A Gig!!!

It's been a while since Miss Ginger Grant has been out in the community, shagging for donations a dollar at a time, but that's about to change!  Derby Day 2013 is the 6th time Miss Ginger will have hosted the event, and it just gets bigger and bigger- sort of like her hats! 

She's already starting on this year's monstrosity, and she hopes you have, too!  Derby Day is Houston's ORIGINAL Hat Party, and this year promises to be bigger and better than ever!   Come on down to EJ's May 4th to support Legacy Community Health Services and celebrate Derby Day, "Ginger Style!"

Fleur-de-lis Wind Chime

Fleur-de-lis patterns have been all the rage since hurricane Katrina, but in fact, fleur-de-lis have been used in Louisiana for ages as a representation of the state's French heritage.  Miss Ginger has always loved fleur-de-lis, and finds the motif to be remarkably gender-neutral, making them great for adorning gifts and decorations for everyone.  Here's a beautiful adaptation of her wind chime using this recherché symbol of rebirth.

For this project Miss Ginger used 3 bottles. One was the "magnum" size she usually buys for parties, and the other 2 were regular wine bottles, with different shapes to add interest.

She used her Silhouette Cameo machine and its Studio software to create the stencils of self-stick vinyl. If you've thought about buying a cutting machine, this is the one to get! Rather than having to buy cartridge after cartridge to collect the shapes you want, the Silhouette Store allows you to download only the ones you need, right from your computer! Miss G downloaded the flour-de-lis pattern, resized and duplicated to meet her needs, and cut the stencils in just a few minutes.

One the stencils were applied, Miss Ginger used Armor Etch cream to etch the pattern.  You could also etch them with a diamond burr or sandblaster, but the etching cream is fast, easy, and permanent. 

After finding a cork to fit each bottle, Miss G added a screw eye to each end, covering the threads with a waterproof glue to ensure it doesn't work loose in the wind.  Starting with the largest bottle at the top, she used lengths of clock chain from Lowe's to connect the layers.  For the wind catcher, she used a 4" square of thin board turned to make a diamond, and stenciled a fleur on both sides with white paint.