Hey Hey Crafty Peeps! A new Life on the Bus Challenge!

Yesterday Patty over at My Life Under The Bus gave us our weekly inspiration and color palette! Check out the cool inspiration!

 Lovely lovely! Be sure to go HERE to check out the challenge. No matter what type of craft medium you use, you are welcome to join in!

Today's Flea Market Finds!

Today hubby and I went to Smiley's flea market and I got some goodies. Not a ton, but some cool stuffs.

Some love-ely junky jewelry

An awesome cookie tin which I intend on cutting up and making charms from :D

 This sweet old guy was selling old silverware. I was looking at it and he told me that he had done really well with it today and that if I wanted what was left, he would make a good deal with me. He certainly did and I came out with a ton of it.

I mean seriously!! You cannot get this lovely patina from a bottle or from liver of sulfur. My little heart is just going pitter patter over the verdigris and blackened pieces :D *love*

Riding The Inspiration Bus Reveal

Another Saturday, another reveal day for the My Life Under the Bus Inspiration Challenge! If you have not read about it before, Patty gives us an inspiration picture, which our color palette comes from.

I started out with this piece.(of course I always have to recycle something) It was originally a beaded brooch. I removed part of the back and the center section of beads and then added the yellow/orange rose to the center.


 I then searched my bead boxes and found an array of amber, glass and ceramic beads to match the  brooch. Check out how the green beads in the brooch match the green ceramic beads perfectly! Old and new- perfectly matched!

The completed piece 

 I created a clasp from brass and hammered it. The "ring" it hooks into was part of the middle of the brooch that I removed to add the flower. It turned out to be the perfect ring!

 So there ya go, my piece for this week. Old and new :)

Mail Call!

 I got some new goodies in the mail today and wanted to share!

Check out these cool rusty curved bits. 

These are so cute! I have no clue what they are and neither did the seller. lol. They are solid and have some weight.  Love them!

Some abused bottle caps. There are two of the "USDA ORGANIC" ones. Awesomeness!

Some little strips of rusty metal.

All of these items came from pvcatalina on Etsy. She sells nothing but rusty bits and bobs she finds during her walks out in New Mexico. I love to recycle/upcycle/reuse old junk! Oh and her prices are AWESOME. Each batch you see here was $2. Yes, just two bucks each. She also refunds overages in shipping. This lady is obviously just out to clean up the world and not make money. I hope she lists some more goodies soon. I need more! lol

Newly Posted Today

The Descent of the Muses

 This purdy thang was created with a broken pendant from one necklace and beaded chain rescued from another. Lovely lovely :)








This bracelet was created with new and rescued components. The pretty porcelain rose charm actually  has a few chips on it, but I used it anyway, cause that's how I roll! :P I know it's Winter and this is pink, but I don't care about that either! So THERE! lolol

Oh My Heart

On Creativity

 I recently read a quote on someone's blog that was very inspiring. I have looked though all the blogs on my list and can't find it! So I did  a search on quotes and came up with these. I wanted to share them with my readers in hopes that maybe they will inspire you :)




“There is no doubt that creativity is the most important human resource of all. Without creativity, there would be no progress, and we would be forever repeating the same patterns.” — Edward de Bono

“When we engage in what we are naturally suited to do, our work takes on the quality of play and it is play that stimulates creativity.” –  Linda Naiman

“The creative is the place where no one else has ever been. You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover is yourself.” — Alan Alda

“Creativity is inventing, experimenting, growing, taking risks, breaking rules, making mistakes, and having fun.” — Mary Lou Cook

 “You can’t wait for inspiration, you have to go after it with a club.” — Jack London

“The most potent muse of all is our own inner child.”

  “Everyone who’s ever taken a shower has had an idea. It’s the person who gets out of the shower, dries off and does something about it who makes a difference.” — Nolan Bushnell

“Around here, however, we don’t look backwards for very long. We keep moving forward, opening up new doors and doing new things, because we’re curious… and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” — Walt Disney

“A rock pile ceases to be a rock pile the moment a single man contemplates it, bearing within him the image of a cathedral.” — Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

“Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple and learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen.” — John Steinbeck


“If you hear a voice within you say, ‘You cannot paint,’ then by all means paint, and that voice will be silenced.” — Vincent van Gogh

“Because of their courage, their lack of fear, they (creative people) are willing to make silly mistakes. The truly creative person is one who can think crazy; such a person knows full well that many of his great ideas will prove to be worthless. The creative person is flexible; he is able to change as the situation changes, to break habits, to face indecision and changes in conditions without undue stress. He is not threatened by the unexpected as rigid, inflexible people are.” — Frank Goble

There is no use trying,” said Alice. “One can’t believe impossible things.” “I daresay you haven’t had much practice,” said the Queen. “When I was your age, I always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” — Lewis Carroll

“To be creative means to be in love with life. You can be creative only if you love life enough that you want to enhance its beauty, you want to bring a little more music to it, a little more poetry to it, a little more dance to it.” –Osho

“We will discover the nature of our particular genius when we stop trying to conform to our own and other’s people’s models, learn to be ourselves and allow our natural channel to open.” — Shakti Gawain

“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.” — Maya Angelou

 BTW, the photos in this post are my own that I captured. :)


 I hope that some of the quotes or even my photos inspire you today!

Weekend Work So Far

My daughter and her kids are out of town for the weekend, so I've been trying to get some work done. I babysit for my daughter when she works nights.

I've been having fun making grungy looking stuff. It really is what I love. I have made a lot of "pretty things" for my Designs By Debi shop, (the pearly earrings in the pic are prolly going in that shop) but for myself, I love grunge. When I opened Prolific Adornments, I told myself that this shop would be where I could do whatever I pleased. And grunge pleases me! lol

I used to only grunge up copper or brass or sterling, since liver of sulfur works great on those metals.Since most of my junk stash is old costume jewelry, most of it is plated. I've been experimenting with different methods of grunging it up. Normal patina methods don't work on those items and what works on one type of finish doesn't work on another.  I also wanted to get a texture to the pieces, not just a color change.

I would love to be a fly on the wall in Fanciful Devices' studio. She has it all down pat. She creates the most awesome grungy items! But that's ok, I am slowly figuring things out on my own. It's nice to have your own methods anyway. Makes you feel accomplished or some crap like that.

I'm working on some more glass slide pendants also. Honestly, the insect one in my shop now is my first! Previously, my soldering was always with metals and a torch. I'm new to this whole solder iron thing. It is fun! It's also nice to solder without bringing out the bottles of fuel and oxygen, solder bricks, torch parts, fire extinguisher, etc, etc,... and the big flames. lol

These pendants haven't been soldered yet, just copper tape wrapped. I have a lot of ephemera type papers in my scrapbooking stash, so it's nice to finally use them since I haven't been scrappin' in such a long time.  A lot of the things I previously bought when I was living and breathing scrap booking almost 24/7 are things I can use in jewelry! (now that I am living and breathing it almost 24/7)  Yay!

Under The Bus Again

It's Saturday and time for the next Inspiration Challenge from My Life Under The Bus!

Here is the inspiration photo and color palette Patty gave us to work with. 











Ok, we have reds, grays, blues.....

Drum-roll.... Here's my inspiration piece.

I started with the beads. Red, blue and gray. The red and gray beads are from old necklaces that I have taken apart. The gold spacer beads are from my "gently used" stash also.

The blue beads are lovely detailed acrylic beads that I sell in my supply shop, Sweet Georgia Beads.

 

The compass pendant is from my up-cycling stash also. It looks like the gold part is all one piece, with the colors filled in. It's very cool and unique. The loop had broken off, so I drilled holes in the top to hang it from.

I added a pretty peanut shaped chain. (again, used)

I really do love up-cycling and reworking old parts and broken jewelery.  It's the best way to get truly unique pieces.

So that's that! Please do leave a comment and if you would like, follow me :D

New Stuffs

I got in a little pack of stuff today. Looks like fun! I got it from this seller on Etsy. He mainly sells photographs, but has a few junk items too.

There are sooooo many things I want to order, but I need some sales first!

Speaking of things I want, here are a few goodies on Etsy that are actually NOT supplies.

I love this laptop bag! I play the guitar and its just such coolness! It can be found at kavelzrd's shop.

A lovely brass tea set! It is available at thetinyteapot.

I wanted this tea set, but it sold. :(
It was at PrettyDarnCute's shop.

And check this out! It's cool, but I don't have $12K.

It's available here. Anyone want to buy it for me? *Grin*

So in case you haven't noticed the theme here, I love guitars and tiny tea sets. I try to play guitar but I am not so good at it. Right now my fingers are sore because I went for a while without playing so now I have to work on my calluses once again. Uggh. Sure wish I would not go for so long. I would be able to play  better AND my calluses would not peel off and cause pain when I play.


So what do you like to collect and/or do besides your crafting?

A Few Weekend Things

This past weekend was pretty productive. I managed to create 4 necklaces and work on a few more things.
The Dragon Pendant and the chain in this necklace were both from my stuff stash- previously loved stuff.  I added the freshwater pearls. I thought of cleaning the chain before adding it, but I just love the look of vintage-y grungy stuff!

 This necklace was also made of all previously loved components. Bits and bobs of old jewelry, random beads and the lovely rose.

I have never really made wedding type jewelry.  When I completed it, I thought, hey, this would be perfect for a wedding! When my daughter came over later she said the same thing before I said anything. I had gardenias in my wedding and she was like "Oh, that would have been perfect for you to have worn at your wedding!" Coool :D

This necklace was a good bit of work. I started with the cool charm. It was a silvery color, so I bronzed it and then coated it in Renaissance wax to seal it. I used carnelian rounds, wood ovals and gorgeous black quartz. I decided to make the back from Recycled Sari Silk. I hand stitched around the edge and made a clasp for it, which hooks into a loop I made in the silk. It was still missing something. I thought about what the pendant meant, then remembered I had just purchased some word charms. I was sure hoping to see courage when I found the pack and YES! One that said courageous.

The 4th necklace I created I can't show just yet. It is for the  My Life Under The Bus Inspiration Challenge this week. Last week I waited too long and got busy and didn't get my inspiration piece made. :( This week I wanted to make sure I got it completed, so I went ahead and did it last night :D Yay! These challenges are really fun! Basically she gives us a picture and color palette to work with and we create from there. Here is this weeks inspiration pics:

I'll be posting the piece I created on Saturday for the "reveal."