Swap: Vintage Inspired Valentine Charms Revealed!

15 Saturday Feb 2014

Posted by kryztyne2012 in Art and Crafting, Christmas and Holidays, DIY & Crafting, Mixed Media, Rubber Stamp, Rubber Stamp, Swap, Vintage

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

Ann Hammes, Carol Lucero, Carrie Harney, charm swap, Debbi Wilcock, friendship, hearts, Hope Ellington, Jeanine Stowe, Julie Weller, Linda Vinson, Lonnie Jenck, lori dams, love, metal bezel, michelle duke, michelle hurtt, mixed media art, mixed-media, Nicole Goodwin, Pam Munns, Rochelle Gaukel, soldered, swans, valentine, valentine swan, valentine swap, Vintage Charms, wire wrapped

The wait is over, you can finally see all of the Valentine Charms! And what a collection they are!

How amazing are these charms? I love all of them and especially because they were made by ladies who are near and dear to my heart and they put so much love into each one that they made.

Here’s the ladies who created this miniature works of art:

1. Michelle Duke
2. Carrie Reid Harney
3. Lonnie Jenck
4. Hope Habbe Ellington
5. Jeanine Stowe Weiss
6. Linda Vinson
7. Nicole Goodwin
8. Lori Stewart Dams
9. Pam Munns
10. Michelle Hurtt
11. Debbi Udall Wilcock
12. Carol Lucero
13. Ann Hammes
14. Rochelle Kretz Gaukel
15. Julie Gordon Weller
16. Christine Barker

Thanks so much ladies for joining the swap and making my Valentine’s Day holiday so pretty!

And, I don’t know if you noticed, but I’ve created a crest for myself to use as the watermark on my pictures. I just couldn’t help but alter the antique crest file that I had from The Graphics Fairy to remove the lion and add a jackalope. He’s part lion and part Jackalope, so I guess he’s a Jackalion.

Thank you, dear, sweet blog readers, for joining me again and for all of your sweet comments. They really make it worth the effort that I put into creating these posts!

xo,

Christine Barker

PS: Want to see my other Valentine Posts?

Swap: Vintage Inspired Valentine Charms

Swap: Precious Hearts Swap

Swap: Queen of Hearts Valentine Swap

Sweet: Pretty Jelly Jar with Lovebug Creations Ribbon

Blog Hop: Loves Me, Loves Me Knot

Swap: Vintage Inspired Valentine Charms

15 Saturday Feb 2014

Posted by kryztyne2012 in Art and Crafting, Christmas and Holidays, DIY & Crafting, Jewelry, Lovebug Creations, Soldering, Swap, Vintage

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Ann Hammes, Carol Lucero, Carrie Harney, charm swap, Debbi Wilcock, FIMO clay, friendship, hearts, Hope Ellington, Jeanine Stowe, Julie Weller, Linda Vinson, Lonnie Jenck, lori dams, love, LOveBug Creations, metal bezel, michelle duke, michelle hurtt, mixed media art, mixed-media, modeling clay, Nicole Goodwin, Pam Munns, polymer clay, Rochelle Gaukel, Rumple Ribbon, seam binding, soldered, swans, swap packaging, valentine, valentine swan, valentine swap, Vintage Charms, wire wrapped

For the third Valentine swap that I joined, I hosted a charm swap with sixteen participants.

With thoughts of love, friendship, and heart shaped everything in our minds, the girls in my mixed-media swap ended up with a beautiful collection of 16 charms to adorn them or their homes. Since there are so many girls with so many talents in this group I left the materials open to interpretation. The only firm rule is that each charm had to contain metal as a design element, either soldered, or metal bezel, or wire wrapped or something to give a cohesive look with soldered charms.

The main colors were pinks, white, silver, creams, and hints of muted Valentine colors. The size could range from 1″ all the way up to 3″ and this collection gave us all a nice combination of sizes to be used as a garland, charm bracelet, necklace pendants or as ornaments for a Valentine tree.

Pretty packaging was optional but these girls came through with some gorgeous and daintily wrapped presents!

I went for a new technique using FIMO polymer clay and I’m so happy with the way they turned out. This was my first time using it this way and I’m going to be using this technique again in the future.

Creating your own embellishments gives the artist so many different options than just purchasing store bought embellishments!

Here are all of mine all lined up with different ribbons on them. I just loved looking at all of them together! And don’t they look gorgeous with all of the different colors of Lovebug Creations Rumple Ribbon? You can find this beautiful and versatile ribbon in the Lovebug Creations online shop!

Here’s a detail shot so you can see the pretty swans. You probably know by now that swans are my latest infatuation. I found some adorable sterling silver heart head pins and added ballet pink pearls and a pink crystal onto them. I added some glass beads that reminded me of petite chandelier crystals and some tiny pearls.

Participants:

Thank you so much for stopping by! I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing all of the Valentine inspiration that I’ve been steeped in. It’s been really wonderful. Tomorrow I’ll show you what all of the charms look like and you can adore them just like I have been!

xo,

Christine Barker

Want to see my other Valentine Posts?

Blog Hop: Loves Me, Loves Me Knot

Sweet: Pretty Jelly Jar with Lovebug Creations Ribbon

Swap: Queen of Hearts Valentine Swap

Swap: Precious Hearts Swap

14 Friday Feb 2014

Posted by kryztyne2012 in Art and Crafting, Christmas and Holidays, DIY & Crafting, Sewing, Swap, Textiles

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

arts and crafts, craft swap, crazy quilt, fabric, flower, Happy Valentines Day, hears, hearts, material, pearls, precious hearts swap, sewing, swap, valentine craft, valentines day, Valentines Day Craft

Happy Valentine’s Day!

I hope you have something special planned for today. I don’t know if it’s the colors, the sentiments, the hearts or all of it together but Valentine’s Day is my absolute favorite holiday!

Today I’m going to show you the beautiful hearts I received in the “Precious Hearts Swap” hosted by my friend, Andrea Villarreal. For this swap we made 13 hearts that were approximately 5″ and we took 12 to Andrea’s house to swap with the other talented ladies. The color palette was to include light/pale pinks, creams, whites and burgundy. The choice of fabrics was up to us and we could include whatever kinds of trims we wanted. As a finishing touch we each put our initials on our hearts so that everyone would know who made which one.

Isn’t this packaging pretty and creative? I love it!

Here they are all together and what a perfect collection they are! All of the colors blend together so beautifully. I can’t decide if I want to make them into a garland or as a wall hanging/art quilt. Decisions, decisions!

Update! I made a garland. Here’s how it looks!

These are the talented girls who were part of this swap:

Andrea Villarreal (Hostess with the Most-ess)

Cheryl Stoneham

Cynthia Flores

Erin Barraza

Julie Weller

Mariasela Vallejo

Sylvia Estrada

Terry Frias

Here are some close ups of my heart. I researched and learned a new technique to make flowers after receiving some gorgeous blooms as a hostess prezzie from Lonnie Jenck. After I told a friend about this technique, she told me about an easier technique to do the same thing. I’ll give it a try and let you know how it works out.

I am completely smitten with these ballet-slipper-pink pearls lately. I find i’ve been using them on all kinds of projects.

I used my fancy embroidery machine to stitch silver thread onto the seams like a crazy quilt, plus I embroidered my initial. So easy!

I’m really happy with the way my hearts turned out. But, next time I’m going to get brave and put more embellishments on them!

Thanks for stopping by! I’ll be sharing one more Valentine project tomorrow so drop by to take a look. Enjoy your Valentine festivities!

xo,

Christine Barker

Mixed Media: Sail Away with Lovebug Creations Rumple Ribbon

01 Monday Jul 2013

Posted by kryztyne2012 in Art and Crafting, Collage, DIY & Crafting, Lovebug Creations, Mixed Media, Paper Sculpture, Papercrafting, Textiles, Vintage

≈ 12 Comments

Tags

collage, hearts, lace, lace trim, LOveBug Creations, mixed-media, mother of pearl, Rumple Ribbons, sail boat, shabby chic, vintage spool

Ahoy there!

With summer moving forward full steam ahead, it’s important to take the time to buoy our creative spirit. Inspired by a mixed-media sailboat created by Angie Blasingame I found online, I created my own shabby chic version.

The bow (front of the boat in sailor speak) of the ship is decorated with a cute bow made from Lovebug Creations Rumple Ribbon in “Simply White” from the Star Spangled collection. The fore sail is decked out with pretty heart lace trim.

I used a vintage spool to support the mast.

The stern is decorated with vintage baby mother of pearl buttons and a pretty bow.

The hull is made from a recycled USPS chipboard envelope and collaged with book pages and pattern tissue.

The aft sail is decorated with white lace and a vintage pearl button is placed at the top of the mast, along with more Lovebug Creations Rumple Ribbon.

Thank you for stopping by to see my project. Leave me some love in the comments!

xo,

Christine Barker

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

-Mark Twain

Swap: Valentine Swap Revealed!

15 Friday Feb 2013

Posted by kryztyne2012 in Art and Crafting, DIY & Crafting, Swap

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

annette schwab, dotti cordell, earleen coburn, heart, hearts, jo lynch, Julie Weller, lori dams, queen of hearts swap, scarlet calliope, sherry bamsey, tashia jacques, teah barrow, valentine, valentines day

I can finally reveal the beautiful handmade Valentine’s that I received from the girls in the Queen of Hearts swap hosted by Julie Weller. We were waiting for one last friend to receive her hearts before we could share pictures and I’m so glad that Lori finally got hers!

Enjoy!