Greeting Cards
One day, while visiting a friend, she showed me some jewelry she had been given by her friend. As I started looking through the loved but old jewelry, I spotted a necklace loaded with metal hearts in a combination of metals. I brought the necklace home and deconstructed it enjoying each little piece of jewelry. A few hours later, after cutting some blank fold over cards, I glued the art and traced around them loosely with metallic sharpies. Those cards were the cutest.
Blue Jean Purse
As with all things that you love, it is hard to let go and so is the case with an old pair of jeans. Instead of donating these jeans, I planned the little purse, lining the inside with a coordinating color of fabric and then, once assembled, created the purse strap out of leftover mismatched glass beads along with some little beaded tassels. I love recycling old jeans and hope to make some other purses. I look forward to sharing these with you.
Sharpies and Alcoh
Sharpies and Alcohol
One of my favorite little projects has been sharpies and alcohol. They mimic watercolors with their transparent and bright colors. It is very similar to using alcohol inks but I feel it is a lot more flexible in its color range. Simply use a ceramic tile and add your color using sharpies. After applying the sharpie color, add drops of 90% alcohol and watch your creation come together. Once it is dry, you will want to protect it by spraying a clear coat over it.
Garden Plate Flowers
Another fun project I happened on quite by accident was my Garden Plate Flowers. One day, while out antique and junk store shopping, I found a place selling an amazing collection of antique plates, each with beautiful unique designs – some of the plates were commemorating a church, and then, others were identifying the personalities of a state. The one above was a plate from the golden gate bridge – so beautiful. I bought the plates, assembled them in themes and colors. Drilling holes in them and attaching to a copper pipe and then placing in gardens. The plates are stunning and hold up through cold and hot weather.
Original Art by Lis Couser 