French Gothic arch in progress

A few days ago I started working on a Gothic arch piece, which will feature French proverbs with their English equivalents (which sometimes, of course, is not a word-by-word translation).

I started with cutting out the shapes - a manila folder became the 4-panel base; I painted the edges with gesso and then with pearly champagne acrylic with some gold accents. The backgrounds for each panel are cut out from the Chateau en Lavender stack I acquired during a recent trip to Joann's.

Then I heat-embossed some more golden accents and dyed the proverbs in strong tea to make them look historic. Ah, there is also some plant life stamped faintly in the background. I just love when the details are layered and you can discover some surprises when looking at the piece.

A few more steps to accomplish - adding some more details (I'm thinking flowers, burlap, a little bit of metal, maybe lace) and the Gothic arch will be ready for its French-loving recipient!

recycling musically in January

In January a few music-related items based on recycled materials have passed through my craft table. The most recent one is a result of a find that happened on a cold and windy morning, when on the way home I spotted an old electric organ by the dumpster. The instrument, beautiful as it must have been in the days of its glory, looked broken and damaged beyond repair... so I allowed myself to partake of it as well. I still felt like a vulture yanking off parts of a carcass (by the way - did you know that vultures have such strong stomach acids that they can eat putrid meat, which potentially includes anthrax and botulinum, and it won't hurt them? What's more, they can also use their stomach content as a weapon, vomiting a defensive projectile at the enemy. Gross, but interesting.)

Back to my find... the most exciting key was "vox humana" - human voice", which I used incorporated into a necklace. I'm no jewelry expert, so it's not a perfect piece, but in my opinion it qualifies as "good enough" :)

Another musical craft was a little album made from an old cassette tape. I had to find one I wasn't emotionally attached to, because I still occasionally play some old cassettes I dragged here from Poland.

And then I converted the box from the cassette into a little stand for inspiring Scriptures and other thoughts:

Yay for recycling!

a new collectionary for the new year

After a flurry of Sunday School crafts that stormed through my craft table, the time has come to focus on some other items. I've started with the first pages of the new collectionary which will travel with us to Israel. I always write a few intro pages after the dates have been settled, tickets purchased etc.

I had to do it by the end of December so that I could use the expression "L'shanah haba'ah birushalaim" - Next year in Jerusalem :)

The pages include a bunch of pictures from travel magazines, a teabag wrapper (since the Mount of Olives theme matches perfectly), a credit card flier (that;s the hat image), miscellaneous scraps and a printout of the itinerary. Can't wait to go - but then there is so much to do before it happens!