happy halloween

just a few decorations out for tonight's events. hoping for at least a few goblins.....happy halloween! the sign was a gift from my best friend who made it for me. i love the silver background! thank you!!

re-purposed metal shelf with a tray

as we were working on this project, i was thinking that it needed a tray (for the chalk). i did some digging into my extra stuff and came up with a vintage shredder. my husband (bless his heart) worked a little magic and got the shredder bent in the right spot so that we could attach it to my "family coordination center."

as we were talking about about my plans for this project, i was thinking that cork on a portion would be cool; and low and behold, my husband had a stash of cork- he is very handy and well prepared (for anything- especially projects that his wife wants to do....).

this was a metal shelf for a cart that i picked up at an auction recently; it somehow had been separated from the rest of the cart. it started its' life as a brown fake wood grain middle shelf for a 3 shelf cart. we sanded it down, primed it, and then, painted the outer edges an ivy green.

once that was dry, we painted the chalkboard paint onto the bottom portion and my husband helped me attach our tray and the wire hangar in the back for me. it turned out so well, i think my husband would like to keep it, but, it will be going on the occasional sale coming up in a couple of weeks.

things that "went" bump in the night

this was our motley crew of artists for the night. i am the referee trying to blow my whistle....

this was my finished piece....i really liked my creepy story i had come up with and my image transfer worked great.

this is just the end of the story. you can kind of see the great texture that was on the painting. i used a painting that had not sold to start over with and paint on for the evening. it was really fun to see what each of us did- all VERY different. we raised over $800 to donate to our local fine arts community! great fun was had by all that evening! thanks to HGS Gallery for hosting- it was a spooktacular idea!!

and tonight, i shall paint (in my best transylvania accent)

tonight, my best friend who owns HGS gallery here in town is hosting a "things that go bump in the night" painting show. she asked 6 local artists to a "paint off." we have a set amount of time for painting and at the end of the evening, our creations set to the theme, will be in a silent auction. the money we raise tonight will be donated to our local fine arts committee who are working on a community project.

i normally do not paint in a set amount of time, so although, i will be painting in acrylics, (my medium of choice), the time factor has been making me nervous. above, is a transfer off a vintage pic that i plan on using. getting the gel medium onto the copy and allowing time for drying in between layers takes time...time i did not want to lose tonight- so i prepped this last weekend.

this is a portion of my storyline....i was doing a trial run to see what i wanted to write my story in...pencil, versus ink, or sharpie....i'm thinking a combo of pencil (which would be my choice) and ink. oh, and we have to wear costumes!! that was the other kicker for tonight...i am looking forward to tonight just to see what we all will create. there will be some very talented artist there tonight. i will try to get pics of the creations to share with you. wish me luck....

1st snow of the season

this first snow won't stay long, but, it is kinda pretty this morning....

repurposed cereal bags

here is another project that i had wanted to try- the idea had come from here. i used a small piece of cotton, stamping, torn music sheet and buttons along with sewing them into a cut out cereal bag. i really like the soft look through the bag.

she had attached her's to string, but, i was considering putting a magnet on mine. thoughts on this? would love to hear what your thoughts are on this! thanks!!

how my garden is still growing- a painting

loving the texture and scrapes in the paint....

and the bits of collage...

and this is the whole painting that has been "cooking" for a while. it was a follow up to my initial "how my garden grows." you can see the other painting here.   i finally figured out what it needed and was inspired to finish it. the colors make me happy-  thank goodness for studio time on the weekends!!

homemade gift card sleeve

i had seen these cute gift card sleeves with instructions here at my so called crafty life. so i dug out my stash of vintage newsprint and some hankies. and cut them into 3" x 4" rectangles. she had used colorful vintage papers and i do not have very much of that, so, i used what i had on hand.

i found the ironable vinyl at hobby lobby in the sewing section. i did have to ask because i was not finding this product and actually had even brought the "bolt" of vinyl to the girl and then asked if there was such a thing as ironable; to which she replied "yes" right over there.....

i cut my vinyl into rectangles to match up with my paper and hankies. then you peel the vinyl from the backing and apply to your paper or fabric. (there are instructions on the back of the packaging as well.) if you don't like how it went on, you are easily able to lift and move the vinyl before ironing. when you are ready,make sure to put the backing down onto your rectangle before ironing.

now you should be ready to iron- no steam needed and it really only takes about 8-10 seconds and flip over to do a quick heat on the other side....and viola! now you are ready to sew together.

this was my very first one....you would think i would figure out not to use my coolest vintage paper on the first run, but,....i did. my next batch is a little bit better matched up at the top, but, overall these were quick and really easy to make.i also used a circle punch to punch the "quick grab"area after the paper had the vinyl on it. the ironable vinyl is kind of expensive at $10 a roll, but, with this small size, you should be able to make a ton of these. i was thinking with the holidays coming up, these would be super cool to use instead of the traditional paper sleeves and people should be able to use them for a while because the vinyl should be a bit more durable.

friday fill-ins....

and here we go....

1. I hope I can get time in my studio space today.
2. What to do when my stuff is spilling out of my studio space...MUST CLEAN. :(
3. Boy I sure did enjoy the swap meet last sunday with my husband.
4. Remind me to call the gals i'm doing the "occasional sale" with...our postcards are in!
5. What does the wildly inappropriate and unexpected tom cruise lead to....for me, this always make me laugh.
6. It makes me want to work in my art journal.
7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to just being home- no volleyball games, tomorrow my plans include going to rock of ages at the washington pavilion and Sunday, I want to finish the weekend in my studio!

paint, doodle, and collage in art journal

i got some new tape this weekend and wanted to give it a try. i was loving the butterflies- especially the little polka dots on the small top one....

i used a portion of another painting, known here as a "dog" to cut apart. a dog is a painting that is usually going nowhere- no hope for seeing  the light outside of the studio...and so must be used for another purpose. i used this left over to add the base for this page. i used watercolor paint to help tie the side to together along with a few doodles. this is the newest page in my art journal.

"dream"ing of the weekend

i had been dying to try making a hammered spoon. they all look so darn cute, especially with something stamped into them. so i gave it a whirl.....first of all, i would say that there is a trick to hammering the spoon flat to begin with. i got the instructions from here. i can see that my pic looks slightly out of focus- however, i am apparently not that steady with the pounding for the letters. there is a trick for that as well- unfortunately, i have not mastered that yet. i guess i will have to keep trying. i did use a sharpie to "fill" in my letters and then, lightly sanded the spoon to take off the excess sharpie and to brighten my spoon. what are you "dreaming" of doing this weekend?....

wanting the weekend

i am hoping the weekend comes soon so that my "can can" style can be unleashed. i am in need of some time in the studio for some art, crafting and re-purposing! i had done some re-purposing here using a kodak film tin to hold my mixed media piece. i loved the vintage "sears" girl showing off her can-can. oh, and ....my husband is also planning a quick little "date" for us to go to a swap meet- last year i scored good stuff at this one- so i will keep you posted on any good finds i may pick up.

mixed media "love"

the board is a "rescue" (one of many for me....before i knew it- i had a pile in front of me. i may need some therapy. :)) from a friend who was taking a pick up load to the dump.

i am really liking the pencil and black ink.

crafting....

yesterday i told you that my mom and i had hung out and crafted....well, it was really only one project that we actually worked on- and that was re-purposing a mens' tie into a head band.  remember when i bought that adorable head band made from a men's tie at junk bonanza? we both thought it would be simple enough, as we are both experienced at sewing. here are the labels we saved off our ties from yesterday's project.

here are our finished products.... i have two more to make. and let me tell you what- this was not as easy as we first assumed! neither of us really had a good idea of how to make the rosettes, so we looked that up first here. there does seem to be a knack to wrapping and hot glueing.... i was happiest with my second rosette there in the middle- although, my mom (god bless her....) told me that all the rosettes looked great. once we were done with making  the flowers, we did hand stitch them back onto the ties.

the in-between parts consisted of cutting off a portion of the tie to use to make rosette. it was interesting, the more expensive the tie- those were hand stitched, and apparently i picked a couple of cheap brands as well, and my cheapies are machine sown...here is the pile of left-overs-the inside of the ties and a lining. the other piece we struggled with was how to finish the end of the tie that we had cut off. our sample of course had done a nice job of making it look how it was supposed to look with a restored point; our however....we did mange to get one to look similar to a point, and decided that it was too much of a hassle and finished the other two with a straight edge.

swap meet and auction day

this morning my little mind kicked in early with the excitement that it was finally saturday and that there was a car swap meet AND an auction. i was hoping to get to both, and that is how my day worked out. first booth at the swap meet was looking great with a few scores. one of which is this vintage movie camera. oh, and its' box behind it....

i did a little "bundling" and put this awesome vintage camera with the movie camera above and drove a hard bargain with the man explaining that i was one of very few women at the swap meet this morning (it was 34 degree and windy this morning, so only the hard cores were out....) looking for this kind of stuff- he agreed and gave me the deal. :)

i rounded out the kodak-package today with this cool film tin....i will have to figure out something cool to do with it.

i found this cute little red-orange light....it will look nice on display with its' pop of color and great patina.

we then went to the auction. i managed to score some vintage fabric, a cool old-school tin ABC child board, some awesome wooden tools along with a wooden plane- that just needs to be cleaned up....cannot wait to see it then. and...these metal squares! i got five of them...i am planning on keeping one and maybe selling the other four. i also got to spend the day with my mom. she bared the cold and stuck it out at the auction with me (thanks mom!) and then, we came home drank coffee and did come crafting- how perfect was this day?!