I’m playing with mixed media this week, and calling this one “Addicted to Love” after Robert Palmer’s famous video.

Of course, my girl here is just a little bit more frumpy than those girls in the video, but frumpy needs attention, too! LOL

I started with a canvas and put different papers on it, including music sheets, patterns, and book pages. Then I added some yellow, red, and orange color.

After that I started painting my girl. She has her hair slicked back and her eyes shut. Perhaps she is grooving out to Robert Palmer in her mind. You never know.

Finally, I added her lips and dress. She’s a bit “thick” around the middle. Then again, aren’t we all? But I like her anyways.

It’s winter, which means I can’t do my bigger glass sculptures because the smell and toxic-ness of the glue is too much to do in the house. So I’m experimenting. I’m trying to work on some smaller glass projects so I can use a different glue and do them in the house. Here’s the latest obsession: glass mushrooms.

I want to do a sculpture garden come spring, so I’m getting ready by making a few of these little mushrooms. I found a deal at an estate sale a few weeks ago, where they had these awesome green dishes for just ten cents a piece. You can’t argue with that.

Aren’t they pretty? And lucky for me there were three “tops” and three “bottoms.” How nicely that worked out!

To make them, it’s so easy it’s ridiculous. Put glue on the bottom part, which will be the “stem” of the mushroom. I used the same glue (Simple-fix Outdoor Glue Pen) that I used with my cupcake plate stand. The glue is supposed to be water resistant, but is much less toxic than the stuff I used for my garden sculptures. I use the ultra heavy stuff for those because the glass is a lot heavier, and because our weather here is really brutal. So I’m still experimenting. I think this glue will work out fine for these.

Place the “top” on the mushroom, and let dry.

Viola! You have a few glass mushrooms for your garden.

I’m way behind on just about everything this week, including new craft projects. But I did manage to go to the local library sale and pick up ten books for under a dollar! Yessiree! That’s the way to get ‘em. Especially when you’re going to craft with them.

Well, I guess I did do one “crafty-ish” project this week. I made these cute Packer truffles for the game.

I even put them on my new cupcake plate stand. But then, my team imploded upon itself, and there was much sadness in Packer Nation. I had the hubby take the truffles to work because I couldn’t bare to look at them!

So… back to the library sale….

Library sales are great if you’re a reader or looking for new books to read or give to friends, but they are really valuable if you’re a crafter. Take a look at that pile I have. Quite a variety. Each book is old, and some have odd or cool illustrations, which will be fun to craft with.

Next time you go to your local library sale, look for books that have:

• Poetry. It’ my personal preference, but poetry is always lovely to put on things. Even if you can’t see it and it’s in the background, I still think it adds something special.
• Interesting print inside.
• Maps.
• Cool or weird illustrations. There is a palmistry book and a home plan book in that pile that have some really interesting pictures. It will be nice to craft and paint with them.
• Foreign words. I like using foreign text in crafting, and that German language book in my pile will work out for that.
• Lots of dialog. Pages with a lot of dialog in them work out well, especially when you can cut out a certain word or phrase to focus on for your picture.
• Books that are old.  Older books really have a charm to them, and sometimes, information that makes you giggle. This is especially true of “advice” books that are 50 or 60 years old. I have one from my grandma about how to “make a man his dinner” that I love so much.

While I was on my staycation, I got an email from someone that asked why I don’t post more thoughts about writing here like I used to. That was so sweet, wasn’t it? Most of the time I feel like I babble, so a nice little message like that made my day.

I do write about my jobs or various assignments here sometimes, but I try and post most of my advice and thoughts over at my writing blog instead. That’s where people usually go to look for them. Maybe I could post some links here once in a while? I dunno. (I’m thinking out loud while I write, can you tell?)

I might start including links to my new articles every week here from the writing blog and other clients. I’ll see how you guys like that. (You always have a way of letting me know – which I thank you for!). I’m open to changing things up here. This blog has evolved and probably will continue to do so. Plus, it’s a new year, so it’s a good time to make changes.

Image: Againstar / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

I got this fortune a while ago from a lunch date with my hubby, and it said “Keep an eye out for someone special.” I just loved this thought. I know, Chinese fortunes are dorky and made up, but I dig them anyways. You do too, right? Admit it!

Anyways, I decided to make a picture and use the fortune. I gathered a few other things I wanted to use, like pages from books and a few lines of poetry from one of my poems. I began gluing them to the canvas.

I added some patterns and other papers.

When I had all the papers on, I started on the picture.

Added some more paint layers…

… added more colors and paper… and decided that I wanted her glasses thicker…

… then to finish it, I put the Chinese fortune in the middle-ish of the picture.

I’ve spoken (probably too much) that in the last couple years I haven’t taken much time off. I think the reason I stress that is because so many people think you have loads of time when you’re a writer. I know a lot of writers that do it for fun or extra income, and for them, yay. For me, I need the income to help support my family, so it’s a business. Which means… work! But I’m not complaining. I love what I do. I worked for years in jobs I hated and to have a few that I love love love? Heaven!

So to make a long story longer, I took some time off during the holidays, which I can’t even remember the last time I was able to do. Hubs had off too, so we had a nice little staycation. I still had to pop into work for some things, but we were able to do some very fun stuff around town, too. We went to:

• Lunch at a bunch of different places.
• An Impressionist exhibit at the Art Museum.
• To see Mission Impossible (which was great to see on the big screen, btw.)
• And other general milling around activities!

I also did some reading, crafting, and writing (of course!) I got the game Ticket To Ride for Christmas, and we had a blast playing that with some people.

On New Year’s Eve, we once again got back to our movie night (which we abandoned for a couple of years because we had company over). We were really looking forward to it this year, and it was probably one of the funnest (is funnest a word?) nights we’ve had in a while. We watched Esther Williams movies (because I just love her), and they were really cute. We also found this awesome deal at the grocery store where they had two steaks and two lobsters (small, but enough to satisfy you) for under $25. We got a grocery gift card for Christmas, so we also picked up a bunch of other items (along with a nice bottle of champagne) so it didn’t cost us a dime! (Is free food and drink better than stuff you pay for? It might be.)

This New Year’s might sound boring to some people, but it was so fun for us. We also had a Bûche de Noël cake (which we got from Trader Joe’s for the unbelievable price of $2.99), which capped the night off nicely.

On New Year’s Day, we watched the Packer game (and they won even with many of the second string in! yay!), watched our traditional movie (Bridget Jones’s Diary, which we watch every year), and wrote in our New Year’s book.

The book is interesting. We started this tradition when we were first dating. We were engaged, and I thought, well wouldn’t it be cool to write a few words that we reflect back on from year to year? (You know me and words…)

DH loved the idea and we’ve been doing it ever since.

I’ve returned from my vacation (or more appropriately, staycation) and that means it’s back to gluing glass together. My obsession continues! For this project, I picked up some vintage dishes at Goodwill. I loved the pattern on these and thought they would make for a pretty cupcake or candy stand.

Aren’t they cute?

The entire lot cost me under $2. So this is a very cheap project to do. First, I played around with the plates to see which would together well for the stand. You’ll notice that I have a bowl in this mix. I don’t usually use bowls for this type of project, but I loved this piece, and found a vintage water glass that I could use to boost up the next plate. This layer can be for napkins or candy, as its deeper than the others.

Don’t be afraid to play around with this project. Let the pieces determine the height and dimensions. You don’t always have to have a plate for a plate stand! I mean, really, is someone going to tell me, “Cherie, get that bowl out of there!” I doubt it.

Once I figured out which pieces I wanted to put where, I got to gluing. Again, I’m using a Simple-fix Outdoor Glue Pen like I did for the picnic plate veggie stand. I like this glue because it’s easy to work with, non-toxic (very important when it comes to things that are going to be around food!), and it’s very easy to work with.

I put the glue on, and then wait a few minutes for it to set. Then, I put the cup down where I wanted it, and glued the other side.

You might find that some glue oozes out after you put the cup down. This means that you probably had a little too much, or you moved it when you set it. As you can see, I did that with this cup. It’s not a big deal. You can use a damp paper towel to wipe off the excess.

If some of the glue hardens on the plate, you can wash it off after it’s set. (But make sure it’s fully dry – which means a couple of days.)

Keep gluing layers and placing them on the stand.

This is the layer with the bowl. As you can see, the glass will give the final layer some nice height.

And viola! Cupcake stand complete! I like this project because you can use up some miscellaneous plates you have around or find at flea markets, or just grab a couple at the thrift store when you see them.

I think I’ve mentioned my writing partner, Genevieve, here a time or two. She’s absolutely hilarious and keeps me on track (or encourages me to actually step away from the keyboard) just when I need it. I’ve always been amazed at the empathy of dogs, but this one also demands attention when she feels I’ve spent too much time at the computer. I can’t exactly say she’s wrong, either.

Case in point, recently I was really logging the hours so I could possibly take some time off for the holidays. She obviously had had enough because when we went out she started barking her fool head off at her favorite tire. “Play with me! Play with me now!” (At least, that’s what I pictured her saying.)

I love the way her head turns up when she’s really howling and stressing her point, don’t you? Silly dawg.

Remember those house ornaments I made with felt? Well I had some leftover and wanted to do another ornament project with them. I thought about it for about a split second because I’m a total Eiffel Tower nut. So I knew I had to make one that looked (somewhat) like an Eiffel Tower.

I have an Eiffel Tower collection, and I am so obsessed that I even have a blog about all those cute Eiffel Tower collectibles. I also like the color blue. So I quick sketched out an Eiffel Tower:

Gathered my leftover ribbon and felt:

And cut out two Eiffel Towers:

Then stitched out some detail with embroidery floss (along with the date):

I added a ribbon to the top, put the back on, and hung on the tree. I did a quick stitch with regular thread to sew the front and back together. And here it hangs on our tree, right next to the cheesy cinnamon stick Santa I made several years ago.

Recently I spotted these adorable birdhouse necklaces in Handcrafted Jewelry, and I knew I wanted to make them.

The only problem? I couldn’t find all the materials I needed. I could get the small blocks easy enough, but had a devil of a time finding the triangles for the roof. I also didn’t have anyone to cut the block into the triangles, and don’t have the right tools to do it myself.

Darn.

So I did a search, and found this adorable Etsy shop with a kit. In fact, if I’m not mistaken I think the Etsy shop is from the same artist that had the birdhouse necklaces in Handcrafted Jewelry. Now, normally I wouldn’t use a kit, but I really wanted to make these for a few people, and could not find them anywhere. The thing is, I bought the kit for the birdhouses, but she also pre-drilled the tops and included papers so you could make the whole thing. So then I ended up using everything in the kit, which isn’t exactly what you want to do when you’re a crafter, but I love these little necklaces so much I just had to. Plus, I’m not going to sell them but give them as gifts.

So, if you’re looking to make these, I’ll show you what I did. They are super easy to do. First, get small blocks and triangles. The magazine these were in gives you exact dimensions, but you can really make them any size you want. Pre-drilling the tops is a good idea and will save on hassle later when you need to attach it to a necklace.

The kit I used came with a bunch of different papers, but obviously you can use whatever you want. On one of the sides I also put a family picture over the paper. It’s teeny tiny, but it’s there.

Then, cut out all the papers to fit the different sides of the blocks. You’ll want to cover the base and the roof.

Glue them on. (I used matte Modge Podge.)

Let them dry.

Then assemble. I used the same glue that I had used for that veggie stand I made, and it worked out great.

Then, put the screw eye in the top. You can also coat the finished product with polyurethane and sand the edges if you’ve got any rough spots. A simple chain necklace works nicely for these.