paintings

  This is pretty much how I felt the whole weekend at Silver Bella, I laughed my ass off. Well not really, I actually ate so many wonderful treats, I came home with a much bigger butt than when I started.

Meleen Dupree, (what a glorious name, I am jealous) took this photo of my fingernails.  I  had just come from Teresa's class where I tried to wash the color out of a bottle brush tree and the dye stained my fingernail polish.  The polish started out silver, and turned aqua from the green tree!

For this project, Teresa gave us stuff to use,  and it was supposed to be a Christmas pageant story, but I changed it a bit to be a snow scene. (If I find my camera battery charger, I'll get some better pics of it, I still have some tweaking to do to the piece yet, too.)

I was trying to lighten the bottle brush tree in the bathroom sink with hot water and soap, but it didn't work as well as the bleach soaking does.  While I was in the rest room, a bunch-o-bellas were in there using the hand dryer or sinks on various projects. I wonder what hotel guests thought about all of us in there leaving trails of glitter and getting paint all over the sink basins?

Kara Ward gave me a tree tip, she doesn't bleach hers, she rubs them with white paint, and that really saved my tree.  The hot water lightened it a little, but the white paint gave me the look I wanted.

I found out that you learn every bit as much from the other attendees as you do from the teachers!  (the lovely centerpiece is by Kari,and she forgot to offer them for sale after the luncheon, durn it! I'd have bought one!!)

And of course, we got to hear Mary speak at the luncheon and I was surprised to hear how down to earth she was.  During the question and answer period, her answers sounded like what I would have said to the same questions.    She sounds like a person who just likes to create things and is always working on something she enjoys doing. 

Here is the poster that we had an option to buy for Mary to autograph.  I didn't get one, but I did get to meet her for a few minutes the night before. Of course, I didn't recognize her, and just blathered on with my typical rambling conversation.  It might have been a bit more interesting if I'd let HER talk or had taken her photo, huh?

There were so many interesting people that I met there!  And everyone seems like an instant friend, we all have so much in common to talk about.

Here is Cheryl, (who looks like a mini ballerina perched in a vintage jewelry box), Tiffany (who was such a delight, I could have spent the entire weekend talking to her), and Sheila (who was such a huge help to me in setting up my vendor booth, I still owe her big time! She lives near by me and I hope we can hang out together).

Cute Pam is almost as tiny as itty bitty, cute Cheryl. Pam seems to be as much of a wallpaper addict as I am, its always fun to discuss vintage papers with a fellow collector.

Although Pam provided lots of good tidbits to use in her class, I preferred to bring my own goodies, and made this holiday home hanger into a ballerina theme confection. 

But to keep with the "house" theme,  I added a key to the arrangement.

Pam showed me how to use beeswax over the papers for a different look, and my pal Tiffany (whose business cards accidentally read "Shabby Craps" instead of "Shabby Scraps", I LOVED that!!) gave me some further pointers on how to use wax.

Like I said, you learn a lot from the other crafters attending. I plan on making use of these tricks and adding wax to my supplies in the studio.

Heather came up with a blue color pallet with her house, it was so "Pretty Petals"!

Sally Jean's Soldiering for Virgins was very helpful too. I've soldiered before and the people at my table were calling me a Soldering Trollop instead of a virgin.

But I got a lot out of the class, picking up some easier and more professional ways of finishing the charms.

Sally Jean is a beautiful woman, I'm afraid this photo doesn't do her justice. It also doesn't show all the scars she has from all the burns she has received over the years… Poor thing!

As the scaredy cat that I am, I was afraid of getting burnt in class too.  Lots of novice solderers all sitting close to each other could have been a disaster! But these pals all seemed to know what they were doing and really created some great stuff.

This is Julie and Shelly,  who were responsible for extreme bouts of laughter on many occasions, including "High School Confessional" at dinner one night. 

For those of you who were asking me, no, you DON'T HAVE TO HAVE A BLOG to have fun at Silver Bella! It was easy to gravitate toward bloggers to hang with because I felt like I already "knew" them from reading so much about them. But I made friends and spent time with plenty of blogg-less bellas too.

This is probably my favorite creation of the weekend.  Suzanne looked gorgeous in her vintage wallpaper rose charms!  Another thing I'd like to make. But of course, I'd need the great shirt with the roses and crown to wear with them. And her name tag….

And this, is the present I made for you in Sally Jean's class!

One side is a print of my painting of roses, the other is of little Sugarwings.  This is the one that got my table mates calling me a Soldering Trollop, because I added some extra bling to the bottom.

All comments, all month go into the giveaway drawing. And I do read and enjoy each and everyone. But I will have the little Fairy Grand baby all weekend, plus haven't unpacked yet, so I might not return all the emails and comments I get. I hope you don't think I am rude.

Jessi has some good photos posted of the Glitter Lounge on her blog.  Here we are with Heidi (who I didn't get to spend enough time with! I really wanted to hang out with her)

PS- I reopened my Etsy shop, and as soon as I find my camera battery charger, I'll add some new things to it!