Play time- fabric art journal page

Why is it that I always seems to have to remind myself to just play? Could it be because I have an overwhelming fear of failure? That I worry that everything has to be perfect, and I rarely just create with the goal to just enjoy the process? If I just spent as much time actually making some thing, any thing, instead of ruminating about it, I could wallpaper my walls and upholster my furniture with my art. Well, in that light, I am putting up a page I made almost two years ago. One, because I am hard-headed and have to remind myself to play, and two, because besides cutting out paper with my new Sissix (whee!) and Tim Holtz dies, I really haven't actually made anything. So here ya go. The page contains two clear pockets that I sewed on to hold a couple of ATC's I made with stamps from Lost Coast. The Three Muses blog is having an ODD COUPLE challenge this week! Check out everybody's work- so cool.

Top Hat Derby Hop

Kecia, over at Lemoncholy's Studio is hosting this awesome blog hop! I've never done one before and I just found out about it today, so I am posting about an altered cupie doll I did for my first Art-Is-You event. The theme was Taking Tea with Alice so I decided to transform my cupie into an 'Alice at the Masked Ball'. (funny story about the cupie- she just showed up in my mailbox with absolutely no explanation-I just figured that she had to be from my new art friends. Suze Weinberg's traveled around the world with her, although she never did quite got dressed, but that's another story) Anyhoooo, when I saw this top hat challenge, I thought she would fit right in. I'm actually quite jealous of her since I've been scouring etsy late at night looking for a top hat of my own. Oh, and the hair is needle felted wool a la Marie Antoinette. Thank you Kecia for hosting- it was so much fun!

Thinking of spring

I made this collage with a picture of Sloane sitting in our front yard in the spring sunshine. She is wearing the dress I wore as a baby. As the days insist on ending abruptly before we even sit down at the dinner table, I am finding that my seasonal depression is kicking in. Sooooo, I wanted to post this as a reminder of what is to come.

Art every several days? COFFEE!!!!

I just finished this painting this morning. I love my morning coffee!

Art every day - back of journal cover

In an attempt to be more consistent in my creating and posting, I am plowing away at my 'to do' pile o' art projects. Here's the back cover of the journal that I started in Traci Bautista's class.

Today's haul- old hardware

I just had to post about my loot that I brought home today from the flea market. Oh, the possibilities. You should have seen me pawing through the bucket of rusty hardware- pure bliss. I am posting a close up of some of my favorites.

Finally- finished journal cover from Traci Bautista's class

In trying to create every day, I've been working on some half completed projects. This is the journal cover that I just finished. I took the class in APRIL at Art Opera. And so it goes. Traci Bautista was a wonderful instructor, she works quickly and intuitively, which I liked very much. I think I will pull all of my half finished pieces together and take a picture. Quick, someone please request a piece for a swap or an auction so I will be forced to actually finish something else.

Tim Burton-esque house

Hi there- I wanted to show my piece I made for the Little Baby Face Foundation auction. I had in mind a sculpture at first, but after imagining myself navigating two trains, two subways and a bunch of new yorkers with said sculpture in hand, i ditched that idea. Instead I went for a shadow box which I could pack. (of course, I could have shipped it, but that would mean completing it in time to ship and NOT working on it until the last possible moment, which is of course what I did) Anyway, I had in mind a slightly skewed Tim Burton inspired house backed by a sunset. There's a story behind that particular image, based on Disney's 'The Rescuers', but more on that another time. I have to say that I really love the result. I've never made a shadow box, and hardly anything in 3d, and I really enjoyed making this. And the ladies (and gentlemen) at Art-is were so supportive and encouraging- it makes me feel good that it got several bids and made some moola for the Foundation. Ooh, and Suze Weinberg even had it on her blog.

Back from Art-is-You

Wow, what a whirlwind- weeks of planning, packing and making (a piece for the auction- I'll talk about that in another post) and now it's over. I took a class from Laurie Meseroll on Saturday on folk art painting and came up with this. I absolutely love it, but the most validating thing was when I showed it to my baby cakes and she said 'Wow!' (which is good since it's going in her room)

'Wicked' ATC's

Well, I made about twenty atc's for a group project -the theme being 'Wicked', as in the musical. They were made using image transfers- gel and tape. I had never tried that before and it was funnnnn! One of my favorites was the gel- I used Golden gel medium- semi gloss- and layed down about four coats over a toner based image, letting each one dry in between and then dunked the whole thing in water and rubbed the paper off. That was the fun part. Just keep going until all of the paper is gone and voila- a perfect image transfer.