It's Bubblegum and Duct Tape, Literally!

Hello Everyone, I'm so glad you stopped by today. 
I got the most amazing gift in the mail today from my bloggie friend Marfi Bradford.  Yes, THEE MARFI BRADFORD!  author and artist of Incipient Wings. 
She made me laugh so loud when I opened my box, she sure has a sense of humor~ you'll see why...

Here's the box gift wrapped with her awesome art (now why did the Post Office have to write the black markings so large????)

and here's a canvas she painted with her original artwork, LOVE IT!:

 It's going in my craft room wall

closer look, she looks just like me!!! and I love butterflies.  I think the little butterfly fell off in shipping but I couldn't find it in the box, I'll have to look more closely. 

 

and here's why I laughed, and still laughing.... 

She used bubble gum and duct tape to fill the box, haha.  That's a good one.  It sure made me laugh to see it.  

Thank you so much Marfi for my special gift, you rock!
Can't wait to come up with some craft projects using the duct tape and bubblegum wrappers, so cool!


Thank you all for coming by, I hope you get something nice in the mail too this week, besides bills, right?
 

Guerrilla Art Los Angeles and Giveaway

Before I get into my little Guerrilla Art adventure, I wanted to share with you an interview I had with Cherie Burbach of  Working Writers and Bloggers, you can read more about Cherie here  . She is an author, blogger and poet.  She is the author of six books and online columnist.  She has written four poetry books including Father's Eyes which received the 2008 Editor's Choice Award by All Books Review.  She stumbled upon my blog and, to my surprise, was impressed and wanted to interview me.  After I stopped blushing, I humbly accepted her request.  It's truly an honor that someone with such honorable standing in the writing world would want to interview me.  If you are interested, you can find the interview here.

It's time for another Guerrilla Art adventure.  I'm joining Marfi Bradford of Incipient Wings in her Guerrilla Friday, Random Acts of Kindness.  The concept is simple, you make something crafty and nice and leave it behind for someone else to find.  But actually doing this is not that simple.  First, you second guess yourself if who ever finds it might actually not like what they find.  Also, when you're looking for the perfect spot, sometimes no spot is perfect.  Finally, when you do find the spot and you begin to take pictures, you wonder if the people around you think that you are up to something bad.....I've done several of these the last few months and that always goes through my mind.  Lastly, it sure gets my adrenaline running and heart pounding as I don't want to get caught leaving it behind.  Then you're left wondering for a couple of hours who might find your little crafty piece...a business man/woman, a "lady of the night", a tourist....

I left behind that glass pendant I made yesterday:
you can see the tutorial here

Since the scrapbook paper, I decided to leave this one at the Los Angeles Music Center, downtown Los Angeles, which is the largest performing arts center in the United States.  And more specifically within the Music Center, I left it at the  Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, where I see all my favorite operas.  Placido Domingo is the General Director and James Conlon and Gustavo Dudamel are the music directors. You can read more about it here.

The following is a picture of the courtyard as you exit the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion:
In the distance, you can see the Mark Taper Forum 

Here's a picture of the back side of the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion:

and below is a picture taken of the street behind he Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, the Disney Concert Hall is on the left:

Here's a look inside the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion:

and I left the glass pendant by the fabulous fountain:

A close up:

Now on to my giveaway

I have a fun giveaway for you today!!! don't you love blogland giveaways?
I'm giving away a complete kit for you to make your very own glass pendants two of them:

Here's how to win it:
The first two people to leave me the name of the book I talk about in the interview, will each receive the kit!! Please leave the name of the book in the comments below this blog post.  Facebook and Twitter don't count, it must be on this blog post.
You can find the interview here  Good Luck!

UPDATE: we have our winners, see comments below, thanks everyone for playing along.

Easy Picture Pendant Tutorial

I almost had a heart attack today when I opened my computer armoire to write this post.
It was ALL CLEAN!.  No stickies anywhere, no notes, no cd's all over the place, no memory cards, no lists of things to do, no project samples for future blog posts.......NOTHING! as I gasped and stared in bewilderment at my empty space, I faintly heard a little voice behind me saying, "mommy, mommy, I cleaned your desk for you, aren't you happy?"  the words sounded to me  like this, "mommy, mommy, blah blah blah TRASH blah blah blah TRASH blah blah".  Such scary words coming out of a little angel's lips.  He cleaned out my desk alright, my little trooper, by throwing everything away......yesterday.......on trash day.....sigh.  I was going to run out to the landfill, but then I remembered......... I'm not a crazy person.  All this happened while I was out.  How did my husband not notice, is beyond me (between you and I, I think he was napping on the sofa while all this was going on).
Gotta love those special moments.  Once I came out of my coma, I hugged the little one and said thank you! and tomorrow......I'm buying a lock and key! LOL.

I have this cute little pendant tutorial today that I made.  This is a perfect gift and it's so easy to make, you won't believe your eyes.
Here's what the finished pendant looks like:

Isn't that cute?

 Here's what you need: Scrapbook paper, silver plated bail, one inch glass pendant, light grit sandpaper

you can find the bail here and the glass pendant here

scissors, Glossy Accents (arts and craft store),

E6000 Glue (Home Depot, Lowes, Walmart)

First, cut the paper to size one inch by one inch.  Apply Glossy Accents to the flat side of your glass and spread with finger.  Place your scrapbook paper face down on top of the Glossy Accents and burnish (press) the paper with your finger so that it lays flat on top, this way you won't get air bubbles.Let this completely dry for a couple of hours.

Once  it's dry, take your sandpaper and carefully rub your four sides on the sandpaper:

Once that's done, you'll have clean edges.  

You can color the back of the pendant with a Sharpie or leave it as is.  The one on the right in picture below has been colored in with a black Sharpie:

  Once that dries, give it a couple of hours, squeeze some Glossy Accents on the back of your pendant.  This protects the back of the paper. 

The back will look like this once you squeeze Glossy Accents, it stays in place, it doesn't run:

Here's a side view of the back with the Glossy Accents:

Let it dry over night. 

Once it's dry, take your silver plated bail and add a little bit of E6000 glue to adhere to the back of your glass pendant:

You can also use pictures but you'll need to print them on a laser printer first.  Here's some more I made in just a few minutes time: On the one below, I used scrapbook paper and a rubber stamp:

This next one was from a post card with dozens of little Frida Kahlo pictures:

Scrapbook paper, copies of photographs minimized to one inch by one inch, your own art work, rubber stamped images....the possibilities are endless!

Stay tuned for a special giveaway coming this Friday June 10th!