Charm Swap

June is the charm swap. Make ten charms, 1" in size, and send them in to be swapped out. Here is a sampling of what I made. The other six are versions of the ones pictured. I have two in a bottle cap, the heart is Model Magic, tissue paper, and wire. The square (hard to see) is made out of a plastic Kohls card that I didn't use (darn I could have saved 20%). I covered it with gesso, a piece of map and the saying "Leave a Trail". The little beads where added for a bit of interest.

Heart Pin

Here is a cute heart pin I made for a swap. The only requirements is that it had to be a heart. I made paper mache pulp in the blender (newspaper and lots of water), squeezed out the water, added white glue and shaped it. It took about a day to dry nice and hard. I covered it with gesso then painted and topped it off with gel medium. Then I wrapped 26 gauge wire and beads around it and added a key. I like it!

Altered Tins & Barbie

Here are some photos of altered Altoid tins and Barbie for some swaps I am in. The fish tin was for "By the Sea". I styled it after artist Laurel Burch. There is a fish charm hanging and lots of beads, shells and beach glass along the bottom of the mermaid. The fairy garden has real twigs forming the door. Inside are textured background papers, silk flowers, charms, yarn and tiny stones. Barbie is for an upcoming swap. She was gessoed, candy wrappers (from Easter) were applied all over with gel medium, her hands, feet and face were painted, her hair streaked with sharpie and a two Mary Jane wrappers make up her skirt.

Look for New Photos

I plan on adding some new photos in the next few days of some completed projects. Be sure to check back to see some altered Altoid tins and Barbie. Yes, even Barbie can not escape being altered!

Tile Necklaces

Here is the results of another altered art swap - tile necklaces. The hostess of this swap warned that they are addictive and you can see, they are! The base is a bamboo tile that has been pre-drilled. The metallic one is a piece of art paper applied with my favorite gel medium. Jewelry wire and beads are wrapped around it. The butterfly one has a tissue paper/gel medium background, butterfly image and butterfly charm. Beads trim it out. "Dream" has a tissue/gel medium background with a scrap paper word applied. It is decked out in some very sparkly beads.

So far I have made ten of these. I have a few I am wearing, my swap partner received one and my mom got one for her birthday. I have not decided what to do with the overstock yet.

Paper Mache People

My art class was making paper mache puppets for the school musical, so I decided to play around a bit and created these dolls. The base is newspaper. When the dolls were hard, I covered them in tissue paper with gel medium. Each has a heart stamp, flower hair or fun yarn hair. Their back sides have bar codes on them (not pictured).

Altered Jars

I was in an altered jar swap and kept going with it. The flower jar is a mandarin orange jar. I covered the jar in gesso, applied floral tissue paper with gel medium, added some paint details and sealed it. The lid is a piece of an antique dress collar and buttons from my collection. The jar is trimmed with ribbon, yarn and fabric beads that I made.

The sea turtle jar (sea turtles are one of my favorite animals) is done the same way as the above. I had been saving the tissue paper since 2007. It was from the Grand Cayman Turtle Farm. I purchased something in the gift shop and it was wrapped in this cool paper. I knew one day I would do something with it. The lid is trimmed with beads on 26 gauge jewelry wire.

Another Altered Spoon

Here is another altered spoon I made. The moon and stars are sculpted from Model Magic. Craft wire is wrapped around the spoon. The quote says "The night walked down the sky with the moon in her hand." It is cut into small pieces and inserted into the wire along the length of the spoon.

Altered Doll - Goth Victorian

Here is my first altered doll. This one scared my kids! My son came up from my workshop last week saying the baby head scared him (it was drying). The head is from a dollar store vinyl baby. The body is a Perrier Bottle. I removed baby's head, painted her mauve, added tissue paper and flowers to the head. I then paper mached the head and arms onto the bottle (bottle filled with rice for weight). When hardened, I gessoed the body and used tissue paper and paint. Her dress is an antique lace collar, the necklace was being tossed by my daughter. I like her long neck! I'm calling her Fleur.

Altered Spoon

This was a fun swap I participated in - an altered spoon. This is my third attempt. The first is a very nicely painted wooden spoon which is now on my wall. The second is a moon and stars sitting on my shelf. It turned out just fine, but I wasn't sure if it was too whimsical for my partner in this swap. The spoon I sent her is in the photo. It began with a thrift store gold tone spoon with floral motif on the handle. I added some vintage lace on the spoon part. The heart is made out of Model Magic and painted. The beads are fabric that has been stiffened with white glue and painted. I was very happy with these beads and have since made more for other projects. I added ribbons and funky yarn. One requirement of the swap was that the spoon have words. I duplicated the heart on card stock and wrote the following quote by Confucius "Wheresoever you go, go with all your heart."