Trying something new

I've seen crocheted wire necklaces before but it took me awhile before I found the right wire for actually making one. I used 30 gauge silver wire, and tiny little crochet hook. I crocheted three separate strands - one with lemon seed beads and crystals, one with crystals, rounds, and green and pink beads, and third with just crystals. It was simple single crochet, pulling a bead into the crocheting every other stitch.

I twisted the wires at the ends and used the crystal strand to wrap the other two together so they'd all blend together. It lies right on my collar bone, and it's so light. I'm very pleased with my first try at this!

Here is a closer look at the stitches and beading. It's delicate, isn't it? I plan to do more of this. It was so easy. It's not often I get something I like on the first try.

Otherwise, things here are fine. I'm still not out of the funk I've been in since my mother in law died. I'm hoping I come back soon. I think I will eventually, but it still just feels like there is a pall hanging over our house. I'm not sure how long this is supposed to last. I guess until it's over, right?

Oh, new job - AWESOME! Beyond awesome, actually. Six months in and I'm doing things I'm good at, things I really enjoy, with people I like. Can't get better, can it?

Bit of jewelry

I know. Big deal, right? This is a charm bracelet I made. I'm a Twilighter and in Eclipse, Bella gets a charm bracelet from Jacob with a wolf charm carved from wood. Then Edward gives her a crystal heart charm that turns out to be a diamond. Every replica of this bracelet I've seen has a sterling silver wolf charm. I looked for a long time to find a charm that at least mimics the carved wolf. It's carved from stone that looks like wood. It's a fetish, not detailed or real looking, but I don't think it's as commercial as some of those I've seen.

I plan to get real sterling silver chain and findings for this, since I do like it so much. The Swarovski crystal heart sparkles and I want to add more of the red and clear crystal danglies on the "real" one.

Here's an altered tin I made months ago for a challenge for the SS Reflections ezine. Just an altoid tin painted gold. I haven't done anything really creative for awhile, and I feel kind of bad about not posting on my blog for so long. I figured sharing older stuff with you would be better than sharing nothing, right? I enjoy making these altered tins so much that all my friends save their empties to give to me. Recycling at its finest.

Not much else happening here. We're still trying to recover from the shock of the last couple of years. I have no idea how long this process takes, but it's beginning to bug me, this serious lack of creative drive. I just want my muse back!

Another month has passed

This is the second painting I did.It was really hard to get a good picture of it. I used some glossy mediums on it and they just wanted to shine back at me.

This picture reminds me of a sunset. If you look closely, you can see the garnet gel and fiber paste I used, kind of like spackle, to create a rough wall surface. This one was fun to paint. It took me a lot longer than it looks because the floating medium I used to blend the colors took awhile to dry between layers. Anyway, painting number 2. I'm working on number 3. I love messing with paint and trying new things to see how it makes the paint work.

I was in a valentine postcard swap. This is what I came up with. I'm not exactly a valentine kind of person, but I joined the swap to challenge myself. I'm still not really creating. I get an idea, but never the energy. Or I have the energy and nothing comes to me. I'm hoping this clears up soon. I have lots of stuff waiting for me, begging me to come play. Maybe I'll have to challenge myself more. But this postcard uses an image from Altered Pages. They really have great images, so pretty and so inspiring.

This last picture is of my son. He took his shirt off and put it over his hair and said "Look, Mom, at my long orange hair" and he started posing with it. Since he's usually not so whimsical, I thought it would be a great time to capture one of his moments of fancy on film. Wait, is it called "film" if it's digital? Probably not. So I caught it on disk (better??). I love his sweet face. At five, his personality often doesn't match that angelic look. But in this case, it really did. He was having fun with long "hair". Kids are so cute, aren't they?

Can't believe I'm actually going to show you this

I haven't made a card since Christmas, but I have been painting. I'm going to post one here. I just can't believe I'm actually going to do this, show my painting on my blog (embarrassing, really embarrassing). Painting is so therapeutic, the mixing of colors, making a mess. We've had a really bad time here, so therapeutic is necessary.

I used Lumieres and acrylics over fiber paste, with different gel mediums. There are layers and layers and layers on this canvas. It took me a week to finish. My daughter claimed it, but then I did a canvas in oranges and reds, her favorite colors, so she's trading me for that one. I'm going to hang it in my office.

Yet another Christmas card

One more Christmas card. Non-traditional, using SU! image - the first stamp set I ever bought. The paper is SU! in-colors.

I stamped the snowman with Versamagic ink on metallic white card stock. The snowflake is from TAC, stamped in Agean Blue, just like the snowman, but then colored over with a gel pen.

I love sparkles. The leaves are from a sparkly Christmas leaf stick thing I bought on sale. I just snipped off the leaves and used them as an embellishment.

I'm onto the next thing. I've done two felted purses, one as a gift and one for me. I also finished a painting that my daughter has claimed. She flatters me by grabbing up a lot of the things I do before I've even completed them. I told her she didn't need to take it to make me feel good. I think she uses times like this to refer to me as "silly maja".

Another Christmas card

Out of all the Christmas cards I've made, I think I like this one the best. For some reason, my cards seem awfully washed out on here (yeah, "some" reason - couldn't be that suddenly I'm taking crappy pictures, could it?). This is done with Close to Cocoa, Tangerine Tango (again, not sure it's the right SU! name), and a gold metallic from Cutcardstock.com. The ribbon is from May Arts, I think it's copper. The image is from Flourishes. Watercoloring to paint the reindeer. I love this image so much. I got it last year and I think I used it for many of my cards.

Again, not traditional colors. The orange really makes this pop. And I have to order a few dozen packs of it because I just love it so much. It's a great color. Why is it SU! has such wonderful in-colors that last such a short amount of time?

I have two other cards in the works, as well as a couple of felted purses that aren't fulling properly now that we have a front loading washer (or regular washer took a dive last week), so I'll have to hand felt them, then I'll take pictures. I promise I'll try to take better care when taking pics. I've just not cared enough to take more than one or two pics, instead of my usual 20 or 30.

Christmas is coming

I can't believe it's almost Christmas. Time is just flying right past me, like I'm not even here. I finally got some of my Christmas cards done. I guess I could wait for New Years Eve to do them, couldn't I? This is my first one. I used SU! colors - Mellow Moss, Vintage Violet, and Close to Cocoa (is that the right name???). Non-traditional colors because I'm just sick of red and green and silver.

The images are from Flourishes. I love the bird image, the branch. I cut the circles with my Big Shot and the nestabilities. I used the Big Shot to emboss the circles.

I hope everyone is doing well, that your holiday season is progressing nicely. We aren't anywhere close to ready for this year, not even kind of close. Sorry for the lack of blogging. There has been a serious lack of art work to go with my lack of blogging. I'm trying to be better.

Thank you note

I had to make thank you cards to send to the people who interviewed me for my new job. It was a lot of fun, the FOUR HOUR interview. Fun enough that the time passed so quickly. Usually any interview makes me tired, but this one didn't. They asked me so many questions, but in between answers, they told me stories and I told them stories and we all laughed. A lot. It was very much not like an interview. I'm really looking forward to managing again, and getting to lead a team. And I'm especially looking forward to working with people who can have a good time laughing and aren't going to think twice when I shoot nerf balls at them. I've already been warned that they are arming themselves before I start.

The card uses metallic papers from CutCardstock. I used a gel medium and SU! inks, painted randomly on the paper. The colors were Summer Sun, Marigold Morning, and Really Rust, mixed in different proportions to get gradations of color. I dry embossed. The images are SU! Colored with gel pens. Ribbon from May Arts (LOVE that ribbon).

Been a long time

I know it's been a month. It's been a long, difficult month here. I'm not sure the next few are going to be any easier. Sometimes things just suck. Now is one of those times.

I made a few cards for SSReflections ezine that I'd like to share here. All of them were for the Starform Stickers challenge, and all used Elan Metallics from WorldWin Papers (this is some awesome paper).

This card is a thank you card I made for the HR person at the job I start in December. I know this poor woman is going to have a lot of work to do to get everything ready, and she is going to have to put up with me and some really dumb questions. So I thought I'd butter her up before I drive her nuts. Okay, not really butter her up. I did want to say thank you to her, though.

The image and the sentiment are SU! I dry embossed the pink paper, called Petal, which is really feminine and pretty, and very unlike most of what I do. The stickers are so detailed, I had to make something feminine. The other paper colors are Obsidian and Pewter. I really like the Elan Metallics. The colors are so rich. I had a hard time choosing just three for a card.

This is a sympathy card. I really hope I don't have to use this card for a long time. The stickers are falling stars. It seemed fitting to me. I stamped with Adirondack pigment ink, Snow Cap, and colored over the image with Prismacolor markers and Glaze pens.

I haven't done much else in terms of creating since the beginning of October. I used to have to create every day, or I would feel lost. Since my mother in law's death, I've not had any creative pull whatsoever. I'm really hoping this passes soon. I miss playing.

Thank you and some art

First, I want to say thank you for all the well wishes, the prayers, the thoughts. It has been a very difficult couple of years for us, but it has been a living hell for my mother in law. I've never seen anyone suffer the way she did. I know others have, but I've not had to witness it and I can't imagine anyone being as strong as she was. She never complained about it, never purposely showed us how much it hurt or how scared she was. She was an amazing woman, and she loved me a lot, as much as I love her. I was so lucky to have married into her family.

I'm also sharing a couple of pieces from the October issue of SSReflections. It's late here (almost 2 am), so I won't be filling in tons of details, but if you want to know how I did anything I don't explain. The first piece is on 4x4 aquaboard. I did the background with Ranger alcohol inks in Lettuce and Bottle. I stamped the image (Blockhead Stamps - gorgeous, isn't she?) with black pigment ink from Ranger, then using a blender pen and a few colors of Ranger's pigment ink, I "painted" in her dress. I added the elements and this is what I got. I love this image.

This was a shrine to childhood that I did. I think this needs even less explanation. I used Basic Grey paper, images and words from Lisa's Altered Art. I painted a cigar box and added all the elements and now this sits on my fireplace mantle. My first shrine and I really enjoyed making it. I have plans to do more, if my life ever settles enough (seems like we'll have time on our hands now, since we've spend a great deal of our "free" time caring for sick parents).

So thank you for looking and thank you for being so kind. As I said before, this was the best ending, the most beautiful ending, my mother in law could have hoped for. She is free and at peace. We just need to remind ourselves of that.