Mixed Media Tags

Merry Christmas to all!

My little gift you you is a bit of holiday inspiration, starting with a snapguide on how I made these little treasures for Graphic 45!

Check out How to Make Mixed Media Christmas Gift Tags by Rhea Freitag on Snapguide.

The vintage tinsel I have gives these the perfect texture for the season.  And the color palate is right on too!

I also like the sweet little Christmas charms that I used.  I have had them on hand forever and my new motto is to use what I have! (even the really good stuff!!!)

Christmas is just not the same without lots of glitter, so I was sure to include a bit of that medium to set my gift tags a sparkling. 

I was excited to choose a different tag for each gift I wrapped up this year!  

I just love how they look all piled up.  P.S. An assembly line made quick work of this project, don't be daunted!

I hope this post and the snapguide leave you inspired to take a mixed media approach to your holiday gift giving this year. 

Merry Christmas!

Rhea

Travel Junk Book

I just had to make another great junk book with a ton of great stuff from Alpha Stamps.  The response to my last one included many requests as to how to put on of these together, so here is a tutorial and video tour. The new worn cover by Tim Holtz, allowed for a super simple version of this book, which I created on one Sunday morning.  Yes, indeed, you heard that right, I made this in a morning craft session...from start to finish.

This time I chose to got with a travel theme for my book.  I chose a few charms and talisman to give my book a bit of movement and soul.  I love the capsule where there is a postal stamp tucked inside.  I also love the compass rose and the Eiffel Tower, great nods to the theme. 

In this version of my junk book I used three different colors of seam binding instead of dying my own silk ribbon.  This took off a lot of time and mess off the project and still provided a great result with varying color.  

Inside I used all kids of fun stuff.  I would go through my packages of stuff in my stash, choose a pile of ephemera, and then flip through and apply everything I chose from that selection.  

Here is just a tiny sample of what lies inside.  Lots of pockets, bits of tape, things tucked inside and tons of postal goodness.  I just adore the postal theme.  I seriously can't get enough.

Stay tuned.  Later this week I will be posting a video tour of this book along with a photo tutorial on how to assemble.

Cheers, 

Rhea

Altered Keys and Boho Chic

In order to keep my crafty mojo going, I recently signed up for two swaps in my Art Charms group.  The first one I am going to show off is for the Altered Keys swap.  I just love keys, and love to alter things, so this swap was perfect for me. 



The hardest part of this swap was deciding which keys I could part with.  For some reason, I just love them.  Perhaps it is the symbolism of new opportunity and success that attracts me to these random objects. 



I started off by adding a nice blue patina to all of my keys.  It is almost hard to see due to all the crazy embellishments.  On this one I layered filigree, a charm I made and then the bottom was wrapped in copper wire and crystals.



This is another one of my favorites.  I think it is the sentiment that I need to remember from time to time!



I love the smashed button on this one. I got the idea to do smash the buttons from seeing some awesome charms on Pinterest.  I had a bunch of old metal buttons that I had patina'd a long time ago.  I removed the shank and then pounded it flat before attaching it to my key.  The heart embellishment is a broken charm from the next project. 



These charms are for the Boho Chic swap.  Now, at first I did not think I was going to join up, but after seeing some ideas online and within my group (Thanks Peg!) I totally jumped on board.  I hope that they fit the theme.  I started with the Chinese heart charms that I just found at a local scrapbook show.  They were brass in color, but I changed that with the help of the Vintaj patinas.  I thought this color palate helped to carry out the intended theme. I then wrapped copper wire around the top.  This added texture and also took away from the heart shape, which I actually like.  I tried to add another element in many other ways, but ended up deciding that simple was best and left them as is. 

I am looking forward to seeing the return on these very fun swaps.  Thanks as always for stopping by.

Cheers,

Rhea

Christmas Assemblage

I am amazed that I caught the holiday crafty bug as early as I did this year.  I think designing for Alpha Stamps really helped that along, since we have to get all the delicious eye candy ready for the crafty community.  Anyway, today I am going to show off (gasp) a holiday piece I made to show off all kinds of new Christmas charms that Leslie got in the shop.

I started with one of Tim Holtz's configuration boxes.  I really love these things!  You can change up the pattern of the box to suit your needs.  I chose to leave out a bunch of the smaller compartments to create a spot for a larger scene up top.  This gave me the perfect spot to showcase my Dresden Santa, deer, Santa sack and one of the new woodland trees.  These are really cool as they come white and you can color them however you want too.

I had an idea straight away to make some sort of Santa sack and have the charms spilling out.  Now I am not much of a "fabric-ey" person, but a crafty pal coached me.  Thanks Brittney!  I simply took a bit of her scrap fabric and stuffed it with some of that white fluffy stuff and tied it up.  I then manipulated it to get it to lean in a way that worked for me and got to gluing.  

Now my wise pal Brittney advised me that this may happen, but my sloppy crafting ways made this inevitable...lots of glue showed up on the fabric.  I simply covered up my mess with little bits of vintage mica snow. This subsequently added a bit of shimmer and a lot of texture, which I love.  

Here is a close up of the bottom compartments.  I am always on the search for tiny things.  The drum was found on a Christmas pick at a big box craft store.  The deer focal was scored in a giveaway I won last year.  I am happy to have found a great spot to show him off.  

Here is a shot so you can see how the outside of the box looks.  I covered it in paper from Tim Holtz that was colored with red stain.  I also used some really cute decorative tape to edge out the box.  To add more distress and depth copper guilders paste was buffed all over the piece.

I hope you all are embracing the upcoming holidays in your crafty world as well!

Cheers, 

Rhea

The charm of Ancient Egypt

My art charm group is currently running a swap with ancient Egypt as the theme.  I was intrigued by this idea as soon as I heard it was coming about.  I ran across similar cat beads late last year and immediately knew what I wanted to do for my charms. This idea has literally been rattling around in my brain for months. 

The Egyptian cat God Bast, is a symbol of protection, motherhood and fertility.  Cats were so revered in ancient Egypt, that they were often mummified.  I thought that the wings were a nice symbol for the transition to eternal life.  Plus, I think it just looks cute!  I also love the serious look on the cat's face.



The wings were silver and did not really go with the brass findings required for the project.  To attend to this, I altered them with a rusting product.  I also added an additional patina agent to one side of the wings.  You can see above that some of the charms are showing a bronze side and others have a bit more of an aged patina look.  Another cool aspect of these little guys is the movement.  The wings really spin if you flick them, fun. 



I hope the gals in the swap like them.  I always look forward to seeing the outcome of my art exchanges.  The past few I have participated in have assisted me in embellishing up a few great art projects.  I am grateful for the ability to share my work, while appreciating the work of others.  Stay tuned, I am sure someday I will have a cool project showing off all my ancient goodies.

Cheers! 

Handmade Holiday

Just a quick post to show off a couple of jewelry pieces I  have created today.  Last minute gifts for those who will appreciate such a token.

This necklace was inspired by a necklace I saw on Pinterest.  That site is so much fun!  It was really simple and quick to create and yet still looks like a nice finished piece of jewelry.  There is lots of movement to the focal charm, which I just adore. 



This next one I really like.  It is a color scheme that I really enjoy.  It is interesting how the colors are translating in photos, it looks a bit more muted in real life. 

And a close up of the really lovely centerpiece. 



I hope both of the recipients enjoy! I also made a custom pink sparkly bracelet and earrings for a special little girl, but alas, I wrapped them up.  Oh well!

Lots more last minute holiday preparations ahead!  For those of you who are finished and prepared for your festivities, I salute you!

Cheers,

Rhea

My Christmas Configurations

As my loyal readers may have expected, I have had a Christmas assemblage in the works.  I still can't quite figure out why I love to put these together, but I really, really do.  This piece has been getting put together in my mind for quite some time.  I started out by just gathering small items I knew would fit inside the boxes and putting them in little bowls on my craft table.  I also joined a Christmas ornament charm swap, with the intentions of using them to embellish my project.  This makes it extra special, as I have little pieces of others art tucked inside. 



I am so grateful for Simon Says Stamp and Show, as it was their challenge this week of show some depth, that pushed me to actualize this piece.  I used several strategies to ensure that there is a lot of dimension and depth to this piece.  To that end, lots of texture was created with several different applications.  I used distress stain, acrylic paint, molding paste, fiber paste, rock candy crackle paint, vintage mica snow and stickels.  I was also sure to add several elements in each area and stage them at different dimensions.  Decorations were added to the sides and the tops of some boxes too, these details provide a lot of depth and interest.  My last secret to showing the depth here was in how I photographed the piece.

I love this little charm I made with the wings and the holiday muse token.  It reminds me of the spirit of Christmas because of the symbolism of the wings. I colored these metal pieces with picket fence distress stain and then sealed with matte medium.  Stickels were added for more depth and glimmer.



I used the white stain and acrylic paint on many of my items inside this assemblage.  This helped to create a wintry feel and keep the palette muted.  I love the shabby look of the feet from this distress technique.



I really love how I used the various art pastes to create little snow drifts.  I wish you could see the crackle a bit better, the texture on the edges is really delicious. 



I altered the bottle brush tree quite a bit.  I used gesso, acrylic paint and stickels to make it look snow covered.  In this little area a dangling charm was added. I always like to have an element of movement in my pieces, if I can make it work.



The vintage block above was also altered.  I washed it with acrylic paint and then simply added stickels.  I think these would make charming Christmas ornaments.   This project took some patience overall, as there were many stages due to the drying times.  This picture above does show a bit of the glimmer from the vintage mica snow.  I imagine I will be finding flecks of this in my work area for some time.



In this photo you can see that the base of the collage on the boxes is tissue tape. I love how the stain adds a whitewash look.  This toy compartment has lots of charms from my art charm group.  Thanks so much ladies, hope you like what I have done!!!



I always like to finish the backs of these boxes.  I chose my favorite piece of kraft paper from Tim's seasonal kraft stack and whitewashed it for consistency.

 



I hope you enjoyed peeking inside my little holiday assemblage.  I sure had fun creating it and sharing it with you.

Update:  Just after posting this project I found out that I won this giveaway from Red Lead.  Can you believe it!  How lucky am I!  Both thier store and their blog are full of inspiration, so stop on over and check out all the vintage and crafty goodness.  Thank you so much Red Lead, as you can see from above I will put the items to good use!

Merry Christmas to all,

Rhea

Sparkly Swap Bracelet

Here is a quick post showcasing a bracelet I created with winter in mind.  It is a collaborative project as many of the charms were made by individuals in my Art Charm group on Yahoo.  I added many of my own little dangles, providing some unity with a few beads being repeated throughout the design.  I just love the sparkle and the noise this cutie makes. 



Putting this together also makes me yearn for more bead work. I may have to revisit that genre a bit more.

Ornamental

I just love to make Christmas Ornaments every year around the holidays.  This year has been no different.  I still have a few more in the works, but I thought I could at least post this installment. 

Like last time, I used white alcohol ink and a bit of stickels to embellish the glass.  The berries were torn from a holiday pick and the awesome green trim was purchased from Tim's etsy.



This one is a favorite of mine. I love the image of Santa.  I also adore the hand blown glass charm that was made by a fellow art charmer, Kia Dallons.  I added a rusty star and a holiday token from Tim.  This week they are asking us to show some stars over at Simon Says Stamp and Show.  I did not stop with one ornament, I added a starry touch to the one below too. 

   

I used a star paper in the background, and made my own star burst by altering a bit of broken jewelry.  I used some vintage tinsel from Tim as well as one of his metal embellishments.  The window is from Prima and it was also inked up with a bit of Smooch. 

 

 Another ornament, using memory frames.  These make for the quickest projects!  The icicle is made from polymer clay, and was received in a swap for holiday art charms and it was made by Laurel Steven.  It has been great having a selection of holiday embellishments at my fingertips to use.



Here is another junque ornament, like my previous entry.  I decided to use one of Tim's keyholes in this one along with some other junque, an art charm, an altered token, some beads etc.  I hope the recipients of these little treasures enjoy and perhaps you find some Christmas ornament inspiration.

Cheers,

Rhea



Holiday Charm

I have still been in a bit of a creative lull.  I managed to finish up a swap I started a little while ago for a charm group I am in.  The challenge was to create a tiny altered ornament, one and a half inch or smaller.  I am going to enter one set into Simon Says Stamp and Show's challenge of upcycling. 

The first set I created were made from vintage ration chips.  These are small tokens made of vulcanized rubber.  They were perfect for altering. 

I started with two chips.  They were glued together and a piece of wire was added inbetween to create a hanger for the jump ring.  I topped them off with tiny images from Tim Holtz's seasonal paper stash.  The edges were covered with metal foil tape and then I sealed the top with a layer of Glossy accents.  I added a touch of tinsel at the top for texture.  The chips themselves are smaller than a dime, so these are pretty tiny. 

I signed up for two sets of ornaments for my swap.  This is a sample of my second mini ornament set.  These were also quite simple to create.  The glass domes make for easy altering.  A bit of holiday paper was glued with a touch of Glossy Accents and a dab of stickels. I also cut a bit of aluminum flashing with a round punch to cover the paper on the back.  I considered another bit of tinsel, but decided against it.  As I look at them online I wish I added it, they are missing a texural element. 

I also indulged in a round of monthly color swapping with the Art Charm group.  This month, silver findings with white and clear beads were our source of inspiration.  I made a bunch of extras, so that I can create a charm bracelet when I receive all of them back.  This way there will be at least a few common beads throughout the piece, tying it together.  My little dangles are made from a small selection beads, but, they are not all the same. 

I also finished up a project I am using to barter.  My collegue recently requested a bracelet created with green and white.  She is a big fan of the Michigan State Spartans and she wanted an elegant way to show her support on game days.  We are swapping jewerly for antiques.  How fun is that!  She has an old typewriter for me to start. I think this is going to prove to be a very fun arrangement. 

Until next time...

Rhea 

Dia De Los Muertos Milagros

I am happy to be participating in my first swap with a lovely little charm group.  The theme for this swap is Day of the Dead.  I found the subject matter intriguing so I decided to join in.  I am excited to see the result when everything is swapped out.  I will certainly post when the exchange is complete. 

I now love Milagros.  In researching these little babies I fell in love with all kids of imagery and subject matter related to this topic.  I love learning through my artistic experiences.

 

 

The skull beads were scavenged from a Halloween stretchy bracelet found in a big box craft store.  I thought they were perfect for altering. 

I really lucked out with supplies.  The little sequins were actually in my goody bag from Create.  We got two little samples in our early registration goody bags.  I lucked out and was able to snag a few extras when the promoters were cleaning house.  I think they worked well for the project.  The colors were not my first choice, but I made it work. 

I am tempted to doodle the backs of the skulls.  I think it would add such a nice touch, but it will be time consuming for sure. 

I can see these charm swaps being very addicting. 

Steampunk Metal Deck

I have recently returned from a wonderful mixed media retreat called Create, sponsored by Cloth, Paper, Scissors.  It was an absolute blast.  I learned a ton and managed to produce a lot of art in every medium imaginable.  If I had to choose, my favorite was probably the project I am going to share with you today. The class was called The Vintage Metal Deck and it was taught by Leighanna Light. 

 We altered ten pieces of metal with paper, rust, gesso, stamping, distressing, image transfer, paint, ink and lots of cold connections.

I added a bunch of fibers I hand colored previously to add a softer texture to my industrial deck.

Some of the backs of the cards I just left rusty because I thought the color and texture of the rust was so lovely.

I had a tiny problem with the darker pages above and below, so I had to do some additions to save my work.  While this was a problem, it was a nice challenge to have to solve the issue in order to keep the integrity of my work.

A ton of embellishments and charms were used, I did not hold back in my "bling."

This project challenged me to let go of my perfection tendencies when it comes to wire and jewelry making techniques.  It was tough to let the wire be messy, but it was a great creative exercise.



I love the Harlequin pattern on this page.

One of my favorite new craft items after this trip: resistors.  These little buggers are wonderful.  I will be scouting out a source for these for sure. 

This was another lovely rusty back.

 

I experimented with rusting all kinds of items.  This is a technique I can see myself applying to many projects.

I am so pleased with the outcome of this project.  I was incredibly inspired during the entire process and I look forward to creating another metal deck soon.  If you ever have the opportunity to take this class with Leighanna I highly recommend it! 

 

Stay tuned for more of my projects from Create 2011.

Cheers,

Rhea