I've Been Busy....

Yes big tray of "Christmas Charms" that will be for sale soon. See I have been making circle charms too!!! Fun fun and some more to come, I have a few ideas on the burner that I am working on too.

My Accucut Entry.

I have decided to enter the Accucut Halloween Challenge. I purchased their Frames die and decided to make some Halloween Ornaments with them. Also used were Tim Holtz's banner die, bat, and skull dies. Martha Stewart black and silver glitter add the "bling". The images are from Daniel Torrente for Stampotique, I used colored pencils for them.

After hanging around in my craft room for two weeks trying to decide just how to display them for the video, I had an idea. I had just been to a friends home for a jewelry party. Linda is one of those people with fabulous taste and great ideas for display. She has a tree that stays up all year long. She decorates it for every season and holiday, but Halloween is her favorite.

This year it must have been fate, because her tree is all in black and white with glittered skulls. The minute I saw it I knew these ornaments would be a perfect fit. I would let her have them if she would let me use her wonderful tree as the backdrop.

Linda lives in Romeo, MI. On the famous "Tillson St." They do a fabulous Halloween display every year. They block off the street for that night. Good thing too because getting anywhere near it that night takes considerable patience. In fact the week before it is busy with people coming from all over to see the displays. I feel lucky to know someone on the street, and I attend her Halloween preview night. Her home is decked out and everyone on the street comes by for treats, topped off by the walk to see everyone's displays.

If you want to see the tree, and better Pictures of the ornaments please check out my YouTube video here . I think these die cuts would be fun to make Christmas tags, and sweet Christmas ornaments too. Maybe make some of my sweet puppies?

And the Winner is.....

Brigitte Yeranossian

Yes Bridgette your number was picked!!!! Yeahhhhhhh! Also Deb from Crittersgrandma won the spiderweb charm!

Halloween Giveaway

Yes, I was toying with the idea and nudged on by Sarah to do this. I am having a giveaway. I have been making and decorating these large matchbox die cut I have. I have the die and thought they would make fun trick or treat surprise boxes. Inside I place some candy and one of my soldered charm necklaces.

So here is your chance to win one. Just leave a comment and a way to contact you on this post. No hoops to jump through, you are not required to "follow" here, on twitter, or facebook (although it would be nice), you do not have to post on your blog (again nice but not required), surrender your first-born, bow, scrape, or kneel. Just a comment.......

Here is the whole view...... I will choose a winner October 14th (my sisters birthday, so I may let her pick). Have fun and Happy Hauntings......

P.S. I can die cut these boxes for you out of lightweight chipboard for a small fee, contact me for details.

Tricks and Treats....or Birthday?

I played with some of my Stampotique Stamps. I have this large matchbox die and these images by Daniel Torrente fit nicely. I thought, hmmm, what a nice "treat" box it would make. Some yummy chocolate candies and perhaps a charm or necklace I made? The banner necklace with little creepy dollies on one side, "boo" on the other, or a "little coffined Charlotte" ? I think I will send this little treat box to a "Ghoul-friend" . Maybe a Halloween treat, or a Happy Birthday Gift box for a Scary Birthday? Lots of potential here.

This was a lot of fun and my brain is already swimming with Christmas ideas for this box. For now though I will make a few more, I have quite a few Stampotique stamps and can't wait to try them on these boxes.

I was just thinking, maybe it's time for a giveaway? I wonder if anyone would be interested in winning a surprise? One of my charms in a treat box like this? What do you think?

Scary Good Charms!!

Here are some of my latest Halloween Charms. My Tombstones, frightful Coffined Charlotte's, and some scary little shadowbox Goulie's!!! You can find them at a couple local shops, and soon on my blog shoppe.

Flea Market Sunday!

Getting toward the end of the season for the flea market. I did manage to find these cool knife rests in these boxes. They were my best find for the day.

This was my small grouping I found.

Sweet depression glass sugar and creamer, some gold trim, and duck-bill pliers...

In a bag of jewelry pieces I found some silver-plated pieces.....

Can you believe this fabulous reproduction pendulum clock for only $25.00 (It chimes too)...

Found these beautiful chalk-ware busts and a sweet pie bird....

Cute little bird bookends...

Flea Market and Antique Show

Hanging with my "Gnomies".... Ah, no. I found these vintage Gnome picks for cakes(?) or cupcakes(?) and had to get them. I have two daughters. My eldest Steph has a sort of love/hate thing for gnomes. (With her sister it's squirrels) So I tease her by presenting them to her (when I find them cheap enough) here and there as a gag. She has been really studying hard, and stressed out with going back to school full time and trying to fit her dog rescue work in. I plan to surprise her with "Gnome" cupcakes, and two bottles of her favorite wine from Wolcotts Winery (In Michigan). We came across a fellow selling what had to be the biggest lot of cigar boxes I have ever seen. I picked out six of them. It was hard because they we all so pretty and well made. I love storing my beads and trinkets in them. (I also found some lace and fabric coasters later at the Antique show. I was looking for things to add to a fabric journal I am planning. There were no trims or lace at the flea market). Someone was there selling off an estate. I was lucky to find these item there for a great price. I have another one of those small lady planters in pink. A Goebel/Hummel type box(I do not think its a Hummel? not sure), a painted plate, a Royal Dalton cup and saucer, and a pretty dresser box. Another find was a neat tin cupboard with drawers for storing goodies or maybe trims in.

I saw this old time foiled and framed blessing picture. It reminds me of the one that hung at my grandmothers on her back porch. Hers was smaller. When she moved it was given to me. It fell apart when we moved and was lost. Seeing this brought that memory back, of sitting with her on her back porch watching Lawrence Welk .

At the antique show I found this beautiful Madonna Statue (she has glass eyes). I love religious icons, mostly the older ones. She's about 20" tall, has a few chips, looks like a couple small repairs, and is missing her crown, but I love her sweet face. After a little haggling, she came home with us.

The other thing we found was new caster wheels for my dress-form (new "old" ones that is, they look like the type that are already on it), and Steve found a locomotive he really liked. It was a lot of walking but fun and a nice day for it too! Of course I had to pass on my frozen custard I had been looking forward too all week. I had spent my allowance on my treasures. I had a great day with Steve, and I think I covered my walking for the week.

My Rainy Day

Many had Monday off for Labor day, but not I. I never have, you see I do the payroll for a company and it has to be done and sent out Tuesday morning. Also it's month end and when a lot of reports are done and sales accounted for, so I work. No biggie because I get today off. Yeah and a good thing too. It's rainy and cool. Perfect for doing things at home, and making soup.

What else to do? How about working on my friends journal book? I am making two pages for hers, and she for mine. We started these last year and they are incomplete. She called me and asked if i would consider doing a couple pages. I chose Halloween. It's one of my favorites.I love the colors, and imagery. It's candy day for the kids, and "eye" candy day for me! I am using a couple digital sheets I bought from Seneca Pond Scraps, here is a picture of the work in process.

In a somewhat premature "ta-da" here is my dress-form the one I posted about below. She has her cage back. Yes, a little bent (it was much worse), but re-welded and re-attached. You see the new finial, and I decided to stained her. She had a lot of marks, and although I repaired the neck. replacing the material and cap, it just didn't look right. The staining pulls it together and makes it all look original. Yet it has worn and used feel to her I really like. Fits with her rusty, bent cage.

Here she is from the side. I still need to cut the pipe down, or adjust it, since she's a bit too tall. We are scouting for new wheels for the base, since two appear to be bent. For now though I am considering her done.

She is very cool, a thinner compliment to my other dress-form. I will bring her upstairs and use her to display my work. Steve also surprised me by making a finial for my other form with a brass doorknob, but I will share that another time.

More goodness

Sooooo, if your saw my post below you know I stumbled on a couple dress forms at a sale last weekend. I managed to repair the one (her neck was torn and the block, and batting gone from her neck) and let Terri have her, she was picked up Tuesday. I have to say I did a great job (Terri could not tell wear I had done the repairs, and I foolishly did not take any photos, duh!)

On Monday the lady I bought them from called me (I had given her my number when I wasn't sure I was going to buy the other dress form, which of course I finally did). She had another one!! Oh yeah with the cage. She was not in great shape but was I interested in her? Of course, so we arranged to meet and after hemming and hawing I decided to take her. She was in bad shape, her cage was bent and needed attention (Stevens friend welds and is repairing it for me,Thanks John!), and she had no neck, well she had most of the base but the material was gone and someone had mercilessly duct taped her neck and arms up. Have you ever tried to get duct tape sticky gooey gunk off? No fun.

I spent quite a lot of time online checking and calling trying to find replacement parts (she needs a new cap and finial), but she is old and most are not made in the U.S. anymore. I talked to a real nice guy named Joe at "Manne-King" and he explained how they come assembled. How the cages and arm covers are made to specifics for that model. Yeah you can possibly get someone to make theses pieces for me but the cost would be dear and to be honest you would be better off buying a new one. I suggested to him there may be a market for parts and he said he will definitely consider doing that. He did carry some neck blocks and finials though. However he did not have my size. I thanked him and continued looking.

So I was surprised to get a call from him Wednesday saying while cleaning in the back storage they found a cap and finial that had been damaged. They replaced it but if I wanted the damaged one (and if it fit) he would sell it to me at a discount. So I measured, and it looks like a fit! He is sending it to me. It should arrive this week (along with her repaired cage). I cannot wait to put her together.

Again I didn't take any before photos (duh, what's wrong with me?) to focused I guess to think about it. Anyway I cleaned her up as best I could fixed and recovered her neck. Even after staining the cloth, it was a bit too bright next to the older tape stained fabric, so I played with inks and stains. You really can't tell, well maybe if you studied her up close for a bit, but overall not bad.

Not too shabby a repair job. the hardest part was finding the right weight of muslin and matching the color. You can still see the tape on the cap. But that will be gone soon!

I was chatting with my friend yesterday and we are seriously thinking about doing a material collage, smash/vintage journal exchange. We had both bought the book "Layered, Tattered, and Stitches" (okay she says I am a bad influence. I bought the book and another and showed them to her. So she ordered them too) and were so admiring all the lovely collage pieces in it, and were getting inspired and fired up about trying some of the ideas, but with our own spin.

Today Steve and I decided to check out a couple garage sales and a local collector/flea market sale near our home. I found a very cool reproduction radio/stereo. It is very 40's and works, not bad for $4.00. Then I saw these below in a bag. They were all separately tagged, so I was looking through the bag when the vendor looked at me and said "you want the bag, take it all for $10.00". Well, hello, and yeah! They are great pieces and these buckles are sizable. I keep thinking how cool one would be, say on a vintage collage journal? Hmmmmmmm......

I will be hard pressed to use the others. I will have to put them aside for my own projects (my journal cover), but what a great find. It made my day!

***Guess what arrived today? Yep, the cap and finial, and they fit!!!! (4:55pm)

Lady Luck and "the Ladies"

This last weekend I was lucky (and I mean lucky) to be in the right place at the right time. My youngest was in town and wanted to hit a couple Flea Markets, perhaps a garage sale while she was down from College for the weekend watching her sisters pets. Steph and her husband Pat had to go to Ohio for a family wedding on Pat's side. Kim and her Boyfriend Mike came down to House/Dog sit for them. We arrived late as the one Flea Market, had changed their day and was not open. We stopped, had breakfast then went to another. Usually when you arrive late at these kind of things everything has been "picked" over and there isn't a lot left to see. However we arrived just as a vendor pulled up (she was late too). I was there as she took this (pic below) off her truck, and I was so excited! I just had to bring her home with me, meet Aunt "B" (that's what I am calling her for now, although I was calling her Bertha initially), Isn't she FABULOUS! She's a "full-figured gal" (ah-hem like Moi') and has all her original parts!

Here she is sporting on of my new necklaces, and "wish-bottle" charm in green.....

Here's a closer look at the charm...

Here my other lady, a smaller petite short form ( my sweet hubby mounted her on a pole and stand for me, as she was only the torso), she is sporting the teal charm and necklace I made...

Here's the charm up close, I experimented with looping wire (a pain in the butt!) to hang a plethora of yummy goodness from.......

Oh, and behind my new lady was this young gal picture below... I was sooo tempted to keep her too, but I am going to be generous and let Terri have her. (she has silently envied me my other gals upstairs, I have two short torso gals, and said she wanted one) She had some issues with her neck but between my sweet hubby and I we fixed her up good as new. LOVE, love the brass plates on her arms!

Better come get her soon Terri, or she may wind up staying! (heh heh)

Yeah, isn't it always the way? You go expecting nothing and come home with wonderful finds!!!

P.S. I also managed to find one of Stephs "Josef Birthday Girl statuettes" for her, and a pretty hand painted vase! Kim found some trims, a steamer, and a couple records.

More of my Creations!

I've been busy. Working, and "working". I have been making my coffin shadowbox charms and re-cycling old glass bead jewelry into charms necklaces. Each has a swivel clasp that allows you to swap out the charms.

I have been a bit hesitant to post them, wanting to keep a lid on them till I had stocked the local shop(s) I have been selling them at. I haven't had a chance to even list any in my blog shop. Each little "coffin" house a little body or some sweet paper roses. I have made these in three sizes and some have had a black patina on them.

No two chains are alike as I use old pieces that I take apart and put together. Normally I had ball chains for my smaller charms but these little shadowboxes looked to out of place on them. Now I can layer different charms and chains.

I have also made sweet house charms, but I will have to post those another time. Hopefully I will be able to stock my shop next week with some of these!

Where Bloggers Create

Not much has changed in my room. Just "more", which leads to think they need to start a new version for people like me called "Where Bloggers Horde" .....

Please check out all the wonderful places, these talented people have shared, there are some very creative people, and some fun and wonderful ideas!!

http://mydesertcottage.blogspot.com/

I want to point out that it is also "Pink Saturday" and with my "Pink" room it can't get much more pink than that!

New charms!!

Vintage mother-of-pearl buttons, bits of fabric, fragments from mirrors.......

Some soldered beading, a bit of black patina, singled out under beveled glass. These are my latest creations. Working on chains and necklaces to hang these lovelies from. They are my latest little shadowbox charms.....

Sweet Shabby card with Embellies I Made

Here is a card I made with one of the clay embellishments I made. Having a lot of fun. The paper is from paper paisley and so very shabby chic and I love , love, love the colors!

Here is another view, these are a very nice, not heavy and add a great dimensional touch.

I made some glassine bags to put the rest of them in. I plan to make a few more cards with these, and this lovely paper line.

New Charms, Fun Stuff

So I have started making some shadowbox charms to sell. Playing with different types of solders, and techniques, and cutting my own glass! I want to offer more unique shapes, so that meant trying my hand with a glass cutter (not as easy as one might think). Here you see I played with house shapes, cage/arch shapes, etc.

These take up a lot more solder and time to make than the traditional squares or rectangles, but they are fun. The flying bird moves in the arch/cage charm, I used a birds-nest paper in the background, with mica accents.

I have re-purposed an old glass pearl necklace and hand-looped them together, adding a little vintage rhinestone "bling" to the swivel clasp. You can change out the pendants! I did one in silver and one in gold and silver tones.

A few little embellishments made to add to cards, journals whatever, then made the glassine little bags for them.

Another view of embellishments and a couple small shadowboxes with little stars, the small flying bird with a bit of beading.

this is what I did between breaks, while we painted our dining-room, front room and TV room. Now we are waiting for the carpet and upholstered furniture to dry (everything steam cleaned yesterday), so we can put everything back in place. Next the upstairs hall and stairway!

Scrapbook Man Video

Something Splendid Special Guest from Collin Kartchner on Vimeo.

Had to share this little spot I saw on "Dear Lizzies" blog. My favorite part is the "plate he had removed from his head to add to a scrapbook page" Honestly I DO NOT scrapbook, but it did make me chuckle!

Bound for Scotland!

Finally I have the package ready to send to my friend Sarah, in Scotland. Amongst all the goodies I will be sending over (cut chipboard pieces, papers, floral sprays, and her ribbon order) this banner I made for her. We had said we wanted to to a banner swap. We were shooting for last Christmas, but with work and the holidays it was put off. I made up my mind though that before I sent her this package, which I have had here accumulating items, I would get the banner done. Yeah!! It's done! I kept is purposely simple, and although her favorite color is green, I didn't know where she would be keeping it.

Sarah is really into the "shabby chic" style right now and that narrowed it down. I used vintage music papers to cover the stars, then using an old (yellowed and a bit brittle in spots) receipt book I made the rosettes. I then cut out letters and added black glitter. I added silver glitter to the medallions in the centers, some vintage seam binding bows and ties and there you have it. I think she would be able to use it anywhere in her home or crafty cottage.

I also made her one of my mice. Here is the "Wee Little Scottish Mouse" I made for her. Sitting on a pincushion, holding her small baton, or sceptre. Perhaps she needs a wee hat? I really like the sporran I put together, using a bit of leather, and some recycled jewelry bits.

I hope to have this package mailed out next week. I was shooting for this week, but wanted to make sure all the glued bits on the banner were dry before packing it up. Now I have to figure out how to get "all" this into one box.

Presenting the Great Boo-dini!

(Drum-roll please......) Ladies and Gents I give you the "Great Boo-dini"! Master escape artist extraordinaire!

Okay , this is Bailey (a.k.a. Boo). Today I took Bail's, Cookie, and Bunny to my daughters for grooming. I do the grooming, Steph supplies lunch and her three dogs, that I also groom. Being a good "doggie" mom I have seat belt harnesses for my dogs. They lock the dog in the seat so that if I have to stop suddenly, or gosh forbid have an accident, they are safe and won't risk being flung about. Dogs left loose in a car with no protection (especially these little ones) risk broken limbs, torn muscles, or worse (broken backs and necks).

After grooming my dogs are ready to go home. So I carefully adjust the harnesses and lock them down and head out. As I pull out of my daughters sub I look back and see Bailey standing there, happy as clam, NO harness! So I pull over. Okay maybe I need to tighten the straps, he was groomed. I do all that lock him in and we are off again.

About three miles later I feel a wet nose touch my arm, yep, it's Boo and once more he has shed his harness. So I pull over. Get out, tighten the straps, stick my fingers to make sure they are not too tight, and off we go.

I am just going to tell you this happened "twice" more before we got home, I was ready to krazy glue the darn thing on him! I didn't even remove that much hair?

He was just so stinkin proud of himself every time he did it too!

Here is our other Yorkie the "Cookie" (little monster). Steve was complaining about her hair in her face, so today she got her bangs cut so you can really see her eyes. Her fur is more thin and wiry that Baileys so all she has done is wash, brush, bum and "lady" parts trimmed, paws, eyes and ears. (she managed to stay in her harness!)

On a sadder note. I was asked by my daughter to groom a dog who would be going up for adoption. A Llaso male about 3 years (?) old who was adopted by a woman who did not want to see him put down. She took him to a groomer, whom he bit and the woman became afraid to handle him. This in turn let this dominant little dog really get out of control.

She gave them to Harley's Haven and my daughter was fostering him. She really had not had any issues with him (other than having to correct him a couple times), that is until today.

She brought him out to be groomed and I don't know what happened to this dog in his short life but apparently this triggered something in him. He went "crazy". I mean "C-R-A-Z-Y", biting tearing, clawing crazy. Thank goodness she had bite proof gloves on.

All I know is that he was fine, letting me pet him. I turned on my razor (with the guard on it. I do this to see if they are okay with the sound, then with the guard on I touch them with it to see how they react to the vibration, before attempting any cut). He seemed okay. Then all Steph did was touch the long hair on the one side of his face, and BAM! Crazy, violent dog. Foaming, biting and snarling.

The thing was this was not a "fear"based reaction. Even after holding him and getting him calm, all she had to do was try to touch him and the crazy started again. He bit her "leather padded" protection gloves so hard he broke a blood vessel in her finger and shook her up. This grooming was not going to happen.

The real problem was that after this, he was taken for an assessment and it was decided that he be put down. They could not guarantee that this behavior could be corrected. Poor "fozzie" was too great a liability to ever be adopted out. So he was euthanized. I felt so bad. Steph was clearly shaken and upset, all she said was "its too bad people do this to animals, let their bad behavior take over until they cannot be helped". I felt awful. They have worked with some pretty messed up animals, most can be corrected and placed, but this was the first time they had to accept that this would not be the case.

A Christening Card for Logan

It was the baptism for my latest "great-nephew" this weekend. I made this card to send as we could not attend. I did not pay very close attention to the invite. Most, well "all" of the baptism's I've attended were in the afternoon, after mass. This was at 9:00am in the morning, before mass? It's a fair distance from us so we made our apologies and did not attend. It was raining all weekend, and the thought of driving early in the morning in the rain was a bit much.

Let's see that makes me a Great Aunt now of "eight" nephews and only one niece! I haven't even seen the niece as she is in Florida. What's with all the boys??? I don't mind boys, but I would really like to make a frilly girl card. Hmmmm, with 3 brothers and 3 sisters, and Steve comes from a family of 6 you would think the odds of a girl here and there would be better.

I used my christening stamp from Lily of the Valley. The paper is Debbie Mumm.

Friday Fun

So off to Terri's (after a few errands) for a "creative" day. We both purchased the TH die of the little town. Gosh its a lot smaller than I anticipated. Terri was going to do a "Tim Holtz" inspired town. Since I am not as organized as her I decided to go what I could easily get my hands on. at the time it was some "shabby chic" paper and trims. I had not seen the dies up close yet so I guess-timated at the dimensions and printed up some images I had to use. Throwing some bits and bobs into a couple bags I headed over.

Here is my finished town, I used jump rings I made with wire to bind the houses together.

Here it is laid flat..... sorry the flash totally washes out the glitter. Its been rainy and overcast all day so no natural light for a good photo.

After finishing the little TH "town" we made a tag. I decided to use the papers left over from the our first project to make this.....

Terri contributed the sweet trimming along the bottom, the pretty blue flowers, and the cool little sequins that look like mini rosettes on my mini banner. It was fun, we even managed to steal away for a "frozen custard", which was just what I needed. It was a rough week at work. Business is not good, and the downtown here has been all torn up.

I have some of my charms in a local shop here, but with the construction company botching things up there has been no way to get to the shops. The shop owners are understandably upset. They (The construction company) was supposed to only tear up one side on the street at a time. Instead they took out "all" the sidewalks downtown. You cannot get near a shop without going way out of your way. I won't even begin to tell you what a nightmare it is trying to get home from work every night.

So nothing is selling there, and to make matters worse she had to use the money she did have to pay her rent, so she could not pay me yet for the pieces she did sell! I may have to pull my charms out and try another place, since she just informed me that she was told that now they don't expect to be by the July 1st deadline. Mix in trouble with where my husband works, our dehumidifier breaking down, and unexpected bills and well I was not really in the mood to create.

I have to thank Terri for being so supportive and getting me out of my funk, long enough to have a little fun. Now please head over to her blog TerrisBloomingIdeas and check out her town and tag.