A few of my favorite things.....

My art room has gone through a makeover & it's 95% done woohoo ! All that is left is to hang a couple of vintage Vogue mirrors & wait for the arrival of my poster ( mentioned in last two posts ). So while waiting, here are shots of two areas in the room showing off a few of my favorite things:

 This is my 'Candy Corner' ! The large cupcake came from Cameron Rose , a fabulous shop in Sidney B.C. selling whimsical to sophisitcated items. The cupcake was one of their store decorations being sold for a ridiculously low price due to the candy cane being broken, so happy to be there at the right time ! The smaller cupcake was made by our son in his grade 8 pottery class last year. The glass pedestal jar contains bubble gum from Halloween ( not a fan of gum but I liked the pink & blue wrappers. Eventually the jar will be filled with Smarties yum ! ). These items sit on top of my parents vintage chrome Lincolon Beauty bread box which I use to store packages of Shrinky Dink & other products. The silver teapot and silver cake stand were also my parents & my most favored of their silver items. On the right, just behind the glass jars, is a print of a whimsical crow listening to music, a sweet gift from my birthmom. Lastly is the bedspring dolly I made back in '07. She really is created from a large vintage bedspring, the doll sits just inside the top part & then the decorating begins. This doll is named 'Miss Rosy Buttons' & she's surrounded by mixed roses, fabric, vintage buttons, jewelry bits, glitter and more. It was a gift to my mom. All of these delights sit atop a vintage dresser my parents had in the 60's, it was covered in a high gloss dark brown faux wood veneer which I painted over with white Krylon spraypaint & changed the copper hardware out for chrome. It does make a candy-like show & looks rather deelish against the Birdsong blue wall.

 This wall is seen as soon as you step in to the room. What was once my paint bottle holder is now a home to some of my ATC's & ACEO's ( Artist Trading Cards & Art Card Editions & Originals ) which I always kept in a drawer ( thought it about time to display some of my work to keep me inspired ), along with various pictures & items from my childhood ( Fisher Price Little People dog & girl, a Tomy windup robot, Tams Bo Peep mug, party hat & framed silk fabric flower basket ). The kissing couple is a postcard which I framed in pink and gave to my dear husband as a Christmas gift ( though he said he liked it, it wasn't really 'up his alley', so I borrowed it back ! ). The Victorian style couple photo are the great grandparents of my birthfather ---I've never ever known any other great grandparents & I love this shot of them, they look quite happy. The floral box on the bottom right held a trio of Florentyna perfume items, a lovely scent I found for my mom from Marks & Spencers in Victoria B.C. ( sadly the store is no longer ) --it now holds stuff from projects I've yet to complete. A couple of art creations from past friends, some of my necklaces, a pretty medieval-style doll given to my mom ( the doll looks really easy to make so I may try my hand at one ), etc...

  When I sit at my desk I no longer look up to beige-brown walls & images I thought were inspiring, now I look up and see freshness & inspiration and can't wait to start creating again !

Bored Monkey is excited ! --and my new banner :)

Good day all. Well I finally listed my first diorama necklace, woohoo ! It's called Bored Monkey, quite whimsical, a conversation piece.

 It took me much longer than hoped, but I had to make sure it was created properly. Instead of attaching a bail on to the back of this diorama ( because the backing is just magazine paper & sheet of plastic ), I drilled two holes and inserted some blue anodised aluminum wire to make a 'jump ring hanger'. It occurred to me a day later that the holes needed to be sealed ! Visions of a rain drop finding it's way inside the diorama & possibly causing havoc, oh no ! So I used my fav. awesome adhesive & then added 2 coats of more indoor/outdoor varnish. That should do the trick ! But I recommend this piece still be kept away from water --just to be on the safe side. He's in my Etsy shop with hopes of seeing more of the world & feeling less bored ;D

And here is my fresh new banner for my shop. Yes, it is kinda odd, but that's what I create so why not go all out ;) As much as I like to dream of a perfect neat and tidy shop, selling all the same items, well, ha-ha, I know that will never happen !

This is my banner from before:

Banners are quite easy to make, you just need a good picture editor and patience. Etsy asks your banner to be 760 pixels wide & 100 pixels high.

I use Microsoft Picture It ! Premium 10, it came with the Fuji Finepix camera I purchased over 5 yrs. ago. No it is not Photoshop but it does the trick for me. I'm not sure if Paint would work, you could try.

When I go into my Picture It program I first click on 'New' and then key in the size of what I want. Once that is done i can then go and find the pictures I want to play around with. I don't click the insert pic. button because it inserts the huge version of your pic. and can be a pain with resizing to fit a small area. Simply opening sep. pictures is better because then you can go and crop/change colour/resize/ etc... and then drag it onto your blank page ( or banner ). I tend to play going by the 'trial and error' method and, so far, it seems to work.

Making a banner for my Etsy shop is really fun ! I hope this new one represents my shop whimsiness and 'bazaar' feel.

That's it for today. I'm finishing off more tags, a pair of circus themed tags woohoo !

Free Images & feeling the Christmas spirit....

I like Halloween but I LOVE Christmas ! Though I'm not yet ready to haul out the Christmas decorations, I am feeling in the mood to create some goodies for my shop.

So I'm going to make a few 'cute' Christmas brooches, using cardstock & various bits & bobs found around my art room --things like vintage Christmas cards, broken jewelry bits, flowers and more. Of course you mustn't forget the glitter !

My first brooch is almost done, but below the cardinal is the beginnings of it (vintage card bits,stars cut from a vintage candle tin wraparound). It now has flowers,glitter, a heart earring and a shiny coating of gloss ( fake resin ). I may add a small piece of ribbon to transform the brooches into ornaments for the tree.

The cardinal and flower will be part of another brooch. Fun !!

These next 6 images are scanned 1950's-early 60's Christmas card covers. They were purchased super cheap from my parents next door neighbor, who was a packrat ! She loved her thrift shops,garage sales and even bought a ton of stuff from the old shopping channel. She was so much of a packrat that about 20 yrs. ago her house suffered a fire, because of items piled up near the furnace :( Thankfully there was more smoke damage than fire but a LOT of her stuff had to be discarded in a large dumpster outside her garage. So my mom walked over one day and took a peek in the dumpster ! She brought home a couple of items, a porcelain bowl, some ugly brass planter with lions and doves carved into the brass, etc...

As much as it might have been fun for my mom to go dumpster diving ( and believe me I felt the temptation too, she had a lot of wonderful treasures ), I couldn't do it. It was after all, still the neighbors stuff ! If I had found an item and was able to clean it up, I would have given it back to her. But that's the way I work.

ANYWAY. About 5 years ago she got to the point where she had to have constant help, so it was time to find a care home. One of her sons had a huge garage sale. There were so many wonderful treasures, from Mr.Bean bears ( she usually would get more than one if she could ) to full bottles of unopened makeup to old bottles and more. I still kick myself for some of the things I passed on ( like more vintage cards and a Mr.Bean bear ), but am very happy with what I did find. One of these days I'll post images of 6 unique wine bottles from France. Each of them is dressed up in clothes and the bottle stops are handcarved wood faces. The best thing about them ? Each face has one large winking eye ! I've perused the internet trying to find anything about them, so far no luck.

The only sad thing about the garage sale....her son had no idea the value of some of her things, so it all went soooo cheaply. He didn't really care anyway and I wondered if his mom ever found out. Lots of very happy buyers that's for sure !

So these cards are on very thin paper and I think some of them may have had removable inserts. I saved the images at 300 dpi ( dots per inch ), which I've read is supposedly the best size to print out. You can also access them on my Flickr site:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bytracy/4078270380/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bytracy/4078270620/

If you do end up using these in art, etc...I would love to know and see a pic. or two :)

Enjoy ♥

Fall, Turkey Bounty, Pirate's Booty & Possibly a Tarsier too !

Fall rituals: changing of the tree colors, leaves dancing & flying, a day or two or three of heavy rain, the flights of birds big & small, fresh bird seed & some peanut butter too, peanuts for the squirrels, pots of hot chocolate, rib sticking stews & chowders, candy corn & ghastly masks, cozy cuddly sweaters, flannel bedsheets, a favored pair of pink fuzzy slippers.....

(the neighbors breathtaking trees)

(a big pot of thick & rich Thanksgiving turkey chowder,with curly pasta, carrots,

peas,sweet potato,green onion,garlic,dill,seasoning salt

& lots of turkey broth --with bits of leftover

stuffing & plenty of pulled turkey. YuM !)

My Steamed Pirate's Booty earrings, just listed in my Etsy shop.

Vintage treasure,a boys discarded plastic coins & a touch of Steampunk.

This little fella will soon be in my Etsy shop too.
Meet Mr.Tarsier Charmbly. Can you tell he's REALLY happy to SEE you ?
His legs 'n arms are covered with funky napkin paper, & his middle sports a
whimsical image cut from a vintage Dutch image ( at least I think it's Dutch, had the paper
for quite sometime & forget where it came from :P).
His wee heart brad tells you he
has a heart of gold :)

This is the unique charm that comes with Mr.Tarsier Charmbly !
I've named it 'Horse Circuitry'.
A vintage playing card ( my parents had these horse cards since the 60's ), handsewn
with thread-beads-faux rhinestones. I don't remember where the circuit piece
came from ( I have lots of 'don't remember where they came from' bits and pieces ) but it's been
glammed up with glitter and gloss and a vintage glass chandelier with tiny swarovski crystal !
Yes, it's an odd charm, one I'm proud of :) You can use it as a necklace pendant, make a
bookmark, heavy earring, scrapbook decor, Christmas ornament and more !

Now off to bed.....g'night all ♥

There's a Monkey on Your Chest ( or fridge ) !

For the King Kong fans ! Here's another of my 3-in-1 pendants, soon to be listed in my Etsy shop once the gloss dries.

At first I was going to make a steampunk pendant but then my eyes landed on the King Kong image found from a vintage 'Evergreen' book ( a publication in England ). The vintage photo slide really adds to the piece too.
This is ooak -one-of-a-kind- because I took the image directly from the book and don't plan on making another ( if I ever did then the image would probably be a computer print ).

Great fun !

New bRooChes for EtSy !

Woohoo ! Here are my newest fabric & felt brooch creations for Etsy: Bubble Tea, Cotton Candy Oddity, Ice, My Heart's a Flower and Blossom Blob ~~~

-My Heart's a Flower ( upper right ) was made using a slice of beautiful Japanese fabric my birthsister Angela gave to me, with addition of 3d bloom & a bubble encased single flower cut from same fabric.
-Bubble Tea ( bottom left ) consists of felt, acrylic paint & a gloss covered mix of beads
-Ice ( middle ) was made after observing the dreamlike interior of icecubes. Bits of rhinestone necklace, a chunk of local beach glass, vintage plastic beads, czech beads, sequins, glitter and real pink quartz spears.
-Cotton Candy Oddity ( bottom right ) has czech beads, pink fluff thread and a recycled piece of blue anodized aluminum
-Blossom Blob (upper left ) was made with some gorgeous cherry blossom fabric & embellished with felt blossoms, fuzzy balls & a plastic pink flower.

All with blanket stitching, all handsewn, lots of love and, as always, that wonky touch of whimsy :)

I'll be making a lot more, but I'm also thinking about trying my hand at painting ! Nothing huge, maybe 5x7 size. Images of things with flowers, maybe some collaging....let's wait and see what the gods of whimsiness place in my heart ♥

Show & Tell: Another brooch on the way, & one already done...

Took this past weekend off and the family and I played lazy. Oh it was so nice to just sit around being all blobby, playing computer games, drinking tea & eating popcorn. Sometimes it's nice to not feel the need to do something !
A part of me is kinda hoping that when our son and I visit my birth father and his family ( in Ottawa early August )...we'll be able to play lazy & just hang out there too :)

Now for today's show & tell. I've always liked paintings of houses, especially ones that are 'happy', full of sunshine, open spaces, etc...So I decided to make my own 'painting' of a happy house --a handsewn felt brooch I'm calling
'The Happy House on Candy Hill'

Why 'Candy Hill' ? Isn't it obvious ? This is no ordinary house ! The owners of this house are distant relatives of Willy Wonka. They too adore candy and have found a way to grow it on their property. Even the tree sprouts colorful sweets 7 months of the year.
Oh, wait, of course it's not obvious to you just yet, the brooch isn't even finished ha ! Give me a few more hours.......

Planning it out...

Lots of handsewing...
It's coming together nicely...

And here is the brooch I finished a couple of days ago. I've named it

'The Colors of My Heart'.

Each color represents the 4 main emotions we feel: black for anger/dark moments, blues for gentle sadness to depression, pinks for all types of love and yellows for joy :) The large golden beads are for those unforgettable joyful moments. I've added smaller beads including an edging of bugles.

Like the rest of my brooches, this one is also on the large side because they are meant to be seen.

In my Etsy shop :)

I'll be back tomorrow to show off the Happy House brooch :)

My Art Room all prettied up and ready to create in FINALLY !

Yay ! My shoulders feel so light again :) I've been working on my art room, removing unwanted-unused items and this time really making the effort to get my room the way I really wanted it --free from ugly clutter, etc...My desk was covered with so much crap, I could still work but found that my creative energy would get sapped so quickly, and I'd end up going into the living room just for more elbow space.
So now I can finally say that I am truly happy with this room, and I can really get to creating which will add to my Etsy shop ( and hopefully bring more people to it which will hopefully generate more sales ) --always got the brain turning lol !

Let me indulge you with these pics :) I'm hoping you can enlarge them to see better details. First one is actually 2 pics. which I merged together. There's my paint and varnish shelves, my wall 'o fav. pictures ( the bottom right one of the cabin was painted by my birth-grandmother Frieda. She never felt she was a real artist because she didn't go to art school. Such a shame, her works were amazing ! This pic. of hers was just a practice one ! ). There's my fav. set of colorful drawers, filled with riboons,beads,watches,tags,sanding paper,glitter,paint pens,doll parts,candywrappers,etc...On top are drawers filled to the brim with broken jewelry parts ! On my desk is a pretty canister in which I store my most used glues. A future project waits for my attention. The desk and brown bureau were in the back bedroom of my parents home, it's vintage and hails from the 1960's. But what I really really want is a pair of stainless steel 3 basket carts in place of the brown bureau, so I don't have to always get up and search through all my papers/china roses/game pieces/trinkets/charms etc...I can just roll the cart to me :) I'd also love a larger desk with a glass top, one day. More art goodies are held in the vintage copper flour/sugar/tea/coffee holder on the dresser as well as the 2 plastic white drawers ( these hold all my clasps,chains,etc...for making necklaces and brooches )

I look out onto the front road with a lovely large cedar in which I enjoy watching the birds flit about. There's a couple of Vogue mirrors/images, I'm a fan of Art Nouveau and Deco. I made the blue framed picture behind one of my parents vintage 1960's chairs ( will soon make some covered cushions for this chair, and will change the faded yellow footstool fabric to probably pink, woohoo ! ) The picture of the redheaded woman -behind vintage lamp-was created by a dear friend of mine. I've strung white lights above the chair, makes a pretty fairy-like effect at night. And there's my dear teddy bear. He's over 40 yrs. old and can still growl when you turn him on his tummy. Oh the number of times we've had tea together :)

This is another of my parents furniture. I believe my dad made this piece and for a long time we couldn't figure out where to put it ! We enjoy the more modern clean-lined furniture and I found this piece looked too 'old' in our living room, but I refused to give it up. Don't you think it looks great in this room ?! There's my grandmothers ( my moms ) chiming clock, my moms jewelry box ( which now holds some of my incense collection ), a pretty Italian vase holding more of my incense, my parents vintage windup clock, vintage egg basket with florals, my fav. Pot of Gold chocolate tin and lots of other sentimental doo-dads, including the one Spring Dolly I had given to my dear mom ( in front of cd player ). My dear friend gave me the wonderful Eiffel Tower wrapping paper. Inside each drawer: left one holds all my soy tarts CountryHearts on Etsy makes wonderfully smelling tarts which fill almost the entire house with luscious scent ), middle holds a variety of flowers and end holds all my candles ( mostly Partylite )


On the left is my collection of Somerset Studio magazines, they sit on top of an altered bread box which holds more S.S. mags. Behind these closet doors you'll find a floor to ceiling high grey military locker filled with boxes and more creative doo-dads, next to it is floor to ceiling plastic shelving which holds all my mail stuff ( boxes, bubble wrap, etc...) as well as sewing, spray varnishes, big box of future art projects and various memorabilia. Can you see the 2 clay swallow nests ? They were a very cool find at my parents next door neighbors garage sale a few years ago. On one of the doors hangs a bag full of more items for future creations.


My mom used to display her lovely silverware tea set on the bureau, it really gleemed ! The teapots, etc...are in the china cabinet but I wanted to keep the tray out to show off my own glittery delights :) Jar on left holds swarovski crystals and broken rhinestone bits, jar on right holds nothing but vintage chandelier crystals. Small jar in front was my moms cold cream jar, it now houses vintage keys. The pretty plate with glass is actually a candleholder my dear friend made, fabulous way to recycle those vintage glasses ! Table it's sitting on was also made by my dad.

Just a closeup of the bureau. One of my fav. tiny treasures is the wee woolly sheep on top of the Asian-style box :) Oh yes, behind the cupboards lie about 40 1930's National Geographic magazines, 1980's fashion mags., blank envelopes and cards, vintage box of ribbon bits and a big box of hardware stuff ( nails, washers, pic. hooks, ton of stuff more ). My fav. journal rests on top --cover design made by Anahata Katkin



Well there you go, a wee 'tour' of my studio. My next 'goal' is to purchase a small flat screen tv for the bureau, one that's under 20". I don't actually want to sit and watch the tv, just something that I can turn on and look at while handsewing/beading. Ellen is fun to watch, and I also really like that these flat tvs have music channels now, so I can wiggle away to the electronic music :)

Now I need to fully complete our guest bedroom downstairs, thank goodness it's almost done. And then I've got to finish my stinky sock brooches !

Stay tuned for more artsy-fartsy stuff :)

Mary's Felties, Charms and the answer to "what was that felt thing" ?

Hi all ! Been a few days since popping over here :) So I've got a long one for you today and it's filled with fun treasures woohoo !

I would like to introduce you to a wonderful new Etsy creator and seller, her name is Mary and her shop is:

♥~~HappyFelties.etsy.com~~♥

Mary makes wonderfully whimsical and detailed wee felty characters, using a wide variety of colorful felt and definately a happy imagination.

I found her while I was trying to get an idea of prices for felt brooches. Her bright colors immediately caught my attention and I couldn't resist buying one of her creations. The wee blue cat was listed as 'Its good to be blue happy feltie cat brooch'. I'm still wearing as I type and won't be taking it off anytime soon.

Please go on, go on and check out her delightful wares. You won't be disappointed, a wonderful shop and wonderful seller and wonderful packaging too !

Mary, in the memorable words of Ahny "I'll be back" :) ♥

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So, what are these charms ?

Well you may remember when Amber Dawn had her International Charm Swap ? ( April 28 ).

Today I received these lovelies and am so delighted with them ! The first lot are from Lorraine who lives in Liverpool England ! I love the eclecticness of these pieces and plan to wear them as a trio with added beads, will show a pic. later on. The atc ( artist trading card ) was such a beautiful addition, it will be sitting along with my other atcs in my art room :)

Please, pop on over to her wonderful blog and Etsy shop ( see pic. below ), she makes huggable shoulder bags and enchanting art bags --even ones for ATCs ! Thank-you Lorraine !♥

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Who's next ? Well it's a very sweet birdy charm from Pat Winter ! Isn't it precious ? This is one of her charms she was offering for the Charm Day, thank-you Pat :) I love the wee ribbon work, little blue 'egg', little bird, everything !

I plan to add this charm along with some of my other bird inspired charms, probably make a necklace or brooch for me to show off.

Pat creates wonders with fabric and thread, you'll be amazed at her ribbonwork. Please check out her Etsy shop ( and her Fairy brooches ) won't you: Patwintergatherings.etsy.com

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So here is the unknown creature from my prev. post. Say hello to Charlie the crow :) At first he was a raven, but the more I sewed, the more he began looking like the crow from an aceo I made several years ago. So now he's a crow.

Hee-hee, isn't he a sweety ? Crows and ravens are my absolute fav. birds ( next favs. are swallows and owls ). I find crows and ravens such intelligent creatures and rather whimsical too. One time, while driving somewhere, I noticed on the side of the road a pair of crows. One had it's head lowered while the other was very gently preening it, almost as if it was kissing the top of it's head. When the preening crow would look away, the other crow would wiggle over and gently nudge him for more 'kissing'. My heart melted, the sweetest thing I ever did see. Apparantly crows and ravens mate for life, another reason why I love them so much.

So when it comes time to call my husband and I a pair of 'old crows', well I certainly won't be insulted lol :)

Wee Charlie here took a lot longer to make than I thought ! Part lots of handsewing and part procrastination :P

The sequins came from my birthgrandmothers stash and outline his wing. I dabbed on some shimmery purple and black paint along his back, you know how crows and ravens have those blue-black feathers. His feet were fun to make, out of copper wire and then wrapped with DMC floss. I was going to paint his toenails black but decided the copper gave them a bit of punch. His funny smile was lined with beads for additional glimmer. Oh how I love this fella ! I finished him off by sewing on a simple safety pin. He is puffy and is meant to 'stand out' from wherever you pin him, not flat at all !

Oh, the glittery black fabric came from my garbage bag of fabric scraps. This particular piece belonged to my dear friend Kris.

Funny how you think you don't want certain things ( like fabric scraps ) and then a couple of years later you're so glad you kept them !

I look forward to making more crows for you :) Why not pop over and check him out in my shop:

http://www.etsy.com/view_listing.php?listing_id=25142810

Now it's time for me to get cracking on Christians printed tshirt. We're going to Video Games Live on Thurs. and he wants a Resident Evil shirt. I'll post pics. of it later :)

♥~~~~~~♥~~~~~~♥~~~~~~♥~~~~~~♥

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 :)

~♥~♥~♥~♥~♥~

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 ♥

Smashed Bookmarks, Puckered Lips Popcorn and a Partridge ( not in a pear tree )...

Our family has been rather busy what with Christmas and all, so I'm putting aside my weightloss challenge until after Christmas but I will try to stay on track food wise. Okay, okay, I'll admit I've been digging into the chocolate wafers I use for my Smashed Bookmarks.

Smashed Bookmarks ??? Yes, there's an image above showing you a 'hint'. Our son Christian and I took hammers and flattened some spoons to make into bookmarks, but there's a sweet addition too. You're just going to have to pop over to my Etsy shop www.ravensmagiclantern.etsy.com to check them out ;)

Well Christian is now taking cooking lessons in Grade 6. Here you see him making us some flavored popcorn. I guess his teacher has yet to teach them about using 'large quantities of margarine' lol ! This popcorn had at least 2 big tblspns. of marg. and then smothered with brown sugar, cinnamon sugar and garlic salt. Oh my it definately was salty but oh was it good ! We were smacking our lips after a few handfuls and had to gulp down a ton of water, but it was worth it.

He has since gone on to making grilled cheese sandwiches and 'Egg McBayside's' --Bayside is the name of his school and they made a faux version of an Egg McMuffin using a microwave. He can also make his own mac n' cheese ( the Kraft stuff ) and all we do is make sure he drains the macaroni all into the collander instead of the sink.

It's a real joy seeing him grow and learn all these new things !

Finally, you may remember I joined an Artful Christmas Swap ( see link in list ) and have since received the package of gifts. Well today was day one of gift opening woohoo !

The first gift #1 was from Jennifer Conway, another fabulous Etsy artist: www.jenniferconway.etsy.com do go and check out her wonderful shop !! She made a fab. and fun sweet partridge which is coated in beeswax. I really adore it ! THANK-YOU Jennifer for the wonderful partridge, it will be a permanent part of my Christmas display :)

Saturday will be the opening of gift #2 so keep your eyes open for pics.

Have a good night all :)