No Housework Get's Done

Here's some Leandra beads I made yesterday, still pretty wonky but if you clump them together it's not quite so noticeable. I've attached them to various lengths of chain then attached that to a large jump ring which I attached to an even larger ring with a hole in it. Added another large jump ring that I threaded some small beads onto then put the whole thing on a chain. Fun to make but I'm suffering with RSI in my wrist and my shoulders are killing me from being hunched over the desk for a few hours. Who says you don't need to be fit to craft. Think I need to go to a gym and do some sort of muscle strengthening exercises.......me.....gym.....nah!
Another memory frame. Black gold and silver Opals and I laid some opal scraps over it when it was set then blasted them with the heat gun to attach them to the base.
This is the reverse side. After it was set I sprinkled on some silver and green Opals granules and heat seat them with the gun.
The small memory frames I made the other day have now become a bracelet with come small beads between the frames.
The reverse side.
In between all this jewellry making I have made some ATC's but I'll post them another day.
The pest control guy is here to do the annual termite inspection. Nice guy but I always dread his visit in case he finds some huge infestation and the roof is about to fall in. So far so good.

You can Laugh.........

........we all did. Wednesday nights class with Mel was melt art beads. This is the "leandra bead" that Suzie Weinberg demos on you tube. She makes it look easy and so does Mel, but it's tricky and some of our beads were hilarious. We had alien heads, mushrooms, bobble heads and numerous other strange and twisted shapes.

It's a long pin with a small pearl bead on the top. The idea is to dip the bead in melted UTEE or opals, twirl it around until it sets and then keep repeating until you have a reasonable size bead. In between layers you can add glitter or perfect pearls if so desired.
Once the bead is set, snip most of the wire off and using needle nose pliers bend the remaining wire into a small loop, then they can be attached to a chain and turned into bracelets, necklaces or whatever your heart desires. My heart desires them to be put away in drawer somewhere never to be seen again! The bead below was made using silver opals and then brushed with perfect pearls.
These are some more of the trinkets that Svetlana and I made last week with Opals and Krafty Ladey Molds. I love the torsos she made.
The most annoying part of the whole bead making class was the interloper. Natalie the store owner brought along her partner Michael. The only man in the class and guess who made the best beads? Well I'd like to know how he explained to his blokey workmates the next day all the glitter in his hair and on his face. Doesn't matter how well you think you've washed it off Michael, some glitter still remains!

Opals "play Date"

Had a fantastic day on Monday. The art world is a wonderful place to meet lovely people and my friend Svetlana is one of them. We spent the day at her place and played with Opals embossing powders. I've had a melt pot on order for about 6 weeks and Opals for a bout 3 weeks that I haven't been able to play with much without the melt pot. So Svetlana gave me her unused one (it's been sitting in her drawer for about 2 years) and when mine finally arrives I'll pass it on to her. So we tentatively melted and poured and these are some of our results. Below are a couple of molds that I had made with the 'mold & pour' stuff. The one on the left is a cameo and on the right is a piece of jewellry I'd picked up in a second hand shop. I've brushed the cameo with perfect pearls just to highlight it a bit and the left one is a combination of colours swirled together.
These little trinkets are Ranger memory frames about an inch square. Laid them over a patterned stamp then poured a combination of silver, gold and black opals into the frames let them harden then lifted them off. Gorgeous patterns and colours, but the beauty of them is the back looks just as incredible as the front.
The two long frames at the top of this post (sometimes blogger plays mind games with me, could have sworn I uploaded that photo, now everything is out of sequence) are the same technique as the little ones, just different colours, clear on the left with perfect pearls and a combination of green, black and silver.
So tonight I'm taking a class with Mel on how to make melt art beads and I'm really looking forward to that, so get ready for another post on my bead successes or failures (whichever the case may be) in a day or two.
I'm off to have lunch, vacuuming and washing four floors is exhausting and hunger inducing!

I've gone Contemporary

Do you sometimes get a bit tired of all the vintage stuff we do? A bit over the wings and hats? Don't get me wrong, I love all that stuff but sometimes I just feel like a fresh approach. So today I made a couple of ATC's using my lips stamp that Kelsey found on line for me a few months ago.
I've used black gloss cardstock and white embossing powder on this one and white letter stickers for "pash". The Aussies who read this will know what it means and could probably tell a few juicy stories about the "pash sessions" they've had in the back seats of 1969 Valiants or FJ Holdens, I know I can. But that's a whole other story that will never be written because my "loin fruit" sometimes read this blog. This one on white gloss cardstock with black embossing and a few rub-ons along the bottom. My scanner just assumed they were black and white photos but in actual fact the little diamonte (sp) things next to the lips are coloured. Pink on the white lips and red on the black lips.
Embossing on gloss card is difficult. doesn't matter how much you pounce the little chalk pillow all over it before pouring on the powder there always seems to be a few odd granules that shouldn't be there. Oh well, it just adds to the overall hand crafted thing I guess.
Think I might do a couple more and use red embossing powder. Or I might go all out and use green or purple, if I'm goin' contemporary I may as well go the whole hog!

The Postie is my New Best Friend

Friday morning I received another package in the mail. This time from Susan. I was lucky enough to win a prize on her blog and she has sent me the most amazing ATC's, lots of fabulous bits and bobs ephemera and a uniball white pen which I forgot to photograph, it writes like a dream. I fell in love with this diptych ATC and in one of Susans earlier posts I had admired the Lips Atc. And look........ she included it in my parcel of goodies.

Lots of cool stuff to add to ATC's etc. and some beautiful subtle background papers. How Lucky am I. thanks Susan I'll treasure the ATC's and they are getting their own special display spot on my desk.

Now my great friend Brenda, who is morphing into my mother in law, every time I visit I never leave emptied handed. My mother in law always gives me food and Brenda always gives me lots of little bits and pieces of arty stuff. It's a toss up who wins.......food......arty stuff. I'll take 'em both. Anyway, Brenda ( who also makes me spend money at the scrapbook store and takes me for little impromptu image transfer tutorials from the lovely Bec) sent me this youtube link a few days ago and this is my take on it. Grungeboard, cuttlebug embossing, paints, rub n buff, and a fastener.

Cuff bracelets. Below is a close up of the the fastener.

Here's a close up of the pattern

And the other one.

What a fantastic idea. A great project for kids as it's quick, easy, very little materials required and the idea could be extended to all sorts of possibilties. Add some eyelets and thread ribbon through them, punch out designs with dies, glue stuff on, flowers, beads etc.

If you come up with any ideas or make one yourself let me know. I'd love to see it.

The Postman Only Rang Once.........

.......and I ran to answer the door and there was my package of Opals embossing powders and the book. The most luscious colours and when you open the jar it's very tempting to lick your finger and and scoop up the powder to taste it because they look just like Aeroplane Jelly jelly chrystals. But I wouldn't advise doing that.They have wonderful evocative names like Currawong (black), Daintree (lime green), Mango (orangey apricot) Wild Hibiscus (dark pink) and Zeehan (silver) all in 90g jars and I bought a 150g jar of clear. It's a shame the photos don't show the colours well, but trust me they are gorgeous.

I also bought a pack of Opalettes 5 x 9g jars of the Warm palette just to see what some of the other colours are like. Aurora, Mountain Berry, Valentine, Fool's Gold and Sunburst.Their book is very informative with lots of instructions and photos and many examples of the different ways you can use them. Now I just have to wait patiently for my melt pot to arrive at Scraptivate. I badgered them into carrying the opals in their shop seeing as how Mel is going to be doing some classes on melt art. So keep a look out for them if you are in Perth.

I found it very strange that none of the LSS stores in the metro area of Perth carry the Opals. It's an Australian product made in Tasmania so it's good to support local product. Here's a link to their site.

Just some more bracelets I made. Silver beads with dingly, dangly, baubley things hanging off them. Threaded the beads onto stretchy elastic, tied it off and added the baubles and gave them to Brighita and she's worn them everyday since.

Well I'm off to make Moroccan Meat Balls and Lime Impossible pie. It was Michael's girlfriend Erin's birthday yesterday and I foolishly said "Come for dinner" (and she foolishly accepted). You know how much I looooove cooking...not, and her mum is a fantastic cook. Erin always eats like a little bird when she comes over and I somehow suspect it has a lot to do with my cooking!

Bracelet and an ATC

This is another tile bracelet with embossing. I managed to get some bails that are smaller and the loopy bit sits flush with the edge of the tile. I glazed the embossing with Glossy Accents, but when I looked at it a couple of days later the embossing had kind of a powdery look to it and it has very fine cracks over it.
The black embossing powder I used on the cream tile is Stamp-it, Super fine and the powder on the grey tile is Adirondack so I'm thinking the brand has a bearing on how well the glaze works on it. Well you live and learn and it's all about the journey blah, blah, blah. I just wish the journey wasn's so frustrating at times. This is an ATC I made paying homage to Simon and Garfunkel seeing as how they're in the country at the moment. It's a line from their song the Boxer, one of my faves. Love to sing along with it in the car and pretend I sound good. Car accoustics are excellent in my book. She's a bit of a saucy tart isn't she? Not that I think Arty and Paul are saucy or tarty. I mean anyone who can write and sing a song like Bridge over Troubled Waters couldn't possibly have the slightest bit of tarty sauce running through their veins. Really!!!

So now I'm experimenting with Sheer Heaven transfer paper and Purell hand sanitiser as a transfer medium. I've had a couple of successes and quite a few failures. It's all in the timing and the amount of purell used. Too much and it's just a big messy blob, wait too long before applying your image and the results aren't good.

I'll post some pix of my successes and failures in a few days. Gotta keep practicing.