Friday, September 30, 2011

Creating. I love creating. Taking random bits and transforming them into something else.
Today I'm doing some creating for some pieces for Wicked Tea.And while I don't want to entirely let the "owl" of of the bag, I thought you might enjoy a sneakie peekie of what is happening in the Studio today. ADcame up with the wonderful color scheme of Silver, Black and lime green. Very pretty and elegant. You can't really see it, but I got the adorable owl image from Altered Artifacts! I love her shop. Check her out, she's got some great images for Halloween, as well as some steam punk stuff. OK...back to glittering!

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Leaf it To Me!

This Summer has been one of the hottest and driest that I can remember. Evah! It's soooo hot...well, believe me it's just hot. And dry. And because of those two things and the fact that our tress are already so stressed, there most likely will NOT be any Fall color here. Not that there is much anyway...but for a few short weeks, we sometimes do get some pretty color.
That's the facts, jack. So what is a Fall loving gal to do. Make my own. So...I did. , Even if you do have pretty Fall colors in your neck of the woods, this is still a fun project to do.

Start with a leaf, a real leaf. Trace it onto light card stock like above. Sometimes I use an empty cereal box. Being green and all. Carefully cut it out, now you have a "master" leaf.
See? Just like above. Now pull several pages out of say, an old condensed Reader's Digest. You can generally pick them up at garage sales for under a buck. I also used an old encyclopedia too, but the thinner pages were more brittle, really easy to tear. So I think the Reader works better. Lay your master on top of 5 book pages. Trace around them. Carefully cut out all five pages at once. This is great to do in front of the TV.
Now, lay out your newly cut "leafs" and carefully dry brush them with Gesso. Let em dry. While they dry, I thought about roasting hot dogs and sitting around a campfire making smores...which I won't be able to do this year because of the drought. boo.
Once my Gesso'd leafs were dry, I piled em all in a big pile and jumped in...no. I piled em up and sprayed em with Maya Roads spray. I also sprayed them with some of my cousin Tim's (that's a joke!) alcohol ink mixed with some of his pearl dust, mixed in a Ranger mister.
Looks kinda like above. Now pull out one leaf and work quickly, dry brushing some Golden Fluid Acrylic paint here and there.
I love this paint. I would marry this paint, if only it would ask me. That's just how fab it is. You are laying down the paint, but also picking up the wet sprays, it makes a nice combo.
Your leaves are now beginning to look like this. Let's do em all!
I used green, red, and gold fluid acrylics. Seemed kinda fall to me and I thought those colors would mix in well with my little velvet pumpkins. I'm so happy Shells turned me onto these! I LOVE THESE SHELLY!
OK, now that we've gotten that out of our system, and all of our leaves painted, your leaf pile should begin to look like above.
Since I wanted mine a little more "grotty", my last step is to spray em lightly and randomly with a little Walnut Ink Stain. And stain it will, so be VERY careful where you spray. Most times I keep a spray bottle full of coffee, but the last batch got pretty moldy and I've not made any since, but that works well too!
There ya go! Now, let those pretty Fall leaves dry really really good and then you are ready to play. To make em look even more realistic, gently fold them in half. Then fold some of the leaf parts, corner to corner. Or roll an edge around a pencil. This just gives em a little more dimension.
Pile em up with pumpkins or just scatter em around. Make a pretty garland. Or write a name on one and use it as a place setting place card. Decorate a package with em.  Just go crazy. And have fun!  Thanks for peeping at my little project.  

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

I should be thinking Fall. Leaves, darker colors and the such.
And yet, I seem to be stuck in Summer mode. The fact that it was 107 degrees here today is NOT helping.
Oh well. What's a gal to do? I stayed indoors and tried to catch up on imputing new goods to my Etsy.
Hard to believe that this month is really halfway over. As usual, its flown.
But the cooler mornings have been wonderful and here's hoping that this is the LAST extremely hot day that Texas will have to endure. Rain is supposedly on the horizon for Monday. I for one can't wait. -c

Friday, September 2, 2011


I lied.  Sorry.  I'm a fibber.  Fibber McGee, that's me.  My bad.  Mea culpa.  Its like potato chips...I can't seem to stop.  If you want to see the before on this, and the story behind it, go check out my other blog Paper Cowgirl.

I really am going to work on something else this weekend. Really. Truly. I promise. Have a great weekend! -c

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Who?

Me.  Hello.  My name is Cindy and I'm a Whovian.  Yep.  And I was in utter heaven weekend last as the BBC ran a marathon on the show, as well as, all sorts of specials.  I love #11.  His funny way of talking to himself and answering himself, his quick wit and he's just a cutie.  But equal love for Rory, Amy and River as well.  And River...how cool is she?  Way diff from her character back on ER eons ago.  She is a total bad azz and I love it.
I had actually watched the show years ago, with #9.  And liked it, but just could not seem to remember to look for the BBC.  Or more likely, we switched dish companies and the new one did not have.  Can't remember, but for whatever reason, I did not follow it like I do now.  Sweet Hub and I are huge fans of Brit comedy anyway, so it makes since that I would love this as well.
So, if you are looking for something a little different to watch, check out Dr. Who, on the BBC.  Great fun and lots of funny lines.  Here's the set up on one, Dr. Who is speaking to another character, going over the workings of the Tardis, and the other character says, "I'm confused".  Dr. Who quickly responds, "Well, its a big club, we all should get tee shirts.".  Something about it just cracked me up.  I must have run it back several times, cracking up all over each time I watched.  Sweet Hub finally walked into the room, glanced at the TV, looked at me, shook his head and walked off. 

What can I say, a simple mind is easily amused.  And apparently so is a Whovian.

-c