns and added silver glitter.

This glittery gold and rhinestone border was a nice contrast to the dark band.

I printed 'Music is Magic' on gold vellum and learned that printer ink

and vellum do NOT go very well together, but in the end I even

liked the slightly smudged look I ended up with.

The paper flowers are made from an old dress pattern paper.

It already had a wonderful aged color and I just used my

favorite Distress Ink pad to antique all the edges.

Their stems are made from popsicle sticks. The final touch was

the gold pipe cleaner. I liked how the deep gold

popped against all the black and ivory.

This tiara was so much fun to make.

While I was making it I realized how much I loved

working with this pewter and gold color combination!

Hope you enjoyed it.

Thank you to Cindy, Carol, Gillian and Zuzu!