Day 3 – Miniature Cookie Tins and Kitchen Minis On Sale!

Day 3 – Miniature Cookie Tins and Kitchen Minis On Sale!

IO Challenge "Snowy Wishes"

Okay...listen up. You've got until Jan 5th to get your entry into the Impression Obsession Snowy Wishes challenge! You COULD win a 20.00 gift certificate to their store! 

Actually, it's 25.00...but my cut is 20% for letting you know about it. HEY...do you have any idea how much work it takes to throw a hyperlink into one of these posts? That's worth a little something, right?

I have to say that this is one of my fave Christmas Cards I've made this year. I sponged four colors of blue ink, spattered a mixture of white Distress Paint and Acrylic Paints, then cut the deer from grunge paper. I painted him and put so little glitter on him that pretty much everyone here in the house thinks something is wrong with me. I usually have the stuff streaming out the air ducts by October, but have shown uncommon restraint this year. I'm not sure why, but I can tell you that I fully intend to resume my abuse of glitter and sparkly stuff, shortly. I've missed going to the store or the stable and having people squint while looking in my general direction.

Sorry. Ramble. 

One of my favorite dies from Impression Obsession this year is the Jingle Bells. I took the flourishes from the die and attached them to the back of my reindeer, being very careful to enhance his flying and not look like he was having some type of gastric disturbance. 

Kittie, one of the DT at IO, started putting cute little sprigs with berries around her deer several years ago. She put 3 berries in the middle of hers, but I wanted to see if I could get close to a little poinsettia, instead. It's not quite that, but cute nonetheless.

After all that tomfoolery, I cut the Peace out and stuck everything on with those little traitorous 'glue dots'. Oh...they SEEM convenient. Until you end up finding them stuck all over your clothing, or until you're 12 year old has told you-for the thousandth time-that watching you roll them up with your fingers looks like you're playing with a booger, then hearing the little &*&(^(* howling with laughter like a little, annoying hyena, as he relates the story to twenty relatives that have just converged on your home for a Christmas celebration, and you're tearing the kitchen cabinet apart looking for a Xanax (or Nyquil, in a pinch) there's not one to be found. Anywhere.

Oops. Ummmm....let's just go with all that being totally hypothetical...mmm-k? 

But I still have to say that this card makes me happy. And it'll make me significantly happier if it makes that gc land in my lap. With the way things are going, I doubt I'm going to be leaving my craft room before spring, and I can use all the supplies I can get.

Supplies Used:

Impression Obsession Peace DIE226-A

Impression Obsession Reindeer DIE228-G

Impression Obsession Ornament Flourish DIE353-YY

Impression Obsession Tiny Flowers DIE140-D

Impression Obsession Pine Branch DIE021-N

Tim Holtz 12 Tags....December is in tha' HIZHOUSE!

I've almost got myself convinced that I'm going to do the whole tag a month thing with Tim. Mostly because I have this need to hang around with people who know what they're doing. 

I, certainly, do NOT. 

Besides playing with the love of my life...that's right, my horse....I've been messing around with jewelry, clay and found myself wanted to get back to a fairly flat surface. And play with ink and paint. THAT'S where Tim comes in.

I was hoping that, with the decision to jump on the tag bandwagon, I would find myself at peace working on a smaller space. I saw myself playing around with techniques and effortlessly creating these gorgeous tags that I intended to put on every Christmas package of relatives who deserve one. 

Ahem. Sorry. That whole 'truth' thing just jumped in and ruined that. 

Anyway, my reality was pretty much consistent with what it always is...which involves me spending twice the time arguing with my OCD before I can even post the *&^& thing. 

Okay...I like the tag. But I don't know about the peace sentiment. Shouldn't it be in gold or silver? But it matches the flowers on the wreath! But maybe they should be red. But that would be too much red! And there's that space in the bottom right corner. It feels empty. But they said I should always take one thing off? Yeah....but NOT AN ENTIRE QUARTER OF THE DANGED TAG! Why are you yelling at me???? 

It's pointless. If I start changing everything, then I'm on to a new tag. And I don't WANT to do another tag. I like this one. Mostly. But still...I have GOT to get to a point where I can do 2 things in one day instead of one thing a week.

So, I'll leave it a little on the bare side instead of mucking it up with...well...something from the boxes of junk that I've been taught to call 'stash' because it sounds cute and not like something that threatens to consume the house and everyone in it.

Merry Christmas, peeps.

Little clay magnet thingies with lots of balls...

Before you even START to say anything, the answer is YES...I am aware that my titles aren't exactly the creme de la creme of blog post titles. But after making these little suckers, I'm a little too tired to be witty. 

Snarky? Yes.

Witty? No.

These ARE fun little things to make, however. I found this online tutorial site called claylessons.com and bought a few clay tutorials for this and for an under the sea based tutorial that shows you how to make coral and sea foam. I didn't do so well on the sea foam, but that's another story for another day.

These little guys taught me a lot about blending clay and rolling little balls until your fingers are ready to fall off and you get cramps in your wrists. Bear in mind that these are INCHIES. It STILL took me a couple of hours to make them. 

After baking, I painted them with black acrylic then quickly wiped it off to make the colors and designs pop. I don't mind telling you to remember to do this after you bake your clay. I did it before on an Impression Obsession challenge piece and that's why you will NOT see that particular piece. 

Ever.

I'm not quite sure what my next project will be. I'm having this 'thing' for gel mediums and messy ink/watercolor time, so I just may have to give into that urge.

Anything to get away from the little, tiny balls for awhile.

More ATC's, More Clay, More Seahorses.

Okay...listen. 

It wasn't my intention to do another seahorse atc on clay, just to do it....THIS happens to be a special request and is going out as a gift, to an unfortunate soul who made the mistake of complimenting my artwork. This is an unintended consequence that most people find out the hard way. Compliment my stuff and it'll be on the way to you in less than 48 hours. And nothing...NOTHING...short of you moving out of the country will stop this from happening. 

Not even a restraining order. 

So let this be a lesson to all of you. Say something nice about my junk, and it'll be cluttering up your living room for years to come. 

And you KNOW I'm not kidding about that. 

Ever notice how the things that you dislike the most have a tendency to haunt you? 

It's almost as if our dislike gives an unwanted chotchie super powers. If you hate it, it will be impervious to breakage, fire, earthquake and theft. 

Yeah...well...'duh' on the theft part. 

But I'm serious about the rest. So be warned...this could happen to you! 

There is a wonderful lady on Splitcoast named Kathy (screenname muscat) and she is one of the constants at SCS. She's always participating and leaving sweet comments for everyone. Her avatar is this sweet little leaping kitten, and I see it all the time at SCS. She's one of those who is easy to take for granted because you get used to her always being there and always encouraging. But if she were to NOT be there, for whatever reason, we'd all feel her absence. That's where the sentiment from Verve comes in. Because she is treasured by so many of us!

I've been meaning to send Kathy something for a while now. But I dropped out of crafting for six months, so I didn't have a chance to send anything. When she left a sweet comment on my atc named Pura Vida Dream and said she really liked it, I asked her if she'd like one like it. That particular one had been given as a gift, so I set out to make Kathy another. 

And here it is.

So, Kathy...I HOPE you have learned your lesson. ;)

And another thing...don't you EVER go away.

MWAAAAAAH

Clay ATC Reindeer Wishes

I am TOTALLY addicted to this clay medium! 

It's just...fun. 

Granted, I had to buy one of those pasta machines thingies to roll it out with because my hands STILL don't want to work properly after carpal tunnel surgery, but hey...when there's a will...

My significant other likes to say that the carpal tunnel surgery also rendered me incapable of folding laundry and cleaning. But when I pointed out to him that my trigger finger worked flawlessly, he quickly abandoned his attempts at comedy.

I used an EF of swirly dots to texture the background and my assortment of mica powders to go nutballs with on top of that. I really can't stop myself with the mica powders. I've been sliding toward a craft intervention for years, but the mica powders may have actually pushed me over the edge.

I grouped little clay balls for color and buried those crystal beads with that treatment that makes them flash different colors. DANG...why can't I remember the name??? Grrrr.

Anyway...they don't show up very well but they add some sparkle. It was the 'moon' I consider my artistic contribution. 

Oh...get that look off your face. I mean the TREATMENT I used on the moon. I've not seen anyone else do it so I'm claiming 'firsties'. 

Using a large, clear, glass thingie you usually put in the bottom of glass vases, I created the moon. But with it being clear and the clay being black, it was pointless. So, remember the last ATC I did where I experimented with baking shells into the clay and said the worst-or best-thing that would happen is that my stove would blow up? And it didn't?

Well, I'm no quitter, people.

Using silver metallic alcohol ink, I painted the flat side, let it dry, and pushed in into the clay. Then I baked it, hoping  wondering if it would result in some type of fireworks. 

Since I'm sitting here and typing this and NOT being interrogated by arson inspectors, you can safely assume that YES...you can use alcohol inks on the underside of your crystals when using clay. Not a huge finding, mind you, but it's nice we can create our own colors now to coordinate, I guess.

I'm off to scour the house in search of other things to stick in clay and experiment with in terms of how explosion-y it might, or might not. be. 

The things I do for art. Sigh.

First Clay ATC "Pura Vida Dreams"

Well, it took me long enough, but I finally hopped on the ATC train.

My very first ATC was a Marie Antoinette piece that was okay, if a little boring in predictability. But this is one I'm simply thrilled with!

While watching lots of videos on ATC's (which is my MO...reading is lost on me when it comes to art) I stumbled upon THIS ONE by Gabrielle Pollacco. I was so intrigued with it that I jumped on board. This is the result.

The stones and beads are directly from Gabrielle's example. The shells were some I already had and wasn't sure if they'd take the heat but what the hey, right? Worst I could do is blow up my over. And for my family, that would be the best Christmas gift of all. 

No loss there, friends.

I used black clay and mica powders, 2 glass rock/bead thingies and a row of glass beads. The seahorse is cut from grunge paper. I actually followed Tim's blog where he showed a way to color this die and coat it with rock candy crackle.

Now, par for the course, I have decided to devote all of my time and energy to making clay and regular ATC's. And when THAT 7 or 8 days are over, I'll find something else to obsess over.

Merry Christmas, friends!