One of My Favorite Altered Artists

Joni of Joni Originals from Phoenix is one of my favorite people.  She makes elaborate and beautiful altered art books, unique soldered art, and the list goes on...but her latest creations are paper mache angel dolls (figurines, statuettes) crafted by hand and made to look like little old ladies.  With sweet names such as Agnes and Mary these little ladies sport glasses, earrings, necklaces, etc. and have cute little hairstyles to match.  My personal favorite is Agnes (she wears glasses) - I like her facial expression which is serene  and she kind of looks like my mother in her later years.

I mentioned Joni's soldered art above and I am happy to say I have two of her pieces.  The first is a metal handmade cross with a crystal in the middle.  She tells me these crosses were made from the strewn (in the street) bristles of street cleaning machines. They are metal and they are rusty and a great idea for turning junk into something of beauty.  My little Roman statue wears his cross proudly.



Altered Art Cross by Joni Originals


The second piece of Joni Originals that I own is a little soldered inspiration box that is four sided with a different inspiration in each quarter.  This is adorned with found objects and and sits on little rusted feet.  I love, love it and it sits in my studio (also known as the master bedroom) where I can see it everyday.

Joni Original Soldered Inspiration Box

 You can visit my friend at Rock in Wrinkles at Etsy and I have added a link directly to her shop in my favorites to the right.

Newsboy T Shirt Hat

My latest craze is creating vintage style hats from T shirts.  I am working on a line of hats for my shop that I hope to have for sale soon.  I thought I would share one of my early hats (and favorite hat) that I wear myself. 

The pattern is based off an original newsboy cap that I found in an old book.  The T shirt fabric I used was a striped cotton blend. The final hat came out a little big because the % of polyester in the material was enough to make the hat stretch but I have a full face and I like to wear my hats big and floppy so I wasn't concerned about the finished hat being large.  I really love the rosette, also made from recycled T shirt fabric, because it makes the cap a little more fun.

Materials I used:

• Recycled T shirt - black and white stripe cotton blend
• Recycled T shirt - red 100% cotton
• All purpose cotton thread

An advantage to wearing T shirt hats (besides being "green", stylish, and kinda fun) is that they are cool (temperature wise) on your head which is nice for warm weather climates.

To see my line of hats coming soon (hopefully) to Etsy visit http://www.cynthiaandco.etsy.com/.

Green is good.  Cynthia

You may also like to read:
http://myjunkinspiredlife.blogspot.com/2011/04/recycled-t-shirt-hats.html

Junk Swap Anyone?

I have a new friend that I made through Etsy.  Her name is Elizabeth and she is over at Good Memories Cafe.  She is hosting a Swanky Junk Swap in Rural Hall, North Carolina that I think will be great fun!  Since I'm in Louisiana I can't participate but I love the idea of having a junk swap here is Metro New Orleans.

If you are a collector, junker, garage saler or thrift shop enthusiast in the New Orleans area and would be up for a swap here in LA please contact me with your thoughts.

If you happen to be in the Rural Hall, North Carolina area and would like to participate in Elizabeth's Swank Junk Swap email her at goodmemoriescafe@gmail.com.  I have a link to her blog in my favorites you can hop over and visit her now!

Remember Junk is Good | Green is Good!  Bye for now.  Cynthia

Recycled Felt, Warm and Natural Craft Project

For this project 97% of what I used was junk that I already had on hand -either salvaged or left over from previous creations- and I am  pretty pleased with the outcome.  Because I am posting the photographs after I completed the project I don't have step by step illustrations but I'll tell you what I used:

• Grape vine wreath
• Natural colored burlap
• Natural colored felt
• Warm and Natural fabric
• Brown acrylic paint
• Plastic mesh from potato bags
• Magnet Board (from http://www.cynthiaandco.com/
• Craft magnets
• Buttons (large scallops) from Dollar Tree
• Heart Ornament from Dollar General
• Seed Beads
• Misc. papers, ribbons, vintage buttons
• Gold metal hangers from hanging ornaments
• Lace doily
• Decorative wooden dowel for Make Do Stand
• Raffia
• Pages from old books
• Stuffing from old pillow for Make Do
• Aleene's Glue from Joanne Fabrics

Because I had everything in my craft collection, except the glue, heart ornament, and scallop buttons this was a low cost project - and it was "green".  I almost never throw anything away because I know my leftovers will get used for another creation! 

Well, Hello!

I just moved over to Blogspot yesterday after struggling with Wordpress for a week.  After talking to other crafters with blogs I think that Blogspot is a better "fit" for me.  I hear its more intuitive and I love all the gadgets and widgets that are standard.  So we'll see.  I'm working on some thoughts about what my first official post should be - ofcourse it will be a "green" post.  Cyberspace seems SO huge...heeellooo out there can anyone hear me?