New Compositions

This time of year, school composition books are cheap and plentiful, and they’re so much fun to decorate.  I recently finished one for a Halloween challenge. 

My favorite contests are those in which the entrants are limited in some way, as to the materials, theme, etc.  In the Halloween challenge, we could make anything we wanted, but had to incorporate a Jack o’ Lantern, a page from a book, the date Oct. 31 and the shape of a star.  I had actually forgotten about the “star” requirement until my comp book was done.  After an initial, ”Awwww, man!” at the prospect of starting over, it occurred to me I could fix it simply by replacing the smallest of the layered flowers in the corner with a star.  Voila!

I didn’t make the second book for any particular reason except that I love the image of the lady, who actually very strongly resembles a former colleague who left work a few months ago to have a baby. 

The original image already had the wings, but I added a crown because I thought she needed it.  Of course, this might have something to do with the fact that I think everyone needs a crown lately.  I have lots of crown stamps, stickers and rub-ons and use them whenever humanly possible.  Or not humanly, given that I just put crowns on a couple of horses.  This was for a swap called “altered anything,” in which we send an object to our partner, who alters it and sends it on to her partner.  I sent my partner a cigar box; she will alter it and send it to someone else.  My partner sent me this horse-themed switchplate, which I will send to the person I sent the cigar box to.  Eventually, the person who sent me the switchplate will send me something she has altered that she got from someone else.  (It’s far less complicated than I’ve explained, I’m sure.)

It would have been convenient to just cover the entire switchplate and start from scratch, but I think my partner would have sent a plain one if she expected it to be as easy as that!  So I did what any reasonable person would do when faced with the task of altering a picture of horses: gave them wings and crowns.

Also, they are now standing in a field of glittery poppies.

(Wicked Witch of the West: “Poppies.  Poppies will make you sleep…”)

I think we could all use a rest after seeing those “fairy princess” horses, don’t you?

“Cheep” Donation

Last night I finished another wall hanging to donate to Art Now for Autism.  If you’re an artist, please consider making a piece to donate.  If you’re not, it’s a great opportunity to acquire something wonderful and help a great cause at the same time.  The preview starts October 1st and the reverse auction on the fifth – hope to see you there!

I collaged three 5″ canvases with images of birds wearing crowns, various papers and paints.  The canvases are mounted on an unusual background – ceiling tile!  It has a neat texture and takes paint very well, though you have to wet the surface first so that it doesn’t absorb too quickly.  The beaded trim is the same I used on my tag wall hanging (see previous post) – I rather love this stuff for adding a bit of sparkle and texture.

I call this “Royal Plumage.”  Here’s a close-up of the center canvas.  Aren’t these birds the cutest with their little crowns?

Tag Party

While perusing my back issues of Somerset Life recently, I came across an article in which manila shipping tags had been tea-dyed, wrapped with lace and ribbons and enhanced with metal charms and chandelier crystals.  Ooooooh, pretty!  I had a few tags left over from a previous project, so I made a tea bath (note: loaf pans are the perfect size in which to dunk manila shipping tags) and pulled out the few charms I have, which happen to be mostly birds.

My initial idea was to use trims of bright color and design, but tea-dying the tags had given them a decidedly vintage feel, so I ended up using a palette of soft peach, pale orange, brown, cream and black.  The tags sat in my studio for awhile, feeling lonely and unfinished, until I found a Scrabble game at the thrift store.  After putting the letter tiles in my “alphabets” drawer, I realized the board itself would make a great substrate.  So I cut it in half and painted the back, which is a deep maroon color, with three coats of gesso.  Interestingly, the gesso never did completely obscure the underlying color, but the pale pink happened to work well with the tag colors.  So I overlaid a brown-inked stencil, edged the board with deco tape and glued on the tags.  The final touches were beaded trim and vintage seam binding for a hanger.

Don’t you love the shabby chic bird door knocker?  I found it at Hobby Lobby last year and just had to have it.  Dude warned me it would cover the peephole, but I don’t answer the door anyway, unless I’m expecting UPS or Fed-Ex with a package of books or art supplies. 

There’s a new group on Swap-Bot called “Altered Art,” and one of their first swaps is for altered tags.  Quite a coincidence, since I had just finished the bird wall hanging when the swap was announced.  This time I colored the tag with chalk instead of tea, but the rest of it went pretty much as the others had – a bird charm, ribbons and trims.  Now I’m in the market for more bird charms!

I have to tell the story of the blue sheet music.  It’s from a gigantic book by Reader’s Digest called The Easy Way to Play 100 Unforgettable Hits, which I found at the thrift store.  (According to the premise of this book, having the notes printed in various colors will somehow make it easier for the pianist to read music.)  So as I was walking around the store with this behemoth of a book, the clerk called out, “What have you found there, an atlas?”  Enthusiastically, I told her it was sheet music, which I love to tear out of books and use in my artwork, for backgrounds or embellishments, etc.  It was only when she started looking rather alarmed that I realized she had only asked to be polite and wasn’t prepared to hear the fate I had planned for the hapless book.  Oh, well – I’ve seen weirder types than me in that store, so she should be used to it. 

Grin and Bear It

I don’t normally have helpers in my studio (barring the elves that move stuff while I’m asleep – please, has anyone seen my chipboard?), but I just knew my entry for the monthly challenge over at Mind Wide Open would be all the better for having some furry friends pitch in.

This week I’m hosting two “traveling bears” here in Florida.  It was a coincidence that both are here at the same time, but really interesting!  The bears spend a week with each host, having as much fun as they can bear (okay, I promise not to do that again) and then they move on to a new adventure.

Saffron arrived from Chicago wearing an adorable sweater, which she promptly removed once she realized it was going to be in the 90s the entire time she was here.  She had not done any artwork before, but caught on pretty quickly.   We decided to decorate a composition book for the challenge, since they are plentiful at this time of year.

Saffron was so into the painting!  She reached a kind of meditative zen state, becoming “one with the paintbrush” (at least that’s how she described it).  Then it was time to give Koda a chance.  He was a little wilder with the paint than the contemplative  Saffron; it was touch and go for awhile on whether we’d run out of paper towels.  Still, he did a nice job, despite his mild complaints about the “girly” design.

Once the bears had cleaned up and were safely out of harm’s way, I finished the book with flowers, gems and a gold border sticker.  Koda insisted that I give the girl a crown, and Saffron liked the idea of adding some Lumiere pink/gold halo paint.  I’m glad I took their advice!

Voting begins on the Mind Wide Open blog on August 9th.  Come check out the other entries - there are always some dazzlers! – and vote for your favorite by August 15th.

A Worthy Cause

Do you make jewelry, paint,  collage, stitch or otherwise create art?  Please consider using your talent to benefit autism research by donating a piece or two to Art Now for Autism.  There’s still plenty of time to create, and you need only send a photo rather than the piece itself – couldn’t be easier! 

This year will feature a reverse auction, with prices starting at $90 and dropping to $30 at the end.  If you are not an artist, this is a wonderful chance to acquire some fabulous pieces for a very reasonable price, while benefiting a very worthy cause.

I made a collage set on canvas a few days ago to donate and hope to do a few more before the deadline, which is September 1st.  This is the main piece, which is 8×10.

These two accompanying pieces are 5″ square each.

I envision them hanging together like this, where the flowers will form a visual triangle.  But of course, whoever buys them can hang them in whatever configuration they like!

The auction preview starts October 1st.  I hope to see you there! 

There Are No Finer

So, probably your average fan of Disney’s Lady and the Tramp adores the titular character, a sweet, floppy-eared beauty, and the lovable dogs that come to her aid.

Personally, I’m more enamored of the “villains” in this story; a pair of (literal) Siamese twins that stir up all kinds of mischief and leave disaster in their wake.  Like their overly indulgent owner, I find them quite precious.

Yes, these are “Si” and “Am,” the unimaginatively named duo who terrorize a bird and a goldfish and wreak havoc in Lady’s owners’ house.  You can almost hear them singing, can’t you?

We are Siamese, if you please

We are Siamese, if you don’t please

We are former residents of Siam

There are no finer cat than we am

But wait – why are they wearing glitter glue and gemstone collars?  It’s because they used to be on a T-shirt and are now decorating my laptop bag.  Fed-Ex is supposed to deliver my new laptop today (took the day off work to sign for it - whoo-hoo!) and so I thought I’d spend my long wait doing something constructive.  And related.   

I bought the plain black laptop bag at Joann’s, did some cutting and glueing (I love you, Fabri-Tac!) and voila.  Interestingly, the floral ribbon, twill tape and ball fringe trim were given to me by others, so I think of this as a sort of collaboration.

(That T-shirt never did fit, anyway.)

Your Favorite Book

That’s the theme of the book I sent ’round to be altered by five wonderful artists over the past few months. I got my book back awhile ago and absolutely lurve it. One of the gals showed us how to make a slide show (isn’t it awesome?!) so we can show off these fabulous spreads!

Barbara’s book is Garden Spells. What a gorgeous garden! I just love the pastel colors. Tammy did The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, and her lion is about the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen! Seriously, I want one.

Linda chose The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, and her spread makes me totally want to read this book! Lisa’s very elegant, serene spread is in honor of A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Nice work!

Cindy created a very fitting royal tribute for The Autobiography of Henry VIII – wow, love the colors in this one – and I chose to do Memoirs of a Geisha. All in all, a very diverse and fascinating selection of favorite books. I’m definitely going to add some of these to my “TBR”* pile! (Not that I can see a light at the end of that particular tunnel as it is!)

* = to be read (hopefully within this lifetime)

Happy Birthday, Mind Wide Open!

So one of my favorite blogs is a year old now.   Hard to believe Gail has been challenging us every month for a full year already.  I don’t remember doing 12 of these, but it must be so!  Congrats, Gail, on a fabulous blog, and thank you for challenging us to push our artistic limits.

I say this every month (practically), but this image is the best yet.  I love fairies, love the color scheme and love the word prompt, which is “contentment.”

When pondering what to make, I had the idea that the fairy would look cute on a “real” flower, since she is sitting on a dandelion in the picture.  So I made a little bouquet, decorated the leaves with the background from the image and added sparkly fibers and little gems and a crown to the fairy.  You can’t see it in the photo, but the fairy’s wings and the leaves are enhanced with an awesome gel pen called “clear star,” which adds a colorless, glittery sparkle.  (I love this pen more than ice cream!)

I was originally going to “plant” the bouquet in a small glass jar that had held paper flowers, but I couldn’t think of a way to get it to stand upright.  Then it occurred to me that the wrapped stems would fit perfectly in the hole of a thread spool.  I chose a vintage spool of pale yellow (how do I know it’s vintage? It has an 18-cent price tag on it!) and then glued a few white maribou feathers around the stem as an homage to the original dandelion “pouf.”

Does she look content to you?

The Saga…

It’s been ages since I posted; mainly because I started the huge, mind-boggling project of cleaning out my closets two weeks ago and there’s still just barely an end in sight. But it will be nice to have things (somewhat) organized. Eventually.

So last night, I’m driving home from work…

Now normally I am a bit of a speed demon, but when I’m driving late at night (it was about 11:30), I make sure to keep close to the speed limit, ’cause in this little town I have to drive through, the cops really don’t have much to do besides look for speeders. It’s one of those places where the sidewalks roll up at 9:00 p.m. and the only things moving after that are stray animals, cars passing through on their way to somewhere more interesting, and potted plants hanging on porches (and that’s only if it’s windy).

So I’m tooling along on the straight & narrow path, along with a couple of other cars, when suddenly I notice blue lights behind me. All three of us pull over to get out of his way, and the only thing I feel is mild surprise that something cop-worthy has apparently happened in this tiny, dead town for a change.

But then, WTH?!  He pulls in behind me! And I’m all like…

So the cop comes up to my window shining his big ol’ flashlight in my car and he’s looking at me like I’m possibly dangerous or tipsy…

…and asks for my license and registration. The first part is easy, my driver’s license is right there in the new fancy quilted fabric wallet I just bought at the Beall’s Outlet in this same little town about a month ago. The second part – well, not so much. I know my registration is in my glovebox somewhere, but I’ve never been asked for it before.  This was the first time a cop actually asked to see it, oddly enough, and I’ve been pulled over a lot.  And wouldn’t you know it, my glovebox is literally stuffed full of paper napkins and plastic forks from fast-food joints, oil change receipts, uh…certain lady things…OMG, it was embarrassing. Especially when he shined his light in there as I was digging around, and asked, “Does this help?” I was like, yeah, you can read the brand name on those wrappers now, thanks, that’s very helpful. (Gaaah!)

Finally I was able to produce a registration card – likely one of many that were layered in there like some miniature archealogical dig  – and handed it to him, asking, “Is this the right one?” The cop said, “This one is from 2006. But it will do.” (Thank goodness.) He then asked, “Do you know why I pulled you over?” Normally I do know, because, as mentioned before, I’m a bit of a speed demon, but this time I had no clue. He tells me my tag light is out. I’m all like, “Oh, ha-ha! I guess I shouldn’t be surprised! I’ve lost a couple of dashboard lights lately; guess the car is just getting old!” (Ha…ha?) He tells me to “stay in the car, ma’am,” then he says he’ll be right back. And I’m all like, dang, he’s actually going to write me a ticket!  I don’t get tickets!  I always get out of tickets!  WTH?!!  And as it sunk in, I was all…

I mean, he could have just given me a verbal warning. It’s not like I knew the tag light was out and drove anyway on purpose. I’m not a professional driver; I don’t do a 12-point inspection of my car before I get in it!  Dang, why not go pick on a real criminal?!

These are my thoughts as he’s back there in his car writing the ticket – and taking forever about it, too. When he comes back, he explains that the fine is $78-something, at which point I’m like…

And he hurriedly says, “Oh no, don’t worry, it won’t be that much.” He then explains that I have three options. I can get the bulb changed within thirty days and pay a reduced fine (which he explains is something like $25), or I can pay the full fine (though only an idiot would do that), or I could contest the ticket in court. I consider that last option only briefly…

…but then dismiss it immediately (get it? Dismiss?) because I know I wouldn’t stand a chance, and then I’d have to pay even more. So then the cop tells me that the $78 is actually wrong; the fines went up “just today” but because he forgot and used the “old form,” it was only $78. ONLY!!! I actually said out loud, “Gee. Isn’t this my lucky day.” And then I drove home and I was all like…

…and when I got home I left a note for my sleeping hubby to ask if he’d please buy me a tag light bulb on his way home from work today, and now the best part is going to be when he calls me this afternoon from work and gives me a hard time for getting pulled over.  (Because he will.  Despite that he’s had at least a dozen tickets in his driving career and this is only my second one!!!)

Okay, back to the closets…

Wish

That’s the word prompt for this month’s challenge over at Mind Wide Open.  The image is that of a wistful little girl and the colors are quite lovely.  Dude and I went out of town on the last day this was due and I almost forgot to make something!  (Perish the thought!)  I haven’t missed a Mind Wide Open challenge yet, and don’t ever hope to.  It’s my favorite challenge site, which is quite something considering how many there are!

Anyway, I finally got into my studio only three hours before the deadline, so I decided to make a fairly simple collage.  I got the flowers in a kit from a monthly club (which I’ve since dropped) and they’ve been sitting on my table because they were too big to fit in my flower drawer.  The colors happened to go really well with the image, especially after I rubbed some ink on the stem (Ranger color “raisin.”  Don’t you love colors that are also foods?)

The tags were made by using a square punch first, then punching the tag out around it.  I cut up another of the images to put in the tag openings so they’d be certain to match without my having to search through my stash of papers.

The background is a sheet of scrapbook paper that I’m pretty sure I bought in the mid 90s, back when Hot Off the Press was one of the few companies that made it, the only size you could get was 8-1/2 x 11 and nobody had yet even dreamed of putting flowers and bling on a page, much less poke in a brad or set an eyelet.  Those were the Dark Ages of paper crafting, my friends.  Some day I’ll tell you more about those bad old days, but in the meantime let’s revel in the fact that it only took ten years for the crafting industry to come up with self-stick gems (my current favorite embellishment).