In the Spirit of Crayola

Liz is hosting a token/charm swap in our Paper Traders group.  Her theme is the 16 colors that come in a box of Crayola crayons: red, red-orange, orange, yellow-orange, yellow, yellow-green, green, blue-green, blue, blue-violet, violet, red-violet, carnation pink, brown, white, and black.

I gave mine a common theme by using various asian papers for each one.  I got the idea from vintagepix' button charms that I saw on Flickr.  It took a little trial and error but I finally figured out the secret for doing these without too much mess...

I adhered the paper behind the clear buttons (which I got from Stampin'Up!) using crystal lacquer (diamond glaze, papier glass finish, etc.) but I had trouble with it oozing out through the buttonholes when I pressed them together.  My solution was to cut the ends off of some cheap cotton swabs that had plastic stems (like tiny straws) - they fit perfectly in the holes and the excess glaze oozed up inside the straws instead of all over the front of the buttons... then I placed my finger over the top of the straw when I removed each one, creating a tiny vacuum that sucked out the excess goo!

All I need to do now to finish this project is to make a cute little storage/display box...

San Diego, here I come!

 (photo from www.vroomvroomvroom.com)

Lately, my posts have been infrequent at best.  I wish I had some new art to show you but I've been spending what little spare time I have sorting things to give away...  You see, I've decided to move back to San Diego this summer!

I am super excited to be going back - I miss all my friends so much and I will even be returning to my old job.  My bosses and coworkers in San Diego are awesome people and dear friends so it's going to be really nice to get to work with them again.

In the meantime, I am trying to pare down all my stuff to the bare minimum.  I'm getting rid of all my "big" clothes - so I won't even be tempted to let any of those old pounds climb back on!  Lots of extra shoes, videos, old computer equipment, linens, craft supplies, and most of my furniture.  I still have tons to do and I know the next two months will fly by - I'm planning to move over Memorial Day Weekend at the end of May.

The most important thing still to do is find an apartment! For those of you who are in the area, let me know if you've got any good leads  =)

Altered Puzzle Pieces

I am hosting an altered puzzle piece swap on Paper Traders - the theme is Four Seasons and these are my entries.  I followed Barb & Bevlea's technique and it was a ton of fun!  I love the glassy finish you get from the Dimensional Magic - pretty cool  =)

Yippee for Me - A New Book!

Today my mailbox held a fabulous prize... a new book, Stitch Alchemy, that I won from the beautiful and generous Kim!  I am so excited about this book because I have been wanting to learn these techniques of combining paper and fabric collage.  Thank you so, so much, Kim!!!

Be Happy

This is my entry for this month's winner-take-all ATC lottery on Paper Traders - another fun and funky collage a la Teesha Moore!

Renaissance Women

On Paper Traders, Connie is hosting a Gothic Arch swap - the pages will be added to the deco books we made last year.  The theme this time is "Renaissance Women" and I wanted to use works that were a little lesser known.  I chose women who where all painted by Il Bronzino - in most cases, these women were background characters in his works.  For example, these women...

...can be found in this fresco:

 

And these two women...

...are found in this painting:

The backgrounds on these arches have more texture than really shows in the scans.  I glued down torn vintage (gothic) texts and then covered with napkins or tissue paper.  I used my gold leafing pen to finish the edges of each page.  On each of them, I added accents with metallic & pearlescent paints and more touches with my gold pen!

Here are the rest of the pages I made...

Congrats to my OWOH Winners!

Using the generator on Random.org, I have picked 3 winners for my paper giveaways.  Drumroll, please...

Congrats to -

Loralynn
Cathy Horner
Anji Gallanos

Please send me an email with your mailing information so that I can send your goodies right away!

Thanks to everyone who stopped by to visit.  I hope you'll come back soon  =)