Glimmer Trees

For my business I make an assortment of sculptural pieces to make into pins or magnets. I recently made a sculptural tree design that was looking for something beyond the basic coat of acrylic paint. After adding some pizzazz with Art Glitter to some dull looking brads for a previous project, I decided that my new tree design would be a perfect candidate for a similar glimmer treatment. I make my sculptural pieces with resin after I first make an original piece in clay and make a silicone mold from that. With two newly cast, white resin trees ready to be decorated, I decided to make a tree to symbolize summer and one to symbolize autumn. Once my assortment of glitter grows, I’d like to make a tree to represent each of the four seasons.

To make my sparkly trees, I used a variety of glitter and I also tried a microfine glitter this time. I love the sparkle of glitter, but in order to prevent a “sparkle” overload, I varied the sparkle intensity by incorporating some types of glitter with less intense glimmer. This is when using the ultrafine pearlescents are a perfect choice. They are still rich, gorgeous colors, but just with a more subdued bling factor. Using the ultrafine transparent glitters also fit in well to keep the bling intensity under control. I also used a microfine opaque glitter, which gave an additional sparkle effect not seen in any of the other varieties of glitter. The microfine glitter gives a smoother, more uniform glitter effect whereas the ultrafine opaque gives a varied sparkle effect where the glitter sparkles at a variety of angles.

I really liked how my glimmer trees turned out. To try out a varied glitter project for yourself just remember the simple “variety” formula which can be altered with other glitters of your choice. The recipe for my summer tree was: 1 ultrafine transparent + 1 ultrafine pearlescent + 1 microfine opaque + 2 ultrafine opaque = a varied palette of glittery goodness.

For the summer tree I used: 44 Kelly (ultrafine opaque), 519 Reed (microfine opaque), 241 Fresh Lime (ultrafine transparent neon), 182 Astro Turf (ultrafine pearlescent) and 58 Brown (ultrafine opaque)

For the autumn tree I used: 91 Orange Crush (ultrafine transparent), 177 Florida Orange (ultrafine pearlescent), 1 True Red (ultrafine opaque), 62 Copper Canyon (ultrafine opaque) and 58 Brown (ultrafine opaque)

***Note: I also hand-painted an additional pair of trees to symbolize summer and fall, but they just don’t hold the same charm as the glittery ones. After something is glitter-fied, nothing else compares to it.

Fall is my Favorite

What is your favorite season and why? I enjoy the warm colors of fall and the crisp air. There's a feeling of slowing down and retreating as the summer shifts to autumn. Now that fall is here, I hope to get on the nature trail more often than the summer. I usually go out on the trail often during the summer but this year I didn't go on as many rides because of the hot, humid, rainy weather. It was the one of the rainiest summers on the records for Wisconsin. As it gets closer to the start of fall, I see the hints of my favorite season, along the path and sites around me. It is a bittersweet moment, as I know well, what happens in Wisconsin after fall's departure. I cringe at even the thought of the "s" word and I refuse to write it out in this post. Unfortunately, it will be here sooner than I'd like. I am going to miss being able to ride my bike out around the sites and sounds of nature, always welcoming me to a place to discover new things. My eyes are on the constant lookout for the smallest of details. I'm zipping along past some trees and bushes.....wait......wait.....what did I notice in the corner of my eye. Stop, back up!

There is a new discovery, look at those berries!

Next I stop within a tree tunnel and see these charming mushrooms

growing up the side of a tree trunk. How wonderful!

Tree tunnels are my favorite parts along the trail. Once fall is gone, I will have to say goodbye to the trail for another year until Spring arrives.

Glittery Petite Purses

This is my first “official” Art Glitter project and I had loads of fun embellishing my Petite Purses with gorgeous, sparkly Art Glitter. Fall is just around the corner and it happens to be one of my favorite seasons, so I decided to make some purse designs with an Autumn theme. I make my Petite Purses out of sheets of fun foam and an assortment of embellishments. I have used the purses for presenting little treasures tucked inside such as the sculptural pins and magnets that I make. My Petite Purses come in two sizes, small and large. The purses made for this project are made in the larger size, which are a perfect size for gift cards.

While at a local craft store, I found some leaf embellishments and decorative brads to add some pizzazz to my purses. However, the most pizzazz came once the Art Glitter was applied. It was the last feature I added, but it was definitely not the least. Wow! The glitter completely transformed the purses and they gleamed and glistened with more life than before!

And speaking of transformation, I was able to turn my dull plain brads for attaching the purse straps, into some sparkly wonderful brads. I did not have the correct color of brads to use on my fall colored purses, so I looked to the transformative properties of the glitter as my solution. The brads were in light pastel colors, not quite the colors associated with Autumn. This is when the Art Glitter and the Designer Dries Clear Adhesive came to the rescue. After the plain brads were fastened to both the purse strap and the purse flap, I applied some Designer Dries Clear Adhesive to the brad caps and covered them with one of the following colors of glitter: Ultrafine #65 Old Gold, Ultrafine #56 Pumpkin, Ultrafine Pearlescent #179 Tang. I was very pleased with how the adhesive and the glitter completely transformed the brad caps from dull to dazzling. Hurray! Way to go, Art Glitter and Designer Dries Clear Adhesive! You two make a fantastic combination.

Once the leaves and brads were attached to the purse flaps, I used the Ultrafine Metal Tip on my Designer Dries Clear Adhesive bottle to start making swirls and other designs. Sometimes I used just one color of glitter to sprinkle over the adhesive, but other times I mixed some of the glitter colors together to expand my glitter color options. Another technique I used was sprinkling one of color of glitter sporadically over the adhesive and then sprinkle over it with another contrasting color to cover any remaining areas of uncovered adhesive. For example, I used the Ultrafine Pearlescent (179) Tang to sprinkle on here and there over a drawn out design in adhesive and then I’d use the Ultrafine Opaque (56) Pumpkin color afterward to cover any “un-glittered” areas of adhesive. Adding glitter in this way resembled the gradation of leaves changing color in the Fall.

I discovered the joy and contentment of working with glitter. The sparkle of glitter is so enchanting and inviting. The Art Glitter bug has bitten me. Stay tuned for more glittering projects.

Glitter colors used: Ultrafine #65 Old Gold, Ultrafine #56 Pumpkin, Ultrafine Pearlescent #179 Tang, Dazzlers #D30 Jamaica Hexis Grande, Dazzlers #D1 Crazy Corn Funky / Supplies: Designer Dries Clear Adhesive, sheets of fun foam, eyelets, decorative and plain brads, hot glue / Tools: Ultrafine Metal Tip, scissors, hot glue gun, stylus, wavy edge scissors, paper punch

Our Sore Fun Bike Ride

Last fall, my friend Hannah and I decided to take our second trip into town by bike. On our first trip we had enjoyed our ride very much and liked the fact of not paying any gas money to go to town.

Hannah just bought a new camera for her photography business, so she was having fun trying it out on our nice autumn ride.

I love observing the tiniest of details while out in nature. These curly, twirly leaves looked very intriguing to me. I was busy snapping pics here while Hannah was busy taking pics there.

There she is, busy being a shutter-bug! :-)

Hannah near the field of corn we visited.

I'm not sure what type of plant/flower this is, but I thought it looked interesting.

Some more twisty dried plants.

A gorgeous fall day!

A fall colored leaf.

On our way home from town, we experienced something we hadn't on our first trip to town. Since it was fall, our hours of daylight were limited. While in town we ate lunch and then stopped to get a couple ingredients for our supper. We knew that we couldn't spend a long time in town since we needed to get home before dark.

There we were back on the trail, knowing we needed to keep on biking with little time to stop along the way to rest. We weren't even halfway home when our legs were aching. Ouch! We had to keep on biking, we could see it was starting to get dark. We stopped briefly at a couple points, but our legs continued to hurt us. The darkness continued to creep in. I wanted to quit. We kept on going with Hannah leading the way. By the time we got to the last tree tunnel it was dark. We could not see much of anything and I thought I noticed a black shadow moving ahead of us. Yes, there it was, a shadow of some guy walking out in the darkness. Creepy! We finally got home after our painful ride.

We have been trying to come up with theories about why we were so sore this second trip. Some possibilities are:

On our first trip to town we had more time to rest our legs since we saw a movie. Plus, the cooler temps probably caused our legs to ache. And we also couldn't take a leisurely ride home like we did on our first trip. Regardless, Hannah and I will never forget our second trip to town.

Missed seeing our fun first trek?

Nature Trek, part 1

Nature Trek, part 2

Here's a post about a watercolor ride we went on,

A Watercolor & Marsh Adventure

Autumn's Touch

The fall season captivates me each year. And today I got that first glimpse of the season. It has cast me under its spell today, reminding me how wonderful the season is. There is a reassurance of peace and rest during autumn. Today the feeling of fall was tangible. For me it is a time to reflect and renew. And of course who can overstate the depth and intensity of fall color. Please take time to see a few pics of the season of autumn captured by my camera. Enjoy! :-)

I took this photo one year while walking on the nature trail. It's one of my favorite fall photos.

This photo was taken last year while a couple of friends and I visited Old World Wisconsin. Look at the color. Ahhhhh.....!!!!

This is a gorgeous tree that was in front of my friend Deanna's apartment in Janesville. Why can't those leaves stay on the tree throughout the winter season?

This photo was another one taken while visiting Old World Wisconsin last October.

Happy Autumn!!! :-)