• Art - Blog - Crafts - Creativity

    T Tuesday: a second look edition

    February 1, 2016 - By 

    Welcome to T stands for Tuesday AND Second on the 2nd…both hosted by Elizabeth.  Hmmm…I wonder how she’s planning on keeping these links straight. 🙂 Anyway…lets get on with it, shall we…

    long shadows tea | Halle's Hobbies

    First I have to take care of a bit of business. I apologize to my T Tuesday friends for not getting around to visiting. I had to abandon sitting at my desk with the exception of short bursts. Sitting for long periods just does a number on my body. I need to stay active or everything sort of cramps or gets stiff or all crunched up. I’m sure it’s my posture at the keyboard. I’ve started doing yoga every morning and stretches throughout the day. It’s really helping. Of course, since I didn’t get up early enough do my yoga over the weekend (I’m too embarrassed to do it in front of my family since I still really suck at it) I’m a little stiff today.

    vintage button stack pendants | Halle's Hobbies

    I also wanted to show the pendants I posted about last week. They turned out quite nice. I’ve a bunch more set aside to create more pendants. I’ll be listing some in my etsy store soon.

    Now on to Second on the 2nd… I looked back through my blog and realized that I started what I would call an art journal now way back in 2007. I considered it a “no theme” altered book then. Really they are sort of interchangeable terms to me unless you are literally journalling in one.  This post kind of cracks me up. I was very critical of myself. Looking back I still know which pages I wasn’t find of but now I can appreciate them all and truly like them!

    Take a look at the post from November 10, 2007…

    eyes

    I picked up a this book at a local thrift store the other day. I had originally intended it for something completely different but decided since it was small that I should just dive in and play!!

    I

    I really like 3 of the 5 pages. The other 2, I am not so pleased with. I don’t actually hate them enough to cover them up but may go back and revisit them later to see if I can make any good changes.

    Can you guess which ones I like??

    I still have plenty of room to play some more in this book. It’s very freeing to work without a theme…at least for today. 🙂 Sometimes I need a theme to get me started. In fact this book was planned to be a book in which each spread dealt with one of the senses. Yeah…that changed pretty quickly.

     

     

  • Blog - Crafts

    Vintage button stacks

    January 30, 2016 - By 

    A few months ago, one of the knitting ladies casually asked me if I could use any buttons in my art. She had come across her mothers collection while cleaning out the attic and wanted them to go to someone who would appreciate them.  The next time I saw her she had the stash hoard with her. I was shocked! It was a huge box. Over the past few months I’ve slowly sorted through… cleaning and throwing out broken bits from the several pounds of buttons.

    vintage button stacks | Halle's Hobbies

    This is just a very small fraction. Seriously.

    vintage button stacks | Halle's Hobbies

    I thought it may be fun to make some necklaces so I turned on Netflix then started sorting and stacking.

    vintage button stacks | Halle's Hobbies

    I kept auditioning different buttons until I found a stack that that spoke to me.

    vintage button stacks | Halle's Hobbies

    vintage button stacks | Halle's Hobbies

    I used E6000 to adhere a bail to the back of each stack as well as gluing the buttons together.

    I also saved out a few fancy mother of pearl buttons to try out some wire wrapping. So far my results are less than pretty with that endeavor. Practice, practice.

    I’ll share the completed pendants when they are good and dry.

  • Blog - Crafts

    After Christmas crafts

    January 9, 2016 - By 

    On Wednesday I was on a mission to get all of my errands complete before the snow then wicked cold snap was to hit. I went 11 places in just under 4 hours. Shockingly I didn’t spend a bunch of money either. I was hitting all the loss leader deals at various stores while still getting the essentials to last into next week. I wasn’t even planning on going to Michael’s but since I was just down the street from it I decided to check out the 80% off all Christmas deals.  I picked up the needed supplies to make a couple of wreaths.

    Deco mesh wreaths | Halle's Hobbies

    Since we are putting away all of our Christmas decor today, it was now or never next year for wreath making. So I gathered my supplies and set to work.

    Deco mesh wreaths | Halle's Hobbies

    I also had to find a video tutorial on the process of creating a deco mesh wreath.

    This one worked for me.

    What I didn’t comprehend was just how huge this was going to be!

    Deco mesh wreaths | Halle's Hobbies

    It became painfully obvious that the scale of the elements I had purchased would be completely wrong.

    Deco mesh wreaths | Halle's Hobbies

    I added some ribbon…and what appears to be a nice bow in the photo. Nope…just shoved the rest of the ribbon in there for storage until I can find someone to help me with the bow. Did I mention how much I suck at making bows!?! I called my crafty neighbor for help and evidently she lacks that skill as well. I’m thinking with the addition of a proper bow and perhaps some plastic Christmas balls this would work for an outdoor wreath.

    Next I set to work on a winter themed wreath. Something to take you through until Easter.

    Deco mesh wreaths | Halle's Hobbies

    Did you notice the price sticker on the deco mesh…? Goodwill $2.99 and I used a 25% off coupon so it was really $2.24, sweet! The wreath base was purchased previously when I made my burlap wreath. I started out and realized that the green wire base was showing through in a very unflattering way. First I doubled the number of pipe cleaners on the base but the green still showed through. It needed to be white.

    Deco mesh wreaths | Halle's Hobbies

    Lucky for me, the temps were hovering around freezing yesterday so I was able to give the base a quick shot of paint in the garage.  Honestly, I’m surprised at how quickly it dried. I was really worried since the can said not to use below 55°F.

    Isn’t it pretty!?!

    Deco mesh wreaths | Halle's Hobbies

    I was making it for a gift but it looks so good on my front door that I think I’m keeping it. Shhh…

    Deco mesh wreaths | Halle's Hobbies

    I love the iridescent shimmer in the mesh. Perfect match to a cold winter day.

    Do you decorate for “winter” to carry through until St. Patrick’s Day or perhaps Easter?