Day 7 - Suede Flower

It's 10:45pm and I haven't made my charm for today. Instead I am participating in the weekly online chat session with the art charm group... again soaking up their creativity and kindness.

The conversation headed in the direction of shopping at thrift stores, estate sales, and garage sales for unique items to use in crafting. I was reminded of the fabulous HOT PINK suede skirt I picked up for $2 at a local thrift shop... knowing for certain that I would find a use for the fabric. Not to mention the skirt was a size 4!!! Maybe, just maybe my right leg would fit in a size 4... maybe.  


So for today's charm, I ran upstairs, grabbed the skirt and began cutting. I reached in to one of my many jars of old buttons ( a goodwill find) for the center of the flower and tied it all together with some embroidery floss (purchased from a garage sale). Added a bead and a jump ring... and I had myself a charm!

In the interest of full disclosure I should mention that this is a 'repeat' charm. I made others for my flower swap... however THIS ONE was made this evening. The photo doesn't do the colors justice. The flower is HOT PINK, the top button is turquoise, and the thread is orange. Very bold and striking.

Have a charming day!

Deb

Day 6 - Sunshine? Ship's Wheel?

For the past 6 days you have been following my Charm A Day challenge. Your emails have been so inspiring!!! Thank you! However, I'd like to tell you about how I got started. 

One day I was killing time at my local Jo-Ann's store. The cover of this book caught my attention.

So I bought it. For those of you who know me, you are in shock... right??? As a bookstore owner I can order any book, any time at wholesale. Why would I pay full price? Why??? Because I wanted to read this book NOW... not in a week... NOW! 

I drooled over each and every page and picture.  The authors, Peggy Kryzewski and Christine Hansen are charm goddesses! According to this book there were Art Charm SWAPS going on behind my back. All these wonderful little bundles of goodness were being shipped all over the world and I wasn't getting any!! So I grabbed my computer and started searching for Swaps. I landed on a new group forming on Yahoo... so I joined. It was weeks later that I found out the moderators were the very same authors I drooled over. Surprise!!!

I'm hooked! I love making and receiving charms. To check out where I get my inspiration... go to Peggy's blog: http://artandsoultoo.blogspot.com

and Christine's: http://www.christinehansen.com/

Better yet... JOIN US! Check us out at: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ArtCharms/

On to Day 6...

It's been raining all day today. HUGE thunderstorms. Dark, dreary, muggy day. BUT... sunshine filled my heart and soul when I saw my reservations came through for a trip to Florida in November (Thank you Catherine and Dan for your timeshare). As I was making today's charm I was thinking... Sun, funky sun. My hands made a ship's wheel instead. Funny how I planned a totally different charm than what actually emerged. Art has a way of doing that :-)

I hope your days are just as challenging.

Thanks for looking!

Deb

Day 5 Flower Charm

It's day 5 of making a Charm A Day... and I haven't even begun to sweat. In honor of my new job at Michael's a friend bought me flowers... well actually a plant with flowers on it. So... my charm today is a flower made of buttons, beads, and wire. It looks much better in real life, but you get the idea.

Day 4 - Tillie Charm

Day 4 of the 365 days of making a Charm A Day. I still find the challenge fun. It seems to give me 'permission' to craft after dinner instead of cleaning, doing laundry, getting ready for the next day, etc.

I sold a few pewter Tillie Charms on my etsy shop today... so I thought it was time to play around with the same image except using polymer clay and a water slip transfer technique. All in all things went well, however the directions called for a film of liquid clay to cover the image for durability... and THAT layer rippled. UGH!! Up to that point the images were clear and strong. Knowing that the image should be protected some how... liquid clay is NOT the answer. Next week I'll try using resin.

Any way... here's the final charm:

Day 2 - Bird's Nest

I love the way this charm turned out. It was a little rough on the fingers, but worth the effort.

I found a bird feather on the beach the other day... then I saw a photo of a bird nest charm another 'art charmer' made and was inspired to make this charm. 

It was a little rough on the fingers, but worth the effort.

I'm baaackkkkk!

Well... I wasn't off the blog-o-sphere for long, now was I??? I realized that blogging was fun... and now I have a REASON to blog... I've decided to make a CHARM A DAY for the next 365 days. Yup... all 365 of them. I wish I could say that it was my idea... but no. I had been thinking about the idea for a while now... but last night's Art Charm Chat brought it back up again. Some one mentioned it, my brain clicked, and here I am.

My goal is to make one charm everyday. Using all different techniques and skill sets. It's a way for me to expand creatively and have cute little charms as a result. I really enjoy making these little critters. They're addictive.

Some will have a story behind them, and with posting and journaling I should be able to look back in a year in awe at all I have accomplished. I am certain that some will be easy little nothing pieces... but don't we all have days like that???

To start... here is my very first charm....  

I spent the day at the Township Public Works office making arrangements for someone (besides me) to assist my mom with her weekly trash cans. So... I made an origami heart charm out of junk mail. Day one, COMPLETE.

Posting daily might be too cumbersome, so if you want to follow my progress I would suggest checking in once a week.

Feel free to post comments and cheer me on!!!

Repetition Is A Good Thing

Learning something new can be exciting... or make you want to pull your hair out. I had an Asian Charm Swap that just drove me N-U-T-S! First... I couldn't think of what I wanted to do. Then, when  I finally had an idea, I couldn't think of how to 'pull it off'. So back to the drawing board looking for a new idea.

EUREKA!!! Or should I have said, "Ahhhhh Sooooo".  An idea came flying out of thin air. I knew what I would make... An Asian Locket. Do a little paper folding, add a cover and ribbon to keep it closed, throw on a jump ring and... Ta Dah!

No, of course it wasn't that easy. Why would I have thought that?? Nothing is ever as simple as you think it's going to be... at least not in my world.

I unearthed my roll of rice paper the other day... so that part went smoothly. Folding paper that was cut 1 1/2" square was a little challenging, but not difficult. The covers were cut and glued to card stock to make them sturdy... so far so good. Moving right along to assembling the charms (all 30 of them)... looking good.

Folding

In progress

Last is to insert a grommet and jump ring... UGH! They look B-O-R-I-N-G! Lacking PIZZAZZ! Hmm... they need a little glitz. Soooo... here comes the hard part... at least for me.

It's time I learned how to wire wrap. I have the beads, the wire, and the tools. Now, let's put it all together and get these things finished. Uh... I've never done this before. Never even seen someone else do it either. Where do I start??? I know... the Internet! After watching a few videos I feel I'm ready to take on the wire! It's only a spool of wire and some pliers. I'm not intimidated!!!

Thank heavens I had to make 30 charms for this swap. Wire wrap number 1 and 2 (the top 2 in photo) were AWFUL!!! By number 10 (third in photo) you can see I've made some progress... but number 16 (bottom one) is the winner!! Isn't it pretty????

I obviously got the hang of it. Of course I re-made number 1 and 2. There is no way I would have sent those out on something I made... ICK!

Ready to assemble

Finshed Charm!
The idea is to untie it, glue pictures of your loved ones  inside, or write and affirmation... then tie it  back up and hang.

I'm off to the Post Office to mail out my charms. Stay warm!

First Pancake Rule

Did you ever notice that the first pancake of the batch never comes out quite right? It's still edible... just a little burnt, or dry.  If you stick it on the bottom of the stack no one will notice, but you know it's there. Well... the same is true when crafting.

I finished my charms for the first swap I ever joined. While looking them over I was amused to stumble across the 'first pancake'. Can you pick out which one it is?

Here is a quick overview of how I made my charms. My last post showed me making paper beads from a magazine... watch the fun continue!

 The beads were coated with a water resistant sealer and stuck in a styrofoam cone to dry.

Next was to cover a small rectangle of balsa wood with vintage sheet music... seal and dry... then sand, sand, sand.

Since this is a Valentine swap I punched out teeny tiny hearts from the same paper as the beads and glued them to the back of the wooden rectangle.



Now it's time to combine the pieces. Adding pearl beads I wire wrapped the paper beads to to the wooden base. Last step... glue on the bail (shaped like a heart)... and TA DAH... my first ever charms!!

These were all new techniques for me... so a real learning experience. The most important lesson I learned was to only do a few charms at a time... that way you can tweak your technique as you go along.

This charm swap is way too much fun!! The next swap is using Origami Paper... again, not something I'm used to using in my crafts. My design is not finalized yet, but I have a bunch of ideas swimming around in my head. After that, the third swap is to use copper and green in a charm. I am so excited for this one as I already have a design idea and all of the supplies... but first I have to trudge through the Origami Paper one.

By the way... in case you were wondering... the First Pancake Rule works for children too :-)

My Hero!

My Front Porch

It is officially 3 days since the blizzard and my road is STILL not plowed! Around 8:30pm I caught a glimpse of the amber flashing light of the plow and got sooooooooo excited, but alas my road was not on his list. Shucks! I wonder if they will return? 2 blocks in each direction is plowed, but for some inexplicable reason they skipped my little corner of the world.

My Hero! Hoo-Ray!!!

Late afternoon my knight in shining armor... OK, actually... my hero in jeans... arrived via snowblower to help dig out at least one car. Come to think of it... it is actually his car. Hmmmm. No seriously, he's letting me drive it until I get insurance on mine again (another story for another time, I promise). He carved a deep path from his house to mine... on the road. I can't even begin to tell you how appreciative the neighbors were. They could FINALLY leave their houses and walk around. Dogs could 'do their business', everyone without a lake view could come down and see the snow... and lament the road isn't plowed yet.

Sooooooo... what have I been doing for the past 2 days??? I napped a little, cleaned a little, did some paperwork, found places for some boxes that were thrown in my bedroom during the move, threw out a bunch of old papers, and.... made some paper beads.

I joined a YAHOO GROUP called ART CHARMS. Once a month they host a swap with a theme... all have to be homemade mixed media art charms. January 25th is the deadline to have 30 charms shipped to the hostess for a Valentine's themed swap. I haven't designed my charm yet... but have decided to start by making these paper beads. There are thousands of tutorials on YOU TUBE on how to make them, however I felt compelled to take pictures of the process in case you were interested.

Step 1: Tear out a magazine page with colors you like. Mark the page along one edge in 1/2" increments. Mark the opposite edge in 1/2" increments also, but start 1/4" in. Connect the markings to draw long triangles and cut. I use a paper cutter to make it easier, but scissors work well too.

Step 2: Using a toothpick (or a piece of spaghetti) begin wrapping the strip, starting with the wide end. To start, roll the top edge around the toothpick and gently tuck the edge in using your thumb nail. Keep the tension steady as you roll. Roll up to the last inch or so.

Step 3: Place glue on the last inch and finish rolling. I use a product called Mod Podge as glue, just because that is all I could find. A glue stick, Elmer's, or any craft glue that dries clear would work just as well.

Step 4: Gently slide finished bead off of toothpick.








Step 5: Pick bead up with a pin (or another toothpick), brush on a glossy sealer, like Diamond Glaze (found at Michael's and Jo-Ann's) then stick in a piece of styrofoam to dry.

Use these as you would any other bead. The narrower and longer you cut your triangle, the rounder the bead will be.

Don't worry... I'll post a photo of the finished charms before I send them out. I'm thinking of using an old page of sheet music to paper-mache a small heart to dangle from the paper bead, but you never know... these things have a way of designing themselves and maybe the charm doesn't want to go in that direction :-)

I'll leave you with a few pictures of my first Christmas in my new home.

Tin Man from Wizard of Oz

Peanut Stone Fireplace