Crafty Recuperating Recap!
Hello! I am finally back after having to take a unwanted break thanks to getting the flu, then pneumonia which caused a partial lung collapse. Now that I am in better health it’s time to share all the projects I have been making for Amazing Casting Products while I have been recuperating and getting back on track with arts and crafting goodness!
Starting with the photo above I tried my hand at Resin Paper Jewelry, using imported papers from India. They were simple to make, highlighted the beautifully textured paper and became rather sturdy with the coating of resin.
My next project was born out of necessity. I have a collection of polyurethane Cabochon molds my mother had bought and used 45+ years ago. I now use them regularly to create many of my cabochon pieces. However when the molds get old and used a lot they can slowly become brittle. Well, brittle molds don’t take too well to being flexed and I shattered two of my best cabochon molds. See how I created new Cabochon Molds!
Since I have a fondness for Southwestern art and Celestial patterns, I wanted to try making my own Sun Disk Wall Plaques for my garden.
I had fun with a Tree Bark Texture Plate I made years ago but this time I created polymer clay pendants coated in resin and embellished with crystals in this Tree Bark Jewels Necklace.
Seeing the new home decor trend of blue and white country tiles and pottery, I wondered if I could attempt my own version with everyday craft supplies and without the need of a kiln! My Faux Delft Tile Decor ended up being a fun and new way to use acrylic paint, polymer clay and resin.
I spend a lot of time working out ideas and testing out craft supplies to see what might be possible with future projects. Some don’t work out, some are happy accidents and others a success. Here is a few of my Resin Tips and Tricks.
In the process of sorting my beads recently I noticed the hard plastic containers many small beads come in have perfectly smooth and glossy lids. I was able to make new resin pendant molds and create a selection of Springtime Pendants with dried plants, stickers and resin!
I hope these projects keep you inspired and Until Next Time, Safe Travels!
Craft & Hobby Association Mega Show 2016 part 2
Time for my Craft & Hobby Association Mega Show 2016 recap, part 2! My last Post about this year’s winter Craft and Hobby Association Mega Show was about the Amazing Casting Products/Alumilite Corp booth at CHA, and this one will be of the booths and displays that really caught my eye. While there was so many more I didn’t get a chance to take photos of, thankfully many of the new products seen at CHA will be hitting craft and hobby stores in the next few months!
Spinrite Yarns, otherwise known as Yarnspirations, had a lovely color pallet of cable knit dresses with matching wigs made out of Caron yarn. The dresses were truly fashionable and designed for the modern woman.
The talented Megan Kreiner was signing copies of her book, Crochet a Farm: 19 Cute-as-Can-Be Barnyard Creations which after seeing her adorable creations in person I had to get a copy.
Along with her farm animals book she had crochet samples from her other book, Bathtime Buddies: 20 Crocheted Animals from the Sea, which this little Angler Fish pattern comes from.
The Angler Fish also has a rather cute Octopus buddy, that I just adore.
Simplicity Creative Group had a wonderful display of cosplay and costume patterns of comic book characters. Inspired by the new Daredevil series, they created a awesome Steampunk style female Daredevil using their current line of Steampunk costume patterns.
Since Simplicity now caries officially licensed Marvel Avengers patterns, Captain America and Thor costumes made an appearance along with a Thor inspired cocktail dress.
They also carry the classic DC Wonder Woman costume pattern and using their Steampunk mini dress and jacket pattern a Steampunk alternate reality version was made!
Not to be forgotten is the classic BatGirl costume pattern and an mod era BatGirl inspired party dress.
A welcomed surprise was Games Workshop, who had a booth in the new vendors section. Since I was young and started getting into painting and creating model miniatures I have bought their products. Originally their miniatures were metal but now they have highly detailed plastic figures and amazing line of non toxic acrylic paints that create so many finishes and textures. Their paints bond to many materials such as plastic, resin, polymer clay, metal and more!
I was graciously given this wonderful selection of Games Workshop’s minis and paints. I can’t wait to try them!
One of my favorite events at CHA is the Friday night Block Party they host right before the show opens. Great food, music, make n takes, prizes and networking, for sure a not-to-miss event! Here is a photo of my ever supportive husband and I, after a long day of booth setup enjoying the evening’s festivities. Without his help and friendship I wouldn’t be able continue with my art career.
See you at the next CHA!
Until Next Time, Safe Travels!
Craft & Hobby Association Mega Show 2016 part 1
Time for my Craft & Hobby Association Mega Show 2016 recap, part 1! CHA, otherwise know as the Craft and Hobby Association, has a Mega Trade Show once a year, full of arts and crafts manufacturers, new products, tech, demos, classes, designer showcases, new trends and networking galore.
In this part of the recap I will be focusing on the Amazing Casting Products/Alumilite Corp booth at CHA. The Amazing Casting Products Design Team, of which I am proud member of, was asked to submit some of our best projects to be showcased at their booth and to do demos. I took loads of photos of the booth so lets take a tour of the booth, see the artwork and meet the artists showcased!
First day of artists doing demos at the booth, Design Team Leader Susan M. Brown, Tina Walker, Melissa Johnson and I. It was so wonderful to see Susan again and finally meet Tina and Melissa in person!
Elena Lai Etcheverry of Charity Wings stopped by the booth to talk to President of Alumilite, Mike Faupel, about all of the crafty applications and products of the amazing Casting Products line!
This year I decided to create some booth samples showing not just traditional uses for resin but how Amazing Clear Cast can be applied to paper, canvas and dried plant life.
Here is a close up of my 16X20 Autumn canvas, I wanted to show how simple papercrafting supplies could create a lovely home decor piece. The base layer is canvas painted with acrylic paint, with a thin layer of Amazing Clear Cast, some glitter and tiny gold beads. To the second layer of resin I added Alumidust powders, more glitter, mica flakes and tiny paper leaves. The third and final layer had a base of glitter and top layer of resin to seal all of the embellishments in.
Here is my 16X20 Abstract canvas, which reminds me of a Nebula. I started by casting some cabochons in Amazing Casting Resin and Amazing Clear Cast tinted with Alumilite’s Dyes and metallic powders. I painted the canvas with acrylic paint and poured a layer of clear resin, placing the cabochons on the canvas, along with different glitters and small beads. The next two layers were applied in a manner similar to the Autumn canvas.
Mike Faupel commissioned these stunning wood and dyed resin pieces from an artist in Michigan. They were created by pouring Amazing Clear Cast over wood and carved on a wood lathe.
More of my jewelry and Remelt samples on display at the booth. The Mesoamerican necklace tutorial can be found here.
Here is a close up of some of the new resin jewelry pieces I made as booth samples for this year’s CHA show.
An associate of Mike Faupel created this wonderful and rather fun Pangaea chess set. It’s all made out of Amazing Casting Resin and molds made of Amazing Mold Rubber. The artist who created the set made sure each dinosaur had a different facial expression and were all hand painted!
Melissa Johnson‘s beautiful food safe hand painted resin plates were just lovely in person. You can see one of Brenda Burfeind‘s wine bottle shaped resin cheese platters next to the plates, to the left one of Lyn Gill‘s polymer and resin pendants, and on the right you can see one of Sandra Strait‘s hand painted mini fish ponds.
The booth was just full of beautiful Design Team artwork, from Susan M. Brown, Melissa Johnson, Lyn Gill, Maria Soto, Rachel Whetzel and more, along with pieces made by Cat Kerr; my photo doesn’t do her work justice so please make sure to hope over to her blog to see her work!
There was even more amazing work from Cat Kerr, Tina Walker, Sandra Strait, and Aimée Wheaton.
This beautiful model miniature was made of out Amazing Casting Products, from the rocks, water and inner core by the very talented Lloyd’s Layouts. Their use of resin and mold making products to create realistic miniature scenes is outstanding!
The handsome Santa in the background was made with Amazing Casting Resin and my “Cosmic Radiation” gown was on on display again at the booth
For demos at CHA I decided to show how to apply resin, powders, glitters and beads to acrylic painted mini 5X7 canvases. Each day of the show I showed to apply a new layer of resin with embellishments. People responded so well the demos I already have two orders for the mini canvas art!
Once home I sanded the edges of the canvases and prepared them for the final coat of resin. I can’t wait to make more.
Come back later for Craft & Hobby Association Mega Show 2016 post, part 2!
Until Next Time, Safe Travels!
A December Crafting Recap!
December has come and gone so quickly! The holidays have been a whirlwind of making gifts, food, festive events and cold windy weather. With many shows and special events not only in December, but upcoming in 2016 it has been an ongoing artistic adventure. While some of the art projects I have been working on have yet to be displayed, I wanted to share some of my projects already showcased before the New Year started.
As I have noted in the past I have a serious love for Fiona Accessories beads. Along with their jewelry supplies they also make hand painted beaded bracelets for many holidays and seasons. I had gotten a few of their cute Winter holiday themed bracelets just for fun. While the bracelets are beautiful as is, I got the idea to turn them into earrings.
With the addition of silver spacer beads, earring wires and decorative head pins I was able to create festive earring sets and still have many beads left over for other projects.
With the help of using Amazing Casting Products Clear Cast Resin, Fiona Accessories beads and papercrafting supplies I created a series of handmade jewelry. You can check out the tutorial to make your own HERE.
A local SoCal High Desert historic site, The Antelope Valley Indian Museum, held a Holidays on the Homestead event in December. The historic grounds were decorated in vintage holiday style with live acoustic music around a campfire, a chili cook-off, tours of the grounds, and a handcrafted country craft boutique! With all the jewelry I had been making it made perfect sense to get a booth in the craft boutique. Even though it was a chilly night, I sold many pieces of jewelry and loved being in a hall surrounded by art.
Hope you take Amber’s suggestion of staying warm and happy this Winter. Wishing you all a Happy and Healthy New Year!
Until Next Time, Safe Travels!
A Fall Cozy Crafting Recap
November has come and gone so quickly it is startling! Things have been so busy and I of course have to share some of my art and crafting goodness.
With an early cold snap hitting our area early, forcing a harvest all of my pepper crop, I was left scrambling to try to find ways to use them up! I dried some, saved seeds for next year, cooked all kinds of spicy foods but I was still left with buckets of peppers. Then I thought of of making pepper relish!
Using a simple but great Hot Pepper Relish Recipe from Serious Eats I was able to use up all the peppers. I made a few changes to the recipe using heirloom Jalapeno, Sapporo, Pepperoncini, Serrano, and Anaheim peppers and I didn’t have cider vinegar so I used white vinegar with a bit of fresh apple cider. The jars of relish were eaten so quickly, I already have requests to make more next season.
Another “harvest” I decided to share was making my own Bead Soup bags from all the extra beads I have in my beading supplies. Each bag I filled to the brim with a wonderful assortment of glass, metal, acrylic, stone, clay and wood beads to help start a day with creative goodness! These fun and creative mixes are great gifts to give and perfect for crafty nights.
To relax at night I picked up knitting again this time trying out chunky weight yarn from the Bernat Viva line in Burgundy using Clover Bamboo knitting needles, size 15. With two skeins I was able to make my mother a wide scarf and a thin accent scarf for myself. They worked up so quickly I know I will have to make more projects with chunky yarn.
Speaking of crafting addictions, resin jewelry is still a ongoing addiction for me. I love using Amazing Clear Cast Resin for creating my one of kind molding pieces. Lately however I decided to hark to one of the traditional styles of resin jewelry of filling bezels and frames to encapsulate drawings, paper and stickers. My favorite piece out of my most recent crafting whirlwind is the one above using beads and jewelry findings from Fiona Accessories
With the weather rapidly turning cold, I hope you stay warm and cozy as my dear 18 year old kitty Vladimir is with his new winter sweater!
Until Next Time, Safe Travels!
Ancient and Contemporary Inspired Artistry