Field Trip: Glitterfest 2014

16 Sunday Mar 2014

Posted by kryztyne2012 in Art and Crafting, DIY & Crafting, Field Trip, Glitter, Mixed Media, Paper Sculpture, Papercrafting, Soft Sculpture, Textiles, Vintage

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

anaheim, anaheim expo center, charlotte, crazy cat lady, Dianne, dotti cordell, Glitterfest, jlf design studio, jo lynch, Julie Haymaker Thompson, kristy lynn, leticia fernandez, Lisa Loria, little white farmhouse, lulu max jewelry, meyer imports, michelle hurtt, millinery flowers, oil painting, paper clay, paper clay doll, Sheryl, susans charming trinkets, sweet insanity bake shop, tara wilson, tiki ranch, tustin, velvet flowers, victorian scrap, vintage findings, vintage flowers, vintage millinery, Whimzy

This weekend was the much anticipated Glitterfest in Anaheim, CA hosted by Sheryl Simpson and Dianne White of Whimzy in Tustin, CA. They also have a show in the fall and I look forward to both every year. I have some good friends who bring their art and treasures here and each time I go I make new friends!

This year the Expo Center was decorated with a sweet candy theme and I just adore the sweet colors!

One of the vendors is my friend, Michelle Hurtt, selling some beautiful and truly authentic vintage millinery flowers and blooms. These flowers are from the 1930’s through the 1950’s and are virtually impossible to find anymore. The collection that she has is in amazing condition and what an extensive and beautiful collection she has! For this Glitterfest, Michelle wanted to share some of her treasures with the Glitterfest attendees and introduce everyone to her new business. Last week we chose the flowers from her warehouse and I put them together into color collections. I’m so proud of my friend for going out on a limb and pursuing her passion and I’m excited for her new business venture. I can’t wait to see what direction she takes with her incredible stash of goodies. Michelle is known for her exquisite attention to detail and her beautiful design sense and I know that everything that comes out of her studio will be stunning!

Here I am with sweet Lisa Loria in the photo booth!

Lisa is known for her whimsical designs and is going back to her artistic roots and spending more time painting. I am loving the direction she is headed in!

More of Lisa’s adorable work!

Have you ever seen a cuter necklace? These are made by Tara Wilson of Lulu Max Jewelry.

Tara specializes in mixing vintage pieces of jewelry with modern pieces and creates truly one-of-a-kind wearable art.

These gorgeous pastries are from Kristy Lynn of Sweet Insanity Bake Shop.

Here’s my favorite son, Trevor, trying on some spectacles in the Little White Farmhouse booth. Since he was with me and being so patient I tried to hurry through the show and didn’t get to spend as much time looking, chatting and taking pictures as I usually do. But, he was such a good sport and even carried a really heavy cement head to the car for me without me even asking!

Little White Farmhouse always has a wonderful collection of vintage items that I just love!

And then I saw two of my friends, Dotti Cordell and Jo Lynch! I was introduced to these girls through a swap hosted by one of my BFF’s, Julie Weller, and met them in person for the first time at Glitterfest a year ago. We keep in touch via Facebook and I just love them!

While walking through the aisles this table caught my eye. I saw some very familiar art work and did a double take. I had no idea that Julie Haymaker Thompson would be at Glitterfest!

I’ve always loved her art and can I just tell you how thrilled I was to finally meet her in person? Her art is cute, fun and whimsical and she is one of the most down to earth people I’ve ever met. I think I’ve convinced her that she has to come out to Orange County again in the very near future to teach a class. (I’m not above begging if I have to!)

I just love her style, the colors she uses and her paper clay dolls are just so fun and unique.

One of her dolls is holding a cat and since I have 5 cats and may have been nicknamed “Crazy Cat Lady” by my niece, Noel, I just knew Julie’s doll was destined to come home with me. This picture shows my kitties, Mr Darcy and KirJava, checking out the adorable doll.

One of my favorite booths is Tiki Ranch and they never disappoint with an extensive selection of findings, bits, bobs and doo dads.

Victorian Scrap? Tiki Ranch has it covered!

I found some fun treasures in the booth of Leticia Fernandez of JLF Design Studio. From Charlotte heads to paper clay creations she had a fun mix of goodies to peruse.

I found a bevy of beautiful jewelry in this booth from Susan of Susan’s Charming Trinkets.

Do you love miniature animals like I do? This booth from Meyer Imports had wonderful reproduction mushrooms, mini plastic animals just like you used to get in the cracker jack box and every color of German glass glitter that you can imagine!

Thank you so much for stopping by and reading my review of Glitterfest 2014. Have a wonderfully creative weekend!

xo,

Christine Barker

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

Swap: Winter Wonderland Soldered Ornament Swap

26 Thursday Dec 2013

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

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Alanna George, Ann Hammes, Carol Lucero, Carrie Harney, christmas swap, Debbi Wilcock, Hope Ellington, hosting a swap, jack a lope, jackalope, Jeanine Stowe Weiss, Julie Weller, Kadee Metzger, Linda Vinson, Lonnie Jenck, lori dams, Maija Lepore, michelle hurtt, Nicole Goodwin, Pam Munns, reindeer, Rochelle Gaukel, solder, soldered, soldering, Susan Bates-Bezek, vintage, Winter Wonderland Ornament Swap

After signing up for a couple Christmas ornament swaps this year, I wanted to add just one more! My friend, Pam Munns, and I worked out some plans for a soldered Christmas ornament swap. At first we were wondering if we could get 10 ladies to sign up, and imagine our surprise when we got 19 participants!

These are the guidelines we set up. “Winter Wonderland Swap: these soldered ornaments will be celebrating the beauty of winter in all of its gorgeousness! From icicles on trees, to snowflakes falling, to sweet little woodland creatures, this theme gives lots of room to create your favorite winter fantasy. Style can range from Antique Chic to Vintage Grandeur with the primary colors being white, silver, creams, and a hint of a muted winter color.”

Because we had such a great response to the swap sign ups, the ladies were split up into two groups so that we would each make 10 ornaments. I didn’t let any of the girls know which group they were in so there would be more of a surprise for them when they opened their boxes. But, the surprise was on me on sorting and packing day when I realized that I didn’t have ornaments from someone I thought was participating. After all of my careful planning and even working out the details on a spreadsheet, I overlooked a very important detail! At first I freaked out, thinking that I had misplaced her box of ornaments but after a phone call I realized that I had messed up and she never committed to joining the swap. How ridiculous am I? But, it all worked out in the end since I had already made an ornament for each lady, and I ended up as the lucky girl who got one of each ornament!

My ornament started out as an image of a vintage deer, but once my daughter, Savannah, saw it she said “what about a Jack-a-lope?” So I got to work in Photoshop, turning this vintage deer picture into a jack-a-lope, hanging above the fireplace.

Hanging on the mantel is an antique lace up boot stocking that I made for a Christmas stocking swap 2 years ago. There’s a chandelier hanging from the ceiling, and a swan planter next to the fireplace. I included some of my favorite things in my make-believe mansion living room, like a deer topiary, turquoise damask wall paper, a roaring fire, a Turkish rug and a cloche on the mantle.

For the other ornament, I created a smaller image featuring the Jack-a-lope picture.

I’m so happy to share these ornaments with you! From fancy to vintage, to all kinds of Winter themes and even an ornament that had special lighting effects, these ornaments are over the top gorgeous! From smooth solder to textured solder, and everything in between, I can’t believe the amazing range of styles and the incredible and overwhelming amount of talent we have in this swap. I’m so glad that Pam Munns talked me into hosting it and I’m so thankful to Julie Weller for hosting very successful swaps in the past that gave me a clue about how to host a swap.

Here are the names of the very talented soldering artisans:

Susan Bates-Bezek
Lori Dams
Hope Ellington
Rochelle Gaukel
Alanna George
Nicole Goodwin
Ann Hammes
Carrie Harney
Michelle Hurtt
Lonnie Jenck
Maija Lepore
Carol Lucero
Kadee Metzger
Pam Munns
Linda Vinson
Jeanine Stowe Weiss
Julie Weller
Debbi Wilcock

This ornament, made by Pam Munns, has a votive inside that lights up!

This was Julie’s first time, EVER, soldering. Awesome job!

Thank you, Ann, for this gorgeous hostess gift! I love it!

Carol, thank you so much for this gorgeous ornament prezzie!

ScarletCalliope Christine Barker Soldered

ScarletCalliope Christine Barker 2 Soldered

ScarletCalliope Hope Ellington 1 Soldered

Hope, this snowflake ornament prezzie is gorgeous and fits in perfectly with my snowflake theme this year!

This was also Jeanine’s first time soldering! Beautiful!

This image is of Linda’s actual cross stitch needlepoint ornament that she designs and sells patterns for. Amazing!

ScarletCalliope Rochelle Gaukel Soldered

ScarletCalliope Susan Bates Bezek Soldered

From the bottom of my heart, thank you, ladies, for joining in this swap and I look forward to hosting another soldered swap for you! (Waiting until next Christmas is way too long!)

xo,

Christine Barker

Paper Crafting: Halloween Fun

18 Friday Oct 2013

Posted by kryztyne2012 in Art and Crafting, Cardmaking, Christmas and Holidays, DIY & Crafting, Lovebug Creations, Papercrafting, Scrapbooking

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

bat stamp, candy corn, candy corn snob, easy halloween craft, fake candy corn, halloween, halloween bat stamp, halloween craft, Halloween jar craft, LOveBug Creations, Lovebug Creations Creative Team, Lovebug Creations Rumple Ribbon, michelle hurtt, paper craft, papercrafting, purple people eater, scallop punch, scrapbook paper, seam binding ribbon, simply white

This week I have an easy Halloween project for you. All you need is a jar, some filler, some of your favorite Halloween-themed paper embellishments and some gorgeous Lovebug Creations Rumple Ribbon.

The jar is filled with some cute candy corn filler that I bought at the craft store and decorated with some gorgeous Lovebug Creations Rumple Ribbons.

Alternatively, you could add in some real Candy Corn, but make sure that it’s Brach’s or the Candy Corn Snobs are going to get upset! You think I’m joking, don’t you? Nope, I have a friend whose name begins with M and she is a Candy Corn Snob!

I used some scrapbook paper from the Dollar Spot at Target, layered with a scalloped circle edged with a black stamp pad, another scalloped circle (I do love me some scallops!) and topped with a bat stamp from the dollar section at my local craft store.

Next, I tied on some beautiful Lovebug Creations Rumple Ribbon and finished it with a Halloween Kitty brad. Here I’ve used Purple People Eater and some Simply White Rumple Ribbon.

It’s easy to make and super cute to add to your Halloween decorations or to give away to one of your BFF’s!

Would you like some more Halloween Crafting Inspiration? Don’t Miss:

My FREE Printable, You’ve Been Boo’d, to spread some Halloween spirit around your neighborhood.
There’s also the Something Wicked This Way Comes Blog Hop with lots of fun ideas on crafts to make for Halloween.
I also have a FREE Bewitching Hat Tutorial with easy to follow instructions and a free pattern.
And if you need some petite Vintage Halloween Images to decorate with, I’ve got a cute Vintage Halloween Collage Sheet in the Scarlet Calliope Etsy Shop.

Thank you so much for stopping by!

XO,

Christine Barler