Rock-A-Bye Babies

It seems like just yesterday I was singing lullabies to my babies.

It's hard to imagine that they are turning 31 and 28 in a week.

Time does fly...
My babies have grown into wonderful young men

that I could not be more proud of. But, I do have to admit

that I'm feeling a little sentimental this week thinking about

when they were...well...still babies.

So I thought this would be the perfect time to share this project that I made while I was on the ICE Resin Creative Team last year.

 

Mixed media assemblage is not something I do often and is a little out of my comfort zone but when I found a rusty old trowel that was partially covered in plaster at the thrift store,

I couldn't resist the urge to alter it!

I covered the trowel with sheet music. By using resin as the glue, it caused the paper to become somewhat transparent allowing the yummy rust and plaster to show through.

 

I then added loosely bundled twigs to represent branches high up in a tree, a moss nest, and resin coated paper birds and eggs that I found at The Graphics Fairy. I finished it off with a sweet little poem sandwiched between a piece of birch bark and a sheet of mica.

You can find a complete list of supplies

and a tutorial on how I made it here.

This project was featured at
Knick of Time's Tuesday Link Party! :)

Happy Birthday to my wonderful sons!


  
Sharing with: I Gotta Create!: Wildly Original Link Party, French Country Cottage: Feathered Nest Friday, Funky Junk Interiors: Party Junk, The Graphics Fairy: Brag Monday Party, Knick of Time: Knick of Time Tuesday

A Charmed Halloween!

I'm taking part in a fun Halloween Charm exchange hosted by Thespa at Vintiquities Workshop. This is my first time ever to participate in any swap so I'm super excited to see how it goes!

I've been busy creating these spooky little guys!

 There are five different styles.

A magic potion, spider, mummy, caged skeleton and a watching eye!

If you like them, please check back as I will be sharing tutorials on how to make each one over the next several days.

And best of all, I'll be sharing the charms I get in return as soon as I get my anxious little fingers on them! How fun it's going to be to receive a box of scary creations in the mail!

There's still plenty of time to enter my

***Mixed Media Jewelry E-Book GIVEAWAY!***

Enter here.

Update: The following tutorials are now posted.

"Watching Eye"

"Potion No. 9"

"Mummy"

"Spider"

"Caged Skull"

Thanks for stopping by!

 
Sharing with: Funky Junk Interiors: SNS, It's Overflowing: Overflowing With Creativity Link Party

An Experiment in Rust

It's no secret I love old, imperfect rusty treasures.
Of course, most people would refer to my treasures as junk!

There are many tutorials on how to speed up the rusting process on metals containing iron and they definitely work great.

But what about plastic, wood, paper and,
well, basically any surface? Can they be rusted?

Believe it or not, they can!
Not faux rust. Actual rust!

These pieces are made of plastic.

 

Modern Masters Iron Paint actually contains iron and once you paint it on your piece it can rust naturally over time or you can instantly create rust with the Modern Masters Rust Activator.

I decided to experiment with several

different types of materials and objects.

canvas and paper

(I embellished the canvas with fiber ribbon and the paper with lace.)

fabrics and lace

plastics

metals

and a few other assorted materials

(cork, wood, shell & a blob of cured resin)

I painted each object with the iron paint and let them dry completely.

(I covered some pieces completely and spot painted a few.)

Then I brushed the activator over each piece. After five minutes I applied another coat of the activator. Within a few minutes the rust began appearing and after awhile this is what I had.

The aqua fabric that I spot painted turned out kinda cool.

I loved the effect on the canvas and paper.

And the resin blob is pretty interesting. A larger blob might look cool with a vintage photo showing through the back...hmmm....must remember that idea!

Since I will most likely be incorporating these objects into jewelry I thought it would be best to seal the finish with Renaissance wax.

And since I was just experimenting anyway, I decided to

rub a few of the rusty objects with some Gilders Paste

to add even more interest to the patina.

I definitely had fun with this experiment and will be doing more.

I also purchased the Modern Masters Bronze Paint Effect but didn't realize that it takes a different activator so I will need to get some of the correct activator before I can experiment with it.

I'll be sure to share my results...good, bad or ugly!

Thanks for stopping by!

Sharing with: Funky Junk Interiors: SNS, Coastal Charm: Nifty Thrifty tuesday

Shake It Up!

A couple of weeks ago during one of my thrift store shopping sprees, I spotted these salt and pepper shakers.

I certainly didn't want them as shakers but decided to take a closer look anyway. When I discovered they were sporting the weekly 50% off colored ticket, the bargain hunter in me took over. I placed them in my cart, shopped a little longer and by the time I was through the check out I had created this design in my head!

The process for this pendant was really quite simple. First things first, I needed something solid to support the silver caps. I headed into the garage and was ecstatic to find a wood dowel that fit perfectly - how often does that happen? Hubby was kind enough to cut it to the right length for me before he took off to work. Such a great man!!

I glued the dowel into place with E600 (love that glue!) and then covered it with just the perfect section of a decorative paper (why is the perfect spot always in the middle of the paper?). I glued the rhinestone chain into place and applied ICE resin in three very thin coats. It does run so I had to rotate it quite often as it hardened.

For the final touch I forged a wire into a U-shape, inserted it through the tiny holes in the top cap, finished off the U with decorative curls and wire wrapped a large handmade jump ring to it. Since the pendant is kinda girly-girl, I thought it should be accented by an equal amount of femininity consisting of delicate silver chain, rhinestone chain and sheer ribbon. I knotted all three strands together in a few places and finished them off with a handmade hook clasp.

Don't be afraid to shake it up a bit!

Happy Creating!

Kathy

Sharing with Funky Junk Interiors:SNS Best of 2011 , Happy-Go-Lucky: Shine on Friday, Knick of Time: Knick of Time Tuesday, Not Just A Housewife: Show Me What Ya Got, French Country cottage: Feathered Nest Friday