My Santos doll – completed!

I finished her!!! My first Santos doll! A few months ago I signed up for Jennifer Rizzo’s class to learn to make Santos Dolls. 

Prior to this I hadn’t heard much about Santos Dolls, but I had seen a few here and there in antique shops and around the web. I am intrigued by them. When I saw the class advertised, I couldn’t wait to sign up and learn how to make them myself.

It took me a little bit to gather the supplies… the craft stores that I go to (Michaels and Craft Warehouse) did not have the three main ingredients… paper mache eggs, paper mache mannequin, or paperclay. It took some searching online to find the eggs and the right size mannequins. I was really surprised at that. Creative Paperclay was readily available online. When I finally found them,  I accidently ordered 24 eggs, heeheehee!


Jennifer did a really good job of walking us through sculpting the face. She went step-by-step and broke down each part of the face into it’s very simplest form. Even though my face is a ‘bit’ off, I felt successful because it is actually a face and not some weirdly deformed mass of clay.

Through this class I also found the courage to experiment with mixing my acrylic paints to create the exact color I wanted for skin tones and the dress. Speaking of the dress, the first layer is book pages and the second layer is 7 Gypsies tissue paper. They I made a glaze of the dress color to go over it. I’ll be trying the cage design next.

The necklace features a piece from my molton lava stash. More about that here. I felt the little cross was perfect in size and concept given the religious connotation of the doll. 

Now that she is finished, I’ve brought her out of my studio. She looks lovely in my living room. I am excited to start the next doll. Perhaps I’ll create a series – designed around the major holidays or seasons.

Thanks for stopping by to take a peek!

Have a great day!
Desiree

Susan’s calendar–part 3 and a beach trip!

This is the third part post about the calendar gift I made for my friend Susan. Part one features January through April and part two shows May through August.

Take a look at September, October, November, and December:

  

  

Basically I used Teresa Collins’ Vintage Finds collection with additional embellishments as noted:

September – Tim Holtz pen nib, 7 Gypsies rubon
October – Jolee’s Boutique spider web, Stampin’ Up! stamps, Tim Holtz bottle, black glitter
November – Stampin’ Up! stamps and ribbon
December – reindeer charm, white bottle brush, gems that I painted red with alcohol inks

When the year is over, Susan can take all the tags off of the hanger and put them together with a ribbon or ring. She could add photos or journaling to the backs and have a little album for the year. the frame could then be used to hang other tags or photos or whatever.

Friday, my friend, Jennifer, and her daughter, Kelsie, invited Emily, Charlotte, and me to an overnight stay at Rockaway Beach, Oregon. We stayed at the Beacon Street Cottage.



It is SO cute, filled with retro fun including a record player with lots of albums from the 60s, 70s, and 80s. I saw a few that I had owned as a teenager!

We stopped in this fun shop called The Frugal Crow. More vintage goodness!!! I bought an old globe, a vintage push toy for Charlotte, and a shirt for Em. A couple doors down, we picked up a bunch of saltwater taffy. It was too stormy to spend more than a few minutes on the beach.

It was a fun impromptu trip. What did you do last time you took an unplanned getaway?

Thanks for visiting!
Desiree

Susan’s calendar–part 2

I made this calendar for my friend Susan for Christmas. Read the first part here including the tags for January, February, March, and April.

Here is May through August…

  

  

The Teresa Collins Vintage Finds collection is the basis for all of the tags. Additional embellishments are as follows:

May – Zva Creative gems
June – KaiserCraft wood butterfly, ephemera
July – Stampin’ Up! patterned paper
August – Stampin’ Up! stamps, Tim Holtz crown, gold gem brad

Part three coming soon…

Thanks for visiting!
Desiree

Susan’s calendar–part one

I know, it’s February, and I am just giving my friend Susan her Christmas gift… She is such a patient friend!



Figuring out a gift for Susan was really hard for me this year. The past couple of years I’ve come up with an idea and then not finished it. In fact one of them is still sitting on my craft table 14 months later… I’m lame.

So an idea started percolating in my brain. I pulled out a bunch of Teresa Collins paper and embellishments that I had stashed away. And this cool wire hanging thingy was calling my name at Craft Warehouse – I just had to get it!

It took a while for the idea to gel until I decided on creating a calendar. Each of the tags is about 3.5 by 6.5 inches. I used chipboard that I had on hand. Each tag is covered with patterned paper from Teresa Collins’ Vintage Finds collection.

For the calendar, I found a 2013 one page calendar that I printed on Very Vanilla cardstock, trimmed down and mounted on black cardstock.

January through April are shown here…

 

 

Most embellishments are from the matching collection except as noted:

January – clock face and arrow by Tim Holtz, snowflake
February – white felt, lace tape, red gem brad, various stamps
March – word plaque by Melody Ross, Zva Creative gems
April – rosettes made with Die-namics die, sprayed with Mister Huey Overdue mist

Parts 2 and 3 coming soon…

Do you think it was worth the wait?

Thanks for visiting!
Desiree

Sprucing up for Valentine’s Day

Generally, I’m not a Valentine’s person. In the past I haven’t really been into the decorating thing, or really the giving of gifts (except for my girls), or making special treats. However, this year I feel different.

There are so many cute Valentine’s crafts that I’ve pinned on Pinterest. And I just had to try a few…

First, I saw this pin but instead of hanging my heart, I put it in a frame. It was a pitiful little gold frame at Goodwill. I painted it white with a little brown glazing to show off the design.

I used cardstock, tissue, patterned paper, music sheets, and book paper for the hearts. I sewed them down the middle on my sewing machine. The background is a piece of cardboard that I Painted white and then sprayed with a few different reds. I also painted a little brown in the grooves to make the texture stand out a little more.


I also picked up some letters At Joann’s to spell LOVE and painted and glittered them white. I was inspired by this pin. I wish that I had used a chunky glitter but I didn’t have any and didn’t think to buy some. Instead of red, I picked white because it would show up better on my mantel. I live in a rental and the fireplace wall is paneled.

I decorated a little bottle that I also picked up at Goodwill. I needed some additional items to fill up my mantel. I used some scrap paper, ribbon and a little heart shaped button. It’s a little cutie.
Luckily, I also had several white candles and two larger frames. Last year I made a “Be mine” banner in a class at Art Soiree. Overall, I think that I was able to pull off this Valentine’s décor bit. Here’s the mantel…



And here is a large frame that I hang little goodies from. The frame is quite large, about 4’ by 3’ and it’s about 5” thick. I put this together in another Art Soiree class. We painted and distressed the frame and hung wire from side to side. We get together often to create new art bits to hang in the frame. for February I pulled paper out of my stash and ideas out of my head and any Valentine’s ephemera I could find. This photo doesn’t do it justice.



Are a lover of Valentine’s Day? Do you decorate and go all out or keep it low key?

I entered the CSI Valentine's themed decor challenge. Go check it out!



Happy Valentine’s!
Desiree

Pretty little candle

This started out as a Christmas candle. Frosted glass with a bright red Christmas tree on it. Cute, but doesn’t really match my décor. I thought about giving it to Goodwill, and it even made it to the donation bag a few times. My lovely little Charlotte likes to play in the hall closet where I keep the donation bag and that is how this candle kept finding it’s way back into the house. It must have really wanted to stay here. And if it was going to stay, then it needed a redo!

I cut a piece of music paper to fit then tore the edges. I sprayed it with water and added a little color with sprays and ink and watercolors. After it dried, I sponged the edges with Vintage Photo Distress Ink. Before adhering it to the candle I scraped the red tree off as much as I could.

To embellish, I tied a piece of Baja Breeze seam binding and tucked in a key that I’ve had around for sometime.

As long as I was sprucing up the candle I thought I would fix up this Starbuck’s Frappuccino bottle Emily saved for me. I mixed ModPodge and light blue paint and put on two good coats. While still wet, I covered with glitter.

The bird is painted and stamped and sponged. Then I added a vintage button, a ribbon rose and a pearl. And a little bit of twine around the top. Pretty!

Now these lovelies are sitting on top of my escritoire next to
a light blue vase filled with dried Hydrangeas.

Have you ever rescued one of your own Goodwill donations?

Thanks for visiting!
Desiree