When is a green crayon not a green crayon?

As I was working on my green and gold background crayon paper for Christmas cards, I pulled a small piece of a green crayon out of my basket. I had several green crayons out and ready to use because the different shades always create nice depth in the paper...

I was very surprised when I began melting this crayon because I didn't get green, I got gold! Very shiny gold. So, I played with it a little bit on the page then put it down to do some research. I can across this blog: http://aleksandreia.wordpress.com/2009/03/18/all-that-glisters-is-not-metallic-gold/ and discovered something I never even thought of before. Apparently my gold crayon is pre-1994 and was made using bronze powder. Crayola no longer uses bronze powder in their gold and copper crayons. I also have a copper crayon that is from the 1960's ( I believe)...

And there is a gold in that old package as well but it is not nearly as green as the little piece I found. So, after finding out that the formula for my shiny gold piece has been discontinued, I thought I'd compare it to a new gold crayon:









See how shiny it is compared to the newer gold formula. It is wonderful. I won't be using this crayon any longer. It will go with my other older crayons and I also will not be using the green/gold paper sheet I made with it. I think I will save that too.

This discovery kinda got me in a collecting mood. :) It may seem strange, but I can see myself collecting old crayons... Hmmm...

Happy 4th of July!

I wanted to take a moment to wish everyone a Happy 4th of July! I hope everyone enjoys the parades and fireworks. We had a few fireworks being popped off in the neighborhood last night. It was fun to see them, but our little dog is terrified of the noise. Poor puppy! He felt he had to sit in my lap while I was working on little thank you cards last night.

Hope everyone has a happy, fun and safe day. Don't forget to take a moment to remember all the sacrifices people had to make to get our Country started and to keep our Country going. And for all the Military personnel at home and abroad for their hard work and dedication.

I'm a Winner!!!

Recently I entered a contest at Paper Imagery Designs and would you believe it...

I won this beautiful Necklace! :) It was made by Angie Haviland. She posted a bottle cap charm tutorial which you can see here.

I feel so very lucky to be receiving such a wonderful necklace. Thanks so much to Paper Imagery Designs and to Angie!

My Studio

A member of my Yahoo Group challenged us to show our studio/art area. So, welcome to mine. It still needs lots of work. I am still getting use to having an area of my own. I use to have the corner of our bedroom, now I have a whole room to myself. :)

This is a shelf I bought at a City Auction a few years ago. It holds my papers, stencils, markers (on the top shelf) and other stuff... You can also see my paper shredder here. It gets lots of use!

My desk. On top are binders, some books and my daughter's art (which is waiting for framing). On the shelf are my decorative scissors, punches, paper cutter, glue, tape, envelopes, Etsy binder, business cards and labels. The desk top has items that I've used recently. On each side of the desk I have tall shelves. The right side holds paints, photos and the shelf with the rock (4th from top) is used to press handmade papers. The left tall shelf holds finished handmade papers and paper scraps. On the wall next is my handmade paper drying shelf system. You can see that the walls of the room are painted. The room is "Finding Nemo" themed. I didn't repaint when we moved in...

I have a sewing desk (which currently holds my iron and ironing board for crayon paper) and a bookshelf with books and rubber stamps and inks. The boxes on the left hold paper scraps for handmade papers...

My closet.... I really want to update the storage system here. The right side holds paper scraps. The plastic bags hanging have my Etsy items (idea from Penny), the middle has crayons, embellishments, holiday items and the left (part you can't see) has a filing cabinet and a big box full of fibers...

My bead shelf and on the wall to the left, a paper sorter with paper sorted by color...

Welcome!!! :)

Springtime Flowers

I think flowers are just so beautiful. They add so much color to the world... I have been blessed to have flowers blooming around my new home, thanks to the previous owners. :) There was one plant that I always wanted in my flower bed, Lantana. I just fell in love with it many years ago but never was brave enough to go ahead and plant one. Well, my new home has SEVERAL of these wonderful plants! How is that for luck. Or maybe destiny? I didn't even know they were planted here until the Spring. Anyway, I have these beautiful yellow/red and yellow/pink lantanas and I planted the purple myself.

Another favorite of mine: Gerber Daisy. I have several of these growing as well, but only one has bloomed so far...

Anyway, just wanted to show a little color on my blog today. :)

Hope you all have a COLORFUL day!

Swirls

I recently had a customer ask me if I could make my paper look like ice cream - with swirls. I had never tried anything like that before so it gave me a chance to play!

First I pulled some light pink sheets, then swirled in a darker shade by hand...

Not too bad...

Then I cut out a template to use to get more uniform swirls...

Then I thought, "Well hey, I have the template, let make just swirls."

I had a great time with the templates and decided to make more so now I have:

stars, Christmas trees, Christmas stockings, hearts, a butterfly, flowers and circles!!!

Blog Features

Over the last week and a half my Etsy shop has been featured in 3 blogs. I wanted to send out a big "Thank You" to these blogs for featuring me!

Thought I'd share those blog with y'all...

The first feature is in BekahQuilts blog : http://bekahsquilts.blogspot.com/

Bekah occasionally features Etsy sellers and she picked my shop for last week. She has a very nice blog.

The second feature is in my Etsy Paper Street Team blog : http://etsypaperstreetteam.blogspot.com/

The team has decided to feature 2 members per week. I was chosen to be the first.

The third features is in Audrey'sCountryCrafts : http://audreyscountrycrafts.blogspot.com/

Audrey also occasionally features Etsy sellers and I one of a few she chose to feature this week. She also placed my Etsy mini on her blog for the week.

So, if you are needing some new blogs to read, check these out. :)