New Art Pendant Listings

 My latest wearable art creations now incorporate both sides of the children's vintage game tiles I've been using for my last art pendants ( which have just one side painted while the back is left 'as is' ).
With these latest pendants you get twice the art, one side has a hand drawn or hand painted image, the other shows off a collage using vintage paper bits.

It's good to get back into my art again, the Summer was rather distracting --not that I minded of course ! So my goal is to create something every other day. Goodness, I will try my best ! It seems every few months I go off somewhere and let my art and Etsy shop slide. How will people get to see what I do if I don't stick it out & keep creating & listing grrrrr ! So onward I go with a smile in my heart and a dance in my step :)

Here's the reversible pendants, two so far. I hope you like them:

Left is 'Train Spotting', hand drawn steam train image using pencils and marker. Right is 'Lush', hand drawn flowers using pencils, markers and shiny black 3d paint.

'Train Spotting' collage uses a train image from a 1943 National Geographic magazine, numbers from a 1960's math workbook, 'train' from a 70's dictionary, backed with tissue & underneath that is a criss cross pattern from magazine. The 'Lush' collage shows a vintage greeting card rose, 'flower' is also from vintage dictionary, backed with pink handmade paper, fan image from vintage Victoria magazine and a slice of glittered paper.

Pendants arrive with attached large jump ring and slip knot black ribbon so you can wear it right away.
Original art, not prints. I've several of these 2x2 wood tiles left, can't wait to see what my brain conjures up next :)

Look at what I got !! --and making a wrist cuff....

Isn't this gorgeous !? I just could not resist purchasing this beautiful Cottage Garden bracelet from here: www.kimmsmith.etsy.com Kim is the friendly creator of this & many other stunning bracelets. It even came with a free gift of matching earrings, how thoughtful :)

Just look at the colours of that bracelet, right up my alley ! And the flowers are so joyful, they'll definately keep me warm as the weather gets colder ( they're also a reminder of what I hope a part of our new backyard garden plot will look like next Summer ).

Please run over to Kim's shop, you'll love the lush variety of bracelets offered, won't be disappointed and her prices are spot on too.

Thanks again Kim for creating this stunning shot of sunshine :) ♥

Okay, so over the last 2 days I've been working on a wrist cuff. It seems they are rather trendy so I thought I might try to throw a few into my shop. But first I had to make a 'test' cuff to make sure it was going to fit correctly and close correctly.

The first cuff closure I used was a small lobster claw which would be attached to whatever jump ring necessary for comfort ( cuff goes from 6-8" ). I did not like the result. You pretty well need nails to open a lobster claw catch. Also, it was too small and I thought of those people who might have sore fingers, it would be a right off for them !

So the next closure you can see below, a large keychain ring where all you have to do is press the ring inward and attach to the other side. It could have worked had the keychain ring not been so stiff to open. But then I also noticed that if a person had a small wrist and used the keychain ring on the very first jump ring, the keychain ring would have to turn sideways which would bend the cuff awkwardly. So off it came.

Finally I chose what most other cuff makers use -- a button and elastic band closure. Off to the drugstore for a package of elastic fabric covered hairbands and then find my box of vintage buttons.

Well, it took me a wee while to sew it all on so it felt secure and the back was fully covered with a

layer of pink felt to hide all the stitching and provide a layer of comfort. Oh dear, I've gained a bit of weight and the band had to stretch just a tiny bit further than 8", but it worked, was a little snug ( a gentle reminder that I really do need to lose that 20lbs finally ! ) and definately wasn't going anywhere.

I could have used velcro but I find that after awhile it looks rather grody, besides, the vintage button makes it look prettier with a touch of 'old-fashioned' charm.

I've still to finish off the fabric flower edges to stop them from fraying ( maybe add a rim of golden paint ) and will cover the card flowers with a special glasslike gloss.

The materials used for this cuff: the base is a type of moire peachy-pink fabric ( fake I think or does it matter, will have to research a bit ), handsewn are card flowers from a greeting card, fabric leaves, beadwork, lingerie lace and a recycled glass rose pendant from one of my old bracelets.

Do leave a comment letting me know what you think of this cuff. My personal opinion: I like it but am not too keen on the wonky blanket stitching, maybe just use plain stitches instead. I need to figure out a way to attach the elastic band before doing the artwork ( did it the opposite way for this cuff, had to make sure the stitches didn't show ). Also, I'm not fond of peach, which is why this is a test cuff :)

Finally Listed These 2 New Brooches :)

These felt brooches have been a hoot to make ! The first one is called Popeye the Pink Bunny, a whimsical and shabby wee pink felt bunny dude. His eyes and nose are vintage, glitter on his mouth and he sports a tiny red heart brad ( which can easily be removed if you want ). I named him Popeye because of the way I attached his eyes. Instead of poking the floss through to the back of the brooch, I decided to attach them in a shabby fashion, wrapping the thread around the base a couple of times so the eyes would stand (pop) out.

The 2nd. brooch, called Bliss, is a crazy mix of colors and beads and all started when I noticed the Bliss sticker in a package of K&Company stickers I'd purchased from Michaels.
To attach the sticker to the felt, I just stuck it on and then hand sewed the edging with beads and sequins. A vintage earring ( bottom right ) was glued to the corner and attached with more handsewn beads, including a vintage shimmery pink swarovski rivoli. There are other vintage attachments, edging was painted with Lumiere and the entire piece was handsewn onto the vintage cardboard backing from a frame ( you can even hang it up by the metal triangel. Just have to gently pry it away from backing ). Oh yes, there's a bit of polyfill stuffing to give it more depth and pull away from the sharp frame corners.

I really enjoyed creating these brooches but I think I'll stick to making the shabby whimsical animal ones for now. The Bliss brooch and Magnificent Marilyn brooch are enough for now. I tend to go overboard at times instead of sticking with my first idea. Here it was to create small brooches and I end up with Bliss and Marilyn. That doesn't mean I won't make these kinds ever again, I just want to stick to things that are whimsical and small.

My next felt brooch...not yet sure, but it will be silly :)

Forgot to point out, the Bliss sticker was varnished twice and then covered with Triple Thick gloss gel to make the sticker 'bendy'. Of course, the brooch is not meant for wet weather because everything else is not sealed ( it could have been done but would have made the piece look plastic ).

Felt !!

Well here you go ! I have a new love ( again ), it's felt ! I stumbled across some felt brooches awhile back on Etsy and just loved the way the creators used vibrant colors, the way their items almost screamed FUN ! So slowly I thought that maybe I'd eventually like to try it out.

Here is my very first felt item, in Marilyn :) Now I've never been a big fan of Miss M.M. but her image is so popular, and you can have fun with it too.

The image is a print which I decoupaged onto cardboard and then hand sewed onto the lovely pink felt. Of course Miss M. had to have her dose of stars and shimmery beads, plus a necklace with her very own chandelier crystal :) I used DMC black thread and stretchy metallic silver thread.
She was finished with another backing of pink felt and a simple brooch back ( the kind that you flip to open/close ).

The last thing I need to do is wear her around the house, just to make sure she sits properly without twisting, etc... And then into my Etsy shop she goes !

Oh I forgot to mention her size: she's a whopper at 7.5" long and 5" across ! Not for the shy type.
Took just over 3 hours to make.

Showing off some charms today --a long post !

It's INTERNATIONAL CHARM DAY TODAY ! A big THANK-YOU to Amber Dawn of Inventive Soul for starting this fun event ( you can click on her link in the links list, or click on the Charm Day image upper right ). Hopefully it will become a yearly event too :)

So okay, I'm off to a slow start. It's 10:33 a.m. as I write this, been feeling just a wee bit under the weather but nothing that a good hot cup of tea won't cure.

Let's first start off with the charm I'm offering as a prize, woohoo ! I posted it yesterday too, and all you have to do is leave a comment either on the post below or on this one. When our son comes home from school today ( around 2:40 ), I will get him to pick a name ( names will be on paper and placed in a bowl ). The winner will be announced here in a new blog post, so check back by 3 p.m. ( pacific time ) to see if you're the lucky recipient of this fun charm !

These are Scrabble charms using actual vintage Scrabble tiles I found at a flea market several years ago. Last year I was all 'gung-ho' about starting my own style of Scrabble tile charms on Etsy, but it didn't last long because I just got bored. Yup, bored. As much as I love working in small format, these proved to be a bit too small for my liking. So I pulled them out of my shop and have decided to use them in other ways.

On these tiles I used a variety of items, from stars, to lace to vintage 1950's Popular Science magazines. The bales are handmade from sterling silver wire and then glued ( E6000 ) to back. Some tiles have a layer of Triple Thick gel gloss, others were sealed with a ployurethane varnish.

This goofy fun charm was a test. I had this acrylic chandelier pendant just hanging around and wanted to see how well it would accept an ink jet copy of part of one of my vintage valentines. But before I glued on the image ( using Crafter's Pick The Ultimate Glue ), I first glued on individual letters from a vintage dictionary, spelling out 'That's a spicy meatball'. Then I glued on the image and waited. Well, for some unknown reason the image peeled off after 2 days of drying ! The letters stayed firm. I decided to reglue the image ( same glue ) and waited about 4 days. This time it stayed stuck and I then dabbed some orange and pink glitter around the edges, painted back of crystal with Halo Gold Lumiere paint and sealed the back, really well, with polyurethane varnish. It's now been a couple of months and so far nothing has come loose, phew !

The other 'charms' you see were my attempt at Sculpey mini-foods. I've made several cupcakes using various beads, glitter, etc...a couple of donuts and my most fav. piece: a chocolate covered cherry ! The heart was just something random, mixing glitter into the clay and sprinkling on top before baking. And to let you know, I first tried pushing in hardware hooks but soon switched to homemade hooks. The hardware ones would split the clay, you can just make out a split on the donut.

Here is another test charm, using a vintage Buss Fuses container ( about 2" long and 1.5" wide ). I found it in my dear dads pile of woodshop junk and fell in love with its possibilities. There were a couple of fuses left so I took one, along with glitter and stars, layered it inside the clear plastic fuse case and covered all with a big dose of Triple Thick Gloss gel. The handmade copper bale was attached via two small drilled holes and glued with E6000.

Well, unfortunately I'm not super fond of this charm. I was hoping the glitter would be much glitterier and the fuse a bit more obvious. Plus, the coloring on the plastic stars began to come off and seep into the gel. Sigh. Oh well, it was a test piece and I can always remove the Buss Fuses box and use somewhere else. For now I may still wear as a charm but add some other funky charms along with it.

This is one of my favorite charms ! I should have taken a before shot of this pendant, darn :P
It started off as a plain clear glass 'intaglio' ( I believe that is what the cameo is, carved into the glass from the back ), the surrounding was a dull silver colored filigree metal. The cameo was quite easy to remove simply by rasing the prongs. My dear friend gave me some purple silk which I had to use on this cameo ! But first I glued some golden stars around the cameo edge, along with glitter of course, and then glued the fabric over the back. Once fully dry I sealed the back with several layers of varnish to 'tighten up' the fabric. The silver colored filigree surround was painted with Lumiere paint ( a rich gold purple ) and then I hand sewed a variety of beads and plastic stars, sealing with more varnish and finishing with a lovely rich purple metal rose. I just LOVE this charm !! If I could find more I would be in heaven :) I'm not a sewer, but sitting there, sewing on those beads, etc...was so very relaxing, and seeing it come together so prettily WHILE I was sewing, what a thrill !
I am contemplating whether or not to sell one of my Charmblies with this charm ( a Charmbly is a whimsical paper dolly that comes with it's own charm, in my Etsy shop ). If I come across more 'sewable' pendants like this, then I'll go for it. For now it's mine :)


These fun charms will soon grace my Charmblies in my Etsy shop.
--'Be the author of your own love story' was made with Scrabble tiles and using faux gems, pink bugle beads, a wee bit of pink glitter, paper, heart charm and words from some vintage book ( don't remember which one ).
--'I am' was created on the backside of a plastic eyeglass lens, using vintage 'magic numbers' paper ( it came from my 1970's Magic Hat toy ), the eye came from a vintage advert. about hypnosis, the word 'am' also vintage paper and the red 'burst effect' from a bag of super fun paper cutouts I found at Michaels ( sometimes they do have fun stuff ! ). Edged with black paint and sealed on the back. Not yet complete, I may add other smaller charms to it.
--'Marilyn' was one of those 'let's see how fast I can make a charm' challenges ( just a personal thing I like to do ). I think Marilyn was created in an hour. Her image was slightly altered to give her pink hair ( a light wash of watered down paint ) and then faux pink gems attached. I glued her to some recycled cereal box, added pink glitter and handsewed some thick pink thread around the edges. A pink anodized jump ring hangs from the thread and below dangles a plastic 'lucite style' heart on which I used a pink Zig marker on one side only ( really makes the pink POp ! ). Marker was covered with a coating of Triple Thick. Charm was finished with a rather wonky looking large pink eyelet ( I do okay with small ones but these large ones never work out properly for me, they always get that raised edge. Is that normal ? ) and handmade wire 'jump ring'. Oh, forgot to mention the cereal box back was covered with pink plum blossom paper. FuN !

Finally, these are shrinky dink charms I made from a computer collage using some of my own photos and collected images. You can see my original shrink plastic collage pendant ( with these images ) in my Etsy shop, it's called 'getting to the other side'. These two future charms ended up being too small for my liking ( wasgoing to use individually ) so I may create soome kind of fun dangly thing with both of them.

Hopefull you can click to enlarge these pictures. If they are clickable but look the same size, sometimes you can make them larger by clicking the zoom button on your monitor. Look for a small magnifying glass image on the bottom right, it will say 100% next to it. Click on it and you can enlarge the picture 125% or 150%. And as always, photos don't do any justice, these creations look much more awesome when in 3d :)

Wow ! There you go ! I'm tempted to post more charm pics., maybe when I post the winner of the playing card charm later this afternoon.

I hope you enjoyed going through my wee stash 'o charms and their descriptions, maybe they inspired you to make more of your own charms or start your first one.....? Would love to see a pic. if you do feel like creating :)

So HAPPY CHARM DAY EVERYONE !!!!!

---now go and leave a comment so I can put your name in to win my playing card charm :)

~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~

ARTchix Bi-Weekly Lottery, yay !

~Flights of Fantasy~

~ARTchix Yahoo group~

Here is my entry into the ARTchix Bi-Weekly Lottery, the theme is Fantasy Imagination ( right up my alley lol ! ).
The person to get picked wins all the other entrants lottery treasures, woohoo !

Flights of Fantasy was created on a section of Kraft Mac n Cheese box. Bird images are official ARTchix ( you usually have to have at least one ARTchix item used ) and one of the birds is holding a real crystal dangling heart. The lady was transformed into a pink fairy and finished with stars, glitter, gems, paint and shimmery bits. Fun !

( This piece is also going to star in one of my shrinky creations too. I hope it turns out the way I see it in my minds eye. So keep your eye on my Etsy shop, look for it under Collage Pendants )

~Helga Strauss is owner extraordinaire of ARTchix here on Vancouver Island. The shop is so wonderful and art from all around the globe adorns the walls ( makes me think of a candy shop ! ).
She also has a blog, My Artistic Life, which you can access via my blog links on the right ( opens in a new window ). You can get to her store via her blog or my Wonderful Shops, etc...list ( again on the right )

If you've ever wanted to try a swap,contest,etc...then there are plenty with ARTchix, and all so much fun !! **please note, for the Yahoo Group, they ask that any art you post use at least one ARTchix item.

I'm so happy to finally be participating again in contests and soon a swap or two or three or...lol :)

...and if you join the ARTchix Yahoo group, then drop us a line and say hi --you will definately get lots of welcome responses ! And the art there is divine ( including the artists ) :)

I Love Chocolate

It's always the oddest times of day when I get these great chocolate urges ! Today while I was cleaning up the guest room I got them. The other day I think I was on the toilet O_0

And here is another Charmbly. It's Clara Bow this time, that lovely actress from the past. I've never seen any of her films yet I've always liked her.

That's it for today, a quick one and to the point...well, sortof.

Oh, the image in the background of the cute wee doggies, that's a birthday card we bought for our sons 13th. birthday. The pug is trying to get a lick of a cupcake, but I love the French Bulldog's look lol ! The card just seems to work with my Charmblies, adding that extra bit of silliness :)

It's Charmbly Time !

Well I've FINALLY begun listing my Charmblies, yay :) What a nice feeling too, after almost a year of digging out from under my dear moms passing, house moving and renos. Good sigh.

These new creations are such a joy to make, I'm sure some of it has rubbed off on them. All the paper dollies start off as bits of cereal box or other sturdy & recyclable cardboard. The pieces are cut out and then the fun begins, using various papers from my large stash. I have around 30 National Geographics from the 30's to late 40's I can't wait to use, along with scrapbook papers, dictionary, old magazines and more. The goofy heads are printed off, sealed to cardboard and attached. I may add a wee bit more whimsy to them too, and every head has a little heart attached. Each dolly comes with it's own cupcake charm. I was going to create cupcakes, donuts and chocolate covered cherries and sell 3 pieces with the dolls, but then again I was getting in over my head, so found a happy medium by creating only cupcakes. The altered art charms will all be different, using whatever crosses my path. My poor art desk is already crammed with wonderful artsy crap that, so far, I've not had to move too far to find the bits & baubles for the charms ! But I am beginning to feel somewhat cramped, because now my once lovely large desk has me down to a few inches. But it's all good woohoo !

For now there are 2 Charmbly listings in my Etsy shop, another one or two on Friday ( the giraffe is next, then maybe Clara Bow ). I'm now searching out a whimsical image of a male wearing a top hat, but so far they've been rather dull or their heads are turned sideways. It'll happen.

It's almost midnight here and our son has one more day of school until his fun weekend, he's going for a sleepover woohoo ! So off to bed I go ♥

Beach glass and other romantic findings

Isn't this glass just gorgeous ! And this is just a 'sample' too ! My grandmother used to be an avid collector of beach glass, wandering the beaches on Dallas Rd. and picking up whatever caught her eye. I was told she has 30 years worth of glass and there are even more bigger buckets at her home !
*Fyi, my grandmother is my birthfathers mom. She carves dolls, does asian and regular painting, a very creative and wonderful person. She's even glued bits of the beach glass to the outside of her 'glitter home' --one of those 1950s homes that have outside walls of little rocks that glitter ( getting more rare to find ).
But now she is in a care home and she does have some of her treasures with her, thank goodness. What I would like to do is fill a plastic jar with some of her beach glass so she can play with it whenever the mood strikes. I may also fill a pretty glass bottle with some too and add water to give the glass a soft effect, something she can put on her window ledge and would look lovely with the light shining through.





My new birth family is full of artistic folk and I'm happy to be one of those artistic types too :) It seems many of us have the magpie syndrome where we just have to collect things, whether from the beach, ground, forest, if it catches our eye then we swoop it up.
Here is a small sampling of some of the treasures I've found over the past years. Much of the larger china pieces and a few larger glass bits were found under the bushes in a dirt pile on a beach just down the road from us. I believe there was once a farmhouse on the cliff and when it was taken down 'they' simply pushed a lot of the leftovers over the edge. Somewhere I also have a few old porcelain spark plugs and more china/glass bits. Over the years the dirt covered it up and every now and again the rain brings some of these lovely treasures back to light.
Last time I was there was last summer, so I've got to get back there soon ! This time I'll wear gloves and bring something proper to dig with ( small trowel ), because sticks don't quite work. It's also great that you're partially hidden so no one else can really see what you're doing :)
The only thing I don't enjoy about finding these treasures: I want to use them in my art and then list in my Etsy shop, but another part of me is reluctant to sell them. Sigh.

Shrinky Dinking !

These images can be enlarged, hopefully it works for you unless you're using some kind of blocker thing to prevent enlargement.

Well I've succumbed to the Shrinky Dink trend ! I stumbled upon it while perusing Etsy and its altered art. Since I'm unable to really get into my art while the house is for sale, I figured it wouldn't hurt to see what some of the new stuff was on Etsy. Along with Steampunk, felting, and other wonderful items, Shrinky Dinks were quite a popular item. I do like charms and making them so why not give this new fun thing a try.

Off to Michaels I went and found Shrinky Dinks For Computer Inkjet Printers. Comes with 6 - 8x10 sheets in bright white.

I quickly learned that when using something I've never used before....do a test try first ! Thank goodness I did with the Shrinky Ds.

The instructions were quite clear except they didn't say WHY you need to cut your images before shrinking them. Your shrunk pieces turn into thickish hard things that sound like poker chips when tossed onto a table, they actually kinda feel good in the hands when you toss them around. I thought it would be easier to cut them after but NOPE. Perhaps my Dremel could be used and I'll give it a try, just not right now. Hey, I've never been Shrinky Dinking before so I didn't know how hard they got.

The best images to use are those that DON'T have a lot of dark colors. The chandelier pic. is an image I took of my parents chandelier before their house sold. I decided to see what would happen if I shrunk it, and as you can see in the images the bottom part of chandelier didn't show up as well as the top. Oh well, at least I know now.
The Metropolis images were already small to begin with, slightly larger than a postage stamp and as you can see they are much smaller ! --maybe little earrings for those Blythe dolls on Etsy ? Oops, did I just give some of you an idea what to do with your tiny Shrinky Dink pieces you thought you could never use ? No problem, I hope you do use the idea :)
The cherry blossom image is one of my favs. It's a closeup shot of one of my fav. trees on my parents property, now sold. But although I like the pinkness of this image, it's still too small for my liking, and I had wanted to cut out the individual flowers to make a bunch of charms.

So I was just playing around to see what Shrinky Dinking was like, and I quite enjoyed it. I'm happy to have Shrunky Dunked and look forward to my next batch of treasures. Lots of ideas going around my brain and can't wait to list some in my Etsy shop --but not until we've moved and my new art room is ready to roll ! --September sometime.

Hope my wee version of how S. Dunking works helped you to give it a whirl. Let me know how it goes :) xo