August 26, 2008

Bag 5

Brought the paints back out this afternoon ... going to finish off a couple of the in-progress projects.

Added writings and squiggles in black permenant marker. Added stamped images in bight pinks, greens, two shades of blue and a touch of red. Took back outside and added some silver spray paint (to correspond with the new silver handle).

Fished out the silver handle and added touches of paint and some partial stamped images.

Covered all with a coat of poly acrylic. Will let dry overnight.

I'm going to use one of the zipper pulls that I'd originally created, then decided not to use, for Tote 4. Will put this one together tomorrow and photograph.Tote506

August 25, 2008

Tiger Brooch

Decided this morning to put together another brooch. I selected one of the gold tiger heads (taken apart from a set of button covers), some purple & gold beads to the ornamentation.

Cut out a circle image from an AOL CD. Buffed the edges to remove sharper edges. Took the the garage and drilled through 7 holes for the hanging beads with the dremel.

Broochb Covered front & back with art papers and applied layers of decoupage. After drying, attached Tiger head with E6000; strung the beads with pins heads and clasps and hung on the brooch.

I've ordered some pin backs that can also be pendants and will finish this when they come in.

Then, spent the next hour cleaning up, putting everything back where it belongs and a little more organizing. (I have space for two distinct work areas, just need to get a little better oranized and learn to quit piling stuff on the second work area ... like the laptop, books, yard sale finds, etc).

August 24, 2008

Beaded Brooches

I've decided that I've either got to start doing something with all this jewelry I'm collecting, or I've got to stop collecting it. I'm going to try to devote at least a day a week to playing with the jewelry ... (It's actually quite fun). Then, I'll be able to make the decision if this is my line, or move on.

Puled out the numerous 'jewelry' containers and started sorting them out by type ... beads, suitable or pendants/hanging and other.

Decided on ornaments for these two pieces and then cut the bases from an old AOL CD (guess collecting those as well was a good idea). These pieces are mostly beads as well as whole earrings and a few sparkly gems that were from bracelets/

Broocha I'm wanting 1 1/2" pinbacks for these and all I have is 3/4" and 1". So, ordered some online (an Etsy supplier, of course). When they come in, I'll finish putting these together.

(Picture not too great .... the old camera is not good for this type of closeup, and don't like to use the new camera as it's pixel heavy and eats up lots of space.)

August 23, 2008

Yard Sale Saturday, August 23, 2008



Made 5 yard sales this morning.

Finds:

  • 6 Iron-on transfer books and two ready transfer packages. Not sure why these interested in me ... have no plans of painting ready made designs on shirts. However, they called me and for $1 for the set, home they came.
  • A box of large wood dominos. These are interesting for both the dominos and the wood box with the sliding lid. The dominoes do not have the letter dots indented; making them great for painted blocks.
  • A wood cigar box.
  • 6 sets of 35 white strand mini-lights. These are for the shutter sets that have burned out lights.
  • A calligraphy pen with 6 different points and a book of misc. letter styles.
  • An old (70's) vogue hat pattern.
  • 4 new packages of hem tape.

And, I'm really proud of myself ... saw scarves at 3 stops, but didn't give them a second look.

August 22, 2008

Book Pages

Book14_2 The book pages continue. Have 2 of the 4 books almost completed. The other two are in varying stages. I'm still finding this quite enjoyable and have started deciding what the first projects will be. Technically, there are more than enough pages done to proceed forward ... Hummm.

August 21, 2008

Trio

As I've been working on the pages, have added bits here and there to Trio. Took them out on the porch this afternoon and added letters in silver. I think I put in too much silver, Beau thinks I don't have enough color.

Trio07 Pretty busy. I'm going to glaze at it for a couple days, perhaps take it down to Alex' room and see the effect under a black light and decide where to go from there. If the jury stays out, could always tone it out with a wash and then a few more layers.

August 19, 2008

Tote (Purse) 5

Picked up this adorable little GAP purse at Grans this afternoon.

Cut off the handle .. interesting that one side attaches to the zipper itself. I have a longer silver handle in my inventory that I'll use instead.

Taped the inside edges and around the button to guard against paint getting in this areas.

Tote502 Stuffed the bag with newspapers. Picked two shades of blue and painted the outside of the bag.

August 17, 2008

Tote 4

Tote403_2 Took Tote to the back porch paint box and spray painted a variety of stencils. Other than some pink, kept the colors relatively muted. I want the blues & greens to remain prominent on this one ... not taken over with red or blacks. Let dry.

Brought in and added some writings, a few stamps and some assorted paints. Let dry.

Back out to the paint box for a little more spray paint.

I went out a bit ago to take pictures for posting here. It's looking a bit boring, but I'm thinking it might just be the lighting. Still have snaps and I want to add some additional emblishments ... tomorrow.Tote404

Trio

Took Tote to the back porch paint box and spray painted a variety of stencils. Other than some pink, kept the colors relatively muted. I want the blues & greens to remain prominent on this one ... not taken over with red or blacks. Let dry.

Trio05 Brought in and added some writings, a few stamps and some assorted paints. Let dry.

Back out to the paint box for a little more spray paint.

I went out a bit ago to take pictures for posting here. It's looking a bit boring, but I'm thinking it might just be the lighting. Still have snaps and I want to add some additional emblishments ... tomorrow.

August 16, 2008

Yard Sale Saturday, August 16, 2008

Yss081608Woke up to pouring down rain and Beau cancelling his usual Saturday morning run. The rain stopped about 8:30 and went out to visit the scheduled 3 that were in the neighborhood. Of those, only one actaully took place (guess I'll have the oher 2 for next weekend).

Finds:
-- 3 canvas bags
-- 1 large stencil overlay
-- 2 cards with 3 tassels each
-- 1 belt made up of leather (probably faux) circles. I'd like to take this apart and sew onto a tote bag ... hummm ... anyone know how to remove these grommets?

Expenditures = $3.00

Trio

Trio03 Painted the frames (front & back) and the canvas a solid grey/purplish color (that looks very blue in the photo). Let all three dry. Hauled the 3 out to the back porch (putting down a large sheet to catch the overspray). Using stencils, applied various patterns/colors to the canvas. I want these three to be related, not identifcal. So, using similar colors/patterns on each .. with varying placements.Trio04

Tote 4

Tote401 Had about 1/2 hour extra time before going to dinner, so picked up one of the canvas bags I picked up at yard sale this morning. Painted with a greenish (I didn't mark color names when paint was originally taken from cans and put into jars) color. Then, sponged on a shade a similar hue in blue. Hung up to dryTote402

August 15, 2008

Yard Sale Friday, August 15, 2008

One of the Covington Women Groups is having a community yard sale at the Parish Fairgrounds to raise funds to finish the iron fence at the cemetary. Good cause; had to go even if its far out of the circle. Even Beau went, however, as soon as he found a book, he headed back to the car.

Yss081508 I picked up a big white plastic bag at the edge of a table, it looked like it contained yarn and scarves. One of the group came over and said the bag was junk and they weren't putting it out, but if I wanted it, I could have it far a dollar. Well, the couple scarves I had pulled looked rather nice, so, agreed to the dollar. Got this home, and found that it actually contained close to 70 scarves, 5 neck cowles, a couple button on collars and two very old fashioneed night caps, as well as 12 skeins of very lightweight white yarn. The problem with bringing this type of thing home is that it becomes quite a timeconsuming chore sorting through it. Scraves to keep, those for the garbage, those to give to Grans. Then, of course, the keepers then have to be washed and folded. And then, had to dedicate a whole second container to storing them. By the end, decided that this should be more than enough scraves to complete any future project that might pop up and I can now discontinue picking up scarves. (Oh, how I hope I can follow through on that). The yarn, I'm giving to my neighbor, who knits incredible fringy shawls.

Other finds:

  • A box of old fashioned shoe ornaments. Think these will make interesting attachment to zipper pulls.
  • 4 old Vogue patterns.
  • A plastic storage box

  • 2 pair of old clip earrings, one bracelet and two pins. One ... not sure what it is, but it's magnatized
  • 3 tiny metal boxes ... great to give small jewelry pieces.
  • 3 rubber stamps.
  • A metal pie plate. I've been using the styrofoam plates lately, which I dislike as they are not recycleable. This one I'll be able to rinse and reuse.

  • Long notecards. When I ship an artpiece sold on Etsy, I like to include a thank you note and a bookmark. These long cards will work nicely.
  • 3 picture frames (not shown) that will be my nice project.

Trio

Trio01 I picked up these 3 pictures at the yard sale this morning for $1.00 each. The frame insets are 29 1/2" long and 10" wide. I believe they are 'older' frames in that the paper backing shows they were framed in California and the abbreviation if Calif versus CA ... should date it back into the 70's or earlier.

-- Removed the backing, pulled out the tacks and remove the pictures.
-- Lightly sanded.
-- Cleaned
-- Cut 3 pieces of corrugated plastic board to 29 1/2" x 10.
-- Cut 3 pieces of canvas to same measurements.
-- Using spray adhesive, attached the canvas to the corrugatd plastic board.
-- Repaired a couple loose corners and then recaulked aall of the corner joints, front & back.
-- Placed the canvases into place and secured with new grazier points.

Hope to be able to start painting tomorrow afternoon .. although tomorrow is rather full-up on chores and obligations.

Note: I dont believe these pieces will remain named Trio ... but I've got to call it something, and, well, that's what it is at this stage ... a set of three

August 12, 2008

Book Pages

Book12

In one of the Somerset Studio books, there is a short article on creating edge stencils from heavy weight. Other than it being an 'uh duh', decided I'd make a few to get some new shapes going on. Pulled out some heavy constructions paper and cut a few side designs, along with a couple regular stencils (not for edges). I started thinking that if I water proofed them they might hold up longer to paint moisture. So, took to the porch and saturated with Water Seal. Let them dry thoroughly.

Then, I got to thinking ... why work with paper when I have an entire box of transparencies ... (another uh-duh moment). So I pulled back out the hole punches my friend Carol gave me and started punching into the transparency. Went well on regular circles, but became a major issue with a sun shape ... the transpancy is too thick for the hole punch. So, if I decide I'm going to make more using the transparencies (which would definitely be more durable than paper), I''ll have to use the x-acto knife to cut out shapes.

Anyway .... tried out a couple of the paper stencils and they held up quite well. The waterseal does a great job at sealing out the moisture.

Spent a couple hours working on the various pages. My plan tomorrow is to start experimenting with image transfers.

August 11, 2008

Book Pages

Worked on a few more of the book pages. This particular picture are on their 2nd and 3rd layers.

Book11

Tote 3

Added additional orange paint to the straps, then toned down with 3 colors of spray paint and some gold stencil.

Took apart a leather strap belt and used 5 of the narrow straps to create the drawstring. Tied the ends and secured with a brown strap holder. Thought about putting beads on the ends of the straps, but decided that would move it towards the 'cute' side.

Dug through the container of metal objects and came out with some animal shot tags to put on the back zipper.Tote305 Tote306_2

Took pictures and then realized that I have not yet put on polyacrylic. Will do that tomorrow and then consider this one finished.

I'll be listing this one of Etsy.

August 10, 2008

Tote 3

I woke up early this morning, so took Tote 3 out to the back porch and put on the first layer of spray paint designs before heading out to yard sales at 7am. Late afternoon, brought back in and added paint and permenant marker details. Then, back out to the porch for a little more spray paint. I have a tendency to spray paint my left hand while holding the stencils. I don't mind; it wears off within a day. But, it's driving Beau nuts ... he follows me around with the WD-40 can to get the paint off. So, for household harmony, brought out the box of latex gloves (leftover from the concrete/grout days) and I'll start wearing one when spray painting. Tote303 Tote304

I'm not happy with the way the straps look. Will play with them a little more tomorrow, decide on the cording and apply the polyacrylic.

August 09, 2008

Yard Sale Saturday, August 9, 2008

Yss080908 Slow morning. Came across 4 yard sales in my circle.
Finds ...
-- 4 scraves
-- Two small storage container
-- Three pieces of lace (I'm planning on using these for texture)
-- One large 6 drawer storage container.

I'd previously said I wasn't going to pickup anymore of these large storage containers. BUT, this one has narrow drawer whereas most that I have are deep drawers. I find the narrow drawers more useful for papers, paints, etc. So, broke down, paid the $5 and brought it home. The downside here, of course, is then I had to spend a good deal of the afternoon repacking drawers and then moving the larger bins out to the garage and repacking to those .... alas ... trying to stay organized is a quite a chore

August 08, 2008

Tote 3

This is 2nd tote that I bought recently at a yard sale. It's really a back pack with shoulder straps and a really great zipper panel so one wouldn't have to take the pack off to get something out ... just have a friend unzip and get something out. This was washed a few days back with the other.

-- Stuffed it full of newpapers (makes it easier to paint).
-- Removed the white drawstring cord. Put away in the 'fibers' box. I'm thinking this drawstring will be replaced with leather straps ... will have to experiment to see if they pull nicely through the metal grommets.
- Selected a deep orange, and painted randomly about 60% of the bag.
-- Went out to the shed and found a medium yellow and filled in the rest of the bags. As it dries, the brown background is changing the color to a tannish ... no problem.

Tote301

Put on a hanger and hung from a door frame to dry. (Difficult to find a place where it touches nothing.

Broach 3

Broach003The Jewelry pieces I've picked up over the last three weeks are all sitting on the side table waiting for me to put away. I was looking through it this afternoon, and this broach came out.

-- Selected a Hercules Doubloon for the base.
-- But out a circle slightly smaller than the base and glued into place.
-- Removed the center piece from a silver earring (it was dingy looking). Replaced the center piece with a white (flat on the bottom) piece that came off a different earrling.
-- Strung some white beads and put in place on the outer circle ... just inside the doubloon rim.
-- Added to white hanging bead earrings at the bottom, among to circle of beads.
-- Put the silver earring back into the center.

I'll let this one set up overnight and put the pin on the back tomorrow.

August 06, 2008

Book Pages

I've been working on the pages for the last couple days, although I have posted them.Book10

There are now 4 full scrapbooks with painted pages, at least the first coat. I'm switching between them as pages are set aside to dry, head outside for spray painting, etc.

When spray painting, the paint, of course, gets all over the stencil. I've discovered that immediately after spraying, a cool effect can be obtained by taking the wet stencil and pulling it across another one of the sheet (thus tieing up two books with drying time from each spray).

I've also started a 5th scrapbook that I'm using solely for excess paint mix and brush cleaning.

I made a trip up to the Habitat Restore this morning to pick up some paint shop and browse for interesting tools for finish techniques. Best find was a metal drain for showers ... nice round holes in a round shape.

Several years back my mother gave me a box (shoe box size) of acrylic paint pigments that had come from an Ace Hardware closing in her neighborhood. Came across them the other day and was quite surprised they were not solid. The Restore has quite a few cans of paint base, so picked up a quart (actually the reason I went there). So, over the next couple days I'm going to play with mixing small quantities of paint in (hopefully) brilliant colors. I have a color mixing chart in a watercolor book, and since the names on the tubes are the same as on my tubes of watercolor pigments, I'm hoping they are the same.

Tote 1

Tote106 Tote107

Applied more stamps and then took out to the back porch spray box and added more spray paint stencils. Let dry up a couple hours.

Then, applied a coat of PolyAcrylic and let dry thoroughly.

Brought two really big snaps out of the sewing box and put on the inside of the bag, just inside the handles so the bag can close.

I like it. It's brigt, colorful and quite fun. The only negative is the paint roughens the texture of the fabric. I recall reading in some magazine that acrylic paint is permenant afteer drying/curing. This doesn't seem to me that it would be correct ... since acrylic paint is water soluble ... but I'll have to test. Sometime in the next couple days I'm going to paint up a sample piece of fabric, let it sit a couple days and then put it few the next few wash loads ... see what happens. Particularly since I think a tote bag should be washable

Tote 2

Same as Tote 1 .... these two were worked together.

Tote204 Tote205

August 02, 2008

Tote 2

I'm working on the two bags together (at this stage). Took this one to the back porch as well to spray paint. Used a different stencil and gold paint. Let dry and brought in.

Tote203

Started adding design elements with a variety of stencils. I briefly tried sharpie's, however, the color did not come through well ... so sticking with paint at this point. I'll continue with layers tomorrow.

Yard Sale Saturday, August 2, 2008

I got distracted and followed a lime green sign off my designated yard sale route. Big mistake ... took me way out of the beaten path, found nothing of interest there and ate up 30 minutes of my alotted time.Yss080208

Finds ....
-- One plastic pencil container. (I love these for storage of small items ... they stack wonderfully and I pick them up whenever I find them ... as long as they are 50 cents or less).
-- 4 scarves
-- Superdog childrens book. Great animations to possible use as background papers.
-- A pair of black gloves, along with hand forms.
-- 1 package of tiny snaps
-- 5 foam stamps
-- 1 belt purchased for the leather straps.
-- 1 metal decorative thingie ... not sure what this was originally intended, but believe it will become an adornment on one of the totebags currently in progress

August 01, 2008

Book Pages

Had to go to the bank so made a quick stop at K-Mart for yellow spray paint ... ran out this morning.

Moved through another 6 pages ... nothing new, but still enjoying the process. I still enjoy how there does not have to be a final destination; a page changes with each layer.Book09_2

Tote 1

Selected a stencil and took bag to the back porch spray box. Used yellow spray paint and added stencil design. Let dry between back/front/sides.

Brought in and started adding paint details.