A Couple of My Favorite Christmas Gifts!

Christmas  is  fun,  but  it  sure  is  exhausting!  But  I  really  enjoyed  it  with  all  of  my  family  here--it's  really  hard    for  all  of  my  kids  to  get  together  at  once  anymore.   But  when  we  do,  it's  like  turning  back  time--they're  like  little  kids  again  with  all  of  the  "fringe"  benefits  included--if  you  know  what  I  mean ; )    BUT--it's  fun  and  it's  funny  too.....

And  I  really  liked  my  presents--I  like  any  kind  of  present!   But  I  wanted  to  show  you  a  couple of  my  favorite(but  not exclusive : )  ones.  

So  let  me  explain  this  one.   This  is  from  my  daughter,  son-in-law,  and  their  dog/son  Bob.   Earlier  this  year,  they  found  a  very  serious  form  of  cancer  in  Bob's  leg,  and  after  trying  different  treatments  on  him,  they  had  to  amputate  his  leg,  which  made  all  the  difference  in  the  world.   As  of  right  now,  he's  cancer-free,  and  back  to  being  crazy  Bob  again.   If   you've  never  met  him,  you  can  meet  him  HERE.

My  daughter  and  son-in-law  are  not  taking  this  for  granted  however.   They  are  spending  as  much  time  with  him  as  they  can.   So  this  summer  they've  been  taking  him  to  a  lot  of  the  beaches  that  we  have  around  here  (we  live  on  Lake  Erie).   He  LOVES  the  beach.   And  while  they  were  there,  they  started  to  collect  beach  glass,  and  by  the  end  of  the  summer,  they  had  a  LOT.   And  this  is  what  they  did  with  some  of  the  pieces  that  they  found--a  beach  glass  family  portrait  of  me,  Lenny  (our  turtle)  and  my  husband!

How  wonderful  is  this?!    I  love  the  fact  that  Lenny  is  entirely  made  of  beach  glass pieces  that  they  had  in  their  collection---like  finding  pieces  to  a  puzzle.   The  story  behind  this  gift  is  just  as  good  as  the  gift--don't  you  think?

And  then  the  same  daughter  kept  asking  me  what  I  wanted  for  Christmas,  and  I  honestly  couldn't  think  of  anything.    And  then  I  thought--I  know!   I  made  an  Etsy  Christmas  list!   I  no  doubt  love  hand-crafted  items,  and I  also  love  supporting  other  artists,  so  I  sent  her  a  ton  of  Etsy  links  so  I  wouldn't  know  what  she  picked  out.    And  this  is  what  she  chose--

This  beautiful  necklace  (I.....LOVE....IT!)  is  from  the  very  talented  Sharon--livewirejewelery Etsy shop.    The  way  she  turns  these  vintage  pieces  into  a  wearable  piece  of  art  along  with  her  skilled  jewelry-making (love  what  she  does  with  brass)  is  magic.   And  I  want  to  mention  that  this  isn't  my  first  piece  of  jewelry  from  Sharon--I'm  definitely  a  Livewire Jewelry  junkie!!!

I  haven't  been  able  to  spend  much  time  in  my  art  room,  but  I  HAVE   been  a  little  busy  in  there--next  blog,  I'll  tell  you...

Hope  everyone  has  a  very  Happy  2012!

Sad To See It Over With

What  a  great  2  weekends  I've  had  at  my  festival  Christmas  in  the  Woods.   Everything  is  closed  up  until  next  August  for  the next  big  festival  that  happens  there  called  Shaker  Woods.

 

So  this  is  what  I  would  see  when  I  looked  out  of  the  front  door  of  my  booth.   This  land  is  owned  by  the  people  who  run  the  August  show,  so  these  booths  are  permanent.   The  artists  in  the  August  festival  own  them,  and  then  us  artists  in  October  rent  them  for  Christmas  in  the  Woods.

I  love  my  booth!

On  the  other  side,  that  you  can't  see,  is  an  L-shaped  counter,  which  is  perfect,  since  they  want  us  to  demonstrate  our  art.   And  as  you  can  see,  it's  a  pretty big  space  to  fill,  which  is  why  I  made  a  lot  of  Christmas  florals  and  decor to help  fill  it  up.    I  thought  that  the  most  I  would  get  would  be  compliments  on  my  artwork,  but  like  I  said  in  my  last  post,  I  was  wrong.   My  art  was  selling  just  as  well  as  the  Christmas  items  on  both  weekends!

This  last  weekend's  weather  was  not  good  either.   On  Saturday  it  was  cold  and  very  windy,  and  on  Sunday  it  rained  off  and  on  all  day--kind  of  miserable.   But  if  you  live  in  the  Northeastern  part  of  the  U.S.,  you  know  how  the  weather  can  be.   I've  seen  it  70  degrees  and  sunny  in  the  morning,  rain  in  the  afternoon,  ending  up  with  a  couple  of  inches  of  snow  by  nightfall--really!!    So  whatever  Mother  Nature  is  ready  to  dish  out  to  us,  we  can  handle  it.    And  especially  on  Sunday--these  ladies  shopping  didn't  care  at  all  about  getting  wet  or  being  cold--they  were  Shopping!!   It  ended  up  being  as  good  a  weekend  as  the  one  before.

Sad  to  see  it  over  with,  but  glad  for  the  break.   I  have  one  more  show,  and  that's  at  the  beginning  of  December,  so  I  can  relax  for  just  a  little  bit--just  a  little  : )

So  for  the  last  couple  of  weeks,  I  really  haven't  left  the  house,  and  I've  missed  my  other  favorite  thing  to  do--shopping.....so..........I  went  to  Etsy  and  did  a  little  shopping  there.   This  was  what  was  waiting  for  me  when  I  came  home  on  Sunday  night.

This  cute  litte  owl  from  Cameron.   The  pictures  just  don't  do him  justice--I  love  this!!  Cameron  is  one  seriously  talented  lady,  and  you  can  see  even  more  at  her  blog  Paint  Myself  Pretty.   

And  also....these....

....Beautiful,  Beautiful  earrings  from  Sharon.   Sharon,  if  you're  reading  this--these  earrings  are  so  special--thank  you  for  creating  them!   Please  visit  her  at  her  blog  Livewire  Jewelry  if  you  haven't  already. 

These  are  only  2  purchases  of  many  that  I've  made  through  Etsy--most  of  it  artwork  for  my  artoom,  from  blogging  buddies.  I've  yet  to  even  hang  them  yet,  but  I  can't  wait  until  I  do.  I  WILL  most  definitely  take  a  pic  and  show  you  all.

And  a  P.S.  to  Cameron  and  Sharon--thanks  for  the  extra  goodies--it  means  a  lot  to  me!

A Metal Embossing Tutorial--My Way

I don't know if there is a right way to emboss metal, but this is the way that I emboss metal.  And let me tell you, it's SOOO easy, and you probably have most  everything you need for it already, including the metal. The picture inside of the frame is all embossed metal--

I've shown metal embossing before, but it's been a while, so I decided to show you with a little more detail on how I go about doing it.  I use the aluminum  metal foil (36 gauge) that I get at Dick Blick, but  you can also use the aluminun pie tins or any aluminum tray that you can get at the grocery store.  You can  just wash the ones that you bought  that had food in them--they're just as good.  And I've purchased a few embossing tools, but the one I always go back to is either the other end of a paint brush or a dull sharpened pencil.  The metal usually rips for me when I use a stylus.  The foil is pretty durable, but you do have to be careful, and it can be cut with regular household scissors.  After I sketch my design lightly with a pencil, I start embossing (you can emboss on either side)--

I knew that I wanted a rooster, heart, and sun on this, so I sketched it on. After that I just doodled with my paint brush tip or whatever my choice of embossing tool that I'm using at the time.  You don't even have to sketch anything on--you can make a zentangle--or just emboss whatever comes to mind.

After that, I always put some alcohol inks on it first and when the inks are dry, I apply a black craft acrylic paint quickly, and then wipe if back off again.  Just don't wipe too hard, because you'll get right back down to the metal.

Then when that's all dry, I just paint in my design with acrylics, but I recommend the artist's acrylics, because they're much more vibrant.  The craft paints are too thin and it's hard to cover the metal.  So when all of the paint is dry, I always spray a couple of coats of a workable fixative on it--the paint will come off if you don't.  And then when the fixative is dry, I put a gloss varnish on it, so it has a nice shiny look to it.

It's very hard to get a good photo of the finished piece--it's much better in real life.  So the frame--well a couple of  months ago, I went to the wholesale show in Columbus, Ohio, and I showed everyone these barnwood frames that I purchased there--

These frames had glass inserts in them.  So I kept the glass in it, and just adhered the metal piece with extra heavy gel medium right on the glass--it always works!  And I hadn't cut the metal just right to fit inside the frame, so I camouflaged the side with textured wallpaper--

I hope I covered everything, but if you have any questions--just ask.  So next time you bring one of those trays home from the grocery store, don't throw it out--try this--it's fun.

And here's some  more rooster love--

FUN!

I also wanted to show you what I treated myself too.  When I saw these earrings on Sharon's blog

Livewire Jewelry

I knew that I had to have them--these are me, and I just got them yesterday (very quick service!) I love them Sharon--these particular earrings were published in the magazine Bead Trends, but this isn't the first time that she's been published.  Go check out her blog--she's also a very talented mixed media artist.

I hope that everyone has a great holiday weekend here in the U.S.--I know I will--the weather is looking beautiful!!!