an owl and his box

This site, the 3eyedbear has the cutest cut and paste printables and for my project today over at the Helmar blog. I used this pattern to make my little owl and I think he turned out soooo cute. I hope you pop over there and visit and then go to the 3eyednbear and grab some printables for yourself!

Come back this Friday on the 15th and I'll show you what I put inside the treasure chest!

#LOVEYAWHOLEBUNCHES blingy gift box

I made the most scrumptious gift box with The Buckle Boutique self-adhesive rhinestone sheets! 

First I traced the box onto the back of the Dazzling Diamond adhesive sheet and cut it out with my scissors. Then I painted the inside of the box with DecoArt's Americana Multi-Surface Paint, and yes...I should have done this step first because I also discovered a small area along the bottom of the box that had the sheet pressed right up to it and knew I couldn't paint that edge without messing it up, so I used my Faber Castell PITT pen to color it in. I also used a Sharpie to outline the edges and smudge them to really make the box pop.

Now I get to embellish the top of the box! I added a flower and a sentiment using my favorite glues, Helmar! They make adhering products to the rhinestone sheets a snap!

The sentiment stamp come from Susan K. Weckesser-Jillian Vance design called Love Ya Whole Bunches.

I decided it needed something on the inside cover so I decoupaged a magazine image cut into a heart shape using Earth Safe Finishes Decoupage.

I just love how my little blingy box turned out!

They are so easy to use and so much fun if you want to give them a whirl they have some Sample Packs that you can try out. 

Give me some skin!

Recently I took a self paced workshop sponsored by Strathmore. I love their classes and they always have great instructors like Traci Bausta. In lesson 3 she did a study in making acrylic skins, which I have previously done ( by accident? ) every time I used my acrylic paints! lol Explanation needed? Probably so...:)

When I use my paints I pour them out on top of a plastic lid, when they dry they become a skin which you can peel off. I love peeling off the thick globs of paint, like a kid eating glue. OK, I'm strange, I'll admit it to you! I've only used the skins in my art once before when I made "Alice has a cup of tea" canvas. The tea cup is made from skins from left over paint. 

Here is a picture of the canvas. ( sold )

So this is the background to my DT post over on the Helmar blog today, and only you, my faithful blog reader will know that when I made my canvas I was using left over dried blobs of paint in my art. Honestly I didn't even know that skins were considered an art form at that time, I was just being me, using up weird and unusual things! lol

I did make another canvas using my newly made skins...you can see it over on the Helmar blog :) but here is a sneaky peek!

wildlife Christmas ornaments

Simon Monday Challenge - Ornaments

I started making my ornaments and this year I went with a wildlife theme.

I drew the animals shapes on with my Deco Art Paint marker.

It takes 2 coats to make it truly opaque like a silhouette should be.

Filled the bottom with some fake snow....

added a silver trimmed ribbon and some rhinestones with some silver beads on the hook and voila....Christmas in the mountains!

I haven't added the rhinestones to these, but put the picture up anyway so you can see the different animals I did.

BOO - tiful pumpkin

Recycling some Halloween projects that I made last year over on the Helmar blog today! Would love some of your spooktacular comments over there!!

How to make glittery spiders and spider web doilies

Helmar DT post

 ...sigh.....some posts are harder than others, not because of the project itself but what you are thinking about while creating it. In this case it's about my mom, I was asked to do a Mother's day project but my mom passed away in 1999 so I was trying to come up with something to remember her by. You can hop over to the Helmar blog to read about it and the poem that goes with this project.

I used 2 different Frosted Design kits to create the painted mirror for the base of my project. I began with the Moment in Times kit ( the Silks Acrylic Glaze - African Jade ) as the first layer. Next I used the Glimmer Glaze - Paradise Pink from the Simply Sweet kit letting the first layer peek through. The last step was using the Viva Paper Pen - Cream over everything, which gave it a lovely enameled appearance. The flowers and lace also came from the Simply Sweet kit and the  KaiserCraft Rub-On word treasure and the paper also are from the Moment in Times kit. 

On the other hand, there were some great funny memories and talking to my mom going on in my head and how she would have loved me being on a glue design team. Not just because of the free products we get and yes, she would have loved that part, but also because my mom was notorious for gluing everything! We use to tease her about it; and she only had Elmers, a hot glue gun and Super Glue! Ahhh, she would have been deliriously happy with all the glues I have at my fingertips, there is no telling what she would have done with them all!

Here's to you mom!

♥ Happy Mother's Day ♥