This and That

This is what I've been up to this week;  a little bit of this, and a little bit of that.  I know, not much of a description, but this post really does fall under the category of miscellaneous.

First of all, when I did the tag with the sewing theme, I made a few extra backgrounds and came up with this variation:

The dress form is part of Tim's new set called Haberdashery, and I stamped it on some old text.  I gave "her" a scarf made of a ribbon and an old ribbon slide I had in my stash, and thought that made her look so dashing, I added the word style with my dymo label maker.

A while back, my friend Pam sent me a little charm she'd made for a swap at last year's Art and Soul in Portland.  I fell in love with the mini bottle cap she used, tracked it down and bought a bunch.  I finally got around to using some and made these pins (I put tie tack findings on the backs):

Last, but not least, the newest challenge at EWV (Everything Wendy Vecchi yahoo group) called for using a scallop frame and a small grungepaper flower.



The background on the coaster photographed waaaaay dark.  It's actually some peeled paint and wild honey distress stains covered with rock candy distress crackle paint.  The chipboard frame was painted white then covered with broken china distress stain (I'm loving experimenting with this new product, as if you can't tell), and then stamped with one of Wendy's background stamps using olive archival ink.  The sentiment if from Wendy's Homemade Art set, as is the roof you see above the frame.

The grungepaper flower is from Funky Flower Art, and layered over it is the same stamp, this time on clearly for art modeling film.  The cool flower in the center is a new one from Prima.  I'll add a little chain to the top for easy hanging.

If I seem to disappear for a while, I have to report for jury duty on Monday, and who knows how that will go.



Charms, Trays, And Girls Gone Wild

Keys4Art2011

Day 5

Day 5; it's Saturday, after our long day at The Paper Niche lots of people were sleeping in, but this is the day we set aside for working on projects without "outside" teachers, so all is good.  Everyone has the painter's trays from 7 Gypsies and we have loads of stuff we all brought to share to go into the little compartments.  This is how my tray looked, obviously unfinished, when it was time to pack up:

The pirate's treasure chest in the upper right hand corner was actually one of the gifts Val brought, and with a lot of glue and a little patience, I managed to fit it in that compartment, partially opened, so I could fill it with goodies.  The piece with the skull (left side, one up from the bottom) was inside the treasure chest, but it fit well in this section, and I just had to add some more sand to the edges to fill in.  Those colorful flip flops (I brought enough for everyone) are from Oriental Trading and are erasers!  

When I got home, I put the tray on my work table and have been adding to it bit by bit.  It is still not finished, but we're getting there.

Here are a couple of not so clear (sorry!) closeups so you can see just how dimensional that treasure chest is:

Here are some snaps of other finished trays.  The first is Elena's, the second is Val's (photo swiped directly from her blog), and the last.....I don't know.  Artist, identify yourself!

Aren't they fabulous?!!

The other activity we set aside for Saturday was charm making.  There are some members of this group, who shall remain nameless, who have all but issued death threats on Val and I for coming up with this idea.  Who knew that charm making, something I find so relaxing, could cause otherwise reasonable women to get so emotional?  Then again, I have a friend here in NY, who breaks out into a cold sweat at the mere mention of the words "jump ring."

Val demonstrated several techniques; she even had 7 melt pots shipped to Elena's so we could make UTEE charms.  Again, I raided her blog for this photo:



Gorgeous!  We poured black UTEE into memory frames and added the metallic color with rub n buff.  Since the surface is slick, you could also color them with alchol inks, stazon ink,  and if memory serves, perfect pearls works too.

Here is Val hard at work turning bullet shells into charms. 

For my part, I demonstrated three of the easiest charms I could think of, and even the charm haters seemed to be won over.  I hope.  I really don't want to have to keep looking over my shoulder.  A certain someone from the great northwest seems to have some good tracking skills.  Anyway, the first is a bottlecap charm, made simple by using images that were self adhesive and sized just for bottle caps.  The cool technique I added (inspired by my good friend Pat) was a band of ballchain to really finish them off.  This is the sample I brought:

The next easy easy one was inspired by the great Wendy Vecchi.  With a teeny 5/16" punch and some glossy accents, you can use Tim's little memo charms to make this:

Last of all, for those who own no metal whatsoever, a circle of sturdy chipboard, some scraps of paper, clear embossing powder and a glaze pen are all you need to create this modern looking charm:

Later that night we all headed to The Marlin, a local restaurant (and the place that provided almost all of our food for the week) for our farewell dinner.  There was a DJ, there was alcohol, and (some would say unfortunately) there were cameras.  LOL!  Gina may think that what happens in Key Largo, stays in Key Largo, but we know better.  It winds up on facebook, twitter, countless blogs, and probably youtube.  Let the festivities begin:

Naturally, at one point a conga line appeared.



This is NOT what you think.  Gina is not trying to earn her airfare home.  She was actually drumming up some tips for the DJ.  I speak the truth.

But Daisy sure got into the spirit of things:

Gina makes new friends wherever she goes:

Happy faces, all around:

And there was some very serious vocalizing:

We settled down long enough for this group photo.  Or maybe we just collapsed.

Here's The Marlin's owner/cook Manny, followed by some of the seemingly endless platters of food that kept appearing at our table:

I do hope Elena realizes that she's stuck with us forever now.  Keys4Art2012, here we come!



Singing and Dancing and Gifting, Oh My

Keys4Art2011 - Day 1

We were picked up at two airports....how Elena organized and scheduled everything is beyond me.  Teri and I were in the Miami pick-up group along with Ingrid,  and after gigantic margaritas at the airport we headed for Jacquie's place to get Tracy, who'd been picked up much earlier.  There were also a few at Elena's already.  Gina and Marita came in from Oregon the day before, as had Sarah, who made this trip from Australia (!) and who'd be celebrating her 40th birthday with us.

Once we were all together, the gift giving began. 

Here I am handing out the bags I made:

Val made necklaces and we got to choose whichever

one we wanted.  It wasn't easy.

I'm trying to pick my necklace.  You can see that

Lill and I are wearing Keys4Art2011aprons.

We also received matching tote bags.

Here are a few of the bags I made.  Each was

somewhat different, customized for everyone:

Just some of the gifts I took home....I know

there are a few more lurking inside my still not

fully unpacked suitcases:

We also did a charm swap.  Again, some of my charms

are still packed, and a few made their way into my painter's

tray project:

The ATC above was from Sue, and there are

Egyptian charms dangling from it. Yes, she was

there when the uprising began.

Gina (for some unknown reason) had decided NOT to join our Marie Antoinette round robin journal group, and as soon as she saw the pages being posted, she regretted that decision.  Some might say she whined about it.  Anyway, sweet, sweet Lill made this awesome gift for her and lugged it all the way from the northern reaches of Ontario:

By the way, both Lill and Gina are wearing the painter's smocks that Lill dyed for us last year.  Wish I hadn't forgotten to bring mine.

Daisy brought this beautiful piece for Elena, full of Graphic 45 loveliness:

And Sox, who is in several of our journal groups, and couldn't make it to Key Largo, wished she could be a fly on the wall.  She sent this painting to Elena:

About a week before the retreat began, Teri sent Elena a Keurig coffee maker from the two of us, and I think half of my suitcase was full of an assortment of k-cups.  It turned out to be a very useful and popular gift.  With so many of us, it was really nice to get a fresh cup of whatever blend we wanted whenever we wanted it.  Well, it was a somewhat selfish gift, if you must know.  Teri and I are both addicted to our Keurigs at home and didn't want to be without them for six days.  We're not really into roughing it, LOL.

That evening we had delicious food catered by The Marlin, a local restaurant that we enjoyed so much last year.  Manny, the owner/cook, supplied almost every morsel we ate all week.  We ate downstairs in the screened in porch, and were entertained by the DJ/karaoke guy Elena hired for the ocassion.  Here are a few of the less incriminating photos:

Tomorrow.....we put the mojitos aside and get down to business.  Stay tuned for the WONDERFUL On-The- Edge journal we did with the incredible Ingrid Dijkers.