Saturday, August 27, 2011

ShadowBox Blog Hop

                      Lorelei's Shadowbox Giveaway
                            and Blog Hop!


About a month ago Lorelei had a wonderful giveaway. She gave away 23 shadowboxes (I borrowed the picture of the boxes from Lorelei's blog because I forgot to photograph it before I used it!). There was only one rule "think outside the box ":)  I received the purple one. My initial thought was that I was going to make it into a little bitty photo album that would pull out with all my nieces and nephews pictures.  Then I thought maybe doing a little picture with microbeads could be fun. That went from forming a flower and changed to forming a  heart shape.



Then I was going with the whole idea of adding wings to the back and calling it give your heart wings. Once I added the wings I ran into these little arms and legs, and suddenly...I was forming a body!

 
Then I found these little enamel drops that just happen to match the box perfect. So out went the traditional wings, and I formed wings out of these little drops. So I had a body, now I needed a head. Found a button with two holes. Of course, my head was empty, so I dug around for a crown. It was gold, so I painted it silver to match the arms and legs, and the bottom flourish of the crown reminded me of hair, so I painted that yellow.

By now she was way to big to be a necklace anymore. So what to do with her? I decided she could be a fairy in my garden. So out went the heart, and I stitched her body with three little flowers, and made the sky pink and blue (after all it's a fairy world) to match her wings.

And that is how this crazy lil out of the box garden fairy came to be. 

Here is the list that Lorelei's so sweetly put together, so you can see what everyone else came up with :)

11. Grubbi



Friday, August 26, 2011


Hi Everyone, and HAPPY FRIDAY!!!
 


We have a dollar store right around the block, and its a bit of a game with my family to try and hit it at the right time to find those really amazing deals when they get the good name brand items in. This weeks great deal was flowers! They had beautiful bouquets of fresh cut flowers. So I spent two dollars and got these beautiful bouquets of day lily's that had 5-6 big (around 6 inches round) flowers per bouquets.  They hadn't opened yet, so I have gotten to watch them open up all week long. 

 


 
Then as if I wasn't spoiled enough, my mom surprised me with a huge (like 2 to 3 feet tall) bouquet of Gladiolus that she had gotten from Trader Joe's for $2! 

I just love flowers! I don't get them so often with my fiance in NY working, so this was a super surprise this week to get such beautiful flowers at a guilt free price :)






I finished up the gift (Citrine Necklace) for family friend Deb who was moving. I liked how it turned out so well I made up some extra little pillow beads for a future project.





I snapped some pics of my lil furry kids (jasmine and juliet) playing in the yard with a Cicada. The two of them don't normally play together but the noise that lil bug was making had them both trying to figure it out. Jasmine (the calico) is my snuggler. She insists on sleeping next to me all night. Juliet, on the other hand is an anti-snuggler; however she does insist on being near me when I bead. She loves to sleep in boxes, trays, what ever I happen to have on my beading desk so I put this basket on the table in an attempt to keep her off my beads.

It worked...for a while!

Then...after while she crawled behind my head and laid on the back of my chair. Crazy lil kitty stayed there for hours while I beaded. Every time I got up the chair would rock back and forth, she would just tighten her grip and hold on. 

She cracks me up!


I also finished up my bezel piece from Lorelei's Bezel Giveaway . But I can't share that until the revel date (tomorrow!)

And now I am off to work on my blog bead swap piece. 

I hope everyone has a FANTASTIC weekend! Thanks for stopping in :)

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Catching my breath...and taking a minute to catch up my blog :)

Hi everyone!  So I hope everyone is doing super wonderful! I have been so busy I haven’t been able to catch up on blogs; however, I do hope to do so this weekend.  I did want to take a minute to catch up with everyone. 

My ebay sales marathon I did last week is coming due, as all the auctions are ending. So now I get to spend the next several days shipping. That's actually my favorite part. I don't like writing up the auction, but I do like packaging everything up and sending out.

Whoa, I was just outside enjoying the morning and typing and my neighbor was doing something over there that started blowing up the dust, and my computer is now covered with dirt.  Gotta  love the desert.
 
qwertyuiopsdfghjklxcvbnm, - cleaning keyboard.

(SIGHS...had a brief technical issue. Not sure what button I hit. But it wasn't pretty..okay back on track..)

Current Project: Right now I am working on a gift for a friend of my mom’s (I consider her a friend too). She is a wonderful wonderful woman who has just been a super positive force in both me and mom’s life and she is moving….FROWN sad for us, glad for her.

So I am working on a going away gift for her. They aren’t colors I usually work in as I’m more of a bright and bold, but I think they are pretty, and I think they are very much her. So here and the pieces. I just shopped yesterday for everything, and I need to have it done this week. Yikes!




And of course I was a lucky winner of one of the shadow boxes that was given away on Lorelei's Blog
I dont have that project done either. I haven't really had that Ah Ha! moment with it. You know the one where your thinking thinking thinking, and then in the middle of the night...It pops into your head the perfect solution. Yea, that one. I haven't had it yet. It's due next week, so I hope it happens soon. Good thing I work well under pressure. LOL.
The Bead Soup Swap:   I don’t really make anything myself, except for little paper clay charms, and those need to be bezeled with beads, and I didn’t want to send out a kit that obligated someone to do that. So being the crazy chick I am I opted for some retro, yet back in fashion, crazy 80’s colors. Colors that of course, I love love love.  It was a risk, but I kinda figured my swap partner was such a cool chickadee that she would appreciate the boldness of the challenge, so I took the risk.  God bless her. She really is a trooper!  So, a very pink agate, some lava beads, a larger lava bead for a clasp? some pretty faceted crystals to match, some lager drop crystals just for something different (in case she needed something else pink in here), some hot pink cathedral beads, and two baggies of hot pink, and two baggies of black seed beads in different sizes. 



So then I got my kit in the mail, from my swap partner Marcy and oooh my goodness!!!  Literally brought tears to my eyes. She sent me such an amazing, thoughtful, and handmade! Kit that just blew my fuzzy cotton candy blue socks off.
Marcy is an amazing glass artist. She makes the most adorable whimsical little critters out of glass, which  just perplexes me. I took a soldering class once. I walked out with burns all over my hands.  Melting hot stuff and me, don’t mix! She is truly remarkable!

She not only makes and sells her adorable little pieces (her etsy shop) , but she also teaches! I think for most artists, teaching someone art is as much a part of being an artist as creating the art. And it’s that need to create and share, that makes so many artists such wonderful teachers.  I hope some day to be able to take a class from Marcy! However, looks like I might have to head over seas, as that is where she is heading to teach next!!! Yep, she has gone international! HURRAY!!!  Her sweet little critters will soon be winning over the hearts of the people of Austria!!! 

How super exciting is that? I mean she is out of the world right? No, I mean it. She is literally out of this world. Because not only does Marcy teach full time, but she also contributes to the Beads of Courage program. And in doing so, not once, but twice, her beads have been selected to literally leave this earth upon the NASA space shuttle! I mean, wow. I dream big, but that’s a dream that never even occurred to me!

Really, how did I get so lucky to get her as a swap partner. Feel like breaking into the sound of music song…. Somewhere in my youth or childhooooood…I muuuust have done soomethinnng gooood!

Seriously, Marcy. Your kit is amazing. I hope I can do it justice. You are such a super sweetheart for putting so much work and thought into this. 




Well I am so so pumped up on super creative energy with all these projects I feel like I just downed a 2 litter of mountain dew.  I’m bouncing off the walls!  So I’m going to get back to creating!

Have a SUPER CREATIVE day everyone! Will be catching up soon on everyone's blogs, and checking out all the other swap members kits and sites. And nope, I haven't forgotten my bead journal piece. Working on that one too!


Thursday, August 11, 2011

BSBP

My kit is complete and it's on it's way to Marcy! So excited, but nervous too! Kinda like when you buy someone a gift and your not sure if they are going to like it.




Wednesday, August 10, 2011

Scrapbook Sale

Yesterday ebay had a listing sale so I did a listing marathon, which means photographing, editing photo's, and making the listing. Finally last night at about 10 pm I hit a wall and couldn't list another thing; however, I did manage to get 87 items listed. Which for me is a record.

So if there are any scrapbookers out there I just wanted to give you a heads up as there are some really super deals. Here is the link: Scrapbooking I also sell on etsy (which i haven't stocked in a while, but there are still some good deals there too).  Etsy shop: Julietscupboard

I'm off to get my bead soup swap package ready to go out. So excited to be taking part of the swap! So much fun, and my partner is super sweet, and I'm having lots of fun getting to know her and looking through the really whimsical beads she makes.

Happy creating everyone!

Monday, August 8, 2011

natures color pallete

I had a wonderful time with my niece! She was here just for 5 days, and they flew by! We spent most of the time making her crafts for her bedroom, including a valance for her curtain, 13 different picture frames with lots of glitz and fluff, a keepsake box, a box for her remotes and such, and a klenex box holder. I bought her beads for jewelry but didn't get a chance to make them so I have an iou for those for her. It was a ton of fun, and i somehow forgot to take pictures of any of it.

I did however get a few pictures at the zoo. I love all the wonderful color combinations that appear naturally. I get more inspired by being outdoors and finding great textures on trees, or color patterns on animals then anything else. So just wanted to share a few fantastic color schemes! Well, I think they are fantastic, but I tend to lean toward the bright colors and animal prints.

 I hope everyone is having a super creative week. I'm super excited about the bead soup blog swap, and cant' wait to get my partner!