Pennywise Arts

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

A Hairclip To Match

As I pulled all of Stephanie’s jewelry pieces out to photograph them I discovered this cute little floral hairclip, it matches the necklace I just posted. In handling each piece over and over to get reasonable good pictures I realized just how durable these flowers are! Don’t let the idea of paper jewelry scare you off – these guys will definitely last a long time!

Hugs, Suzanne

Handmade Paper Jewelry

Our featured designer for the month of April was Stephanie Loomis. With all the retreat hoopla I forgot to schedule her projects on the blog. So sorry Steph!

Stephanie is a Southern Belle and makes her home in Georgia. Stephanie has been around the PWA community for almost as long as I have! She’s visited us here in the Seattle area for a retreat and I’ve have the adventure of visiting her and attending a retreat in Georgia. Fun stuff!

Steph calls herself and accidental artist. I’ll let her explain.

“I call myself an Accidental Artist because I came to art by a circuitous route--via literature, theater, photography, music, education, and rubber stamping. Now I fully embrace mixed media and altered arts as my expression and my therapy. I teach secondary school literature and composition two days a week which leaves me studio time. I frequently incorporate art elements into my literature classes to teach symbolism, point-of-view, and anywhere else I can combine literature and art. I've been married since 1987 and have three daughters born 1990, 1993, and 1996. God is good--all the time. That's the motto of my moments and the inspiration of my life.”

For her first project of 2011 Stephanie says, “I was inspired by the March/April edition of Cloth, Paper, Scissors. There was an article there about making paper flower jewelry. I tweaked it to meet my skills.”

This is one of the gorgeous paper jewelry pieces that Stephanie submitted for her assignment.

There is a close up picture at the end of the tutorial where you can really see and appreciate her attention to detail.

How To Make The Paper Flowers

Supplies:

White Glue, old paper (newspaper, old books, whatever), fun foam (or felt, which is what the magazine used. I happened to have to foam on hand.), acrylic paint, water, alcohol ink spritzer (Shimmerz by Tsukineko; Walnut ink by Tsukineko; Glimmer Mist by Tattered Angels), micro beads from Pennywise Arts

Directions:

1. Paint papers with watered-down acrylic paints. Be messy.

2. When paint is dry, Spray with alcohol ink spray.

3. Tear paper into strips about 1" wide.

4. Tear strips into pieces 1/2" - 1" long. (The magazine recommended a barrel shape, but that was too hard for me to do consistently.)

5. Twist each piece at one end and fan out the other end. This is a single petal.

6. Cut or punch a circle from the foam.

7. Assemble the flower by gluing one petal at a time, beginning with the outside of the foam circle and working inward in layers.

8. Let dry. (Showing another color combo)

9. Apply glue to the petal edges with a toothpick.

10. Dip in micro beads.

11. Let dry.

How To Make The Necklace:

Decide how the flowers will be clustered.
Glue them to a base of felt or foam.
When dry, trim the base so it doesn't show.
Use a paper piercer to create holes in the base to add jump-rings, wire, and/or ribbon.
Embellish as desired....

Here is a up close shot of Stephanie’s beautiful and beadiful necklace!

Remember you can click any photo on the blog to see an even larger version!

Well done in an amazing way Steph! And there’s more to come!

To see more about Stephanie and her art, photography and life all mixed together visit her blog:

http://mrsl-dramateach.blogspot.com/

Hugs, Suzanne

Sunday, May 22, 2011

3-D Zots

When I was at the stamp show in Coeur D’Alene, Idaho last month I took a class from Mary Jo McGraw and she used a new to me “beadnique”. Imagine that! So simple too! Got 3-D Zots? Julie Imsland does! I borrowed hers to show you what the box looks like.

All you need to do to be successful with this technique is stick the Zots on something,( in this case I used flowers) and put the sticky dot in the centers. Once in place just smush micro beads into the Zot and tap off the excess, viola!

Both of the flowers above were done using stamps from Outlines.

This next example was made using the Tim Holtz Tattered Floral die cut with fabric and the plastic packaging that the die came in. Following the tutorial from Laura Denison’s Following the Paper Trail YouTube video I glued the fabric to the plastic and let the glue dry. Then I heated the plastic until it was soft enough to mold. A 3-D Zot in the center finishes it off quite nicely. Besides the obviously cool design look, I love that they resemble those old time jelly candies with the little crunchy colored dots on the outside that my grandma used to keep in her candy jar. Does anyone know what they were called?

Another fun thing about the Zots is that they stay gooey underneath so you can poke them and they squish a little. It’s a tactile thing, I just can’t help myself. Ü

Hugs, Suzanne

Monday, May 16, 2011

Cowgirl Chunky ATC

The Pennywise Arts annual retreats are always a “shoebox party” which means everyone that attends brings the components of a specific project to share and we all move around the room making each project over the course of the weekend. It’s really a great way to get to try new products and techniques!

This year I decided to share my first chunky atc! I really like the chunky aspect because it opens so many doors for embellishing. I also like that it’s something that can stand alone on display rather than get tucked into a collection binder.

I apologize in advance because I’m going to be teasing you just a little by sharing this project. A couple of the items are brand new and not even on our website yet.

The focus on my chunky atc is the shaker box window filled with a mix of micro beads. The window is a clear plastic bubble that comes with a strip of adhesive on the edges. We just got in a case of many different shapes and sizes of windows and this was my first sample using one. Several members of our design team are hard at work making samples with them so we’ll have more to share soon.

Inside the window is an image from a new collage sheet created by Michele Aiello-Zendejas of Swing Shift Designs. I love these sheets and look forward to sharing the western collection with you soon!

Since it’s a perfect fit for the Cowboys and Cowgirls challenge on Gingersnap, I’m sharing this project with the gals over there! Gingersnap Creations Chestnut Theme Challenge - Cowboys and Cowgirls Check it out for lots of fun wild west inspiration! (I even recognize an artist or two there as PWA Beadie Buddies! Ü)

Hugs, Sheriff Suzanne

PWA Retreat Recap

It’s hard to believe that another retreat has come and gone. This was our 8th event celebrating our 8th year in the bead biz. Wow!

Twenty-two ladies converged on The Big House Lodge in

Cle Elum, WA where the accommodations were just perfect for our crafty gang. Everyone loved the sleeping wing that was secluded and quiet. Chowtime was fun! We had a mess hall that could seat us all together separate from the rest of the house. Having the meals catered was new for us and we definitely plan to do that again! Jorge and Vicki Chow really did a nice job and we were all well fed. Thank you!!

Then there was the great room which we decked out for a weekend of shoebox projects and kept open 24 hours a day. morning!

What girls only event would be complete without a SHOPPING trip? Even a tiny town like Cle Elum has it’s own rubberstamp and scrapbook store! Ruby of Ruby’s spoiled us all rotten with

yummy treats, a store discount, goodie bags AND a very generous gift basket donated to our event and awarded to Kris D.! If you’re ever in Cle Elum, WA Ruby’s is a must stop store!

Entertainment seems to happen spontaneously with this group of gals and the echoes of laughter rang throughout the house all weekend long.

Great food, great fun and great projects made for an amazing and memorable weekend! Thanks to all who came to spend the weekend with me!!

Hope to see ya’ll next time!

Hugs, Suzanne

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Will Spring Ever Get Here?

I keep waiting for spring to show up to share this beautiful daisy box from PWA designer Michelle McCarthy. Now I think maybe Spring is just waiting for me to share it so it can show up!

I’ll let Michelle tell you about it in her own words.

“Here's a simple box I put together using a mix of Green, Black and Gold micro beads and the new Iridescent Bubble Beads.”

I started with a dollar store find of two boxes with two drawers each and glued them together to form the four drawer box. After adding the varied papers and a tiny bit of stamping, I edged all the side edges of the box with the mix of beads. For the drawer faces, I just glued ribbon down on paper and then cut to size of the drawer front. Bubble beads for the centers of the daisies were tacked down with Crystal Effects. I added a couple silk daisies and a ribbon and called it good.