Santos Doll

I was thrilled to receive a Santos doll kit from Catherine Moore recently - something new she's selling on her web site: Character Constructions. Here's how I finished her kit...

and this is how the Santos kit is sold...

The doll is just over 9" tall and 3" wide, and comes with a platform which you can use to stand her up. Since I've recently been into soldering, I decided to solder the lower portion of this doll. First I adhered some copper tape to the cage skirt and crown.

Next, I painted the head, bodice and arms...

The photo below shows the cage portion soldered. I did apply some tarnish to the silver to give it an aged look.

I used Catherine's Santos stamp and stamped the upper body - that made finishing the face really easy!

I painted the face with cheek, lip and eye colors. Afterwards I further embellished the Santos doll with rhinestones, vintage text and ribbon.

I just love Santos dolls and this was an especially quick and easy project when you have both the Santos stamps and the Santos kit. Thank you Catherine for creating such beautiful products!

Mini Frame Workshop

This weekend I taught a mini frame workshop. We did some simple soldering, painting, cutting and gluing with mini frames as the focal point. Everyone did a fabulous job and created all of these adorable projects...

The basis of the projects started from these great mini wooded frames(2" x 3") and collage sheets from Redlead. They sell adorable wooden pieces that are perfect for so many mixed media projects: http://www.redleadpaperworks.com/servlet/the-New-cln-Wood-Shapes--dsh--Wood-dsh-Bits/Categories They also sell wooden frames even smaller than these that would be really cute as a pendant too! Don't forget to look at their collage sheets - they have a huge variety for sale: http://www.redleadpaperworks.com/servlet/the-Paper-Collage-Sheets/Categories

My sister Frances hosted the workshop at her home and it provided such a perfect setting for us.

 

Here's some close up shots of the projects. We made necklaces, mini books, key chains and dolls.

Some of the images in the frames look cloudy in the above picture. That's because the diamond glaze hadn't set yet - but once completely dry, those images will turn clear.

Me (and my new short hair) & Nily

My sister Maryl, me and my sister Frances

Lois, Nily, Laura, Ruby

Thanks Frances for hosting this class and thanks to all the students who make teaching these workshops so enjoyable and relaxing! Thanks also to Chris and Sharon from Redlead for providing the frames and collage sheets for the class!

As a last note, I was thrilled to see Tim Holt'z blog this week - Greetings from Cape Town. Tim was with Paula Cheney in South Africa teaching. One of the projects they taught was a necklace that was inspired by the necklace I created for his CHA booth, pictured below.

They put together a beautiful necklace project and I was thrilled to have even been mentioned. Paula also showed the necklace project on her blog this week too - Cape Town and The Mount Nelson.Check out their blogs and see some beautiful pictures of South Africa and their hotel! Thank you Tim and Paula!

Happy Spring!

Bird Theme ATC Cards for REDlead

The wonderful store, REDlead, sent me some of their great products last year. This group consisted of bird theme items and if you subscribe to REDlead's newsletter, you may have seen my cards pictured. They asked me to create some ATC cards with their products and below is a picture of the six ATC cards I made...

Here's a picture of some of the items they sent to me...

And here's some photos of my work in progress...

Background stamp - Tattered Fabric Statement Stamp

Stencil - Birds in Flight

Clear Bit Crystal Clear Acrylic Charm - Bird Cage & birds from collage sheet

Using stamp - The Pursuit of an Artist & bird from collage sheet

Thanks Chris and Sharon from REDlead for asking me to be one of your guest artists - I love your products!

I'm still taking it easy on working with my hands...as I have a pinched nerve in my neck that's causing a numbness in my right arm. Hopefully, I'll be back to normal soon.

Have a great week!

Tim Holtz Book Give Away Announcement

Last week, I mentioned that I would be giving away an autographed book of Tim Holtz's, "A Compendium of Curiosities Vol III".

 And the winner is...

the second person who left me a comment: Zoe Witcomb! Zoe, send me an email with your address and I'll send the book out to you. It's a great book, you'll love it!

I haven't been crafting lately due to some pain in my right hand and arm. I went to the doctor last week and he said it was a pinched nerve in my neck. Needless to say, I'm going to take a break from working with my hands until I feel better...I sure hope it doesn't last too long. Time to catch up on my magazines, blogs and Pinterest.

Congratulations to Zoe and thank you to everyone who left a comment!

Have a great week everyone!

Autographed Tim Holtz Book Giveaway

Hi there! I was honored to have one of my necklace pieces included in Tim Holtz's latest book, "A Compendium of Curiosities Vol. III".

If you've seen his first two volumes, you know how wonderful these books are - full of projects, instructions and pictures to inspire you to create. 

This book contains over 90 individual photos of project ideas...

and over 200 photos of step by step instructions...

Tim was nice enough to not only send me a complimentary signed book...

...but also generously sent me a second autographed book to give away.

So, leave me a comment here and I'll use a random number generator to pick the winner! I'll select a winner one week from today, Sunday, March 9th at 5pm. Good luck!