Springtime in November

Yes, I'm going to rub it in to those people who live in really cold places where sweaters, heavy coats and ice scraping are now, or soon to be, part of your daily rituals.
I might complain in the summertime about the heat here in South Florida, but wow is the weather spectacular now. It's hard to get too wound up about Christmas and turkey yet while I'm humming around being inspired by all the glorious color in the plants and blue skies...

So, I offer my collage of colorful happies.
In numerical order, here are some of my recent moments of creativity or inspirations:

1. My first ever mosaic. As long as you don't look too closely at it where the grout has cracked a bit, I'm pretty damn pleased with myself! It will be hung proudly outside of our purple door home to hopefully let any strangers who come to the doorstep understand that 401 is a happy, colorful little home.

2. Two items in this photo are pleasing. First is the purple wreath I got at Target this week on sale for under $7. I guess it's out of season.. (sarcastic snicker.. ), and tucked in the middle is a little glass "screen bug" that I picked up from a craft fair in Key West last January. I can't remember the name of the artist I got it from. She was a real sweet lady.

3. Who says planters have to be really expensive? I bought that plastic planter at Home Depot last week and spray painted it purple and paprika to match our house. I think it turned out pretty nifty. And for about $5, plus the cost of paint, it was a custom-made bargain!

4. This is a close up of Ixora -- a hardy and native shrub that I hope will do well in the finicky area of our front porch. For more on this beautiful flower, click here.


5. This is a tiny little purple and pink-roof birdhouse I got on Etsy from seller Birdhouse Accents. It is adorable, and although no birds actually live there (very similar to all the empty swanky condos around here!), I'm happy to offer up a cheerful spot for them to visit someday.

6. Not a postcard, folks! Just a quick snapshot my hubby took today during our Sunday morning stroll on the broadwalk of Hollywood Beach. I LOVE palm trees!

7. Almost Martha Stewart-like overspilling pot of bright pink Impatiens. These flowers are pretty common, but are beautiful and generally pretty easy to keep up with. For more on impatiens, visit here.

New wood burn pendants

I'm just so excited about a new batch of wood burned pendants I've been working on.
Here is a preview of a couple I've completed this week.
After I find some time, they will go for sale in my Etsy store.

Shrunken Monday Night

On Monday night, life unexpectedly gave me some FREE time. My daughter stayed over at her abuela's house, and my husband was obligated to work late.
I dashed over to Michael's Craft Store and bought some Ruff 'n Ready frosted Shrinky Dink plastic and some colored pencils.
I played around and made several pendants with the stuff, and was overall pretty pleased with how they turned out. I especially like the hippie-colored rainbow ones.
Late into the night, I also created this turquoise beaded necklace that will probably become a staple in my everyday jewelry collection.
Not bad for a few hours work!

More blue, more digital collage work

For some reason I love the combinations of architecture, particularly skyscrapers, and nature. I think it could be the similar patterns of repetition found in immense buildings that are weirdly chaotic and soothing. They inevitably merge with trees and plants around them and so intertwine in this collision of man made patterns and Mother Nature's landscape. I've explored this combination mostly below my level of awareness until I recently figured out how often this theme appears in my work, or images I'm drawn to.
These blue botanical images started only as an exploration of color and soothing design, but weren't complete until I added a vintage image of a skyscraper in various settings. I think they turned out nice, and the colors are sooooo very trend!

New digital collage art

I've been meaning to work more on my digital fine art for a long time now and have found some recent inspiration.
I'm going to explore "professional" grade printing at a local copy shop down the road today and see what the mystery is when it comes to printing archival quality prints of my work.
Here are two designs I worked on recently. I like the bright colors and botanical themes...

Blue love

So I've neglected this blog for too long.
I started realizing how obsessed I am with all things blue and aqua recently. Just to really drive the point home, I made a quick collage of all the crafts I've made in the past few months that involve my favorite color.

Here they are:
1. My blue and chocolate shrinky dink bracelet -- mentioned in below post.
2. Blue and metallic champagne painted wood burned pendant.
3. Hand drawn funky fish, digitally colored illustration.
4. Beach inspired faux turquoise and jade necklace. I made it with knots and hemp cord.
5. Turquoise paper mache beaded necklace I made especially as a gift for a co-worker's sister.
6. Palm trees paper collage on 6x6 wooden box.
7. Wood burned and painted bangle bracelets. I LOVE the bigger chunky one and wear it all the time.
8. Mixed media digital collage botanical image with layered burned and painted wood chips.
9. Mixed media work. Carved, painted and embellished with washers.
10. Digital art of a Royal Poinciana leaf. This leaf is from a tree in my yard. I scanned it in and digitally colored and enhanced the image.
11. I'm so proud of how this turned out, mostly because I'm a novice beader and polymer clay crafter. This necklace is made with various beads, including Beads For Life recycled magazine tube beads. The pendant was designed and painted by yours truly!
12. One of my fave wood burned pendants.

So there you have it! My obsession with blue continues.....

Shrinky Weekend

This weekend I played around with Shrinky Dinks -- the shrinkable plastic sheets that can be printed on, then heated and "shrinked" down to size in the oven.

Apparently I must have lapsed into a coma during childhood when these were wildly popular, but I've only recently discovered them.

The possiblities for these things are endless. Jewelry, wine bottle charms, embellishments for paper crafting, push pins, buttons... you name it.

Here are some photos of my first attempt at a shinky dink bracelet. I must admit, it was an awful lot of work for a cheap plastic bracelet that isn't really made that well!! It's a bit too big, and the varnish I used sorta glooped up. The colors are also SUPER saturated once you've baked and varnished the things. But I'm wearing the bracelet now, and thinking of new and exciting ways to play around with this stuff. Here are some people who have already mastered a few ideas and have created beautiful things with customizable, oven-baked plastic.
www.AnomalousBits.etsy.com
www.ShrunkenCatHeads.etsy.com
www.JessicaPoundstone.etsy.com
http://www.iloveblocks.com

Happy shrinking, everyone!!