Craft Lightning Christmas Edition 2016

Time for another Craft Lightning.... crafts in 15 minutes or less for Christmas.

I always love to see what everyone comes up with.

It is a glorious fall where I live and I have gathered some sweet acorns for this quick craft.

Clean them and be sure you have a cap and an acorn for each ornament.

Drill a hole in the cap of each acorn.

Cut a piece of wire for each one about two inches long.

Twist the wire to make a loop as shown.

Push the ends of the wire together and slide them down through the acorn cap.

Once through, open the wires on the inside.

Use a hot glue gun to glue the acorns into the cap.

Gather your glitter and glittering glue.

I really do the stuff Martha Stewart makes for this.

Brush on the glue, and sprinkle with glitter.

Tap off excess.

Allow to fully dry and add a little twine hanger.

These make great gift toppers or ornaments.

A quick tip:  You can either buy processed acorns or gather your own.

If you gather your own, it is best to bake them in a craft dedicated toaster oven at 150 degrees for about 30 minutes to kill any critters dwelling within.

Check out the other fun fun quick holiday crafts by clicking below.

Thanks for stopping by....

Art Charm Exchange

So you know I love to make polymer clay charms, beads and focals.

When Jennifer Cameron suggested a charm exchange with fairy tales as the theme, I was in 200%.

I made my beads and charms and sent them off to Jen.

Wow!

That's a lot of beads!

I sent sets for each participant.

There is something so decadent about the whole collection, isn't there?

So I sent sets like these to the other participants.

As well as some of these sets...

But then I decided to send some extra bead sets for the auction.

So I sent a Cinderella set.

A Fairy Tale Forest Set.

A second Cinderella set.

Want to bid on any of these sets?

Watch for the announcement of the auction soon...

You can take a peek at the other beads that will be at the auction  by visiting each of the participants blogs:

Caroline Dewison

Angelique Gentry

Alenka Obid

Andrea Glick

Charlene Jacka

Helena Hatten

Cassie Paslick

Catherine van Alphen

Lesley Watt

Leona Smith

Kathy Lindemer

Jennifer Davies-Reazor

Lori Anderson

Michelle McCarthy

Melissa Trudinger

Marianne Baxter

Patty Miller

Vanessa Gilkes

Terri Del Signore

Shai Williams

Jenn Cameron

Sheila Prosterman

Susan Kennedy

Thanks for stopping by...

Art Jewelry Elements: Tree Challenge

I am a huge fan of all the Talent gathered over at Art Jewelry Elements.

I am talking Talent with a capital T.

They generally offer a challenge each month and invite others to play along.  

I have on occasion and am doing so again this month.

The challenge this month is trees.

Well, I knew this would be the perfect challenge for me.

A while back I made a tree stamp from polymer clay.

And here are the new, naked beads.

It is one of my all time favorite stamps to use.

I love how the beads and components look.

So I knew I could use some of those for this challenge.

So here you go....

A Fairy Tale Forest necklace...

Here is one of those tree beads all dressed up...

And a little woodland fox too...

The key focal and magic bead are just what this necklace needs.

But then I had to make a fairy forest too.

   Flowers say fairy to me.

So I added some polymer beads and flower focals made from real flowers.

And last but not least, this little tree has a bee friend and a vintage inspired focal.

Join the team for more tree-inspired goodness:

Jennifer Stout Cameron

Lesley Watt

Jenny Davies-Reazor

Laney Mead

Niky Sayors

Cooky Schock

Cathy Spivey Mendola

Caroline Dewison

And the other guests:

Karin Grosset Grange

Merja Sundstrom

Cindy Martin Shaw

Allison L Norfleet Bruenger

Melissa Trudinger

Kathy Lindemer

Gloria Allen

Shai Williams

Tammy Adams

Mona Arnott

Terry Del Signore

Thanks for stopping by....

Workbench Wednesday...Getting Ready For An Art Abandonment...

It has been some time since I showed you what was on the workbench.

It seems something always is...I just don't always take a picture.

Here is what is going on this week...

These charms and beads are on their way to becoming something extra special...

The beads will be turned into bracelets that will be given as gifts...

There are some people I need to thank and art seems like the natural way for me to do it...

Each bracelet will have a hope bead as well as a few others...

I want to make enough that each person can choose the one they like best...

Of course the beads will have to be dyed...

I am thinking pink, blue, purple....

And then I made a pile of these little charms and beads.

My plan is to do a couple different bracelet designs...

And the charms???

Well, they have a special purpose...

They are destined to be a part of my next art abandonment...

What is that, you ask?

Well, there is a movement in art where artists take the things they make and leave them for others to find and take.

All these little charms will be sprinkled about next week in a place where I know they are needed....

The funny part of this story is that after taking these photos, I took the tray of pieces into my garage where I was going to color them....

The whole try flipped over and the beads and pendants scattered down into a huge pile of paint cans and such next to the sink.

Sigh.

I gathered the ones I could see, but I will be making more soon....

Oh my...

Thanks for stopping by....