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

Another bright idea for biz cards!

I'm always trying to find ways to make some tasks a little bit easier and economical. That doesn't always happen, but one area where I've found some ways to save some time and money is by using business cards for other purposes than "a business card." Last year I blogged about how I used biz cards as merchandising tools for my pins and magnets.

I make some of my sculptures from re-purposed burned out light bulbs.

Click here to see my Recyc-a-lite scultpures

Well, I've also thought of a way to use business cards for tags for some of my products. I try to include some type of info about what my product is and the name of the "collection/series" it belongs to. And then on the back of the card I leave room to write an item number/description/price. Using these helps save time on printing a card each time I need one and makes it easy to write out a price tag when I price new items.

Click here to see my Re-bottled sculptures

I make some of my sculptures from up-cycled shampoo bottles.

See how my shampoo bottle morphed into a cat.

This is a new set of biz cards that I had printed from the Vistaprint website. I tried to keep the same theme throughout my tag cards and biz cards to unify my biz identity.

Playful Penguins & Snowflakes

"Green" Penguins Playing in the Snow. Here are my UpCycled Sculptures made with burned out light bulbs.

These penguins are ready to play in the snow. In honor of the anticipated blizzard here in Wisconsin, my Playful Penguins proudly display snowflakes. I am not a fan of Wisconsin winters and snow, cold, etc. One of these days I hope to move to warmer, more mild temperate state. Do you like winter weather? And if so, what is your favorite part of winter and what do you like to do in the winter?

My Recyc-a-lite Penguin holding a snowflake.

I make these penguin sculptures using burned out light bulbs and Apoxie Sculpt. After I'm done sculpting them, I paint them with acrylic paint. Prior to covering the bulb with Apoxie Sculpt, I decide what the penguin will be holding or doing. Once I decide what the penguin will be doing, I begin to form the wing structure with wire mesh and masking tape. Depending on what the penguin is holding, the wing sculpting process can be tricky because once I cover it with Apoxie Sculpt, it can be difficult to make additional changes.

I try to vary what my penguins hold in their wings and what they do, to keep things from becoming stagnent. After I had a large stash of burned out bulbs from a local recycling center, I tried to sketch out a variety of penguin "activities" to help me figure out how to begin sculpting each penguin.

If you'd like to learn more about how I make my Playful Penguin sculptures, click the following:

Playful Penguin Process, Part 1

Playful Penguin Process, Part 2

Stop by my Etsy shop to see my line of Upcycled Sculptures.

Playful Penguins Process, part 2 - the finale

And the penguin saga continues! My last post ended with a couple of pics of the penguin mock-up with the straw and glass. The following picture shows my penguin nestled in the middle of the inner tube. I placed it in the inner tube to estimate how I should shape the penguin's wings, shown here as wire mesh covered with some masking tape.

Here's the penguin with it's first layer of Apoxie Sculpt.

And here is my second attempt at the under structure for the inner tube. My first version was getting too big and too heavy, so I started from scratch for the inner tube. This time I used colored plastic wrap wound over a circle shaped wire.

And here my penguin is getting accustomed to the newly constructed inner tube.

Now my penguin and inner tube are covered with a coat of gesso, ready to be painted. I painted the cup and straw first, since I was anxious to try my epoxy resin for the "liquid' in the glass.

And here he is! Lounging the day away on his brightly polka-dotted inner tube!

Ahhhhh.....he's enjoying his day! :-)

My Playful Penguin hopes you are enjoying your day as much as he is enjoying his!

Missed "Playful Penguin Process, part 1"? click here

Playful Penguin Process, part 1

Here's a peek at how I created my Playful Penguin piece that's lounging on a polka-dotted innertube.

For the inner tube under structure, I used some wire to shape it into a circle. Then, I covered it with some scraps of gripper liner and aluminum foil.

Here's the inner tube under structure, with the penguin's under structure, which is a burned out light bulb. The white material on the bulb is a type of paper mache medium.

After covering the inner tube structure with foil, I covered it with a layer of paper mache medium.

And here is a mock-up of my penguin drinking from a glass with a straw. I used some sculpey clay to shape a mock glass and beak and inserted a wire to form the straw. The sunglasses shown here are the original glasses that I then made into a mold to make sunglasses with resin.

Here's a close-up view of my penguin/straw & glass mock-up. Stay tuned for my next post featuring more work in progress pics along with the finished piece all painted and glazed.

Stop by my facebook fan page album titled "Works in Progress Step by Step" to take a look at other pieces I've worked on. And please don't hesitate to become a fan of my Lilly Bug page. :-)

Buzzing Behind the Scenes, part 4, the finale!

Here is Buster in his "natural" surroundings. He made it into the "great outdoors." And he'd like to share with you some pics from his visit outside. Many of the photos are close-ups of flowers because I think Buster loves flowers even more than me. Please take a look.

Here's a view of the flowers and grass from above. The base of grass blades took a lot of time to sculpt. I kinda wish that I would've kept track of the hours it took to make the grass, but maybe it's best left unknown.

One of the books of flowers I got from the library had a photo of Snowdrop flowers. I love these flowers and I wanted to make sure I included them on this piece.

Assorted flowers, flax flower, daisy, & coneflower.

Close-up of flax flower.

Close-up of daisy.

Buster enjoyed buzzin' around outside.

At one point, he met a lil' bee friend that landed on his face to say "hi!"

And here's Buster flying away at the end of the day. He hopes you enjoyed this four part series of his journey from a watercolor into a 3-D sculpture.

To revisit any part of his journey please click any of the following:

Buzzing Behind the Scenes, part 1 (features the beginning stages of the Buster sculpture)

Buzzing Behind the Scenes, part 2 (features some of the details of how I made the picnic basket and tea set)

Buzzing Behind the Scenes, part 3 (features Buster the Bee in color after the entire piece is put together)

Buzzing Behind the Scenes, Part 3

You've read, you've waited and now it's finally here, my Buster the Bee sculpture in living color.

I tried to take photos from every imaginable angle. Someday I'd like to make a Buster the Bee video to post on youtube. Right now I don't know enough about how to make a video and where to find copyright free music. I'm thinking the song "Flight of the Bumblebee" would be a good song for my Buster buzzing over the field of flowers.

Buster being busy as a...you got it...busy as bee.

Uh-oh, what happened to his picnic basket and tea set?

Buster decided to do a practice flight without the basket and tea set.

He wanted to make sure he timed his flight correctly to Toby's shell for the surprise party.

There he goes buzz, buzz, buzzing away!

And here he is ready for the party!

My Buster the Bee sculpture measures approximately 23" wide by 16" high by 15" deep. It's kinda difficult to measure a sculpture with flowers poking out in all directions. So how do you like my Buster piece? It's one of my favorites, especially because I love flowers and there is a whole field of flowers to see even in the dead of a Wisconsin winter. My next post will feature pics of Buster in the great outdoors.

Missed any of my Buster series?

Buzzing Behind the Scenes, part 1 (features the beginning stages of the Buster sculpture)

Buzzing Behind the Scenes, part 2 (features some of the details of how I made the picnic basket and tea set)

Buzzing Behind the Scenes, part 2

It's "tea time"! My last blog post featured the beginning stages of my Buster the Bee sculpture. Today, I'm showing how I made Buster's picnic basket and tea set that he's carrying to Toby's shell. Plus, I have a few close-ups of the final wing set for Buster along with a couple of flower shots.

The photo above shows the beginning stages of the picnic basket and tea set. Can you guess, what's what in the photo? The long strip under the teacup is how I made the teacup. I cut it out like that with wire and masking tape and then formed it into the cup with a wire handle shown above. Those two tab things with a hole in each are for the teapot. This is where the wire for the teapot handle will be inserted.

And ta-da! Here's the tea set ready to be painted. It took a long time to get from the first photo to the second. My Dremel tool came in very handy to clean up the surfaces of the tea set, especially for the teacups. I wanted to get the teapot and cups as smooth as I could.

And here's the picnic basket all painted and ready for Buster to fill with all the fixin's for tea time.

And here's the completed tea set and basket. I was very happy with how the teapot, teacups and picnic basket turned out. I wanted the tea set to look like a real little set of cups with matching teapot. I was anxiously awaiting for the time when I could attach the handle to the teapot to finish it off. I also waited in anticipation for the glaze to go on to make it look shiny.

And can you guess what these are? Yes, Buster's wings that took blood, sweat and tears to make. Okay, not quite, but they were one of the most challenging pieces to make.

I could not wait until I could attach this set of wings to Buster, but I had to wait until Buster was all painted before attaching them. And, yes you will have to wait too...until my next post when I feature the finished Buster piece all painted and put together. I had so much fun making this piece and it was challenging and exciting to wait and see how it all came together. Before I end today's post, I'd like to share with you a couple of close-up shots of a couple of flowers from my Buster sculpture.

This little ladybug was visiting one of the coneflowers for the Buster sculpture. It was real late at nite and when I walked into my work room to turn off the lamp and check on my work, here was this lil' beetle walking along the petals. Oh my, could that be the real life Lilly the Ladybug visiting one of Buster's flowers? Needless to say I had to capture this Lilly moment on film, um...digital film.

And here's the inside of one of the Poppy flowers for the piece. I am a fan of Poppy flowers so I had to include some of them on this piece. Well, that's all for now. Keep your eyes open for my next post that will be bursting with colorful flowers and Buster toting his teaset and basket to the party.

Visit my website Lilly Bug Studio, to find out more about Lilly the Ladybug and her friends!

Buzzing Behind the Scenes, part 1

I've wanted to blog about my Buster the Bee watercolor and sculpture for quite some time. And here it is! My Buster pieces have been one of my favorites in my storybook line.

This is my watercolor with Buster the Bee delivering some honey tea with Oliver the Ant guiding him to Toby's turtle shell. Ever since I started making my storybook sculptures, I've wanted to make this watercolor into a sculpture. Last year I had a small art exhibit at a gallary inside of a local public library. I wanted to make this piece for last year's show. With lots of patience and determination, I got this piece done for the show. There are a lot of parts to this sculpture, so this will be the first installment in a four part series.

Here is my sculpture about midway into sculpting it. I love flowers and I was excited to make a field of flowers for Buster to buzz over. I got some books about flowers from the library to find a variety of flowers to sculpt.

The photo above shows some of the leaves and flowers for my piece.

And here are the meticulous wings for Buster. I painstakingly glued each piece of wire to form the wings. And needless to say it was with much trial and error. The following photo attests to the fact, that these wings were not made in a day or two.

A selection of trial and error wings, which I will not depart with. These wings are part of my "mistake/reject" collection. Am I a pack rat? Keeping my mistake pieces can be a helpful guide for the future. Although, if I'd make another bee sculpture, I would try to find a new way to make the wings. They were one of the hardest parts to make along with being the most delicate to handle.

And here's the final photo for part one. Buster is already flying (albeit wingless) amongst the flowers waiting to be painted. The next part of this series will feature some of the smaller details of my piece, such as the picinic basket and tea pot, Buster will be carrying to Toby's shell. Stay tuned, for part 2 of Buzzing Behind the Scenes.