A Shrine for Saint Expeditus

I found this little saint figure of Saint Expeditus (a.k.a. St. Expedite, San Expedito) meant for a car dashboard, but I wanted to make a little shrine for him instead.



Saint Expeditus one of my favourite saints. I ask for his help all the time. He is especially helpful in money matters, bringing quick resolutions, and getting the job done. Just send out a heartfelt plea for his assistance and when he comes through be sure to repay him for his efforts.

My wee shrine to him uses the Gypsy Soul Arch Top Cabinet with Doors. It's the perfect size to house those little dash board/magnetic saint figures.

For a textural effect I added Art Deco Border & Corners to the headpiece and doors of the shrine.

I love my little shrine and I hope Saint Expeditus does too! 

For a comprehensive walk through for putting this piece together see HERE 

Here is everything you'll need:

Arch Top Cabinet with Doors
Art Deco Border & Corners

Gold Mini Rosette Dresden Borders*
Embellishments like Fancy Bronze Metal Drawer Pulls
Plaster (not necessary, but I like the 'old' texture it gives.
Acrylic paint
Paper
Moss
Faux foilage like: Fern Garland* and Tiny Paper Roses*

Tiny statuette!

Additional information about St. Expedite can be found at saintexpedite.org

The Pretty Kitty

I've made something.

It's miniature.

It's rude and vulgar.

If you'd like to see it anyway please pop over to my other blog to take a peek at The Pretty Kitty.

Klimt, journaling and the very good visit

It has been a nutty time here.

We lost power when the transformer blew up/self destructed beside the house. There were flashing lights well into the dark until power was finally restored... but wifi was not. Phone lines were cut during the repair (and I'm not a real grown up and don't own a cell phone)... so STILL NO WIFI! It was touch and go, but I survived.

The timing of the outage could have been much worse as my art buddy Paula Mould made a roadtrip to see me!

There was much (much) booze and glitter swords! And that outstanding Wonder Woman painting.

And birthday cake with sparklers.

Then it was down to arty business. Paula and I work very differently, and have different styles but we seem to accomplish sooooo much when together. We set paint to canvas to explore the work of Klimt and created the above paintings in the morning.

In the afternoon we divided a Gypsy Soul Art Journal, each taking half the pages. When done, we randomly stacked the pages together, alternating hers and mine and created something really cool!

This isn't a design team post but I gotta say, that journal was a lot of fun. It survived our manhandling. We abused those pages and it proved sturdy little son of a gun. The number of pages was perfect for us (as we aren't really journalers) and the variety was good too. If you've got a day or two with an art buddy, I highly recommend it.

Now to spend a few days recovering... because I'm old and cannot booze like I once did. But look at the fun we had! SO MUCH FUN! SO MUCH ARTING!

P.S. I these fluffy way too high heels arrived in the mail. They have nothing at all to do with this post BUT LOOK AT THEM!!!! My new life goal is to become a Ms. Piggy/Peggy Bundy hybrid. Yay!

The Collector's Room Box

This month's theme at AlphaStamps.com is "Collector's Room". The kit features a chipboard window to create a little scene within... but I've gone rouge err... rogue and created a collector's room with the new
Small Frame Shadowbox.

I wanted to create a space filled with bits that might have been collected on adventures, an assortment of oddities. A sort of kooky gentleman's library, or study.

Every gentleman's library needs books. These shelves are filled with them! Well... not really... they're simply facades cut from the Window Card Cabinets Collage Sheet.

Another 'must have' in a real gentleman's study is a stag head and the Mini Deer Head Trophy is perfect!

There are A LOT of amazing little oddities in my collectors room. All of the products used are listed below but some of my very favouites that deserve and extra shout out: Miniature Flying Bats, Pewter Candlesticks, Ceramic Gargoyle Bead and perhaps my favourite little bauble of all the wee Ceramic Red Devil Bead.

This wee American Crow ain't so bad either!

Here's the full list of supplies if you want to create your own collectors room, or if you just see something you might fancy.

Small Frame Shadowbox
Kitchen Wall Shelf Unit - Chipboard
Amber Resin Potions Bottle
Set of Metal Ginger Jars
Set of 4 Metal Apothecary Jars
Mini Black Resin Sitting Cat
Miniature Flying Bats
Pewter Candlesticks
Mini Metal Shadowbox
Mini Deer Head Trophy
American Crow
10mm Clear Glass Marbles**
Small Ceramic Skull Bead
Ceramic Gargoyle Bead
Ceramic Red Devil Bead.
Clear Stemware - Set of 6
Bronze Binoculars Charm*
Antique Bronze Bird Skull Pendant*
Miniature Red Wine Bottle
12 Tiny Glass Bottles
Even Tinier Bottles*
Tiny Round Bottles*
Window Card Cabinets Collage Sheet
Antique Leather Book Spines Collage Sheet
Architextures 8x8 Paper Pad
Vintage Toys Collage Sheet
Mini Old Windows & Doors Collage Sheet

Super Simple Earring Organizer

This project is sooo easy AND you'll be able to make three with as little as just one product! Are you ready?

I've simply taken Gypsy Soul's Decorative Screen, applied a coat of paint, added a length of ribbon, and created an organizer for my dangly earrings. This is a serious improvement over plonking them in my jewelry box and creating a tangled mess. I just used the cut areas to hang my sparkly fake jewels from.

The Decorative Screen comes with three panels, and my little organizer only uses one, so you can use the other two parts for gifts, to sell, or if you have a bazillion pairs of earrings, to keep all to yourself. I've created three in three different styles.

You could put all the panels together to create a complete screen to sit on your dresser but I really like the hanging ribbon that lets me cart my jeweled bits all over the place depending on where I'm getting myself gussied up.

I'm certain you don't need any guidance for this project, but HERE is a video for creating the above Steampunkish version of this project.

The only extra bit of advice I'll give is that it's probably best to be a little restrained in your embellishing if you want this to be a functional item.

The bare necessities you'll need for this project:
Decorative Screen
Acrylic paint
Length of ribbon

If you want to get fancy add decorative elements such as Flourishes, or any shapes that suit your fancy. Additional elements I've used are:
Faux Metal Number Plates
Faux Metal Number Plates 1 to 25
Faux Typewriter Keys Symbol Set
Gears Shape Set
Stackable Labels Shape Set

Now, go make something perfectly suited to you!

A tin can planter

I made a tiny something for my kitchen window.

It's just a tin can gussied with paper and canvas ribbon and filled with moss and pretty flowers... but it looks nice, especially on a drizzly day.

I hope you've been behaving yourself. I miss you.

Stones and Small Sparks

I have a theory. 

I think that fairies start out as tiny sparks of energy and are sort of incubated within things like trees, seeds and rocks. They grow and form until they can no longer be contained and break free.

Every time I see a split rock I'm quite sure that another fairy has burst into the world.

There's something wonderful about those split rocks and the energy required to break them open.

There's a lot of them around here, those split rocks, and I wanted to do something to celebrate them.

I thought of painting an egg and a bird inside, or other things that fit together... but I decided to start with night and day. After all, that's how most creation stories begin.

And now... what? 

Perhaps I'll tie those pieces together with a length of golden thread and place it back out in the world.

Or maybe, just for a a little while, I'll keep night and day by my bedside as a reminder of the magic in small sparks of energy.