Altered Charm Swap Results - Pt II

Here is the next installment of altered "mixed media" charms from our charm swap. 

( I know there are lots of photos and it takes a while to load but it is so worth it!  These charms are really amazing. .... Now you see why I'm posting them in 3 installments. - LOL!!)

 

Today's first charm was created by Von using stamped, alcohol inked and twisted shrink plastic.

Each charm was unique and special in it's own way.

Next are Diane K's charms which each featured a different bead configuration. 

Diane correct me if I'm wrong but I believe that many of the featured beads were hand made.

Sandy L. created the "Bliss" charm using  variety of stamps, inks, chain and shrink plastic! 

Simply lovely!

Sherry E. created this vintage sewing themed charm which was decorated with a pattern & vintage woman on one side and was stamped with white ink onto a black background on the other.  Each charm was then adorned with different metal sewing related charms.

She also used the TH dress form die as her "tag" to hang it from!

Pam J created 3 sets of charms for the swap.  The first set has a very unique and modern feel.  The base is a piece of screen with 3 washers (alcohol inked) mounted on the screen and a tiny butterfly attached.   Her second set also has a butterfly theme but with a touch of wire wrapped around a piece of laminate sample!  Finally her third set was a bottle cap charm that incorporated several different vintage images.  All very pretty.

Carolyn  created 3 sets as well.  Her first set had assorted vintage children with a Halloween theme (check out her adorable bats that were holding each charm); Her next set had a very regal feel with various images of this queen (I think) on a poker chip she painted copper! Finally her third set was created from a puzzle piece taken from a map of the united states....you can see my piece has fragments of Pennsylvania and Virginia.  On each piece she added a vintage image of a child.  Each set so very unique!

Shirley was away on business but took a pile of beads and findings to create some beautiful beaded charms.  Each charm was different but all very beautiful!

Debbie V created 3 sets of charms and hers each had a unique flair to them.  The first set had an eye catching bright red skull for it's focal point and was paired with a "typewriter key" looking charm.  I'm not exactly sure what she made her next set from (maybe she will fill us in) but it looks like a small piece of glass or acrylic which she has adorned with a few additional pieces.  Her third set consisted of a pendant which housed a variety of vintage images covered with Glossy Accents (or something similar).  Told you...each very unique but also way cool!

Jo J. created two sets the first being a rockin' felted ball!!!  I've always wanted to try this...I even have the yarn, just have to find time to do it.  Her second charm incorporated a beautiful painted bead as it's focal point which was paired with blue and green faceted beads.

Both very lovely!

Candy C made a beautiful assortment of charms each with a pendant housing a different message or image in each.  They in turn were adorned with a variety of pieces.  I loved this saying and couldn't pass it by!

Sherry (a.k.a. Creatology) made three very different sets... the first being a unique charm made with what looks like a pony tail holder or rubber "o" ring...I can't tell which.  It was embellished with bits of copper wire (mmmm gotta love copper) and pink beads!  Her second set was tempting enough to make a person crave chocolate!  These charms featured various images of chocolate treats on each side....I chose my fav. a buckeye!!  Yum!  Finally her third set reminded me of autumn or Christmas with the beautiful pine cone image and assorted beads!

Peggy R's charm was this fun and funky fabric and bead arm with a delicate hand charm!!

Told you it was an amazing swap!!!

Bet you just can't wait to go make a few charms of your own

or if you're in the swap you're ready to pounce on the mail man huh - LOL!!!

Altered Charm Swap Results - Pt I

I had so many requests to see the charms I thought I would start sharing them over the next few days. 

So here is the first installment....  

They are in no paticular order and I tried to describe them to the best of my guessing skills.  I hope that the makers will post and take a bow as there are some wonderful creations here!

ENJOY!!

"The Whimsical Wren" created an amazing assortment of charms....

There is a bit of metal, beads, wire, shrink plastic and many beautiful collage images.

as did Hecate (a.k.a. - KokiKokiCute)

These charms are so varied it's hard to list all of the goodies she used to create these charms.  There is wire, metal, glass vials, beads, shrink plastic, gears, photo turns, and much more!

Next we have Ink Pattie and her beautiful blue bird...

Made from I believe embossed/painted grunge board and highlighted with metallic rub-ons(?)

Julie created this beautiful metal flower from an orange soft drink (I think) cap, alcohol inks and glitter!

Andrea - one of our Aussie players

created this beautiful charm from assorted game pieces, beads and wire.

Next we have this great charm from Celina A. 

The main component was stamped clay!!!  How cool is that :)

Jennifer D (a.k.a. - darqueangel) made two sets of charms...the first set was  made using vintage images of children paired with TH Fragments and the second set was made from glittery label holders and assorted beautiful vintage images.

Caroline D. made two sets...the first being an awesome charm using a real penny which she hung a few pieces of shrink plastic Monopoly money from and the second set was a beautiful sea glass creation with various flower images decoupaged on the front.

Chelsea (a.k.a. - scrapyardbutterfly)

made a beautiful assortment of shrink plastic charms with butterflies!

Dixie (a.k.a. - Mom) made her rockin' charms using spoons, vintage women images and a few choice findings!



Brenda S. made 4 very different sets....
one set was a little book with a flower on the front; a resin filled charm with a tiny flower embedded inside; a set using various metal pieces hanging from way cool guitar picks and finally various charms all created using polymer clay!

Lori W. also made 4 sets of charms two of which had a distintive steampunk flair...a clock charm with a great patina, blue bead and fun gear; a Memory Glass charm that states "I am Steampunk" (which I am!!) with what I believe is a piece of shrink plastic gear; the next set is a clear bead wrapped with wire and has a hanging "crystal" and finally a glass vial with a bead hanging from the cap.

Vic's charms were all shrink plastic pieces in a variety of designs all hung with beads and wire.

This is the one I kept!

Connie B created two sets of charms...the first I like to think of "wish upon a star" is a beautiful string of beads with a sparklie star at the end and her other set is a nifty "Halloween-ish" (to me) skull charm!  Gotta love those red glitter-y eyes!

So there you go....

Pretty cool so far huh?

Lots and lots of great designs to inspire you.

Tomorrow I will post the second installment of goodness!

Painting with Pearl Ex

Today I wanted to share a couple techniques that allow you to paint with Pearl Ex pigment powders. 

You will need the following supplies:

Pearl Ex in desired colors
Gum Arabic (I am using the powdered variety)
Water
Niji Waterbrush
Heat Tool
Cardstock
Archival or other waterproof ink
Rubber Stamp ( Just For Fun Rubber Stamps)

Instructions:

1. Squirt a bit of water onto your work surface.

2. Add a small amount of the Gum Arabic to the water and mix until it is dissolved. 

NOTE: We are using the Gum Arabic mixture as a binder for the Pearl Ex.  Once the painted Pearl Ex dries it will be permanent on the paper and won't rub off.  No additional sealer is necessary.

Here is where you can proceed with one of two different techniques depending on the color and look you wish to achieve.

NOTE: I am showing you these techniques off the image just so you can get an idea of how the two different techniques will yield and what they look like.

Technique #1 - Watercolor Painting

Pick up a bit of the Gum Arabic Water and paint it onto your image/cardstock. 

Next, dip your brush (which is coated with the GA Water) into the Pearl Ex Powder and paint it over the wet GA.    As you can see this thins the Pearl Ex and gives you a transparent watercolor look.

Technique #2 - Intense Painting

Simply dip your waterbrush into the Gum Arabic water mixture then directly into the Pearl Ex.  Paint this directly onto dry cardstock.  As you can see this technique yields an extremely intense, opaque color.    By using a mix of these two techniques you can color virtually any stamped or drawn image.

On this example I am using a combination of both of the techniques.  I am starting out with the intense colors on the dress, shoes and flowers.  For the hair and skin I am using the watercolor technique. 

One thing to keep in mind is that after you have painted an area with the Pearl Ex you still have time to go back and re-work it.  As you can see in this photo the dress is basically one color.  After the entire dress was painted I dipped my brush into just the Gum Arabic using NO additional Pearl Ex Powder.  I worked my brush over the various areas that I wanted a lighter shade and pulled the color from that area moving it to other areas which I wanted to darken up.   (see the finished example below).

And here is the finished sample.....

For the skin I applied an initial watercolor coat of pigment, dried it with the heat tool then went back in and added a second coat to various areas to create the shaded contrast as you would with markers or colored pencils. This is most notable on the upper arm, back and upper leg by the hem of the dress.   This is the same technique I used for the hair but instead of adding a second coat of the same color I first applied my light color (gold) and went back in with a darker color (mink) to add low lights.

A second look using the flash just to show the amazing shine that can't be seen by the cameras eye.

Tomorrow I will share a couple finished cards using these techniques.

Charms are in the Mail!!!

I just wanted to let you all know that the charms are sorted, packaged, posted and for the most part all of the charms are in the mail.  I still have the over seas packages to send which will go out tomorrow (my post office is fussy about packages going out of the country). 

And I thought you might like to see a few photos of the process....

The pile of envies waiting to be opened and sorted....

Here is what my bed looked like covered with all of the piles of charms ready to be sorted. From here I picked a random assortment of charms for each envie/person.

And here is the same basket with the charms bagged, wrapped, tucked into their respective boxes or envies, postage added ready and waiting for the maillady to pick them up!

Such a nice sight to see....

I hope that all of the packages arrive quickly, safe and sound!

I will begin sharing the individual charms in the next day or so along with the person who created them.  So, if you want it to be a surprise, don't look at those individual posts but if you are tired of waiting then be sure to check them out....I'm sure you will be thrilled!

I am so happy with how great this swap turned out.  You can really tell the amount of thought and time people put into their charms.  I felt bad for cheating a bit...some of you got a store bought charm from me (Eiffel Towers); vintage keys or vintage zinc number tags because I didn't have time to make 79  individual charms. 

I attached a charm to each of the pins so you will get one pin if you made one set or multiple pins/charms depending on how many sets you made. 

So, there you go....it's all done but for the mail time.

I hope you will enjoy the assortment you receive and join me again in the next swap which I am planning on having early next year (Feb/March). 

Till then.....

Thanks so much for joining in on the fun!

Pearl Ex - Dusted Stars

I thought I'd share a quick Pearl Ex project I made recently.....

Dream....

(All stamps - Just For Fun Rubber Stamps)

The background was stamped with clear embossing ink then dusted with Silver - Pearl Ex Powder.  I then brushed off the excess powder and gave it a quick mist with hair spray (to fix the powders). 

The image was stamped and colored then I added a bit of Stickles Glitter Glue to the moon and the moon dust she is sprinkling.  It was cut out then mounted on the card using double stick foam.

Tomorrow I will show you a couple nifty ways to paint with Pearl Ex.

Hope to see you then! 

Charms Swap Stats

Hi Charm Swappers!

I wanted to pass on a bit of Charm Swap Trivia for you...

I have finished sorting the swap and here is how it turned out.  The list below are the final participants (the people I rec'd charms from).    At one point we had around 50 participants but several had to drop out due to unforeseen circumstances that prevented their participation; a few people signed up but never heard from them again and finally a couple people I'm not sure about...I thought they were sending charms and waited but nothing ever showed up so I had to go on w/o them.

Final Altered Charm Swap Participants - 8-6-11

1. Roni
2. Dixie (Mom)
3. Brenda S.
4. Lori W.
5. Scrapyard Butterfly
6. Sandy
7. Hecate
8. Carolyn
9. Jo J
10. Neil
11. Sherry E - Recd
12. Andrea
13. Theresa P - sent
14. Connie B
15. Helen C
16. Von
17. Darqueangel9
18. Diane
19. Ink Pattie
20. Sherry (Creatology)
21. Jennie (Whimsical Wren)
22. Jan
23. Khess136
24. Celina
25. Cheryl L
26. Shirley H
27. Cassie 
28. Carol W
29. JoZarty
30. Sue A
31. Pam J
32. Debbie
33. Margaret R.
34. Julie O'B
35. Becky W
36. Candy C
37. Vic
38. Caroline D.
39. Olga B  

So as you can see we ended up with 39 participants.

There were 379 charms in total with approx. 71 different sets!!! 

Now some of these sets were "similar" not exact and a couple people made several different designs w/o any dups.  so it was a whopping great success!

I tried to give you a nice assortment of charms, not getting your own and I tried to give you only one charm from any given designer.  It got a bit confusing at times because some didn't have names but I believe they turned out correct.

I will be posting them in the next couple days so you should start rec. them by mid to late week!

I hope you enjoy the results as much as I do!!

Prayers for Indiana State Fair Disaster

Normally I don't post about events happening around the world because well....there are tons of blogs, news reports, radio stations, etc. etc. that bombard us all with sad events each day but I since this tragedy struck so close to home I feel compelled to share it with you and express my sadness.

I don't know if you all have read/seen/heard about the terrible accident that happened last night at the Indiana State Fair ( Indiana State Fair Tragedy)  or not but I hope you will join me in sending out thoughts and/or prayers for the families of those folks who were killed and to the many others injured in this tragic accident. 

We had some very powerful storms roll through last evening and I never even gave the fair a thought since it was so far away (we're about 2 - 2.5 hrs. north). I was shocked to see this story pop up on CNN as dh was flipping through the channels last night.  It really hit home for me since we had just visited the fair only days ago.  It makes a person pause and think about how fragile life really is.

I had planned on sharing additional photos of our trip today but out of respect for all those effected I will share them at a later date. 

Please keep all of those effected in your thoughts and give thanks for the well being of your family and yourself.  I know I sure am and I hope that you all are safe and well today, in the coming week and always.

Charm Swap Update - 8-14-11

I wanted to give you all an update on the charm swap.

I had been waiting on a few charms that were mailed prior to the deadline and I have rec'd 3 of those packages (earlier in the week) and they are....

Cassie - Lovely vintage "charm" and your packaging is just as pretty and fits it so well!

Theresa P - Very clever base for your charms!  I'd totally forgotten about those and haven't seen any in years.  Way cool :)

Shirley H - You really did come up with some beautiful charms on your trip!  They are amazing :)

Thanks ladies!

I haven't seen any additional packages so I started sorting charms yesterday.  I am hoping to get all of them sorted out today and then I will start on re-packaging them; posting and mailing them tomorrow.  They will probably go out over Monday and Tuesday depending on when my mail lady comes (it's anywhere from 11:00a.m. to 3:00p.m. - never quite know when she will show up!). 

I am very excited to start sharing these charms with you...they are all amazing in their own ways.  I hope you will be thrilled with what you receive and wear them proudly!

2011 Indiana State Fair!

WHEW!!!  We are home....for a while there I thought we were going to be stuck in Indy for a good long time.  There was an accident on the edge of Indy near some construction which had traffic at a stand still.  We FINALLY made it through (20 miles of backed up traffic for a fender bender!!!) and made it home in one piece.

As promised I took my camera so I could share the fun of the fair with you all.  I won't be sharing all of the pics today....I took about 175 pics!!  Didn't realize it at the time as I was just clicking away at things I wanted to share with you.     I know photographing food is popular but I didn't take pics of ours as the food/eating areas were very crowded and congested.  I will tell you though we did our part in supporting Indiana food producers -

We at lunch at the Indiana Pork Producers tent (boneless pork chop sandwich)

and then after we walked that off we shared an Elephant Ear and I'm not sure about where you live but Indiana folks love to fry things and are proud of it.  Well today dh and I tried our very first Deep Fried Reese's Peanut Butter Cups.....  OMG ~ if you like Reese's then you'd LOVE these...they were sinfully delish!  They sell 2 cups for $4.00.  Dh said he was a bit put off by the price but after tasting them he said they were doing us a favor.  There is no way you could possibly eat more than one because they were sooooo rich.  Which they were but man were they ever good.   I have to say I would have more in the future but will reserve that treat for the State Fair...more often than that and I'm afraid I'd keel over from the sugar - LOL!!

What's scary is this place had all sorts of deep fried chocolate candy bars, deep fried Oreos, deep fried Butter (that's got a big eeewwww factor going on in my book) and deep fried Kool-Aid?!?!? Not sure how that one works but I wasn't brave enough to try it out.

Here are a few highlights of the rest of the fair....

Some of the rides....

The last few years the fair has highlighted a particular area or branch of agriculture each year and this year it was the soybean. They had these funky statues which gave a bit of info on why beans are significant to each animal/branch.

Turkey Hill (Ice Tea & Ice Cream) had a gi-normous Cow statue which was collaged with various labels from their product line ~ WAY COOL!

In addition to animals (which I've got tons of pics of...I'll share those later) the SF also hosts competitions among various industries in Indiana. This is the tent for the Sheet Metal Contractors of Indiana. They have several of these funky people/animals that the members have made.

They also have this neat green house which houses lots of beautiful plants...

There are so many other aspects of the fair I want to share with you (and I hope you'll enjoy them) so I'll be sharing more photos with you in the next couple of weeks on Sat or Sun. so be sure to check back in to see what other fun stuff we got to see & do at the 2011 Indiana SF!

Have a great evening friends!

Zoo Day

Hi All...

Dh, ds, ds's girlfriend and I hit a local estate auction today so I didn't get a chance to work on anything today.   I don't have any pics of the goodies we scored yet either so I thought I would share some fun pics from a recent trip to our local zoo - Fort Wayne Childrens Zoo.  It is one of the top rated children's zoos in the country!  The first few pics are from the Endangered Animals Carousel the rest of the pics are just various parts of the zoo.

 

My favorites!

My nephew Matthew :)

Real....

and not so real...

This is how I felt after a while.... it was VERY hot that day!

Tomorrow Dh and I will be heading to the Indiana State Fair! I can't wait ~ we try to go each year to see all the animals, exhibits and of course to eat some good food! I will take my camera and share what I see with you tomorrow after we get home :)

Hope you all are having a great week!