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 ♥

1980's Punk Rocker with Humbum & Other Delights...

Today I'm visiting with my birthmom again & meeting with her aunt and uncle Renee & George. Looking forward to it and hearing about a supposed pirate in the family :)

But first I wanted to add a post, you know, trying to keep the ol' bloggola busy. So I start with this pair of old boots and pants...they were mine back in the mid-1980's. I've held onto them all these years too !
The boots were kept as a reminder of those years, when dancing almost everynight was normal for me, and my deep love for 'new wave' music ( I was a big fan of Gary Numan & Japan/David Sylvian, oh yes also The Cure, Cocteau Twins and many more ). The boots have rather large holes in the soles, maybe one day I might get them fixed ? Probably not...I tried them on and they don't 'look' the same anymore. As much as I still love seeing people with their dyed hair, piercings and gothic look, it just doesn't look the same on me nowadays. Oh well, prob. all for the better anyway, I prefer to wear minimum makeup these days & just too lazy to be bothered with all that black eyeliner lol ! The pants are another reminder of my crazy dressing days --but I do hope to get back into these ! I can get them up, just can't do them up at all, my tum area has changed quite a bit since then. Some of my friends have seen these and rolled their eyes lol ! --but I refuse to give up entirely my weird dressing ways :D Look out, one day I'll be one of those old ladies with the purple hair !


Upcoming 'Punk Rocker' felt brooch, woohoo ! This dude is being created from a drawing I did in the 1980's in high school. He's going to be a wee bit smaller than my other large brooches, so the facial features will prove challenging when doing the blanket stitching. He's going to be finished off with a cigarette and facial rings ( as in the drawing. I know smoking is horrid, but I'm making the brooch to look just like my drawing )

Here is a hum bum !

So, this is what i work with when making my brooches, a bag of snarled up floss ! It was given to me by one of my past paper clients ( when I delivered the local news ). At first I was just going to toss it but something told me to hold onto it, good thing I did .

Will soon need to restock on black floss.


Finally, some gorgeous fabric I purchased the other day. It's called Spring Sakura by Michael Miller. Of course it's much more stunning in person, really beautiful ! I'll be using some of it in my brooches.

Well there you go. And now I have to go and finish getting ready.....have a fulfilling day all :)♥

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 ).

Bliss on Felt....

What I've been working on today. At first it was going to be put into a double frame, the other frame would house a stitched happy-looking person. But as I kept on stitching I thought it would look much nicer as a brooch, why not wear your bliss for all to see...? :)

The 'Bliss' embellishment is actually a sticker which I then sewed onto some plain white felt. On the bottom right corner is a vintage earring.

I'm now just waiting for the paint to dry before I finish it off with a few more bobbles and then attach it to a padded vintage photo insert-stand-turned brooch.

A couple more upcoming creations....

Looks like the number 8 is popular with these two upcoming pieces for Etsy.

The bejewelled piece is upside down for a glued piece to dry. I'm calling it Number 8 Cog House. My other wee goody is another of my Rummy Charms. This one will have a key and hopefully look like something from an old hotel.

A quick blurb today !