Projects

Hand Painted Nativity

/ Sarah Collins / Leave a comment

I was looking through my boxes, yes boxes, of crafts I had not finished for my next project, and I found the nativity set. I opened the top cover of the box, and everything looked yellow. Then I removed the plastic cover, and the pieces was still white and in great shape. The price tag on the box had the year of 2004. This set survived a flood and traveled over 1100 miles to it new home.

I painted each piece with acrylic paint, but I wanted the pieces to sparkle. After the paint dried, I applied pearl glaze over each piece. Usually, the pearl glaze is added to the painted, but using it like varnish, gave the pieces the shine I wanted. To seal the pieces, I sprayed each with polyacrylic varnish.

Oh, Christmas Tree

/ Sarah Collins

On Thanksgiving, I asked my husband if he had any preferences for when I put up the Christmas tree. He said “No.”

On Black Friday, late in the afternoon, a brought the Christmas tree and the tree skirt up from the basement. My husband told me “You are suppose to do that while I am at work.” I think he just wanted me to cook supper and watch TV with him.

This is how my tree looked on Friday.

On Saturday, I added decorations.

My husband told me “You can put up the tree. It looks like you really want to.” I told him “No, I will put it up on Tuesday when I bake cookies.”

Sunday, I added lights to the tree.

Husband shakes head.

Monday, I put an angel on top of the tree.

Husband roll eyes.

I did get a letter from Santa.

Tuesday, I took the tree out of the box.

Husband comes home at lunch and asks what I did with the nicely decorated tree box.

Husband gets a look from me.

Here’s the decorated tree. Can a tree have too many ornaments?

I have come to realize, if I just left the tree in the box, I wont have to wrap presents because all the Amazon boxes would have match the tree.

More Polymer Clay Roses

/ Sarah Collins / 1 Comment

Below are batches 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 of my polymer clay roses with leaves and stems.

Batch 2:

I took some white clay and blended one edge with some pink clay.  The leaves and stems contains three shades of green and gold clay.

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Batch 3:

The center of the roses were made from the clay left over from Batch 2.   However, there wasn’t enough for three flowers, so I mix a little red with the pink and white for the outer petals.

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Batch 4:

I wanted some flowers that glowed in the dark. I mixed bright pink, yellow, and orange clay with some florescent clay.

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Batch 5:

These red roses were also mixed with some florescent clay, but they do not shine as well as the pink roses in Batch 4.

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Batch 6:

I had just finished the yellow sunflower vase and wanted some yellow roses to put in the vase.  But, yellow roses would just be too plain.  The rose color from stem to the petal tips are hot pink, orange, yellow, and lemon yellow.

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Batch 7:

Some more vase inspired flowers.  I used the leftover clay from the vase.  I gently it mixed together to make the roses.

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Klingon Warrior Kur’Den

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Denzil Miracle, who dressed up as Kur’Den, went to heaven on July 16, 2019, after succumbing to brain cancer.

He was the inspiration behind my Klingon Adventure post. He was passionate about dressing up as a Klingon and about his family.

He knew that I traveled 1100 miles in May to see him and to have one last conversation, while he still had most of himself. At that time he called me his sister.

His family brought his Klingon outfit to the Celebration of Life service, parked his Klingon vessel, the Dark Lady (his Corvette), in front of the funeral, and painted dolls green, so the Orion’s Slave Girls would be in attendance.

One guest brought the warrior’s drink, prune juice, instead of flowers.

I do not believe my life will be as colorful.

Rescued Houses – Part Four

/ Sarah Collins / 1 Comment

Another three house painted from my Rescued Houses series.  Why are they called “Rescued Houses.”  In August 2016, South Louisiana had what some believed to be a 1000 year flood.  The storage unit which held these houses flooded.  These plaster houses were in water for over week.  There is minor damage to all the houses, but that may add to their charm.

The entire story is in Part One.

Notice the Railroad Crossing sign.  It is not original to the house.  The original sign is  currently missing, which means it could be in another box.  Therefore, I created the sign in Tinkercad, printed with my 3D printer, and painted the sign.   I only had to print one sign, because I got the measurements right on the first design.

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Railroad Depot

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Music Store

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Jewelry Store

Klingon Adventure

/ Sarah Collins / 1 Comment

During Kur’Den’s recent travels through the Universe, he used his communicator to send back fascinating images from his adventure.   Below are the photos:

Since Kur’Den’s day of birth was about to be recognized on Stardate 70989, I remotely accessed his Klingon log file, a.k.a. Facebook, and obtained an official picture of him.

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I then proceeded to combined the adventure pictures with the official picture.

Meet Kur’Den, Tuq BelmoH Yotlh!  Sorry, Captain Kur’Den.

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Bye, Bye House!

/ Sarah Collins / Leave a comment

I been neglecting my blog lately because at the beginning of April I made the last effort to sell my house. The house had been for sale since February 2015. We had two offers on the house, which both fell through. I had over 100 people come through the house. According to the realtor, the house needed updating. The wallpaper needed to go. I had the wallpaper removed from the bathrooms in March 2015.

I came to realize that most people were looking for the finished house they saw on HGTV or the DYI network. Currently, I am boycotting all home improvement shows because I refuse to do the cheaper stuff they show on TV. I also figured out why most home improvement shows like “open floor plans”. They say it is to be near the family. But, it is cheaper not to rebuild a wall. No wall, electrical is needed in the wall. Why to do think men wants a “man cave”? It is to get away from the family.

For 6 weeks, I: trimmed bushes, pick up limbs, wash windows and walls, touch up paint, called the handyman to replace rotted boards, painted the new boards and side of the house, repaired the steps, striped a post and refinished it, repaired the garage door (yes, the spring broke), painted over the wallpaper in the foyer, took the blinds off of the foyer door and painted, put window film on the foyer door windows, took the wallpaper board down in the bathroom and painted, and had three windows replaced because the seal was leaking.

Finally, another offer on the house. Thank God, I do not have to trim the holly bushes. But, I still needed to finish packing, get the furniture moved, and have the AC serviced.

Here are some of the final pictures of the house after I moved everything out.

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I do not believe that anything I did over the past few months made any difference in selling my house.  I believe that the right time to sell finally had arrived.  I hope the new owner are happy with the house.

Now I can do other things, like write in my blog about my new adventures.