Saturday, October 20, 2012

Altered Paintbrush

Here's my last altered paintbrush.
I decided to paint the brush orange, I watercolored the gear. For a long time all I had was the gear/compass rose glued onto the brush. I finally decided to add the brads on the bottom with gems. I'm not sure if it's steampunk, but I hope my partner will like it.
Both brushes are done except for adding my information to the back.

I want to join the Button Floozies Christmas ornament swap, but I have no idea what to make. See what I made last year and what I received. Any ideas?

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Some swaps

I joined a few swaps on one of my Yahoo groups, here's what I've completed so far.
These first ones are for an altered paintbrush swap. We were supposed to buy two 3" chip brushes and alter them in any way we wanted. This first one is actually a 2.5" brush that I started to play around with:
 I covered it with a mixture of pearl powder and mod podge that I made for another project. I had to layer it pretty heavily to get a good cover. I then added the metal piece and blue 'jewels' in a couple of the holes. I really love this.
This picture is the beginning of one for the swap:
 I ended up painting the brush orange and gluing the gear and compass piece on it, there's also a grey 'jewel' in the middle of the compass. I'm having a hard time figuring out what to put on the back. I'm thinking of some smaller gears, but I really don't have a lot of those.
This is my second one for the swap, this picture is the finished piece:
 I covered it with dictionary pages (my new favorite way to cover things), and then wrapped a piece of vintage trim over the metal part.
This next piece is an ATC for a swap that got cancelled:
It was for a rainbow swap, we were to use the seven colors of the rainbow or one for each card.

I also joined a ticket swap, which I am having the hardest time decorating, and a flowers swap, I can't get inspired for that one.

Fall in love with buttons swap

I joined the Fall In Love With Buttons Altered Tin Swap again this year. Yesterday when I got home from work, I found my package waiting for me:
 You can see the two extra items she made for me: a tie necklace with a button in the middle, and the card, she actually sewed all of those tiny buttons on to it.
Here's what she said about the tin: "I covered the tin with a button card. I had this one that featured a man and it was not in good condition so I decided to cover it with a 'suit coat' utilizing the buttons on the card for the shirt buttons. I didn't feel too guilty 'transforming' it."
And here's the buttons she sent me:
 "The black button and the black acorn shaped I got when I bought a traveling salesman's sample box at a flea market. The four tan with blue stripes, I bought a huge jar of buttons at a flea market for $80, I think they are from Czechoslovakia."

And here's what I created for her:
Last year, my tin was pretty flat, this year I found this floral stick with the pumpkin, acorn and leaves on it, I thought they would be perfect for the tin. You can kinda see the Halloween ribbon I attached to the sides. The top is covered with dictionary paper, as is the bottom.
And I realized I don't have a picture of the buttons I sent her, but she like them.