New Work at The Griffin Bookshop

I was delighted to be asked to show my work at The Griffin Bookshop this month. The Griffin is the coziest spot in town. It has books and art and jewelry and ....coffee. Rich, fragrant, aromatic coffee. I never learned to drink it, but I sure do enjoy the smell of it.

 This is one of the pieces I'll be showing there. This started out as a really beat up old cuckoo clock. I took out the insides, the numbers, the little bird inside the door.and finished the whole thing in flat black. After that, I took the large bird off of the top and replaced it with two owls.

Here is a closeup of the face of the clock. It turned out to be the perfect place for the little doll head I had embedded in ice resin. I had intended to make a piece of jewelry from it, but decided that she really belonged here.

This work is at The Griffin through the month of October. I hope you'll stop by if you're in town. You're in for a real treat!

Felted Punkmen

When my newphew was little, he called pumpkins "punkmen". I was thinking about that this weekend when I stitched together these little creatures. Their bodies are felted balls. They're embellished with stitching, ribbons, beads and other little doo-dads that I had in my Halloween box.

 They make me smile when I look at them. These are going to be mailed to some special people this week. I think I'm going to have to make some more, though. They were so much fun to do!

I also created some more of the large pumpkins that were featured in my article, "Paper or Plaster? A Very Vintage Halloween Makeover" in the September/October issue of Cloth, Paper, Scissors. Some will be going into my etsy shop, and others will be going to local stores for sale.

I made a bunch of little ones that are currently for sale at the emporium in LibertyTown in Fredericksburg, Virginia.

This was my original display idea, but my family vetoed it. They said it was too creepy. Imagine that!

This is how the final display looked. More cute. Less creepy.

 And, I finished off my robot that I posted a week or two ago. He is a little more streamlined than he was originally. He also has a spiffy new paint job. (I didn't cover up all of the peeling paint, though. I liked it.) My daughter named him Waldo. He is currently on display at LibertyTown's 6x6x6 Show. When I went to see him at the opening last night, he had a red dot on his tag, and had won third place in the show. Good job Waldo!

Published! Plus Some Button-y Goodness.

Welcome Somerset Studio readers! I was thrilled to see that my altered Halloween picture frame is publilshed in Somerset Studio's Vintage Halloween Issue (September/October 2010). I did a blog post about it last year. Click here to go to  the instructions. You can click the button in my sidebar to go to Somerset Studio.

 Last Friday, my friend Elizabeth and I managed to find a few hours to do some sun printing. I'd been wanting to learn for a long time and we never seemed to be able to fit it in. We finally got a chance to do it, and I can't wait to do it again. It is such a fun process! Elizabeth has photos on her blog.

Before we started, we even managed to sneak in a quick trip to an estate sale. Elizabeth got an amazing assortment of antique doilies, and I got a nice tin full of old buttons. When I got home, I decided to go outside to sort them. Miss Bordeaux was happy to come outside and "help".

Here is a closer view of the button-y goodness. There were two beaded initials in the box - an "S" and an "R". I need to think of something wonderful to do with them.

If you click on the photo below you can also see the big coat button that is right in the center and some wooden buttons at the bottom. The bright green ones and the bright blue ones with the gold border are pressed glass.

Off to the left are some rhinestone encrusted buttons. I think they would make beautiful centers for some of Elizabeth's sweater flowers. Do you think I should share some of my new toys?

Halloween Matchbox Shrines

Virginia is so beautiful this time of year. The leaves are really beginning to change now, and should be at their peak in a week or so. I like to change the inside of the house, too.

Here is the table inside my front door. The gargoyle on the left came from the dollar store. He looks more menacing when perched on a vintage candy dish under a dome. I change the items under the dome from season to season.

Last Saturday, Terry Pitzel showed our FCCA Altered Arts group how to make Halloween matchbox shrines. I couldn't stop with just one! All my nieces and nephews are getting these from me this year. The older kids will get confetti, and little pins and rings in their matchboxes. The little ones will get stickers.I wanted to make a more durable one to use as a decoration. I used Claudine Hellmuth's sticky-back canvas to wrap the matchbox. I cut a strip and painted it with "dab of yellow" and stamped the fence image.

Then I scrubbed on some "altered orange" with a dry brush. The canvas picks up the brush strokes really nicely. I mixed some "classic teal" with the "dab of yellow" and put in highlights around the fence and at the bottom.

I used the "altered orange" on a circle stamp for the moon image. Then, I used multi-medium to glue on a piece of bat-shaped confetti. I painted the inside of the box, and used an extra piece of the canvas for lining. The sticker inside says, "Happy Halloween".

I punched two small holes in the top of the inside of the box. and threaded some copper wire through the holes for a handle. Then, I added ribbon scraps to the handle.

Halloween Altered Frame

October is here, and I'm ready for it. I lthink I like my Halloween decorations even more than the Christmas decorations that I have. This year I decided to make a decoration of my own, by altering a cabinet card and a picture frame. Here is the "before" photo:

I found this at a yard sale for $1.00. My husband couldn't believe that I wanted it. I added a few embellishments from the Halloween aisle at the drug store, and filled in the areas underneath to blend everything together.

Once I had everything in position, I painted everything with black gesso and then with black acrylic paint to unify the elements.

It was looking a little creepy, but not believable enough, so I went over all the high spots with interference gold to make them stand out.

I used Photoshopto altere an image from a Victorian cabinet card, adding in a bat brooch, and emphasizing the bat-like collar that the woman in the picture was wearing.

I removed the original velvet from the frame and replaced it with a collage of antique onion-skin paper that had spider webs embossed in it. This is the final result. Woo! Scary kids!