Happy Ornament Thursday!  This month’s Ornament Thursday theme is Insectica.  The next word that comes to mind is “bug.”  Bug.  Cute as a bug.  Bugs Bunny.  Bug, in a rug.  Bed Bugs.  It’s buggy out.  Snug as a bug.  Bug bite.  Don’t bug me.   Bug off. Love bug. Did I miss any?  Leave a comment if you think of one. 

Once upon a time, I was a bug.  It was my nickname when I was little…thanks to my dad.  My older sister was Daisy Duke, just in case you were wondering (she was hooked on the Dukes of Hazard). When I think about it, I’ve had quite a lot of encounters with insects and bugs.  It started in 3rd grade when I talked Grandpa into buying me a toy at K-Mart that was basically a small playground for bugs in a clear plastic dome…..dare I say Flea Circus.  99% positive I tried being a farmer of an ant farm.  I still miss the lightning bugs every summer.  One of my favorite memories was roller-blading through our river walk back home on a hot summer night with all the lighting bugs twinkling around us.  Very magical.  In college I took Entomology 309, a fabulously fun class with Chris Oseto (one of the best teachers on the planet).   This led to casting bees and beetles in bronze and silver in our spare time over at the metals studio.  Why?  Because we could.  (Note:  the beetles were long gone before we got to them—no beetles were hurt in the process)  I can remember three different bug boxes of mine.  Do kids collect bugs anymore?  I’m feeling a little dusty.  Poor bugs.

This month’s buggy ornament offering comes from the Candie and Jean (aka my mom) archives again.  My mom did the crazy painting of the bugs like this….

then I added texture and details with colored pencil, some sterling antennae and a little tie tack pin back like this….. 

Voila!  Cute as a bug…..on your collar! 

50 Nifty Beaded Cards has a few designs by Candie Cooper in it.  😉  This Straight From the Heart card is one of them—Here’s a link to the free project featured in Lark’s new newsletter.  Looks like their newsletter is going to be loaded with fun inspirations and free projects each month.  Sign up for it here!

More scoop on the beaded card book here…  After all, everyone loves to get a card–especially a beady one!

Triple Take copyright, DRG/Simply Beads Magazine

The new Simply Beads is out!  Here are the Triple Take Girl’s projects for this month.  We used Fire Mountain Gems shell beads and charms.  Katie made the bracelet and earring set, Margot made the cell phone holder and I made the mirror (which I bought at the thrift store for 50 cents and revamped, yay!  See the Artgirlz charmz?).  Get your free instructions for the projects here. 

It’s raining today and I’m off to Hong Kong for some serious supply shopping.  Better wear my galoshers!  Have a great weekend… 🙂

Rocker and I got up super early today—we’ve been batch’n it the past few days while Botch is in…well, come to think of it, I have no idea what town Butch is in!  That’s nice.  I can’t keep it all straight.  Anywho, we made some cinnamon toast and whipped up a bookmark while we nibbled.  Ok, Rocker didn’t eat cinnamon toast…but he wanted to!  He is such a good assistant.  Don’t you think he needs an apron?

I have a fetish for bookmarks and ribbons really do make the perfect bookmark.  They are pretty and flat—two very important bookmark qualities.  So many wonderful bookmarks round the craft-o-sphere.   Remember Martha’s where she wove ribbon through ribbon?  Yum.  I’d love to make about 50 more of these—-I have enough ribbon to make 3,000 probably.   

ORNAMENTEA’s bird charms….

This is a great weekend craft and a perfect gift for your favorite reader.  Can’t believe it’s Friday already! 

Happy Ornament Thursday!  This month’s theme celebrates all the Mom’s out there.  They bring us into this world, nurture and help us grow into the people we are today.  In a sense, we kind of are their ornaments.

I grew up in a very crafty and creative home.  My mom started taking painting classes one night a week shortly after I was born….and she hasn’t stopped since (28.9999 years later).  When I lived back home, we did a lot of crafty collaborations and so I thought this month’s theme was the perfect time to share one of them.

I found these little wooden torso-looking shapes in the wood section at the craft store—perfect for people pins.  My mom’s the one with the steady hand so she set to work painting different faces and legs with ruffle-y anklet socks (remember those?).  In the mean time, I’d make a couple of cups of tea and we’d work around the island in the kitchen.  I would drill and assemble the spindle legs, which by the way are miniature balusters and set eyelet screws in the torsos to hang the legs from.  We wanted real vintage fabric for the dresses and she had the idea to use Mod Podge for that.  Genius!  Then she painted arms and a collar right onto the fabric.  I’m pretty sure we sealed them with an acrylic varnish too.

We’ve done many collaborations over the years.  I won’t pretend like we haven’t  butt heads a couple of times in the process (after all, according to the Ch!nese Zodiac we are both sheep. 😉  We are so opposite, yet still cut from the same cloth—the true beauty of mother and daughter relationships.

Ornament Thursday is coming soon to a blog near you!  May’s theme celebrates all the Moms!  This is a little teaser of my project or rather "OUR" project.  Recognize it, Mom? 

Do you have a craft that celebrates motherhood?  It would be cool if you leave a link to your blog in the comment section so we can see.  I’m also curious what you’re planning to do for your mom.  Baking cookies?  Something crafty?  Flowers? 

P.S. Mother’s Day is Sunday, May 11th.

I mentioned it was back to school on Tuesday, but I wasn’t expecting to be as tired as I’ve been when I get home!  I’ve been showing the high school kids how to make wire wrapped, found object pendants like this:

Pretty simple, but they only have 30 minutes per class.  Can you believe that?!?!?  As soon as you get into creating, you have to stop.  I budgeted two days, but I’m going back today, because they are not finished. 

I showed them how to hammer and texture the wire and I think they really liked that.  We’re using 16-18 g. copper for the frames and 20-26g. for the wrapping and dangles. They started by drawing their "plan" like this:

We all know what wire looks like when you try to un-wrap it and start again, so they had to have a solid plan before the copper was passed out. 

On the second day, they brought in more found objects.  There’s definitely not enough of me to run around and help the 22! students, but the pieces are looking good.  That’s kids for you.  They are fearless in their creative process.