Old Gold, the Old West, and Feeling Old

Old Gold: one of my latest art endeavors. A sneak peek of a project I just finished... and at the last minute, I might add! These pages are 4 x 4 inches, for a 20-person chunky book swap. The theme is "Touch of Gold" and as usual, my page design got much more involved as it evolved... it turned into collaging, 3D texturing, painting, shading with chalk, stamping, cutting out the tiny stamped images, then putting them all together over the course of 6 hours on Friday night. (so they could be mailed on Saturday, of course, since they are due to the swap hostess by the 30th!!) All those steps were worth it, though- the finished pages turned out beautiful (I think!). I'll show the complete design once the pages are swapped and sent out, but for now you'll have to be content with sneak peeks:

Below is a peek at the upper right corner: this tiny bit includes collaging, painting, stamping, texture paste, stamping, and heat embossing onto vellum... I didn't realize how many techniques I actually used on this one page design!!

Below is the upper right of the back (the back of the pages is decorated, too!) Collaging, painting, stamping with acrylic paint, text printed on the computer, torn paper, and distressing with ink. Now, on to the Old West ... after traveling to Tombstone over Christmas, I got a bit interested in seeing more of the "real" historic pioneering West. We recently started watching the TV show Deadwood on DVD (it was originally shown on HBO), and I really like it a lot. From Amazon: "set in an ungoverned stretch of South Dakota soon after the 1876 Custer massacre, Deadwood concerns a lawless, evolving town attracting fortune-seekers, drifters, tyrants, and burned-out adventurers searching for a card game and a place to die." As the DVD cover says, Deadwood is "a hell of a place to make your fortune." I have never heard the word "cocksucker" so many times an hour in my life (they also use f---" quite a lot), but once you get past the language, it's really quite a good show. I'm sure it's not totally historically accurate, but it gives a good impression of how difficult life in the late 1800s would have been. So far we're up to Episode 7 of Season 1-- there are three seasons total, so there's lots more gold mining, brawling, and scheming to go!

On feeling old: this past weekend, we helped our friend Dennis move... he just purchased his first house, and we helped him move furniture and appliances from his rental house to the new house. We owed him; he's helped us move twice so far since we moved out here, but Boy! was I sore the next day! I was feeling my age (more like twice my age!!) for sure... I think I can still manage to do art, though... haha!! The next swap I have lined up is going to be a really neat one, too- the theme is The Wizard of Oz... stay tuned for sneak peeks of that!!

AU swap page madness

This was the scene in our house last week as I scrambled to finish my pages for the Art Unraveled Technique chunky book swap. I was very ambitious in my page design, so it took more time than I thought (of course, like everything). I made 30 pages total, 4 x 4 inches, but they were painted on both sides (all slightly different abstract designs), and each page also had an ATC-sized (2.5 x 3.5 inches) mini-book containing 10 pages, decorated with art related quotes and other ephemera.

So, the last night before the mailing deadline, the dining room table looked like Hurricane Paper had hit, and it was definitely a Category 5! Every space was covered, and most of it was more than one layer... I was looking for my collected postage stamps, or the cigar bands, and would have to lift up four or piles of paper, scraps, and dyed paper towels before I'd find them. I work best when I can see my supplies (unfortunately, though, working this way means everything ends up piled around my work space).

But I got them finished, and packaged for shipping, as you can see below. (I would have liked to do more decorating in the mini-books, but I had to draw the line somewhere.) The return pages have already been sent out,; I got mine already (since the hostess is in the Phoenix area) and they're great!! All the pages are inspired by techniques learned in various classes, and they range from funky fabric bead decorations to etched metal and aged patinas. The swap hostess even made wonderful decorated covers for us, so all we have to do is bind the book together, in any fashion we choose.I don't want to show them just yet, though; I want to wait a little longer to give the mail a chance to catch up to farther-away participants! (so, you'll have to wait, but I promise to show them soon...)

I also have been working in my journals, since I had all the paint and paper out... the pages below are decorated with a very simple stamp that I got for free- a wine cork! Well, okay, not free, technically, since we had to buy (and drink!!) the wine, but they do make great impressions. Some people also use corks to make some pretty neat carved stamp designs, but I haven't ventured into this yet; it's a pretty small space for carving, in my opinion.

I use coated paper plates as paint palettes; I squeeze 4-6 colors onto the plate, and leave small spaces for mixing the different shades. Eventually the colors get a bit mixed up, so these circles are swirls of marbled acrylic from the paint leftovers on my "palette" (the paper plate).

I may do more (painting, stamping, etc) to these pages before I journal on them, or not... I tend to prepare backgrounds, then let them "sit" for a while till I get inspiration for journaling on them, or inspiration for the next layer of color.

cat postcards- first "mail art"

cat postcards Originally uploaded by crimsoncat05

If you google the term "mail art" you can find some really elaborate, even unusual, art that people have sent thru the mail. Apparently you can mail pretty much anything, from a message in a bottle (mailed in an actual bottle) to a rubber koi. (I found those examples on the internet.) These cat postcards were my first attempt at sending something decorated thru the mail; they were stamped and painted- the mouse and heart are cut paper. The heart includes glitter, and the yarn is real. They were sent out for a swap-bot swap, and made it to their recipients in New Zealand, Australia, and Canada just fine. I think I'll work my way up to the message in the bottle, though!

procrastination is the answer...

You know how they say "Necessity is the mother of invention?" Well, I think it's procrastination. I am a terrible procrastinator, always have been... I think it forces me to be creative, though. Tonight, I made ATCs for a swap I have known about for at least a month... I could have made them anytime- the theme was an easy one, I thought: cancelled postage stamps- but I just couldn't come up with any ideas I liked! Now that the due date is finally here, I was forced to do something, which led me to a mad dash around the house and thru my craft room, this evening after work. Hopefully I'm not the only one who sometimes needs this creative "mad dash sprint" to the finish line?? Anyway, these are what I came up with: These first two are not my usual style, at all... The bottom one is a crazy sort of garden, with the postage stamps as flowers... the bumblebee is stamped, and colored with marker, while the leaves and grass are hand-drawn with colored pencils. I like the top one a lot: there's a bit of a glare, but the postage stamp is Cinco de Mayo, so I put together a fiesta-themed card. I found the magazine images a few days ago in a back issue of Phoenix Home & Garden, and put the whole thing together in about 15 minutes. (that was after I searched frantically for the magazine, having mis-placed it, of course... that sort of thing always happens when I'm looking for something specific!) These two were also put together rather quickly. The card on the left is a postage stamp of a lighthouse on DiamondHead in Hawaii, so I made a beach from sandpaper, and a palm tree from torn mulberry paper. I really like the graphic design on the stamp on the right ... I simply found matching cardstock and wove strips together to play up the quilt pattern. (I say simply, although it required some glue and finesse to get it put together...) These are a few more of my latest creations, made last week... I'm also coming down to the wire for an "inchie" swap, which is 1-inch square pieces of artwork. These were also really difficult for me to come up with, even though the artwork can be any theme- you'd think this would make it easier for me, but not really. I decided to go with "abstract" for the style... these were made using a scrap paper towel, actually- I was drying my paintbrush out after rinsing it, and still had paint in it- I thought it looked kind of neat, so just continued painting the paper towel with more colors of paint and water... after mounting the towel to watercolor paper squares and trimming them, I added details with metallic pens, sequins and glitter glue. I have two more sets completed, but still need to make 6 more- the mad dash with those will be tomorrow afternoon's project!

burst of creativity

wow, it's been a while... like usual- I really admire people who can post regularly, but I will never be one of them. Obviously, I did make it back from Chicago- finally. I was sooo glad to see the lights of the East Valley appear out of the airplane window as we came in for a landing at Sky Harbor Airport!! For a couple reasons- two weeks is too long to live in a hotel room, at least for me- I really missed our house, with our things and our furniture; I really missed Tom and the pets (two weeks is about the longest we've been apart since we met); and I was good and sick of all the cold and snow in Chicago! I took some craft supplies with me to Chicago, but didn't do too much with them... not sure if it was the cold weather, the impersonal hotel room, or the early darkness. Finally this past week, I've been in a creating mood again. These first two pictures are decorated envelopes for a swap on swapbot- mostly stamped, which I haven't done much of in quite a while! The swap was for a set of 10 envelopes to two partners. The only rule was that they couldn't be plain. Mine ended up mostly being rubber stamped (see all of them on my Flickr page). I haven't stamped like this in quite a while; it was really fun, and I ended up wishing I had made some extras to keep for myself. It was difficult to pack them up to send them off; hopefully the recipients will like them as much as I liked making them!

I also started a couple other projects this weekend. One is a visual journal, which I've wanted to do for a long time, but I've been reluctant to start it (that's because of my inner perfectionist, darn him- I've never done anything like this before, so I don't think my pages will be "good enough" so I just don't start). I finally got past the scariness of the "blank white page" by painting some backgrounds. I hauled my notebook, paints, and palette out onto the dining room table, so I could paint while we watched TV and waited for the Sprint Cup race to start... (Tom wasn't feeling good this weekend, so he hung out on the couch most of the time. )

Now that I have some pages started, I can take the next steps and add more paper, stamping, texture, and all that other fun stuff! And then, of course, there's the cover, which looks pretty boring now, with only a black and white design... (see more of these pages on my Flickr page, too)

Next weekend is the Spring Fling rubber stamp show in Mesa, where I'll get more inspiration and ideas ... Sedona has an appointment at the groomer's, so I'll have a few hours of time to kill while I wait for her to get beautified... so I "have" to go, right?? lol!!

good mail!

I've gotten some pretty fun mail lately; here are a few pictures of the latest. The first two are photos of my very own felted sweater kitty, purchased from a fellow Etsy seller, Fluffy Flowers. The shopowner, Felicia, also has a blog; somehow we ended up reading each other's blogs, and commenting on each other's posts occasionally. From that, I found her Etsy store where I fell in love with her kitties, tree sprites, and bunnies. She writes the cutest stories about all of them, too! She made my kitty (named Phoebe... ) after I sent her a photo of my very own Phoebe. Phoebe the sweater kitty is now perched on the bookshelves in my craft room. Perhaps a sweater bunny is in my future, too... check Dixie the sweater bunny out here! (she's a bit afraid of flying, it says, but I might convince her to travel to Arizona someday... lol!)

This was an envelope that came in the mail today... the first envelope from my "recycled inchie" swap partners. (I signed up for an internet swap, and one of my swap partners ended up living in Phoenix- how funny is that?!?) This batch of inchies is from Jessica, a high schooler; she recycled everything for this swap except the envelope and the stamp... they look like candy wrappers, maybe?? I love the colors, and the resourcefulness of her recycling!

In other news, Tom is on the road in the Midwest all week (he will be in Michigan, the Chicago suburbs, St. Louis, and the Kansas City suburbs- it'll be a long week for him!) so I will have the table covered with crafting supplies by tomorrow night... LOL! I took a journaling class at a local stamp store on Sunday with Kelly Kilmer (check her blog out for some great journal pages!)... I made two mini books (will post pics tomorrow) during the class, and want to keep working on them while I still have the inspiration going. Right now it is bedtime for me, as I am working 10-hour days at work right now, and 3:15 am tomorrow will come awfully early!!

crafting HAS taken place...

I just can't show the entire pictures yet! These pictures are sneak peeks for a couple swap-bot packages I sent out, and I want to make sure the recipients get them first... I don't want to spoil the surprise!

These two images are peeks at two ATCs I made for a "Back & Forth" swap- my partner sent a packet of paper, embellishments, etc. to me, and I made two ATCs from them, using the materials she sent (along with a couple of my own things). I sent paper and other materials to my partner, and she sent me back a really cool ATC using the menu from our favorite Chinese restaurant, along with a fortune-cookie fortune, and some origami paper. (I will post it as soon as I take a picture.)

These two pics are sneak peeks at two sets of inchies (1 inch x 1 inch collages) I made for another swap, "Recycled Inchie Art" that was a bit challenging for me... I'm still not used to the 1 inch size, and had to work a bit finding small enough images. It was all about using things destined for the garbage or recycle bin; once I got into it, I had a good time finding papers and images to use in unexpected ways- I dug thru my recycle bin for teeny paper scraps, went thru some junk mail and pamphlets, and scavenged from the Ikea catalog, a catalog of posters, and a home decorating catalog (all of these things were dug out of the paper recycling bin). It's amazing how much paper and cardboard packaging we get; it was nice to use at least a tiny bit of it for an art project.

My next swap is also going to take some thought- it involves finding seven specific elements to decorate 2 ATCs with... it should be a lot of fun, once I get into my stash of stuff! I also dug into my stash of felt and am working on some new fall-themed felt pins, since it's starting to cool off here and feel a bit like fall. We don't get fall-colored leaves here in the desert, so I'm going to make my own!

great mail week!

I recently joined swap-bot, which is a great internet site for hosting and organizing all sorts of swaps, including craft supplies, handcrafted items, postcards, letters and lists, and ATCs, which are my main thing right now. (Check out swap-bot here.) This week was a great mail week; I got envelopes from 5 people, 2 different swaps that I'm in. (Much better than just the usual junk mail and bills!)

These are ATCs from a swap titled "Flower Power Postage Stamps" where you use the postage stamp as inspiration for the card. Jeannie sent me some extras, too: the cutest metal dragonfly brads, and some shiny red Christmas paper (which didn't focus too good, so there's no pic of it here) which will definitely be put to good use!

These are only part of what Dawny sent me for a painted ATC background swap. She even painted her envelope! (you can see the rest, including the envelope, here) The red and green ones are perfect for another swap I'm in for Christmas ATCs. The top right one is painted felt, the bottom right one is collaged, and the red and green ones were made using crackle paint, I think.

Backgrounds from Kimberly.. the top 2 went right into my album; they're too pretty to use as backgrounds! The other three were made (somehow) using sandpaper, crayons, hairspray, and rubber stamping, from what she says. I need to find out exactly how she did it, cause they're really cool! I'm not sure I want to cover those up, either...

Flower power postage stamp ATCs from Kasia. The stamps are from Poland, and she watercolored scenes onto the cards that continued the scene in the stamp. The one on the left is a view thru a hotel window, with a flowerbox on the balcony.

She also sent me an envelope full of these great extras, which I can't wait to use!

Backgrounds from Susi from the ATC background swap; the gold and white ones will also be great for Christmas ATCs- they're tissue paper, I think. The other ones, I have no idea how she made them, but the colors are gorgeous!