I am just plum tickled with myself!

Okay, so I got to rummaging the other day, and I found a cross-stitch that my mom did for me when I turned 21.  Very cute, it's hanging in my craft room now.  But, it was in this large, flat gold box.  Like this:

Not a terribly pretty box...

So, I decided to take this box and do something with it. Partly because I want new wall art, and partly to see if I could.  And because I love some of the pieces my friend Jessie over at Points for Creativity has been doing with various surfaces, scrap-booking papers, and Mod Podge. I painted the box black (I have some of Plaid's FolkArt pigment paints.  Man is that stuff thick!  Perfect for a thing like this...) and started selecting papers.  Then I remembered the 1001 copies of Macbeth I own... Okay, not really that many, but I have 4 or 5, at least. Because I am an English teacher, and we do things like that. So, as we're nearing the Halloween-ie season, which always makes me think oddly enough of the Macbeth witches, because they are the quintessential Halloween witch / hag. Plus, I've recently discovered I can draw a rather rudimentary bird, so I decided to use those, too!

And, at Dollar Tree last week, I found these rather hideous shadow-box frames that proclaimed, loudly and often "It's a Boy." So, of course, I had to do something with those. Here's the original, sort of:

Gotta love the Dollar Tree!

Hideous, yes? Anyways, I sanded those down, and painted them black, as well.

So, after the paint finally dried (I hate waiting for paint to dry.  and glue... anything that must dry, really...) I pulled out the old Macbeth and ripped out all the witchy pages (well, except for the ones I had written on while I read the play for class.  yeah, it was that copy...) Then, I sketched out a biggish bird, and Mod Podged the opening scene onto him. Here he is drying:

After I arranged the scrapbook papers to my liking, I took a pic to remember:

Rough draft!

Then I pulled out the Mod Podge!  Cuz, you know, Mod Podge really does rock! Note to self--vellum does not like Mod Podge at all.  It was all sorts of bubbly, and there was NOTHING my brand new brayer (yay! I finally got a brayer!!!) could do to fix it. So I switched out the other vellum pieces I'd been planning on using.  Then, of course, it had to dry!  Joy!

Then I remembered the little frames!  And I thought they would look awfully nice with something to go with the big piece.  So I rummaged in my papers again, and found a few more to match the big piece, cut out two smaller birds, and Mod Podged more bits of the play on them. Once they all dried, I put everything together!

So here's the finished project:

The finished gathering

This is the Hecate scene

The witches are telling Banquo his future.  Poor guy.  Pretty sure it gets him killed...

Just another view

Those two pages of text are the "Double, double, toil and trouble" scene.  One of my favorites.  They add all sorts of unsavory things to the brew!!

The title bird!  

So there it is!  This past weekend's project!

RLW

New to blogger....

So, I'm trying it again.  Blogger that is.  I got all the old Wordpress stuff moved over, but I'm not removing those pages just yet...  I think I got all this stuff figured out, and now I'm going to go craft something, so that I'll have an actual post to put up here soon.  Welcome!!!

Dollar Tree... the untapped crafty resource

Seriously, it is... I cannot tell you how many things I have found at the Dollar Tree that have, eventually, made their way into a craft of some kind (including a pair of earrings that I have gotten more compliments on!  Pics in a minute...)

I've bought scrapbooking papers there, jewelry findings, stickers, weird knicky-knacks, frames, flowers, clear pumpkins (one of the latest purchases!) I even found adhesive there once (okay, it wasn't great, and either the Stampin' Up! Adhesive or Glue Dots work WAAAAAAAAAYYY better, but it's perfect for testing stuff and then ripping it apart again!)

I've seen several discussions recently about craft stores and whatnot, and thought it was time someone came out and said it--sometimes the cheapest supplies help you create the niftiest things.  With that in mind, I thought it might be nice to post pics of some of the things I've made, and have gotten complements on, that I've used Dollar Tree supplies in.  Hope you like them!

Okay, so ages ago, I decided I wanted some blingy earrings.  This is what I came up with:

[caption id="attachment_298" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The Carousel Earrings--made possible by the bead cap there, which came from Dollar Tree. The rest of it--sterling chain and swarovski crystals!"][/caption]

So, I found the end clips, where the card hangs, for these lanyards at the Dollar Tree, in a mix with key chain loops:

[caption id="attachment_83" align="aligncenter" width="227" caption="The hooks came from Dollar Tree, everything else from a craft / bead store."][/caption]

So I mentioned key chains? Yeah, here they are:

[caption id="attachment_82" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The key rings, and possibly the tiger tail, all from Dollar Tree..."][/caption]

And papers!  They have awesome scrapbooking papers (sometimes; admittedly it can be hit or miss). In fact, I've never used the more expensive papers I have, but I've used Dollar Tree papers in every major decoupaging project I've done:

[caption id="attachment_296" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="the tea tray... The base was from Michaels, the papers are Dollar Tree..."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_174" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="All the papers used in this project came from the Dollar Tree..."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_200" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Again, the box came from Michaels, but all that beautiful bright paper came from the Dollar Tree... and maybe the ribbon, too... I can't remember... "][/caption]

So you see?  It's a wonderful resource!  If you haven't been, you should go wander. And don't feel discouraged if you don't find anything.  Maybe they're just having an off day! (and don't get me started on the storage possibilities for all your crafting stuff from the Dollar Tree...)

RLW

The awesomeness that is the Hive

So, a few weeks ago, I joined this new online crafting community called Creating the Hive. It's a wonderful site, and I've met many really wonderful people.  It's such a positive influence, and it's bringing together crafters of vastly different experience and genre, to trade ideas, pump each other's egos, challenge ourselves, and just generally have fun. So far, I've had one of my projects featured (the table I redid a few weeks ago), I've won a contest and received an awesome mystery art grab bag (see the adventures of Boxie) and I've been inspired to try to craft something (even if it's just a blog post) everyday. Admittedly, with 8 classes, that's been a bit hard.  But I'm working it out.

Anyways, I just found another very cool benefit to having joined the Hive--seeing someone's work that I may not have ever run across any other way, and scoring a BEAUTIFUL piece of jewelry out of it for a very good price!  It's a brooch, made of copper, with beads in fall colours and some gorgeous leaves, and the minute I saw it in Faye's post, I knew it had to be mine.  Now, had I not become acquainted with Faye through the Hive, I doubt I would have thought to ask about the shipping.  'Cause, see, Faye lives in Britain, while I live in Florida... But I did!  And so now, it is mine.... muwahhhahhhhahhhahhhh!!!!!!!! :D  I can't wait till it gets here!!!!

I have to go buy a hat....

RLW

The brief adventures ... of Boxie

So, I found a box in my mail today.  She asked if she could come home with me, and told me her name was Boxie.  I told her yes, and here she is in my truck:

When we finally made it inside, she was so happy, she jumped for joy!  I had to catch her:

Here's Boxie getting to know the kittehs, Dobby and Buttercup.  They're not too sure they're pleased about another member in the household...

Here she is hanging out in the craft room, inspecting the paper and the Forest o' upside-down punkins...

Ah, waiting for dinner to warm up!  Boxie is really enjoying that Black Cherry cola!

So cute! All snuggled up on the couch!

Boxie stole the kitteh perch.  Dobby was not much pleased...

That Boxie is trubble, I tell you!  She's whispering to me about the presents she's hiding!

No help for it!  Gotta find the presents!

Look what Boxie was hiding!  A little package all wrapped up so pretty!

Ready to discover the presents!

What a good Boxie!  She brought me a star!

And what's this? An envelope?

It's a pretty, pretty picture!  What a sly Boxie to be hiding such treasures!

Here's Boxie proudly displaying her gifts!

Boxie told me she came from Ms. Alyice, the Dabbling Mum, and the Grab Bag Project.  And she said to spread the word that she has lots of friends who want to come visit! Boxie and I think you should go check it out! :D

Thanks very much to the Dabbling Mum herself, Alyice Edrich!  I had so much fun discovering the art!  That Boxie is a sly one to hide such treasures!

RLW

I got my vanity URL!!! WOOT!!!!!

Okay, so last weekend, I started a Facebook page to help promote Definitive Designs.  I thought long and hard about it, and decided the time was right.  So, I set it all up, and managed to get a wee bit confused several times, and changed my picture a couple of times, but finally it was all ready to go.  And then I went to grab the link to tell people about it, and that silly thing was huge.  So I managed to stumble upon another page that was talking about vanity URLs, but you had to have 25 fans before you could get it.  So I just checked my page a little bit ago, and WOO-HOO I got 25 fans!  Yay!!!!!!!! So now, I have my vanity URL in Facebook!  Yippee!!!!!!!!!

Here's the page: http://www.facebook.com/definitivedesignsbyrwilson Stop on by and leave me a note!  Looking forward to seeing you there!!!

RLW

There's a new Facebook page in town!! :)

Yup! Yup, there is! And it's cool!  Last weekend, I started a Facebook page to help promote Definitive Designs.  I thought long and hard about it, and decided the time was right (see, I'm still a very small business-y thing, so I thought if I started it now, it'd be there when I really needed it!)

You can find it here.  This is just a place to post info about shop happenings and the blog, and to hopefully keep my confusing life a bit more organized!

Thanks!

R. Wilson

And the session is now in full swing!

So I started teaching my final class of the session today. It's a very small class--I have 12 enrolled, 8 made it this morning.  so that's very much awesome.

Lazy-Crafty Saturday Meanderings

So, I didn't do much today.  Okay, I take that back--I got most of that pesky prep work done for the class I have that starts Monday.  So, you know, there's that.  And I requested an invitation to Meylah.com, which I received, so I'll have that to work on, too.  And I made 4 more punkin tealights.  And I worked on the planning stages of a necklace for an action figure that a friend requested (she makes them--so cool!) And I planned the colors for the 5 African Helix bracelets I've had ordered.

But for some reason, I don't feel like I did much.  Maybe because it was mostly enjoyable, and I didn't feel too much pressure and when I tired of one thing I moved on to another?  Maybe.

Anyway, here are some pics of the very few things I took pics of (I'm really liking the photo-blogging idea.  Now I just need to get some easy-to-use photo-editing software... iPhoto is a bit odd to me in that way...)

[caption id="attachment_243" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="it's the FolkArt forest of drying punkins..."][/caption]

Oh, one other nifty thing I did.  You know those measuring tapes they have at Ikea?  The paper ones they give you 'cuz no one ever thinks to bring an actual tape measure to the store?  Well, yeah, last time I was there I stole a handful.  So I could do this:

[caption id="attachment_244" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="theft! for a good crafty cause..."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_245" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="I podged it on the table...."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_247" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="And there's the forest of dryin' punkins in the background..."][/caption]

Cool, huh!

Hope you have a great Sunday!

RLW

Per Jess's request, for "Pictures nao!!!!! :D"

It has been brought to my attention that I was an unintentional tease a wee bit ago, so in deference to the "Pictures nao!!!!! :D" command from Ms. Jessie, here's some pics.  Some of them are even of things I'm working on! LOL!

[gallery columns="2"]

RLW

Don't wanna do it no more...

...and so I'm not.  At least for now.  See, I've spent the last 3 hours trying to do the schedule for the class that starts Monday.  And it's not hard (in fact, it's mostly done, I just have to condense a few weeks from the full-session schedule) but I just don't wanna do it.  And since it's Friday night, I'm not.  Instead, I'm going to ponder my latest project(s)for a bit, while I watch The Proposal (very cute so far.) I watched The Ugly Truth earlier.  Also cute!  This is probably contributing to my inability to concentrate on school.  And really, it's Friday night, so why was I trying to work? Oh yeah, I remember, I panicked for a moment! I have another class starting Monday! eek!!! Eh, I'll get it all worked out. I always do.

But anyways!  Back to my crafties!!!  So, I'm working on an entry for Plaid's Trick Your Pumpkin contest.  So I took an exacto knife to the Michaels pumpkin I bought yesterday.  It was fun. Now, I need to figure out what else to do.  I have some ideas... we'll see!  And, I found a stack of Ikea tealight holders I bought ages ago, and decided to play with them, too!  I made a punkin!  It's cute.  Pics later.  And I bought a bird house that I started painting earlier today. Not sure exactly how that's going to end up, but I'm sure it'll be cute.

So I think I'm going to play a bit more in my craft room. I can't wait to see what I come up with!  hee hee hee...

RLW

Biggish day for lil' ol' me!!!

So, last week, as I begged my boss and all the office ladies to vote for my Art with Heart piece (which they did!  So, yay!!!) they also asked to see what else I made.  So, today, or I guess, yesterday now, I took all my work in so they could see.  And guess what!  I sold a pair of earrings, and have orders for five, (yes, FIVE) African Helix bracelets. YAY!!!!!!!

I know it's not much, but it makes me happy! :)  And now, I get to play on Artbeads and buy some new seeds and druks. Whoo-hoo!!!!!

I also ordered the kit for Art with Heart Cycle 3, and I cannot WAIT to get that sucker!  Here's a link; check out those colours. How gorgeous are those!  And that focal!  I'm tempted to get a few of those just to have on hand. I can feel a fabulous piece in the offing!

Well, that's it for my quick update.  Look for some new pieces in the shop in a few days, and have a great weekend!

R.Wilson

Craftin' Cards!

So, after I decorated my cute lil' jewelry box the other day, I gathered up all my shtuff to take it back up to the craft room... which was, not to put too fine a point on it, an utter mess... In some respects it still is... But, I decided I could do something about the table, which is, after all, my main craft area. So I started gathering, and tossing things that had no use (bits of plastic string from beads mostly.  No fear--I kept all the good stuff!) and organizing the left-over beading stuff from the other stuff.  See, a few months ago, I felt it necessary to move all my jewelry making stuff down to the coffee table.  I was getting overwhelmed.  And there it has stayed since.  But, it has gotten used!!! So the craft room is now a bit more focused on mostly paper crafts and painting/Mod Podge projects.

As I gathered, I ran across lots of random bits of cardstock, mostly of the small-but-I-can't-throw-it-out-because-I-might-find-a-use-for-it-one-day variety.  So, I started organizing all my paper bits.  4 folders and one box later, I can actually find things. woo-hoo!!!! And in with the smallish bits, I found 13 pieces of card-ish sized cardstock.  So, there was nothing for it but that I play (although, I did finish organizing the table first--after all, gotta have a work space!)

Here's the newly organized table:

[caption id="attachment_222" align="aligncenter" width="491" caption="Imagine this as a huge heaping mess, and you'll have the before picture...."][/caption]

So after I cleaned it all up and found all my stamp pads and got organized again, I creased all the paper, made the cuts I needed to square things up, and set to work.  I actually set myself a little challenge--I would not, under any circumstances, touch another full-sized piece of paper.  The goal was to try to use up as much of the bitsy bits as possible (sad to say, I still have loads of them left...)  I am happy to report--I succeeded!!  13 cards in all, with varying degrees of difficulty, and using all manner of fun bits. I really had a blast with this, and I think I will definitely set myself another task like this in the future.

Here's a smallish list of what I used: mostly Stampin' Up! stamps (I primarily stuck to just one set of sayings I have); the plain cardstock was mainly Stampin' Up! as well, and all the patterned bits were things I've been gathering over the years, mostly from Michaels and the Dollar Tree (in fact, you'll recognize some from the patchwork table and the jewelry box I decorated over the past two weeks.)   Likewise, all my accent pieces are things I've been gathering, from all manner of craft store.  Oh, but I did make rat use of the Creative Memories circle cutter I got from my friend Sara (I love my friends who want to be crafty but just don't carry through--I get their stuff, usually! yay!!!) Oh, and I used Mod Podge on one!

Here are the pics:

[caption id="attachment_208" align="aligncenter" width="819" caption="the 'montage' shot!"][/caption]

This first one has the Mod Podge.  I actually based the bird on a pic I saw over at The Dabbling Mum, whom I found through Creating the Hive.

[caption id="attachment_210" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="after I ink'd him & blend'd him, I m'podge'd him! "][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_209" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="girly! "][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_211" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="I love the colors!!!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_212" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="hi..."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_213" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="I maybe should have stopped while I was ahead with this one, but it's still cute!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_214" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="a pretty thanks!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_215" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="yeah, I had bit of purple floating around..."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_217" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="You never know when you'll need a Get Well card..."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_218" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="These are supplies mostly from a Card-making club I briefly joined..."][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_219" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Friends Forever!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_220" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="I love the cat heads!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_221" align="alignleft" width="300" caption="Chipboard buttons! and Embroidery thread! woot!!!"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_223" align="alignleft" width="225" caption="Circling..."][/caption]