A New Week Full of Possibilities

Each week I think how fortunate I am to have so many different ideas for crafty things floating around in my head. If I made the same thing all the same, I would be so bored!

As you may remember, I made some pendants last week. Most made the final cut, although a few are either going to be gifted or abandoned (in a good way, since I'm part of the Art Abandonment Group on Facebook) but most will be listed on Etsy.

My favorites have to be the ones using the mini ceramic tiles. I just love how they look!

I made a sale last night that pleased me so much. All sales are wonderful of course, but this one touched my hippie heart. A set of dot painted bottles are heading out this week to a couple having a "Love Ceremony". These are being gifted by another couple sharing in their special day. How cool is that?!

"Kashmir", the wine bottle measures 12 inches high. "Highway Star", the beer bottle measures 9-1/2 inches high. My bottles are named in loving tribute from song titles by the groups Led Zepplin and Deep Purple.

I've started a new Flower Power mosaic on an old ceramic jug I found at the thrift store a few months ago. I thought it would be awesome to put some broken dishes on this but once I got it home, I knew stained glass and mirror in the awesome flower design was needed. I'm adding the outline of each flower first. I love making these flowers. This mosaic will give the old jug a groovy facelift.

Stay peaceful,
Cindy, Earth Mother Mosaics

CIJ Fun Days

This week has been a blur of activity online. Promoting and meeting new shops on Etsy and finding new items to love during the CIJ sale. It's been fun to do but very tiring. I'm okay with that though because I manage to introduce my shop and my mosaics to new folks along the way. For me, that is the best part of doing events like this. Not making sales, always a nice surprise and the ultimate goal of course, but connecting with new people. Discovering new shops and having others discover mine is one of the highlights of any online event. That means on any given day, according to Etsy's Stat page, I could have close to 500 people view my shop. Over the past 7 days over 1,000 items have been made a favorite. This astounds me. That means for every item that gets a heart, everyone in that heart's circle of friends on Etsy sees it too. Sheesh.

I made two treasuries today and wanted to share them here. One is for the Creative Trends Team and other is for the CIJ Team. I love making treasuries!

Lemon Sage - Creative Trends Team CIJ6

Awesomeness - Christmas in July Sale Continues

Everybody who has followed me on FB and on my blogs for more than a few days know that if I don't do something artful every day, I get grumpy. Well, I'm there ... I'm a big ole' harumphy Nana. It's been too long away from my Zen time with my muse and although she is okay with resting a little longer, I am not all that happy about it.

Yesterday I thought I'd spend some time no matter how late and work on the glass-on-glass project I started last week. I broke my glasses before I could start. That didn't just happen, I thought. I didn't just break what I need to help me see my mosaics, did I?! Oh yes, I did. My daughter glued them back together and although they are in one piece, they are a bit wonky and headaches have been a real added bonus.

With temperatures at 102 degrees today, it is not likely that I will be walking anywhere to get another pair. I use the dollar store near me for all my eye wear needs. I use these glasses for close up work, reading and computing. Pretty much what I do all day long in between kidlet wrangling.

Over the weekend I'm going to borrow the family car and head on over to the dollar store to get what I need. Meanwhile, the muse is resting and seems content. Sigh.

Did I share these? I glanced at previous posts and didn't see them. I put these dot painted items on the green bookcase to stay the other day and noticed how the dots came popping out at me. What a difference a background color can make! Wow! Way cool, right?!

Butterfly Wall Art

 Elephant Wall Art

Stay peaceful,
Cindy, Earth Mother Mosaics

I hope your day is going well. I have lots to share today!

The hand painted star box was gifted over the weekend. Yay!

Birthday gift for a brand new 3 year old (it was filled with barrettes) using Minnie Mouse inspired colors (her favorite).

My Grandson playing a game with his Mom. Can you guess who won?

The Chuck E. Cheese philosophy is awesome.

I'm waiting for the frame to arrive later today so I can start in on the 12 x 12 mosaic wall hanging but while I wait, I worked on painting dots on the last bottle I'll be able to do for a while. Here's the progress so far. In spite of its name, it will be covered completely in dots.

"Black Night"

The sun was out for most of the day yesterday and I managed to make friends with my Camera Goddess long enough to get 145 photos in total of many different things. I have some wood fruit for the vintage shop and pulled that out to use as a prop for the bowl I grouted recently.

I like it! If you're interested in either or both, this bowl will be headed towards the online shops some time this week and the fruit will go in the vintage shop. Here's another shot without the fruit. LOVE the eggplant color inside this bowl!

I also got some great shots of the napkin rings I dot painted. They've been put on Etsy this morning.

Wooden Napkin Rings: Hand Painted, Dots

As I was leaving the birthday party for the 3 year old on Saturday, I noticed the sky above me. By the time I got home, the dark clouds had arrived and stayed all afternoon. I like to say: "Always look up". If I hadn't, I'd have missed this beautiful sky.

Stay peaceful.

Cindy, Earth Mother Mosaics

Look what I got in the mail yesterday!

Twenty-five 6 x 9 inch MDF crosses! Woo-hoo! I'm planning on doing a holiday craft fair in November at a local church and thought it would be a great idea to get some of these and mosaic them for it. Because my muse comes and goes and I like to have time with my mosaics, I thought it would be best to get these now and work on them throughout the summer in between other projects. These are so well made, perfect to take right out of the box and mosaic on them, no prep needed! Thank you, Mr Woody Crafts!

I did a small dot painting project yesterday and made a set of 4 wooden napkin holders. I love how these turned out. I really hope I can make more soon.

I also got the glass down completely on the candle holder and it is now ready for grout.

view from the inside

I have no more vintage items photographed at the moment, so I will share them as I list them next week. I hope by then the Camera Goddess returns and the sun comes out once more. Meanwhile if you haven't yet, head on over to Gently Loved Treasures on Zibbet and take a look around.

Stay peaceful.

Cindy, Earth Mother Mosaics

What a beautiful day we're having. I spent a little time outside this morning, going for a walk and breathing the fresh air deeply. What a treat for those of us who live with humidity. It is a welcome relief!

I finished up the gifts and took photos of them this morning. The pendant photos are before grout was completely dry. It will become lighter once it is dry.

Minnie Mouse inspired star box

Pink Pendant with Matching Tin Box

Pink stained glass and ball chain tin box to hold the matching pendant

I almost always mix up too much grout when I do it and this morning was no exception. Thankfully I had a bowl that needed grouting.

Discarded eggplant colored bowl now has new purpose.

 

 

The next project is waiting for me. A candle holder with some really gorgeous stained glass, gifted to me by a very talented local artist who does stained glass windows and inserts in doors.

 This stained glass panel is about 22 inches. I cut it into 3 sections so I can focus on which one to use for the holder. Choosing only one section is not going to be easy! It's all simply breathtaking.

I have 3 square candle holders and one round vase I can use these pieces on. And I have 4 more large panels just as exquisite that are from the same large piece of glass. I'm very aware of how blessed I am to know I can contact this guy and be given his scraps. Especially when they look like this!

The new shop has a few more items in it. Gently Loved Treasures on Zibbet is dedicated to all vintage items. Here's the latest listing. I really love the colors of these!

Vintage Salt and Pepper Shakers: Jamestown, VA Souvenir Shakers, Nautical

 Stay peaceful.

Cindy, Earth Mother Mosaics

I made some progress finishing up the latest painted bottle. I have now named them all! My love for Led Zepplin and Deep Purple shines brightly to this day. Song titles from my favorites have been used for the bottles. This is "Stormbringer" which is perfect for this bottle. I finished it just before thunderstorms began in our area.

"Stormbringer" (left front), "Far Away" (center) and "Celebration Day" on the right. Titles for all my bottles are all thanks to Led Zepplin and Deep Purple songs. :)

I have been invited to a 3 year old's birthday party and a 10 year old's a week after that, which means I needed to make some gifts. The 3 year old is the one I did this Minnie Mouse mosaic for at Christmas time.

She STILL loves Minnie and I was at a loss as to what to make her this time around. Someone mentioned making a mosaic box, if I had one, to keep treasures in. In February I had put a mosaic on a star box for her sister, so I knew I couldn't do the same thing for her. But taking the same shape star box, I put a dot painting on it, in Minnie's favorite colors and added a polka dotted bow to the top!

I'm going to get some barrettes to put inside to make this gift complete.

Tomorrow I'll share the 10 year old's gift. I'm working on a mosaic pendant and a tin box to match.

Stay peaceful.

Cindy, Earth Mother Mosaics

It's HOT here in PA. I normally fuss very little compared to others about weather, it is what it is and there's nothing to do but find ways to stay cool and comfy. I wasn't prepared for the large jump in temps however, because this time last week we were living with rain and 60 degrees temps. Today it is not quite noon and close to 90 degrees. Whew. Add that to the fact that I am 58 years old and more bothered by weather changes than I used to be when I was 28. Bah-humbug.

I managed to walk to the local dollar store and found square 3 inch glass candle holders! I only had one left in a green stained glass available so I grabbed 3 more to mosaic. They are hard to find in the local dollar store and often I have to travel further to find them. So, that was kind of exciting. Then I went to the local grocery store and found my favorite coffee, normally at $6 for $3. Woo-hoo! Top it off with a bottle of red and a bottle of white in my favorite wines and that was my perfect morning. Walking home with heavy bottles and glass containers wasn't as much fun but I managed it.

I worked a bit more on the bottle last night and found some wooden napkin rings I purchased forever ago that I am going to dot up soon!

Check it out: the coffee lid sitting by the toothpicks has a black cat on it! That was purely accidental, but I may have to use another lid now because I like finding art in unexpected places. I'm painting the background and will share a photo when it's finished.

Speaking of finding art, I now have a printer (yay) and can print out Art Abandonment tags to go with the few things I want to drop off here and there. I am hoping to do that next week when the temps drop to the mid 70's. It will also give me time to make up a few more pieces to abandon. I'll share photos when I have them all gathered up, which means it may take more than a week, come to think of it ... the photos haven't been all that great lately.

I added 2 more items to Gently Loved Treasures this morning. These photos were taken months ago!

Vintage Salt and Pepper Shakers: Pink Seashells, Florida, Flamingos

Vintage Pepper Shaker: Single Shaker, Penguin

I've been photo editing a few items each day and getting them set up to list for the next day. Eventually I'll have no more to share until more photos are taken but hopefully by then, the Camera Goddess will return to me.

I made a treasury on Etsy this morning that I really love. If you have a chance, hop on over and give it some love (click on the link below the photo), favorite the items in it and share it if you'd like. I'm discovering I have a certain color preference when I make treasuries. I made quite a few last week, one for each team I belong to! It has been quite a long time since I've done that.

Peaceful Morning

Meanwhile, I have dots to make, stained glass and dish shards to glue to stuff and things and finally things to sort and gather together. And I'm having the time of my life!!

Stay peaceful.

Cindy, Earth Mother Mosaics

Yesterday I worked on dot painting the 8 inch peace sign and zipped right through it. This broken earring was the inspiration for the design and colors I used.

I wasn't sure I would sell these dot paintings when I started experimenting on the bottles, but there are items like the frames and this peace sign that seem to look fairly good enough to sell. With that in mind, I listed this one this morning on Etsy.

These photos are temporary because the sun wasn't out when I took them but they are good enough to share. I often update my photos and will probably take many of this pretty thing before I'm happy.

I have a bottle sitting next to me to get started on today. That should take longer to do and my enthusiasm for dots is waning only because I've been doing them at a fevered pitch for so long. It is time to slow down and enjoy the process and I'm ready for a mosaic or two in between.

I have discovered I truly enjoy doing this technique and will continue to make dot paintings on things for a long, long time. I now have 4 bottles, 2 frames and a peace sign made with dots and I love the way they all look! I have a few oddly shaped pieces of cement board and have considered doing some dots on them at some point. It's good to grow as an artist in a direction I hadn't planned. It feels right.

The muse is ready to work on a flower for the bookcase and my thumb is about healed enough to give it a try. I have no energy to sift through boxes or sort anything just yet, which means the organized room will have to wait until I feel the pull toward that process.

Whatever I do, I'll share here tomorrow, I'm sure!

Stay peaceful.

Cindy, Earth Mother Mosaics

Welcome to a new week filled with possible potential and exciting discoveries!!

I've been having fun with dot painting while my thumb is still healing. It should be in great shape by the time I've finished the 2nd plastic frame, 2 thin set covered wine bottles and an MDF peace sign. Once I've painted those, I'll get to work on a few mosaic projects such as the flowers for my bookcase and a custom ordered gazing ball I'll be working on next month. Yeah buddy!

I did a dot painting on one of the old plastic pink frames I've had for quite a few years on Saturday. It truly only took me a few hours to dot but it took many hours to prep.

First I scuffed it up so the black paint wouldn't bead off of the plastic. I did 2 layers of black paint on them because I wanted all signs of pink to disappear.

I watched Netflix, as usual, while I did this project from start to finish. I think that's why I can do them without too much trouble. I just mindlessly make dots while I'm watching something on the computer.

The results is a frame I really love. I had planned on using the glass inside these frames and adding a mosaic to each one, giving it a complete overhaul but I love it just as it is, for its intended purpose. It's probably going to be gifted to my daughter because I think she'll like the colors of it. Added bonus, she is the one who gave me the frames to begin with, so I think she'll get a kick out of seeing their reincarnation now.

Stay peaceful.

Cindy, Earth Mother Mosaics