Sunday... Sunday... hmmm.hmmm.hmmm
I don't remember the words to that song.. Mama's and the Papa's I believe. Had a late start this morning, needed to get that coffee going. Once it's done and poured I usually (with blurry eyes) look at all my refrigerator postings. Ian greets me everyday (just love that).

This past week was a 'finish all unfinished projects' week. That means all colors on the palette. First item was to get an acrylic/collage piece done. Lemon Drop Kid - based upon a drawing I did last year. Inked the final lines and colored her face, now She is ready for cropping and framing - a bit more whimsical than my usual renderings.
Next ..on to finish my second birdhouse filled with bees and flowers. Get out the Van Dyke Red, Quin Gold, Cobalt Teal, Iridescent Pearl and Lumiere paints. This is made from castings I made using Delight air dry clay, Paperclay, Polymer (Premo) and Aves Apoxie Sculpt, along with Golden Semi Gloss Gel and paint mix that suggests the drippy honey. Wire spirals and lots of fibers were added.
I think this looks best as a hanging piece. It's called 'Bee my baby' Not quite what you'd find hanging in a baby's (nursery) room, however it might find it's way into someones sun room.

Chris Cozen will be at Stamping Details beginning Oct 30th-Nov 1st.

My friend Vicki and husband Ron are somewhere in Italy vacationing and hopefully having a wonderful time... can't wait to see all of her pictures.

Thanks for stopping by....

New Favorite Color(s)

Van Dyke Brown and Van Dyke Red along with Violet Oxide have been on my palette over the last month. These 3 colors create such rich and exciting depth..... I can't stop using them. I used VDred on my birdhouse to create dark corners and contrast. Even used a little bit around the bird's egg. VDred was also used on the pink metal (embossed) roof tiles, using a wipe on, wipe off technique.

I also learned how to put a hole in the bottom of this birdhouse with a spade bit, attached to my BA (big ass) drill. (Thanks to the very helpful Home Depot employee in Poway. ) The hole is big enough to slip the top portion of an l.e.d. tea light into the birdhouse. A base was added to house to give it more prominence and hide the light base. I taught how to make this at Stamping Details and had a blast! There are so many talented crafters and artists who took my class... thank you!

Over the past 30 days a lot of paint and clay has been all over the studio!

Here are some photos from Micheal DeMeng's class at Stamping Details over labor day. (Before and After the DeMeng Makeover)

Well that's it for today. Thanks for stopping by!

Crys

Today's Color - Magenta + White + Torso

It's Saturday already. The cupcake is almost done.. the frosting is colored with magenta and white. I saturated the frosting/molding paste with water then applied the paint. Then I piped on (using plastic pastry bag & tip) more molding paste where the frosting meets the cake mostly to cover areas where the metal didn't meet the dry molding paste. (Note to self, next time attach metal first then cover top with molding paste). While waiting for that to dry I popped a body in the oven .

To be anatomically correct it's a torso, made from wire, tin foil and polymer clay. This all started out as a simple project to paint up a balsa wood box and call it a day. But after searching for the 'right' pages out of an old book to use, which then morphed into creating a (very short) length of clipped,snipped old pages that now resemble, a paper garland. It is at this point when the project grew. The garland when curled up into a circle looked like a clown's collar. So I decided to make a body to put it on. Using Premo! I threw the torso together. I added a wooden head. The vision is that the torso (polymer guy) is being lifted out of the box lid by a balloon. All that is needed now is paint, wire and a balloon.

Here's the cupcake, which was really easy. The hardest part was cutting up the tin box and trying to remember that there was light molding paste in the pastry bag, not buttercream frosting.

Just a few miles north of San Diego

There is an acre of land located in Rainbow called Silverado Trading Post (http://www.silveradotradingpost.com/) owned by Jeff and Candy Mack. (Not related to me but they are from suburban Chicagoland). The entire acre is filled with just about anything you can imagine, rusty, dusty, doors, windows, tools, silver, wood, plants and more. Not only did I find what I was looking for (rusty casters) but also a cat, two chickens and who knew... Julie P. (http://www.lostluggage.typepad.com/) daughter and friends. Shut the front door! (Oh I hope I used that phrase correctly.) What a nice surprise to run into her all the way up here. Hint: this is not a place to wear white clothes (Julie) or open toed shoes.

While purchasing the casters, metal tissue holder and rusty tin, Jeff and Candy were working on a big design project. Yes, they will actually design something for you with your finds. Right now they're working on a very special project, hopefully they'll post it on their website when it's finished.

Back in the art room, I'm making a cupcake from tin and light molding paste, first is a 2 dimensional cupcake, then the next project will be to construct a 3 dimensional cake (to be used as a prop in the Nutcracker, it's so hard to say no to one's sister) This should be fun, sugar-free and low cal.

Inked ! My first Doll

Speaking of the Shop Hop.... I picked up Creative Cloth Doll Making by Patti Culea while browsing the shelves at Stamping Details. Not only am I attracted to bright shiny things, but also very colorful things...and before I could stop myself I was paging through this book. Gorgeous pictures of art dolls! It includes patterns to make your own.... I'm not so handy when it comes to sewing ... so I looked for the next best thing. A premade muslin doll body. I had an exciter pack of Dyna-flow sitting in my drawer of inks, not all the same colors, but close enough. Off to the kitchen.

I drew on the face then applied the dyes to the body. I wasn't all that pleased with the particular shade of blue, so I poured some turquoise Glimmer Mist in my watercolor dish and that did the trick. Then I used some Ranger Distress Ink Re-inkers, too. Then I used the same on the silk and ribbons used for the clothes and hair. After leaving everything to dry 24 hours and heat setting, I stamped images all over the body(Versacraft/Frabrico Ink). (Tatooing! No dolls were hurt during this process) I 'made' the clothes following the instructions as closely as possible. This included my requisite run over to Stamping Details to get sewing instructions from Nancy! I added fibers to the hair as well as dyed fabric softener sheet to give more texture to the hair. The dryer sheet gives the doll a nice scent, too. A quick run over to the Bead Gallery in Mira Mesa for some vintage beads was my final purchase for this doll. Here's a picture of Nanette-

Fun Weekend - So Cal Shop Hop - highlights

Sunday morning 9:15 - Large cup o' joe from Tuscan Sunrise Coffee & Tea just a few doors from our meeting place Stampingdetails in Poway (http://www.stampingdetails.com/) . We piled into DiAnn's car at 9:30-ish, heading to Point Loma, our first stop on our day of 'shop hopping'

10:30 ish: Paper Tales

Ooos and Aaahhs, packed with eye candy for all kinds of crafters.

Next stop:

Scrapbook Your Life, but first -

Had to take a picture of DiAnn and Bobbie & the motorcycle.

After scooping up several templates (leaves, butterflies) to be used to create some collages, we pried the tall wire Eiffel Tower out of Vicki's hands!

From there we moved on to Ever After Scrapbooks.

More oooohs and aaaahs, yummy papers and ephemera, more picture taking, but not with my camera.... we posed outside the store with tiki lanterns. Now how fun was that!

Piled back into the car -

Around 2pm -ish we arrived at Pink Pineapple

Now isn't that sweet! Bobbie and Vicki checking out all of the embellishments. DiAnn was somewhere in aisles of paper, ribbons and scrapbook pages.

Stopping for a very late lunch........ feeling a bit more energized....we headed towards home.

We have to pace ourselves, as there's another week of the shop hop to go!

Later a brief stop at Cool Scrapbook Stuff ended the shopping part of the day, now just to hop back home.

What a great day to spend with friends...