How to Make a Birch Bark Frame & Shoe Shopping!

I finally edited the birch bark frame video I promised on Wednesday.

 

I was hoping to edit that yesterday but I had to run to town for an appointment. I was excited to wear a new sweater dress I just bought but I was surprised when I looked I had no shoes to go with it. I don’t know why I was surprised, I enjoy shoe shopping about as much as going to the dentist. The only thing worse is purse shopping. I left the house in the dress, tights and sneakers…I kid you not, I would have worn flip-flops but it was too cold to be bare-legged! I remembered I had a Kohl’s gift card in my wallet so I off I went in search of shoes that looked good, were comfy and cost less than the $25 on my card, you can stop laughing now.  Good God, I had no idea how much shoes cost! I mean sneakers, sure, I replace them often because I walk everyday but fru-fru, novel, poorly-made shoes, they should not cost $50-$100, I could get a new set of watercolor pencils for that price LOL! Well, anyway I tried on about 20 pairs giving them my “shoe test” which involves skipping up and down the aisles (I don’t want a pair of shoes I can’t skip in) and hopping around in. Basically I looked like a person having a psychotic episode. That might explain why no salespeople ever wait on me. I settled on two pairs of black flats ($5 & $14) and a crazy pair of orange and purple platform wedges.  The flats were normally $50 each and the heels were marked at $80 (do women really pay this much for shoes?) but I spent $12 plus my $25 gift card. Well done, me.

 

I know the orange heels seem a bit silly but I have an abnormal amout of bright orange sundresses and really, can’t we all use a bit more whimsy in our lives? I just hope the shoes don’t land me in traction. OK I know you are not here to read about my shopping escapades, I just wanted you to know why the video was late. Here is my tutorial on making a birch bark frame:

Easy huh? remember to collect bark of the ground or take it from a fallen tree, do not remove bark from a  standing living tree. I hope you enjoyed the video (and my shoe rant) and til next time happy crafting!

WOYWW: Check out my rack!

Oh, get your mind out of the gutter! Geez. 😀 I’m talking about my watercolor crayon/pastel/pencil rack! I mentioned last week how my friend snagged me 2 of these beautiful display racks from a gift shop going out of business and ever since I received them I wanted to fill one with my watercolor crayons, pastels and Gelatos. I haven’t been using these supplies much lately and I find when I rearrange my supplies I am more inspired by them.  Since it is Wednesday (albeit LATE, but it is STILL Wednesday in the States) I decided to share my share my creative chaos with the rest of the What’s on Your Workdesk Wednesday world or as I love to call them my “craft hoarders enabling group” LOL!

Well, the rack worked, I couldn’t wait to play with my crayons (what am I, 5?!?) and I did and made a video tutorial on how to use watercolor crayons and water-soluble oil pastels. I use the Portfolio Oil Pastels by Crayola, they are a steal of a deal (I paid $8 for a 24 pack on Amazon) and the work like a dream! The watercolor crayons I use are by Caran d’Ache and are pricey but I’ve had my set for over 10 years, I’ve used them quite a bit and they hardly wear down at all.  This video starts with a basic sketch, coloring and blending with a wet brush. Anyone can do this! 🙂

What do you think? Are you ready to give it a whirl? Typically when I work with watercolor crayons I take quite a bit of time but I wanted to show you some basic stuff you could do quickly and easily. The frame I made for the painting is also a snap and I made a quick video on that too but you will have to wait til tomorrow to see that (I have not even taken the video off the camera yet!)

Let me know if you have any questions and til next time happy crafting!

Cell Phones, Pumpkins and Swimming {oh my!}

Apparently for a couple of weeks, and maybe as long as a month, my cell phone has not been working. I discovered this yesterday. I was planning one of my crazy, last-minute, kids-are-out-of-school fun days and I had called a few moms to join me at the local indoor pool. I love swimming in October because I’m not the only pasty white broad in a bathing suit! Anyway, I decided to charge my phone (I try to do that every few weeks) and lo and behold id had no service, huh. Come to think of it I can’t remember the last time the thing rang (a statement of my vast popularity) or the last time I tried to make a call on it (a statement of my typical antisocial behavior) but gee, I like to have it in the car in the case of an emergency. Ah well, enough of that, I did not have much time to be crafty this weekend but I thought I would share a card I made for the October issue of Scrap & Stamp Arts, you might have seen it in my (ahem)…column?

 

You might still be able to snag a copy of the October issue on newsstands, if not you can order a copy if you like. I used Vintage Pumpkin stamps from Pink Persimmon on this card. I made the honeycomb paper pop up out of plain tissue paper. If you want to see how you can check out my video here of read the article! Better yet, do both and keep a writer employed!

 

Pop-ups are fun, don’t you think?

 

I can’t honestly say that I am upset that my cell phone is not working, I like my quiet and solitude. I don’t like to be interrupted and I don’t like to chit-chat while running errands or have my face buried in a gadget rather than living my experiences first hand.  Sometimes I feel like walking up to someone who has their face buried in a phone, who is not paying attention to their surroundings, grabbing their wallet and saying “look, I could have just mugged you, pay attention!” Especially to young women who will walk out to their car, in a dark parking lot, while texting. Don’t you see what an easy target you are?!? As for driving and phone usage, that is the reason I hate to call anyones cell phone, I don’t want to be responsible for a 10 car pile up because someone wants to talk while driving. I want no part of it. I once read (Okay, okay I listened to the audiobook) Stephen King’s  Cell a delightfully creepy postapocalyptic romp where an electronic pulse causes everyone using a cell phone to lose their minds and act like violent zombies. Cell phone not working, not a bad thing. Sorry bout the tirade, mainly I wanted to let anyone know who tried to call me over the past month that I was not ignoring you, just technically clueless enough to realize my phone was incapacitated, next time send me an email, call my landline or better yet, just leave me a comment on my blog. Til next time happy crafting:)

Fun With Friendly Plastic & The Emperor has no Clothes

Happy Sunday folks! I hope you are having a good weekend. I went to a psychic party last night…more on that later…but first I want to share a set of Friendly Plastic jewelry I made this week. Friendly plastic looks like shiny bar of Jolly Rancher candy (remember those, 10 cents a piece at the candy counter) you can melt them in a skillet of hot water or with a heat gun and mold them. I cut slivers of the plastic, lined them up on my silicone mat and heated them with my heat gun. I used leaf cutters to cut the earring shapes and added wire, which I had hammered flat, so I could hang them. I reheated the pendent with the wire so it is embedded in the back, no chance of it coming loose.  Then I used beads and findings to turn the FP creations into jewelry, I will put it in the craft fair and hope for the best:)

FYI friendly plastic is pretty inexpensive, about $1-1.50 a bar. My sister has a craft shop and gave me a bag full of broken pieces she could not sell, they get brittle as they get older so if you are buying FP give it a little bend, it should flex, not snap, if it snaps it is old. You can still use it but it is harder to cut because it wants to shatter. If it is old FP ask the shopkeeper for a good deal on it as it has likely been there for years.

Warning, if you believe in psychics and want to continue to do so, you might want to stop reading now.

Still reading? OK then. On to the events of last night. I went to the party with an open mind (I’m like “Moulder” I want to believe) and I did not want to offend or poop on their party but I am quite naturally skeptical. What I didn’t expect was a room full of highly educated women to be completely taken in by this “mystic”. One woman was very uncomfortable and wanted no part of it and I wanted to say “You know this isn’t real right?” I held my tongue and kept my wine glass filled.  I opted for the $20 group reading because I thought it would be a hoot, I was curious if the “psychic” would have picked up any observations of me during the evening that might influence her reading. When she came to me she didn’t have a clue…I even wore my wedding ring although I considered removing it for the night to see if she might come to the conclusion that I was married on her own. Here is how it went:

Psychic: Are you a nurse?

Me: Nope.

Psychic: Do you have any children?

Me: You tell me.

Psychic: It doesn’t work that way…I see a baby (she smiles as if that is news any young woman wearing a wedding ring would want to hear)

Me: Well then, I would have some explaining to do since my husband is ‘fixed’.

Psychic: ah, maybe an adoption then? Or a child in need spending a lot of time at your house?

Me: Good grief.

Psychic: Your husband…he is not happy at work?

Me: He has a great job. He is happy, he has been there 20 years.

Psychic: Are you sure about that? I see a change…maybe moving to a smaller company where he is more appreciated…(more mumbo jumbo and then she moved on to my “job”) ..and for you I see you going to school…

Me: Really? going to school for what?

Psychic: I sense you are not happy with what you are doing now…your boss doesn’t appreciate you..

Me: I’m self-employed.

…and so on and so forth…

And I behaved! I did not roll my eyes or smile sardonically as she “read” the other women in the group but I have to say I felt like the little boy in the book TheEmperor’s New Clothes. I was the least educated women in the room (mostly nurses-the psychic took a good guess) and yet I could see. I must say that I am a tad bit disappointed, I wanted to be disproved. Yes, the psychic had a gift, she made a roomful of highly educated women part with their money in hopes of guidance from a spiritual plane.  I’ll take a fortune cookie any day.

Maybe I will go back to school, I hear there is a lot of money to be made in flim-flamery. Something tells me that I won’t be invited to the next party…that’s not me being psychic…or is it?

Til next time happy crafting:)

Don’t Burn Your Hands Off! {Microwave Kiln Tutorial}

Happy Friday folks! Wow, this week flew by! I have been wanting to share some of the fused beads I started making last weekend with my Microwave kiln but I was debating whether or not I wanted to do a video tutorial to go with it. All it took was one viewer asking me to and I got to work:

 

This craft is NOT for kids. The glass is hot and if you aren’t careful you can burn your hands off…well, maybe not off…still, why chance it? This video will take you though the process of using the kiln, cutting glass, assembling the bead and fusing it. All with the flawless video production you have come to expect…ha ha ha, I can’t even type that with a straight face! 😀  Everything is live to tape so you can see the kiln in action…also “live” means that anything can happen (and usually does) in my videos, that said, enjoy.

Details: I have a Fuseworks Microwave kiln, I just saw the one I have for $67 on Amazon with free shipping. I’m not sure if it comes with glass or not but mine came with a few sheets of kiln paper and some glass to practice with. I recommend buying a large sheet of thin smooth shelf liner paper from the stained glass store as well as scrap glass which is about $2 a pound, way cheaper than the Fuseworks stuff and it works just fine, in fact it is what I used in the video. Below are the beads I made. About an hour after the video went live last night someone offered to buy them, woot! Now that’s a feather in my cap!

 

That’s it for a today, I hope you have a lovely weekend, tomorrow I have plans to go roller skating and see a psychic…not that I believe in that (I think it is hogwash) but it should make for an amusing evening…especailly if there is wine involved:) I’ll let you know how it goes. I got a fortune cookie last night that said “You will receive a great honor” and frankly I give more credence to the cookie. Til next time happy crafting!

Shameless Promotion 50% off at Lindsay’s!

Howdy folks, just wanted to pop in quickly and let you know that everything at Lindsay’s Stamp Stuff is 50% off now through Sunday:

A girls gotta pay the bills right?  So check it out now through Sunday to save 50% on everything…yadda, yadda, blah, blah, blah…Shameless promotion over 🙂 Thanks for stopping by and til next time happy crafting!

 

Bottlecaps, Steampunk, Sherlock & Sushi…

…One of these things is not like the other, c’mon can you guess which one? Woah, I’m having a Sesame Street flashback! (weird… especially since I referenced Fraggle Rock in my video on tuesday…I’m having a Jim Henson moment, if Muppets make it into my next post I’m going to be worried!) I’m feeling a bit chatty today, my apologies. As you know I have been on a tear creating stuff for my upcoming craft fair, I was inspired to make these bottle cap brooches with a steampunk flair after catching the BBC series Sherlock on Netflix the other day:

 

I decided to pin the brooches to ATCs (Artist trading cards) on which I had stamped a large Ferris wheel inspired by the panorama of London in the Sherlock opening sequence. I have to say, the show is brilliant! I was unfamiliar with the stories of Sherlock Holmes, honestly I did not think I could make it through Victorian British literature but after watching the first 5 episodes I downloaded some Sherlock Holmes books by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and attempted to read them (TV that makes you read…yeah, that’s good TV!) and I loved the story, I didn’t know where to start and I ended up reading the one about Irene Adler  called A Scandal in Bohemia  and it was interesting to see how they updated it  in the episode A Scandal in Belgravia which by the way was my favorite. Then I started a reading Study in Scarlet which was the inspiration for the first episode of the Sherlock series A Study in Pink.  It has been modernized, Sherlock has a website: the Science of Deduction and Watson has a blog that generates most of their detective work (I’m not too far into the books but I do believe Dr. Watson recorded the cases of Holmes.) Sherlock often is texted (not wired) by his brother Mycroft and he has a nicotine addiction rather than a cocaine habit but all in all it seems to keep true to the stories.  Did I mention it’s a lot of fun? Sherlock Holmes is played by Benedict Cumberbatch and Dr. Watson is played by Martin Freeman. They couldn’t have picked more talented actors:

 

I really don’t want to say anymore and spoil anything for you, I do recommend you give it a watch though, it is amazing! Well, how’s that for a tangent? Anyway back to the bottle caps…. oh and the matching pair of earrings…

 

Would you like to know how to flatten one? It is quite easy, all you need is a rubber mallet and a hard surface. You can also use the flattened caps as picture frames in scrapbooks, they are pretty smooth when flattened so I don’t think they would damage your books and they should mail fine on a card too. You do need to get uncirculated bottle caps for this, the ones off a bottle will not flatten right:

BTW, if you want to flatten them quietly you can squish them in your die-cutter between 2 OLD plates, they will gouge up your cutting plates so be sure to use an old pair.

Oh and sushi, I forgot I mentioned that in the title!  Here is a frugal fashion tip…well…maybe just an amusing blurb…I went out for Sushi (and before you ask what a vegetarian knows about “sushi” let me tell you that ‘sushi’ refers to the rice, not the fish) the other day with my friend Kathy and on my plate was a beautiful Orchid so I stuck it in my hair and snapped a photo…yes, it is still a bit fraggle like 🙂

 

…nice roots huh? You know, back to Sherlock, in several episodes they are eating an a vegetarian restaraunt…I wonder if the characters are vegetarians…It might be hard to eat meat when you are visiting the morgue on a daily basis dontcha think? Well, this is probably the longest post I have EVER written, I just had to share my new finds, both Sherlock Holmes BBC series and the books which should keep me occupied for quite a while…who knows maybe after that I’ll tackle Jane Austin…nah, don’t count on it 🙂 Till next time happy crafting!

WOYWW & Fun with Epoxy!

Howdy crafters! It is still Tuesday night here but in Jolly Old England it is Wednesday and that means it’s time for What’s on your work desk Wednesday! I was sent a tube of 5 minute Epoxy from the Gorilla Glue company and I had a ball all weekend using it to make pendants that will be turned into pins and necklaces at the craft fair I will be doing in December:

 

I had always been a little intimidated to try two-part epoxy but it is really easy to use, sets up fast and is super-duper strong when it is cured, you can even use it for resin charms but it is best as a glue because it is really thick. Here is a video to show you how I used it…be warned, I’m even more giddy than usual {but that might just be the glue fumes LOL!}

Here is a peek over at my other work surface, recently cleaned. I had been cutting a lot of glass over the weekend so I needed to wipe down the counter and vacuum all of the glass dust and shards:

 

Don’t you dig this awesome caddy?  The local hospital gift shop closed and my friend Glenna (she’s a nurse) snagged 2 of these awesome displays for me to use in my craft fair booth of for studio storage! Thank you sweetie!

 

Currently my gelatos are in there along with a few odd completed projects that I will share one I get them packaged up all pretty 🙂 Well, this is a bit long-winded for me (I’m a faster talker than typer) so I will wrap it up and direct you to The Stamping Ground if you want to have a peek at other great crafty desks…maybe next week you will join us, eh? Till next time happy crafting!

A video tutorial by request…

Happy Monday folks! Last week a reader asked me to do a video on using the Inkadinkado Stamping gear to make cards, well, I could not disappoint, here is the completed card with the background I made on the video.

 

And here is a quick video on stamping a small background with the Stamping Gear.

How’d you like that smooth transition a the end? That’s me, smooth 🙂 Here is a close up of the glittered focal point that I showed you on Friday’s video, I am really into glitter now, I hope to have some glittery decor projects for you later this week, til next time happy crafting!