Upcycled Mixed Media Wall Art

Hi all,

Today I'm sharing a piece I did for the Creating With Joy blog, where we use Joy iron-on letters in our artwork and crafts.  Take a look there for my materials and instructions on how to create your own canvas.

Upcycled Sunflowers

I collect and re-use materials like cardboard coffee sleeves and the foil that seals coffee cans.  (And, a lot of other stuff!)  I like the coffee sleeves as they come in a lot of different textures.  I used three different textures here.  And, the foil is really fun.  It usually has a texture, too; and, it can be cut and bent easily.  The Joy Iron-on letters can be painted or dyed as you like and add a nice dimension to the piece.  So, save some of these fun materials and create your own fall art.  These materials are easy enough for kids to use, too.

(I am a member of the design team for Joy iron-on letters and receive their product with which to create my art.  Check out the Creating with Joy blog for more great ideas from our design team.)

Happy Fall Y'All

Fall Banner

I love creating projects for fall.  Although I will miss summer, I love the fresh coolness of rain, bright warm harvest colors and the rich spicy smell of pumpkin pies or bread baking in the oven.

Today on the Designer Crafts Connection, we're creating designs with Kunin® felt.  Participating designers received a package of felt and trim to use in their design.

Here's what I received - Olive, White, Prickly Purple, Lemon Frost, Ocean Blue and Pumpkin Spice felt along with some fun pom pom trim.

To this, I added a few more pieces of felt - Yellow, Light Yellow, Orange and a nice rusty brown called Copper Canyon.  I also bought a few more pieces - Olive and more Pumpkin Spice (never enough Pumpkin Spice!).  They were 4 for $1 on sale at JoAnn's!  There were so many wonderful colors, I wanted to bring them all home!

The Olive piece that I received is a larger craft cut (12" x 18") that is also heavier (Kunin® Premiumfelt).  It's the perfect size and weight for a banner.  All the rest of the felt I used were the 9"x12" craft cuts of Kunin® Classicfelt.

Here's a list of what I used and where I used it:

Olive - banner (Premiumfelt) and loops (Classicfelt)
Pumpkin Spice - pumpkin back, leaves, small letters, owl eyes, owl front and wings, sunflower center
Goldenrod - large letters, leaves
Lemon Frost - owl eyes, sunflowers
Light Yellow - sunflowers
Yellow - sunflowers
Prickly Purple - leaves
Copper Canyon - owl back, pumpkin stem, sunflower centers
Orange - pumpkin front divisions

To create this banner, I used JOY letters as patterns, traced and cut out the letters.  The owl and pumpkin are simple shapes that I cut out freehand.  And, the leaves and flowers were cut on a Big Kick with dies.  The sunflowers are two or three different colors layered together.  I assembled the pieces and glued them onto the banner with tacky glue.  Then, I added highlights with yellow baby rick rack, buttons and yellow floss.  I glued loops of olive felt to the top with hot glue and made a dowel hanger with large wooden beads on the ends.

I found out a few interesting facts about Kunin® felt that I didn't know.  Did you know that you can use it outdoors?  So, I can hang my banner among my flowers or in my entry as well as in my kitchen!

In my kitchen

And, Kunin® felt is made from used plastic bottles.  It only takes 12 bottles to make one pound of fabric.  I love that something so beautiful comes from recycled bottles!  Here's a graphic from their website that shows the process:
Visit the website for more information on the manufacture of  Kunin® felt.  And, be sure to visit our Designer Crafts Connection blog for all the fun felt designs.  We always have loads of great ideas to inspire your diy projects.

I hope you feel inspired to create with Kunin® felt; it's such a family-friendly craft product so you can get everyone involved from kids to grandparents! 

Best of Jewelry Stringing

Hi all!

I just received my copy of Best of Jewelry Stringing magazine in which I have a small part.  It's so nice to see Stringing again.  I love looking at all the beautiful designs for inspiration.  They always have the most interesting designs with innovative uses of components.  As a jewelry designer, it's always been one of my favorites and I was sad to see it go earlier this year. 

Get your copy of the Best of Jewelry Stringing today and maybe they'll bring the magazine back!  (I can always hope, right?)

Best of Jewelry Stringing 2017

These are the earrings they chose for the magazine.

Chandelier Earrings

Also, if you like the style of Stringing, there are some designs included in Interweave's bead stitching magazine, Beadwork, under Fast and Fabulous.

Happy Creating!

PS  My earrings were featured in the Beading Daily blog post.  Thanks, Debbie!

Etched Glass Sugar Skull

Hi all,

When I saw this glass skull at Michaels, I knew exactly what I wanted to do with it.  I wanted to etch it!

I coated the outside of the skull with etchall® etching crème.

Skull coated with etchall® etching crème

Here is the skull after etching.  It's now ready to paint.  Etching gives the glass a "tooth", a rough surface that makes it easy to paint.

At first, my thought was to paint it with some brown stain to make it look like a very old skull.  I still like that idea.  My second idea was to paint it as a sugar skull with bright, colorful motifs.  That sounded more interesting.

To start, I painted it with white acrylic paint.  The first coat I put on with brush strokes.  Then, I went over it with a soft brush pouncing to cover the brush strokes. 

Here's how it looked at this stage:

I added black paint in the eye sockets, nose and around the teeth.  Then, I added acrylic stickers in bright colors and different shapes and sizes.  It still needed more, so I added some paint dots in bright colors.

Add a few bright flowers like marigolds or zinnias for a bright and festive decoration.

Etched Glass Sugar Skull

This is an easy project that would be fun for all ages, and it's so easy to get started with etchall® etching crème.

The acrylic paint I used to accent the skull is from DecoArt®