Sakura Design Team Member

Today it was announced that I will be a part of the Sakura Design Team. The last post on my blog featured the work I submitted for consideration.

Being on a Design Team is of this caliber will be truly challenging and inspirational. I am joined by a few friends from the KatScrap Studio Design team (Karen Myers & Chelsea Povall) and my fearless leader is Terri Sproul. Other members of the design team (who I have not met yet) are featured on the Sakura blog. I can't wait to see what we'll all create as we certainly bring a lot of creative diversity to the table.

You can, of course, continue to follow my blog or go to see all of the design team updates at http://www.crystallacquer.blogspot.com/. There will be a creative post every couple of days.

It's been a while . . .

It's not that I haven't been creating - I have just not sharing my creations.

Here are a few I thought I would share. These are ATC (Artist Trading Cards). I started the backgrounds of both several years ago when I was still playing with my oil paints. I would take the excess paint from the palette and smear them over the cards. The paint would take months to dry and I eventually put them away . . . .until last week when I was playing with some new products I'd received at the Craft & Hobby Show.

On the first card, the butterflies and text were stamped onto the background. I then used Sakura's 3D Crystal Lacquer to highlight the butterflies in the image. The lacquer is great - it really stays in place without too much coaxing. Made drawing within the wings, easy.

On the second card, I played with Sakura's colored 3D Crystal Lacquer. I had a bright peacock blue color which I pulled with a toothpick into a light pink color - creating the movement on the card. The butterfly, cut on the Revolution, was also "painted" with the two colors of lacquer. The blue seemed to suspend itself inside the lighter color.

Goddess Within Workshop @ Craft & Hobby Show

Saturday, January 23, 2010 was the Goddess Within Workshop at the Craft & Hobby Convention in Anaheim. We had a very intimate and creative group. The first is from a young lady (under 18) from the Los Angeles area.

This photo is a little out of focus, but Heather from Australia (who was just there with her friend) did an amazing job decoupaging her female form. She also won the gift basket of fabulous crafting goodies. Never doubt your potential to create!

Fellow friend from Australia created this lovely goddess with rich burgundy lace and other found objects.

Cheryl from Tennessee impressed her friends with her Goddess. I love how she pleated the ribbon around the form.

Below is my demo pieces which I finished and gave to our room monitor for the event.

As the class setting was intimate and not very many people to instruct, Marie (my assistant for the workshop) was able to create her own Goddess.

The event and exhibits were filled with all sorts of celebrities. I saw Kathy Ireland and Vanna White, but was unable to grab a photo with them. Here are a few celebrities Marie and I were able to pose with during the convention.

Marie with Martha Beck

Marie the Crafty Chica

Heather with Sherrill Kahn

Marie with Sherrill Kahn

Heather with Shrek & Bettlejuice

Marie with Shrek & Bettlejuice

Wyland painting (above & below)

You would recognize Wyland's sealife - whales beeching, dolphins kissing.

Had a great time at the Craft & Hobby Convention. Can't wait to do it again next year!

Creative Souls Challenge - Tin Doll

I got the idea for this project from Zinnia in South Pasadena. They had these dolls made from old porcelain dolls, tin cans and a variety of other found objects. After seeing the installation I was in a antique shop near by and I picked up the Wilco Polishing Cloth tin and the old puppet with the perfect head. I had the buttons on hand.

The first challenge was got get the head removed from the puppet body. I struggled with this problem for a few weeks as the head was attached with a metal bar running through the shoulders. I started to chip away at the substance holding the metal ring into the head, but this was going to take hours. I finally undressed the puppet to discover the metal bar at the shoulders was being held in place by just a few threads. I went from needing metal working equipment to just scissors.


While detaching the head, I decided that I wanted to reuse the calves of the puppet body. They are small socks filled with small metal pellets which over time have worn through the material.

Now the fun could begin. After several trips to the garage, I had the supplies I needed. Metal wire, an awl and a hammer. I started by punching the holes for the metal loop on the head.


I then needed a way to keep the head in place once the loop was through the lid. The metal bar that had been used on the puppet was too large for the lid. I finally decided on a Safety Pin.

With the head in place, the doll was starting to take shape.

I found a heart from an old key chain. I secured it to the can using wire and a button as a washer on the inside.

Next it was time to create the arms. I planned on using buttons all the way along. From my jewelry box, I borrowed two pendants I no longer wore. One was a hand/flower and the other was a miniature book.

I had planned on using buttons for the legs, also; however, when I went to get a needle and thread from my sewing kit, I had an inspired idea to use the tape measure as the upper part of the legs.

Velcro on the back of the tape allowed me to create a flexible loop that could be threaded through the bottom of the tin.

With the appendages complete, I was ready to continue assembling the doll. Again, I used buttons on the inside as washers.

Completed doll sitting.

Completed doll hanging.

This project took me about an hour and a half to complete once I had all the parts together.

Creative Souls - A New Year, A New Vision

Saturday, January 2, 2010 was the first Creative Souls Art Workshop of the new year at the Heart & Soul Healing Arts Center in Pasadena. We used the time to look at our values and to create a vision board of what we would like our future to be like.

Envisioning is a powerful tool to help propel you to the next step(s) on your life journey, as it allows you to focus on the results rather than the day-to-day activities that tend to bog us down and cause us to lose focus on the end-game.

We spent the morning and early afternoon outside in the beautiful backyard of the center. It was a very relaxing session and each participant not only created a vision for their life, but also a work of art.

Holiday Ornaments

It was a little damp today for the Creative Souls Holiday Ornament Workshop. We were warm and toasty inside Heart & Soul creating memories for our trees and lots of gift tags (using the Revolution die cut machine).

We started with plain glass balls and wrapped copper tape around it to create sections. We then colored in the sections with an alcohol based ink that can be applied to glass.

The second ornament was a black ceramic heart that was decorated by sponging on translucent glimmer paints.

The last ornament was something I created while the others worked on their gift tags. I applied translucent glimmer paints to a clear glass ball.