Holy Crafts, Batman! Jewelry Edition

My son is on a serious superhero streak.  His favorites are Spider-Man and Batman.  He even loves the Batman tv show from the 60s with Adam West--hence the title of this post....  Although to be fair, I've loved superhero movies for years now.  Hancock, Unbreakable, Hellboy, Van Helsing, Ghost Rider are all favorites, in addition to the more recent Batman movies starring Christian Bale and the completely awesome Despicable Me.  Have you seen Despicable Me?  You should!  It's BOOGIE!!

Oh, wait, this is supposed to be about crafts...  First up is jewelry.  I've been on a real jewelry streak lately.

I have had this sterling silver bead necklace most of my adult life, and it's my version of a good strand of pearls.  The beads are about 7mm in size.  The problem is that it's way too small for me now.  I prefer 24" chains now, and this one is 18" at most.  My solution is the current trend of combining 2 or more necklaces with a bow or brooch as an accent.  I had the perfect "gunmetal" chain and flower brooch, so I don't even have to polish the beads anymore--woot!

I made this multi-chain bracelet using a tutorial from Flamingo Toes for a Chain and Pearl Multi-Row Bracelet.  I love her tutorials, and her taste in jewelry too!
The chain with the red bead in the center is another sterling silver piece I've had since 1999.  It was a choker back then, and I wore it maybe one time before deciding that only pets need collars ;P  The large chain on the bottom row is from Eve's Addiction, and it too used to be a necklace--and it was h-e-a-v-y!  The other 2 chains are nothing special, from the jewelry section of Michael's or Hobby Lobby.

I wanted to wear this bracelet all the time, yet be able to take it off for baths and dishes, etc.  I discovered that I could use a lever-back earring as a clasp, and it is working perfectly!  I've worn the chain every day for more than 3 weeks, and it's never fallen off--I love everything about it!

(pretend you can't see the pile of flowers in the background)

These cuffs are a work-in-progress.  I've used the Anthropologie Inspired Vintage Cuff Tutorial from Pink Lemonade for these, which I've had on my Jewelry Inspiration list for a looooong time now.  But I'm not happy with them.  In fact, I stopped in the middle of making them, hoping inspiration will strike me.  My main problem is with how they close; I may need to add a bead on one side and a loop on the other.  I love the ribbons, but it's impossible to tie a pretty ribbon with one hand.  So these are hanging out with my other supplies for now.

This next necklace is probably the easiest piece I've ever made: a blinged-out rhinestone button attached to the chain using jump rings; the most difficult part was in choosing which kind of chain to use!

I've made some Scrabble tile pendants using scrapbook paper and rhinestones and beads or buttons.  Excuse the messy background of this photo, but since I didn't take a lot of pictures, it's all I have to work with.

I used a Sharpie to color the edges, glued the scrapbook paper onto the tile with Mod Podge, then Jewel-It for the accents.  Last was the Dimensional Magic, which I love!

Did you see the new Mod Podge products that came out this week?  They have Dimensional Magic with silver or gold now--plus some new formulas of Mod Podge and tools too, like a brayer and silicon fingertips that glue doesn't stick to.  Cool!

I've also done a few experiments.  I love the "wax seal" pendants and thought I would try to create my own with tin foil and wood shapes.  It worked...kind of.  The foil looks great, and I put about 3 layers of glue / Mod Podge / Dimensional Magic on them, so I'm fairly confident the foil will stick to the shape.  The problem is that they're so lightweight they don't work as pendants at all.  Maybe a bunch of them on a charm bracelet would work...hmmmm.

I've seen these 3-ring necklaces on Etsy.  The best ones appear to be soldered together, so all 3 look like they've always been together such as this.  My version looks more like the Olympic Rings...which I didn't realize until my husband said "Oh cool, in honor of the Olympics this year!" when he saw it.  The Olympics are this year?  LOL - It looks like Mickey Mouse ears to me, so it was already destined for the "better luck next time" pile.

There's more, but I'm going to wrap it up now.  Look for crafts in my next post!

Blueberry Tea, Vampires and My Art Kit

I am sipping some hot blueberry herbal tea, and pondering why it's a beautiful shade of pink:

 

I don't care what the groundhogs said--it's spring already.  Maybe not to gardeners, or meteorologists--but trust me, we ain't getting snow this year!  It's going to be warmer and warmer, and then the sweltering heat will be upon us.

So, with Spring in mind--fruity herbal teas are my current passion.  My son calls the coffeemaker the "teamaker," isn't that cute?  I do drink coffee, but I drink herbal tea almost every day, so that's what he thinks it's for.  My favorites right now are blueberry, peach and french vanilla; I never would have thought I'd like French Vanilla tea, but I do!

I received my "Bella's Dress" edition of Breaking Dawn Part 1 on Valentine's Day.  I love it, and yes, I have turned into a 13-year-old girl:  I hung the fabric poster on my wall :)  The box itself is beautiful and destined to be used in a mixed media art piece.

Speaking of art, I have some new goodies to play with.  I have 3 different brand bottles of ink: very dark purple, pearl pink and green.  I also bought 8 Caran d'Ache Neocolor II Artists' Crayons, but we haven't gotten to play much.  I bought a set of Blick brand pastels, and I've had a lot of success with those.  I made a beautiful sunrise (or sunset) over the ocean on a random piece of foamboard.  However, I won't be doing that again; the water makes the paper peel up off the board.  

Lesson learned: not all paper is good art paper! 

These are pictures of my Art Box with my new things mixed in with the old.  Not for bragging; I've realized I love taking photos of art stuff. 
Paper and canvas panels are in a book bag along with the set of pastels and Gel Sticks.  Here's my tackle box turned Art Kit:

The top level has my glue stick, water mister, tiny tube of gouache, art pens, Neocolor IIs, plain chalk, scissors and a recycled bottle to hold my Mod Podge.  I need to use another glue bottle like that to hold gesso, or add a bottle of titanium white craft paint.

The bottom level has the watercolor pan, the rest of my Big Brush pens, paintbrushes and white-out (which is awesome!)  It used to hold my Mr. Sketch markers, til they ruined a piece on me; now they are forbidden to the depths of my craft supplies storage!

Breaking Dawn, Part 1

I hope you all are having a great Friday.  And for the Twilight fans, the day has arrived!  My copy is coming from Wal-Mart; it has the dress detail packaging and a poster of Bella and Edward from the wedding.  Yay!   Realistically, it will most likely never get up on the wall, but maybe....  Or good collage material.  :)

The Target edition has a special preview from Breaking Dawn Part 2—which I believe will be easily found online by this afternoon!  Poster vs. preview...no competition.

I tried to link a photo of the Wal-Mart packaging, but I can not figure out how to do that right now.   I'm sincerely trying to limit my online time, so just follow the pretty blue links, ok?

Harry Potter vs. Twilight

One of the benefits of having your own blog is that you can state your opinion on popular culture.  Both Harry Potter and Twilight have been on my mind lately because people keep comparing them.  And it's driving me slowly insane.

It's Halloween--time to dress up, right?  Be who you'd like to be, feel young again, whatever.  And lots of people are choosing Harry Potter costumes.  And vampire costumes are always fashionable--think "Interview with a Vampire," fangs, teeth, neck-sucking, all that kind of stuff.  NONE of which is in the Twilight movies or books.  People seem to think if they add glitter, then Lestat becomes Edward Cullen (and their costume from 17 years ago is suddenly relevant again.) 

Um, no.  And you know what?  This crap pisses me off.  This, for example:

the edward cullen vampire cupcake stand

has absolutely NOTHING relevant to Twilight, Edward Cullen or even the movie "Vampires Suck," which was actually pretty funny.  (My husband and I can't watch Twilight now without saying "Look, it's the Black Eyed Peas!")

The whole reason Stephenie Meyer has been and continues to be so involved with "The Twilight Saga" (aka the movies as opposed to the books) is so NONE of the typical vampire crap sneaks into her story.  She's been heavily criticized for it, but she HAS to be.  Why?  She wants her books to be accurately portrayed on the big screen, and she has good reason to fear otherwise. 

Some of the ABSOLUTE CRAP making its way around lately:
This quote from 2009 by a socially-irrelevant writer who sells the rights to his books as if he's a pimp on a street corner:

is suddenly all over both Pinterest and Facebook.  And this, which drives me practically INSANE with its ignorance:

 I would list a source here, but all I can find are links to the same picture, over and over again.

It probably wouldn't bug so much if I felt people had actually read all the books for both series and watched all 3 of the Twilight Saga films. 

Twilight is NOT just about having a hot boyfriend--it's about finding your soul-mate and choosing to be with them for eternity, something which should be appealing to all of us from divorced households growing up, and who are now old enough to realize just how hard marriage really can be.  It's about finding your "niche" in the world: Bella is clumsy everywhere, all the time.  Becoming a vampire suddenly gives her the freedom to walk down the street without breaking her leg or worse--my gosh, her own mother accepts the story that it's "normal" for Bella to fall through a PLATE GLASS WINDOW!!!

And in the end--if you would freaking READ the end--it's Bella's power that saves them all--she surrounds her family, their friends, and most importantly, Edward, from the threat of the Volturi.  She is not hiding behind Edward, waiting for him to save her--she does it, on her own, without him even knowing she has the ability to do so!  How does that make her a bad role model?  She literally becomes the SHIELD to protect her family in battle!!  What wife, what mother, would not do the same?

And at the same time, when she could be sitting around playing with her daughter and letting the men protect her, Bella is off making arrangements for her daughter and Jacob to be able to run, to get away from the Volturi if the battle goes badly--again, with no help from Edward or even Jasper (who usually handles getting the necessary fraudulent documents for the Cullen family.)  So while she's learning how to harness her power, she's also doing what every mother does and preparing for the worst.

GOD, just give it up already!  Get something new to discuss!  I know: what's one way you can help this country out of its recession?  Or, how can we raise public consciousness about water conservation?  Or, what can you teach your child about tolerance by SHUTTING UP ABOUT THIS ALREADY???

In the end, they're both BOOKS, people.  And since literacy is one of the factors in determining a child's success later in life--let them read!  I remember when churches were telling the schools not to carry the Harry Potter novels, that they were about real "Witchcraft" and opened the door for Satan to ruin their child's life.  Now, ten years later, it's accepted, even assumed, that everyone has read (and loved) every one of the Harry Potter books and every Harry Potter movie.

I've read them all, and loved them all.  I read the last Harry Potter book with a pack of tissues at my side, and at times sobbing completely.  I read all of the Twilight books, in a row, staying up all night to do so in spite of having a 3-year-old to take care of all day. 

They are all wonderful books--go read them and be an example to our children that even as adults, we can understand how hard it is to be a kid in a grown-up's world.  Show them that true courage is not limited to warriors in the past.  Show them that whatever they choose, all you want is their future happiness.

So, this is MY OPINION on MY blog.  Disagree with me?  I don't care, life is too short and I have too much laundry to fold to think about this anymore!

Pom-Poms Are Evil

That there, ladies, is a LIE.  It is not "oh-so-easy;" it sucks.  And to top it all off, when I asked hubby to attach my pom-pom flower that I loved and had worked very hard to create, in my favorite colors even, he replied "What is it?" (this is where I gave him THAT look and he said "It's pretty, whatever it is." insert eye roll here)

One of the blogs I read everyday (I can't remember which, I get about 30 emailed to me) had a beautiful book page wreath up in her kitchen, and then found out her husband hated it.  He said it looked like a phone book.  I think her husband and mine are related somehow.....

Anyway, this is the honest truth about making pom-poms:
1. You need 8-10 FULL-SIZED sheets of tissue paper.  I tried cutting 2 sheets into fourths, and I cannot bring  myself to even photograph that monstrosity.  My poor little green and blue baby there is 4 sheets of 20" paper that I cut in half.
2. A useful tip: (I think I came up with this, but probably not) I used an alligator clip at the opposite end from where I was folding, so the pages stayed even together.
3. Make LARGE accordion folds, like 1.5" or even 2."
4. Crease each fold as if you were using a bone folder.  Seriously. 
5. Lastly, making your first one at 11pm at night after a long and difficult day is also something I advise against.  This is not a peaceful craft project. 

One more view, but a warning first: I attached my "happy little pom-pom" to my turquoise floor lamp I got last year for $5 during Wal-Mart's Back to School days (I'm hoping lime and turquoise things are still in fashion this year!)  Also, I've been painting today, so my brushes ended up in the picture too.

So, speaking of paintbrushes, I discovered something kind of awesome: I'm doing this FREE online art journal class provided by Strathmore called Visual Journal Series.  I'm loving it!  I have no art instruction in my background at all, so it's been a huge help!!  So many of my favorite Art Journalists are starting courses soon, but I feel like I don't know the basics, so I'm refusing to allow myself to give in to the temptation to pay $50 to just get confused and frustrated.

I think these classes are only available until August 1, so hurry on over there and get to listening.  Each class is about 20 minutes long, and there's also a worksheet with "homework" full of details they couldn't address in the video.  I made some backgrounds today:

Anyway, happy Sunday!  This is our last weekend before school starts.  I'm an absolute nervous wreck.  Did you ever see that movie where the cheerleader gets pregnant, and the other cheerleaders help her rob a bank?  Well, they disguise themselves as "Betty" dolls, and they name one of them "Mood Swing Betty."  The phrase stuck in my head.  I'm in total Mood-Swing Betty mode....  "Sugar & Spice" is the movie, thank you IMDB!