Carey Burns

After deliberating for a few days, I decided the optic lens wasn't right for the feel of this piece. I grabbed by last bit of Aves Apoxie Clay and created two moon shapes. While they cured, I put some of my favorite chunky vintage-style glass glitter into a plastic bowl and added Ranger Alcohol Ink in Pitch Black. I stirred the ink into the glitter but the color wasn't black, it was more of a purple. I added Teakwood and Indigo and stirred until I was happy with the color. I let it dry. Once the moons cured, I added two coats of white acrylic paint. While the paint dried, I added Distress Collage Medium (matte) to the inside corners of the coffin. I added the dry glitter and pressed it into place. I dumped out the excess glitter onto waxed paper and transferred it back into the plastic bowl. The bits of brown in the glitter make me think it is grave soil. I played around with Distress Stains in Hickory Smoke, Brushed Pewter, and Picket Fence until the moon l...

For the last month or so, I've been really looking at my blog and thinking it is time to freshen it up a bit. I'm nervous and excited and hope it looks how I'm imagining it to. One big part that will change is Free Fiction Fridays. A writer friend recently share that another writer's free fiction was "borrowed" by someone and is now in production as a television series. Not that I've shared a lot or that anything I've shared has people flocking to steal it, I just want to protect what I've created. I'm looking at other ways to share free fiction with readers so stay tuned! I want to get back into the Maker's Mondays and WIP Wednesdays more as well.  While I'm updating the blog, it just makes good sense to update my web page as well. My goal is to have it all spiffy by April. I hope you'll stick with me!

I've got another project in the works and of course, it will be perfect for Halloween or for fans of vampires. It all started with the Tim Holtz Vignette Coffin and watching Dracula (the Bela Lugosi version, of course!). Van Helsing not seeing the Count in the mirror and the Count's violent reaction were the little spark that triggered my imagination. I envisioned a grungy mirror inside the Vignette Coffin with the rays if the sun, bats, a cross, and stake... It all begins with a coffin... After thinking about cutting glass and how clumsy I am, I looked at different sheets of glass at the craft. A nice antique glass called to me and as I held it in my hands, I spotted a sheet of plexiglass. I carefully returned the glass to its niche and snatched up the plexiglass. Pinterest inspired me and I put the plexiglass over the coffin, tracing the interior edge onto the acrylic. The material was thin enough to cut with scissors. I removed the protective coating from one side an...

I've finally completed "Harvest Time," my altered Tim Holtz Idea-Ology Assemblage Clock. This piece was quite the labor of love and when I was just to the end, I tore it apart. You can see where I left off here . Looking at the clock, it was nice, but it needed something behind it and the layer of bones below seemed hollow and lonely. I decided to make a tree. First, I used a Tim Holtz tree wooden block stamp that I think may be discontinued. The shape of the tree was what I wanted but cutting it out onto paper it didn't look so hot. I decided to make my own and got some Aves Apoxie clay and used the stamp as a guide. When it was done, I added texture by running a metal pick over the trunk and branches. There was leftover clay so I made two more pumpkins to fill the clock. Clay tree and pumpkins curing While the clay cured, I decided I wanted hay around the pumpkins in the clock. This was a disaster - the platform was already glued in place and I was so ...