Tote Swap

I participated in a swap not too long ago that required me to make a tote bag for an exchange, along with some goodies for inside said tote, this is what I made. I think it turned out pretty well considering it was my first real sewing project since junior high when we were supposed to make boxer shorts and my project went enough off course that the teacher came back with a pattern of a silhouette of a cat for me to make instead. Yeah, I'm not kidding here. My Mom gave up on me taking Home EC classes after that and gave the go ahead on my taking World Lit and History classes instead.

As it turns out, I did ok in the cooking department and I can bake just about anything so my mother isn't completely humiliated (although that says more about Food TV than Home EC). The sewing is going to continue to require some practice because I am hooked on these cute little skirts that I'm fairly certain are only going to be accomplished if done by hand and I definitely need to post pics of the bag I received in return, it was awesome with gorgeous shades of pinks with these terrific fabric pins. Obviously, the boxers would not have been a problem for Mary!

Red!

This is a page I made for a book project I'm participating in for Art Chix. This one was a family project, I roped my husband into cutting and folding the 50 pages. It went much faster this way! I love the Glamour Girls sheets where I got the image for this page. I'll update with the completed book when it comes in.

Wonder Woman for Appendicitis

My friend Mark asked me to make a charm for his cat sitter who is a 12 year old girl with a burst appendix going in for surgery. His direction was something with the initial "k" and maybe something with strength and courage. I like to use words or thoughts that will inspire and that I want to have close to my heart on the back so the back of this one has "strength" and "courage". I'm hoping this will inspire her and help her feel better. I'm also throwing in a bottle cap with her initial, just in case. :)

As a follow up to the health issues I haven't blogged about in a while, I saw the neurologist today who was almost less than helpful but I get to see him in a month after trying some new meds and amazingly enough, he suggested getting tips from the Internet. OY!

Anyway, the road trip plans are firming up and my friend Bo is taking the Feasting on Asphalt challenge with us so I'm definitely going to be driving everyone crazy with my incessant planning and squealing about the trip!

Finally, Vegas Update

It's been more than a little non-stop here since we got back from Vegas. We re-did our guest room, including finishing putting down the laminate floors from the studio that stopped just outside the hallway, painted, put two beds together, hung a TV, two ceiling fans (don't ask), took out all the furniture, put said furniture back, had guests, entertained them, you get the idea.

We wanted to relax and catch up on movies this weekend but were only able to see two before I was felled by a serious migraine and we were forced to retreat to the living room and darkness (the Bellagio is worth the extra money for the blackout shades and curtains alone!) - seriously! We saw the Bourne Ultimatium, which I loved, and the Simpsons Movie, so I can drag him to some chick flicks now before I succumbed completely.

Anyway, the pic of me is at the Wynn and I'm not incredibly pissed off but I was caught mid-laugh. Amazingly enough, on me the two look exactly the same! The Wynn is gorgeous and uber-upscale but also extremely whimsical so I loved it! This was the path to serious shopping. The other is the gorgeous falls off a patio that had lovely sculptures in the water that had me transfixed until Rolland moved me along for the other nice tourists waiting their turn.

I know there are people that hate the gaudiness and all the trappings of Vegas, but for me, I really love the juxtaposition of all the created beauty - even the tacky beauty - and vitality of the people and places between the surrounding stillness and peacefulness of the desert. It's loud and quiet, whichever you need or want, strangely (and for the Harry Potter fans) it's like a giant room of requirement.

Oh yeah, my necklace for the show at work got 2nd place in the show. I got a ribbon. And ice cream.

Road Trip!

Okay, I know I need to post Vegas updates and art show updates and I will. Soon. But, in the meantime you need to start watching this. We're hooked. We watched last year and wanted to set off immediately but were prevent from doing so by, well, life. But this year, we will not be stopped. The husband and I are planning a mini-Feasting on Asphalt tour for Labor Day that should be awesome! Details to come - seriously. :)

Family History in jewelry form

This piece is my jewelry entry for the art show at work. The stones are smokey quartz with soldered charms in between. I made it with the intention of it just being for show but it's pretty comfy to wear, if I ever just wanted to wear it. I'm really happy with how it turned out. I need to put it in a shadow box for the display so my only concern is the black background otherwise I'm all set and with my submissions.

Vegas Baby

It has been unbelievably hectic and crazy this last few weeks but the fast forward is this...

The Order of Phoenix was great, head out and see it now that the crowds have died down. My friend, Jen, and I saw it last Thursday after a great pasta dinner, the perfect follow up to a rough week. Transformers, also worth seeing as was Live Free Die Hard (husband's pick) if only for the mac guy.

We celebrated our 12th wedding anniversary on the 30th of June and it was great, we got a new flat screen TV for the bedroom. This has prompted a few new furniture purchases to support said TV - we're out of control. But, the hubby's b-day is coming up and to celebrate, we're heading to Vegas. He likes to gamble and I can't wait to relax, pack up some books and settle in to not work and relax. I'm ready for the shopping, resting and the nothing happening that will be going on.

On the art front, we're having an art show at work and I'm submitting two pieces. One a mixed media entry and the other a jewelry entry. This is the mixed media entry. I mixed the traditional Laurie Mika style clay tiles and larger soldered "tiles". Hopefully I won't have to hide out in shame...

New Charm for a going away gift

My boss is leaving tomorrow so I made a charm as a going away gift. She decided not to relocate to Texas from Minnesota so I thought I would make something to remember us by. This being the lonestar state, I used a piece of the Texas map, added a cowgirl and a few odds 'n ends to create the final piece. The back is simply a cluster of yellow roses. The image in color is pre-soldering and the final charm is in b&w because the scanner won't scan in color. I don't know why and I'm getting really sleepy so I'll work on it tomorrow!

Tomorrow - Friday, yay!

Back to Basics for Father's Day

I'm sending out my Dad's stuff for Father's Day ... hazards of living away. But this year I decided to go with a theme and found the perfect travel bag and decided to go back to the stamp basics. It was fun playing with just stamps, ink and colored pencils again! This is what he's getting in the mail. :)

P.S. It's ok it's not the full address, it's just for effect. It's going in the box with the rest of the "themed" gift bag so it's ok. Also, please note that no pink was used in the making of this project!

Fun summer bag

I'm participating in a new swap that involves making a bag to exchange and I'm definitely in need of practice so I just wanted to play with some fun fabric I had, no real pattern or anything, and I made this one today. Definitely not quitting my day job anytime soon and I think I have a few more in my future before I'm ready to pack up and ship of my bag for an exchange but it was fun working in a new medium although it's a lot harder to deal with fabric than paper... it's much harder to just keep trimming until the line is straight! Next time, I'm getting out the pattern and going in with the multiple fabrics... all I'm saying is french blue, chocolate, polka dots and paisley (I think that's enough).

London Calling....

We're planning to head back to the UK this fall and visit London over Thanksgiving - it shouldn't be a big holiday for them. :) We're flying into New York City on Weds the week before Thanksgiving and staying the night and flying into London bright and early on Thursday. We'll do it all over again and will actually be flying back on Thanksgiving and spending the holiday on a plane and hotel room then flying back to Dallas Friday morning from New York. The housesitting and puppysitting is all arranged and I'm already looking forward to the 6 days of relaxing heaven! It's resting, breakfast, shopping/exploring, eating/resting, shopping/exploring, resting, eating, resting, then start again... heaven, I'm telling you! I've got to start the itinerary. Rolland works better with a plan and I want to get in all the places we missed last time.

This is a project I started last weekend when I did some craft shopping. It was mostly color inspired but it's also slightly on theme since it's called "Alice's Journal" and includes photos of Queen Victoria (who I love). I was working on it last weekend when my friend Lara came over for an art play day. I've also made a few new necklaces that I'll post later this week.

Have a great week!

P.S. I've also purchased tickes for Gay Bingo at the Lakewood, going with some pals (previous gig but still love the friends so the suckey job was worth it just for the truly lovely friends {see... silver lining right there!}) in two weeks and Kathy Griffin at Bass Hall in July, both should be more than a riot so I'll give you a full update.

Masked Ballerina ATC

I'm participating in a swap here and I made this piece to exchange. I wanted to make my version of a very feminine and girly tarot card but we needed to include a new technique. I used beeswax and I loved how it turned out!

I used watercolor crayons for the background and on the ballerina (I collaged her on to the piece separately) and love the colors. Added the stamped and embossed word with brown ink and silver embossing powder and then covered everything in beeswax with my handy new little black and pink iron. It looks great in the studio! :)

The beeswax finish softens the colors and ages the piece even more. I even did the back so my name plate sort of melted into the paper background giving it a great effect. I think I'm hooked. I'm planning on doing a series of cards, at least 1-10 with a similar technique. I'm really inspired with the new hunk of beeswax and iron, plus it smells great... oh, perfect for Christmas cards!

Backgrounds, backgrounds, backgrounds...

That seems to be the theme for the last week so that's what I've been working on in the studio. I've been playing with some new supplies that I've never tried before like the oil paint stick by Shiva (I got mine here since they're all over Dallas). I got two - cobalt blue and white and it was a bigger investment than I normally make in a test supply (almost $10 bucks each) but I love the backgrounds on the canvas and they dry in 24 hours with no mess! In case you wanted a testimonial - I haven't attached anything via a gel medium or any glue products so I'll keep you updated on that front. Edited to add: I got my supplies at Asel after leaving work on Friday afternoon since summer hours started (yeah, summer hours!) and a quick listen to the concert at Pegasus Square downtown at lunchtime. Last Friday was a band that included a super nice guy, Ryan, that I've worked with so you should check them out.

My other finds include a big hunk of beeswax that I'm testing out all kinds of applications on (I know I'm the last one to this party but I'm such a klutz I was concerned I would set myself on fire but once I realized I solder regularly it seemed less risky). And, I've been using the tricks from my Michael de Meng workshop to make some desperately needed bookends for my bookshelves that are packed and overflowing. I've painted the previously flag blue metal bookends in washes of yellow, ochre and the quinacridone gold - I've just got to add all the pieces/parts. I'm thinking of just adding the hot wheels sans altering for fun but we'll see. Once I have more than backgrounds of anything I'll post some pics.

I've also been playing with my new Mac but that's not anywhere near the comfort area of the beeswax, bookend altering or oil painting. :) By day, I'm an Interaction Designer and live on the computer (PC) but the Mac is throwing me. . . I think it may be smarter than I am but in the nicest way possible. It's thrown me for a loop but, I did a test run on Photoshop Elements (not even the real Photoshop that I'm saving for) and I found some new tricks. I have a crush on my brainy new Mac that knows lots of things my PC seemed to be hiding from me.

Business Card Holder Cover

I bought a bunch of these books at target, I think they're called brag books, for $1.00 and they're small 61/2 x 5 photo albums and I've used one to hold ATC's and I've made one into a holder for business cards that I've collected from vendors, swaps, shows, etc. This is the cover that I've made for it using some new paper that I found at Hobby Lobby that had crowns... and was pink. The thinner secondary ribbon was found at Michael's and is from Martha Stewart's new line.

I'm a little torn since mostly she drives me crazy with all the feelings of inadequacy she tries to instill in all women who aren't canning, creating their own crafts line, running an empire and baking muffins at 3 am but I really liked the ribbon so I caved. Clearly my morals are extremely cut and dried as long as coveting of ribbon is not involved!

More Pics of the New Studio

And here are some more pics... and in case you couldn't tell the before pics are of the yellow studio space with the bowling alley of art supplies along the wall! :)