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

Up-cycled Bottle Sculptures

I have a tendency to hold onto items that I think I can make into something else. For instance, when I ran out of shampoo and conditioner, I thought I'd hang onto the empty bottles to use for a future sculpture project. I started out making cat sculptures from them.

Since then, every time I come across a bottle ready to be tossed out, I think about what I could create with it. My latest creations called "Re-bottled" sculptures, are simple people sculptures. The first three that I made are shown here.

Here's my little lady sculpture next to the same type of plastic bottle that I used to create her with.

Here's the Up-cycled couple next to similar bottles used to make them.

And last but not least, here's my Charles sculpture alongside my Up-cycled couple. Charles was made with an empty soy sauce glass bottle and I used 2 mini burned out halogen light bulbs to form his head. I love thinking of new things to make with items thought to be useless garbage. Hope you enjoyed seeing my Up-cycled work!

An UpCycled Answer & The Winner Is.....

Hello to my blogging fans. Thanks to all of you who participated in my blog giveaway. I plan on doing some more giveaways this year, so stay tuned. I asked you to answer the question about what UpCycled item I used for my Susan sculpture. As most of you guessed, it is in fact a light bulb.

I also have used the smaller, itty, bitty burned out halogens to make mini sculptures. I named these 2 mini ones after my nieces, Kristin & Katrina. The one in pink is Kristin, who happens to have a similar hairstyle as the sculpture. The one in yellow is Katrina.


I got these mini halogens from a store I worked at. Anytime there was a bulb that burned out, I asked if I could have it.


Anyway, the random number generator picked number two, which belonged to Melissa. Congrats to Melissa! You will be getting a Mr. Fluffy Bum Bottom pin and Petite Purse mailed to you just in time for Easter.

You are what you think!

Some food for thought...

“Your mind is a Garden, Your Thoughts are the seeds, You can grow flowers or You can grow weeds." - Unknown

I love this quote. Changing my thoughts to grow flowers instead of weeds is an ongoing goal of mine, getting rid of the negative thoughts and replacing them with positive ones. :-)

All Buttoned Up with Handmade Buttons, part 2

I am crazy about buttons, they are just so cute! Yesterday I blogged about my handmade polymer clay buttons and here's part two. I mentioned that I'm going to paint & glaze some of them to use as jewelry pieces (pendants, pins & rings). Today I found the correct glaze to use with polymer clay. I did some research online and found out that Varathane Diamond Polyurethane is one of the best glazes to use on polymer clay. Other glazes can eat away at the clay and cause the surface of the clay to become sticky.

Here are a few of the buttons I painted with some metallic silver, white & black paints.

Here are some unpainted gold buttons I made.

And here's a photo collage I made with some of my button photos! :-)

All Buttoned Up with Handmade Buttons, part 1

Hand-made Buttons!

click here to learn more about polymer clay glaze

All Buttoned Up with Handmade Buttons, part 1

I love buttons and right now I'm in the middle of a handmade button project. Here's a photo of my button work space. I'm making buttons with polymer clay and it's fun to create them.

Last Christmas I got a Dremel drill press and I'm so glad that I have one. It works wonderfully when I need to drill holes into my handmade buttons. All I need to do is line up my button at the base of the press, turn on the Dremel tool and pull down on the blue lever. It works like a charm!

How do you like my handmade buttons? What would you use them for? Maybe scrapbooking? I'm working on painting and glazing some of them. And I'd like to make them into pins, pendants and rings. Buttons are fun! :-)

Click here to see my first set of handmade buttons that I made last year.

I love the Winter Olympics!

I've enjoyed watching the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics this year, Apolo Ohno, Shaun White, Bode Miller, Evan Lysacek, Lindsey Vonn and so many others made this year's Olympics so exciting to watch. I am going to miss watching the Olympics once they're over. What has been your favorite Olympic moment from this year?

In honor of the Olympics, here is a funny video of "Office Chair Skating" by my favorite you tubers, Rhett & Link. Enjoy! :-)

My Yogurt Lovin' Kitty

My cat, Tigger (aka Tiggy Boy), loves to clean out my yogurt container when I'm done eating my yogurt. As soon as I peel off the cover he's ready to have some yogurt goodness. When he hears me scrape the sides of the container, he knows it's his turn to have a yogurt treat.

He licks the inside of the container.

He dips his paw into the container and then licks the yogurt off of his paw.

He will spend quite some time trying to get the remaining yogurt within the container.

I never get sick of seeing him clean out a yogurt container.

That's my Tiggy Boy! :-)

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.

Have a Cuppa Java

Need a caffeine & cute fix? Here are some of my new coffee cup magnets that I sell at my Etsy store, Lilly Bug Boutique.

These magnets are fun to make. I love to pick out a color palette and having a "blank cup" to make a variety of designs on. If you have any ideas for a design to paint on a coffee cup, please let me know. Also, if you're interested in having a custom cup made for you or for a gift, I'd love to do a custom order for you. I also can make a coffee cup pin to wear, if you'd like a pin to match a magnet or a pin instead.

One of my first coffee cup designs. The first coffee cup I made was attached to a personlized pen for a line I call "Artful Pens".

I love the color combination of these bright colors of blue, magenta and green.

A nice pink colored coffee cup. :-)

And last but not least, a ladybug coffee cup. Since I'm a ladybug lover, I could not resist painting a cup with a ladybug design.

Which cup is your favorite?

Artisan Co-op in Janesville!

My sister, Sue & I in front of co-op on Grand Opening Day

Last month my sister, Sue and I joined an Artisan Co-op in Janesville, WI. My sister designs beaded jewelry pieces and I make a variety of items from pins to sculptures. Sandra, the co-op owner found me via my Etsy store and asked if I'd be interested in joining her Art Co-op. As a matter of coincidence, my sister was with me when I met with Sandra. As I was talking to Sandra she said that she was looking for jewelry to sell at the co-op. I went to tell my sis to see if she wanted to talk to Sandra about joining. How's that for being at the right place at the right time?

The location of the co-op is a bit of a drive for both of us, but one good thing about the location is that it's about halfway for us to see each other. My sis lives three hours away from me, but the co-op is approximately an hour and a half away for each of us. Thank goodness we are able to work together on our co-op work days. One requirement for joining the co-op is working one day per month at the co-op.

Last week my sister and I decided to work two days in a row and stay overnight at a hotel in Janesville. We had a fun time on our mini time away. Last week was our 3rd and 4th days of working at the co-op. During our first three days of working there, we had no sales. Thankfully, on our fourth day, last Friday, we had four sales. We were so excited to finally work a day and have someone buy something.

One purchase from Friday was of a painting from a co-op member, Pam, who we have become to know since she works in the same building as the co-op. Each day she works, she stops in to say hi. And on Friday just after stopping in and telling us she still has not sold anything, my sister sold one of her paintings. We were so happy for Pam. After awhile I decided to try to find Pam's office on one of the floors above the co-op. I found her office and told her the good news. She was so happy. She gave me a hug and wanted to do a happy dance. The painting that she sold was one that her husband told her would never sell and Pam told him that it would be the first painting she would sell. And it was!

After our second day of working at the co-op, my sister and I were trying to think of some ideas to try to promote the co-op. One idea was to print postcards to hand out to people in the offices above the co-op. We had some postcards printed and last week on Thursday, we went to deliver them to the offices after we were done working.

My sister Sue at her beading table at co-op

Then on Friday, we had more customer traffic in the co-op. My sis was convinced that our postcards helped bring some of the traffic in. On Friday afternoon, I dropped of some postcards at a local cafe across the street from the co-op. The food in the cafe looks delicious. Next time I work at the co-op I want to buy some food from the cafe. I also stopped at, Carousel Consignment, a nice antique shop with so much to see, and dropped off a rack card for them to hang at the counter of the store.

While at the hotel, I helped my sister name her jewelry pieces. I try to encourage my sis to name her jewerly with unique names, instead of naming it "magenta & black beaded necklace", I recommend something like "magnificent magenta." On Thursday while at the co-op I was having a dry spell trying to think of names for her, but later at the hotel the names were coming more easily. I joked telling my sis that it must've been because I needed to eat some chocolate to get the ideas going again. :-)

My pins (shown on left) & my magnets (shown on right) at co-op

My turtle sculpture at co-op

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!!! :-)