Clay Seals For MOPS

These are some clay faux seals I have been working on for the MOPS (mothers of preschoolers) benefit crop this weekend. The next phase is making the envelopes these are a part of for scrap pages or tags. I still have a handful more to paint, perfect pearls powder, glimmer mist, and seal with a glaze.

Staedtler Bottles of Hope

I have been reading more about the bottles of hope and it is such as amazing, generous production of outreach. A way to share art and love with cancer patients. But other bottles have been used depending on the illness or disease that touches your heart. My last post shows my bottle, a humalog insulin bottle. Any bottle created is donated to patients. Here are some other creations: http://bottlesofhope.org/

Healing Wings/Staedtler Bottle of Hope

I have entered a challenge called "Bottles of Hope" with Fimo clay. I am really excited about this as I created these wings in honor of my 6 1/2yr old, Isabella. She was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes 1yr ago. I have gone through all the reasons why in my mind but it truely comes down to genetics and factors beyond our control. We just don't have enough information as to "why" yet.

The clay wings are wrapped around a Humalog insulin bottle to represent the promise Healing Wings will eventually bring to her.

These wings are stamped, colored with perfect pearls and cut out with a zacto knife. I propped part of the wings during baking for shaping. Only the top wings needed to be epoxed on after baking. The key is also clay and everything is sealed with folk-art glaze. This piece will be donated or auctioned and if chosen as one of the finalist, money will be donated to the children's hospital here in Maine.

October lay-outs

These are some of my favorite reasons that October is my favorite month. So much color and so many sweet smells in the air.

The leaves above are cut from brown paper bags. The old leaf look is from holding them over a flame until the layer of tacky glue I spread over them bubbles. This funny technique I did with my neighbor friend Susan.









The scarecrow and corn husk are some fun paper crafts. These pages are two years old now and I never posted them. Time is flying. I'm off to celebrate another beautiful October by doing some crafts with my kids today.

Envelopes

This flower has been inked and I added my faux clay seal to the center. It's also part of this weeks tag challenge . I use envelopes as gift tags to hold extra gifts or pictures on a package. The envelope was also handcrafted by me. Winter envelopes you can see here .








Some fun embellishments I made last fall but never posted. I love the look of seals so made some with stamping clay or putting an embellishment in the center then inking or painting the seal. These envelopes are for holding pictures, journaling or other memories on scrapbook pages or for gift giving on packages.

Mini Board Book

My blogger friend Sherry sent my little girls these beautiful little pictures of birds and nests. So we altered one of their smallest board books to celebrate these beautiful creatures. My 4yr old painted her book 2 colors then together, we decided where the pictures and fun treasures should be glued. Some of the pictures, of course, have glue on them which adds to the memories of making it together. My 6yr old and I still need to put hers together.




We added brown craft grassy "stuff", ribbons, thin pieces of cedar bark and feathers, brown for the robins and blue for the blue jay eggs. So we will call this her science lesson for the week!
Thanks Sherry!!!






Helix Craft Table

Something pretty cool I want to share. I recieved this fun Craft Table for free from the Home Arts Magazine. It came with 4 templates for embossing. I used it to make different types of envelopes and boxes then wrote a review for the magazine. This is the second review I was able to do and the best part is I get to keep the product. I'm just not sure which month it will be in. It's alot of fun but I need to purchase the interactive CD for more project ideas. The original directions don't explain all the uses. Check out the web-site above for more details. It would be great especially for those who really like making home-made greeting cards.

http://sweetoldvintage.blogspot.com/2008/09/hosting-give-way.html

Please check out this wonderful give-a-way on Merietta's blog. Beautiful vintage style paper dolls and ornaments with charming details.

Gift Bags

I put together thank you gift packages for a couple of wonderful friends. Two paper bags are held together and decorated on the front. Shown on the front is a homemade tag that swings open from a brad to hold my thank you message. Inside the homemade faux clay seals I stamped their (first name) initials. Inside the 2 pockets of the 2 bags holds many goodies including the few tags and paper clips pictured below. I also included a couple more tags and a decorated envelopes not shown. I hope they enjoy using the tags for gifts or scrapbooking as much as Ienjoyed putting them together.

I love making these paper clips. I changed the silver color with alcohol inks. The wooden shapes are held on with epoxy. (The shoe on the right has a flower behind it).

The metal paper clips were colored using alcohol ink.