The sun was lovely and full today. So my walls were sprinkled with dancing flecks of light.
Mirror Ball in the Sun
Sunshine Flecks!
17 Tuesday Jan 2012
Author Archives: Julia Monroe
Flickering Light
16 Monday Jan 2012
Usually around this time of year I start missing moving light. During spring, summer and fall the sunlight splashes off leaves outside and they are constantly moving light around. Even if I’m not looking outside, my eye catches those dancing specks, like sparks of a warm fire. In winter the light outside is so still that it makes the house seem cold and dark. I miss the flickering!
So that’s when I get out the mirror ball. It is five inches in diameter, covered with mirrors like a mini disco ball. I hang it with a thin cord from the curtain rod in the sunny window. The ball is always gently moving and sometimes I give it a good spin. The squares of light dash all the way across the dining room to the living room walls, filling my space with movement and light.
Even when there isn’t much light, such as the overcast sky today, the ball still spins merrily in the window, reflecting the sky. The room is all sparkled up now.
Mirror Ball in the Window
The last of the Christmas Cookies
14 Saturday Jan 2012
The tree is coming down this weekend. I will be sorry to see it go because it was a wonderful light source in a normally dark corner of the living room. We’re even more sorry that this is the last of the Christmas cookies! After taking a photo of this tray, I made a firm commitment to make new Valentine cookies this year. I didn’t get a chance to take cookie trays to our neighbors for Christmas so they will all get Valentine cookies this year.
The last cookies of Christmas 2011. On the tray: Top tier - Peppermint Sticks and Almond Spritz Trees. Bottom tier clockwise from Gingerbread Boys: Gingerbread Boys, Sugarplum Pies, Springerli, Pistachio Chocolate Chip Cookies, Peppermint Pattie Brownies.
Miniature Birthday Fiesta
07 Saturday Jan 2012
Host a doll-size Birthday Fiesta! This is one of the chapters that didn’t make the cut in Tiny Treats, a book I wrote in 2004. The centerpiece is a sweet little palm-sized pinata filled with real candy and plenty of delicious treats. Try the Three Teeny Quesadillas if you please or the Spicy Sombreros for a tiny treat. Use mini pinatas as place card holders or decorations on the table.
Miniature Birthday Fiesta!
For simple directions, see below.
For the Quesadillas, simply cut flour tortillas with a small round cookie cutter. Top with Beanie – refried beans and grated cheese, Cheesy – cream cheese with little slices of string cheese, sprinkled with paprika, or Sweetsie topping – apple pie filling with mini chocolate chips.
For the Spicy Sombreros, mix a little chili powder into cream cheese. Spread the cream cheese mixture in a little mound in the center of a round tortilla chip to make a hat. Sprinkle crushed corn chip crumbs over the cream cheese. Decorate with Pimientos.
Here are steps to make a Miniature Pinata.
You will need:
Toilet paper tube
Scissors
Masking tape
Paper punch
4 pieces plastic drinking straw, cut 1 1/2” long
Mini candies
Crayola Model Magic modeling compound
White acrylic paint
Tacky glue
1/2” wide strips of colored tissue paper
2 small black beads
Supplies to make a miniature pinata
Step 1: Cut a toilet paper tube in half lengthwise. Cut a 2” section from one of those pieces. Roll it into a tube to make the body and tape it.
Prepare candy-filled tube. Add straw “legs”.
Punch 4 holes on one side of the tube for the legs. Insert the pieces of straw for legs. Before inserting the back legs, add small candies to the tube. Cover the ends of the tube with masking tape.
Step 2: Use Crayola Model Magic to form the neck and head of a donkey or horse. Add more Model Magic to make the legs thicker. Let dry overnight.
Add Crayola Model Magic clay to make a head and legs
Step 3: Paint the piñata white. Let dry.
Step 4: Cut fringe from the tissue paper strips. Spread the legs with glue and wrap them with the tissue fringe, starting from the bottom and working your way up. Glue on more pieces of tissue paper fringe and crumpled tissue paper as desired to cover the whole pinata. Glue on a tissue paper tale. Add two black beads for eyes.
Glue tissue fringe around pinata
To remove candy from pinata, pull tissue and tape off one end of the tube.
Ole!
Tiny Pinata
Tiny Cakes and Pies
06 Friday Jan 2012
It has been some years since I baked tiny treats. This bakery display showcases some of the items I was working on while writing Tiny Treats years ago. I had a great time coming up with recipes and projects for that book! The bakery display case is made of five empty candy boxes, a CD case and doilies. The cakes and Petite Fours are actually store-bought cookies covered with icing. The pie pastry is almond paste. Everything is edible, delicious and tiny. It was winter when I wrote that book, right after Christmas.
Instead of dreading two months of aching cold, I shall light candles, bake tiny things and work on projects. Before you know it, spring will be here!
Tiny Treats Bakery Display
First Etsy project fabrics
05 Thursday Jan 2012
How happy I was to find the perfect fabrics for the first All Sparkled Up Etsy projects! These fabrics make me happy. =)
Fabrics for first Etsy items
…Try, try again… (Vintage Glitter Cloche)
04 Wednesday Jan 2012
Posted in Christmas, crafts, Gilded Girls
I finally finished the Vintage Glitter Cloche! The bottle brush trees were a success the second time around and I was careful to not leave them in the bleach solution too long. Also, better quality bottle brush trees fared much better than cheap ones.
The pale, winter scene designed by Debbie and Shea of A Gilded Life reminded me of a Russian winter. So I carved a turret from a wood ball to place on top. This scene in a jar fits nicely amongst the candy jars on the shelf in the dining room.
Vintage Glitter Cloche
If at first you don’t succeed… (Vintage Glitter Cloche)
04 Wednesday Jan 2012
Posted in Christmas, Craft Fail, crafts, projects
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Working on the Vintage Glitter Cloche was a good learning experience in crafting. Here is my first attempt at making those awesome cream-colored bottle brush trees.
Bottle Brush tree fail.
What a hoot! I had no idea that the trees would disintegrate if left in the bleach solution too long. The green trees were placed in the big jar of 40% bleach/water solution and left to bleach. I stirred them occasionally and watched the green leach out for about an hour. Then I went Christmas shopping. When I returned hours later, the trees looked wonderful. But when I pulled them out of the solution, they were rusty and disintegrated. Such sorry little trees! I’m going to make another cloche that will fully showcase the awesome character of these trees. Perhaps a Dr. Seuss-inspired cloche. That will do nicely! Never waste a crafting failure, just re-purpose it!
Happy New Year 2012!
01 Sunday Jan 2012
Posted in New Years
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This morning I woke to something unexpected: HOPE. It washed over me like a giant wave. My thirsty spirit drank up hope like a wilted flower in a parched land. God is the source of all hope. He is the source of all my inspiration, including that which sparkles. My wish for you, my dear reader, is that your year will be filled with hope and that you will have many beautiful sparkling moments. And that you will know that God already has plans for you, good plans to prosper you, plans to give you a hope and a future. Cheers to the first day of 2012!
Vintage Glitter Cloche
27 Tuesday Dec 2011
This glittery little scene was supposed to be the table centerpiece for Christmas Day but I didn’t have time to finish. It is one of the projects taught in Christy Tomlinson’s “The 12 Artsy Ornaments of Christmas” workshop collection by various artists.
After signing up and paying a small fee, I had access to a special site online where there were 12 different Christmas ornaments and decorations featured over the span of one week. The website will be available for six months so I can go back any time I want to view the classes again. Each decoration has videos, printables and instructions by teachers along with community connection. The video classes online were a great way to join other artists creating pretty decorations. I learned a bunch of new craft techniques and hope Christy repeats the workshop next year too. It was a lot of fun!
This Vintage Glitter Cloche was taught by Shea & Debbie of A Gilded Life. It was easy and fun following the class video to create this scene. I still have to finish it but even unfinished, it’s already brightening the table this rainy day.
All Sparkled Up 