Blog - Page 12 of 13 - Susan's Charming Trinkets & Art Circus

Christmas with Ice and Santa!

Christmas is coming?! Really? Didn’t we just do Christmas?

I have to admit that Christmas has not been my favorite holiday over the past decade. When you’re on the road, as I am, through the holiday season Santa is more work than pleasure. Add to that 10+ years of this love/hate relationship and thinking about Christmas seems really daunting.

So, several months ago I was sent some beautiful Rue Romantique pieces from the Ice girls and asked to do something for Christmas. My first honest response in my head was, “oh no, not that!” I’ve wrestled with it ever since…until this past week.

Knowing our blog hop was fast approaching I knew I had better wrap my head around it or be totally delinquent. Out came all the pieces and more from my design team stash…ribbons, the component Rue pieces, resin, bezels, papers….all of it all over the studio. I stared at it for several days. Pushing it aside I went back to my all time favorite material, shrink plastic, and just began to play with some holiday stamps. Then it dawned on me! K.I.S.S. Stop over thinking it and keep it simple stupid!

Merry Christmas and Santa emerged…

I pulled out the alcohol inks in red and green to add some holiday color to the components. Wrapped a bit of vintage ribbon to the bottom.

Santa had to have some shiny, sparkly areas so out came the iridescent glitter added to some ModPodge then painted into his fur, beard, hat, and sleeves. Also some glitter was added to the component piece then resin over the top to seal.

Here it is a bit closer so you can see how wonderfully the glitter falls into the component grooves then lights up under the resin. Santa and all the pieces also have a resin coating. Such a nice gloss to reflect the lights when these are hanging from the tree. The bottom crystals are also from the Connie Crystals…last blog post…beautiful, faceted teardrop shapes. They made the perfect sparkling end to the base of both.

Here’s to Christmas…a better relationship with Santa and wishing you all the meaning of the season!

Check all the fantastic Christmas projects for the hop!! Don’t miss any of them!

ICE Resin site http://wp.me/p1MCno-2W3

Lexi Grenzer http://lexigrenzer.blogspot.com/2013/11/rue-romantique-ornament-blog-hop.html

Pamela Huntington http://pamelahuntington.typepad.com/february_2007/2013/11/handmade-holiday-blog-hop.html

Jen Cushman http://wp.me/p1lhEq-Gb

Until next time…

Posted on November 7, 2013November 11, 2013 by susanmwb — 6 Comments

Hop Along With The Ice Resin Team & Their Connie Crystals!!

Hello everyone! I’m baaaack!

Well, if you’ve been following the Ice® Resin Creative Team then you know we’ve all been to the Emmy’s and back again. What you didn’t know was some of the back story. Each of us was sent a huge box of goodies directly from Ice headquarters and we also received a box stuffed with crystals from Connie Crystals. There were so many that we decided to design a few more things after the dust settled.

Alice is a favorite of mine as are all of these bezels. Pair that with these enormous cut, round Connie Crystals and I think I have a simple yet stunning bracelet. I didn’t want to overpower the images but accent them. A few smaller crystals swing with the little pewter pig at the clasp. What do you think?

And because I can’t ever do just one or anything easy AND I had more of these crystals…here is the second piece. (also an Ice® Resin piece)

As you can see from the pictures there is an obvious range of color reflection coming from the crystals. It’s an aurora borealis coating that reflects an iridescent array of color . Aren’t they gorgeous? And all the hanging pieces? Yes, they are cast Ice® Resin…but that’s another story.

Now here’s your chance to see what all the other gals have in store…

Today you can hop on over to…

Thespa K. Jones McLaughlin

Jen Crossley

Tomorrow the following designers will also have goodies to share!

Lexi Grenzer

Sandy Martin

Pamela Huntington

Have fun! See you again soon!

Posted on October 3, 2013October 17, 2013 by susanmwb — 10 Comments

Forgotten Words…

Today’s task was to write up a short 100 word bio about my self for our Ice® Resin Team…not an easy task! But I found something that I had forgotten about completely and it’s pretty funny (at least to me!) Not even sure what or who I wrote this for and it may very well be on my old blog…not sure.

But, in either case, here it is again…

Quirks and the Divine (Divine Quirks..?)

My husband was quick to jump into this!

Known only to one other is the fact that I have an innate aversion to the tiny leftover bits of just about anything. I will leave the last dregs of the toothpaste, the last half ounce of mouth wash, a food leftover, and sometimes even the last bite on my plate. Weird, huh?
My family thinks I have kitchen OCD (technically shouldn’t it be CDO…alphabetical would be better). It makes me crazy if the pots aren’t hung on the rack just right, tools aren’t in the same places in the drawer, or the dishwasher isn’t loaded the way I would load it. I take it all apart and put whatever it is back together the “right” way then I can breathe again. And this doesn’t bother me anywhere but the in the kitchen…(okay, so if the toilet paper is upside down I turn it over…are you a paper under or a paper over person?)
My children were quick to point out that I always want to watch the same TV show or movie…all the time! Let’s see…I’ve watched the latest Star Trek movie about 20 times, the first Alien movie several dozen times, I’m on my 10^th or 11^th go around on the Tudor series, and I’m hopelessly addicted to Downton Abbey. Every time they come into the room with me they can tell just by about ten seconds of sound what is on my screen. I like the familiarity of it, is that bad?
No matter what time I need to get up I set my alarm clock between 15 and 30 minutes before that time. In the just waking up state of mind I can trick myself into thinking I’m going to be late if I don’t get up when the alarm goes off and if, in my morning haze, I hit the snooze button once I’m still on time! My husband thinks this is just plain madness. “You can still read the time on the clock!” Yes….but it’s psychological trickery for the gal who hates mornings. Nuts, maybe?! Does it work for me? Yes! Every time!

Divine?

Live everyday like the devil is chasing you! I believe that life is short and each day is precious. You need to find your path to be happy, laugh, love, and deeply live your life to the fullest. You only get one chance at it. If you don’t like your current path then change it…mold it, wrangle it, work at it until you can say you’re pleased with it. Don’t blame your unhappiness on others…you choose! You get to make your life passionate and happy! Now go blaze your trail!!

Posted on September 16, 2013September 16, 2013 by susanmwb — 6 Comments

The Big Reveal…or The Emmy’s Here We Come!!

Okay…so here we go! Is everybody ready? Somebody give me a drum roll!

First up…and I was going to say this is one of my favorites but I’d be lying. I loved them all once I was done and would’ve kept them…but… So here’s the first of five…
I have several obsessions and time, and how crazy fast it goes, is but one.
Here it is a bit closer. Love, love the Iced Enamels and how they colors seem to blossom under the Ice resin.

Ready for #2?
I love this too! Mellow Steampunk. And let’s talk about that Fire Opal Enamel, can we?
See that piece on the left? That’s the Fire Opal refracting light through the resin…gorgeous!!

Soooo….number three…..
Now I’m showing off another obsession I have with insects of all kinds. Butterflies are probably at the top of the list but I love ladybugs, cicadas, even spiders! (as long as they are dead and under a layer of resin!)
Again…don’t you just get giddy when you see how that Fire opal shows…and then add glitter!? Need I say more?

Onward and upward….#4
Did I mention I have a thing for bugs? Oh yeah….and moths…all kinds of big furry, colored moths! Somehow the picture of this isn’t half as brilliant as it looks in person. It’s hot pink, shades of gold, Fire Opal (of course), and some touches of purple and black. Yum…

Last, but certainly, not least… #5
This may have been the one I could’ve snuck on my wrist while I was packing the box…hoping no one would notice when they opened it at the other end. (Jen!) Um, yeah, so..there’s that Fire Opal (again) BUT this time I mixed it with some Chartreuse enamel! (that makes it different, right?)
Oh my goodness! I will miss them all…

How exciting that they will all have new homes with someone from the Emmy ceremonies!? I am eternally grateful to the entire Ice Resin family for this opportunity and honored to be a part of such a fabulous group of artists!

Want to see the others?

Jen Cushman:

http://jencushman.wordpress.com/

Kristen Robinson:

http://kristenrobinson.typepad.com/

Susan Lenart Kazmer:

http://susan-lenart-kazmer.blogspot.com/

Jo DeSerio Jones:

Lexi Grenzer:

Sandy Martin:

Thespa K. Jones McLaughlin:

http://vintiquitiesworkshop.blogspot.com/

Pamela Huntington:

Pamela’s Blog

Cindy Cima Edwards:

http://www.cindycima.com/

Cindy Bisson:

http://fatcatcreations.blogspot.com/

Jen Crossley:

http://amarkintime.blogspot.com/

Lesley Venable:

http://www.flatwoodsfolkart.typepad.com/

Jennifer Priest:

http://jenniferpriest.blogspot.com/

Misty Grosse:

Misty’s Site

Posted on September 7, 2013September 8, 2013 by susanmwb — 1 Comment

Did you miss me??

What has everyone been up to? It’s only been a year since I was here last…ha! Where have I been? What have I been doing whilst my blog sits unattended? Well, a little it of this…and a bit of this…(very little)