Autumn in July

Yes it is Autumn in July.  Many new eye-catching autumn colors to choose from this year.  I decided to spend my Summer in Autumn!  I love making these beautiful pumpkins!  Their colors are so rich they make me want to curl up under a cozy blanket in front of a fire!  A girl can dream can't she?

www.etsy.com/shop/PumpkinheadStudio

Abundance of Pumpkinheads!

I LOVE Autumn!  The only problem is we live in Scottsdale, Arizona!  Not exactly known for our beautiful fall colors....unless of course we take a day trip up north (on my To Do list).  

What's an Autumn girl to do when there are no visible signs of Autumn's Glory out her window!  Well, I'll tell you!  She makes PUMPKINS!!!!

This is just a sample of my PUMPKINS!  These and many more are available in my Etsy shop "PUMPKINHEADSTUDIO".  Come in for a visit!

www.etsy.com/shop/PumpkinheadStudio

WOW!  I'm such a bad blogger!  Sorry I haven't checked in for so long!  So I have a lot to catch up on.  I've been super busy with projects, building a house and new studio (I'll post on that when I have all the photos organized) but today I wanted to share a project I made for my Great Nephew, Caden!

Caden loves pirates and maps and adventures, like his Dad.  I wanted to create something for him that he could play with now but keep in his room, even as he grows older.  So I created this...

I had a (embarrassed to say) large pile of old jeans.  You know the "I can do something with that" kind of pile.  So I started out by cutting each of the states (following a pattern I bought off Etsy from CarolinaSquirrell) being careful to highlight special features, such as pockets or embroidery, etc.   See next photo, IL has a pocket with a PEACE sign on it!  How fun this was!

My next step was to connect all the states and attach them to a large piece of duct cloth (or is it duck?)  Double faced, iron on interfacing worked perfect for this step!  I just needed to make sure that there was enough overlap of the states to keep them from separating.  Some states were thicker than others so this was a bit of a challenge but it worked out.   I then outlined each state with a zig zag stitch being sure to use a heavy needle in my machine.

I even included Alaska and Hawaii in the bottom corner!   I wanted to have this large and soft enough that he could lay it on the floor, or drape over his bed, but I also wanted to give him the ability to hang it on the wall one day so I added plenty of grommets along the top edge.

Finally, because Caden is a little pirate and lives in Virginia, I found a cute pirate boy patch and attached it to his home state.  I had a bunch of really cute pirate flag charms (left over from my invitation making days) and thought these would be a perfect way for him to track all the states he has explored!  I tied a little red string to 50 charms and attached a little safety pin to them.  I asked Caden's mom for a list of all the states he has visited and went ahead and "pinned" those states, sending a baggie of remaining charms to his mom (he's was only 4 after all).

This was such a fun project for me to make, not just because it was for Caden, but in general.  I can imagine it made from anything; recycled T shirts would be really cute.   I love the idea of reusing rather than buying new.  Like I always say, "It's not always what it is.  Sometimes it's what it can be"

2014 PUMPKIN HARVEST IS IN!

 

Beautiful velvet pumpkins in a wide array of rich color have arrived from the "silver patch".   I love these fanciful fairytale pumpkins!  You will too!  Visit my Etsy shop to see all the luscious pumpkins!

The Three Rs at Work

We recently remodeled our master bath (finally).  I didn't like that room because it was just bland in color, had only one sink and had a closet in there (steamed the clothes with each shower!)  Anyway, I digress.  The one good thing about that bath was the mirror hanging over the sink.  It looked like it had been hanging there since the house was built.

So 10 years after we moved into our home we tore the master bath apart and created a new one (which I love!) Here's the thing... like I said, I liked the mirror and wanted to move it to another room in the house, but it had years and years of gunk built up on it so a renewal was required.

Here's what I did.....

First I had to clean it.  I used a mild soap in a bowl of water and a soft toothbrush.  Little by little I scrubbed away the years of gunk.  In some areas the leaf was completely rubbed off but that's ok, I can fix that.

Once I had the gunk off, I painted the whole thing gold with Martha Stewart's Gold Leaf Paint, purchased at Michaels.

I could have left it at that, it was quite beautiful, but my home really isn't a Gold Leaf kind of home.  I wanted to age it a bit.  So I made a simple wash with black acrylic paint and water.  Using a sponge, I dabbed the wash on and gently wiped it off the raised surfaces with a soft cloth.

I had a little tube of silver leaf paste so I rubbed a bit of that on in various spots so it wouldn't look uniform but naturally aged.  I didn't seal this because I'm ok with it getting old and aged again, but you could seal it with a brush on or spray on sealant.

I love the finished project and it is now hanging by the front door over a sideboard table!  Beautiful!

Pumpkin Fun!

Pumpkin, pumpkin, who has the pumpkin?  I do!  I'm feeling Autumn coming on (or what we get of Autumn in Scottsdale AZ).  To me that means temps drop under 100 and an occasional rainy day but most of all I can tell by the sky.  It grows a deeper shade of blue as the cooler season comes around.

Anyway, I've strayed from my original thought of pumpkins.  Easy to do since I've been locked up in the "studio" for days making these wonderful little treasures!

Velvet pumpkins have always been a favorite of mine.  In fact I keep some of them displayed in my home year around!   I wanted to do something a bit different with my pumpkins.

These beautiful pumpkins were harvested from the silver patch.  They are filled with magic beans, silky soft fluff, fantasies and fairytales!

They are available in my Etsy shop while they last!

An Aqua Kind of Day

Recently we got away to Monterey for a long weekend.  It was so wonderful.  Leaving 113 degree Arizona days for 65 degree Monterey days was Heavenly!  My new batch of soldered bottles remind me of that Heavenly escape!

I mixed things up a bit with this batch of bottles.  While watching TV one evening, I turned to Hubby and said "I wonder, why I don't embellish my art more.  I mean, look around our home, I embellish everything!"  I am so happy I had that thought because I think adding the jewelry to these bottles really makes them beautiful!

These bottles, and more, are now available in my Etsy shop.

Have a beautiful, aqua kind of day!