Milk Carton UpCycled to Fairy House

This mild mannered milk carton was transformed into a fun little fairy house earlier this year.  If it looks familiar, I had it on a previous blog before I started this one.  A friend asked me to move it over so here it is. 

It was fun to make a place where fairies could feel safe and sound from the world.

 

The paper used is a combination of Graphic 45, BoBunny, and Bazzill.  The large flower I created from a wooden bead (inside the center), Martha Stewart Snowflake Punch (as a base behind the flower) McGill punches, and some handcutting.  Metal gears are Tim Holtz as are the die cut gears.  The metal charms, including the fairy are Tibetan charms and made gold by applying gold leafing.  Smallest metal gears are from Eyelet Outlet and I clipped off the brad stem and slightly aged them with Adirondack Alcohol inks.  Sticks on the door and the chimney are from an old grapevine wreath.

 

The little robin eggs are only about 1/4 inch.

The bee charm is approximately 2.5 inches. 

 Chipped clear blue glass covered in Glossy Accents made the stream running outside the door.  The jumping fish is a charm with the charm connector removed with a wire cutter.

3-D Steampunk stickers down the sides and gold swirls are Jolees.

 The dangling crystals are from a floral arrangement that I purchased for the sole purpose of tearing it apart for its amazing parts!

The back I tried to keep simple so it could be easily

displayed on a shelf.

Roof is a piece of scrap chipboard painted and then mottled with Adirondack alchol inks buy Ranger (Tim Holtz).

Greenery is pieces of floral arrangements that wouldn't miss a few pieces :)

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What are you waiting for??? Grab a milk container and make a Christmas House, Halloween House, or something fun!  Don't forget to posts your pix!  Have fun.

 

 

Getting Ready for Seasonal Crafting

This morning these online photos reminded me of my West Virginia roots.  Waking to a brilliantly lit room of the sun shining through a chilled, glass world.  One of the elusive times of true silence in this busy world.  The power out, the world caked in thick, clear ice, the only sounds are the humming from your own mind trying to comprehend the muted world and the occassional cannonade crash of a tree falling somewhere in the forest from the weight of the ice, sounding like some vehement monster stepping your way.  I'm in Idaho now, there's never an ice storm.  Yearning now to be in my West Virginia wilderness, staring over a bright, snow covered forest where a neighbor is only seen by the distant smoke coming from a chimney several mountains over.  Still, the cold in this desert is urging me to start the Halloween and Christmas crafting time ... the best crafting time of the year.

CHUNKY Charm Dangles

DANGLES DANGLES DANGLES

Think Grandma looking stuff :)

This was an inspiration tag and on the back was a list of what each  charm represented for the person receiving it. For instance the rhinestone carriage and slipper represented her "ROYAL HERITAGE - to inspire her to return to her Father living the way she knows would make Him proud" the "SCISSORS represent that after many tries to know when to sever damaging ties."

Been doing quite a few things over the summer but life got a little too busy and didn't get to post many.  Don't forget that I do make dangles FOR SALE as well.  Just send me a message.  Most BIG CHUNKY dangles range from $12 - $25 and use predominately glass beads and come with some sort of decorative presentation (tag or box).  The more you order the cheaper they are.  Here's a few examples (also if you want them soldered it's additional)
I have a few swaps to get caught up but will be adding more photos soon!!

Captured Fairy in a Jar with Resin Waterfall and Nightlights

I did my first YouTube video (EVER) on this jar - very amateur and not well done lol but if you want to see it, it's at :  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UwNJ4pfvGg&feature=g-upl

Meet Alainn! On her tag is written:  "Afraid and far from home, Alainn went into the basement of an old house in the desert area of Idaho where I found her causing mischief.  She was playing in the current of a strong wind and was swept far far from her home.  She remembers the lush green of home and the rains that fell so plentifully so I am sending her to you in Ireland so she can again be blissful.  She is an enchanting fairy capable of very strong majik that helps your dreams become fulfilled.  She can come and go as she pleases but will always be with you when you're awake.  You will know when the time is right to pass her to another who needs their dreams to come to fruition.  Her majik is powerful.  She even helped make Cinderella's slippers." (The tag is covered in acrylic pink, crackle medium, silver paint, and a thick layer of enameling resin over the writing).

She's a NIGHTLIGHT!! I couldn't resist adding a string of rice wedding lights throughout the jar.

Front View - taken outside cuz it's too dark in my craft spot.

Two rows of vintage lace and a BIG OLE Prima Flower with an added piece of antiqued filigree, acrylic crylic flowers and some crystal dangles to give it a little bling.

Part of her story is that she helped create Cinderella's glass slippers so I used this plastic slipper, drilled a hole in it and added a filigree butterfly. The midsummer nights fairy dangle that is in another post on this blog is now home with the fairy jar.

This is my FAVORITE part - theWater Spirit!  I let resin drip to look like a waterfall, cut it out of the plastic cup I formed it in, added some Sail Boat Blue Adirondack Alcohol Ink to the back, molded a resin face and attached it (more on the pool under the fall below).

I purchased this pick of raspberries from JoAnn's but found so many of the little red beads in the bag when I got home that I was afraid they wouldn't deal well with time or shipping so I coated them all over with Glossy Accents.  LOVE THAT STUFF!

Under the resin Water Spirit Waterfall is a little pool that I made from tiny pieces of broken blue and white glass, covered in Glossy Accents and held a little Bronze Mermaid Charm in place till she dried.  Added a little bronze seashell to the moss rock behind her.  The seashell isn't even as big as a dime so you can get the idea of the size.

"Sort of" runs together smoothly.  The big flowers inside the jar (besides the crystal ones) are from Prima.

She seems to be starting to get a serene look on her face (for a Christmas Ornament she's pretty in purple huh?)

I also molded a bird out of clear resin and attached it to the gold glitter vines (they're off Christmas picks from JoAnn's btw).

Well, I hope she makes it to Ireland safe and sound.  Her new owner Niamh, from Life on the Scrapbeach has been waiting should give her a loving new home and she told us on the LOTSB site that she had recently seen a "real" fairy circle during a recent walk, so Alainn should feel right at home with her.

Red White Blue Patriotic Stick Pins

Independence Day is over but the patriotic feeling lingers through July :D

Paris Handmade Flowers Dangles Stick Pins ... busy busy

Just posting a few photos of some quicker projects more coming soon!

Had fun playing with a variety of materials to make some handmade flower-like embellies.



This one was my fav, with lace and tule, a cameo and dyed ostrich feathers.



My first attempt at decorating envelopes for a Mail Art swap for LOTSB.  Envelopes were to remain flat with no lumpy embellies so they could go through the post easily.  The top is my first Zentangle.  So much fun everyone should grab a marker and start drawing.  The bottom are embossed colored stamps

This was "SUPPOSED" to be a gigantic ATC at 4"x6" but I think it ended up being more of a small wallhanging or big tag :D.  The mime face is epoxy that I mixed and put in a mold. A Sharpie made for easy mime face drawing.  the black frame is a Tim Holtz die.  Gotta love the big Eifel Tower Charm.  It's a little over 2" tall.  There's a scalloped envelope on the back with a string dangle to close that you can see hanging out the bottom.

Decided on some Christmas Stickpins to break the summer monotony :D  WOOT WOOT for Christmas in July.

A small Paris in the Springtime dangle charm for CSI.

"HELLO" Sumer Card



A variety of products from Cheery Lynn Designs (the butterfly die), Stampin'Up, K&Co, Prima and AC, made for a fun card.

2 Charm Dangles - Steampunk & Fairy

Steampunk Dangle Charm - I LOVE this stuff - I might be an old lady but if I could stuff my chubby butt into a corset and wear the steampunk style I would.  Love the metal, the victorian flair, skulls, wings, owls, octopus, everything about steampunk.  This dangle is about 6" from the top of the clip to the bottom of the owl.

The Owl was the most fun creation I've made in a while.  The gold owl charm is about 2" tall and I smashed 4 bead cones and made wings, stuck a gear in his eye, a black gear on the back showing through the other eye, the crown charm originally said "2003" on the bottom but I filed it, stickled it and put on some glossy accents to get rid of the date.

The hard part is making industrial not so manly so I added a rose charm and a bronze tone flower with a swarovski bicone red bead in the center. 

This is what it looks like just dangling.

I had to make a chipboard presentation tag to support it.  Tim Holtz die gears painted with metalic pens and I made a ribbon rose from satiny brown ribbon then I ran my embossing gun around it to melt parts of the rose to "toughen" it up. A metal leaf added the right touch to the rose to make it more "steampunky".

Fairy Dangle charm!!! gotta love those fairies!  but secretly my favorite part is that mushroom charm!!

On the big fairy above the metal leaf, I used butterscotch and lettuce alcohol inks on her to help her fit in.  

 I loved loved making these dangles - they posed some challenges since I'm fairly new at beading, but I'm getting the hang of it!!

Policy Envelope Card

Kimie from Create, Share, Inspire (used to be More Paper Than Shoes) challenged us in a swap to create embellished policy envelopes with a stamped insert.  A template was provided if we chose to use it, however, I decided to make my own.  I loved the results -- a lot of friends and family members are going to receive their birthday cards as a Policy Envelope this year!!


The front of the Policy Envelope with a Handmade "Starch" Flower, Jeweled Stickpin (there are more matching bead under the flower that you can see), Stampin'Up folded blue ribbon, the paper under the lace is brown, painted with green acrylic, embossed and sanded, a little tag (about 2.25 in. square) with a beaded dangle.

Here's several views of the Policy Envelope, top: with flap open -- middle: decorated front --bottom: closed with beaded string -- side: the insert with stamped images (the Eifel Tower is Tim Holtz, embossed with black embossing powder, the doily is Stampin' Up stamped in Stampin'Up Kiwi Kiss ink)

The blue stamens are from an old flower that had outlived its usage :) --the silver flourishes are Jolees.

A close up of the tag and the insert.  Both sides have cream cardstock for extra writing space.



I used 2 "ugly" chipboard pieces and painted the "Ugly" away and then stamped with a leaf print to wrap the string around to close the envelope.