Natures Droppings

So, "What the hell" would you do with pine cones, acorns and potpourri?

I was green before green was green. But I was green for lack of green. No cash. So, I would use found objects and what I like to call, "Natures Droppings".

If you have a pine tree or acorn tree, you know there is an endless supply of these droppings. And have you really looked at a bag of potpourri? I love the many uses I can find for these freebies.

So, "What the hell" would you do with these?

Knife Vases

So, What the HELL would you do with these knives? They are silverplate and are somewhat lighter than usual.

Look for these types of handles. I still haven't figured out a 100% accurate test for determining if they are hollow or not. Let me know if you know.

Here is what I have made with them. Flower vases. I used some vintage beaded flowers from an estate sale and since I didn't have any fresh flowers on hand, I made some. So here goes...flower vases and flowers.

This is really very simple. This is the saw that I use. Estate sale find. Get a good clamp and clamp the knife to a workstation in the garage or somewhere. If you have a hollow knife you will only have to make a few passes with the saw. You might start to see white powder, if you do, it's not hollow. It is some kind of plaster of paris or something. I have found some handles that had sand in them.

This is what some will look like.
This is what we want it to look like. You want to cut about an inch under the handle/spreader line. After cutting, sand. You have made a flower vase. It can be put in a picture frame with flowers or made into a magnet for the refrigerator and put a single flower in it.

Using these supplies I made flowers to go inside. Click on photo to enlarge (if blogger is being nice to me today. If I move the photos around you can't click on them?!) I had some hard wire sticks from floral pics that I had saved. I took the red tacky tape and wrapped the wire stick and then used a cheapo fine chain and then wrapped it around the wire stick. I then attached some of my enamel flowers to the top of the stick and put them in the vases.

This is what you have left afterwards... Now What the HELL am I going to do with these? I have to save them. Suggestions?

80's Earrings for Hair

Whenever I saw these earrings I thought they would make perfect hair! I really like making these magnets. They're just strange enough for people to say, "What the HELL?"

Watch parts and junk jewelry

Okay, so "What the HELL would you do with these?" Countless ideas come to mind to use watch parts and junk jewelry. Two of my most favorite supplies!

I love to make little people either on magnets or making them into pendants. I'd like to introduce "Robo Hot". Please forgive my photography. Scanning came out worse.

When I get my junk jewelry lots I have to divy them up right away. I just can't wait. Really. Some of the less known categories (or are they?) I make are arms & legs, bodies and hair. You know there are those earrings from the 80's that when you turn them upside down they are hair. So do you see any of your junk jewelry this way?

Robo Hot's hair was made using keychains. Her face is a watch movement, watch hand for a tie and junk jewelry for the rest of her. Oops she does have earrings on made from some kind of fishing findings. Whoever knew we would refer to fishing supplies as findings.

So "What the HELL" do you make with this stuff? Send me some pics and I'll post them!

One World, One Heart Winner

Du, du, du, duh......(msp?) Drumroll please.......

The lucky winner of my fantastic bag of watch parts is.....

Nelly of Bella Nella's Paper Crafts!

Yeah Nelly! I will be sending your package out in tomorrow's mail!

Thanks to Lisa for all of her hard work with this event!

Thanks so much to all of you who stopped by my blog...I will miss the traffic. Hope to see you all before next year!

Gold Leaf...not leaves

Okay so I went to an estate sale and got a bunch of gold leaf. I thought to myself "What the HELL am I going to do with this?"

I'll admit it, it intimidated me. Why? I don't know. Too foo foo I guess.

I had a bunch of tarnished puffy silver hearts that I knew I would never clean and so I decided to try the gold leaf out on them. Oh my, they turned out so cool!

So what the HELL do you think?

I said worse than "What the HELL!?!"

Okay, less than a week ago I found out that Texas Womens University was having a Valentines Holiday show. I had tried to get hold of them for the last month to confirm this and was unable to. Just messed up communication. So anyway 6 days before the show I get an application. Yikes. I had nothing ready because the last 3 shows were so successful I was out of everything. Good and bad.

So, I'm preparing for the show tomorrow fast and furiously and while working on my silverplate flatware (an upcoming WTHW post), the drill bit breaks and I drill into my thumbnail. No, I didn't scream out "What the HELL!?!, I screamed out the "F" word loud and clear. Now this is the second time my left thumb has been hit by the drill at full speed. The first time the drill bit broke on me was last year and the drill hit right into my knuckle, hard. That was extremely painful and the tetanus shot was just as painful (it takes a day for your arm to get sore). Now drilling into your thumbnail isn't much better. Luckily I drilled the hole in the middle of the nail, to the meat and broke some nail, but my reactions are good, thank goodness, and I pulled back fast. If not it would have been really, really bad. Emergency room bad. Needles into the thumb bad. I probably should have gone, but WHAT THE HELL are they going to do? I already had the tetanus shot. Tylenol actually helped. Some. Where are the leftover pain pills when you need them?

So the point of this story is.....Use the drill press for the smaller pieces so that you don't get your fingers so close. Really. I won't do this a third time. But I just bought the drill press the other day and since time was running out, I didn't have time to figure out how to use it. Big mistake.
Oh and make sure you wear goggles! That I do every time.

Preview, Hints....

Okay,,,,,I'm playing with something right now that is too cool! I won't tell until next week though. I think. Sometimes I can't hold things back.

Okay, if you can guess what I'm playing with I will send one lucky winner some of it to play with also. Comments can be entered until Tuesday night the 10th at midnight. Bloggers who answered correctly will be eligible to win. Now if you were at my house recently than you might be able to guess what it is. You aren't eligible. But you can email me if you want a guess.

My fingers are sticky and shiny.
It's a transformer.
It's been around forever and needs to be brought back to the spotlight.

Too much info, too little? We'll see. So, what the hell am I using?

Zippers--Rick rack scoot over!

What the HELL would you do with these zippers?

This is what I made with the zippers. What do you think? This little cutie is my gbaby, Kenzi Grace.

You can glue these zippers onto almost anything. The picture frame and heart are wood, the circles below are chipboard. I've even used the small sample ceramic tiles from the hardware store. You will find that watch backs make their way into most of my projects.

Have you played with zippers before? If so, email me some pics! Show me What the HELL you have done with them. I'll have some kits listed in my Etsy shop for this project if you are interested! Just stop by my Etsy shop, the Altered Black Sheep .

Watch Backs---My new Bezel

What the HELL would you do with these watch backs?

They make the perfect bezel. They come in all shapes and sizes. I LOVE them. In the first picture, I have reduced photos to fit and then framed the bezel with beads and filled with resin. They make great pendants, magnets and embellishments.

In this picture, I added polymer clay faces and then filled the crevices with itty bitty beads. I sold a lot of these pendants at the craft shows over the holidays. The one in the center is surrounded by a zipper!

Now of course I have watch backs, watch parts and more available in my Etsy shop-the Altered Black Sheep. If you don't see what you are looking for, let me know. I'm a collector and hoarder of supplies. LOL

So, tell me what the hell would you do with them. Email me some pics to marysmadness2004@yahoo.com . I share, you share....it's a win, win situation.

One World, One Heart

Well I thought that I was going to be too late to be added to the official list! But according to today's post she will still try to add the links! Yeah! And of course I can still do a post and add a label, right?

Here's what would be nice. Leave a comment on here about what you like to use in your non traditional artwork. I'll choose a winner on the 12th of February and it could be you. You'll hear a knock on your door and I'll shout "You won!" I'll have a bouquet of red (no, yellow) roses, a bottle of champagne (maybe Diet Coke) and a box of Godiva chocolates. NOT! Sounds good though doesn't it?

The prize will be a baggie of watch parts and if you win it you might just say to yourself, "What the HELL am I going to do with this?"



It is officially over! Thank you so much to everyone who has entered my drawing and participated in this event. I now plan on visiting all the blogs of those who left comments.

I will pick a winner and announce it later this morning. I have to go back to the store and get the prizes....oh don't worry, I have the watch parts, it's just......Oh, What the HELL....I ate the damn chocolates, drank the champagne and diet coke and I really wasn't thinking and I bought the roses weeks ago and they are dead! So let me replace everything and then I will be on my way!

Resistors & Capacitors---

What the HELL would you do with these?

These will make you want to take your TV and computer apart! That's where you find them! These are resistors and capacitors. They are found inside electronics. When I saw these I knew they were begging to be used creatively.

I googled craft uses with R and C. The coolest example of their uses was found in an Etsy shop called Obvious Front. Now I have to say I love these! They are the coolest of examples of how to use resistors and capacitors! Look at each and every one of them!



Now this next picture is what I made. Not too bad considering I didn't know what I was doing!



If you have made anything with these I'm sure we would all love to see it! There is a lot of jewelry being made with resistors. Send me your pics to marysmadness2004@yahoo.com and I will post them here.

In my etsy shop, the Altered Black Sheep I have some of these available if you want to try your hand at it. Don't forget to send a picture of what you have made.

Next week: Steampunk!

Coming soon.....What the HELL Wednesday!

What the HELL Wednesday!?!

You guessed it! It happens on Wednesdays! Every Wednesday I will feature an item that I didn't buy at an artsy fartsy craft store. I will show you what I have made, or a featured artist has made with the item. Some things to come....zippers, eyeglass lens, watch backs (yummy), silverplate flatware, resistors, slide mounts.....All kinds of fun off the wall stuff.

I'll also just happen to list this item in my Etsy shop in the case that you might want to try your hand at it. Now, what would be great is for you to send me pics of what you have done with these same items.

I've always loved using "freebie" items. This started more as a necessity rather than "going green". I was a single parent for many a year, so this was the way. Recycling, repurposing, trashion, altering, whatever you want to call it. I call it fun.