Altered Jewelry....

I've been working on many different pieces of altered jewelry lately and experimenting with different backs, materials and images.
I used Grungeboard for the wings on this glass tile piece. Sorry about the photo quality, I must have moved just as a snapped the photo! I attached the wings with Loctite Gel Glue. This stuff has a really strong bond and bonds almost instantly, plus its easy to dispense with the skinny tip, you can place it exactly where you want it.

I cut apart an old heavy duty yardstick, (you know the kind that your mom use to chase you around the kitchen table with because you wouldn't do your math homework......well maybe that was just me, perhaps others didn't get threatened with the yardstick!) to collage on. Old thick yardsticks make a great base. I used Distress ink to give it the subtle yellow color. Again, I must have moved when I snapped this one too!

Oh no! Some poor butterfly lost a wing! The wing is from Tim Holtz new line of Alterations Steel Cut Dies. This pendant was also done on a yardstick. I left the back natural so you could see the numbers and lines on it.....looks pretty cool, actually you could wear it on either side.

I entitled this pendant "King Neptune". This one was created on a wooden blank. Again I used Distress Ink to color the wooden blank and then layered it with decorative papers. I just love that little seahorse. I've always wanted one of those for a pet.

Ahhhh, vintage wooden dominoes! One of my favorite things to collage on. How about this broad? She's all ready for summertime fun! I think her name was "Trixie" and she liked to dance the Jersey Shore Rag.

And here's her best friend "Myrtle". Myrtle was the Jersey Shore Swimming Champion circa 1924. What's even more amazing is that she won that title while swimming with both her black wool knee socks and her hat on!!!! Notice the silver cup she's proudly holding.

This collage pendant is made out of a clay filled poker chip. Remember the way we view things has a lot to do with our perspective at that given time. I've learned through experience that time and distance can greatly change your perspective of events that have occured. Lastly, Saturday was the first day of Spring Turkey hunting here in Pennsylvania. Gary got one up on my mom and dad's farm. I had to take of picture of the beautiful feathers. Just look at the iridescent quality of those feathers!

I hope all my friends in blogland had a great weekend!

Winner!

The winner of the "Secret" Pin is #6 which is Cat from http://inthelightofthemoon.blogspot.com/
Congrats Cat! Please email me your address so I can get it out to you.
Smiles-
Melissa

Mixed Medial Jewelry Give Away and Starfish Bracelet

The idea for this pin started with a small scrabble tile and took off from there. This is truly a "mixed-media" piece of jewelry. The scrabble tile has been collaged and sealed with resin. I made the fabric bead above the tile and sewed on glass and freshwater pearls over a piece of vintage lace. It's all on a webbed piece of off white material sewed to a 3 inch long kilt pin. This my friends in blogland is my offering for my giveaway. Please leave a comment and you will be entered in the drawing. If you are a follower or become a follower you'll get your name entered twice. I'll randomly draw the winner on Thursday! Good Luck!

We all have secrets, now don't we???????

Tossed carelessly upon the shore through the glimmering aqua waves the starfish wait patiently in the bejeweled tide pool for the waves to sweep them back into the ocean...... I love starfish.....such benevolent little creatures....

They were the inspiration for this cuff bracelet. The waves and starfish are cut from leather and painted. I sewed on the glass and pearl beads onto the leather waves. The base is a somewhat flexible off white webbing layered with vintage lace.

The Starfish Story

An old man was walking down the beach just before dawn. In the distance he saw a young man picking up stranded starfish and throwing them back into the sea. As the old man approached the young man, he asked; "Why do you spend so much energy doing what seems to be a waste of time?" The young man explained that the stranded starfish would die if left in the morning sun. "But there must be thousands of beaches and millions of starfish, exclaimed the old man. "How can your efforts make any difference?" The young man looked down at the small starfish in his hand and as he threw it to safety in the sea, he said; "It makes a difference to this one!"

This little story reminds me that even the tinest gestures can make a big difference in other peoples lives. Hope you all had a great Saturday!

Spring Giveaway!

It's a Spring Giveaway to be posted on Friday..............stop back and check it out, you won't be sorry!!!!!

Fairy Problem?

I'm not saying I've got a fairy problem.....but, I SUSPECT I have a fairy problem in my perennial gardens. Last night I caught this little girl out in my creeping phlox......

She told me her name was "April" and she was the fairy that brought the showers. She even had beaded raindrops hanging off of her cloud and umbrella. She carried a bucket full of raindrops and looked well prepared for a deluge in her slick yellow rainboots.

Then tonight as I was checking out what popped up during the past few days in my side perennial garden, this little fellow scampered about and introduced himself to me as, "King Flowers". He had a pet Swallowtail butterfly attached to a leash!

And an armful of flowers.

I don't know for sure but I think he's French (see the French text on his hat?).

Well, what is your take on this? Do I have a fairy problem? Should I just let them hang out in my garden?

Fabric Beads..........

My spring coffee cup is going to tell a little story......

This chicky had a great Easter Sunday!

I got up early and hopped to the studio to make fabric beads and drink Duncan Donut coffee.

After dinner I waddled to the back porch and sat in the sun! The End.

How perfect is this tulip with the fresh dew still on it?

Ok, now onward to the fabric beads. I made two sizes, 1 inch long and 1/2 inch long. If you'd like 1 inch long beads then cut your fabric strips one inch wide. Then cut them 7 inches long. I use a quilting ruler, self healing cutting mat and a rotary cutter.

Oh yah! Gel medium. How much of this stuff do I use? A lot, that's all I'm going to say. I should really bite the bullet and buy the gallon jar of it for $65! You are going to use the gel medium to glue and wrap the beads and seal off the ends.

Mmmmmmmm, just look at these lucious batiks. Great colors!

Go the the dollar store and buy a bag of bamboo skewers to wrap the fabric around. Grab a very small paint brush too while you're at the dollar store.

To make the bead, grab a strip of fabric start to wrap it around the skewer, give it 2 full wraps (do not wrap too tight!!!! check to see if you can move it up and down the skewer) then dip your paint brush into the gel medium and dab some on the inside of the fabric and continue to do 2 more full wraps......dab on more gel medium. Keep doing this until you get to the end of the fabric. Dab a generous amount of the gel meduim on the endof the fabric and then smooth it down with your finger (don't leave a gob of it, smooth it out).

Let the beads dry for about 45 mintues. Pull them off of the skewer. Trim off any rougue threads and then using your little paint brush dab a small amount of gel medium on each end of the beads to keep them from unraveling. Let them dry. Now you're ready to use them in all kinds of beading projects! I'll be posting some projects using them soon. They are time consuming but worth it!

Hope you all had a great weekend and super Monday!

Happpy Easter!

Happy Easter! He is Risen! Amen!

Easter is a time of renewal, hope and redemption. I hope you all have a wonderful Sunday and enjoy the time together with family and friends. I will be going out to dinner with my husband, my mom & dad and his mom & dad.

Hey, where did that Easter Bunny come from anyway?

The bunny as an Easter symbol seems to have it's origins in Germany, where it was first mentioned in German writings in the 1500s. The first edible Easter bunnies were made in Germany during the early 1800s. These were made of pastry and sugar. The Easter bunny was introduced to American folklore by the German settlers who arrived in the Pennsylvania Dutch country during the 1700s.

Question: What part of the chocolate bunny do you bite first? :-)

I bite the ears first!

Good Things in Spring.....

I snapped this picture tonight of my asparagus! It's peeking through the soil. Yah! Love this stuff roasted. I have two beds of it, one green and the other purple. Another good thing of spring......Easter Bread from St. Anthony's in Youngstown, Ohio. Oh this sweet bread is so yummy toasted and the glaze on top with the sprinkles is de-lish!

Two new spring pendants............. SING, SING, SING of SPRING........

Soon the little humming birds will be returning. This pendant celebrates their tiny tenacity!

Better weather is coming our way, it's going to be 75 degrees on Friday! Here comes spring, finally!

Kindess Matters......Leather.....Muse.....Toodee

Does kindness matter? Yes it does. Today I had a conversation with a colleague in which he told me that a mother and grandmother were telling their 3rd grade son/grandson that if he didn't behave in school he was going to grow up and go to prison. My colleague heard this and told them that they shouldn't say that to him because we often become what others say or think about us, in essence, a self-fulfilling prophecy. He told them that they should tell the little boy that he needs to behave so that he can learn, graduate high school and get a good job or go on to college. The mother looked ashamed and said, "you're right". My colleague knows that kindnesss.....it matters.

I've known many kind people in my life. Strangers that have become good friends just through their kindness and friends that have gone above and beyond with their acts of kindness. I hope to remember them all for as long as I live. I've learned a lot from them and I they've made me a better person. Recently I've had the opportunity to observe the kindness of a new found friend. I think she lives by the mantra "what comes around, goes around". When I see her I think of the word "kind". She was the inspiration for this spoon pendant. Yes, kindness does matters.

I suppose "love" goes with kindness because without one, you really can't have the other, right? Just another spoon pendant.

For the past few months my creative "muse" has left me. I haven't done much altered art or jewelry. Maybe it was the weather, maybe it was the time of year, maybe it was a lack of fiber.....whatever the case, inspiration was not there. But, over the weekend I started to get the creative spark. My muse has returned on gossamer wings! I started this leather bracelet last night and finished it tonight.

Now you are probably wondering, how in the heck did she do that? Meet my deconstructed leather jacket, circa 1994. The other night I was dancing around my studio (yes, I dance when I do art...I rarely sit) when my eyes landed on this jacket slated to go in the Goodwill bag. BOOM! Inspiration struck.....I said to myself , "self go get the big ass scissors and the seam ripper"!

This is really soft leather, so it was easy to cut into flower and leaf shapes. Next I painted them with Lumiere paint (3 coats) and trimmed them out with the Neopaque black paint. I love this paint! I then sewed the flowers and leaves to the leather band which I stained and painted with tendrills.

I made a few pink ones which I'm thinking about using in a necklace.

Lastly, I'm leaving you with a shot of Toodee the Studio Monster. He got into the gin again.....what more can I say other than he get's stupid when he drinks the gin!

Hey, I hope you all are having a great week, tomorrow is hump-day....yeah! Half way to the weekend.

Happy St. Pat's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! To all my blogland friends here's my favorite Irish toast to you:

"Always remember to forgot those that have been untrue,

but never forget to remember those that have stood by you".

I'm thinking about flowers already! I made these for a friend for her birthday tomorrow. I hope she likes them. I made these to go with my green sweater that I'm going to wear tomorrow.
May you smile a thousand smiles today!

Random Weekend Thoughts........

I painted these Bunny Pots today for my dear friend Audrea. They are for her grand kids. I've painted so many of these over the years that I'm sick of them although they really are cute filled with grass and Easter goodies..........I finally got to finish a page in my art journal. It's my homage to the human spirit. "Our greatest glory is not in never falling but in rising every time we fall". That saying reminds me of the other saying "tough times never last but tough people do".

If you're a follower of this blog, you've heard me mention the Let It Bead Shop. Well, these are the Let It Bead girls. From your left to right is Kris- the owner of bead shop, Danielle, Me and Allison. We are "Unofficial Employees"! We laugh a lot on Saturdays, so much so that my face kind of hurts by Saturday night.

I hope you all had a great weekend. All of the snow has melted here and it looks like spring has finally arrived.

Magical Maple Syrup Time

Well it's that time of year.......sap collecting time! I know that spring is just around the corner when I see the trees tapped and sap flowing. These old buckets have such character. The one bucket was overflowing so I tasted it and it had an almost indiscernable sweet taste. Gary and I always go out to this one grove of trees by Pymatuning Lake and take pictures of the trees.

I have this thing about taking pictures of these buckets. I just love the look of the texture of tree bark and the old fashioned look of these metal buckets.

I'm thinking that someday you won't see metal buckets as a lot of people tap trees with clear rubber tubing and running it into plastic bags.

A grove of maple trees tapped for sap!


Oh look, a big sap standing beside a tree!

Isn't this an interesting looking tree?

Another interesting tree.....

Maple Syrup 101: Facts to know just incase you get on Jeopardy!

1. There are three versions of Grade A maple syrup, including Light Amber, Medium Amber and Dark Amber. The lighter the color, the more subtle the flavor. There is also a Grade B.

2. It takes 40 to 50 gallons of sap to make 1 gallon of pure maple sugar.

3. The outbuilding where the sap is boiled is known as "The Sugar Shack" or "Sugarhouse".

4. The sap flows for about 6 weeks.

5. The tap that is inserted into the tree is called a "spile".

6. Maple Sugar evaporators are designed to boil-off hundreds of gallons of water so that the syrup becomes concentrated.

7. Pure Maple Syrup is heart healthy as it contains natural antioxidants, zinc and manganese.

8. It is 3 times sweeter than cane sugar but has fewer calories.

9. One tap per tree 18 to 20 inches in diameter; 2 taps in trees in trees 19 to 25 inches in diameter.

10. On average one tree will produce 6 to 10 gallons of sap.

I hope all my friends in Blogland had a great weekend. I know we certainly enjoyed the sun here in Western, Pa. We've only had 6 days of sun in the past 30 days!