Here's an idea I had for some wall art in our dining room.  I have a black wrought iron scroll frame that holds three photos.  I've been wanting to use it for some time and I thought some "artsy" photos of silverware might be a fun way to spice up the dull walls in our dining area.



It was so easy to take my digital camera outside on an overcast day with some of our silverware and a white tablecloth and snap a few photos.  A quick touch up in Photoshop and they were done. 

Just thought I'd share.

This is the first time I've actually worked on canvas and I had a great time with it.  I painted this piece to match the color scheme for my living room- burgundy, black and white. 



I'm thinking of having my father (who is experienced in woodworking) help me create a Japanese style frame in lacquered black wood to finish it off before I hang it above our couch.

The only thing I have a problem with is that I'm not quite sure I'm entirely happy with the blossoms on the branch... Any constructive suggestions?

Thanks!


***UPDATE***

Okay- so I've been staring at this piece for a while now and I finally decided to throw caution to the wind and try to fix what I didn't like about it.  I took out one "problem blossom," reshaped some other flowers and gave the branch some silver highlights to match the silver blossoms.  I'm a lot happier with it and hopefully I can stop messing with it and finally move on to another project.

Another addition to our brown, green and white bedroom- some Japanese style lanterns I made for bedside lights.



They're made from some basswood sticks I found at my local craft store.  I have no idea what they are intended for, but once I saw them I knew they were destined to be the frame for my lantern lights. 

With a handsaw, a pencil and a ruler I cut all the pieces to the sizes I needed before sanding the edges and ends smooth.  Next I assembled the lantern frames with some wood glue and clamps.  When the frames were dry I painted them with some brown acrylic paint and gave them a shiny finish with some spray varnish.

The "rice paper" shade is really white vellum.  I'm not sure I'm entirely happy with the way the vellum looks and I might try some pellum (spelling?) as my mother suggested.  It might be more forgiving than a stiff paper as it's a fabric interfacing.  Thoughts about this anyone?

Anyway, I was going to place some LED lights inside, but my husband (an electronics technician by trade) suggested he would create something more elegant and lamp-like without me having to buy readymade lamp kits or LED tap lights.  Of course getting him to do it will be another challenge!

I'm in the midst of redecorating our bedroom in greens, browns and white but our walls were looking a bit empty...  Thankfully Mother Nature is an artist herself and helped me out with some great wall hangings!



The frames were found in my collection and painted white by roughing up the old finish with some sandpaper, painting a couple layers of gesso as a base and then painting a few more layers of white acrylic paint on top.  The ferns were culled from a few houseplants and an outdoor fern, pressed for a few days in between some heavy books and displayed on white cardstock in the now white frames.

I know the idea is a bit Martha, but trust me I'm not quite that evil, I promise!

I never thought I'd be posting under the Quilt section of Craftster, but here I am!

I was inspired by the left over material I had after covering couch pillows to give my tan couch some more pizazz.  Before I knew it I was cutting blocks and sewing away. 

The front section took me a full day in front of the sewing machine which I had to suffer for the next day as my shoulders and back were so sore I could barely move!  The back, edging and quilting took about another two hours.

It isn't perfect but I love the colors and textures and it matches my new pillows!

My vow this year was to be more environmentally friendly, so one of the things I'm doing is to use only reusable grocery bags when going shopping.  Buying bags for this purpose is good and all, but I wanted to use up all those obnoxious plastic bags from last year.

So after reading extensively in the Reuse/Recycle section of Craftster I decided to cobble together a creation from cannibalized plastic bags.  Plastic bags from all sorts of stores were fused, trimmed and stitched together to create a bag that is bigger than a paper grocery sack and about 10 times as strong.

As I was cleaning and rearranging my living room I rediscovered an old project that I thought I'd share. 

A couple of years ago when my husband and I were preparing for our wedding I thought I would make figurines of the two of us surrounded by the things that we each like.  The idea was to display our Sculpy likenesses near the cake, but closer to the wedding I decided not to put them out.

Still I thought they should be shared...  Oh, and sorry for the dust- I WAS cleaning afterall!



My husband and I...  Unfortunately the paintbrush that was supposed to be in my hand was broken off.



A close up showing books and a palette at my feet, a book in one hand and a (broken) paintbrush in the other.  There is Starbucks cup between us (we're coffee junkies) and my husband surrounded by a salmon, a fishing bobber and a Playstation controller.  He's holding his fishing rod and a tacklebox (which I crafted to be free-swinging.)



View from the back.  Unfortunately I didn't get the stances quite right and they tend to lean backward. 

All in all I think it was a pretty successful depiction of the two of us, especially for my first big Sculpy sculpture project.

For most of the year my little rotund bat perched atop my car's antenna, but after his untimely demise (poor bat lost a wing) my car was looking a little bare.  With a little minor surgery and a festive new cap he's back on the car and wishing everyone a happy holiday.



He's made from a foam ball painted black with black foam ears and wings.  His hat is a hand-stitched scrap of red velvet with crocheted white mohair edging.  While his hat may not last much past the winter holidays he'll be gracing my car for much longer, sans hat.

On a side note... If you liked the bat my friend Art Fiend and I are featuring a kooky advent calendar on our blog this month:  www.reliquaryarts.b logspot.com.  We lampoon the winter holidays (all in good fun) by corrupting kitchy crafts- one for every day until Christmas.  Come check it out!

This is my very first Craft Challenge on Craftster and I really enjoyed myself.  I'm not the most enthusiastic or even the most talented person with a sewing machine, but when my grandmother was trying to get rid of a few things I jumped at the chance to sew these ugly ties from my late grandfather into an awesome tribute.  They were pretty atrocious as individual ties, but together they really made this purse/messenger bag into something truly awesome!

The Ties:


The Ties Arranged:


Ready to Sew:


Sewing:


The Finished Product Montage:


I love my new bag, it beats any other purse I've owned, hands down!

I was going to just post this up to the crochet finished projects section, but I guess this technically employs more than just crochet so I'll post it to the challenge section instead.

This vest was inspired by the surge of argyle vests in stores recently.  I couldn't find exactly what I wanted in any store so I decided I'd have to make one myself.  It's a cropped vest in black yarn with ribbing at the bottom, neckline and armholes.  The 3 diamonds are crocheted into the design with gray and lavender and the skull and crossbones are embroidered on with white yarn.



No pattern, just me, some yarn, my dressmaker's dummy and a lot of frogging.  I have to say I'm really enjoying making clothing that I design myself.  Everything fits better and it's always exactly what I want.

Here's a closeup of the embroidery:


Thanks for taking a look!