Ten Things About August for Mary

 My friend Mary sends out Mary Mail with all kinds of fun things she's done and photos and fun videos!  I so love getting it!  Today Mary asked us to send her our top ten things about August.  Normally I'd be wishing we could just skip August, because I'm not a fan of heat.  However, this month has been extraordinary!  Thanks to Mary, I'm documenting it so I'll never hope to skip August again.  Thanks Mary!

Top Ten Things About August

1. It was like Christmas!  I won 2 blog giveaways and received 10 charms from a swap, AND just read I came in second in a contest to design a menu for a local coffee shop and won a $20 gift certificate!

2. I got invited to enter a national gift wrapping contest by a PR person for 3M who saw a wrapping paper sculpture project I did last year. (I'm sure hundreds of folks were invited)

3. Kneaders opened a restaurant near us!  Oh my heck, the chocolate dome dessert is to die for!

4. I made a see-through mosaic that hangs in a window and I love it!  I love mosaics!

5. I got invited to join three dark themed Etsy shop owner groups.

6. I entered a challenge piece in a Smeared and Smudged challenge. (Pictured above) It's a Warholesque Edgar Alan Poe.

7. I was asked to be on a design team called Poison Peas Please.

8. Several of my Cool2Craft web duties were eliminated when my fearless leader streamlined that site, but she wants to pay me the same, so now I'm being paid for my craft projects, which is what she'd planned to do as soon as it was possible!  Yea!  Tiffany rocks!

9. I found colored metallic pastes that dry completely!  They work like Rub-N-Buff, which only comes in gold and patina, but is permanent when it dries.  Eee!  I ordered them yesterday!

10. My kidlets and I had a pirate party!  Any chance to wear a pirate hat and make cardboard treasure chests is gold!  Arrrrgh!

Sketch Challange

I am so loving the Challenger Group at Smeared and Smudged!  This was my entry for a Poe themed sketchy challenge.  Here is the sketch design.  The sketches are proposed as springboards and don't have to be interpreted literally, but I loved this composition so I went with it. 

I used some of my favorite papers and a digital stamp of Poe from Smeared Ink.
I love using tissue boxes in art!  They don't always read well in photos, but the green horizontal strips are from a metallic finish box.  The green dot is actually holographic.   Below are two pendants made with metallic finish tissue boxes.  Click here for a better look and my tutorial for making a cardboard tissue box pendant.,  I'm looking forward to making something with the holographic card board!

Blessings,
Candace

Wordless Wednesday - The Parade Crown

Wordless Wednesday with Aquariann
Wordless Wednesday with Create with Joy

Crown Zero - The Beginning

This was my very first crown.  I made it 4 years ago.  I'm currently working on my fourth - the Pink Crown.  This post was written for a challenge blog that I used to have.  I'm reposting here because I'm closing the old one down and this seems to be the only post that still gets comments.  Enjoy!

This is my Crown.  I am High Priestess of Dark Whimsy, Mistress of Delicious Mischief!  It's a wire frame with ceramic, polymer clay and glass bead accents.

Check out the purple coffee cup with a blue jewel and meandering wire steam.  The cookies and skulls are also polymer clay.

 

Hey that cookie has a bite out of it!  I used pearl and crystal beads from my grandmother's broken jewelry collection.  She was an artist, too.

Chocolate frosted doughnut with sprinkles!  Bonus!

The base is wrapped in strips of valour.

This was a labor of love...crazy, warped, art love!

What are you queen of?  What would your crown look like?  Use you imagination and make it fabulous!

Roni's Halloween Charm Swap

Here is part two of Roni's charm swap - The Halloween Charm Swap!  Above are the handmade earthenware coffin bead charms that I made for the swap, and look what I received!  Yea!  I love them all!

From right to left:

Roni of Ink Stains (our gracious host) - Shrink plastic Ouija board!  How cute is that!

Olga Brock - Adorable skull bead charm!

Robin of Once Upon A Pink Moon - This one blew me away!  It's a tiny spell book with actual pages!  I opened it to show you, but it ties closed to wear as a charm.

Julie Case - A fabulous glittery bottle cap spider charm!

Caroline of Stampings and Inklings Blog - It's a shrink plastic skeleton with a key!  I just love it!

It was so much fun!  It was like Christmas here - getting all the lovely charms in the mail!  I would so do this again!

Blessings,

Candace

Charm Swap by Roni at Ink Stains

I recently participated in a charm swap for the first time and it was so exciting!  Roni of Ink Stains hosted it.  We got to choose a general charm theme and a Halloween theme so I did both!

I made 5 of the above charms with handmade polymer clay cane (one of my first) and these are the charms I received.  I'm so excited about these!  They are all wonderful!
From left to right, they were made by: Esther of Siesta Scraps Blog - Pink glitter!  I love it!
Brenda aka Stringbean 95 - Crocheted square of fabulosity!
Roni of InkStains - A vintage photo charm with yellow bead flower and bead leaves!  So lovely!
Julie Case - darling glittery bottlecap charm!
Sandie - Sweet hope charm!  Love it!
Thank you, Roni for hosting these swaps!  I'll post the Halloween charms tomorrow!
Blessings,
Candace

Tiny Cake and Tea Set

I did a little feature on Lindsay Pastore of PleydeyDollhouse Miniatures a while back.  Her miniature furniture is so lovely!  After the feature, Lindsay sent me a fabulous mini table!

I was so inspired by Lindsay's gorgeous gift that I made her a tiny cake and tea set from polymer clay!  Thank you, Lindsay for your gift and inspirations!
You can find Lindsay's work here.
I'm sharing this project on Craft-O-Maniac's Monday Blog Party