What is it about the daily mail that makes us wait in anticipation...its not as if anything interesting ever arrives...bills, advertising fliers, money solicitations, the occasional magazine...but recently I received a package...and a foreign package at that!
Once I opened the padded envelope, the inside was also wrapped so neatly...the anticipation was building...
A fellow blogger and artist, Carole Reid, had asked for suggestions of a title for her recently completed painting...the winning suggestion would receive a piece of artwork from Carole...after all the suggestions were tallied, Carole combined/edited several of them into the final title...so each of us who contributed to the end result received our prize...
A small original piece of art by Carole...
I immediately scrounged through my pile of frames to find a suitable one...and the framed artwork is resting on my office windowsill for now...I love the colors...and the circles...
I'm thinking of refreshing our living room...its been 10 years since we moved in...time to move things around...thinking of doing a "wall of art" and this piece will fit right in...I'll be out of town for a bit but plan to tackle this "refreshing" project in early June...stay tuned...
Pinterest...the power to find inspiration...and to be found...and to give inspiration to others. I realize that Pinterest has its fans/fanatics as well as those who detract/denigrate the site...but I find it a source of inspiration...a source that is two-fold...
Some of you may remember that during the holidays, I had several projects that used my remaining felted sweater scraps...and after I made felted wool vases, felted wool stockings, and felted wool mitten garlands, I still had scraps left...but much smaller ones.
When I spied this pin of these cute chicks, I knew that I found a project to use up those smaller scraps...there's a complete pattern with instructions on the myrtle and eunice blog...to get all the info click here.
I enlarged the pattern (via my scanner and printer) and sewed up three chicks...
I made the "feet" on the black chick out of rusted wire...still debating on "feet" for the other two...the beak on the blue chick is cut from a vintage raffle ticket...
And the blue shelf in the picture...made from an old painted board...I used the same technique for making it
as I did for making my little white boxes but stopped once I had three sides nailed together...
I still have enough pieces left for one or two more chicks...and now I have tiny, tiny scraps of felted wool remaining...what to do with that...? ideas?
So I have found plenty of inspiration on Pinterest...and others have been inspired by me...it is via Pinterest that HGTV.com saw a picture of my brass stencil lamp and included it as one of 10 ideas to transform your bedroom decor...my lamp is idea #3 in the line-up...read all about it here...
Pinterest...seems to be a two-way street...and because of that, I'll keep pinning...
Linking up to Funky Junk Interiors Saturday Nite Special...did you know that FJ has a special Pinterest board devoted to the highlights from SNS...see it all here...
Tucked back in a corner of my garden is this lone yellow poppy...and it just bloomed two days ago...
Amid all the green and shadows, its casts a yellow light...and brightens my day...
Playing with my photoshop textures...
kk texture "chase" soft light at 100%
layer mask to remove texture from yellow poppy
kk texture "letgo" soft light at 25%
linking up to Kim Klassen's Texture Tuesday...
and for those Beyonders too...
Saturday was one of those occasions when you finally get to connect the blog persona with the actual person...
Seth Apter was in town to promote his new book, The Pulse of Mixed Media, Secrets and Passions of 100 Artists Revealed...and he brought along Donna Watson and Leslie Avon Miller to participate in his talk/demonstration...
Seth started his talk with a snippet from the book...if you give 100 artists the same set of art supplies and told them to create, you would get 100 different pieces of art...it is the soul of the artist that makes the difference...and given this small opportunity to see a part of these three artist souls, I sat in the audience, soaking it up...
After Seth talked about the book and how it evolved/grew/solidified into its current published form (with a second printing already underway), it was show & tell time...
First Donna talked about the influence of her Japanese heritage on her art...her use of rice papers as a basis for her textures in her work and the placement of the pieces that constitute each collage.
It was immensely gratifying to hear her talk about her design process. Donna's blog, layers, is one of my favorites...always informative, always inspirational...
Next was Leslie, demonstrating a small slice of her technique for building textures and making marks in her work. Leslie's art is all about the feel and flow of a piece - abstract but yet provocative...
Likewise Leslie's blog - textures, shapes and color, explores these same topics...I knew I liked Leslie's blog from the first time I visited...she has one of my favorite quotes (by Emerson) on her sidebar...
Last was Seth, demonstrating his texture technique as well as some masking tips...Seth's work is also about layering the textures...
with a strong influence of word/type/letter/number motifs
Last night I started reading The Pulse...and today I experimented with a few of the texture tips I picked up from Saturday's demo...I've always used paper layers and transfers in my work to give texture...I've never been much for using paint in the process other than a solid base coat...so it was time to try something new...
I laid down a piece of drywall tape on top of my gray board, painted on the surface with latex paint and pulled up the tape before the paint was dry...and then I immediately laid the tape onto the light blue boards and used my brayer to adhere the remaining paint on the tape surface to the board...I like that one process is the reverse of the other...
Yes, 100 different artists with 100 different perspectives...but all tied together by one collaborative artistic man...pick up a copy of The Pulse...you won't regret it...
It seems more than two weeks have passed since I had my afternoon with the Queen of Junk, Shelley Holm...I left off where I was scurrying home to finish up my trio of boxes, squealing with delight over the junk finds and the helpful tips I had acquired...
The original photo of inspiration from Pinterest was really only a jumping off point...the boxes I spied (and have since seen in the current issue of Country Living magazine as well) were made of wood with herb label stenciling on the front and a long black hook at the back of the box to hang it on the wall...I made my boxes out of white peely painted pickets...and then added a single section of old wire garden fencing to the back - ready to hang on the wall or add a vintage vibe if just sitting on a table...
Though I had fun styling the boxes in this spring vignette, I anticipate using them as part of my art booth,
holding notecards for display...
To share a few details...here's a view of the corner construction...
and a look at attaching the garden fencing to the back...poultry staples were perfect for this...
to see the initial construction steps, click here...
Can't thank Shelley enough for her help...we're already trying to decide what to make next...
Mother's Day is just around the corner...and if you need some help with a little gift...I'm having a Flash Sale at my etsy shop...
A special selection of six different vintage art cards, packaged up and ready to give...
The top photo shows a sample of the gift wrapping in yellow...but you have a choice of yellow, blue, green or pink...tied up with Midori ribbon and tagged for "mom".
And the shipping (USPS Priority Mail) is free if you enter MOTHERSDAY2012 when you place your order...and I'll even mail direct to your mom if you want...what could be easier?!
so get over there now...you know she'll love them...
