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?

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.

Getting Back into Creating

I haven't created anything for so very long. The other day, I decided I needed to make some simple Halloween ATC's and send them off to my Yahoo! group. Yesterday, I went to Hobby Lobby and JoAnn's for some fall items. I've started up swaps on my Yahoo! group again, and had to make the packets for October's swap. Here's what my kitchen floor looked last night:

 Those are the pieces for the swap. Among the paper and stickers are a couple interesting bits: rubber rats I picked up last year(I only wanted one, but just like the potato chip commercial, you can't have just one), some monster toothpicks, some silk leaves, 3D acorns, some spooky charms, and some orange brads. I can't wait to see what my group creates with them.

Last year, I signed my mother and I up to create something for a festival of trees. Last year when we went, my mother commented that we should make something, and when I picked up the pieces I won in the silent auction, I signed us up. My original thought was to make an art piece for the silent auction, my mother wants to decorate a wreath. She has a great idea, but she has been so busy with things with my grandmother (she had a stroke earlier this year, had to be moved to a nursing home, and last weekend my parents cleaned out her apartment, we don't think we'll be celebrating her birthday next year), I'm not sure she'll have time. I'm still hoping to do some kind of art piece. I think this will be nice:

It's kinda dark, but that back piece is a greenish organza piece folded four times, there's 3 doilies layered on top and an green flower bead in the middle. There's seam binding on the edges. I'm thinking of making it a wallhanging. I'm not sure if I should keep the 4 folds, it looks better than the sheer one layer of the organza, if I do, I'll add some quilt batting under the fourth layer on the back, and some kind of cord to hang it. I think it will be really nice.


I also signed up for a few swaps in my other Yahoo! group today, and am doing the Fall Button Floozies swap again this year.

What are you guys creating?

Under The Sea

The other day, I wanted the ocean, so I started this piece:

I started by mixing a couple of blues and painting the canvas. My first thought was to use some of the massive collection of shells I have. After adding them to the corner, I was looking through some inspiration on my computer and decided I needed a mermaid. The one I chose is from The Sum Of All Crafts blog. After that I decided I needed some seahorses around her. I went to Micheal's, The Dollar Tree, and Making Memories on Wednesday, but couldn't find the right ones. I went to Hobby Lobby yesterday and found the blue ones, and decided the yellow one I had to begin with (also from The Sum of All Crafts) would work well. The blue ones are layered paper with googly eyes.
Now, I'm stuck, I know it needs more, but I'm not sure what. I think it needs more dimension and probably some plants, but I don't know where to start.

Any ideas?

Cake Swap

I joined the Merry Unbirthday Cake Swap and heard that my partner received her cake, here's what I sent her:

 She said she liked brights, and flowers. So I covered the box with green tissue paper and the top with tons of different flowers. Some are buttons, some are beads, some are silk, some are paper, there's a couple gems in there as well. I had the hardest time figuring out how to decorate the top, you can see the circles of paper under some of the flowers. The dragonflies are buttons that I clipped off the shanks and colored with alcohol ink.
Here's a look at the side:

 I ran ribbon around the cake, and adorned it with gems.
Here's what I sent her:

More flowers, the red ones are pins, the yellow one is to top a package, the tealish one is a magnet. She also said she liked whimsical doo-dads, I had a hard time figuring out what that meant, but I hope I did well. There's gems, some F tags (her name is Frances), some ribbon, tiny canvas tags, ribbon, and some birthday cake stickers.

I also added a Happy Birthday necklace in the box.

Here's her blog, go there to see what she sent me, and her pictures of the stuff I sent her.

Hat box swap

I signed up to participate in Michele's Hat Box swap, here's what I made for my partner:

 I started with a brown paper heart box from Hobby Lobby, I then covered it with dictionary paper (even though you can't tell on the top). I had a hard time figuring out how to decorate it after that. Finally, I decided to use a doily (because my partner likes doilies), but I was thinking it needed a way to separate it from the background. A couple weeks ago, I bought a gallon size ziploc bag filled with seam binding, so I picked three colors that went together and glued them onto the top, it's actually gray, pink and blue, the gray looks kinda green. I had the hardest time getting the blue to stay down, as it was a lot more crisp than the other two, and you could definitely see the creases from being wrapped around a card. And then I had an even harder time figuring out what to put on the top (especially after seeing how cool Michele's was). I have a ton of these wooden roses, I keep buying them cause they're so cool, so I chose pink/purple, white and green to go with the seam binding. For the edge of the lid, I glued buttons on that I got in another swap.

For the sides of the box, I finally decided to cut out flowers from a vintage embroidered dish towel. My partner said she liked vintage things.
I also had a hard time figuring out how to package the lid of the box without squishing the roses, I finally flipped it upside down, so they nestled into the box. I hope they stayed on throughout their trip.
Monday afternoon, after I mailed the box, I realized I was supposed to add something I made in the box, I really suck at reading lately. So, I emailed my partner and said I'd get something made and mailed out to her before today (Friday). And then I fractured my tail bone on Tuesday. Needless to say, it's been hard to sit comfortably and create something, but I did make her a tag:

The tag is covered in vintage book paper, it was covering the insides of a book, the cameo I found at an antique mall, and the trim on the bottom is vintage from a garage sale. It's funny that I used the cameo, I actually picked up two of them at the antique mall and really wanted to use them on the box, but it being heart shaped, I couldn't get them to look right.