Citrine November Birthstone Facts Beautiful Yellow Gemstone

Each month, I try to share a video about that month's birthstone. The birthstone for November is Citrine. The original birthstone, was Imperial Topaz, an extremely rare and expensive gemstone. Citrine is now the accepted birthstone for November. Citrine is an affordable gemstone, even in extremely large sizes, compared to other gemstones. Be careful when buying yellow gemstones. Some sellers will try to sell Citrine as yellow sapphire, or yellow topaz. Visit my Etsy store to see three Citrine jewelry pieces, and all my items come with free USA shipping, and a buy one get one free sale going on now.

Graduation Money Jar and Zentangled Wine Bottle Solar Garden Light

I am behind on sharing my Zentangle challenge pieces. If you don't know what Zentangle is, it is basically a fancy word for doodling. I joined an Ancient Art Zentangle group on Facebook, and each week a new set of patterns to use are posted and you design your own art piece. The first one is a bear. It is painted on a recycled, now upcycled into a solar garden light. After painting on the design my pieces are sealed twice and set in the sun to seal more. Then I took a solar garden stake, from the Dollar Tree, inserted into the jar, so the solar part is sticking out and then put it in the garden. I now have five solar garden lights completed. I think I have five more wine bottles left. They are all different designs, and you can see them in this blog. I think I am going to list them in my Etsy store as made to order only.

 The second piece, is a recycled, now upcycled glass pickle jar. First I sealed the bare jar. This was an experiment to see if it helps the paint go on smoother with less streaking, and yes it works quite well. I still added three layers of purple paint as the base coats. Then I used an owl stencil, won't do that again, and tangled the owl. At first I was very disappointed, but I outlined the eyes and beak a bit better, and that satisfied me. Then on the other side, I painted the saying You're A Smartie, tangled the words, and class of 2014 at the very bottom. Last but not least, I added some tangled borders on the sides, and top. The lid was painted purple and a smartie candy super glued to it. I filled it with Smartie candies for the party, and she can reuse it for anything she wants. A money jar at her graduation party this weekend, would be awesome I think. Jars can be used to store so many different things. Again, I think I am going to list these as made to order for birthdays, graduations and weddings. I am sure Baby and Wedding showers would be awesome too.

 I am caught up now, on the Zentangle posts. Now to get the rest of them done, lol. I am working on a super cute infant baby boy cocoon, so be sure to watch for that in the near future. I will also be having some new, and unique resin pieces to share.

2 New Hand Painted Gift Bags Easter and Pink Robin

I finally got to paint some new gift bags. I had run out of bags, and with me working every other weekend, I just couldn't get anymore. I will be doing two more next week as well. The first one is a cute Bunny hugging his carrot with a purple ribbon. It is perfect for an Easter gift, baby shower or birthday party. All my bags can be re-used or framed and hung as art work. I love how this one came out, and I can do it in other colors, so just contact me if you want it in other colors, by clicking the highlighted link. The second is a Pink Robin sitting in some leaves. For some reason my birds look better when I paint them looking to the left, rather than the right. I have no idea why this is, but his head is a little longer than I like, and he should technically be slightly more round. I may try this one again. Both of these bags are available in my Etsy store, and remember I take custom orders, so contact me through the message system or at melissaruede@yahoo.com Please do not spam my personal email account with other stupid things, I will flag them as spam. Those of you who do this you know exactly who you are.

Painted Pink Zebra Stripes with White Background Plates

A while ago, at a consignment shop, I found a whole bunch of nice glass plates for an awesome price. So, I bought them, having no idea really what project I would use them for. Then, my 9 yr old decided for her 10th birthday that she wanted pink striped zebra print as her theme. So, I had some wooden pieces, that I painted black and added pink zebra stripes to, they are not shown yet. Then I did one of the plates with pink and black, but she didn't care for it so much. So, I did pink stripes with white background. This she liked. She said it is ok if the background is black on some, but white on her plates. When you paint on glass you have to put the paint on backwards. What I mean by that is, just glass plates by the way, not other glass items, you have to paint the background on last not first. So, I had to paint on the zebra stripes then the white after the stripes dried. The next plate, I think I am just going to do the center to see if I like that more than the stripes all around the sides. Then I can finish them in the way I like the most. This is acrylic paints.