Glitter-dom: The messy journey of a glitter filled letter project

 I had a project that has been stuffed in the dark (sometimes dusty) recesses of my brain since we bought this house with the Studio space. I KNEW I had to have some blingy-glittery amazingness on the walls.
I always loved the idea of letters spelling out something poignant or compelling.
However in the end I am much of a simpler person than that. I wanted the letters SNIP SNIP right above my cutting table.
Since acquiring a super-dooper new worktable (old dining room table from a college student who was leaving town cause she graduated) I had the space to finally glitterfy my letters.  My supplies were a giant tub of glitter, a stiff bristle paint brush, modge podge and my letters. Oh, and brown paper to protect and contain as best as possible the imminent sparkly mess. (Glitter from Walmart - Letters and Modge Podge from Michaels)

Step one was to coat generously the front surface of the letters with modge podge.  Generous will be the key word for this project in all aspects.
Seriously, generously apply the glue.

 Sprinkle liberally with glitter. Or in other words, apply generously.
Dont be scared of glitter. It will get everywhere. I had it in my hair, in my bra, on my shoes and on my face by the time I was finished with one letter.
No, I wasnt shaking it like a salt shaker.
Shake it like a salt shaker
However you could listen to this to make it more fun while you sprinkle.
Thank me later.

 Oooops.
Apparently SNIP can spell many things. like Spin. Pins.
or this.

teehee.

 Aftermath. And this ladies and gentlemen is why you put down paper.
After doing the fronts of four letters I started to pick up the glitter piles I had made from shaking the excess off and using that.
I figured the less I dumped out of the container the safer I was.

I later found glitter in many more areas than aforementioned. Trust me, I looked like I had a nice night out as a specific type of dancer that uses body glitter.
It rhymes with mipper.

It gets everywhere.
Accept that fact and we will all live happier lives. That also shows the commitment I have to wanting glittery letters in my studio.
So then you move on to the sides of the letter after 24 hours of dry time for the fronts.
Do not rush and do the sides while fronts are still wet. It just gets to be goopy mess. Give it the resting time it deserves to dry.
After the sides are finished give it another 24 hours to dry.
Go back the next day and spot check where glitter isn't as thick as you would like or you have bare spots.  Shake off excess well when everything is dry so you don't have a little glitter pile under your letters when you mount them on the wall.
Hang them in a non-high traffic area where they wont be bumped, thumped or generally molested. They will always have a wee bit of glitter falling off.
If you choose you can use a clear coat spray (like a spray paint only its clear - you can get it at Michaels, Walmart, Hobby Lobby, Joanns, Etc.) I chose not to use that as I like to live like a rebel. But trust me, it would help with the glitter shedding over time.

Here is the final outcome! It is a basic easy project, but just messy as hell.
The cat was the sole survivor of the glitter mess. Somehow, magically, he didn't get any on him. Do cats have an anti-glitter repellant in their fur? Someone should do a study on that and let me know!

Have questions about my little tutorial? Let me know in the comments!
:)

Baubles and Glittery Organization Bin Extravaganza!

This is post number one of all of the amazazing things I am doing with the finished studio space.
Kind of a tutorial but also how I am finally organizing my space to be productive and SEE how many supplies I actually have. I think that every crafters problem is overbuying cause they cant find the stash of such-and-such that they knew they had but little pink fairies have walked off with them. Or flown off, if it is that kind of fairy. We dont discriminate here.


 So I had these fancy-dancy Closetmaid fabric bins in multi-colors where I had been keeping my yarn for all of my wreaths. I had an overload of some colors and one skein of another. (I will post the ultimate yarn project at a later date, but for now you get to wonder what the heck I did with all of the yarn) so I figured I could use these to my advantage for other supplies that really needed to be color separated better.

 

Problem #1: Glitter.
Glitter was the first concern as anyone who has visited my shop knows that I use a lot of glittery sprigs and baubles on my Holiday wreaths. So instead of having yet another item in our household imbued with glitter, I made little liners out of old grocery sacks. I cut the handles off and folded over the edge so it wasnt all floaty plastic everywhere.
Dang I am crafty....and cheap.
So I did that to all of the bins.
Then the process of sorting was next. I had two large tubs of more grocery sacks of semi-sorted colors in a kinda half-assed-ed-ness manner. This made it very difficult to actually SEE what I had in each color. And not to mention that every time I had to get out supplies I had to haul out a large 35 lb tub of sharp pointy glitter picks and tiny baubles and things that would be a wonderful choke hazard for anyone under the age of 6  - or of significant interest to the four legged feline variety.

 Loki decided that it would be beneficial to dive head first in helping to organize.  No sense of self preservation - doesn't kitty know that plastic bags can suffocate you and it isnt good to sniff glitter? (I haven't seen any studies on this, it was just my common sense kicking in, but what do I know?)

I clipped all of the extra stems off so things would lay nicer and be more compact.
I also learned I have a million red glitter poinsettia picks.
THIS, this is exactly why I wanted to SEE what I had.
Now I know I have to be on the lookout for some pretty specific items this coming holiday season.
I also learned I have a LOT of blue glitter foliage.
See? Its been worth it!









Here are the bins all organized by color with their (expensive looking, HA!) liners.

I ended up making one of the bins for multi color items and the other for specialty items like candy baubles for my Gingerbread wreath and moss and mushrooms for my spring wreath so it worked out perfectly with the number of bins I had!

Studio Renovation

 It has been entirely too long since I blogged.
A lot has happened in the last several months!
I am pregnant and due in July with our first Mini-Red. We purchased a house in August last year and have been doing a LOT with getting it up to par.
Most recently the renovation on the basement has started. We had to tear out drywall when we moved in to put in structural supports. (BORING - but necessary) which also meant that I couldn't get to work in my beautiful new large space.


This is a before photo of the old studwork and the metal beams. Heh, I said Stud.

 Slowly but surely we had a couple of manly men professionals in our place and they added insulation on the concrete.

Mr. Red Marionette played macho manly construction worker one day and tore out some old wood paneling (circa 1968) and this long hallway is right outside of the studio. You can see my colorful bins!
The paneling made the hallway dark and creepy on the long walk to the washer and dryer.
Although I would love to decorate my basement like The Haunted Mansion it just wasn't practical.

Here is my studio with drywall and patching all ready for paint! I could barely contain myself at this point because this meant that it was nearing done!

FINALLY! PAINT!
It brightened up the space so much. We have big plans for this space and I want to do a reveal when I get it set up so for now this is the last little progress shot you get!

I am well in to my pregnancy and moving slower than I would like with all of this but I am determined to get it all set up before Mini-Red arrives!

Decrepit Spider Nest Wreath - How To!

 I had such a fun time making this simple wreath I wanted to share with all of you out there!
Here is a quick how to on making this Decrepit Spider Nest wreath!

Materials:
16" Foam Wreath Base
1 black garbage bag
1 spool of tulle (wedding department at michaels - or 1/2 yard from bolt material)
Black spider web in a bag from Walmart
Plastic Spiders of varying size from Michaels or Walmart
10 feet of black yarn
straight pins
hot glue
Scissors



Cut a couple of strips from your garbage bag about 5" wide. Pin the end of the strip to the wreath base so you can wrap it around to cover all styrofoam. (Do not use hot glue to attach garbage bag or it will melt)
Once you have used your strips to cover the base entirely in black plastic. Cut lengths of the black tulle material and do the same thing around the wreath base.
This gives it more texture and cuts down on a lot of the shiny-ness of the trash bag.
Once your wreath is covered you can use pins to decide where you want your black yarn web to be. I used a dab of hot glue here and there to get it to stay tight. I didn't do any fancy patterns, just started in one spot high on the right hand side and spread them out throughout the lower left. (See photo)
Now you can add the decrepit spider nesting material. Take your garbage bag and cut 1" to 1/2" strips in varying lengths. Pull them ever so gently so that the black plastic stretches. This causes a worn and old look to the plastic. Use pins to secure them to the back and sides of the wreath where you feel you would like the hanging material. Also feel free to use some of the black yarn pieces in the same manner.
Take your tulle and also cut in strips or tear in strips and then pull. They will also ravel slightly. Attach in the same way with pins to the back and sides of the wreath where you feel you like.
Once you have your stringy old-ness on the wreath you take a small handful of the manufactured black spider web material and slowly pull it across the wreath at varying angles. A tiny dot here and there of hot glue will help you attach them. Spread it thin and tuck it in and around in areas.
Take a 6" x 3" length of tulle and fold that in half and tie it so you make a loop. Pin this to the back of the wreath at the top so you have a hanger.

Now is the fun part. Placing your spiders. Hot glue where you feel you would like the spiders to be placed. I tend to favor placing the bigger items on the lower left of wreaths and then a few little items around the rest of the wreath.


If you have a metal door, you can purchase more small spiders and hot glue magnets to them to make them look like they are crawling away from the nest and swarming around the door.
I will be getting some glue dots because apparently our "metal" screen door isn't metal enough for magnets to stick! So I will post photos when I make the swarming spiders on the door.

Feel free to experiment with this! Michaels has some awesome Halloweeny foliage that is dead and old looking - instead of spiders you could use ravens or skeletons!

If you make this, or a version of it I would LOVE to see it how yours came out! :)

CIA Sale! Christmas in August!

Surprise! We are having a CIA sale! (Christmas In August)
Take advantage of our rare sale of buy one item get one 50% off! (of equal or lesser value). Just select "other" for your payment option when you check out and I will invoice you with your discounted total! The sale will be good through 8/16 at midnight CST!
http://www.etsy.com/shop/RedMarionette

Do you see what I see?

I got this sneak peek in the mail today!
Better Homes and Gardens Holiday Crafts issue out in stores on August 1st! Red Marionette is on pages 60-61 and the patterns and some small photos are on 66-67. I am credited as the designer but in the back of the magazine it links to my Etsy shop. Hooray!

I think the photos came out brilliant and beautiful!  I hope you all pick up a copy and check it out!

Making Lemonade from Lemons

If you follow my facebook then you have seen the most recent information, but for those of you that dont follow on facebook (you should, its fun!) here is a project that we have been spending time on.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1753538723/1854184086?token=ac2f8fb4

This is a video for a Kickstarter project we wanted to launch. (Kickstarter is a neat website where you can launch projects and people can pledge money for rewards to help you complete your goals) Alas, it was not meant to be and Kickstarter actual didnt approve our project. So it will not ever be live.

We had so much fun making the video we wanted you to see our plans anyway. We will proceed with the studio remodel and set up on our own time, which will be much slower without the funding by the way of Kickstarter.
Please enjoy the video and our strange sense of humor! :)

You're my cupycake!

 Arent these the cutest?
Of course I am biased. These are the most recent addition to our shop in the party goodies section!
Cupcake and cake toppers!
Happy little rainbow flags and a beautiful summer squeeze color combination!

Perfect for baked goods, little plant stakes and any other adorable decorative use you can find for them!

We have some big plans in the works for Red Marionette so please forgive the quiet summer we are having. :)

Busy, but not visually busy.

It has been some time since I have blogged.
I haven't recently been glued to the computer aside from checking emails and using Pinterest (goodness that is a whole different thing to be addicted to!). I have been working on building stock for the upcoming Holiday season in 2012. Spring and Summer is not a busy sales time for my work, so I always tend to drift off to disappear in to the land of felt-dom. I update facebook more often than Mr. Bloggity Blog here because facebook seems to be a shorter time commitment. I need to get back to blogging though, I do miss it.

I do promise I have been busy though! I did a big batch of wreath bases recently.  This was the dining room table action shot. Who doesn't love a colorful mess? I think I wrapped a total of 20 bases. I needed a bit of a break after that!

I am also working on tree skirts and felt snowy trees scenery. You remember the prototypes I did last year? I will also be making them in a bright Seuss inspired color set of hot pink, teal and golden yellow.

In other news, Kyle and I are house-hunting. So a move might be in the foreseeable future. A move that will facilitate a big Red Marionette studio and keep it contained instead of it being in the garage, living room, dining table AND small studio here. So fingers are crossed! We have some serious growth projected for this year so I am trying to stay on top of it! I am sure I will be singing from the mountain tops and let you all know if it works out!

As mentioned in the first few lines we need to discuss Pinterest. Do you have it? Do you use it? It is AMAZINGNESS! It is a virtual pin board for photos, ideas, anything you have and want to keep in one place.
I am on it at least twice a day looking up neato things between new recipes, home decor, and projects. Very addicting and will give you so many ideas!  I am on there as RedMarionette if you want to come and "follow" my pins. http://pinterest.com/redmarionette/ or leave in the comments your Pinterest username so I can see what you are pinning! I am such a geek for it. Seriously.

That is all for now in our little world. What do you all have planned for the summer?

Spring Sale Announcement and Details!

Hello out there and Happy Friday the 13th!
We are announcing our Super Spring Sale! Spectacular Spring Sale! Sunshiney Spring Sale! Enter any cute S word you want to describe it!
We only have sales twice a year (Spring time and Black Friday in November.) so take advantage and snatch up some brand new Red Marionette goodies while you can!
The sale will be buy 1 item, get 1 item 50% off!

I will be introducing some brand new critters (See the sneak peek in the photo above) and also a few one of a kind items! :)

Here is how it will work - Sign in to Etsy as you normally would and when you have all of your selections in your cart, check out with the "other" payment option. You will shortly then receive an invoice from me through paypal for the adjusted amount! Its that easy!
Please pay your invoice within 24 hours or I will have to cancel the sale as it is only going on Saturday the 14th and Sunday the 15th! It will start at midnight tonight and go through 11:59 pm Sunday night central time.
Please do email me with any questions at red_marionette@yahoo.com
The sale is only good for items in the shop and not for custom or backordered goodies. :)
Have a wonderful weekend!