Fun at Artiscape!

What a fun time I had at Artiscape this past weekend. I also realized that I started my blog a year ago right before I left for Artiscape! Time really does fly. I took 7 classes this year, all great classes and instructors. Lesley Venable's Vintage Album pages was the first night and it was awesome - I'll scan my pages and post them later this week. I also took a class called Layers upon Layers with Jacqueline Sullivan and was thrilled to end up with a very nice painting!

My finished painting

Hard to believe that this is how it started out, aluminum foil, cheese cloth and tissue paper. Really amazing process that I'm sure I'll use again.

I also had fun with my Art Gang Ohio friends who came for classes too. We went to Schmidt's (a yummy german restaurant in historic German Village) for dinner. This is a picture of us before we ate like little piggies at the german buffet.

Left to right - Darlene, me, Lou and Dianne

I'm looking forward to taking 3 classes this Friday from Tim Holtz who will be at the Akron Stamp Convention with Darlene, Kelli and Betsy. Can't wait - I'll try to post pictures of our day with Tim! Until then....

Snowy, snowy day

When I woke up this morning I decided the snow was just too beautiful not to share. Yes, I'm getting tired of all the shoveling, but it truly is beautiful! The photos were taken from our deck on the back of the house. As I was taking the photos, it was just so peaceful and quiet and all the birds had already been to the feeder and were all snuggled up in the piles of branches that we purposely toss at the back of our property for them to nest in. I'll have to try and take some shots of the birds when they eat. The color of the male cardinals are just amazing against the snowy white background!

The path from the tree is a path that the deer take from the woods to our bird feeders, they need to eat too.

The squirrels must have a stash of nuts in this tree. They have tunneled a little path to this tree. Pretty funny to watch them as they run through the little path they have carved out. I see their tails as they run along, then every once in awhile you see a head pop up, and they look around to see where they are, then back down and running towards the nuts! On the left is the top of my stone bench. about 3 ft. off the ground!

When I put this sign in my flower pot on our front porch, I had no idea! Hope you all can enjoy the snow as much as I am today! Stay warm and enjoy the beauty.

New Year and New Projects

I've started out the year with a couple of fun art projects. The first project is from a day that my friend Diana (Art Frenzy blog) and I decided to play with metal. Between the two of us, we had been accumulating quite a few tools, sheets of metal and odd bits of this and that to make metal jewelry. We viewed a DVD that I had purchased through Interweave Press -Riveted-Earrings, a great step by step video with lots of great information. I wish I had taken a picture or two of us working away, hammer, hammer - we had a ball! I made the pendant shown below. I learned to make metal rivets, easier than I thought (after watching the video). I will add a jump ring or wire wrap at the top to hang it from some chain for a fun necklace.

 

Front of riveted pendat.

 Back of riveted pendant, shows my first rivets! 

My next project is from my Hudson Art Group. We meet once a month, and each time we meet, we take turns putting together a project for the group. Since we all have such varied interests, it can be a fiber project, stamping, altered art or anything at all, which is kind of fun because we all end up out of our comfort zone at some point. Stacey did the project last night and used the little shrine necklace kit she bought from Ginny Carter Smallenburg's Small Studio Productions website. The image area is just perfect for a little inchie image and I used an image from DigitalCollageSheets.com. It was a fun project, mine still needs a little something at the top, but I just love it. Thanks Stacey! Great project.

I used a little 3D letter for dimension.

The pendant is made from 3 separate pieces that are stacked, then glued together.

  

Happy Holidays to All!

Just a simple, short wish during these hectic, hustle and bustle days. Happy Holidays to all! Try to take just a little time for yourselves and enjoy the season, I know I am this year.  I just sat down to write this and am enjoying a cup of hot chocolate with a yummy, homemade marshmallow, a gift from a  friend. Her instructions were: take time during the hustle and bustle, sit, enjoy the cocoa and relax. I'm listening to Christmas carols on the radio and smiling to myself. What a wonderful and blessed life I have and many great friends!  Happy Holidays to you all!

 

Let the Shopping Begin

One of my promises to myself after the holiday show I was in,  was to start posting more to my Etsy site. I'm happy to say that I'm getting much better and have posted a few things. Now, to get the same commitment with my blog! Those of you who have blogs and post regularly, any tips for trying to post once a week or better? I'd love to hear from you!

This was a bracelet that I had a lot of fun creating. I purchased sterling silver wire a year or so ago and decided it was time to use some of it! Am I the only one who buys things and thinks "I have to have this!", then my "have to have" item sits quietly on a shelf or in a drawer somewhere while I get distracted by another project. Oh well, it sure is fun to "find" it later. I had  never created my own wire wraps/loops and had a lot of fun with this bracelet. I also love the new toggle that I found. It fits small to large size wrists.

I've been loving my stuff from a Vintaj Brass order and created this necklace using their chain, leaf charm, and a vintage aqua bead, swarovski crystal and snakeskin jasper pendant that I had in my bead stash. Well, off to take a few more photos for posting on Etsy.

Creative Gallery Holiday Show

Well, it's been awhile since I've posted to my blog. Actually, way too long. I hope to get better with this as I go. I just finished doing a two day holiday show in Hudson, OH where I sold my jewelry creations. It's been several years since I've done a show (other than my home show that I usually do once a year). It was a great experience for me. There were 20 + artists at the show and every single artist had unique and beautiful things for sale (also some yummy food too). Many of the artists were found on Etsy and I learned a lot about selling my things on my own Etsy shop and blogging too. The picture of me at my booth were taken by a wonderful photographer that sat next to me and had beautiful photography. We kept each other company during the slow times and had a lot of fun. Now that the show is over and of course I didn't sell everything - ha ha, I'll be posting things daily on my Etsy shop - so be sure to stop by. I'm also going to offer free shipping to my blog readers for the entire month of December, just put BLOG Free Shipping in the note to me! Happy shopping to all and thanks for taking the time to read my blog!

  Just a six foot table, but I managed to get quite a bit on my table!

The little guy under the tree was my Lucky Elf! 

Great class with Linda and Opie

Last weekend I took an all day class with Linda and Opie of Burnt Offerings in their studio in North Perry, Ohio. What a great day. They offered a few of these wonderful workshops this summer in their home for up to 4 students and my neighbor and art friend Lorel and I rode together and met Kim and Glenda - who were the other students taking the class. Everyone was great and we all shared bits and pieces that we brought  with us that day to make our art. I took the class on Simple Metal Jewelry. We learned to rivet, hammer, cut and etch metal and also learned to make our own bezels. The picture I took shows what I did that day. The piece at the top left is a sheet of nickel plate and was etched. After it was etched I cut it into smaller pieces - one is my necklace and the two smaller pieces were then riveted to a piece of copper and aged them in Liver of Sulfur solution. The copper mesh, we painted with a torch to get the cool coloring, not sure what I'll use that for yet, but I'm sure I'll come up with something. Linda and Opie were awesome teachers and hosts in their home/studio. They served us a wonderful home cooked lunch and (Linda also loves to cook) and shared great stories of their travels and projects they're working on. What really amazed me though, was seeing their art in person. You see their art in so many books and publications, but in person it was even better. I left at the end of the day feeling like I'd made new friends and hope to take more classes!