Taking Photos...

Picture taking is not my strong suit...  I don't totally suck at it, but nor am I anything even remotely resembling a photographer.  I'd like to be, but.. yeah, not so much....

So, any-who, I've spent the past 2 weeks (only because of that silly job thing) re-taking and editing, to the best of my ability, all the photos of all the items in my Artfire Shop. It's been a lot of fun, but also a lot of work.  Especially when the computer wouldn't always recognize the new photos in iPhoto.  But I finally got it all done, and the shop is all newly updated with better pics... And, I have a Pro account, now, so it's all pretty and organized!  You should go check it out!  :D

R.Wilson

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