Wednesday, February 24, 2016

A Little Paper Project In Progress ...Making Rosettes


Happy Wednesday everyone..

I just wanted to quickly share a photo of a little project that I'm working on for a birthday girl.
She loves these colors.
And anything sparkly!

What I've used so far is:

card stock
crepe paper streamers
craft paint
pink and silver glitter
glue gun
UHU adhesive


I love rosettes.
I'm thinking I might put 6 or 8
together for some party decorations.
In ALL sorts of colors.

The fun is in the details!

I will share the completed project soon.

Blessings to you
and thank you for coming by!

Tamara XO

Tuesday, February 23, 2016

Shabby, Chicken Wire Hearts


Hello dear friends...
How is your week going so far?
I hope it's been peaceful.
 Full of love and inspiration.

I look forward to the start of each new day.
It seems that I awake in the morning so full
of ideas and hopes for the day!
(What's your favorite time of day?)

There are always so many fun things to play at!
And I love to work.
Apples have been on sale. 
We bought 20 pounds and I'm glad because
 they are so crispy and delicious!

 My intention for some of them
 was to make dried apples.
And so this morning, I grabbed our 
Ronco dehydrator
from our storage room and began slicing.

********
If you like to create, you probably have 
projects that you have in mind to work on.
I have been wanting to do something with my roll 
of chicken wire for a while now. 
I decided on hearts.

I didn't really have a plan or how to.
So I just laid a cardboard heart on top of the wire 
and started cutting around it.
 My gloves in the shape of a heart..
That just happened.  I see hearts all the time.
They just catch my eye.
Is that strange?
Since I didn't have a frame of any sort,
I had to take a pair of pliers and twist the cut ends together.
The hearts didn't turn out symmetrical
and have sort of a rough look to them.
I gessoed the hearts and then painted them with one coat of
Vintage White acrylic paint.
And then went to work on the design.
This is what I came up with.
I had some strips of sari silk that I used for the bow here.
The velvet yo-yo is from a thrifted shirt. The shabby flower is
made from a strip of old sheet and lightly colored with
a pink stamp pad. The white filigree flower is gessoed with
a pink cabachon added. 
I also used some soft, pink seam binding as a bit of filler
between the paper heart and shabby flower.
The heart and sentiment are from The Romance
paper pad by Prima~I love the rich colors.

I enjoy adding a piece of rusty hardware
or something from nature. I found a small stick and 
wrapped some floss around it. Mixing soft shabby
and rough grays and browns is something that I love to do.
In my home, I have weathered barn wood and lace curtains 
on the same wall. 
For this heart, I made a vintage, sheet music rosette.
I distressed the edges with Tim Holtz Frayed Burlap ink.
After gluing it to the wire, I then glued some of this moss
to the rosette. I added the angel which I had 
hi-lighted with gold Rub and Buff. That paint lasts
an amazingly long time. That tube is probably 20 years old!

I glittered a small oval acrylic piece and added these
words from the Tim Holtz Ideol-ogy Chit Chat Stickers.
In all of this soft loveliness, I used gold tulle, 
organza ribbon, satin ribbons, lace seam binding,
and a piece of gold, vintage trim that I found in
a box of antique, Christmas ornaments. 
It's a very heavy, woven trim. 
I thought it was gorgeous. I don't have many
authentic, vintage trims. I would love to find some.
Do you have a favorite source for these?
It looks as if this sweet little angel 
has her hands clasped in prayer. 

What a lovely thought.

Thank you so much for visiting my little place here!
Best wishes for your week.

Tamara Xo








Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Feeding the Birds.. A Winter's Delight

Hello..
I'm so glad you're here and I hope that you
enjoy your visit.

I'd like to share with you one of  my greatest delights.
Feeding the birds. 
I must confess that I enjoy their sweet company so much,
that a few years ago, I began feeding
(and watering) them all year long. 
They are my little friends.

Guess who's coming for breakfast..
dinner.. a mid-day snack
and a sip of refreshing, cool water.

Pine Siskins
Mountain Bluebirds
Pinon Jays
Purple Finches
Sparrows
Juncos
Robins
Grosbeaks
Cedar Waxwings
Flickers
Red-Bellied Woodpeckers
The Tufted Titmouse
and sometimes others...


We go through A LOT of birdseed!
Depending on the temps,
I sometimes feed them as many as 4 times a day.

At times, there are between 50-100 birds at one time.
The surrounding yard and sidewalk are thick with
sweet, hungry creatures. 
I enjoy hearing their chirping and chattering
and sometimes scolding each other.
They are such a joy and I get 
great pleasure out of knowing that I'm helping them
fulfill their basic needs of gathering food. 
And in this dry, harsh country, it's not easy
for them to find water.

A few weeks ago, during a very cold snap, I
ran out of seed!
I was not going to let my friends go hungry
and so I did a little online research
to come up with some alternatives to seed.
It was interesting and enjoyable to 
put together a healthy assortment of 
food for them.
  Here you see:
 peanut butter and jelly
chopped pecans and walnuts
chopped banana
cornmeal mixed with quick oats
And since the cornmeal and oats are so dry,
I drizzled a bit of coconut oil over the mix.
  Chopped banana is one their favorite foods!
Sometimes, I take a frozen one out of the freezer,
thaw it, split the peel open and just set it on the
sidewalk. They eat it up! I'm sure the natural sugar
is a treat and gives them a little extra energy to burn in 
that cold weather.
 The next round was popcorn...cat food and chopped
up sunflower seeds.
 ~On a winter's morn, joy flies in on the wings of birds~
I'm sure if you feed birds on a regular basis,
when you come out, your little friends are waiting for their
food. Some folks may use feeders, I tried that but I find them 
too small for all the bird friends and families to 
gather around. And it's so convenient to 
just walk out my back door, and scoop and toss. 
"Come feed the little birds, show them you care
And you'll be glad if you do.
Their young ones are hungry, their nests are so bare
All it takes is tuppence from you"
  Mary Poppins
 
It's a simple gift
to be still and watch these gentle, little
creatures find their way to my back doorstep.
And to have them stop and take a rest from their flight, wherever
they're going.  The water flies from the bird bath and
the pan as they dip and splash and spread their
little wings to shake off the water.

I just LOVE to watch them bathe. 
It's so sweet and serene and they look SO happy.
Then they hop out and make room for
the next one!

Well friends. 
I hope that life is being good to you
and that you're finding your own
delights on this winter's day.
I'd love to hear! Please, do tell.

Thank you so much for coming by and may the rest
of your week be filled with good things.

Tamara xo 



Thursday, February 11, 2016

Festive, Valentine Candy Jars


Hello everyone..
I hope you're having a wonderful week.

 With Valentine's Day drawing near, I wanted to do something
fun and festive. 
Aren't the candy colors and wrappers
just so inspiring?
I am so captivated by all that color and the 
combinations are so fun!


You know how it is when you begin with an idea
and it just grows? That's what happened
here and I had SO much fun 
creating and decorating!  And I was able
to be adventurous and work with some of my
trims and colors that I don't usually use. 

I have tried to keep my color pallets to a 
certain style for most things... neutrals and pinks mostly. 
But I find my ideas sometimes want to go beyond
these lovely shades! 

And so here, I have gone kind of
 CrAzY with color!
And I loved doing it.
 I hope that you enjoy following along
in my adventure. 
Warning.. there are lots of photos.
Some are just for fun!

I used Mason jars but
I don't recommend using these
because the lids turn separately from the bands.
And so I had to make sure that my embellishments
weren't attached to the band AND the lid or
 they wouldn't turn smoothly.

Most of my "saved" jars had labels on them and I
wasn't willing to take the time to remove them at that moment.

Materials used:
jars
streamers
gesso
paint
hot glue
Uhu adhesive
E6000 adhesive
tulle 
buttons
trims
pom poms
thrifted glasses and candleholders
Stickles glitter, red


A lovely tangle of streamers! 
Most of the bands from the mason jar lids
got a coat of gesso before I painted them.
It works so well for priming. I wasn't sure
how my acrylic paints would adhere.
Gathering the streamer and gluing..

CUTIE! It's so fun looking through
the sayings to find just the right one!
if you'd like to read it. It's interesting and nostalgic.
This lid is gessoed.
And because I didn't have the red paint that
matched, I just took a Real Red stamp pad from
Stampin' Up and rubbed it over the rim.

The center is piece of white card stock
that is spritzed with SmoochSpritz from
Stampin' Up. I'm sorry. The color isn't
labeled. And I think it's discontinued.
Crepe paper streamers! Paper of any kind is just
such fun. And those colors :)
Doesn't that look fun? 
This color pink says to me
"Let's Celebrate!"
And those little sparkles are so pretty.
This is Extreme Glitter paint by FolkArt
It's Jellybean Pink.
The band below is covered with two coats of this.
I didn't prime it and I love how the silver shows through.
Do you like it combined with the pink, frosty look?
 
I found this cute little glass at a thrift store for 50 cents.
I wasn't sure about inverting it and using it for a base.
But I decided to give it a go.
It does fit the jar well.
What do you think? 
Do you like it?
All of the bases were glued on using
the E6000 adhesive. It works
very well but the fumes are extremely toxic.
So, please, use with care. 

(I was reminded of something about my 
photography while looking at these pictures. I tend to angle 
my photos to the right. It's rather annoying! I'll have to 
be mindful of that in the future.)
All done! It was a bit time consuming 
but so very enjoyable.
Isn't this a lovely little crocheted table runner?
I found it at a thrift store a couple of weeks ago
for a small change.
What does Valentine's Day mean to you?

I used to think of it as a day to celebrate
romantic love. But many years ago, I began to see it
as another day to express love to my family and friends
as well. I also think of God's love for us.
For me.. for you.

Love can seem elusive at times.
It can seem to flitter about with the circumstances.
And it has so many faces and meanings.
But there's One's love that never changes.
Always pure
Always sincere 
and
Always present.
~His~

I hope you have a warm-hearted..feeling loved kind of day.
Thank you for being my friends!
And thank you so much for coming by.

Tamara xo

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