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: Stunning Birthday Crown

09 Saturday Nov 2013

Posted by kryztyne2012 in Art and Crafting, Collage, DIY & Crafting, Papercrafting

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

birthday crown, collage, Pam Munns, paper collage, vintage images

I celebrated my birthday last month for pretty much the entire month. It only comes once a year so I try to make the most of it!

My friend, Pam Munns, whom I met in a Sally Jean Alexander soldering class, created a delightful, turquoise crown that is an incredible, colorful and personal gift. I’m so happy and lucky to have a lot of really talented friends! While visiting Pam last month I admired the collages that she creates for her soldered ornaments. I also coveted a beautiful paper crown that she had made and had displayed in her incredible craft studio.

I was completely surprised by her thoughtful and personal gift and all of the hard work that she put into making it. It starts off with one of my favorite vintage images, an angel resting on the moon, with Scarlet Calliope across the front. There are so many visual delights that I’m still discovering elements in the collage that I didn’t notice before.

Knowing how much I love swans, she placed images of swans on either side of the “Birthday Girl” banner. On one side of the crown there’s images of tea cups, a rabbit, the letter C, the Eiffel Tower, images that we both have on our Pinterest Boards, and a picture of my husband wearing a top hat (she really pays attention, I adore top hats! And my husband, lol!).

A funny thing happened while my friend Michelle Hurtt and I were spending the weekend with Pam. We hit up a dollar store to see what we could find and I found Candy Corn and grabbed a bag for us all to share while crafting later that day. I later discovered that there are people among us who are candy corn SNOBS! Seriously! I’m not going to mention any names but her name begins with the letter M. She will only eat Brachs Candy Corn and scoffs at anything less. So Pam added in some pictures of of Candy Corn and a sign that says, “Not Brachs”.

On the other side of the crown you see a vintage picture of birds in a cage, a corset, a Steam Punk Car, a picture of the Lemon Drop that Pam’s husband, Dwight, mixed up for us, and a picture of my favorite furry nephew, Ghillie. Ghillie is Pam and Dwight’s border collie puppy who kept us all entertained with his sweet antics while we were visiting. I miss him!

The crown is tied with a gorgeous turquoise ribbon. What I adore the most about this beautiful gift is the time and thought that Pam put into making it special for me: My favorite colors, images, person and furry nephew. What’s interesting is that last month was the first time that Pam and I have spent time together aside from sitting across the table from each other in a soldering class. And in one weekend she absorbed and understood me by simply observing, seeing what I post on FB and Pinterest and by paying attention to what I was shopping for while we went to the 2 Speckled Hens flea market. I think that this ability to absorb someone merely by observing may be a talent shared by Libra’s but I’m sure that there are other people from other birth signs who are awesome like that as well.

I love when you have an instant connection with someone and I cherish my friends who make my life burst with happiness. Thank you Pam, for a gorgeous and special gift that I’ll treasure forever! I heart you!

xo,

Christine Barker

Swap: Winter Wonderland Ornament Swap

05 Tuesday Nov 2013

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

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Alanna George, Antique Chic, christmas ornaments, christmas swap, Hope Ellington, Lonnie Jenck, lori dams, ornament swap, ornaments, Pam Munns, pinterest, Rochelle Gaukel, sally jean alexander, shabby chic, solder, soldered Christmas Ornament, vintage, vintage grandeur, Whatever Lola Wants Lola Gets, Winter Wonderland Ornament Swap

This year I’m hosting a swap for my friends who love to solder. I’m part of another Christmas swap and it closed before my friend, Pam Munns, could join, so we came up with some ideas for a swap for soldered ornaments with some of our friends we’ve met at the classes we’ve taken with Sally Jean Alexander. I’m so thrilled that not only did our Sally Jean friends join, but a coterie of other talented artists signed up to be in the swap as well!

It’s called Winter Wonderland and the guidelines are to create a soldered Christmas/Holiday ornament that is inspired by the beauty of winter. This leaves plenty of room for each artist to create an ornament inspired by their favorite part of winter and the Christmas holiday. I’m envisioning falling snowflakes, icicles on trees, adorable little woodland creatures hopping through the snow and all kinds of other gorgeous images.

I’m a big fan of vintage and shabby chic so I’m suggesting that all the artists create in a style that is somewhere between Antique Chic to Vintage Grandeur, with Antique Chic possibly being free spirited, lacey, made with linen, a little bit bohemian or a little bit primitive. Vintage Grandeur could be a little bit more dressy than Antique Chic, with chandelier crystals, rhinestones, and maybe a little bit of velvet or silk.

The color palette will consist of white, cream, silver and a hint of a muted winter color.

We have 20 talented ladies participating in this swap and I’ll be dividing us up into 2 groups so that we’ll make 10 ornaments each. The shape of the ornaments is wide open to whatever their hearts desire. There are so many shapes to choose from, like simple squares or circles, to house or dove shapes, vials and small perfume bottles and even stars or three dimensional shadow boxes or reliquaries.

The Ornaments are due to me by December 5 and then I’ll divide them up into the groups and mail them back out to all of the artists.

For inspiration I’ve been doing my research online and finding a lot of gorgeous soldered ornaments on Pinterest. I’ve created a board called Winter Wonderland to give myself some ideas about what shape I want and different colors and sizes.

exquisite-totally-white-vintage-christmas-ideas-15

exquisite-totally-white-vintage-christmas-ideas-28

exquisite-totally-white-vintage-christmas-ideas-34

Since it’s been so warm in Southern California it’s difficult to get in the mood for winter and Christmas so I found a great blog with pictures of beautiful shabby chic decorations to get me going.

Here are some of my artist friends in the Winter Wonderland Ornament Swap who have blogs, teach soldering or sell their soldered jewelry:

I’m excited that Rochelle Gaukel, of Whatever Lola Wants Lola Gets, will be joining us. As I was going through Pinterest I saw several of her beautiful pieces pinned to other people’s boards.

Lonnie Jenck is a sweetheart whom I met at Kim Caldwell’s glorious creative events. Lonnie teaches classes and is a wonderful artist.

Also joining us is the fabulous Lori Dams, who creates amazing jewelry! If you get to meet her, ask her about Hugh Jackson! And recycling! LOL

Alanna George is an artist I’ve never met in person but I feel lucky that I got to know her through the 12 Days of Christmas Ornament Swap that she hosted. She is a super versatile artist with talents in so many areas!

We also have Hope Ellington, an inspirational artist whom I’ve never met but we were in Alanna’s ornament swap together. It’s fun to meet new artists through swaps and get to know them via Facebook.

And I’ve volunteered to teach my friends, Julie and Jeanine, how to solder. I hope I’m able to give them the instruction and encouragement to create some beautiful ornaments!

I’m counting down the days until I get to see all of these beautiful ornaments start arriving at my house. In the meantime, I’m brainstorming ideas so I can create some delightful ornaments that will grace the trees of my talented friends!

Thank you so much for stopping by!

xo,

Christine Barker

Swap: Sweet and Sinister Halloween Swap 2013

16 Wednesday Oct 2013

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

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

antique, apothecary jar, black rhinestone pumpkin, black rose, bling, crystal tiara, dia de los muertos, feathers, glam skull, halloween, halloween candle stick, halloween card, halloween craft, halloween home decor, Halloween Mantel, halloween picture frame, halloween swap, halloween treat, Julie Weller, marabou feathers, michelle duke, mummy, Pam Munns, Papier Mâché pumpkin, Rogers gardens, sarcophagus, shabby chic, skull cameo, something handmade, something home decor, something sinister, something sweet, something thrifted, sugar skull, Swarovski Crystals, Sweet and Sinister, Sweet and Sinister Swap, The Duchess, vintage, vintage candle stick

My sweet friend, Julie Weller, hosted a Sweet and Sinister Swap for us this year and my partner was Michelle Duke, aka The Duchess.

Michelle and I told each other our preferences and then got to work creating Halloween treasures for each other. The swap includes:

Something Sweet
Something Sinister
Something Handmade
Something Thrifted
Something Home Decor

With our crazy schedules it was difficult to have time to open our presents, since we wanted to FaceTime each other to see the reaction. I opened up my box yesterday and Michelle opened up her box today!

Eek! Isn’t this an awesome box? My prezzies are inside here!

I love how Michelle created a handmade card for me, it’s super spooky with the giant spider on it! Check out my haul!

Here’s the scary loot on my mantel. Michelle decorated a photo frame with a gorgeous feather and vintage flower and a vintage picture inside. She also made me a candle, inside the black apothecary style jar, that smells like licorice. These are my Home Decor goodies.

Oh Mummy! Next is this frightful mummy on a sarcophagus, decorated with a black rose. This is my Something Thrifted, since she found the box at the second hand store. He’s pretty amazing, with his black mesh and all!

Michelle made me a cute pin with black and cream striped ribbon surrounding a cameo of a skeleton lady. This is my Something Handmade and I can’t wait to wear her! Behind her is a sweet shabby chic style envelope made from burlap and lace. There’s also an amazing glam skull decoration with fab feathers. She’s wearing some black roses and bling and I think this is my favorite, ever! (I seriously hope my cats don’t notice this or they will be banned from the house!) Inside the sarcophagus were three skulls and those are hanging out on the mantel as well.

Thank you, Michelle, for all of my gorgeous and fun presents! The cats discovered the spider rings and have been flipping them all over the house and I’m enjoying the candy eyeballs! I love all of my scary, spooky and beautiful treasures that you made and selected for me!

Now, I get to show you what I made for Michelle! A while back, Julie and I took a trip to Roger’s Gardens to check out their amazing Halloween shop. They really put a lot of work into creating gorgeous Halloween and Christmas displays and this is one tradition I always look forward to. We love Roger and his garden! 🙂

Anyways, I saw a pumpkin that I loved but didn’t pick it up that day so I made one myself a bit later, using a Papier Mâché pumpkin, painted with acrylic paint mixed with plaster, embellished with black rhinestones. I added the plaster to give it a textured, matte look.

Michelle said she loved Sugar Skulls, so I made her a Dia de los Muertos skull with hand drawn details, Swarovski Crystals, and a marabou feather and crystal tiara. Isn’t it SCARY?

Next, I made her a wall hanging featuring a vintage little girl in a glittered witches hat decorated with Swarovski Crystals. The wall hanging has a vintage flower topped with a cameo.

For the Something Thrifted I got lucky and scored this gorgeous candle stick. I came across a tutorial online about how to decorate tissue paper and attach it to the candle with a heat gun. But, like everything else, I have to complicate things so I created a design in Photoshop, ran tissue paper through my printer and then attached that to the candle. The candle smells good so that’s the Something Sweet!

I’m so glad we finally opened up our gifts, I’ve been dying to find out what Michelle thought and I couldn’t wait to see what Michelle made me. FaceTime is one of the greatest inventions of all time!

And, I have to give a big THANK YOU to my friend, Pam Munns, for letting me use her incredible art studio to photograph my swap items in. We have such similar tastes in vintage finds that visiting her art studio left me giddy like a kid in a candy store! She has gorgeous vignettes of her vintage and antique finds artfully arranged around her studio and i just wanted to spend days looking through everything.

Thanks for stopping by!

xo,

Christine Barker

{PS} Don’t miss my FREE Halloween Printable: You’ve Been Boo’d!

The full set of printables plus instructions can be found here!

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.