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Valentine Heart Garland

February 13, 2012 in craft, decor, DIY, Paper, reuse, trash

heart garlands

heart garlands

I’m not into flowers and chocolates but I do love an excuse to cut hearts out of paper. In Montpelier, Vermont where I was living the Valentine Phantom would plaster the town with thousands of red hearts. That means spending several hours in sub-freezing temps in the middle of the night taping pieces of paper to every window on every store in town. Amazing when you drive down the street on Valentine’s day…

Sometimes my friend Suki and I would do guerilla arts and crafts for V-tine’s with kids or other women and would write love poems on pretty paper and stick them in random public places…on elevators…bathrooms…etc. I love the idea of spreading love…not just romantic love…but love for everyone.

Anyway, here’s a simple project I used to do with my students. Start by taking a magazine and cut strips about 1″-3″ wide. I used an older Free People catalog.

Fold strips accordion-style…

If it’s helpful, you can draw a heart on one end, but make sure you leave a little room where they will connect to each other on the folds!

Cut the top half…

And then the bottom! Unfold and tape together to hang where you please, or to wrap around a small gift.




Free People Catch A Dream DIY Event!

December 7, 2011 in art, craft, DIY, doilies, dream catchers, fashion, feathers, holiday, Portland Oregon, sculpture

The DIY dream catcher event at Free People Portland was totes amazeballs (lol)! It was featured on their corporate blog, and lots of people came out to get their craft on. My inner art teacher was so excited to share my creative pursuits! And the pieces that people made were unbelievably beautiful. Plus, we had Maple Butterscotch cake with EDIBLE GLITTER (!!!) from Cake & Mukti (check out her blog The Yoga of Cake), and supplies donated by Relica Vintage. I hope I get to do it again! Valentine’s….?

Free People blog screenshot

from the FP blog

FP Event Poster
Interior Portland Store shot

THE CAKE!!!

Best. Cake. EVER.

FP Crafty Girl!




gettin crafty!

 

cake goddess!

Samantha Cullen from Cake & Mukti

Samantha Cullen shows off her piece

store window

exterior shot of the store window with raffle piece

Epic Dream Catcher Raffle at Free People Portland!

December 7, 2011 in art, craft, doilies, dream catchers, feathers, holiday, Portland Oregon, reuse

I made a huge-normous dream catcher to be raffled off at the Free People Portland store as part of an upcoming DIY event on December 2nd.  I also made a smaller one, so there are two chances to win! Raffle tickets are $5 at the store and some of the proceeds will benefit Adopt-a-Family Portland. The drawing will be held on Dec. 15th via Facebook.

This piece took about 3 days to complete and features vintage metal fringe, a detachable fox tail fur charm, earrings from fortune cookie fortunes and vintage lace, with a huge vintage doily behind a hand-woven “web” with vintage button “spider”. There’s also a plastic water bottle feather garland, which was featured on the Free People blog!  You can see tons of photos here on my Flickr.

dream catcher for Portland Free People store

the beast! it's over 6 feet tall!

 

detail of the large piece at Free People

detail of the large piece at Free People

fox tail charm detail

this piece features a detachable fox tail charm!

lace & fortune cookie earrings

on either side of the piece hang earrings featuring fortune cookie fortunes and vintage lace!

FP Dream Catcher

The second one I made is MUCH smaller, but no less charming! It features vintage trims and gold painted feathers.

two dream catchers for raffle

here are the two raffle prizes!

raffle prize #2!

raffle prize #2!

pic of me and the beast!

pic of me and the beast!

rachael rice on free people blog

May 25, 2011 in craft, doilies, dream catchers, feathers, jewelry, nature, necklace, sculpture

rachael rice on freepeople blog

sweeeet.  got a guest artist spot over on the always-inspiring free people blog.

i love sharing how to make stuff.

here’s a basic way to make a little dream catcher. riffing on the round object with danglies (found in every culture) i’ve been (finally) finding uses for my slightly embarrassing doily collection.

also featured here are diy doily crystal necklaces. my friend heather treasure cautions mindfulness about sourcing quartz and other crystals, and recommends arkansas crystal works.

free people diy blog post

from the building 25 free people blog

sculptures by rachael rice

dream eyes & god catchers

large object outdoors

object with vintage trims and detail view

supplies

start here

step 1 & 2

start here. i used a bangle. tie string, loop around.

keep looping around, and when you get to the beginning...

keep looping around, and when you get to the beginning...

how-to

catch the loops and weave the string through each one. back to front or front to back, it doesn't matter as long as you are consistent

final product

keep spiraling in until it gets too small to work with. add a bead and tie off. add feathers, etc. and you're done!

doily art
object with doilies and painted feathers

 

supplies

pastels or crayons, watercolors, collage elements

 

 

painted feathers

draw with pastel or crayon, add collage elements, and paint over.

 

 

feather detail

cut out, draw designs with markers. i like sharpie paint pens.

 

 

finished product, and "dark star"

finished product, and "dark star"

 

 

doily, lace & quartz necklaces

doily, lace & quartz necklaces

 

 

necklace detail

wrapped in wire, held by a piece of vintage lace

 

 

quartz necklaces

quartz necklaces & lace

 

 

the piece i sent to julia at fp

the piece i sent to julia at fp

galaxy shirts, rough quartz necklaces, and the expo

March 30, 2011 in craft, dream catchers, fashion, feathers, jewelry, necklace, sculpture

vermonthealers.org held its second annual spring expo and i was a vendor!  it was great practice for the holy grail that is portland, oregon’s crafty wonderland, which totally blew my mind in December.

some of my wares included galaxy nebula apparel which i bleached, dyed, and then painted, various necklaces made from chains and quartz crystals, some flower head pieces, and some giant “dream catcher” sculptures, one of which was the first piece of art purchased by a 13 year old on her birthday.

flower head pieces at the Expo

flower head pieces at the Expo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

more items from my table

wares

my table

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"gold dust" dreamcatcher

"gold dust"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"dark star" dreamcatcher

"dark star"

 

 

 

 

 

quartz crystal necklaces

quartz crystal necklaces

Expo interior

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

quartz crystal necklaces

quartz crystal necklaces

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

dream catchers

dream catchers

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

pink flower head piece

head piece with feathers & vintage button

 

 

 

 

 

 

head piece with peacock feathers & vintage brooch

head piece with peacock feathers & vintage brooch

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

headpieces

headpieces

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

diy galaxy wear

DIY galaxy apparel

 

 

 

 

 

 

photo of me and my table

photo of me and my table

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

more feather & dream catcher art

August 2, 2010 in craft, dream catchers, feathers, leather

I made these tiny ones for my car and as a necklace.

another version

another version

car dream catcher

dream catcher necklace

dream catcher necklace

me in the necklace

me in the necklace

leather feather necklace

leather feather necklace

adrenaline doily buddha

August 2, 2010 in art, buddhism, craft, doilies, feathers

i’ve been kind of obsessed with doilies. i recently was gifted a ginormous bag of them from the antique store in montpelier:

doily haul

doily haul

i’ve also been a long-time buddha altar collage maker.  i’m finding creative ways to use the doilies too…here’s one I made this week:

Adrenaline Buddha

to help dial down my adrenaline fatigue

make space for crafting

February 8, 2010 in craft, creative spaces, interior design

i got really inspired by craft magazine’s “make space for crafting” series…so behold my home studio!  this is where the action happens…in my own little world at least.  soon the drum kit will be gone and i will take over zee livink room!  here’s the flickr set of all the photos.

home studio

home studio

shelf detail

shelf detail

shelf detail

crafting trays

crafting trays

works in progress

works in progress

w.i.p. detail

w.i.p. detail

make space for crafting!

make space for crafting!

needle felted bird nest and acorns

January 10, 2010 in craft

my friend Suki taught me how to needle felt the other day.  it’s crazy!  random pieces of fluffy wool, dish soap, and hot water — then you STAB-STAB-STAB the little piece of fluff until all its fibers intertwine.

so i tried out my new skillz making a bird nest pincushion and some lil acorns (special props to Kate Sprout for the photo-blemish-reduction help):

felted nest pincushion & acorns

felted nest pincushion & acorns

felted nest detail

felted nest detail

felted acorn detail

felted acorn detail

leather and feathers earring project

January 3, 2010 in craft, fashion

during my trip to portland, oregon i bought some fantastic feather earrings by marion max at an amazing vintage store rocknrose:

iphone pic of me wearing earrings by marion max

iphone pic of me wearing earrings by marion max

i was really inspired by them and thought i’d take a crack at making some feather earrings myself.  mine are made from recycled leather, random beads, a broken necklace chain, and various craft feathers.  ok i admit i plucked a few from the feather duster.

leather & feather earrings

leather & feather earrings by me

 earrings on

here's me wearing them. babushka!