old 'stamping' ground...

Me and my sister, Courtney, were determined to go through our stuff that was in the family storage shed. It was a bit of a task but with the help of our mom, we cleaned out quite a bit of it. We found our old baby books, lots of old pictures, children's books, and my old stamp collection. When I had moved, I didn't know what to do with it so I told my mom to toss it. But she kept it, and I'm glad she did. I've started using them in some art projects. Don't worry - these are worth very much. May be about 30 cents each! :-)

I will be selling these on Etsy.com

The money will go toward my trip to India!

back to school?

My mom enlisted me to help my sister, Shelby, with her english project - which i don't mind because i got to work with clay. Shel is making a board game based on the book, Frankenstein. She needed players pieces for the game so i made 4 of the main characters out of clay...

before...

after...

one is Henry, the girl is Elizabeth, one is Victor's father, and the crazy-haired one on the end is Victor Frankenstein - she wanted him to have Doc Brown hair :-)

playing catch-up...

so, i've actually been fairly creative lately. Though, i haven't taken the time to post any pictures. Please forgive!...

this is a picture i painted a while back, but i finally framed it. it's very pink...

my new favorite thing to do is cover a canvas with material and paint on it. i like how this one turned out - maybe i'll keep it...

this was for my friends, Courtney and Joshua. this was his dad's silverware as a kid...

i found this old radio at goodwill. it has a handle so immediately i thought, "purse" or some sort of container...

so i ripped out the guts (not as easy as it sounds) and i covered it with this beautiful material. i think it turned out nice...

an *actual* before and after...

A couple of days ago, Ricci mentioned that she was tired of one of her wall-hangings. She asked me if she should get rid of it and i said to let me 'play with it' first. :-) So today, i asked her about colors, showed her some material, then i headed up to my room for a few hours. Here's what happened...

before

after

it's kind of an inside-joke...

I know i haven't posted in a while. But i haven't done much, creative-wise. I made a birthday cake for a friend but it wasn't the 'decorating kind'. I've done a little more work on my henna chair but i need some more Sharpie's to finish. I kind of feel 'stopped-up' when it comes to painting right now. I have a friend who has requested a painting for their baby's nursery and I've been working on a few ideas. But i can't paint anything yet because i'm still waiting for her to send the color swatches - don't feel any pressure Chelle! Plus, i'm waiting to hear if they want to see sketches or if they trust me :-) Anyhoo, today i punched a little hole in the creative dam and had a little fun. It's kind of an inside-joke... my family will get it...

please, have a seat...

I'm continuing my chair project - see 2 blog posts below. I've done the pillow, now i've done the seat cushion...

my canvas...

i've only done the one side, for now...

i think i'm gonna need some more Sharpie's...

there i go again, being resourceful...

I had an old lamp shade that i was getting rid of. But it had a few marks on it (like my chair - see blog entry below) so decided to give it some pizzazz...

this was my canvas, this time around...

first i sketched it out - i can't take credit for the design. i found the picture on the net...

then, the paint...

ahhhh, the finished project...

this is what happens when you're resourceful...

I have this chair. It's a great chair. It's from Ikea originally, but i found it on the side of the road. It's cream so there were a few small marks on it. I had loaned it to some friends because my (current) room is too small for it. But my friends have moved so they returned it. I've decided to keep it in my room even though it's a little too big. But, because of the cream color, there's a few more marks on it - it's not my friends fault, it would have happened if i had kept it. Ikea has a cover for it but i don't need to spend the money. I could buy some fairly cheap material to try to cover it myself, but with all my "crafty-ness", sewing is NOT one of my talents. So, i'm trying something that does use my giftings. Sharpies! (one of my favorite mediums!) I'm just starting with the little pillow that goes on the chair to see how i like it. I decided to use various henna (mehndi) designs. This is my canvas...

this is about halfway though...

this is the end product, for now :-)

thank you, i made it...

I'm trying to grow my hair out and usually, when it get to a certain length, I can't take it anymore so i cut it short again. So, i've been looking for different ideas to help me thru the awkward 'growing out' stage. I thought feathers would be fun and retro, so i bought a few at the craft store and made some hair-flair! I wore these peacock feathers to church last Sunday and got a ton of compliments...

and the close up...

as seen on tv...

I like to watch a lot of those decorating shows on tv. If you watch enough of them (or too much of them), you see a few 'repeats'. What i mean is, they will show you something that's like this totally cool idea, and you'll see the same idea on another show. Most of the stuff is pretty original, this only happens every now and again. Here's something that i've seen a few time but it's still a great idea for those of us that like vintage fabric but aren't a seamstress. Like me!

The fabric with the red and blue flowers is the bottom part of a very long dress. It was just too long so i made it shorter. OK, i can't sew but i can hem...

This fabric was given to me by my sister-in-law. I'm glad that i finally got to use it...

This was from a shirt that i really wanted to wear but it just looked terrible on me...

a new purse... for me!

i went to TJMaxx on Monday with my friends. i always look at the purses and there was one that i wanted. it was fun and quirky, like me. But i was able to talk myself out of buying it because i knew that i had some plain canvas bags sitting in my room, just waiting to be painted/decorated and used. so, last night, i painted one...

i have a few more bags, let me know if you want one! :-)

we all scream for ice cream...

Recently, my great-grandmother (Mama) was moved into an assisted living home. But she had to down-size because of smaller quarters, some of her stuff was divided among the family. One of the things my mom saved for me was one of her dessert dishes. Mama almost always had ice cream; she knew how to treat her great-grandkids! These dishes were my favorite to eat out of. I decided, instead of using it for ice cream, i'd keep it on my bedside table as a "collect-all" dish. i always have earrings, hair clips, safety pins, etc. lying about. Now i have a place to put them!