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

Sewing: St Patrick’s Day Pin Cushion

03 Monday Mar 2014

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

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Bunny Boudoir Lamp, charms, Colleen Moody, corsage pins, hand embroidered, LOveBug Creations, millinery flowers, mother of pearl, Otis and Lola, pin cushion, rhinestone button, Rumple Ribbon, sewing, st patricks day craft, vintage, vintage millinery, wool felt

I spent the weekend creating in a class with artist extraordinaire, Colleen Moody. I took her Bunny Boudoir Lamp class and was so entranced with her dolls, her home, her studio and her beautiful bulldogs, Otis and Lola. Colleen is known for her paper clay dolls, but excels at all sorts of other artistic endeavors. One of her creations, a gorgeous pink and white pin cushion, came home with me and inspired me to create one of my own.

I used Lovebug Creations Simply White to create a delicate, vintage-style focal point.

I added a vintage mother of pearl button to the Lovebug Creations Rumple Ribbon bow.

The four leaf clover on the top of the pin cushion is created from green wool felt, with hand embroidered details, vintage mother of pearl buttons and a vintage rhinestone button in the center.

I added some antique millinery flowers and a piece of tulle.

Next, some beautiful corsage pins.

And a top hat charm and a horse shoe charm for good luck!

Thank you for stopping by to see my project! Have a wonderful week!

xo,

Christine Barker

PS: Stop by later this week to learn more about my class with Colleen Moody and to hear about my adventures in antique stores and the Alameda Flea Market with my friends Kim, Terry, Mariasela, Sylvia and her mom!

May the Irish hills caress you.
May her lakes and rivers bless you.
May the luck of the Irish enfold you.
May the blessings of Saint Patrick behold you.

Crafting: Spring Banner featuring Lovebug Creations Rumple Ribbon

18 Monday Mar 2013

Posted by kryztyne2012 in Art and Crafting, DIY & Crafting, Lovebug Creations, Mixed Media, Uncategorized

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

arlene baker, banner, cherub, chipboard, clear embossing ink, copic markers, cricut, dic cutter, embossing powder, fairy mushroom, french general, garden statuary, garland, gilding the lily, japanese paper lantern, LOveBug Creations, mini mushroom, paper rosettes, pinterest fail, scrapbook paper, signo uniball, silk flowers, sizzix, Sizzix Big Shot Pro, slice, spring, spun cotton mushroom, tag, vellum, velvet leaves, vintage millinery, vintage paper straw, vintage rhinestones, vintage wallpaper

Hello Artists!

For this week’s Lovebug Creations project, I have a Spring banner to share with you. I actually made it a couple weeks back for the Blog Hop, but as it happens, I had a lil snafu during my photo shoot (yes, another backyard photo shoot issue. Imagine!) My daughter, Savannah, helped me set up the backyard with some fun party decorations and we got the table settings laid out. I was going for one of those beautiful pictures like you see on Pinterest. It turned into a total Pinterest FAIL! The moment we got all of the decorations set up, the wind started gusting and blowing everything around. Then, really huge drops of rain started falling all over my paper projects and started soaking all of the decorations. So, we threw everything in a box and ran inside. Literally 2 minutes later the rain stopped and the sun came out. Score 1 for Mother Nature!

So, today I tried again and at least I got a picture of the banner without it twisting and turning all over the place. You can see the banner and tablecloth getting all crazy here in this picture from a couple weeks ago.

The way our house and the wall are situated, it creates a wind tunnel through our backyard!

Anyways, let’s talk about crafting and we’ll go through each tag one by one. This Spring Banner project was just the beginning of my recent infatuation with vellum. I ran the vellum through my Sizzix Big Shot Pro die cutter with my favorite die to create a nice sheer separation for my letters from the background. The letters were cut using my Cricut.

Don’t you just love velvet leaves? I found them and the mushrooms at Gilding the Lily in Fullerton and it’s one of my favorite shops to find unique millinery, vintage photos, feathers, beads, pearls, crystals and jewelry findings. The beautiful ribbon in all photos is “Pink Clouds” from Lovebug Creations. The colors that I received ranged from a sweet, light pink to a deep coral and were so perfect for this garden inspired banner. I just love the way these ribbons curl and ruffle! I used my white pen to outline the blue letters and die cut pieces to give them an artistic touch.

The cherubs head is from my stash, it’s probably 20 years old. I love painting objects to look like moss-covered garden statuary. For this panel, I cut out vellum flowers with my Sizzix Big Shot Pro die cutter and colored the back of them with my copic markers. This gives them a nice color without being too strong and overwhelming the rest of the piece.

The buckle on the P is made from a chipboard piece from the dollar (and fifty cent!) section at Michaels and I painted it and then glued vintage rhinestones to it.

For this panel, I used a wonderful paper flower technique that I learned from Arlene Baker at a class at French General during Kaari Meng’s Art of Craft event in January. To learn this technique, you’ll have to take one of Arlene’s classes. I never give away other peoples secrets! Can you believe the result of Arlene’s technique? I love how the paper flower wrinkled up just like a real rose.

Paper rosettes are used in a lot of my projects because they look so whimsical and add great depth.

To create a waxy look on silk flowers (like the one on the bottom, second from the left) I stamp them with clear embossing ink and then sprinkle with clear embossing powder. Using your heat gun, move it around and slowly melt the embossing powder. Be careful not to burn your flower!

Detail of another cherub I painted to look like moss-covered garden statuary.

This panel has a piece of vintage wallpaper at the top that I cut with one of my punches. The punched circles at the bottom right are accented with clear glitter.

I featured these vintage-style paper straws in a past blog post, but they were part of this project so I wanted to share them with you again.

I used my Cricut to cut out LOTS of butterflies in different sizes and shades of tangerine-colored paper to adorn the Japanese paper lantern. I love the ombre effect and I’m going to file this idea away and use for decorations in the future.