Snowman Ornament

Today is a quick post … I’m off to Sunset Shores for the weekend where I will be cropping and teaching four classes! Each of the classes is completely different — we’re making a card, an ornament, a mosaic page and an altered spoon. I still have lots to pack and get ready for the event, but I wanted to share the ornament we’ll be making …

This is a group of experienced croppers, so I expect lots of variations on my sample, but we’ll all be starting with a snowman ornament from Globecraft Memories. (If they aren’t available in your area, click on the link to the right to order direct.)

I used a bit of paint and flock to cover the snowman (and discovered after the fact that I should have painted the snowman white so the flock remained white!). For the background, I painted the globe and then added Pure Sparkle Silver glitter.

For this frame, I kept it simple and just used Mermaid Tears Enamel Powder.

The insert and little Piccolo pieces are painted with Cool-Set Enamel. The leaves are coated with Mossy Glen Enamel Powder.

After I finished the pieces, I coated the ring and accents with Glastique for a durable shine.

I think he’s cute and I cannot wait to see what spin my friends put on theirs.

 

Altering Spoons

I have a new addiction … altering spoons. I cannot seem to stop.

Part of the fun is in finding the spoons. Since I am going to be teaching how to alter them at an upcoming retreat at Sunset Shores, I have been searching for them for the past month or so … antique sales, flea markets, Goodwill stores. I have quite a collection that my husband has lovingly either bent or drilled holes into so they can be hung easily.

Yet, although I have more than enough, I can’t help myself from looking for more!

But the fun of altering spoons is more than just hunting for treasures. They are so small and so easy to work with that decorating them is exciting, too. I have been using up a lot of those spare parts I had laying around from other creations, as well as cutting up some Christmas paper.

The one at the top is wrapped in twine. Then, I added a few cutouts from so old paper, which I had inked with Distress Ink. (I found that Glue Lines, made by Glue Dots, and dimensional foam tape seem to work the best at attaching things.) I coated the paper in Glastique to give it some additional strength and a bit of shine.

Then, I added a Piccolo (laser-cut, compressed chipboard) which I coated with Vintage Black Enamel Powder to the front.

Finally, I added a bit of sparkle with some glitter from Globecraft Memories.

 

I fell in love with this print on a sheet of paper from KaiserCraft. I didn’t want it to be a plain rectangle, nor did I want to cut out the children on the sled, so used a Lifestyle Crafts die to cut out an interesting border and then inked it with Distress Ink.

I added Art Glitter Dazzlers to the bottom of the spoon to replicate the snow and tied a bit of tulle to the top.

I sprayed a Maya Road flower with Perfect Pearls Mists to give it a hint of blue and attached that over the tulle.

Then I coated a Piccolo key in Vintage Gold Enamel Powder and added a little plastic flower from Bazzill. I love how soft it turned out and this is one I can keep up all winter …

This last one was inspired by the Piccolo bird cage and little birds. With the exception of the Piccolo parts, tulle and paper, all of the items on this spoon were sitting on my desk in a little bowl my daughter made when she was little. I toss all unused and leftover embellishments in there for later use — although I rarely use them later! Anyhow, I wrapped the spoon in tulle, coated the cage in Vintage Bronze and the birds in Cool-Set Enamel, also from Globecraft Memories. Then I wrapped around a bit of red tinsel (Tim Holtz). I cut the saying out of  a piece of Reminisce paper and added Distress Ink and Glastique to it. I added a bit of Distress Ink onto the flower and attached it.

The crochet flower is handmade by a customer at Capture A Memory in Flint Township. The center piece was a Maya Road plastic flower I airbrushed with a Copic marker and then never used. I think it works perfect here, don’t you?

I hope you have fun trying your own altered spoons … I know we will this weekend in Clare!

 

Goodwill Vase

I am a frequent shopper at Goodwill. It is the perfect place to find things to alter and you all know how I love to alter.

This little jar has been at my local Goodwill for several weeks. Each time I walk by, I want to buy it, but I never know what to do with it.

I finally decided to buy two of them to try a painting technique I wanted to use on larger jars. That experiment did not go so well. Let’s just say, this little jar’s friend will spend his days in the garbage dump.

I was totally frustrated when my husband suggested enameling the jar. Thinking the jar would shatter under the intense heat, I said no, but then decided to try it anyway. I figured the worse that could happen would be a mess to clean up and a trip to the ER.

First, I wrapped a bit of Tissue Tape by Tim Holtz (masking tape would work as well) around the lip of the vase to mark off an area and then coated it liberally with Piccolo Enamel Powder Adhesive and then with a layer of 24K Gold Enamel Powder.

The glass didn’t break, so I kept going — coating the entire jar with Enchanted Aubergine.

 

This is the point I remembered to take a photo … you can see it was just a clear jar. I have about 1/3 of it coated at this point.

 

 

I went very slowly — doing a section and then allowing it to cool completely before doing the next section. I used scissors to hold it after a while, because the entire jar heats up each time you heat a small space.

 

 

And this is how it looked when it was done. I decided to redo a bit of the gold along the top, since I wrecked some of it trying to hang onto the vase.

I love how the different-sized particles stuck to certain areas of the vase. It makes it very interesting.

Then, I decided to add some Piccolo decor to the top. I coated them with Cool-Set Enamel in white. Because they are cut very intricately with a laser, I was able to mold the compressed chipboard Piccolo around the vase.

Here is a closer look at the Piccolo pieces. (These are from Card Decor Set 1, if you are interested in buying them).

And here is my finished vase. My husband said it reminded him of art glass and that’s the biggest compliment I can get!