The Loves of Marie Antoinette

So reads the title of my friend Inge's Marie journal, the last Marie book I have to work in.  It took me a while to decide which of Marie's loves to use....fashion, family, Versailles, cake?  In the end, I chose jewelry, and I did have an ulterior motive.

Over a year ago, when I was still on the PID design team, I did several projects using their Marie images.  One was a bracelet, and as I was making it, it was in my mind that I would use it in one of the Marie journals.  I think we had just recently started that group.  For one reason or another, it never felt quite right in the other books, but I had a feeling it would find its way into Inge's book.  And so it did.

First, here is the bracelet.  The band is fabric, decorated with beads and other baubles and some funky fibers.  The Ranger memory frame holds a small picture of Marie which was covered with Crackle Accents.

So, my concept is, Marie loves beautiful jewelry.....especially when it contains her own image.  And here are my two pages:

I used Distress Stains, Colorwash, and Perfect Pearls mists to get the colors in the backgrounds.  On page one, I added stamping to create my own patterned paper.  The image of Marie was an internet find.....found, I think by Val.....and she is colored with markers and embellished with Liquid Pearls and glaze pens.

Both pages have a gold embossed leafy border (Wendy Vecchi stamp).  I didn't further decorate the second page because I wanted the bracelet to be the focal point.  I attached it with easily untied gauze so if Inge actually wants to wear it, she can.

So, for me at least, no more Marie journals to work in.  The queen is finished, long live the queen!

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!



Weekend Getaway in Connecticut

Back home again after a great weekend at that beautiful B&B in Connecticut that I mentioned in my last post.  Even nicer in person.  Great rooms, wonderful hosts, and TO-DIE-FOR food.  Oh, and our projects weren't too shabby either!  We had tremendous work space, spread out all over the dining room.  Since we were the only guests taking meals there we didn't even have to put things away over night.  Very convenient place for any sort of crafting group to visit.  In fact, they were expecting a quilting group later in the week.

The fun began before we even got there.  Lots of laughs on Amtrak (helped along by the wine-in-a-can that Kahena brought, and the jug of cosmos I contributed).

 

  

We even managed to involve a conductor.

We finally arrived in Old Saybrook, and were met at the station by our Inn host Jim.

The rest of our group got to the Inn later that evening and early the next day.  Here are some shots from the weekend.

  

  

  

  

  

  

 Helen and Jim, our hosts (and chefs) for the weekend.  Every meal was a gourmet's delight, and they did everything possible to make us feel at home.

  

My gorgeous room:

  

  

Now, I've seen the top sheet of toilet paper folded over before....on cruise ships and in some hotels.  But this is the first time I've seen it with a little sticker attached:

And yes, in between laughing and eating, we did manage to do a LOT of crafting.  We each brought one or more projects to share, and spent all day Saturday working on them.  Here is my display of all my finished ones (click on the photo for a closer look):

On the styrofoam block are paper beads drying (thanks Kahena!) On the white paper is a fabulous "wonder woman" bracelet, cut from vinyl using the SU lattice cut die, and Tim Holtz hitch fasteners as closures. That was Heather's great project.  On the left under the styrofoam are two fabric brooches we did with Heidi. Next to them are two cards that Pat showed us how to do.  Next to those are three background papers we did with Amalia....fusing decorative napkins to cardstock using plastic wrap as the glue.  On the bottom row, a clever little bookmark made from a hair clip, decorated with punched out papers. Also a Heather project.  Next to that, my project sample, a mini composition book covered with the faux metal technique.   Next to the notebook are several beautiful flowers I made with the watercolor technique that Laurel demonstrated.  And finally, two gorgeous pendants we did with Corris.  I made mini collages using the varied papers Corris brought, and sandwiching them between two pieces of glass that fit into the frames.

Here are some closer looks at some of these:

  

  

  

  

  

  

Every meal was served on a beautifully set table.

This is what the FIRST course of one breakfast looked like.....toasted cornbread with cranberries, and warm pears covered with brown sugar and pecans. This was followed by an incredible quiche.  Everything at every meal, including all breads were made from scratch.

As if we didn't have enough, we ended the weekend with a trip down the road to a lovely scrapbook store,where we hung out for a while, watched a scrapping retreat in progress, and bought one or two (LOL) items.

  

  

We're already talking about where our next weekend getaway should be.  I've been to retreats and workshops with well known artists, which I've loved, and taking nothing away from those experiences, a retreat with good friends.....priceless!