Tote 10

I picked up a silver bracelet last Saturday at a yardsale. It appealed to me for this purse. Took it apart ... with was small tarnished metal thingies attached together with elastic cord. Sewed, through the beadhole openings, the silver thingies onto the front pockets of the purse. I think they correspond nicely .... the slight tarnish blends perfectly with the grafitti style.

This piece is finished.

Tote 10

Reinforced stitching inside tote. Folded in half lengthwise and stitched to reinforce edges and be decorative. Attached the scarf to the tote.

Tote 11

• Reinforced seams on inside of tote
• Cut, sewed & attached scarf to Tote.
• Added button design elements
• Added a snap to inside center

This tote is finished. I'll take better pictures tomorrow. This tote will be listed on Etsy for sale.

Tamborine

• Applied two coats of polyacrylic to tamborine base.
• Selected a piece of braided lace.
• Selected and made 7 strands of beads.
• Sewed the beads onto the braided lace.
• Attached the lace to the top rim of the tamporine using E6000
• Attached the new top using E6000.
• Applied two coats of polyacrylic to the top, and over the lace

Although the beads hang over two of the cymbols, they do not interfer with the functionality. This piece was not rebuilt to be functional, however, it I tapped out a couple tunes with my new Alejandro Escovedo CD, and its quite sturdy.

I'm considering this one finished. It's going to be packaged up and sent to Pam as a housewarming present (probably with one of the guitars).

Yard Sale Saturday, September 27, 2008

It's been three weeks now without a hurricane, so I was quite surprised that yardsales were not in abundance this morning. Left out at the usual 7am, and found only three within my circuit; of which, just one had anything of interest.

Finds:

• two canvas purses ... interesting pockets and good size for redesign
• Misc jewelry pieces. I was really just interested in the silver bracelet, but it was in a baggie with everything else ... so, for a quarter, it all came home. I'm going to use the parts from the silver bracelet on Tote 10. I have no idea what the purpose of the silver headband looking thing was ...

Totes 10 & 11

I've been working these two totes, along with the two guitars, a couple Rouse bags, an apron, and a couple of the Book Pages all together. Basically, pick & pour some paint, and then work however many things until the color runs dry, switching stamps as I go along.

Applied stamps, splotches, etc. to the two totes; then took to the back porch paint box. Applied gold spray paint to the orange tote and silver to the purple.

Next up with be decisions on ornamentation and setting back up the sewing machine to attach the scarf handles.

My pictures are looking a bit washed out, which is not representative of the actual totes. I was playing with settings the other night trying to figure out changes to take jewelry stills, and I've obviously got the whole thing messed up. ALAS ... a new project ... figure out the camera and learn to take better pictures.

Two Guitars

As indicated on the totes, these pieces have moved together until this point. Last night and today, applied stamps, spray paint, etc. Tomorrow I'll start choosing mixed media ornamentation for these pieces, apply poly acryclic, etc. etc. etc. As they begin to take on personality, I'll also assign them names.

Trio

I have given the Trio set to Alex. They were mostly designed with him in mind and fit very well (in my opinion), with the general disorder he has going on back there. We hung them this morning and took a couple photos (which were not great ... but will suffice since I'm not planning on selling these pieces).

I was in the middle of these pieces when I realized I had overworked them. For grafitti pieces, it was not necessary to set up new/individual canvases for the frames. Since the original pictures in the frames were scrap, it would have been perfectly acceptable to paint right over them.

Tamborine

I picked up this tamborine back before Jazz Fest and it's been sitting on top of the glass cabinet ever since. Thought that since I was working on the guitars, I might as well make this an instrument week, and do the Tamborine as well.

Removed the torn top and tossed out, along with the side braide. Removed the pins and the cymbols (put in a seperate envelope since I have a tendency to loose parts). Took out to the garage and lightly sanded to remove the finish.

Pulled out the Book Pages and selected a painted page for the new drum. The circular area is 7". Cut two 7" circles and attached together (back sides of course) with adhesive spray. The two sheets will make the drum more durable (in case someone should not realize it is decorative and use it), as well as make it equally interesting from the bottom side.

Selected a shade of orange acrylic paint that was probably used in this particular Book Page. Applied two coats of paint to all but the top edge of the wood base. Allowed to dry well between coats. Will continue (probably) tomorrow.

Totes 10 & 11

Added words to the front and back of each Tote/Purse with permenant markers.

Two Guitars

Applied the second coat to the green guitar and let dry. Took both out to the back porch. Set up the paint box, and spray painted stencils, splatters and such. I'm growing ever more fond of spray paints ... I'm going to have to come up with some more needs to go to The Box or Walmart so I can add some more colors.

Tote 10 & Tote 11

I painted Totes 10 & 11 yesterday with what I hoped to be decent colors to correspond with the selected scarves. Painted with a diluted mix (about 1/2 and 1/2) acrylic paint & water. Diluted the paint to see if this makes a different in the final texture of the finished piece. Painted inside and out. On the purple bag, painted the inside a light blue. Then, when the deep purple was painted on the outside, it bled through here and there and created a delightful speckled effect inside. Let them dry overnight.

This morning, took them outside, set up the paint box, and applied spray paint stencils to each. Used light stencils on the deep purple, which lightened it up some. Still think it's a bit dark, which I'll work to remedy with stamps.

Guitars

Yesterday, we removed the hardware and sanded them lightly to roughen the finish for painting. Today, I added a coat of shed red paint (that's the sorta red and it's the color we painted our shed a couple years ago) to the Barbie instrument (guitar 1) and a blueish, mostly green paint to the other one (guitar 2). The second guitar will need another base coat tomorrow.

Lillian

Lillian came to spend the night. We've not done a good job getting ready for the grandbaby coming to visit ... had to improvise with a laundry basket. But, gosh, I sure love this baby.

Tote 10 & Tote 11

A couple nights ago I picked out scarves to act as handles on the next two totes / purses. I picked these two totes up at Hobby Lobby a week or so back. They are basic with 3 pockets in the front. With a razor blade, removed the handles. I'll start on them tomorrow; tonight is the LSU game, which requires full attention.

Stepping Stones for Bonnie

Uncast the last 4 stones this morning. Washed, let dry and stacked in the car. We delivered to Bonnie Saturday afternoon (since she was hosting the LSU/Auburn game). We stacked them into a big garbage bag, added water and gave her instructions to let them sit at least 2 weeks in the water before putting them in use. She really liked the stones, Beau likes have the concrete mix out of the shed ... this one was a double win

Yard Sale Saturday, September 20, 2008

After three weeks, yard sales are slowely starting back up. Found 3 in my circle this morning, but all I found of interest was this Barbie pink guitar. Although I still have one on the back burner, for $1., had to scoop it up. Maybe I'll solicit Beau to sit out on the driveway with me tomorrow and sand these up.

Stepping Stones, Trio & Beading

After morning chores, I went out to unmold the stepping stones cast yesterday. The initial scraping told me they were still fragile. The mix was not overly wet yesterday and night time temps were only down to the upper 60's. Decided to leave them in the crawfish trays and I'll umold in the morning.
Then, came inside and attached the wire to the hooks on Trio. This project is finished. I'll hang and do some final photos on it Sunday, then contact the recipient that it is ready.
Last night I'd picked out to scarves to be the handles and color inspiration for the next two tote/purses. It was my intention to start on them this afterrnoon. But, Robyn was having a crisis .... it's LSU Football time and the zipper pull on her Football purse broke. I'd committed to making her a new one. Decided, that since she's such an incredible young woman, to make her a beaded one ... versus just giving her a circular keychain to slip through the hole. Out came the beads ....
Put together a Purple and Gold Zipper Pull for Robyn. Then, I got completely sidetracked with some small gold metal pieces that have been sitting on the side table for a couple months. Matched them up with some white beads taken from a vintage necklace picked up at yardsale and a heart piece from a hanging earring and created a necklace. Upon completion, decided it just a tad too long. So, after yard sales, and grass cutting tomorrow, I'll rework it a couple links shorter.
Loosy pictures. I'm going to have to get out the manual on this camera and figure out spot focusing settings.

Tote 4

The plan was to apply the polyacrylic ... sew on snaps and adornments ... but had to dilemna first.

I was checking over the bag this morning when I realized I had a little paint transfer on the inside top edge that I didn't like. So decided to paint it ... Turned the purse inside out and took outside to the paint box. Spray painted a light blue and hung up to dry.

Went back out two hours later and the bag was still tacky to the touch ... hummmm
Went back out after another 4 hours and the bag was still tacky. Darn ....

I'd used the paint previously so decided the inside of the bag is coated ... has a rubber feel ... probably coated for ease of cleaning, as well as increased durability. Did a google on how to fix ...

At dinner, bantered it about with Beau, Alex and Mary. Beau suggested I sand it ... Alex & Mary couldn't even drum up interested.

Later, I got to thinking about how we clean my hands of spray paint with WD-40. Took it out to the garage and sprayed. Firmly wiped down the spray painted interior and ... gosh ... the tacky paint came off, leaving just a very light blue color behind. Took back in the house, layed out on the counter and cleaned thoroughly with dish soap and a scrub brush to ensure residue & smell went away. Then tossed in the dryer. Well, learned that the bags will wash and wear very nicely.

Applied the coat of polyacrylic. Tomorrow I'll do the sewing part and finish this one off

Stepping Stones for Bonnie

Checked the stepping stones this morning. I had intended to unmold them yesterday, just never got around to it. Unmolded & cleaned. Not great stepping stones by any means, but certainly satisfactory. Beau mixed the concrete for me (1 40 pound bag mades 4 crawfish stones) and we cast the last 4 stones.

Trio

Decided to finish this in-progress, before I start on anything new.

• Pulled out the white paint and added in a bit more lettering on each, as well as some circles.
• Adjusted the canvas on the canvas board on two ... had wrinkles that needed smoothed and adhered.
• Applied two coats of polyacrylic to each piece.

I'm going to leave these named 'Trio'. Tomorrow I'll attach the hanging wire and apply paper backing.

Tote 9

I was taking pictures today of a the finished bags so I could post them for sale on Etsy. When I sat down to do the pictures, I realized that I managed to complete this entire tote and never took a single in-progress picture. Unusual event indeed .... This piece would have been done after Tote 4, but decided to go ahead and call it 9 so that I don't get involved in the half kinda thing. You know, like 4 1/2. I'll get it posted on Etsy tomorrow.

Stepping Stones for Bonnie

Went out around 3pm this afternoon to unmold the 4 steppings stones cast yesterday and cast 4 more. BUT .... when I took tapped this one out of the crawfish tray, it broke. ALAS. I suppose the mix was a little soupier yesterday, and the temperature was cooler. I'm going to let the other 3 sit another day and will unmold them tomo

Rouse Bags

Last Green week, I bought 6 shopping bags at my local Rouses Grocery. We decided to make the commitment to seriously cut-back on the number of plastic bags we bring home. The standing joke incentive was ... as soon as we make it 3 months without one plastic bag we'd go on a cruise to reward ourselves. The joke, of course, being that we'll go on a cruise anyway.

But ... this piece really should be called ... ROUSES PLAYS LIP SERVICE TO GREEN DAY. Now, I know that they charged us only $1.00 each for these bags .... but really ... they could not have intended that we were going to bring them back into there store for very long as they started falling apart by the 3rd grocery trip (called Making Groceries here).

I contemplated throwing them out and getting some new ones .... but that certainly wouldn't fit into the whole conservation thing. So, brought them in (have to keep bags in the car or they won't be available for shopping ... we use them everywhere), and spent almost two hours reinforcing all of the seams, sides, handles ... everywhere. These definitely will not fall apart again. Then, decided I might as well just go for it .... sport around town with shopping bags that are worth being seen with .....

BRING ON THE PAINT.

Opened up 5 different jars of paint and slathered down the 6 bags. Hung them outside off the porch ceiling fan to dry. (Alex girlfriend commented on them ... he told her it was one of my new sculptural thingies). If there dry tomorrow, I'll add some spray paint. If not, I'll have to wait a couple days as I'm going to need them for the weekly grocery trip on Thursday.

Stepping Stones for Bonnie

There are 3 1/2 bags (40 lbs ea) of sand concrete mix in the shed left over from the Chatta Ima Mushroom project. Beau's been asking me for awhile what we were going to do with these and recently decided that since Bonnie is fond of the stepping stones we made a few years back, that we'd just make her some of her own.

Pulled out the crawfish trays and Beau cut 12 rounds for me from paper bags. Pulled out a storage container of leftover tiles and another of bottle bottoms. Mixed up some wallpaper paste and created 12 tops for the stepping stones. These are simple pieces ... no great design going on. Just a splash of color for her garden area.

Beau mixed the partial bag of concrete for me yesterday and we cast 3 stones. Unmolded this afternoon and cast another 4. The 4 stones cast today exactly used one bag of the sand mix, which means we have 'crete for 8 more stones. I'll need to make up 4 more topper sheets.

Yard Sale Saturday, September 13, 2008

This is the 3rd week with no yardsales. Of course, the first two weeks were due to Hurricane Gustav riping through our community. And this week due to Hurricane Ike; we are on the outskirts but getting mild winds and low areas are flooding around the lake, streams & bayous.

As I was heading for yardsale withdrawals, Beau and I stopped by the Restore. And, all is not lost, was able to pickup 5 cans of spray paint, an almost quart of red paint and some green metallic faux something or rather. This should hold me over till next week.

Turban 1a

I came across a couple of my inventory scarves the other day that hadn't been put away. Getting totally sidetracked, I then pulled them all back inside, got out the ironing board and iron, mixed some starch and started ironing all of them. Ohhh ... what great colors and silky textures. Which got me to thinking about turbans and bandanas and scarves of other shapes. All or which comes back to the big 'S' word ... SEWING. Now, in the end of my mothers life, she would periodically comment about how hard it was to teach me to sew. But, it wasn't me. It was my sister ... the woman who whips out the most incredible quilts. Although I own a sewing machine, the truth is I bought it to do simple straight stitching on paper. I don't really know how to sew, and I almost always have difficulty reading a pattern. But, motivated to do something with those (probably 150+) scarves in the two storage containers ....

While at Hobby Lobby the other day, I stopped by the Fabric Department to look at patterns. I found a possibility for hats/turbans. It was a possibility in that two of the patterns called for scarf type fabrics. Of course, they didn't have it in stock and I had to go another 3 miles down the road to the only real sewing shop in 20 miles, where I was able to procur mcCalls 4116. The thought of turning out stunning turbans and scarves got me so motivated that I spent two more hours that evening looking at scarf & hat patterns online .... purchased two and they should arrive on more doorstep any day now.

Which brought me to this morning...

• Pulled out the scarf containers and selected 4 of corresponding colors.
• Opened up the pattern and cut it all out ... probably could have just cut the 4 pieces I needed for the selected turban, but what the heck.
• Decided on color order of the scarves, pinned down the pattern pieces and cut-out.
• Changed the machine thread and bobbin to yellow
• Following the pattern, to the best of my ability, sewed the turban.

Now, there was a spot or two near the end when I wasn't quite sure what the pattern was reading, made a couple guesses, and wa-la, finished. And, it looks great perched on top of my iron !

But seriously, I do like it. I'm going to give it a test run and take up wearing it through the next week to see how durable it is ... try washing it, ect. Then, I'll decide if there will be more to follow of this particular pattern. There is one more in the package I'll be trying. Also a turban but of a different style. I am also looking forward to the other two patterns to arrive.

Little Bags

Added the scarf handles to the 2nd, 3rd little bags. Re-inforced the stitching on the inside and top stitched the outside. Put a tassle the blue bag, and beaded adornments on the other two. Tomorrow I'll put on a coat of PolyAcrylic to the front & back of the bags and then they will be finished.

Little Bags

I went to Hobby Lobby a couple days back to pick up some Jewelry Findings. (Yes, I know, Michaels is a whole lot closer, but gosh, I really dislike that store). While there, I discovered that canvas bags were 50% off, so had to pick up a few to play with. Three of the bags are little guys; measuring out at 6" wide x 9" high. They are zippered in the front and have a very long and cheap shoulder cord attached.

• Opened up the top section of each to remove the cord. Went through my box of scarves and selected three to become the new shoulder straps.
• Painted each bag with a layer of acrylic paint to somewhat correspond with the scarves. I painted the pink bag inside and out. Then, decided it really didn't add any value, so did not repeat on the 2nd two. Allowed to dry well.
• Selected stencils and spray paint. Took outside to the paint box and added the 2nd layer of paint.

Little Bags

Rearranged my area abit this morning so that i can have the sewing machine and related sundries on the workbench, and paint supplies and the computer on the side table. This might work quite well as long as I continue to clean up after myself on an hourly basis.

Added stamped images in a variety of corresponding colors on all three bags. Took them outside and added a little more spray paint to the pink and the green bag. Let dry for a couple hours.

Choose to work on the green bag first. Turned back inside out, secured the scarf handle in place and restitched the inside of the bag. Turn back to right sides and again stitched all the way around the bag. (I want this little bag to be secure).

Had to put it away for the night. Thursdays is the day to take MIL to the grocery and have family dinner with her. In looking, it needs more embellishment. I'll probably bring the other two bags to this same state of progress and then work on embellishment together ... particularly since beads is a whole different mess.

Bookmarks

I finally decided it was time to STOP painting pages and considering DOING something with the pages. Spent a good part of the morning putting away all the paint and misc stuff, cleaning up the studio, etc. Beau pulled the sewing machine out for me and brought in the sewing box, supplies, etc.

Before I start creating wall hangings, thought I'd spend a few days working on stitches (i.e., getting to know this sewing machine), cutting the papers, and such. A good starting point seemed to be a few bookmarks, since I'm getting low on them anyway. (I like to send a bookmark as a thank you whenever someones purchases something out of my Etsy shop).

Selected three different pages from the 'paint books' and cut a sections out to create two 5" by 2 1/4" from each. Cut corresponding construction paper and attached the sections together using spray adhesive. Wrote a word in each piece of the construction paper and used the hole punch to make a hole in the top. Sewed them together. The sewing is decorative only; the adhesive would more than hold them together. But, think it adds nicely and it's gives me a feel to the different stitches and how they look. Lost one of the bookmarks when the tension got off and tore the paper. Oh Well. Located a website on making simple tassles. Pulled out some of the threads (from the threads collection, of course) and made 7 tassles. It was really quite simple and one could really get sidetracked playing with these. Applied a coat of polyacrylic to the front and backs to seal.