Faerie Enchantment: Project

Showing posts with label Project. Show all posts

Monday, September 15, 2014

Summer Memories Ornament

Every summer we embark on a multitude of adventures. Exploring becomes a way of life either on a stroll to the park, hike in the mountains or a swim at the beach.

As an artist I always try to come up with unique ways to capture my adventure and preserve it. Back in June I was lucky to share an adventure to the Jersey Shore with my creative friend Marfi Bradford, who traveled to me from Arizona for some artful fun and exploring.

Everyday became a road trip to all parts of the Tri-State area. One of those trips was to Asbury Park and Ocean Grove, NJ. Both seashore towns located on the Jersey Coast.

While there I was collecting ephemera and found objects on the beach such as shells, drift wood, pebbles and sand. When Marfi, My Mom and Myself returned we were all exploding with creativity, so we decided to start making art in the studio. Marfi choose to work in a Halloween theme. My mom created in a Victorian theme, while I wanted to capture the day at the shore.

My finished piece was created using some of the elements I found earlier at the shore. I called my piece: Queen of the Sea, a summer memories ornament which will preserve our memory of the day in Asbury Park and Ocean Grove.

Materials:
-Drift wood
-Shells, all sizes
-Beach pebbles
-Lettered wood beads or scrabble pieces
-Chipboard letter
-White paper or floral wire
-Vintage image
-German silver glass glitter
-Glue: hot glue sticks, paper glue stick, tacky glue
-Tools: hot glue gun, scissors
-Other: pearl stick pin, chenille stem, navy fine glitter, card stock, letter sticker

Directions:
1. Cut out vintage image from paper, adhere to card stock using paper glue stick, re-cut again. (This makes the image more sturdy)
2. Hit glue the cut image to the center of a piece of drift wood or glue to the location of choice.
3. Begin layering shells and pebbles onto the drift wood. Attach with hot glue.
4. Cover a chipboard letter with tacky glue and sprinkle with German glitter. Then attach to the drift wood.
5. Thread a piece of paper wire with letter wood beads and hot glue each end to the drift wood.
6. Wrap a piece of chenille stem into a circle, attach to a stick pin, add a sticker and pearls. Insert into drift wood.
7. Embellish vintage image with navy glitter and a crown shape made from a piece of chenille stem.
8. Write the date and location onto the back of the image.

Tips:
-Create a tag. Write the date, location, who you were with and a brief description onto the tag and attach to the ornament.
-Use a photo of the day instead of the vintage image.
-Use a large shell as the base instead of the drift wood.

The possibilities are endless on what you can create out of your summer findings.
Thanks for visiting.

xoxo
Lisa

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Design Team Project by Tanya Watts

Materials/Instructions:

Gather everything you can get your hands on! RAID your sewing box, button jar, garden shed, toy box, packaging, lace, old material, twine, Lisa Kettell doll parts!! Tim Holtz metal pieces,...

Canvas, gesso, acrylic paint, string glue, I used Ranger's Glossy Accents, spray bottle with water, perfect pearls, mini misters, distress re- inkers (there are a lot of pearlescent mists out there but I still love to make my own), cheap paintbrush with long soft bristles ( to get into the most impossible places), gilding wax, Tim Holtz distress paint, I used the metallic ones, Distress glitter or glitter of your choice

Start by painting the canvas with gesso, let dry or if you are like me grab your heat gun!

Using gesso, collage papers, lace, material, ... down to make your background, just for a bit of textured interest.

Leave to dry or... Yes! Grab your heat gun! Just be careful not to bubble up the gesso unless you like that look, which I actually do.

Start adhering all your precious finds, make a design that pleases you but don't overthink it! Go with your feeling! Remember to incorporate you Lisa Kettell Design doll parts, they give it that special touch!

Leave to dry! This time keep your hands off that heat gun! I leave it for a few hours or overnight because that way I can't get impatient!

Okay, if you are anything like me, get up at 5:00am to continue! Seriously I did!

Now cover everything with gesso, get into all the little nooks and crannies to get every little piece of surface covered. Now you can reach for your trusty heat gun or leave to dry.

Assure it is really dry, unless you want gesso in your paint ( yes, I got gesso mixed in my black paint, but it actually looked good because it gave it depth)

Paint the whole canvas with acrylic paint of your choice and color, I used Adirondack paint dabber black, but by all means experiment with you favorite color.

You really need to be patient, get into every single spot, turn the canvas around to see it from a different angle, tilt it now and again to find all the white spots that you missed!

Heat gun! Or leave to dry.

Now come the metallic distress paints! Shake well, the mixing ball is in there for a reason! Unscrew the top( dabber and all) there should be paint in the part you screwed off, this is all you need, shake the top to splatter paint onto your canvas, use one or more colours.

Spray with water to let the paints react, move and tilt your canvas for drip page effect. Dry with heat gun. If you see pools of colour you don't like then just dab with paper towel.

Pearlescent spray: put one dropper of Distress Ink re-inker into a mini mister, add perfect pearls, as much or as little as you like, I just use the tip of my scissors as a scoop and I usually add 2 scoops. Fill with water, not all the way up, leave a little space, it will help with the mixing.

Shake it shake it shake it ( like a Polaroid picture!)

Mist onto your canvas as you please and again move and tilt for drippage effect.

You probably will grab for your heat gun right now... Your good!

Who has time to let things dry??

Rub some ( dry) perfect pearls onto the raised areas, I used a few different colours, be sparse, you really need a little! I use my finger tips and just use what is in the lid.

Buff up with a cloth or piece of kitchen paper. You can also ad some gilding wax here and there.

Add a small word that pleases you, cover with Glossy Accents.

I glittered part of the moon. Glittered the pearl I put in one of the shells

I added a metal phrase at the bottom.

Et voila!

Love & Peace

Tanya Watts

Wattstanya@ icloud.com

tanyawatts.blogspot.com

____________________________________________________________________________

Hope you enjoyed Tanya's project for the LK Design Team as much as I did. Visit her site for more amazing works.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Curbside Find, Up-Cycled!

I live to recycle/upcycle items to use in my works, my displays and my decor, Something always has a purpose no matter what. Recently it was clean up week in my area, and to my delight I came across some amazing pieces to re-finish and up-cycle to a new use. Here is one of those finds, a hutch top, that really only needed some sanding and paint.

After seeing this, I hauled it over to my store, carried it up the stairs and started sanding it. I then washed it off and began its first coat of paint in creamy dove followed by a sweet taffy blue color for the trim, here is the result!

After the paint dried I placed it into my store in a new area designated for girly girl, pink, 50's kitch and pastel color items all vintage and new.

Here are some close ups of the shelf vignettes!

Hope you enjoyed my newest upcycled design! Have a magic filled day!

P.S. Come on over and visit us at Piddlestixs!

Wednesday, November 04, 2009

Dresden Delights, Victorian Scrap Works and Project How-To!

Step back into the age of romance, language of flowers, and fantasy delights, an era filled w/debutant balls, society tea parties, garden soirees, flower rooms, conservatories, painted ladies, gingerbread trim, brim hats, feathers, lace and pearls, prim and proper attitude and the birth of photo collage and manipulation. A time of fantasy, fairy, magic and Coney Island Enchantment, Old Apothecary, gilded golds, silver, tinsel, boullion and DRESDEN......

Wondering when this time could be??? Well its the era known as Victorian, while I haven't touched on the full essence of this spectacular time, I did touch on what reminds me of this age. When I think of Victorian style aka Victoriana, I also envision enormous magical homes with unique architecture filled w/sleepy porches, iron or wood wares, stone figurines, stained glass, dozens of lamps, fantasy wares, flowers, flowers and more flowers, slim bodices, Godey's Illustrations, Angels, Cherubs and Enchanting Christmas. There is nothing more spectacular then a Victorian Christmas and ornaments, each one is a work of art, and can command high prices for antique ones today, especially those famous gold foiled ones, dresden balloons, and boat ships, stars and scrapworks.

After aquiring a vintage Dresden Boat Ornament at an estate sale, I studied it, and studied it again, thinking, I can make this, all I need is some vintage images, boullion, teardrop shape and of course Dresden scraps.

After Christmas last year I came upon a few small teardrop shapes, tinsel and bought a vintage bundle of Boullion from Tinsel Trading that I had been wanting to use, I did just that, making a few tradional style ornaments, some valentine/storybook w/50's pastel. This project I am about to re-share can be altered to fit your color styles and themes, go traditional or modern, that part is up to you.

I am happy and honored to inform you that my Dresden Project Pics, Project and Short Video are featured on one of my favorite sites: Victorian Scrapworks http://www.victorianscrapworks.com/Index.html they have a plethora of materials that you can use for your own Victorian and Vintage Delights such as:
Authentic Crinkle Wire
Doilies & Cards
Wings & Halos
Ephemera
and much more.

For the parts needed to create this project:
Click here for the Tear Drop Ornaments (They have yummy pinks)
http://www.victorianscrapworks.com/Dresden_Trims_Epemera.html
For Victorian Flower Scraps:
http://www.victorianscrapworks.com/AtFlowers_Victorian_Scraps.html
For Victorian Angel and Cherub Scraps:
http://www.victorianscrapworks.com/AtAngels_Cherubs_Victorian_Scraps.html
For Victorian Christmas Scraps:
http://www.victorianscrapworks.com/AtChristmas_Victorian_Scraps.html
For Amazing Tinsel, Crinkle Wire, etc.:
http://www.victorianscrapworks.com/AtDresden_Trims_Crinklewire_Misc.html

For the Project Highlights at Victorian Scrap Works:
http://www.victorianscrapworks.com/AtProjectsPage.html

For the Directions and Video of the project:
http://spellbinderscuriosities.blogspot.com/2009/02/dresden-trim-ornament-project.html

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

The Gingerbread Castle, Hamburg, NJ!

On the way home from the Earth Angel Toys held at Charlotte's Tea Room, I wanted to stop off at a place I used to go to as a child called The Gingerbread Castle located in Hamburg, NJ!

Tucked away, deep in the countryside of northern New Jersey is a place called The Gingerbread Castle located on Rt. 23 & Gingerbread Castle Rd, Hamburg, Sussex County, NJ. The grounds of the castle started as flour mill built in 1808 called: Wheatsworth Mills,

then it became something called the Plastoid Corporation. This changing of factories was the result of the unprofitable flour company, so it was turned it into the Plastoid Corporation which was actually a wire and cable factory this sale was actually became the basis for the castle. In 1928 the owners used their wire and plastics to create several plastic dinosaurs which adorned the property. As children came to visit these life sized creatures, the owners added more dinosaurs and finally, they added the Gingerbread Castle which was built hanging off one of the factory walls, evolving into a fairy/story book style amusement park, built in 1930 by F.H. Bennett, inventor of Milk Bone Dog Biscuits and the owner of the Wheatsworth Mills, whose original tiling can still be seen on the stone gate structures today. Mr. Bennett created a life-sized castle to tell the story of "Hansel and Gretel," this painted pink structure would be called: The Gingerbread Castle. He also created additional life sized vignettes which showcased other stories from Mother Goose Rhymes including Humpty Dumpty who sat on his wall,

the park even had a miniature railroad for children to ride and get excited over. Along with fave replicas of Cinderella, Jack and Jill and A Woman Who Lived In A Shoe.

During the latter part of the 1980's, the Gingerbread Castle fell into a state of disrepair, this showed the lack of maintenance and care of the castle. Eventually, the property was primarily closed and used only as a haunted house attraction during Halloween, not a fitting event for this once storybook place. This demise seemed so dark and dreery, don't you agree?

But around 2002 someone had taken a renewed interest in the property, a man by the name of Frank Hinger who bought the property. Mr. Hinger started a series of fundraisers to help fix and restore the castle to its original state. This restoration project was boosted, by some donations and contributions from the Hampton Inn hotel chain who prompted its workers and other to volunteer work as part of the restoration attemps.

The sad thing is Mr. Hinger's attempts to restore the castle failed, so did the structure he built across the street called the Gingerbread Grill.

It just seemed no matter what he did his attempts failed, having resistance from town officials/municipal I'm sure didn't help his cause and efforts, but that is something the public may never know, a battle between parties.

The next measure was to sell off the property to someone who would elaborate on his vision and have the money to do it. In the beginning of 2007, the properties were finally sold, this time to Gene Mulvihill who vowed to not turn the property into condos, townhouses or a strip mall. Gene was quoted in saying: "It's in blood, I won't change the castle," and created the Historic Hamburg LLC, which he is a principal holder in, formed especially for the castle renovation project. He also is a principal holder in Grey Elephant LLC, which own the vacant 15 acre Plastoid Factory site adjacent to the castle. Basically Mr. Mulvihill bought the 1-acre castle site and another 7 acres across from Gingerbread Castle Road that includes a the Gingerbread Castle Grille.

I hope to see a surge in restoration on this historic site, which I believe will be turned into a children's museum and park again, a day I'd love to see and watch come alive. To read more on the sale of this site visit:
http://www.crystalspringsbuilders.com/Content/Articles.asp?SID=1&CID=24&AID=109
To learn more about the Gingerbread Castle and to see old pictures, visit:
http://www.thegingerbreadcastle.com/

Friday, May 15, 2009

ZNE Convenzione Day Five! Post 6
By Day five of Zne, I was exhausted, but still finding the energy through lots of Starbucks Coffee, I was missing my Dounkin Donuts Coffee at this point, LOL!
Today was the last day of the Convenzione in Pleasanton, which I was sad about, since the next day we would all be leaving our friends and heading home. But I was also excited since this day would be when I signed my books with some fabulous people.

On a Foggy Sunday all the vendors and artists returned to the fairgrounds for another day of fun. Today I was signing books and hosted a project near my booth area called: the Silhouette Box Assemblage.

Here I am, LOL, Signing!I saw the picture coming, LOL!

Jill and Me! She is wonderful!

Traci and Me, She rocks!

Me, Katie Jean and Yvonne!

Patti and Me!

Pam, me and Brandie!

The Fabulous Diva Jen

Me, Claire, AnnDenise and Katie!

Shoshanah from Hannah Grey and Me!

Me, Mom and Yvonne!

Gina, Me and Shari, notice the kitty shoes, love them, here are Gina's Kitty shoes and my Butterfly/flower shoes upclose, lol, I love this picture:

We took this later on in the evening at Chevy's, LOL, put your best foot foward!

Marsha and Yvonne, I bought the book Marsha is holding and Yvonne is holding the wand from me!

The ladies of the Silhoutte: left to right: Mica, Jill, Liz, Heidi, Lana and Claire! They came to learn and make my silhouette assemblage, even donating some extra goodies to the project, flowers from Liz, sewn crepe paper from Heidi and vintage papers/advertising from Claire!