sewingswag {custom bags}

do you know that i sew?.... almost becoming a lost art now a days; but me......

i come from a long line of seamstresses. both of my grammas sewed as well as my mom. 

clothes, furniture slip covers- they did it all. and they did it superbly. if i could describe the shirt i wanted, my gramma could sew it for me without a pattern.

i used to sew clothes for my kiddos when they were little, but as they grew up- (and they could voice their own opinion), slowly that changed.

then i found sewing on paper..... and love that almost as much as sewing on fabric. i don't hesitate for a moment to go and throw my paper under the sewing machine.

 but i have found a bit of a balance however between art and sewing in the form of bags and my dolls (current doll i am working on).

both the bags and dolls make great gifts and i am always open to custom orders. size, color, lined with plastic, maybe no plastic....you tell me. 

happy friday.

xo. kristin

tgif {video}

These ladies would be a bit of a labor of #love #ladies #mixedmedia

A video posted by Kristin Peterson (@alteredstatesstudio) on Aug 24, 2016 at 7:36pm PDT

tgif.

xo. kristin

ladies {mixed media/ sewingswag}

this lady would be printed, stitched and filtered for your enjoyment.

her green eyes would look right through you.

the ladies would be a spirited pair.

xo. kristin

#shewouldbe

she would be small and somewhat fragile sometimes; she would be left out and forgotten

#she #shedollinspiration #shewouldbe 

xo kristin

(deb combs inspired she dolls)

re-sew {doll}

i had made my own adorable little doll after seeing my friend's post in Sew Somerset. i had originally made her following the instructions in the magazine, but her face was very small and seemed out of place even though this is not a large doll. she stands about 6.5 inches. i finally figured out how to make her face larger and sewed it on. i really like my hand sewing on the outside of the face for her- adds to her sweetness and vulnerability. 

and the black and white polka dot fabric {swooooon} is one of my all time favorites....

Deb's original dolls were so darn cute!! i have bought several of Deb's dolls and just love them all!

below are Deb's She Dolls

happy wednesday.

xo- kristin

wired up armature

my student and i have played hard over the long weekend to make some armature.....we had talked about the project and what needed to be accomplished and she choose to make a sea turtle. she used 16 gauge for the outer frame and followed up with 20 gauge to support her paper shell. she used watercolor to tint her tissue paper. once all the paper was on her frame, she used glimmer mist to tint the top of the turtle and then, followed up with the shell. for her shell, she used acrylic paint on thin brown paper and then, torn it into small pieces to attach to her turtle. check out her finished sea turtle below....

 i couldn't just stand by and watch....i needed to keep my fingers busy while we talked armature....so, i am working on a "doll" of sorts- or maybe a better word....a princess. my armature is her skirt and body. and then covered with watercolored tissue paper as well. i have not made up my mind on her arms yet....so for now, this princess has very underdeveloped arms.....

 i flattened an old tablespoon and had stamped this precious face onto tissue paper and then, attached to the spoon. i attached the spoon with wire to the body and then, finished the body up to the neck. her crown in on overpainted paper that i stamped with a crown stamp, and then, cut around. if you think the top portion of the crown seems shinier- it is....i used iridescent embossing powder on the top of the crown- cutting both a front and a back and then, finishing with jewels. her necklace is made from scraps of paper wrapped around wire and dipped in UTEE.

our next project that we have started is a found object box with ATCs on yupo paper....stay tuned.

out of pieces a girl is born

i had collected a pile of pieces, and finally had gotten time to put them together. this is my girl "doll" that was created. i am not sure if i am going to add anything else for her arms, or just let her be.

she may have to cook for just a bit, and see if i still like her....right now, in my strange eye, she is perfect and i love her.

new collage pages in my art journal

i have to tell you a little story....see that shiny green/ gold piece with the wonderful pattern with the little pull tab? well, i was shopping and always looking for interesting napkins or kleenex, and spotted those at a checkout. i was so excited to see the pattern, and thinking that the pattern was ON the kleenex. well, let me tell you what, i opened it to use my wonderful new kleenex to discover, the pattern was ONLY on the packaging! what the heck?! so now i have loose kleenex in my studio because i have used the plastic wrap for art.

i bought the cute colored folder tabs at our little variety store that will be closing and matched it up with my tea wrapper and part of a recipe for a coffee cake. not to worry...i  didn't use my gramma's recipe card. i managed to score a vintage box of recipes at an auction, so that i when i want to use something like that for something arty, i don't have to feel bad about tearing or destroying the recipe.

this is a top view. the page on the left was a skinny page so you can see some of the other pages done previously. you can easily see my kleenex wrapper with the tab now.

i decided to break out the embossing powder- a lovely shade of green....some stamping, a paint chip, a little watercolor background, and poof!

some scraps on my counter....

this was a beginning of a landscape, that will now be something mixed media; and i thought needed the sticker through it....what are you gonna do?!

oh, here is a sneak peek at my newest "doll" for a lack of a better word. the spring is a little too long and the head was wobbly- so i had to hold it. :) and i need to find some arms.