Kalaya Steede

It is almost the end of the month and my blogs birthday is coming to an end.  So I have given it some thought and decided to give away this AWESOME enamel heart pendant, made by yours truly, to some lucky person.   Since Valentine's Day is fast approaching I thought it would be a nice little gift to yourself or someone else.  Here are the rules:   You do not have to LIKE my FB page OR  become a follower of this blog OR  list my blog on your blog/FB site.  All you have to do is leave a comment below telling me what you look for in a blog (or just any old comment) and a way for me to contact you.  You can also leave a comment on my Facebook Page or "LIKE" my "Blog Birthday Give Away" post for an entry.  I just realized not everyone can comment on the blog itself. You have until Saturday, February 4, 2012.  I will reveal the winner on Sunday, February 5th.   Good luck! Namaste Kalaya

Sometimes I feel like I should put just as much energy into cleaning my house as I do with my art.  And I ask myself why don't I?  What is this need for me to create?  I guess the simple answer would be, "It is what I do."   Like the story of the poisonous spider and the man ( The Spider and the Sage ) who saves the spider but gets stung every time...it is what they do.  The spider stings and the man saves. I had this Mardi Gras wreath since after Katrina in 2005.  Since then it has lost its life, lost its  vibrancy.  The wreath used to be a vibrant purple, now it's yellow and the beads are all faded.  That does not say Mardi Gras to me.  It says, "BLAGH!"   Mardi Gras is about COLOR and King cake of course! I thought to myself that this would have to go in the trash and I would have to go out and buy one.  I don't know if it's age or what but I said to myself, "self, why not just replace the ribbon and...

I must admit that there is something calming when preparing bottle cap magnets.  Come join me in my journey of making these beauties.  Here was my experience with the whole process. Materials:  o  Bottle caps o  Diamond glaze or Resin o  One inch hole punch o  Images o  Card stock o  Mod Podge o  E6000 o  Magnets o  Tim Holtz Linen and Vintage ink 1.  Prepare your image and punch the images out. (I make the image small enough so that I can punch out 1 inch circles on card stock.)  2.  I then distressed the images to make them look old.   If you are going to draw or write on your inches now is the time to do it because writing on sealed images is kind of tough. 3. Spread Mod Podge inside the bottle cap. 4.  Place your image inside the bottle cap. 5.  Spread more Mod Podge on top of the image.  Be sure to get the edges. 6.  Let these babies dry overnight. 7.  Now is the time f...

Happy twelfth night everyone! In NOLA we get the Lagniappe every Friday and here is today's front page... Joan of Arc will be rolling at 6 tonight.  The Krewe will be passing out handmade and hand-decorated throws, such as cards, magnets, swords, matches, candles, and dolls! Here are some of the things that I made.  Magnets with Joan's coat of arms and some with a drawing, from an old text, of Joan. A collection of our throws (except for the swords) were put in these cute little bags. We also have our handmade fleur de lis tags and a wooden doubloon in there!   That's what we will be passing out in tonight's Joan of Arc Parade.  So come out and join the festivities and have some King Cake with us! Namaste Kalaya

Back in November I tried this new app by Blogpress and all it did was give me headaches using an iPad but there have been improvements (2 months later). Let's test it out and see how good this thing is. I just finished embellishing swords for twelfth night. And I have to admit that I had way too much fun embellishing them! I want more to embellish! I had first painted them with a brown handle but it looked so boring. But there is nothing like a little glitter and color to make things more interesting. Now we need some costumes. At first we were going to rent a knights costume but it was so much money and it seemed like I could make a tunic, even if I glued it. Lucky for me that my mom knew how to sew. Here's the tunic we whipped up in about 3 hours. It was soooooo easy. Here's what we did. 1. Measure the person's shoulder width and add 3" to each side. This will be your width, i.e. 25". 2. Measure the length from shoulder to knees and that will be...

Today is my blog's birthday!  This means I have to give something away!  Oh how fun.  Oooo...what should it be?  Okay I will have to meditate on this and get back to you all. So what's new with me?  I'm trying to make throws before the twelfth night, which is this Friday!!!  Here are some of the throws I and my true love have been working on.   Going to paint this baby and embellish with jewels! Magnets with the Krewe's name. Tags with the symbol of France. Soon to be bottle cap magnets with Joan's coat of arms and an old drawings of Joan. So much to do, so little time.  I would of liked to have made beaded butterfly clips as well but the clock is ticking. If your in the New Orleans area come on out this Friday and join in the fun!  Full of fun costumes and music.  Okay gotta go create! Krewe de Jeanne D'Arc   Have a great New Day of the New Year! Namaste Kalaya