An Addiction Is Born

...and I really think I've lost my mind.  Seriously. My name is Felica and I'm an addict. No pictures today just a vent on my addiction.

 It's no suprise that I like crafting of all sorts. I can get totally engrossed in blog hopping and checking out techniques and projects. Drooling over all the different things made (by very talented crafters) from paper, beads, paint and materials of all sorts and my list of things I want to try just grows and grows. I think the real problem is that I just want to make pretty things for myself and other people. I know people that ask me "why" all the time. If I say I'm working on some project it's as if it has to be for something specific. Can we make beautiful things for no other purpose at all but just to make someone happy (hopefully).

Anyhow. I've been making pin cushions and stick pins. And more pin cushions. And flowers. Paper flowers. Bead flowers. Lace and fabric flowers. Burlap flowers. Last week I was at JoAnn's 4 times. I've hit the GoodWill store twice looking for, well, several things. Friday I came out of there with a couple of cute tea cups (for pin cushions) and a cami top specifically for the puropse of cutting up and using as the cushion part of said pin cushions. My first visit there netted me a couple pieces of drapery sheers (for fabric flowers) and a top with the most beautiful lace that I immediatly removed from the garment and put away for some future project, only because it's a bit to wide for pin cushion embellishments. *heavy sigh*

I've also been hitting eBay. Really, I was just only looking (I swear)
 until Thursday when I did a search for vintage lace and found a listing for a "lot" of beautiful laces from an estate sale. Yup, I bid, won, and got a VERY great deal. Now I've started stalking my mail man. It's a sad, sad, thing. As soon as I get it I'll get some photos of my haul, then a post of my las MAS swap.
Talk to you soon.

Altered Dominoes

Well I've been crafty. LOL. I have seen pieces of jewelry and teeny tiny scrap books made with altered dominoes so I thought I'd try my hand at altering one of these tiles. Actually I did 3 over the course of a couple of weeks. I'm not quite ready for heavy duty alteration just yet or doing the little book. I thought I should work my way up. Here's a couple of views of the three together. I was trying to get a good shot and I see I still need some practice with the camera. I'm mostly happy with how they turned out. I think I need to work on keeping the air bubbles and renegade strands of cat fur out of my Glossy Accents though.

The first domino I used my Sakura Micron pens on and then thought I'd throw some Ranger Alcohol Inks along with a couple of gear "Dazzles" from Hot of the Press. Oh and a random rhinestone. I think the colors are a little dark although I love the combination. Of course, I have a couple air bubbles in there that make me crazy.

The center domino I used Sharpies. Yup. Sharpies! I picked up a pack of "80's Colors" at the local Office Max a couple of months back and got a great package of 24 colors including brown and the standard black. They also have a fine tip which was good but quite as good as my Sakura's for detail, but I was still able to get my Zentangeling on. I tell ya it's kinda hard working on such a small canvas but I also find it very relaxing and therapeutic. You cant really tell from any of the pictures but I also doodled around the sides with two toned swirls. I had the intention of putting a small flat back rhinestone in the center of each of them and sealing the sides with Glossy Accents as well but I haven't figured out which steps to do that in and I find that handling the domino after inking it tends to fade (or rub off) the colors before I seal them. Again, I have a couple of air bubbles up top and a single piece of bling down in the bottom corner.

This last domino is actually the first one I completed the day my dominoes showed up in the mail. I whipped out my Sakura Pens and went to town doing a Zentangle doodle. Now technically Zentangle is not supposed to take more than say 15 minutes or so, but I think this took me about an hour. Again working with such a tiny "canvas" I really took my time. I need to work on my "Tangle" techniques as well because I LOVE the graphic look of the black and white.

Tell me what you think. Has anyone else out there altered any dominoes? I know they just finished an Altered Domino swap over at MAS and the pieces are georgeous. Check them out.

More of the MAS Ocean Theme Stickpins

Well we've been working on our house like mad men for the last couple of weeks. All our insulation is up and have the building inspector coming out this morning to give us his blessing to move forward hopefully.

That said I haven't been posting things I've been working on and I have definitely been crafting. It's been keeping me sane during the stress related to all the little details that we've been finishing up.

This weekend I should have pictures of my latestes creations for the Current MAS swap that I've been working on. It's gotten me totally addicted to making pin cushions and along with the finding of beautiful trims to use in making them. But more on that later. Below is the beautifully edited video from Merry Seaver over at Sugar Grove Crafts of the last stick pin swap. The work that all the gals did was just beautiful and amazing. They are all so very talented and I felt a little overwhelemd when I recived my package of pins in the mail. The presentation pieces were stunning.


 

Leave me a comment below and let me know what you think about the beautiful work everyone did and I'll be back over the weekend.