Charity Wings 1 year Anniversary Party- Listen to Your ART.

This Sunday, Dyllan and I will be attending the 1 year Anniversary party at The Charity Wings Art Center! We are very excited! I have worked with Charity Wings in the past and I am glad we can go and support  them!

 I created this mixed media piece for the events silent auction. I secretly wanted to keep it because it turned out so amazing and beautiful. But then I thought it would not be fair since I created it with the intention of someone at the Art Center party "needing" it more than I do. Art heals. So maybe this will 'speak' to someone as the process 'spoke' to me.
You can view how I created this piece here.

Hopefully we will see you on Sunday? If not, have a great weekend!
- Michelle

Sin City Stamps - "Day of The Dead" chipboard books by Michelle Frae Cummings

I have just signed on with SinCityStamps.com to be a licensed designer!
Yea!
This is just the first of my new collection.
These are laser cut chipboard books.
(watermark will not appear on actual chipboard books)
Sin City Stamps Laser Cut Chipboard is cut from premium chipboard that is 0.057 in. thick.
Chipboard can be inked, stamped, painted, stained, sanded to give it the distressed vintage look, embossed on with powders and heat gun and much much more.
 Chipboard has endless craft-abilities!
These chipboard books are available now.  :)

 Day of The dead -2

 Day of The Dead -3

Day of The Dead
I just wanted to show you how awesome these books will be!
 Imagine painting them, adding glitter, beads and more!

Hippity Hoppity Steampunk Spring Blog Hop 2014

Welcome to Leslie Rahye's Steampunk Spring Blog Hop!
At the bottom of this post you will see all sorts of creations to do with Spring and Steampunk.
Enjoy!

 I was running low on hair clips for myself so I thought Id make these Steampunk flower hair clips.
Aren't they fantastic?
Here are the supplies I used:

1. Assorted spring colored fabric.
2. Embossed faux leather.
3. Shiny buttons
4. Metallic gold thread and needle.
5. Tim Holtz Gears die and Big Shot.
6. Inka Gold-gold.
7. Adhesive, permanent pen and pinking shears.
8. Hair clips.

The base shape of the colored circles is 2".
 I made a pattern from stiff card stock and traced with the permanent pen.
Next I used the pinking shears to cut them out.  I trimmed them slightly to fit the larger gear. I ran the faux leather through my big shot with the gears die.
For the circle under the smaller gear, I just lightly traced the gear onto card stock and used that as my pattern.

To color the gears, I used my finger to apply the gold, rubbing just over the embossed design.

You can tell the difference of before and after from the Inka Gold.

 Here are my shapes.
I used canvas material on the back for when I attach the hair clip.
It's best to cut out different shades of fabric because what might have looked good at first may not near the completion. I must have changed these colors 5 times!

I glued the gears onto their coordinating circles.
Then I secured everything in place with the gold thread and button.
I used alligator hair clips for my Steampunk flowers. You can get alligator clips at beauty supply shops and on Etsy.

Thanks for coming by! I hope you enjoyed my craft!
Happy Spring!

Down the Rabbit Hole - Charm Swap Reveal!

Hi Everyone!
Welcome to the reveal of our current charm swap- "Down the Rabbit Hole"!
Everyone did a amazing job with their charms and matching ATC's.

 I went a little over the top with my idea. and made a fun necklace with a this hidden message on the wooden spool.

  “Where should I go?" -Alice. "That depends on where you want to end up." - The Cheshire Cat.”
― Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures in Wonderland & Through the Looking-Glass

 It took me over two weeks to completely assemble all the necklaces. 

I pretty much made it up as I worked. 

*~*~ (I have a extra necklace and ATC to give away to one lucky reader!

 Leave a comment here about your favorite Alice in Wonderland memory or character and I'll randomly choose a winner when I post sign ups for the next charm swap!) ~*~*~

Barrel Cactus in Bloom by Michelle Frae Cummings

To take a break from my normal crafting, I thought it would be fun to show you a mixed media painting I did for this months theme- "Flowers".
I'm currently in Borrego Springs, Ca visiting my Mother. They had some rain a couple of days ago so most of the desert floor is still green and the flowers are still in the budding stage, not ready  to open up.
When I created  this barrel cactus cluster, I painted them in anticipation of what they will look like in a few weeks!

 I started first by painting the cactus base shapes with green watercolor. Then I added shades of bright yellow, yellow green and dark green watercolor. When the paint was dry, I added some definite detail with gold, dark green and pink pearlescent  watercolors by Yasutomo.

Next I used my finger to add some shades of Inka-Gold.
Lavared for the blooms with some Champagne in the center. Oldgold and Champagne for the cactus sharp spines. The nice thing about Inka-Gold is that once it set, it will not smear and your art work can be enjoyed with no hassle.
Lastly I used a fine tip black Sharpie to bring the Barrel Cactus cluster to life!

Thank you for visiting. I hope you have enjoyed the "change of scenery" from my normal crafting. :)
~Michelle

Please use the "hop forward" button to the right of this post -  for The Designer Craft Connection group to see what else is "blooming" on their blogs too!

Garden Blog Hop Winners!

Winners from this Garden Blog hop have been picked!
Please visit The Robins Nest Blog to see if you have won!