I've been making bugs!

I bought a bag of pom poms at a garage sale last week, and wasn't sure what to do with them. After remembering a caterpillar I made with a bug kit, I decided to do more. Here's what I have.
The red and white one is the one I made from the kit. They still need eyes and some kind of antenna, but I think they are way too cute. I'm thinking of making the really small ones into pins and adding them to my Etsy store. Unfortunately I have no idea what to do with the rest, any ideas?

Birdsong Tag Swap

I joined Karla's Birdsong Tag Swap last week, here are my tags:
They are made out of chipboard thickness file folders. I bought them at a garage sale, the backgrounds are blue (you can see the backs in the next picture). I first covered the background with some green tissue paper. The trim on the bottom, I had bought at a garage sale and painted it with watercolors. I then added the turquoise tickets onto the trim. The bird images are stamped onto white cardstock and painted with watercolors. The leaf trim I got in a swap. The flowers are rub-ons with gems added as centers. The flower petals at the top have been painted with watercolors as well.
Here you can see the material I used for the tags. It's chipboard thickness, blue and glossy. I added a dictionary definition of bird (there is a sparrow and blackbird definition as well, because I ran out of birds). The bird picture is also out of a dictionary. I put the information from the swap on the back (name, hostess, date, my name, and my website). I realized after labeling them all, I had accidentally put my other website on them, oh well.

I made 9 tags, even though the swap only calls for 7, I found out I could get 3 tags from each file folder, so I did. I don't know what I'll do with the other 2 tags.

All the tags are similar, yet a little different. There's 3 different bird images, silver and gold leaf trim, the birds are different colors, the flowers are different colors and have different gems in their centers.

It's been awhile since I've done anything creative, so this felt extremely nice. I looked at some pictures on other people's websites, as well as the flickr album, and tried to use as many cool embellishments and trims. I don't feel mine are near as elaborate, but I'm happy with them, and I hope those that receive them are as well.

Captured Dragon

I've been seeing these captured fairy bottles around lately, so I thought I'd make one myself, with a little twist.


I signed up for a True Colors swap, where we send our partner things in their favorite color. My partner's color was dark green, and she also liked dragons. So, I made a captured dragon bottle.


The dragon was originally a pendant, I cut off the loop at the top of his wings, and glued him to the lid of the bottle. I glued green rocks and crushed shells to the bottom. I added some gold plants to the background with some gems in front of them. Unfortunately after I glued the jar shut, some of the gems decided to come unglued, I hope she doesn't mind.


On the outside there is copper German foil on the bottom. On the top to cover the closure of the jar, I glued a ribbon, and some copper and green gems.


On the bottom, I glued dictionary pages (My new favorite decorating item), with the definition for dragon from a different dictionary. Sorry, the picture is so blurry, I couldn't get a good focused close-up.

Here's a close-up of the dragon. His wings go up to almost a point behind his head. He's holding a clear orb in his claws, and his tail goes down behind him.
I know it's not a great picture and you really can't see him that well.

I had so much fun making this. I will definitely be making more captured whatever bottles. I'm totally looking for tiny jar when I'm garage saleing. Hopefully, I'll add some to my etsy shop soon.