Let's Make Necklaces...

I have several items to share, all centered around necklaces. First off, I took Diane Cook's Heart Strings on-line class a couple weeks ago. Diane does wonderful work and I was thrilled to be able to make one of her Heart String necklaces. This is the one I made...

The ribbons on the necklace are Sari silk, remnants from making Indian Sari's...my new love. You can find many variations on etsy by searching "sari ribbon." The necklace is a potpourri of small treasures.

This weekend, I had a play date with my sisters, Maryl and Diana. We made necklaces inspired by Lisa Guerin's work with shrink plastic.

Maryl made the two necklaces on the left and I made the one on the right...so adorable, I love them all!

Diana made the necklace below...

Diana wore it out shopping and received many compliments - nice work Dee, it looked great on you!

Later that day, we went to Garden Seed in Danville and I saw some jewelry designed by Beth Hess. I was so inspired by her work, that I went home and made the two necklaces below. The center piece is a buckle, transformed into a vintage jewelry collage.

The size of the buckle is 2.75" x 1.75"...it makes for a great frame to collage your pieces in.

This one is pretty small, the center piece is 1.5" x 1".

These were all so fun to make, I can't wait to make more.

I love the rectangular shape of the center piece...you can see the difference in the sizes, one is about half the size of the other.

HaPpY 4Th!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday today. My sister Lana came over tonight and we made a couple of celebratory paper dolls to commemorate this day.

I hope you all had a great day. Love summer time and the long days!

Paper Necklaces

This week my sister Lana came over for dinner one night and we decided to do a quick project. Using primarily paper, punches and a sewing machine we made these paper necklaces.

We took out a variety of punches and paper and got started. Our favorite punch was definitely the envelope punch!

I like using the pads of paper, since all the paper coordinates. I used the paper from My Mind's Eye, Lost and Found - Blush. I lined up my pieces how they were going to be arranged.

The next step was to sew the pieces together on a sewing machine. What I liked the most was using black thread on top and white thread in the bobbin, creating a cool twine-look when sewed.

Then, I embellished mine with buttons, flowers and images.

My sister Lana made the necklace below at the top. She created many of the pieces to be 3 dimensional...very cool.

Lana's finished project. She used the paper, Paris Night from g.c.d studios.

My finished necklace...I'm going to wear this.

This was really a fun and quick project to do...hope you'll try it.

Altered Book

At a recent visit to an Altered Book Exhibit in Novato, I was inspired by one of the altered books on display and came up with my own version of the collage piece:

Awhile ago, I purchased a few vintage book covers from Jenni Bowlin's Mercantile site, http://www.jbsmercantile.com/ ,for $1 each. Below is what the cover looks like.

Here is the inside of the book...a perfect background to embellish. With all the pages already torn out, I was all ready to get started.

I wanted to keep the colors to neutrals and somewhat vintage/book related.

 For one of the items, I altered a mini book and cut out a window and inserted a vintage photo.

I decided to hang my book sideways...below is the top half.

Here's the bottom half.

And here's where I got my inspiration from...mine is definitely more black and white themed.

Happy Father's Day!

My Valedictorian

This year my daughter, Rachel, graduated from middle school. She was among several others who were also Valedictorians.

I can't believe how time flies and your little ones grow up to be young adults. The ceremony was held in the high school gym.

My daughter and son will finally be in the same school together this Fall.

That's my son on the left, now tallest in the family. He'll be working with me this summer at the Williams Sonoma headquarter office. He got a summer internship doing website testing and Java programming.

Congratulations Rachel and Christopher, we're so proud of you and look forward to your future!

Debrina Pratt On-line Workshop

One of my favorite artists, Debrina Pratt, is hosting her first on-line workshop. I love her work and have taken a couple classes from her already and love the projects we made! Debrina is such a wonderful, generous and talented artist, I'm sure you will enjoy the workshop and will learn so much from her.

Here's the link to her blog: http://paperfairytale.blogspot.com/

Here's the link to her etsy site: http://paperfairytale.blogspot.com/

Altered Book Exhibit

Last month,I went to an Altered Book Exhibit at Marin Museum of Contemporary Art in Novato.

There were 150 local artists who transformed books into art. Here are some of the pieces that were on display.

 

This one is my favorite, stay tuned for my own version

 All inspiring works of art. Who could imagine how a book could be transformed? I think this was the third annual exhibit. All the pieces were available for purchase through their silent auction. You should check it out next year!