Bird Pendant

I made this and I can't believe how nice it turned out. If someone had said "make a piece of jewelry out of this wooden game piece," I would have freaked. I don't know how to make jewelry! But I just started playing with it, not sure what it would become, and here is the result, a little pendant. I didn't even drill any holes, just wrapped wire around it to hold up the loop at the top. It's about the size of a large domino and very lightweight. Here's how I made it: painted a layer of gesso over the bare wood. Used alcohol ink to dye it that nice goldy-yellow. Stamped a scrolly design on top and embossed it. Dyed some lace with more alcohol ink and glued it down the middle. Picked out an interesting postage stamp from my collection, glued this onto a square of patterned paper, then glued this on to the lace in the middle. Found a few beads I thought went with my color scheme and started playing with the copper wire, twisting and turning it to hold the beads and make random shapes around the central element of the bird stamp. My loop at the top is not pretty but who cares? Finally, I added diamond glaze on top of the stamp to make it dimensional. The wire sort of frames the bird stamp and so that held the glaze in the right spot. The glaze also helps to secure the wire to the piece. Viola! I made a piece of jewelry!

This week's dog laundry pic

Again, Cocoa helps with the laundry, lying her sweet fuzzy head atop a pile of folded shirts and spreading out in the place I was folding. But so cute!

Bird/Nest/Egg Chunky pages

I'm making some pages for a chunky book swap and the theme is Bird/Nest/Egg. I like the nesting idea, especially right now as I'm carrying a baby. And I like blue eggs, like a Robin's eggs. I've also used some old lace edging I got at the thrift store, and dyed it with alcohol inks, which worked great.

Laundry Help

Cocoa helps with the laundry by laying on a pile of t-shirts I just folded.

17 weeks pregnant

This morning I sat down to eat my nicely prepared breakfast, a waffle with sliced strawberries and banana on top, and as I sat down, with my belly I flipped one waffle square off the plate and onto the floor. Doh! I guess I am getting bigger. My dog Cocoa waited patiently with big saucer eyes, but I picked up the waffle (5-second rule plus I vacuumed recently) and put it back on my plate. The bananas, though, they were well stuck to the floor with the strawberries, so I let her have at it. She was very good and cleaned the floor to a shiny finish. My loss, her little fruit fest.

I used a simple velcro closure , which you can see here.

New Mag Bag: Archie Comix

I really like making these. This one is smaller cuz I used smaller pages, and I made a top flap instead of making tote bag handles. I haven't quite figured out how to make it square, with sides, but I'm getting there.