Trick or Treat

Kids were happy with their costumes this year. Mr. Robert was a Griffyndor wizard, very busy casting spells and charms. I finished up his cloak today..I really need to learn how to sew properly, while I'm pleased with the end result I can't even tell you how many mistakes I made along the way having to rip out seams.

Ms. Maria was among the walking dead looking to suck some blood as a vampire. The costume was a happy garage sale find late this summer, just had to hem it up a couple inches. Oh, and those teeth crack me up..they were huge and they glowed in the dark...funny.

Here they are again a bit more calm and waiting for me to be done taking pictures so they could go scoop up some candy.

Hope everyone else had a safe evening filled with happy trick-or-treaters.

Not sure when I'll get a chance to blog this week, I have a bit of work ahead of me. All the Halloween product comes down and there is a mountain of boxes with Christmas product to go up...as long as the stores aren't playing Christmas music I should survive ;)

Angie

Happy Halloween

Hoping everyone has a safe and happy Halloween. Be wary of witches carrying potions and casting spells.

The costumes are done and candy is bought...more pictures tomorrow.

Angie

Craft Sharing Day

Another busy week draws to a close but I still have potion bottles to assemble, a Hogwart's cape to make and Halloween candy to buy. Add to that a day helping out at the cafeteria and Halloween parties...eek!

While waiting for my witch potion labels to print I came across a few got-to-try tutorials. Being the ever-so-lazy blogger I thought it best to make note of them here then I can find them again when I'm ready (sad isn't is?)

Antiqued Sheet Music by The Decorating Diaries

Flower Pin by 12 crafts till Christmas (l.o.v.e. that name)

A Recycled Flower Pin by Studio Waterstone

Enjoy!

Angie

Tutorial: Making hook clasps from shank buttons

I've love shank buttons, especially old vintage ones. Unfortunately I find them difficult to use in jewelry because they tend to dangle or hang the way they want rather than the way I want.

Just fooling around tonight I figured out that they could be turned into hook clasps, here are the steps I took:
I used 20 gauge annealed steel wire.

Cut off a 4 inch piece and make a loop one inch from the end.

Slip the doubled wire through the shank of your button, I like a nice snug fit but I think it's ok if it wiggles a little bit.
Taking the short end , curl it up and around the shank with needle nose pliers, cut off any extra wire. This locks it in place and prevents the button from moving up or down.
With the remaining wire make the hook clasp.
Easy Peasy
Angie

Family that doesn't belong to me

I guess there is something odd about working with portraits and photos of people long ago. They aren't my ancestors but they are someones family. Wonder if they are long forgotten folks or if maybe someday someone will send me a message saying.."Hey that's my great great grandfather"...

Guess it's unlikely to happen.

I moved on to making ovals and circles the last few days and I'm totally in love with them, it's going to be hard to put them in the shop...

What I'm really thinking about is making some completed pieces for the shop. It's nice to have some variety, even if it's mostly inspiration for others who only want to buy the components.

Any thoughts, how would you use these in your work...I'm thinking buttons , pearls and lace but draw a blank after that. Should they be necklaces, brooches or maybe bracelets?? Or am I overlooking other projects these could be useful for?

Angie

I'm a tree hugger

Lesley Purcell placed one of my etched polymer pendants in her 'branching out' treasury (thank you!). It is a sweet grouping of tree inspired artwork.

Lesley has an etsy shop with her beautiful watercolor painting transformed into cards, soldered jewelry and ornaments. I already picked up my favorite items so now I can tell you about her great promo...free shipping on her items until Oct 23rd!

Angie

Found: Old medicinal bottles

Very excited to have found a few of these old medicine/tonic bottles. While running errands Monday I strategically made the loop around some of my favorite places to treasure hunt.

I did come across a few true pharmaceutical bottles, but wow are they expensive. The ones I purchased were simple over the counter medicine/tonic bottles, much smaller and more reasonable at just a couple of dollars apiece.

I'm looking forward to making these into witch's potions and such for Halloween. Hopefully I can get to it before the 31st...

Angie

Instant Ancestors

Stole away some time the last few evening to make more 'slides'.

I have to give credit to Magic Moonlight for all the fantastic images I used here. They are her 'beauties' and I have to agree, they made excellent subject matter for my pendants.

By far my favorite is the young lady below on the left, I just love the long pony tail and the details of her dress.
I have several more made but I'm too afraid to mess with them until the resin fully cures, they will be in the shop in a few days.

Another work week begins today..I have to make my way into most of my accounts to take down Bosses's Day and Sweetest Day. Did you all remember your boss last Friday???? As for Sweetest Day, I'm not sure if it is even known to most of the US, seems like it's just a midwest thing. Have you ever heard of it before where you live?

Angie

What happens when the lights go out.

No worries ... this is a G-rated blog.

Must...must...must remember that when we have a power outage the oven's digital setting are lost...

I made up more slides last night (to replace those that sold... yippee..and thank you!), but didn't think twice about popping them into the oven. Thirty minutes later the studio was stinky and the clay was glowing...this is not a good sign at all. Look at the temp on the oven and it's 350 degrees, should have been 275...whoopsie.

Looks like a red dawn in Paris.

Maybe better luck tomorrow.

Angie

Feeling Witchy

I made a purchase last week at MagicPug's Etsy shop, after falling for her images of witch potion labels. My intention is to use them on actual bottles but I'm still on the hunt for just the right ones. I would love for each one to be uniquely shaped and preferably old, I think I'm my own worst enemy when the bar is set that high.

Hoping to get these finished before Halloween for a friend as sort of a practical joke. In the last few months she and I have been involved in a bit of silly drama, accused of being 'pot stirrers'. We've decided to celebrate this as opposed to getting mad about it and we'll play the part as witches this Halloween. Now you see why I need witch potions, for what else would we 'stir up' in our cauldrons...hehehehehe

In the shop

Angie

A funny thing happened while at the brick auction

I'll get to the funny story in just a bit.

First let me say this was my first time participating in and attending the "Bricks Along The Journey" event which raises money for the Ellen B. Ganson Memorial Foundation funding Breast Cancer Research, Education, Advocacy and Patient Support in the Cincinnati Area. Bricks are donated to artists as the "canvas" for their art, those works are then donated back and included in the silent auction event that happened today.

The artist works are amazing and generous, this year the event had over 450 bricks to auction. The tables held anywhere from 10-20 bricks, each one intrinsically unique to the artist that made it.
It took a while but I finally found my Circus Train Car (no bids yet but it was still early).
I had to take some pictures of the amazing variety. Most were beautifully painted...
but then there were other styles too...like this sculpture...
..I really admired this piece (must be the mixed media lover in me)... the title "Wellness, it's what's for dinner"

There were several in this style from artists taking a mosaics class in Colorado.

The whole event was enlightening and really well done.

You read down this far you must really want to know my funny story...

After walking each table and viewing all the bricks it was time for Barb and I to take a little break. We found a table and were enjoying a snack when in the background we hear someone at the podium mention something about a circus brick. Looking across the room there is Howard Ain, a local weather man for Channel 12, speaking with Liz Bonis another news correspondent. They were in search of this 'circus brick' but they're pointing to the far side of the room, not anywhere near where my brick was placed. I'm sitting there thinking..."really another circus themed brick...". Somehow I got up the nerve to ask if they were referring to my circus train car, Yup that's what they were looking for...Howard Ain went on to say how he had seen it in their studio the day before and really liked it. Then it got really funny (because I am not at all fond of attention) he pulled me up on stage ...YIKES! He wanted me to share my inspiration for the piece (did I mention I'm trying to get over this darn cold and have almost no voice) Luckily Barb got a picture of this humorous moment. All this hoopla did generate some interest in my little train car and that is very exciting, though I don't know how how much it went for in the end. We decided it was best to head out a little early because it is very important to get home before the disgruntled Bengals fans get on the roads.

To see many more pictures from the auction just blog hop over to Barb's .

Angie

I 'heart' clip art...

...but often it comes on a sheet full and I don't want to print them all. Whats a girl to do??? Open up my Photoshop program, isolate just the the images needed and then save them individually. When I'm ready to use them they're inserted into a word document and printed out.

The original file was kinda small so these images are actual size, feel free to save any of the images below if you think you could use them too.

Update on my mom, she did have surgery today. They removed her gall bladder, this should mean no more late night trips to the ER. Good thing too since I really should stay out of hospitals, doctors offices, and such because I always seem to pick up some germs while I'm there. Today I'm miserable...sore throat, achy ears and overall blahs. Off to bed I go to re-cooperate.

Angie

New work

Still making and filling bezels, trying to figure out what works and what doesn't.

They look dark in the photographs but brighter in real life.

These are filled with old papers from a music play book, I like the old vintage look.

Also made some more transparencies in resin, still like the effect

but it only works in black/white not color so it's a bit limiting.

I don't think I'll get much time to play this week, my mom is in the hospital and we are looking at surgery tomorrow. Nothing life threatening but she's in pain and it's hard to watch. We just want her pain free with some assemblage of normal. Prayers are always welcome :)

Angie

16th means..

We don't look this young anymore...

and I should have received one of these (?)

I'm so thankful to have spent these years with Bob, he absolutely gets me and I hope he knows how much I love him everyday.

Also very thankful he knows not to follow the traditional/modern list of anniversary gifts because silver holloware is definitely something I don't need.

Angie