Pinterest Peaks My Interest

Like many of you, I have many blogs and websites that I check-in with, for creative ideas that will spur one of my own, for art lessons for my classes, for personal inspiration.  My uber-creative crafty friend Pat just turned me on to another site that I am sure to check out on a regular basis.  It's called www.pinterest.com, and everytime I've checked it since I heard about it, I have the overwhelming urge to run to the garage and start some creative project!

 

Check out these adoreable umbrellas in a wreath.  I happen to have a whole box of these left over from a party a couple of years back....you can bet next time I'm heading to Michael's, coupon in hand, I'm going to head over to the foamy section and get a wreath to do this fun project.  Hanging on a door, I think it says, "you are heading into the fun zone." Poifect for my next wild shindig!

A LittleWine with my Resin to Celebrate my Birthday

“A friend is someone who understands your past, believes in your future, and accepts you just the way you are.”

I had a group of my girlfriends over last night to celebrate my birthday with margaritas, a party-lite presentation and a craft.  I really enjoy working with resin, so I designed a basic necklace using bezels, beads and images cut from my mountains of magazines.  The bezels, and leather cord were from Michaels, and the beads are from an Indian importer that I purchase by the 6' string. Can't believe how the necklaces turned out!  I was soooo proud to have such a creative group of girlfriends, and how blessed  am I to have spent the evening with my favorite people, doing my favorite activity.

Watercolor on unusual surfaces

 

My sister Dee knows my really well.  My birthday was a couple of weeks ago, and when I flew up to visit my family, she gifted me with a course we could take together.  It was called, "watercolor on unusual surfaces."  We took blocks of wood and smeared them with a sandy acrylic compound, and another with  thick, gooey, modeling paste.  When they were dried, we painted on them with basic watercolors and wonderful chinese bamboo brushes.  What a wonderful time to spend both with my sister, and doing something I love.  Neither of us have much experience in watercolor, but it was fun to try something new, and we both decided to try our hand at trees for this particular piece. 

Ancient Egypt Canopic Jar....for guts or in my case, extra change!

 

In ancient Egypt, the lungs, liver, kidneys and stomach were placed in canopic jars right before the embalmers began the mummification process.  I thought it would be a fun project for my class of Goth teenage boys to try with clay.  Usually the Egyptians chose to recreate the head of the dead to put on top, but they also put in other protectors such as the cow, ram or hawk.  I chose a cow head, which I'm sure will look much better once I've painted it.  Not a true work of art, but I really had fun, and I know the boys really enjoyed making these jars too.  Looking forward to getting these fired painted...think I'll use mine to hold spare change that I find in my jeans occasionally.