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Foam Magazine Print Feature DIY

April 9, 2012 in DIY, doilies, dream catchers, nature, reuse

Lahaina Aloha: A Mermaid Catcher!

Foam Magazine ran a feature about my work in their print magazine and asked me to make a little video to accompany their online DIY article. Great excuse to learn how to use iMovie on my iPhone!

Music by Kevin Macneil Brown: http://kevinmacneilbrown.bandcamp.com.

Here’s a shot of the magazine with the article.

Sea Dreamer feature in Foam Magazine

I made two pieces for the feature — one is called Lahaina Aloha (after a Beach Boys song) which features a huge doily center and salvaged hula grass from SCRAP PDX. It also has hand-felted jellyfish from my mermaid-in-arms Suki Kapinao of Suki Healing Arts. Her stuff is super fun and you can see it on her Etsy shop: http://sukihealingarts.etsy.com.

with Suki's jellyfish!

With sand from Canon Beach, Oregon, The Great Salt Lake, Utah, and Bellows Beach, Hawaii

The other piece I made is called “Little Surfer” and I got a lot of the materials at the hardware store…chain…paint samples…neon nylon…

so easy!

Thanks Foam!

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Tags: DIY, dream catchers, dreamcatcher, etsy, felted, Foam Magazine, how to, hula, island, jellyfish, mermaid, ocean, sea, suki healing arts, Suki Kapinao, tropical
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Valentine Heart Garland

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

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.

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Tags: catalog, craft, DIY, free people, heart, love, magazine, paper, recycling, reuse, Valentine
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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….?

from the FP blog

Best. Cake. EVER.

Samantha Cullen from Cake & Mukti

exterior shot of the store window with raffle piece

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Tags: art, craft, DIY, doily, dream catcher, fashion, free people, oregon, pdx, portland
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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

this piece features a detachable fox tail charm!

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

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

here are the two raffle prizes!

raffle prize #2!

pic of me and the beast!

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Tags: art, craft, DIY, doily, dream catcher, feathers, free people, holiday, oregon, pdx, portland, raffle, vintage
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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.

from the building 25 free people blog

dream eyes & god catchers

object with vintage trims and detail view

start here

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

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

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

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

: object with doilies and painted feathers

pastels or crayons, watercolors, collage elements

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

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

finished product, and "dark star"

doily, lace & quartz necklaces

wrapped in wire, held by a piece of vintage lace

quartz necklaces & lace

the piece i sent to julia at fp

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Tags: craft, DIY, doily, dream catcher, fashion, feathers, jewelry, necklace
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diy terrariums

April 27, 2011 in nature

…terraria?! i made mine by getting some activated charcoal from the pet store, and put a layer of that, a layer of pebbles, a layer of soil, and tromped around the woods for fun mosses and whatnot. i even made a tiny one out of a horseradish jar.

from the front with the lid off

terrarium interior

from above

lid on

terrarium interior

from above

terrarium interior

tiny terrarium

tiny tiny terrarium!

nature!

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Tags: deer, DIY, terrarium
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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.