The glitter is flying...literally!

Glitter has really taken wing around here...on the wings of fat little birds, hummers and dragonflies. Lately I've been working on a series of sweet flying things for the Christmas tree and am getting ready for this coming season of shows and workshops. Can't believe another year has flown by....Hopefully these guys will start to get you in the spirit. ( I know, it's waaaaay too early, but it's Christmas everyday here at GlitterWorksStudio!!!) This hummer above is glittered with my special blend of glass & non glass glitter, so a bit of the bird's color will show thru but it will still tarnish a bit over time. It will never tarnish to a really dark patina, however, like 100% glass glitter.
These little birdies are such fun and shine like diamonds on the tree. The camera really doesn't do justice to the sparkle...I'm using vintage silver glass glitter on all of these. Some of my birdies are hanging on wire, some have wires on their footsies to attach to the tree branch, some sit in little nests and others are on a long wire so you can put them in a flower arrangement on your holiday table...or you can also just stick it right into the Christmas tree. I'm in love with these guys...wish I could keep them for my own tree! You'll also see a glittered letter, dragonfly and snowflake (oohhhhhh, does this mean snow is coming? Wait a sec...Halloween (Glitter-ween) hasn't even come yet!!! I know, I know, slow down girl...but I have to think months in advance!)...there will be much, much more to come...

Back to the glitter pits....

Things that go "eeeeeeek!!!" in the night...

I've been a very, verrrrry busy little glitter fairy lately, cooking up lots of Halloween fun, like spidey matchbox ornaments to hang on your Halloween tree...

pedestals in gorgeous pumpkin orange, silver glass and black glitter...

talking bat ornaments...

and any number of Glitter-ween-tastic creations...

If I ever get my act together, some of these will be in my etsy shop.

Gotta get back to the glitter mine...

TGF

Let's have a nice cuppa...

Please join me for a virtual tea party. Take a moment to breathe, sip and enjoy. I've just brewed some darjeeling and put out my mother's best Haviland (sorry, I didn't have time to shine the silver!). And I've got a divine slice of fresh pie!!!! Our family went apple picking yesterday and my daughter made the most beautiful pie...and even tho I shouldn't have any, the "gravitational pull" of this pie is just too much for me! I am helpless to resist such delicious-ness!

Hope you can squeeze in a few moments for yourself today. Forget about work, the laundry, dishes...and make a cup of tea. Ten minutes, maybe fifteen...that's all it will take. Go ahead, treat yourself! It'll change your whole outlook on the day.


Thanks goes to Make Mine Pink, for organizing this special event. Stop by her blog to see who else is having a tea party today...and meet some new friends.

Fortunately, since this is a virtual tea party, you can't possibly get any glitter in your tea!
I, on the other hand...well... that's the story of my glittery life.

Oooh...I feel better already...

Dust off your broomsticks and fly by...GlitterWorkshops are coming soon!!!

SAVE-THE-DATES: Yup, we're getting the particulars finanlized and I'm happy to tell you I will be doing some GlitterWorkshops this Fall at Zoe & Floyd, (a fantastic art & crafts gallery) in Seymour, CT and in NYC at Tinsel Trading Company (my most favorite-est shop in NY, just brimming with velvet leaves, trims, tassels, ribbons, flowers and all things shiney...).
So here's the scoop---

Glitter-ween 101
Saturday, October 20th, 1-4pm
@ Zoe & Floyd:
We'll get ourselves covered in pumpkin orange & black glitter as we craft some great Halloween treat cones and a glittered paper plate pedestal, while stuffing our faces with delectable Halloween treats.... Note: Z&F has wonderful fine Art as well as handmade crafts & jewelry to peruse, and there's a fantastic antiques shop across the street, and Tickled Pink (another fab shop, full of shabby wonderful-ness) right next door!!! A great fall destination...

Glitter-ween Fun!
Saturday, October 27th
@ Tinsel Trading Company:

Hop on your broom and fly to the big apple for some Halloween fun! We'll make a black crow treat box and a glittered pedestal to put it on....and I suspect there might be some fab Halloweenie cookies involved! YAY! ( and of course, you'll OD on all the gorgeous-ness in this shop ...and can trim out your treat boxes with Tinsel Traders trims, lamettas, scrap, millinery flowers and more!)

Fruits & Nuts...Holiday Glitter 101

Saturday, November 10, 1-4pm @ Zoe & Floyd:

We'll have some glittery Holiday fun! (Yes, there will be cookies!) I'll show you how to make my signature glittered pear ornament, complete with hand-forged hook and cello bag. We'll also make a papier-mache walnut box ornament, perfect to fill with chocolate or a special treat or Christmas wish. These make perfect hostess gifts...but most people just can't part with them ...(they put them on their own tree or mantle!). Please come join me for some glittery good times!

(I just love getting glitter on other people's faces, hee hee!)

Just in case you haven't discovered this site...ya just gotta go there!

CuteOverload is where I go everyday to get my cuteness fix...and a really good laugh. (It also warms the cockles of my heart...you know, I get the warm fuzzies...) It's just plain funny, (sometimes hilarious) adorable and wild, all wrapped up in one furry, outraeous blog! The picture captions, in cuteoverload language, are worth the trip. It's won all the blog awards and has a huge following. ( I am its # 1 fan. ) The blog author, Meg Frost, is brilliant!

So I just wanted to make sure all of you guys knew about it.

Now get over there, warm up your fuzzies and have a good old belly-laugh, tee hee...

WARNING: This site could be habit-forming.

p.s. If you're not an animal lover, please disregard this post. There is help...seek it.

What we've got here is a...leaf-napper!

The perp: Cali, a sneaky calico whose mission in life is to steal my bestest velvet leaves...

Here's my innocent box-o-leaves...When I'm not looking, she verrrry quietly jumps up onto my worktable and nuzzles around in the box til she finds just the right one. It must be a spray of leaves, preferably expensive ( from Tinsel Traders, of course), and one with some of the leaves cut off. She delicately takes it in her sharp little teeth and stealthily makes off to her lair...on a folded blankie by the window...or under our bed!
She proceeds to wrestle the thing into submission...
I didn't do it!!!!
Further evidence...Here's a close-up of the poor victim, slightly moist with a few tooth marks...

Case closed for now. Leaves returned and replaced with proper cat toy...(not!)...this is the only toy Cali likes, so I do let her play with the wire skeleton that's left over when all the leaves have been cut off. I think she thinks it's a really long, skinny bug!
Gotta love her. And I do!

That was then...

A couple of months ago I cleaned up my act a bit for a photo shoot...but it was only temporary...

This is now... I've been designing & glittering like crazy, attempting to get ready for my fall season of shows, as well as coming up with some new ideas, preparing for workshops and developing new products for my etsy store (not much time for that lately!) and making stuff for the wonderful retail stores that sell my glittergoods.

My worktable is a complete jumble,... a tangled hodge-podge of fruit, pliers, ribbons, held all together with hot glue threads! There are ribbon scraps, velvet leaves and of course, lots of glitter everywhere...(sigh)...pure heaven, if you ask me! I'll never win the award for tidy-ness, but I have a heck-of-a-time here in Glitterland! I do try to sweep up and put stuff away (sort of) whenever I have time but it seems I'm always under pressure to get something to somebody somewhere and I'd rather make stuff than clean!

Note: My motto is "A clean house is a sign of a wasted life." Another one of my favorites is "Housework is evil...it must be stopped!" There's no point in even trying to get all the glitter up anymore...however, I do try to not waste a flake cause it's expensive and I use aluminum pans to contain it but some always manages to escape, mostly on my face! But now that my studio is off the dining room table (where it lived for 6 years) and into my old kitchen at one end of the house, I can contain my glittery-ness better and there's not so much of it elsewhere.

Yesterday was "pear" day and I also worked on some veggie ideas. Just wish I had about a jillion more hours in the day so I can get everything done. Gotta go glitter something now...

With glittery love to all you fantastic blogging buddies,

(I really love reading your amazing blogs and learning about all of you and your projects...and I especially love your very kind comments.)

xoxo

The Glitter Fairy

I've been tagged.....

My friend, Michelle, from Faerie*Dust*Dreams just tagged me so heeeeeeear goes.....

4 jobs I've had:
Design Director/Graphic & Package Designer
High School Art Teacher
Assistant to the Minister of Cultural Affairs, Embassy of ****, Washingtin, DC (Wild experience!!!)
Children's Entertainer (Yup, with guitar, singing and the whole bit!)
...and I've had tons more...I know, it's the ADHD! I feel like I have (seriously) lived several lives already...and now I'm a mom AND a glitter fairy. What will be next?
4 films I would watch over and over:
That's a hard one...I don't watch many movies, can't sit still long enough...but I do enjoy...
Shrek I
The Wizard of Oz (I watch this annually)
White Christmas (just call me sentimental...sigh...)
The Sound of Music (always wanted to sing at the top of my lungs on top of a mountain!)
4 places Ive lived:
a 700 acre farm in Pennsylvania - born and raised there with the cows...( i.e., perfect childhood with nothing but nature all around...hand-made clothes by my mom, freshly pastuerized milk from the farm and freshly baked warm cookies after school. My mom was a saint! And yes, I had a beautiful collie named Cleo, who would be waiting every day after school for me at the bus stop. I'm not making this up!!!)
Rochester, NY
Washington, DC
Connecticut
4 favorite TV shows:
Any cooking show, especially Jaques Pepin or Julia or Lidia
Pretty much anything on PBS (Hey, we don't have cable!)
Ugly Betty (what a hoot!)
Martha (obviously)
4 favorite foods:
Now this IS hard...I love all food, so I'm only gonna list 4 things I don't like:
Liver, or anything that has been anywhere NEAR liver...
Peas, those little greenies...however, I do love snow-peas ( I even have a glittered snowpea in my veggie line!)
Sauer Kraut
refried beans
(Chocolate and ice cream & freshly baked chocolate chip cookies are at the top of my love list...oh, and a good steak...lobster...and anything with cream, suger or butter in it!)
websites I visit every day:
CuteOverload.com wins hands down! (The world's best website!!!)
my etsy store (to see if I've sold anything...)
my blog (obviously)
see my fav list to the rignt. ( I LOVE all my blogging friends and visit them all daily as time permits.)
4 places I love to be:
Cape Cod
My studio, up to my elbows playing in glitter and working on new ideas
In front of our fireplace, (picture a roaring fire) laying on the couch with all the other lights off, looking up at our sparkly Christmas tree all lit up in it's glory! Of course, the kids, hub & cats are all there, too!
NYC , especially Tinsel Trading Company
4 favorite colors:
periwinkle blue
moss green
white
sea foam green
(anyone see (sea) a trend here?)
4 names I love but wouldn't use for my children:
Thaddeus ( I was named after a horse-thief named Thaddeus Munson and my middle name is Munson! )
Munson (I wouldn't name a kid Munson, either!)
Loretta
Matilda

Well, that's the end...now you know everything about me...maybe tooooo much...so now I will tag.... Lidy of Littlefrenchgardenhouse , Kari of Artsymama , Karla of Sugar Bear Designs , Linda of Restyled Home , Jennifer of SisBoom Daydreams

Ta ta for now...

Kari's Artful Blogger Party..............Parrrrty-tiiiiiiiime!

Hey everybody, I'm so thrilled to participate in Artsymama's fabulous Artful Blogger Party. Please check out her blog today to meet some amazing bloggers. I love meeting new craft bloggers, to see what they are up to and also share my glittery ideas and projects.
My offering toady is the post directly below this one, "The eensy-weensy spider...(oops!)...bumblebee...!" , which shows how to make a glittered bumblebee matchbox ornament. It's not an official tutorial, with step-by-step instructions, just general info & pics, but I'm sure you'll get the idea. Any questions on the details or materials, please email me @ glitterworksstudio@sbcglobal.net.

Hope you all have a fantastic blogging day....I'll be reading all of your posts. ( Guess I won't be getting much work done today!!! YAY!)

Thanks so much to Kari, a fantastic & inspirational artful blogger!

xoxoxo

The Glitter Fairy

The eensy-weensy spider...(oops)...bumblebee!

Here's my latest matchbox ornament, with a big, glittery bumblebee front and center!

I painted the inside box moss green (big surprise, there!), then covered the outside slider with green & white decorative paper, highlighted with glitter, of course.

Next, I glued a velvet leaf on top, then added a glass glittered bumblebee. I glued a silk ribbon on the top as a hanger and filled it's little drawer with the most silky, gorgeous stuff, called Angelina. It's a wispy fiber that is used in fabrics...or in anything woven that needs some shine. I got it from my glitter company, who also makes it. Feels like bedding for an angel! Sooooo soft.

I glued a piece of white card stock on the back ( it's sort of a base) and stamped "For:" so the giver can write the givee's name or a sweet sentiment. Perfect for a single piece of chocolate! Or, better yet...something REALLY SHINEY!!!! Oooooh!

Later...

I'm a basket case....

I've always been a "basket case", ...er...I mean I am a sucker for baskets.
Any size, material, shape, I'm gonna love it.

An artichoke can make a fine basket.....cabbages make fine baskets...you never know what I'll cobble into a basket for treats or place cards! And I have waaaay too many store-bought baskets around here. I'm extra crazy about nantucket-style baskets and thankfully, The Christmas Tree shop carries tons of them at a very cheeeeep price. I just can't go in there anymore...

But... I'm also crazy for boxes. I especially love small boxes for candies, treats and treasures.

I loved making chick & duckling boxes at Easter...

I made bumble-icious bee & flower boxes this spring

( did a fun workshop on those!) ....

and now I'm working on some sliding boxes. Matchboxes or slider boxes are great to work with...so many sizes and shapes, from the teensiest for the tiniest of treasures, to large, which will hold just enough chocolate! You can buy pre-made blank ones, use a real matchbox (sans matches, of course) or make one out of a box you already have, minus the lid.

I made this one out of a recycled jewelry box and the sliding cover out of card stock, which I stamped with you-know-what...bees, with a few dragonflies for good measure. I added silk ribbon, vintage style velvet leaves, a silk flower and of course, a glittered bumblebee hovering above.

This baby even has its mouth open, just waiting for sombody to put something special in it, hopefully, chocolate...

Will be doing an ornament version for Halloween & Christmas.

A girl's gotta have a place to stash her chocolate, don'tcha know!!!

C-ya

p.s. Can you see a trend here, people??? I'm also nutsy-crazy for moss green and pea green, a few shades lighter. And BUMBLEBEES...I know, there is help...seek it!

Vacation eye candy...(sigh)...

This just in from heaven...

There's something about sunsets. Each one is so different and more glorious than the last!

(sigh)...(double sigh)...Doesn't get better than this, does it?

Sparkling apple-iciousness...

This is one of my favorite glitter fairy products. It's a faux apple, glittered and adorned with a velvet leaf , with a hand-forged wire curli-cue. You can stick your favorite picture in it, post the menu for your dinner party or stick a hand written place card into it. Makes a great gift for your guests to take home after dinner, too. I used a combo of gold ultrafine plastic glitter with antique silver glass glitter, over the apple. A bit of the golden apple color is coming thru.

I usually do these in red glitter for teacher gifts. It's a fun twist on the "apple for the teacher". You can make a small color copy of the class picture, and insert it into the curli-cue for your child's favorite teacher. I'll have some up on my etsy store in time for the holidays.

Yours in glitter...
Laurie

Well, lah-dee-dah...glittered compotes!

It's a known fact that I am an antique cake stand & compote freak. I collect them and hold them very near to my heart. I especially love the clear EAPG bakery style cake stands which are so well worn and full of history. I use them all the time for display at shows and also for foods at parties. It's amazing how elevating cookies or a cake on a glass stand can make them look terriffic.

Sooooooo... I've been working on lots of new ideas for the Fall ...and ....I started fiddling around with candlesticks, tart pans, plates, shells, bugs and of course, glitter, and ......the next thing I knew, these decorative compotes appeared! I have used different types of paints & glitter, too, including glass glitter, which means they must stay out of the way of little fingers!

The compote at the top of this post (first picture) is actually a large scallop shell, the kind you serve fancy seafood dishes in, glued to a small wooden candlestick which is glued to an upside down terra cotta flower pot saucer, with a glass-glittered dragonfly hovering overhead. Am I nuts, or what???!!! These pictures don't do them justice. They really sparkle in the sun.

These are purely decorative and are not meant to be used with food, unless you like eating glitter, but they can hold all kinds of other things. At the holidays, you can pile them high with glittered pumpkins, a candle, glass ornaments, fruit ornaments or other decorative treasures to add a bit of sparkle to your table.

The little bitty ones were made out of mini tart pans glued to small candlesticks, and can be used as place markers if you pile some mini glass balls in them and stick a place card in. I'm sure you guys can think of other ways to use them...

You never know what I'll dream up next!

Would love your thoughts, comments or ideas.

Laurie

My kind of heaven....

Just got back from The Cape and wanted to share one of my favorite moments with you. The bay has such spectacular sunsets and this baby had absolutely amazing colors! We try to stay down at the beach until the last rays dip below the horizon, even though the no-see-ums are doing their best to take up residency in our noses. Can't believe it will be a whole year til we see this sunset again...

Why, oh why, does vacation have to end???!!! ( long sigh...)

I'm gonna print this sucker out and stick it to the wall of my studio, right in front of my face!!! (longer sigh......)

More "crowning" around...

Can't seem to stop myself from making crowns with fancy papers, velvet leaves, flowers and of course, lots of glitter! This one's off to a shop on the other side of the country to bring glittery goodness to another unsuspecting diva!

Off to the beach...see you all soon!



Yours in glitter,



Laurie