Halloween Haute Couture

These girls are ready for Halloween in some HOT little outfits! Who knew the dead were so fashionable? These lovely ladies come from a scan of an anatomy drawing from college. The diecut chipboard backgrounds were a $1 Michael's find. Each is covered with torn paper and sheet music. The outfits are an assortment of feathers, fabric and lace scraps and brass findings. They were so much fun to make and a great Halloween treat for friends.

October Beauty

I love autumn and this October has turned into a beauty since we finally got rain here in NC. My fall garden is in its glory and my porch is full of big orange and white pumpkins and gourds. This little decoration celebrates the specialness of October- pumpkins, gorgeous leaves and the warm palette of the season. This tiny collage was made using some paper coasters from Michaels (8 for a $1!!) mounted on a wooden dowel. I copied a vintage postcard then added little snippets from my stash. Stick it in a potted plant or a vase of flowers to add a little reminder of this great time of year.

Halloween is coming!!!

You better be careful- Julius and the The Triplets might know where you live! These unsavory looking characters were scanned from an anatomy drawing I did in college. See- all those tedious studies did come in handy. These guys are framed by purchased scrapbook frames I found on sale. I added adhesive backed ribbon, tags and a collaged background to create this ghoulish family portrait. BOO!

RED!

I love doing color studies. Creating a loose set of parameters can be a good way to push yourself out of your normal patterns. Above are the back and front of a journal about RED. It started by cutting up a bunch of pieced quilt tops I was never going to finish. Each was 7" by 9" wide and I quickly stitched them to cardstock pages just to get started. The sewing machine was threaded with red thread and things just took off from there. I scoured my studio and found the biggest pile of red wonderfulness then googled RED for some great facts and quotes. The whole 12 pages came together in a matter of days- no overthinking or planning, just fun and pure play!

Greeting Card Inventory

I like to have a stockpile of cards that I can use for birthdays, get well or whatever. I'm always cruising the sale aisle in the craft store for plain cards on sale. These make it so much faster to produce a lot of cards -all with matching envelopes. About once a year, I go through the pile of experiments, ATCs and paper scraps in my studio and start making stacks of focal points, pretty papers, stickers, etc. Then, I make stacks of my purchased cards and start matching things up. With everything spread out and in full view, it's easy to put a lot of cards together quickly. As I am finishing each card, I add stickers, ribbon and doodads to spice them up. In one afternoon I can make several dozen cards so I'm ready at a moment's notice to get a greeting in the mail.

The cards above include collage scraps, ATC cards and a beaded leaf that didn't work for its intended project. Now they have a new life as special cards for friends and family.

Published in SOMERSET LIFE

Several of my Pot Pretties will be published in Somerset Life magazine www.stampington.com

The magazine will hit the stands this fall and can be purchased online at the above email address or in most Barnes & Noble bookstores.

These 3" chipboard circles are mounted on wooden dowels and represent each month of the year. They are 2 sided so the complete set has 6 units. I designed these to stick into a potted plant- great if you have a single plant on your desk at work or to gussy up a favorite plant at home. Each little circle has an image representing the highlight of the month with a tiny tag and sweet little embellishments to match. They are small reminders of the changing seasons of the year and the beauty found in each one.

No excuses- Make ATCs

Even if you aren't feeling creative, take a little time and make some ATCs. These little gems are fast and fun at 2.5" by 3.5". Use up paper scraps, try new techniques, get wild with colors. If you don't like the results, you haven't invested much time or materials. It pays to play in art to loosen up your creative spirit and this is a good way to do it. If you like your results, use them on a collage, greeting card or scrapbook page. Examples above include a pleated ribbon, faux postage and embroidered fabric scrap.

Why be BLUE.....

When you could be PURPLE!! This is a page from a mixed media accordian book on purple and all of its glory. The book included 6 Prismacolor drawings of purple flowers, lots of purple paper and all the purple scraps and doodads I could find in my studio!

Winter Witch Stuffie a Finalist!!

My WINTER WITCH stuffie is a finalist in the Reader Challenge from ClothPaperScissors magazine! She's on her way to their offices in MA so wish her luck!!

Mad Scientist in the Studio!!

Took some time this weekend to play with gelatin monoprints. Cheap and fun, you use grocery store clear gelatin and whatever paper, paint or dye you have on hand. I did a thin layer of gelatin in a cookie sheet so I had plenty of room to play with. I used Dr. Martin's colored India inks and Golden fluid acrylics with gloss medium for an extender. I applied the color directly to the gelatin and brayered or fingerpainted it across the surface. To clean up after the colors started getting muddy, I just laid newspaper in the pan and pressed gently.

So far, I've tried 3 paper types for the prints. First, I gathered my ugly paper- you know, the ones in a variety pack that you never use but can't throw away. The colors were transparent enough to allow some of the pattern to show but the the new colorways were much better than the originals. Secondly, I have a whole set of old encyclopedias that I'm using for altered books and other projects. These pages look great when they are overprinted. The text and pictures peek through the color and will make great backgrounds. Finally, I tried paper leaf stencils. I covered the gelatin with paint, then laid the stencils and pulled the print. Then, I overprinted the page with a different colorway. Had some technical problems with the stencils getting stuck so next time I'll use plastic or chipboard stencils and explore this option further.

I want to use as much original paper in my projects as possible and these monoprints are quick, easy and crazy fun! I had paint all over me and half the studio by the time I was done! A couple of hours yielded 30+ sheets of great paper. Now, I will go back through the stack and stamp, stitch and further embellish them to create really special collage components.

I'm in the 2010 ClothPaperScissors Calendar!

My art was selected for OCTOBER in the ClothPaperScissors 2010 calendar!! Autumn Leaves is a mixed media design sewn to a pieced quilt background. The leaves were cut from various decorative papers then glued and sewn to the fabric background. Beading and decorative stitches accent each leaf. It's a beautiful calendar -like everything else from by Interweave Press. Get your copy today at http://www.clothpaperscissors.com/

Book Cover- Putting It All Together

As you can see from previous posts, I am always experimenting, using up scraps and stockpiling collage components. When it's time to create finished pieces, all these piles of things around the studio come in handy. For this book cover, I had muslin that I had gessoed and painted with rainbow colors. The main collage image is a combo of holey paper scraps, colored clipart, an ATC and faux postage. The title piece is 6 kaleidoscopes torn and pasted to an oblong card. The fabric , small collage and faux postage were not made at the same time or to go with each other but when I chose my color scheme and title for the book, I had lots of things to choose from in my design stash. I find that when I experiment and play, the results are much better than when I agonize over just the right thing. Plus, using this method justifies making 50 ATCs at one time just because it's fun!

Fun with Leftovers

My desk tends to pile up with leftover bits and pieces from finished projects. This design is a mishmash of several things. The original background piece was a combo of black and red Tibetan paper with my kaleidoscopes collaged all over it. All the rectangles were cutouts for faux postage. The resulting holey background was too cool to toss so I glued it to some painted newspaper experiments. This got moved from place to place in my studio while I thought about all those holes. In the meantime, I had been doodling up a storm at night watching TV. I decided to cut up the doodles and fill in the holes. Once that was done, a scrap of turquoise painted muslin caught my eye and I ripped strips for each side. The total piece is 14" x 14". Now, I'm considering stitching the muslin strips down and adding Sharpie doodles to them to relate back to the center. I may use the whole piece as a journal cover or cut it up for smaller projects. These experimental pieces are the play that leads to great ideas. There are no preconceptions to hold you back and you're just using leftover stuff anyway so if it ends up being a flop- you toss it or cut it up.

Green Continued

My last post showed the progression from Scrappy Background to ATCs and the doodles created to become focal points for the ATCs. I am still working on the large finished green piece but I had a little pile of tasty bits left over from all the cutting. So I decided to make more faux postage. Sometimes I make sections that can be used together like the 12 small stamps at the top. Other pieces work better by themselves. Either way, by using all the scraps, I can make a stockpile of great collage elements. Any time I need a little something to perk up a project, I have a whole box of faux postage to peruse. I could also have made some great inchies to have in reserve. Using your scraps is a great way to clean up your leftover pile and make unique mini tidbits that will enhance your work.

Green Scrappy Background Part 2

If you refer back to the June 8th post you will see the first installment of Scrappy Backgrounds. Above is the green sheet cut into 9 ATCs. I'm going to mount them on a green brocade fabric covered background. I like the look of arranging them as they were on the whole sheet with a little space between each one. The green doodles at the top of the page will become the focal points on the ATCs. They were all done on speckled ivory cardstock. Some have green pigment ink coloring the background and one is a hand carved stamp that I doodled over. 12+ green felt tips were used for the drawings. I like to doodle while I watch TV. If I'm just too tired to be in my studio at night, doodling on the sofa with the tube on keeps me from feeling like a total slug! I picked leaves as my theme for these. Just let yourself meander with the drawings and don't worry about being perfect. It's a great brain relaxer. The next step is to add the doodles to the ATCs. All of the background and doodle scraps get saved for faux postage and inchies. From one background sheet and a couple pages of doodles, you can create a nice collection of personal images to use in your work.