By Request

One of my new blogger friends, Barb, requested that I post my photos of a mosaic table top I crafted a few years ago. I decided to add in photos of a few of my other projects. I have not done any crafts since we moved to Elliot Lake but I would like to get back into it again. So here they are Barb... I hope you enjoy them and thank you for your interest!
The above is an angel I made at a ladies group in Redcliff, Alberta one Christmastime.
The next two projects were plain wooden trays I bought at Michaels Craft Store in Medicine Hat. The top one I spray painted black and the bottom one I stained. Then I glued broken floor tiles which I had first smashed with a hammer and pieced together into the tray in a random pattern. After the pieces had sufficiently dried I grouted over top which is simply applying grout compound and using a trowel smoothing the grout until it had evenly covered in between the tiles. After that dried, using a wet cloth, I polished the tiles, removing the excess grout. Lastly a few coatings of a form of shellac is applied to harden the grout and to give a bit of a shiny appearance to the tiles.
I made several trays as Christmas presents in 2005. Money was a bit tight that year and I needed a project to do to keep my mind occupied. It was a perfect diversion at that time. The stained tray I kept for myself.
The above is my mosaic table top... I used one of those wooden plant stands and in this case the table top screwed off which was perfect for me to be able to work with it. Using the same technique as the trays, this is how it turned out. It now sits in my living room.

The above is my dragonfly stepping stone. This was a fun project. First you mix the cement for the stone and place the mixture into a form which was supplied in the kit. Once you have the mixture placed and smoothed out satisfactorily you start placing the polished stones into whatever pattern you desire with the center being the dragonfly. After finishing placing the stones I cleaned them off with a wet cloth and then allowed the project to dry and harden for a few days. Once hardened you remove from the mold and voila... you have a perfect stepping stone.

The picture above was and is my best work and Bruce's favorite. I started with a wood square piece which is divided into nine squares. I spray painted the wood blue. Once dried I used a page from an old Thomas Kinkaid calendar. I decoupaged the page onto the wood piece and made sure it was nice and smooth with no bubbles.
Once placed and smoothed to my satisfaction I used an exacto knife to trim around each square so that the photo was now divided into nine separate pieces. And to finish a very hard shellac was prepared and poured onto the picture and sat in place until hardened. It has an almost plastic surface to it. And it sits in a brass photo stand on my dining room buffet.



I must make mention of the fact that most of these crafts were done with my very dear friend Connie. Not having ever really done any crafts I was so happy to have her around to guide me and we had so much fun shopping for, planning and making these crafts together. Had she not moved away to the Calgary area we would have likely made many more crafts together. I miss Connie and our times shared being creative.