Driving Miss Crazy

After I took a class with Linda and Opie O'Brien, I came home ready to rivet and grommet everything in sight.  I cut a copper base with my new metal-sawing skills and mounted a vintage chauffeur's badge from 1951 onto it.  I added an old chandelier crystal and hung it from some sparkly vintage rosary beads attached to a stainless steel chain. Now I just need a chauffeur and a limo!

Dinner is Knitted!

I found the pattern for this adorable creature on Dirigo-Knitting by the Sea and knew I had to make it.  I used Queensland Collection Merino Spray yarn  in orange, which knits into a nice boiled-lobster-shell shade of orange.  One skein was enough to make two lobsters, so now we have Clawdia and Clawdio!

Rattus rattus

Dissection without the mess!  One of my favorite things to do when I'm procrastinating is to look at etsy.  Imagine my delight when I found this pattern!

It was my first attempt at needlefelting...what fun!  

I am going to give him to a science teacher at my school who is also a knitter.  She's going to be speechless!

New Echo Challenge: Stripes

This week's challenge at Always Chrysti and Ilka's Attic is "stripes".  Below are some colorful toy guitars on Olivera Street in Los Angeles.

A beautiful old building 

The Train Station in L.A.

The Grille of a Classic Car Seen on Rodeo Drive

  

Fairy Tale Come True Necklace

This is the second necklace that I salvaged from my attempt to make "Sally Jean Alexander's Love Bird Necklace".  As I described in my previous post, the end result sadly ended up in the junk pile.  

I could not get the solder "beads" that are around the piece to be a consistent size, even though I learned how to make them in Sally Jean's Soldering for Virgins class.  I'm sure it will come in time but to solve the problem, I snipped individual balls from a sterling-plated ball-chain and soldered them on.  That certainly takes a steady hand!  The necklace is also reversible:

Dangling from the heart is a blue bead from a Peyote Bird watch that I wore until it died beyond repair.  A stainless steel chain closes with a sterling silver toggle clasp that I bought many years ago at a trunk show at a local bead shop.  I am thrilled with how this turned out!

My Soldered Masterpiece

Last summer, I spotted a class taught by Sally Jean Alexander called "The Love Bird Necklace".  Unfortunately, it was already sold out.  I figured since I had taken a class from her in the past, maybe I could figure out how to make it on my own.  It took all summer of trial and error...soldering and unsoldering, and when it was finally done, it weighed a ton and didn't hang right.  At the end of it all, I had learned why it's better to take a class (the instructor has already made all of the mistakes and can steer you around them) and I had a pile of what seemed like junk at the time.  Well just the other day, I pulled it out of the junk heap and took it apart and put it together into a different necklace and I love it!  If you love it too, it is for sale on etsy!

I drew bird shapes on glass and used a glass grinder to shape the pieces.  Because the collage is sandwiched between two pieces of glass, getting them to be the same shape and size was the first challenge!

Antique chandelier crystals give it a touch of sparkle.

The beautiful pewter bird is by Lynn Davis and is perfect for this piece!  An Artgirlz Spikey Heart charm finishes it off.  

I learned many things by attempting this project...most importantly, don't throw out anything that you are disappointed with.  Put it away and then look at it again someday.  And when given a choice, take the class!!!

Echo Challenge

I found an interesting photography challenge via Deryn Mentock's Something Sublime blog.  Two bloggers: Always Chrysti and Ilka's Attic have chosen "Market" as this week's theme.  My husband and I just got back from Los Angeles, where we stayed at a hotel right across the street from LA's Farmer's Market.  Here are some glimpses into our adventure!

The colors and scents were intoxicating:

We saw unusual fruits:

There was temptation everywhere:

There was some dark humor (photo by Peter Folks):

I loved the old-timers:

It was a magical place:

Star Spangled Triple Berry Cobbler

I took my favorite berry cobbler recipe and used a cookie cutter to make stars instead of "cobbles".  Happy 4th of July!

Coming Together

I've had lots of charms rattling around the house since I learned how to solder.  I sold a necklace to a neighbor, who told a friend...long story short...I ended up selling 6 necklaces last week!  Well that inspired me to put those charms on chains and get busy.  I'm going to photograph the individual necklaces and put them on etsy, but in the meantime, I'm so excited about my progress that I thought I'd share.

St. Patrick's Day Collage

I've been practicing my Photoshop layering and blending skills.  Believe it or not, this has a whopping 17 layers!  Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Digital Valentine

This turned out great!  I experimented with thinking of each layer as adding a color or a texture instead of thinking of the actual photograph.  I started with the photo of the barn that the instructor provided.  I layered a photo of sunset over the wetlands that my husband took.  By setting it on "color burn" mode, it added a fiery glow.  Then I added two layers of the same garden photo on top, repositioning them to add bursts of color here and there.  On top of that is a layer of a cement texture to mellow out the colors and a textured frame to finish the edges.  The cowboy is an extracted image from a vintage valentine.  I finished it by thinking of some descriptive text to add.  Yeehaw!  Happy Valentine's Day!!!

Ferris Wheel Part 2

I started over on the Ferris Wheel project and followed the steps carefully.  It now has a softer glow to it.  I like both versions...apples and oranges, right?

Ferris Wheel Part 1

This was a complicated project with many layers and many steps.  Somehow, I missed a step and my Ferris Wheel ended up with a neon-pink glow.  I like it, though.

The Latest...

I can't take credit for being original with this collage but I sure did learn a lot.  In this lesson, we followed DJ's step-by-step layering process for creating a digital collage.  Sounds easy, right?  Still, it took me all night because I discovered if you mess up on a layer, you can just add more layers on top of it.  Let's just say this collage has MANY layers!

Hey Look! My Hat Matches My Tail!

OK. I know this is a busy mess but you have to admit, it's funny.  I was practicing everything I've learned so far in Photoshop.  Next lesson: moderation!

Look What I've Done to the Cat!

This week in my on-line Photoshop class, we learned how to extract part of a photo from its background.  This has opened up a world of possibilities!!!  No photo is safe now!

Buzzing Collage

Having fun with Photoshop!

Whew! I Learned a Lot!

 

The most important lesson I learned was this: when you are talking on the phone, don't keep hitting the delete button or else you'll lose a layer or two.  But on the other hand, it was much easier the second time around!

I Can't Believe I Know How to do This!

Here's my latest Photoshop project!  We are now learning how to blend images together in DJ Pettit's online class.  This one is for you, Bambi, my biggest fan!

Photoshop Project

My Cowboy Kerchief quilt has taken a backseat since my online Photoshop class started.  The first week was beyond frustrating as the kinks were worked out of the class.  The class is running smoothly now and I've let go of my idea of perfection.  I was trying to make my projects as beautiful as the instructor's but then I realized that I'm just a beginner.  Now I just go for it!  The nice thing is that if it turns out awful, there's the handy delete button.  Much quicker than a seam ripper!

Ride On!

Well, I didn't finish this quilt by New Year's Day (what was I thinking?), but I'm making good progress!

Cowboy Campfire

My quilting goal is sure helping me clean out the DVR!  Quilting and watching a movie are a nice way to spend an afternoon.