Silver Bella Vendor Fair

Warning, eye candy overload. Friday night at Silver Bella involved wearing our dashing aprons, getting our hands stamped by Teresa's son and husband, and large amounts of drooling. I couldn't even get past the first vendor, Vintage by Crystal, without purchasing. I have a few of her tiny creations. This time I brought home a small girl on the back of Lucky, Santa's newest reindeer- a rescued vintage ornament. Here is a small part of Crystal's booth.

I wish I could remember who this kind lady was, she had some very pretty old paper and cotton santas! (Thank you to Wanda, who reminded me this booth belongs to Jocelyn of the Painted Fern!)
Annalise of Sugar*Sugar's houses were all sold instantly- aren't they gorgeous!

A crown from Whim & Fancy. She will hopefully have her reindeer kits up soon in her etsy shoppe.

Bit's and pieces from the likes of Raised In Cotton, Curiousofa, and more...

This pretty shop Willow Nest, needs to be begged up to open up an online source! I found many pretty baubles, especially a new favorite (mercury beads).

A snap from Jenni Bowlin's booth

Jennifer Murphy (with the youngun) and her Mother, also a bear maker.

Here Kari Ramstrom (ArtsyMama) is seeking treasures from Heather of Speckled Egg (I found a few treasures myself)

Needless to say I have hoarded a massive amount of sparkly bits and millinery, sprinkled with vintage paper and a little pink birdy from this lovely lady.
I hope to post more on my classes soon, but I am trying to finish a few of the more detailed projects to share with you also!

My new toys

Brand new lines of Martha at the big M's. LOTS of new glitter sets, just waiting to be collected and sprinkled. My must-take-home set for the day is her Vintage Leaf Glitter. It's a flat chunky glitter, similar to gold leafing, but in ever so many sparkly colors! I also like the new packaging with the molded trays that the tubes lie in, easier to pull out without the others all rolling around.

I'll go back next week for some of the tinsel glitter (I got the Christmas set of that last year) or the new irradescent colors. She also has flocking sets and microbead sets (and lots of new punches).

Just thought you might need some enabling inspiring.

Round Flower tutorial

I had posted this pink posy earlier on Scrapshare, and now I'm delighted to present my first blog tutorial! Materials need: two or three different papers (I used scrapping papers here- use what you love!), leaves (with or without wire), paper flower, brad, stamen (the white thingies with the pearly ends), glitter, glue. Circle cutter and paper piercing tools also.

Start by cutting three different size circles. Mine are 3, 2&1/2, and 2 inches.

Next, roll up the sides with your fingers (what, you didn't really think I had wings, did you?). This will be very uneven. If you don't like the rolled look, you could also tear very near the edge to give the circle some texture, or do nothing at all!

Here are all my circles rolled up.

Layer the circles, largest to smallest, and use your piercing tool (or a needle) to puncture the center.

Push the brad through the paper flower, then through all the circles. You may want to loosely fold back the brad ends to help the flower lay flat while you apply the glitter. Don't press them all the way yet.

Using whatever technique you prefer, apply glue to the rolled up portions of the circles (here I chose only to do the smallest and largest circles) and to the paper flower. Then sprinkle on your glitter! (or use Stickles)

Lastly, slightly lift a petal of the paper flower and put on a dollop of glue. Slide your stamen under the petal, and under the brad (this is why you left it a bit loose). Then tighten the brad completely. You could also do this step before you glitter, if you also want to apply the glitter to the stamen.

Depending on what type of leaf you are using, apply to the backside of the posy. On my pink posy I used a wired millinery leaf, wrapping the wires around the brad shank to hold it on. For the yellow flower, I simply used glue dots to apply the leafs (from Prima)

Voila! Use your pretty creation in your scrapbooks, collage works, home decor, and enjoy!

Sugar Shoppe

I'm hoping to add more basic paper elements to the shoppe soon. Items that can be used for your own crafting. I've started with one set of SugarCubes (basic crepe rosettes). This particular set is Marzipan. You can add collage images, glitter, sparkle, buttons, ribbon, and all little fun sorts of items to them, then they can be added to collages, scrapbooks, mixed media, altered journals, banners....

You may have noticed some of the new sections I've added to my shoppe (waiting to be filled). My thoughts on SpunSugar include all sorts of trims, like the vintage red and white ribbon there now, and also I'm experimenting with dyeing both seam bindings and crepe streamers.

Raw Sugar will be small kits most likely with a few SugarCubes, some seam binding, and some Swarovski crystals all in coordinating themes.

Sugar Rush is to be larger kits including those above, plus some vintage images, fancy papers. I have so many ideas floating around my head, but most of them will have to take place after the holidays.