Peek A Boo Easter Eggs

What is old is new again :) These are the little eggs I made last year but because of several requests the instructions to make them are now in my free online workshops. Just click on the link in the left hand sidebar. You can also click on the picture above to get a better view of all 4 eggs!

 

 

 

Yes these are just plastic Easter eggs!

To begin you need to glue the seams of your eggs with E6000 so they don't open. Once that is dry make an oval template and using a dremel tool, cut an oval on one side of each egg. If you don't have a dremel you can make one with out the peek :)) see the picture of the purple egg.

 

Once that is done mix a little white glue with water so it is really runny. Then tear the cut edge from some printers paper and tear that into strips. Soak each strip in the water and smooth onto the egg. Now you have to wait again :) but you can cut out the images your going to use while you wait. When that is dry use a heavy coat of Gel medium and yes, wait again!

When dry sand your egg as smooth as you like. I used a sanding barrel on the end of my dremel to speed that up. I also did not smooth it out totally because I wanted that hand made artistic look. Then I painted them with white Gesso, once dry I dry brushed them with a little color, whew ... the drying is done! and now it is time to decorate! 

I just stamped the outside of the egg according to the style I chose for each one. I used the inner circle of a canning jar lid to hot glue a little nest of moss and then glued my egg to that but you could use all kinds of things to stand your egg on. A few ideas are candle holders, little box bottoms or even a napkin ring. For the peek-a-boo eggs I used images cut from Altered Artifacts collage sheets available at my Etsy store, floral elements and colored tissue paper that I had sewn and made mini garlands out of. These are simple to make, Sew lines down several layers of tissue. I use it straight from the package and I just leave it folded as it comes. The lines you sew do not have to be perfect nor does it matter if the tissue tucks a bit as you sew it because it really will not show when your garland is finished. Then trim the tissue about 1/4 of an inch from each side of the stitching. Whala your sewing lines are straight! The without cutting through the stitching clip the tissue about every 1/8 and inch and this doesn't have to be exact either. Once you have the entire strip clipped on both sides of the stitching, hold both end in one hand and twist it up. Without letting it untwist gather it into a ball and roll it in your hands to form as small a ball as you can. Unroll it and fluff. This can be repeated until you are happy with the look. The more you twist roll and fluff the softer it gets.

 

Now for the whole Victorian egg I wet the back of my image. This made it pliable so that it would contour to the egg easily without wrinkling. This only works with laser images because the ink might run for inkjet images. Once it was soft, I applied a little glue and glued it to the egg. Then I masked off my image and sprayed the egg with Elmer's craft bond glue and rolled it in glass glitter, removed the mask and glued it to a little tissue paper nest that I had also glued onto a caning jar inner lid 

 

Flower Fever :o

Literally! I think I mentioned that I had been a little under the weather ...yep I think it was flower fever. I am better now but I felt so bad I did not feel like doing anything but sitting in bed and watching TV....well that got old real quick! so I sat in bed, watched TV and made flowers.... Now I have a pile of fabric flowers that I have to figure out what to do with : / but aren't they pretty!

 

I put pin backs on some and sent them to friends. I think I might decorate some tee shirts and jeans with them too. They are so easy and I thought you might like to make some too!

 

I just folded a square of fabric in quarters, folded the top square section back to form a point, folded the bottom square section the same way so the whole thing was folded to a point. Then cut the top into a petal shape, unfold and you have a flower shape. Scrunch it in the center and tack it in place by hand. Do this in several sizes and layer them up. I did the same with a nylon sheer fabric and alternated the layers. I think it really made a difference.

 

Steampunk ATC's

Last night my DIL brought me the two new sheets she just got in over at Scrolls Work Stamps so while she was working away trying to get all the orders out I got to play :)) The backgrounds are from my collage sheets you can find them at my etsy store and the stamps are all Scrolls Works

 

For The Love Of Theater

I have been under the weather so I have not done much of anything but sleep. As I was looking thought my pictures I realized that I had not blogged this. I think I had planned on saving it because I am working on a new free workshop for little theaters and some of the pictures taken during the construction of this one will be use. But I decided to share it because I have also finished another little theater I can share when I get the workshop finished.

 

This on was also done from a reclaimed drawer out of an old jewelry box. I used my dremel to expand the hole into a slot where the nob was. That way the little puppet can be lowered through the slot and the little handle can be used to make her dance.

 

Step by step instruction will be posted as soon as I can get up and around enough to finish writing them :)

My Little Monster Man

The other day I was visiting Totally Tutorials Blog and they had the cutest tutorial for making monster valentine cards by Art, Adventures, and Toddler. My grandbaby was visiting and when the little monster saw the monsters on the computer he of coarse wanted some. So I had the idea to make the little monsters more toddler friendly.

I just cut out two and added a little batting and a magnet. He played with them for hours! Luckily our coffee table is metal. I am not really an accomplished monster seamstress so they don't look quite as precise as the tutorial but our little monster was happy! He had on some little cargo paints that day and it was not long before he had one stuffed in each pant pocket :)

The little monster and his monsters

Diva Dolls

I know I have been a little quite but I have been busy working on a fun project for the local stamping club I attend...Designing Diva's. This month it was my turn to present the project. I had seen these little Victorian paper dolls and decided it would be such a fun project for valentines day.... then I thought if we were going to do dolls they should have our faces! So I got to work making a personalized paper doll for each one of us ... but only some are represented here.

What a fun evening we had! but really I was giggling all week as I designed each doll. I could hardly wait for last night so I could reveal "the girls" It was so worth the wait though as each doll was revealed to the giggles and squeals of our Diva's The lighting was not great but they all turned out so cute

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UPDATE
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Now you can be a real doll too! ... available in my etsy store! 

 

:-**•-: OWOH One World One Heart Give Away :-**•-:

And the winner is .....
Angie in AZ from Artvisionz

Congrats!

I have two ... count um two prizes to give away ...
and I might just be adding more as we go!
Click on the badge below to find a whole list of giveaways too!

Just hang on to the edge of that magic carpet and have a wonderful ride!

First up.. I have a little terrarium necklace. The little chain hangs on a black cord necklace but it is cut off in the picture. The bottle section of this measures just over an inch high... so it is tiny ... and yes it will stay alive in there. I have had this one hanging here in my office for about two months. I did have to figure out the secret for keeping them alive but that will be passed on to the winner :) The little charm says "Create" and I just thought that was appropriate for this fun little blog party.

I also have a selection of unmounted rubber. They were generously donated by Scroll Works Rubber Stamps my DIL little online store. Also visit her blog as she is running a blog candy giveaway too ... so leave a comment and you could walk away with one of these great prizes!

Leave a comment to win and don't forget a contact email or link so I can notify the winner :)

I am working my way down the list as well so if I haven't been to your blog yet ... I will get there :))

Weight Watching Bott

If you watch my blog you already know that my hubby made some little robots for our "guy" gifts at Christmas. I say "guy" gifts but really most of the wife's were claiming them too :))... Anyway I have been encouraging him since and he has just been building the cutest little robots. I just had to share this one. Every time I look at her I think "do these pants make my butt look big". Also if you push on the little weight tray the head will bob. I would love to keep them all but we live in a very small house. Since we really don't have places to put them all, I have talked hubby into opening an etsy store. He called it Tinkers Warehouse because I am Altered Artifacts and since we are both Warehouse 13 fans he thought it fit. Be sure to drop by for a visit!

Steampunk Bird Workshop!

The amazingly talented Lynn Stevens from Trash To Treasures Art hosted a steampunk bird workshop at her studio yesterday for some of her friends. I can't tell you how fortunate I feel to have been on the list. We had so much fun punking out the wooden bird blanks that she spend hours carving for us! Her hubby spoiled us rotten too! He had mocha lattes waiting for us when we arrived and then when lunch time rolled around he had made us the most awesome soup I have had in a long time! Some wonderful birds were created by all! but I am just going to blog mine because I am sure each one will want to blog about there birds too :)) If you click on the picture it will take you to a larger all sides view.

Valentine Margareta Candle

I know it seems I have disappeared, things have just been so hectic at our house. I still wanted to take time out from catching up on my blog reading to share this little project I did at Artistic Souls. It was Barbs turn to host the project and she came up with this darling Valentine Margareta! We stamped papers and decoupaged them to the inside of the glass. Some of us stamped the outside also. Then we added the beaded trim and I love the chunky glitter on the rim. She provided candies for it to be used as a candy dish but you all know me... those chocolates did not last ten minutes :)) ha! Instead I am going to use mine for a candle holder for a special Valentines day dinner .. shhhhhhhh... don't tell him :)

Marie Antoinette Fabric Collage Wallet

These is a couple examples of what I made for a local Christmas gifts fair. I did wallets, makeup bags, change purses and even key chains. Wow did they sell well. I had saved out several for gifts for friends too. I did not want them to see what they were getting so I had to wait to post. I also posted some to etsy but removed them when they sold locally.

 

 

Recently some of my friends were upset that someone had copied my idea... but the whole reason I post my work is so that I can encourage others to create art :) I am truly honored if someone likes what I have done enough to want to create something similar. I like to give a link back and a that would be great but I also understand that blogland is huge and we all belong to the same yahoo groups as well. Sometimes as artists we see something and it gets stuck in our creative subconscious and we really don't remember where we saw it so I understand that too .... now just go create something fabulous!!!
Inka :)

Upcycled Lighting :)

Ok ... so I had two of those ugly brass light fixtures we all hate in my studio... so I painted it black since most of the furniture in there is black. It was better than that shiny brass but I still hated them!

Then I cam across these vegetable baskets in the thrift shop and I thought they looked like they would fit over those ugly lights. So I brought them home, painted them black and stuck them up there. It was better but I still did not like them much. However I thought I could tie some ribbons on the wires, hang a few crystals here and there and maybe I would like them better.

Then it came to me... I had crystal garlands in my Christmas decorations! ... Now I love them! The room just sparkles when they are lit and I get to enjoy my crystal garlands year round :)

I just had to kiss the cook!

I hope you had as nice a Christmas as we did. We had an amazing meal, visited with the family... and we had the cutest cook ever!

Club Diva's Spoon Pendant

 

As well as being a member of Artistic Souls I am also a member of Designing Diva's, an art club in the Boise area. Our super talented leader is Lynn Stevens from Trash To Treasures hosted a spoon project this last meeting. How lucky I felt to be a part of her little mini workshop! However I did not get my spoon finished : / It took me a while to get it done too because I have had my handsome little grandbaby this week. I also just noticed that Lynn has posted several of her spoons on her blog so be sure to click the link above and check out her amazing work!

Little Asian Puppet Theater

A special gift for a special friend.

Several weeks ago I picked up an old jewelry box at the local thrift shop. I loved the handles and it had 6 drawers and a door all with hardware. After getting it home and pulling all the drawers out I thought of making a little fairy theater from the shell. Well I did not quite get to it yet with the holidays and all but I did use one of the drawers to make this mini theater for a very special friend of mine. I used my dremel to expand the hold for the handle to a slot. Then I hung my little puppet on a dowel that was slightly bigger than the slot I cut. Now you can hold onto the dowle and jiggle the little puppet to make it dance. I just love it and so did my dear friend.

An Artistic Souls Christmas :)

Do you recognize the faces on those bags!

 

 

I am so fortunate to be a member Artistic Souls, a local stamping club in Eagle Idaho. We get together every month and share our art, food and fun :)) Each one of the members has so enriched my art and my life so this Christmas I wanted to do something special. I photoshoped our faces onto a vintage post card and created a faux newspaper article. Then I printed it on some vintage muslin and attached it to a canvas bag. I think I had more fun making these this past week than they did getting them. I just giggled all week long even joking with hubby how I had spent years learning how to sew a strait line and now I was having trouble sewing a crooked one...lol... But I loved how they came out and I think my friends did too :) If you would like to read our spoof article, I took a photo of it before I sewed them up. Click on the little thumb below and it will take you to a picture large enough to read.

Dead Tree Christmas Card

For the past few months one of the local stamp clubs I attend has had a round robin stamp challenge. Several months ago we each brought a stamp and each month we have rotated them so that each person has a turn with each stamp. Our sweet Judy brought a dead tree stamp and we all bemoaned our turn with it. However month by month we were amazed with what the designated person came up for it. I actually think it challenged us more than any of the other stamps as we really had to contemplate our design. We had more fun trying to come up with something different. Anyway I was last on the list and this is what I did with it. I first stamped the nest from Scrolls Work Rubber Stamps then I masked it off and stamped the Cardinal... also from Scrolls Work. Then after those were masked off I stamped the dead tree from Stamps by Judith. It does look a lot better in real life... you can't really see that the cardinal has black stickels and a seed bead for the eye. I also added white stickles here and there on the branches, in the end... I really liked it! 

We Have A Winner!

Teabolt!

and check out the loot!

It has been a fun week, reading all the robo names as they came in. I read each post here and in my groups to hubby and we had many chuckles over them. I think the one he thougth was the funniest was being called Mr Inka :)) I gave him the list to pick from yesterday, today when "Twocan" was posted he almost changed his mind but decided to stick with his orignal choice. Thank you all for entering and congratulations to Vicki Holdwick.

Vicky if you can use the email link on my side bar and send me your mailing address I will get this in the mail :)

Hubby's Bott & Blog Candy!!

The other day I was showing hubby Pictures of some steampunk birds that some friends and are going to get togeter and make. I also showed him some pictures of some little reclaimed robots that I wanted to make for myself too. Anyway we ended up down town so I had him stop at the thrift shop to see if they had any birds to steampunk. Before I knew it he was walking around the corner with a arm full of metal junk. Fancy tea cans, brass bowls, candle sticks, a metal string holder and such. I told him to put them back that I had to many projects on the burner and I did not have a place to store all that junk until I was ready to make one. He just huffed and me and said I could do what I wanted to do but he was getting the stuff to make himself a robot :)) I was FLOORED!! He has done some wood work around the house and honey do things for me but I have never seen him do anything you could really say was art!

 

 So today he got out his tools and got to work on it. He got the head done and I was just tickled it looked so cute. Then he decided he had to have a nap ... gosh was that frustrating to me :( Finally he woke up, went out to the garage and I could hear pounding and drilling and and he came out of that garage with this!!!! The hat has a bolt down the center that goes into the coffeepot innards so it comes off like a lid and I can store stuff in there. The lid that is the neck also comes off so stuff can go in the tummy too. I just love him ... yep I am talking about them both :))

 

I think he needs a name too! ... leave a name suggestion for him and I will give hubby the list of names to choose from next week. The person with the winning name will get a little goodie package :)


If you follow my blog you already know I have a hard time calling a piece finished :)) so I kept thinking about it and I really felt he needed a tea cup because his little fork finger was sticking out just how the snooty little tea tippers do. So I while I was in town I stopped by the Rusty Trunk junk shop and found this little cup! ... Then hubby bent his fingers to hold it for me :)

The Perfume Shop Canvas

I think I am finished but I always say that and then I seem to add or change things...lol. It is not as "artsy fartsy" as I usually do but I was trying to fit a theme I have in my bathroom. This is a rather large canvas too ... the biggest one I have ever done measuring 12" x 24". The lady is cut from an original antique print. I call it the perfume shop as the little hanging sign is a reproduction of a perfume peddlers sign.

Playing with rust again

I have been playing with rust again :)) I had this old bird cage and I wanted to do something with it. I thought of doing a doll but I also had the stand and I did not want to waste it. So I rusted a bird and gave it a crown. I found a little plastic couch at the thrift shop and used my rust technique on that... once it was rusted it was pretty cute. Then I just added a table, some tiny tea cups and an old coffee pot I had. Now I have my eye out for a little claw foot tub that I can rust and put on a branch up a little higher.

Bookworm Baby

I was trying to come up with a way to display my childhood baby and also I wanted to put a little of my art into my decor and this is what I came up with. I used an old clock dome I picked up at a thrift shop. Then because I collect old coffee pots I had picked up several old glass peculator tops. So I epoxied one to the top to make it look like an old garden bell... but before I did I stuck some tiny flowers and a tiny brass key charm inside. Then for the bottom I used a candle holder also from the local thrift shop. Because the feet had an Asian look I wrapped them with some brass corners I had on hand. The little top hat started life as a paper cup but once I used paper mache it and added some newsprint roses it made the perfect topper for my baby.

Sugar Charlotte Spoon Pendant

Just thought I would share this little spoon pendant I made a couple weeks ago. It is on a very chunky chain so it looks smaller in the picture but it is on a standard size sugar spoon. I loved the shovel shape. The rhinestones are vintage earrings and I added them by just drilling holes in the bottom of the spoon. This way I can change them out with similar earrings with colored stones to fit my mood. The shape of the spoon holds the earring posts away from my skin so no pokes either.

Little boy lost ...

This has been a very difficult day in my house. The tears just wont stop...my little fur baby Toby turned 16 this October 31st but he has been ill for a long time. Eight years ago he had pancreatitis and we were told that he has so little of his pancreas left that he probably would not live much longer...but we made sure all his food was 97% fat free and he kept on keeping on. He was half blind and his hips caused him a lot of trouble too. He had to take pain meds everyday. When we woke up Saturday morning he wasn't doing well. We were sure that nothing had been left down he could have gotten into. So I gave him his doggie meds and waited hoping he would get better but he just grew worse. I kept him tranquilized so he was sleeping most of the time but he was so bad that I knew come Monday morning I would have to take him in to be put down. I last checked on him, gave him more meds and cuddled him up a little after midnight. When I put him back to bed he was snoring quite loud. This morning when I awoke he was gone. My heart is breaking for my little boy lost and I wonder how I will ever go on. He was so special to me because when I lost my son he was there for me. When my hubby went back to work and my other son went back to school, he was still there with all his fuzzy kisses and snuggles of encouragment. It made me go on ...for him, for my family. I do take comfort in that he is no longer suffering and I am also so grateful that I was still here. I had planned to be in California by now but thank goodness I had some medical followups of my own come up that I had to stick around for.

Molding Kewpie or Charlotte's

The other day I was working on a silver spoon necklace and I wanted to add a little antique doll. Well the doll was too big for the spoon so I decided to make one from polymer clay. After struggling with it for hours I finally got one I liked...that is when it dawned on me I could have just made a mold of one of my plastic charms to use... so I did that too. I think they came out pretty kewl. I used just regular sculpy and used hand lotion for a release agent. After buttering two slabs with hand lotion, I sandwiched the plastic doll charms between the sculpy, cut it into a cube and separated the halves of the mold. Then I baked the mold. The mold does get hard but you can use the "eraser" sculpy if you want a flexible mold. Once the mold was baked, I painted it with hand lotion again so it would release, then pressed sculpy into it leaving it heaping. I then pressed the top of the mold on and squished them together. After I removed the top I used the excess from the seam edges to lift the little doll out of the other side of the mold, trimmed the seams with an xacto knife, baked them and whala! I am watching a few charms on ebay too so if I win, I can see more molds in my future... being in the Halloween spirit I could not resist adding that little spooky pun :))

Halloween Matchbox Shrine

 

The other day at our local stamp club Lynn Stevens hosted this darling project. I took mine home to finish because I wanted to use this little black cat charm I had. After adding some orange rhinestones for the eyes, I called it finished :))

Cream cheese filled breadsticks

 

 

 I so love having someone to cook for and with all the company I have had this past couple of weeks, I have been doing a lot of cooking. One treat I really love is from one of the frozen pizza brands when came out with a cream cheese filled breadstick. However they are almost $6.00 a package of six : / ouch! I looked everywhere for a recipe for them to no avail so I came up with my own and actually I think my version really tastes better. Since I could not find a recipe for it online I thought I should post it.

 

I start with a simple bread machine recipe for white bread and I use the one for a large loaf.

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons of water
1 tablespoon butter
3 cups of "better for bread" flour (this is not self rising just ground finer)
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon dry milk
1 3/4 tablespoons salt
2 1/2 teaspoons of bread machine yeast or quick-acting active dry yeast

Place all the ingredients in the bread machine in the order listed. Set the machine for large loaf, white bread and dough only.

Once the machine has completed its work prepare the cream cheese filling. You will need,

1, 8 ounce package of cream cheese
1/3 cup granulated sugar
1 egg yolk (reserve the egg white for later)
1 tablespoon flour
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Beat all the ingredients until creamy and set aside, remove the dough from the bread machine and roll it out as thin as you can without making holes. I got mine about 2 foot by 3 foot. Whip the reserved egg white and spread it over the entire dough. Cut the dough into 4 inch by 6 inch sections. On one side of each section pipe a rope of the cream cheese filling. Roll over and over stopping with the seam side down and the filling spiraled in the center. The egg white spread on the dough previously will seal the filling inside. Use a fork to crimp the ends together and place on an air baking sheet that has been lined with parchment paper. Let rise for about 30 minutes, brush with butter and bake at 320 fahrenheit until golden brown. Yummy served hot and will reheat in the microwave as well.

Free Printabe Potion Labels (Limited Time Offer)

 

 

This was a limited time offer and has now expired but these labels are still available at

 my little etsy store.
This week it is my turn to bring a project for my local stamp club and I chose to do some potion bottles. You really can't see the stamping to well in this picture but the bottles are stamped with spiderwebs, bats, grave stones and such.

A few ideas for filling them, I used cream of wheat for the "Organic Bone Meal" I put black food coloring and some star glitter in the "Black of Night" Fuzzy yarn for the "Wool of Bat" and so on.. have a great Halloween!

Rusty Ladies

I just had to share my latest thrift shop find... can you believe these ladies only cost me $4.50!!! Yep that's right, $4.50 for both! They had some problems though. The head had been broken off one but was still attached by a rebar that ran down through the center. The other had some hair broken off and was missing and they both had paint chipping and flaking off everywhere. So I brushed them down with a wire brush and used concrete patch to repair the broken head and sculpt some new hair. Once sanded, hubby blew them off with his air compresser and I used my homemade rusting technique on them. Aren't they fun! I think I need to make them some hats and masks... maybe some wings?