More Lace

Our Vintage Lace journal group is small; there are only 5 of us, and we've been moving the books along very quickly.  Last week I received Tracy's gorgeous book from Elena, and have managed to not only work on my pages, but finish them.  Tracy's theme is the art of John Willian Waterhouse, and once I found the image I wanted to use, everything else seemed to fall into place.

Here is my double page spread; Tracy will bind it into her book down the middle, between the two rows of buttons.

And closer views of the individual pages.

 

 

I included some beading (pink and bronze seed beads) around the image (which was printed on cotton fabric).

 

 

 

And had the perfect flower in my stash of Prima embellishments.

 

 

 

Some of my antique buttons found a new home too.

 

 

 

The back has to be finished, though not decorated.

 

 

 

I only have one more book to work in, which I should receive some time in March.  If things move along as they have been, my own lace journal should return home to me in April.  Yea!















Tagathon, and more

I've been in a tag making mood this week.  Normally, when it comes to challenges I like to try to qualify for as many as possible with one piece, but for some reason, this week was different.

Tim's June tag for The 12 Tags of 2012 featured the technique of tinting photos with distress markers.  You can see his tag HERE.  My take is oddly romantic and feminine, a departure from my usual style.  Hey, I sit down and something inside me tells me what colors to grab and I take it from there.  My motto (well, one of many) is don't argue with the muse.  The muse doesn't like that and will retaliate by leaving you. 

The image I chose to tint is one I found ages ago on the internet.  The stamps are from a set by Darcie's that I've had for a while and never used. 

Over at the Everything Wendy Vecchi yahoo group, the current challenge is based on the piece on page 28 of Wendy's third book.  The deal is, create something that contains three circles and two hearts (and of course, at least one of Wendy's stamps).  I hope Lori meant AT LEAST three circles and not JUST three circles because I went a little circle happy.

The large circles in the background were done with a Crafter's Workshop stencil and a Dylusions spray, but everything else is a Wendy stamp.  In addition to the stamping, I punched several holes in the tag and then backed the tag with green paper.  Some of the circles were outlined with a black glaze pen, and some were also filled with glossy accents.  The hearts were accented with a white gel pen.

My third tag of the week is for the Simon Says Stamp and Show challenge, and the theme is texture. 

The tag itself has texture from a Cuttlebug embossing folder called clockworks.  Some antique linen distress crackle paint was applied kind of randomly on the right side and bottom of the tag for another kind of texture.  The gears were cut with Tim's steampunk on the edge die from a scrap of black cardstock that already had some embossing on it.....more texture.  The wire strung with tiny springs and fastened with the little staples in the tiny attacher is yet another layer of texture.  The small tag on the top (actually part of the packaging from grungeboard sets) has a suede feel to it, so more texture.  And last of all, the man (a Wendy stamp) was highlighted with both white and black glaze pens for even more.

That's it for the tags.  Remember my beaded cuff bracelet?  Sure you do.  If not, here it is again.

The other thing I was busy with this week was figuring out how to make a pair of beaded cabachon earrings.  I didn't have any pattern or directions to follow, and really winged it on the edging, but all in all, I think they're wearable.  I had planned to add some dangly things, but ran out of steam.  Well, I CAN go back and do that someday.

I just realized that I have no tag for the current Compendium of Curiosities 2 challenge.  Now, how did I miss that????  

Cuffed!

I have to admit to being a bit of an art slut.  As soon as I see an interesting project, I just have to go for it.  That's what happened recently when I saw my friend Teri's beaded cuff bracelet.  As soon as I got home I started ordering supplies.  They all arrived this week and I got to beading.  I didn't have to order any seed beads as I already have a stash of those.  Big surprise.  But I did get to spend a pleasant hour or two choosing some cabachons.  I ordered the brass bracelet blank, the material you actually do the beading on, the lining, the thread and the needles HERE.  They also have some very clear written directions, which were very helpful.  I got the cabachons HERE.

Teri was working from a book by Sherry Serafini, which, believe it or not, I do not own, but between seeing Teri's bracelet in person and reading some directions online I got the general idea. 

This is NOT difficult, but it is time consuming, and working with small beads and a very thin needle requires good lighting, so there was no 2:00am beading going on.  I'd work on it for an hour or so, go off to do something else, then pick it up again when I felt like it. 

You know I like to share my observations, so if this is something you'd like to try, I do have some thoughts that might help you.

You can't have too many needles and you MUST have a needle threader.  Working with these seed beads requires a #12 needle, which is very thin, very sharp, and easily bent.  I ordered a pack of 6 needles and went through 4 of them.

To have a really finished looking piece on the underside, I see now that having the lining (I used ultra suede) and the thread color match would have been much better.  But when I placed my order, the black ultrasuede I really wanted was out of stock, and being impatient (and an art slut) I just ordered what they had, which was grey.  I'd just as soon not have those black stitches visible, but it's hardly the end of the world. 

I have plenty of bracelet blanks so this won't be my last bracelet, but right now I'm thinking of ways to use this technique to make some bold dangly earrings.  Stay tuned.....