Gabry Road blog hop sale.

Welcome blog hopper! I'm so glad you've come by to take a peek at my creative journey along your way through the Gabry Road blog hop. If you were here in my studio I would be offering you a tea or coffee so please go get one and enjoy while you look around my little world on the internet.

Here on my blog you will learn a lot about my creative process. I've had many creative adventures over the years and worked with many different mediums. At the moment my passion lies mainly with copper jewelry and altered art. Today I want to share with you my jewelry shop on Gabry Road. You may have noticed on previous visits, that I have a Gabry Road button on the left of the page and hopefully you've ventured in for a closer look.  If you have you'll know that I work mainly with copper. I like to do some metal smithing techniques such as sawing, hammering, stamping, and riveting.  Mixed in with the copper you'll also find some other mixed metals and found objects. Sometimes you have to get a little closer to see just what I've added to a piece this time. One of my favourite objects to add are gears. I like to add a bit of steampunk now and again.

Since you were so nice to come to visit me on  the blog hop I've decided everything in my  Gabry Road shop will be 10% off for the weekend. Sale ends Sunday at midnight. Happy shopping.

Once you're in Gabry Road don't forget to take a look around at the many other wonderful Canadian vendors there. Its a great place to buy and sell all Canadian Hand made.

Now that you've had a leisurely look around please hop along over to see Jeanette over at A Room with a View and her BritChic  Jemz.

Thanks for stopping by and happy blog hopping.

Think square ATC's

We had to think inside the box this month as our ATC theme was 'square'. But this group would never think of staying within the box so as usually we had some unique and fun cards to share. A couple of the ladies even made two, so more eye candy to enjoy!

 Lucie

 Veronica

 Wendy

 Louise

 Louise

Lucie

What do you think? Ready to make some ATC's? I know I'm inspired now.

Happy Creating.

Wendy

Studio jewelry display

I feel like I've fallen behind in my updates of the studio move but really it's more like I'm just behind in the actual moving of the studio. I am working on it and it's coming along slowly but surely. So I don't have too much to share of the whole studio so I thought I'd show you my jewelry display in the studio. It's not quit finished but then it probably never really will be. I do like to change and tweak things regularly. Check out my inspiration on my Pinterest board  here.

I've had this traveling suitcase for a few years and was never very pleased with how I displayed it in the house so into the studio it went. I wasn't sure I was going to use it for jewelry at first but I'm glad I did.

I made a few display boards to use both in my studio display and at shows. I use to use just black but have been trying some new ideas like dictionary paper, decorative scrapbook papers and old photo mats.

 This one is made with old dictionary pages. It got a bit tall but it works at shows when I have lots on the table and it can stand a little behind something else. I'm thinking of antiquing the edges.

 This board is made with some decorative scrapbooking pages. 

 Here is another decorative scrapbooking pages board. I didn't want to add too many colours to the display so I stuck with greens and blue greens. I'm thinking these might look good with a little antiquing around the edges as well.

I've had a box of these antique photo mats in my basement a while and never really knew what I was going to do with them. I've used a few in the show displays this year and it seems to work.

So that's my jewelry display in the studio so far. I'd love to hear what you think. Any suggestions are most welcome. Would you antique the edges of my boards? Any ideas for other things I can do with old photo mats?

Happy creating!

Wendy

Art journal experimenting.

   Art journaling is fairly new to me. I've just started in the last year or 2. I probably did some before but didn't really know that's what it was. I was thrilled to have Michelle Casey from Collage Your World  come and teach an Art Journaling workshop in my studio last year. I learned so much from her about the history and techniques of collage art journaling. I'm also fascinated by the variety of Art journaling that is done by different creative people.
   So when I find the time to art journal it's mostly about experimenting and variety. It's so freeing to have a page that doesn't matter how it turns out. I think each time I spend some time art journaling it's for different reasons, at different times and with different intentions. I keep thinking that I should find more scheduled time for it but I say that about many things and it just doesn't happen. So for now art journaling happens when it happens how ever it happens?
  This page has slowly evolved over that last few months with new layers being added to it when ever the mood hits me. I don't know if it's done yet but will leave it for now and see what happens.
  Have you caught the Art Journaling bug yet? If you have I'd love to see your work. Leave a link so I can get to it.

Happy Creating!

Wendy

Herbfest

I've been a busy jewelry maker this week for the Herbfest show this Sunday July 29. It's my first time participating in this show so I'm excited to see how it goes. I've been to the show a few times and highly recommend it. They have lovely gardens to view and a great variety of vendors. Check out their web site to see their schedule of activities.  The Tin Man usually finds lots of food samples to taste!

I still have much to do but I just wanted to share with you a few of the pieces I finished this week to bring along.

 I recently purchased these blue/green crystals and just had to use them some where. I'm hoping to get a bracelet done with these crystals too.LOL

 My birds nest necklaces are always popular so I was able to finish 5 this week. They are all different designs. On this one I let the pearls take over.

I'm still having so much fun with making and using funky dangles on almost everything. I can't seem to get enough of them. This flower has a layer of leather for a little change .

Well I'm off to make more jewelry and start to pack things up. I hope to see you at the Herbfest!

Happy Creating!

Wendy

Circle ATC theme

Yes another great ATC meeting this month. We had a great turn out and a wonderful visit at Louise's place. Thanks again Louise for having us. We really appreciated the a/c and your wonderful hospitality.  The theme this month was circles. I quite liked this theme although again I limited myself to what I could do since I left it to the last minutes. But the possibilities in my mind were end less. I could see doing Circles for a theme for a whole book, hmmm maybe the next book swap!

Any way here are the inspiring card that we traded.

 Linda

 Lucie

 Nancy

 Olive

 Veronica

 Virginia

Wendy

Well it's back to work today. Have to make lot's of jewelry for Herbfest coming up on July 29th. And maybe a little more studio reorganizing.

Happy Creating!

Wendy

Altered drawer set.

 We're having another heat wave here in the Ottawa area and without air conditioning I've been moving in slow motion. Since the Tin Man was in a baseball tournament all weekend I decided to focus on reorganizing and moving the studio upstairs. This worked out well in this heat since mostly I need to be in the basement to do the reorganizing.
 I've had four Ikea drawer sets for years and have never done anything with them. So while looking around for some interesting storage ideas for the new studio these shouted out for a new look.

 I started off by pasting decorative papers to all the sides and the fronts of the drawers with gel medium. I do this by putting a layer of gel medium on the wood and placing a pre-cut paper on, then adding more gel medium to the top of the paper. This is a bit slow since it is somewhat slow drying but it just meant I could organize other things in between doing a few sides.

  After it's all dry, it's time to take the sand paper to it. No it just wouldn't look grungy enough without a bit of sanding. All the edges and and corners were sanded.

 And then of course a bit of antiquing with Distress Inks. I used my favourite, Vintage Photo. The sanded edges and exposed wood picks up the colours a little more than the paper for that great aged look.

I wasn't sure where I was going to put this so I even covered the back. This is a great piece since the drawers are square, letting me configure it in a number of different ways as you can see from the picture on the top.
Now to decide what to do with the other 3 sets. They're all a little different sizes and drawer configurations!

Happy Creating!

Wendy