Back to Creating

Now that the excitement of the summer has wound down, I've gotten back into making stuff again.  

I baked some apple coffee cake muffins, which were pretty good.  The recipe is HERE.  I didn't have plain yogurt, but I did have some Yoplait nonfat apple yogurt that I mixed with a little vanilla to make the 1 cup.  I also used Fuji apples.  The batter was really sweet and they smelled really sweet while baking, but they came out  pretty good and not as sweet as I thought they'd be. I had enough batter to make 12 muffins plus one small loaf pan.  I didn't take a picture of them, but I also made a batch of apple brownies that were delicious too.

Finally got some gold leaf paint so I tried it on a crow feather.

And some shells.  I discovered 2 things:  First, when it says to use in a well ventilated area, do so.  I was painting in my kitchen and got really nauseous and headachy from the smell.  Second, I found out that when you spray clear sealant on gold leaf paint, it runs and turns copper.  Not so much on the sand dollar but on the shells.

I got a bunch of wedding pics processed but I couldn't find a compilation frame that I liked, and I looked in a bunch of places.  I finally went to Michael's Crafts and was shocked to see the $54.99 price tag on their comp frames! Even with the 40% off sale, the size of the pic holes wasn't to my liking so I passed and instead bought one large frame which was closer to $13 with the sale.  Then I mounted the pics on purple card stock and arranged them to my liking.  That's the poem Marsha read, in the top left corner. 

And a couple of shells with shells and microbeads.  I attached a hanger to this one but not the clam shell, yet.

Tiny bottles were finally back in stock at Michael's so I got a package and promptly made Floo Powder out of fine silver glitter mixed with heavier green glitter. Got the mini label off the internet and as always, the cork is glued in the top with an added green star rhinestone.  Now I can travel via fireplace.

When JoLisa & I visited the bead shop in Scituate, she bought beads to spell out her name and gave them to me to make into a necklace. 

I found a Pacman rock so I put a googly eye on it.  

Just like last year, acorns and their caps are hard to come by, which further concerns me about what the upcoming winter will be like.  But I found a couple and made owls using felt bits.  It's hard to cut felt that small and I definitely need bigger acorns.

Some acorn capped beads, and one marble (far left).

Some beach glass chips in a tiny bottle.  I hung this around my rearview mirror.

Feels good to be back at the craft table!

Miscellaneous Projects

A few months ago I found a pair of old earrings in a junk shop for $2.  The peacock blue crystals are so pretty.  I took the earrings off the backs and made a beaded hairpiece out of one of them.  This is the first time I've ever made this particular style.  Usually I do either round or oval shape. I was pleased with how it came out.

Rainbow beads in a mini bottle.  I had to use a head pin to make them stack evenly, and put the head pin into the cork bottom.

Another rock with a paint dot tree. 

And a triple moon rock.

Fall tree

And a heart.  I also made a paisley but it didn't come out that good.

I found the pattern online somewhere and it made me laugh so I made it into a card to send to Axe.  

And speaking of cards, my bff Marsha's birthday was this month so I did a beach themed card using an old fashioned linen postcard reproduction with a poem about walking by the seashore.  I added shells, beach glass and some pearl beads to it.

Inside of card.

Finally, this was another pattern from the internet so I did it into a book mark.  I changed the black R and diamonds to the house colour of copper.  Then I stitched it to some stiff felt so that it keeps the shape and hides the stitches.

Mini Potions Bottles

The mini bottles surfaced recently.  I printed off some free Harry Potter potions labels and made Amortentia, the love potion.  I dyed shampoo red, because it was thick and I was hoping that the glitter and glitter hearts would remain suspended in it but they eventually settled to the bottom.  I'm going to use hair gel the next time.  

Glued the label to it with mod podge, embellished a key with red rhinestones and attached it and a red heart bead to it with chain.  The cork is glued in so it can't spill.  

.This one is about 1-3/4" tall and filled with iridescent glitter "moon dust". Again I glued the cork in so that it won't spill, and added a large pearl rhinestone to the top, and a tiny silver one to the label.  I realized with some horror and despair that I'm out of crescent moon charms, so I found an old pierced earring in my stash and fashioned the post into a loop to hang from the gold chain.  

I actually like the way this crescent earring looks.  It has a pretty pattern on it.

Here are Felix Felicis and Polyjuice Potion.  Again topped with rhinestones, and I added a chain & key to the luck potion.  I did attempt to use a cat face charm on the Polyjuice, but as I suspected, it was too heavy and pulled the bottle over. NERD ALERT:  Potterheads will recall that Hermione accidentally turned herself into a cat the first time she took Polyjuice because she inadvertently used a cat hair.

Felix is a heavy gel, coloured yellow with food colouring with gold glitter stirred in.  They stay suspended nicely.  The Polyjuice is just black glitter paint that I squeezed into the bottle.

Making these things is just slightly addicting and I'm just about out of bottles.  The ones I have left are really too small for the labels I have on hand.  I might have to start improvising.....