Curiosities of the Sea........

This little guy sails the 7 seas looking for the perfect gold fish!

This collage was created with hand cut papers and measures 3.5 by 5 inches. I got this frame at the Dollar Store. It was painted a very ugly rusty red. A few coats of acrylic paint and ta-da! I made the "beach" sign from a piece of Grungeboard painted with bronze Lumier paint (the little key was also made the with the Gurngeboard).

Here is quite a curious creature from the sea, the elusive "Buttermaid". She is a cross between a butterfly and a mermaid. She's extremely rare and I'm so lucky to have captured one!

I created her on chipboard backed with book text. I made her mermaid body and tail with strips of handcut papers cut with scalloped scissors......that took a little while!

So have you noticed I'm into putting butterfly wings on everything lately? It's sort of like my compulsion last year where I had to put pointy hats of everything. Can't help it, I still think wings and pointy hats are the best! What are your thoughts on butterfly wings?

Christmas Misc....

Spent the first day of my Christmas vacation in my jammies working in my studio until almost noon which is quite an anomaly because I never stay in my jammies unless I'm ill! I finished up this little guy....he's known as "The Christmas Duck". Every year I make an ornament for my niece, A.J., sometimes they're mainstream but most of the time they're bizarre, like this duck. Of course who hasn't heard of the pink Christmas Duck?!?? He's handmade from the pipe cleaner armature to the handmade pom-pom head. I also created this collage today for a "Dream" swap hosted by Marsha over at Amusing Muses. The only stipulation for the collage was that it had to by 6.5 by 4.5 inches and you had to interpret the word "dream".

Here's the story on this collage: Simone carried the ticket to her dreams with her everywhere, just in case she encountered the green dream door, which when opened would lead to the realization to all of her dreams. I think we're all searching for that door at one time or another.

This collage was created with 41 different pieces of hand cut papers. I used Twinkling H2Os to paint a page of German book text red. I love how you can get a deep rich red color without covering up the text. The door behind Simone is a Stampers Anonymous stamp. I created the legs and the boots are Doc Martins.

Now onward to something I find pretty funny. My friend Tracey (we met over at Flickr and found out we live about an hour from each other) is into making altered art and we had a little Christmas swap. She sent me a note pad and this was written on top of it.

I think we all have similar wish lists! I find the $100,000 gift certificate hilarious. How funny would it be to go into Hobby Lobby, sidel up to the counter with a brief case of money and say "I'd like gift certificate for $100,000 please". Could you imagine the look on the clerk's face!?!?
Ha!

Ok, so who has all their shopping done? Well, I don't......so that's what I'll be doing tomorrow!

A Unique Jewelry Display & A Funny Story.....

Greetings from the Honey Girl Studio! I have been very busy lately getting ready for a spring open house this weekend at the Time and Again Shop (see previous post for directions).

This is me circa 1973...... second grade!

The weather is getting warmer and every morning I wake up to birds singing. I love to hear them, it makes me smile! I have an artist friend in England named Hope (see pixieponderings1966 on my blog roll) and she made these wonderful bird nest pendants. I was so taken with them that I had to try some for myself! I think they are darling!

I added different bird quotes on each card.......

I found these little feather charms to add to them.....just like you'd find in a real bird's nest.

So I needed a jewelry display for the poker chip pendants and bird nest pendants. Hmmmm....what to use? Well I got this idea that I'd collage a picture and put it in a big frame so that I could change it seasonally. My husband came up with the idea of placing Velcro on the glass then put the other piece on the back of each pendant card. Ta-da! It works! He's a genius!

This is a picture of the collage without the Velcro dots stuck on it..........

This is the frame with all of the pendants hung on it..........

Pretty cool, eh?

Now for a little story......as with some artwork there is an interesting story that goes with it. Here is my funny little tale......
A few weekends ago I was at my moms and I was doing decorative painting on a black desk to take to the Time and Again Shop, well my mom and my brother's girlfriend were there talking to me while I was painting and it was about 500 degrees in my mom's house (they have their own gas well, so they keep it hot!), my dad and brother were in and out of the kitchen where I was painting so there was a lot of talking and hub-bub going on. Then my mom's dog Buddy came in was acting all funning wanting to jam himself right up against me (getting his hair in my paint). As it turns out he was chasing a car and it bumped him so he was a little upset(maybe that will teach him not to chase cars).....by the way, he's ok, but I digress.........
I get the desk all painted with numbers and letters all around the edge of the top of desk with hydrangea sprigs in each corner....it looked great and I took it outside and sprayed it with clearcoat then loaded it in the car and took it to Hazel. The next day I get a message on my cell....."the desk looks great but, I've been taking a lot of ribbing about the number 11, namely, what happened it it?" Appearantly, in the commotion I painted "8,9,10, 12, 13, 14, 15"!

I knew I had the chair to paint yet so I called Hazel back and said, "I know what happened to the number 11........it fell off and landed on THE CHAIR!" And here it is........right where it landed, on the chair!

I hope you all have a wonder Wednesday out there in blogland! Remember "today is a gift, that's why the call it the present"!
Smiles-
Melissa