Fairies & Witches Altered Book

 

This is another altered book from my Altered Gypsy forums boards group that I worked on. It's theme is fairies, dragons, witches, gods and goddesses. If you remember the year before last, I did this gods/goddesses spread as well as this fairy spread in the same book when I had it the first round.

I found a drawing of mushrooms online and sketched them looking at it. They looked like cartoon mushrooms so I swiped brown paint over the whole page and it gave it an older feel. Like that. The fairy images were picked up while out of town with DH. They're so adorable!

Poem says: "Did you ever hear
  Of the frolic fairies dear?
    They're a blessed little race,
      Peeping up in fancy's face,
        In the valley, on the hill,
          By the fountain and the rill;
            Laughing out between the leaves
              That the loving summer weaves."

by: Frances Sargent Osgood

  

This spread was my attempt at doing witches art. I don't really do anything witch art, don't have any stamps or papers or anything to go with the theme. But I did happen to have a whole passel of spider rings. So two of them made it to the pages (right side.) I loved using the black cheesecloth. Sets the mood for the pages. 

Have a wonderful artfilled weekend!

I Love Thee Shrine

I'm spreading my wings apparently. I've been trying new things I haven't done before. This week I channeled my inner Michael DeMeng and The Crafty Chica and attempted making a shrine. The Chica had issued a Love Shrine challenge a few weeks ago and I planned to finish up the box I started decorating for DH's valentine but I lost steam on its completion.

Last weekend DH and I talked about him joining me in the studio. He's hesitant and although I know he is wildly creative, he thinks he has lost all that. After looking at books and such, he found assemblage type art to his liking (think DeMeng or LoBue). So this weekend when we went by a thrift store and found this pile, we bought the whole lot. Seemed like a good start, I thought. One of the boxes was for me to try my hand at an assemblage/shrine of sorts.

There is some debate on the difference between collage, assemblage and the newer used word, montage. Diorama and shrine also are thrown into the mix and you can get thoroughly confused as to what you're actually making.

Collage and Montage are similar in that they involve mostly papers and flat surfaces work. Montage also has to do with throwing photos into the mix (although there is always a person or photo in my collages so see how a person would get confused on verbiage?)

Assemblage is an artistic process in which a three-dimensional artistic composition is made from putting together found objects (according to wikipedia.) So I take that to mean, something is sticking off of the 'collage' or 3 dimensional structure. Now if you look at DeMeng' assemblage work, its a whole world unto itself. It should be called DeMenglage since it has such distinct style.

A diorama is 3-dimensional as well although usually found encased in a box or glass like case. A shrine is similar in that if made for the home its usually a small structure.

Did you like the word lesson? No matter how you name it, it's art. 

I worked with the forementioned box. I had no plan, as usual. I Just started pulling pieces to go in it. The white spiral thingie is from the teen's bed when she was younger. The heart was a happy accident. I had intended to trim down the painted cheesecloth but liked the way it looked so much I decided against it.

Are you playing along in the Chica's shrine challenge? Would love to see your entry!!

Butterfly WallFlower Tutorial

Just for fun I thought I'd try to take pictures while creating something from scratch. You never know what you might make or where the creativity will lead you. Sometimes the work sucks! lol But this time I enjoyed what I made. Perfect for spring. (All images used are from Altered Pages. See the kit section.)

1. If you're like me and hate to waste anything, you'll understand why all my extra paint on a palette ends up randomly swiped on scrap papers. This way I have a stack of them to use in future projects. Using scraps or painted papers like these, cut out leaf or petal shapes.

2. I even used lace scraps. Next, lay them out on a piece of paper and using india or other watery ink to draw all over them with the dropper or a calligraphy pen set.

3. Take a scrap of felt or fabric and cut 3 circles: 3 1/4", 2 1/4" and 2". Lining the petals around the largest circle, zigzag sew the petals to the felt. 

 

 

4. Do this again with the medium circle. After both are complete, take strips of a dictionary page and layer them in a circle on top of the middle circle. Layer this sandwich on top of the large circle and sew through all layers.

 5. Take the small circle and layer with a transparent image. Here I used a transparent Altered Pages butterfly. Sew 4 even lines (in pie sections) through the small circle and image. Then, take butterfly circle, lay on top of the sandwiched flower piece circles and sew around the edge of the small circle to connect the layers perfectly..

 6. Turn over the whole piece and handstitch a length of sheer ribbon to the back as a hanger for your new flower!

This is a perfect little decoration to hang on your door to welcome spring. 

With some of the leftover petals and images, I created a pretty card that says 'believe' written with the calligraphy pen.

 

I also made a few little cards that can be given away as a gift card set or used to sent little notes to friends. I then tied them up in a bundle with butcher's thread.

All these items can be found in my Etsy Shop. You can purchase a kit of these images from Altered Pages soon in their kit shop. Have fun creating! I'd love to see if you make this, using the tutorial.

Magic Altered Book

Just a quick post to share the spreads I did in a 'Magic' altered book. I belong to a group of ladies over on the Altered Gypsy forums who have been passing around books to create in. Remember my Spicy Women book (why does that 'Nasty' song by Janet Jackson come to mind when I type this?  Now I'm going to be singing that for awhile.) It's almost on its way home to me! Can't wait to see everything that has been added to it!

 

Layering of acrylic paints and stamped images. I picked up these adorable fairy images while out of town on a romantic getaway with my guy. He was so gracious and let me hit every art store/antique mall I could find. (He's a keeper.) I also used my new Caran d'Ache metallic crayons for the word 'Magic'. Love them!

I wanted to make a spread that had to do with a magic act. DD suggested a top hat and even sketched it out for me. I put a bouquet of flowers in the hat as well as a scrap of a 60's chiffon dress to represent that stream of handkerchiefs the magician will pull out of his sleeve (note the boy has some coming out of his sleeve as well.) I love my little rabbit; its a playing piece from a memory game.

She Still Sings Canvas

Birds seem to be still on my mind as I create pieces of art this year. The last 2 canvases have them. Maybe I'm ready for spring. No wait, I KNOW I'm ready for spring!

You can find the following two items listed in my Etsy store. 

This 8X8" 'Nature' canvas was started in February of last year. Don't know why it sat around so long. I guess I couldn't make up my mind as to what it represented or what should be written on it. After painting 'Nature' across the front, it felt complete. It's my first time painting eucalyptus. I like how it came out.

 

This 9X11" piece, entitled She Still Sings, is similar in design to the Caged Bird Sings piece I created last spring. I did experiment on it with textured paste (the bars of the cage can be felt) as well as melted beeswax, my new favorite medium! Beads were nailed into the bottom edge of the canvas.

Back with more to share tomorrow! What are you making for spring?

Hoodie Hoo-Ness!!!!!!

TIME TO SPREAD SOME HOODIE-HOO-ness CHEER!!!

When : Always on February 20  

On this winter day, people go out at noon, wave their hands over their heads and chant "Hoodie-Hoo". It is a day to chase away winter and bring in spring. After all, everyone in the northern hemisphere are sick and tired of winter at this point and a little crazy being cooped up inside all winter and not seeing the sun.

We're tired of this:

This:

and This:

and want a bit of This:

Lots of This:

This:

and most certainly more of This:

Now scat. Go out and get your Hoodie-Hoo on! Bring on the Spring!

Note:
This celebration is for Northern Hemisphere people. If you're in the Southern Hemisphere, you celebrate this holiday on August 22nd.

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Gremlins & Fabric Creations

 

There have been sightings of unexpected but always welcome gremlins in my art studio these days.  Now that the sewing machine has been working, the room has become downright crowded! Not that I'm complaining. These particular gremlins are near and dear to me and it warms my heart considerably to see them sharing my sacred space.

The teen is taking a drawing course at the college campus this semester. Her latest assignment sounds more like mixed media to me than any drawing course I would ever take. She has gone through 3 ideas now and is on to her 4th. 'Trial and error' is what I keep hearing her whisper to herself as she shoves unusual things into the sewing machine to combine. 

Their assignment is to combine 2 sequences, one from each column and using any materials desired, make a piece. They will do 3 drawings on this same subject, so it's probably why she is trying out different ideas  before she settles on her topic. Somewhere on her piece she must have some drawing. 

Personally I'm liking her latest creation made mostly of fabrics. I think she's going with 'The breath of vulnerability'. Something like that. I'm curious to see how it all turns out. I'll share pics of the final project when it's complete.

Since we're down here in the art dungeon, the little one has been wanting to participate. Last night she decided to make a skirt for her barbie doll. Today she completed the emsemble, complete with snaps. I'm sure she has the beginnings of a wonderful career! 

I've been wanting to play with the sewing machine for quite a bit so I made a few fabric ATCs. Had to push a few gremlins out of the way (aka: sharing) but it all worked out okay. The images are from Altered Pages collage sheets.

 

Now that the sewing machine is working, I'm sure the sky is the limit!