… the good stuff

haven’t made an inchie in quite a while but this one popped up at just the right time to inspire a couple of quick pages in my gesso journal and the heart is punched from monoprint paper …

the flower was created out of paper clay awhile ago in a mold I made using a fancy metal nail head embellished with some paint and rub on gold…

 scrapbook paper “buttons” and pencil doodles …

wishing you lots of good stuff…

~♥~ tootles until next month ~♥~

OXO

tell me a story … part two

last week I shared my swan wallpaper piece on the left for two September art journaling challenges (AJJ “Less is More“ and JJ’s “Childhood“)…

I have been busy putting finishing touches on the right hand side of my journal…

using a piece of plastered eyelet cotton to create a pocket…

that pretty flower at the bottom of my pocket was part of a goodie package that I received when I won the Needle Thread Cloth August Giveaway…

you can see their exciting September challenge here…

I also used a piece of the really special hand dyed text fabric (thank you sweet Jan!) on one of my tags along with some of the yummy linen embroidery floss for a couple of French knots and to tie on a metal wing charm  (the photograph is of my parents and little me from way back when in Germany)…

the pocket worked nicely to hold my tea stained tags that I stitched and glued bits of plaster lace, torn fabric, tea bag, book text and more along with images of two sweet little girls from the lovely wallpaper piece from Nathalie…

I also happened to come across a tiny book (1.75 x 2.5 inches) I had stitched and decorated to use as an itty bitty journal some time ago (thank you also to my sweet friend Eileen for sharing the bumpy yarn that made the perfect finish for my Play tag)… 

the photo is of me when I was about 5 years old…

everyone is welcome to join in the “Childhood” challenge theme over at Journal Journey’s…

hjerter… cœurs… harten… Herzen… cuori… kiery… corazones… hjärtan

…hearts…

back in November I found a pretty Liberty wool scarf at an Aspen Thrift Shop for a song…

after sending it to the cleaners I was very disappointed to discover that it itched like crazy around my neck…

then I had a thought

why not felt the scarf!

as you can see a hot water wash matted the fibers together beautifully so I got busy cutting hearts…

embroidering different stitches and such onto them…

 using some of my hand dyed silk ribbons and some old (thank you Carmen Dyson) and new music papers that I stitched onto folded card stock along with a scribbled black pen border…

an easy and fun process with a few more in the works…

the lovely and talented Nancy of Sugar Lump Studios is having a very special event beginning 1 February that you will not want to miss …

 

beeswax tins…

do you find some packaging impossible to resist?

I admit I have purchased items for their containers…

my mint tins have been grilled (there is a link on my sidebar on how I do that) to remove the paint and labeling…

ready for melted beeswax which smells wonderful and is very forgiving…

like a good friend…

if you make a mistake you have a chance to go back and start over…

for my altered tins I used assorted papers, fabric, lace, vintage millinery, beads, charms, buttons and images that I had on my art table (the horses are from Dover Publications while the others are a mystery to me)…

 if you would like to see more of my beeswax creations from the last five years you can go to the LOOKING FOR SOMETHING space on my sidebar and type “Beeswax” in the Search line OR click on the word “Beeswax” on the same line as Comments below …

be sure to visit Dorthe who has shared some of her really beautiful wax creations here…

special thanks to local mixed media art friends for a recent play date that got me going with wax again…

passion for paper and more…

awhile ago I took a resin class with a friend and we made a couple of charms…

if you live in Northern Virginia that same friend is teaching a wonderful hand felted journal class here …

when I got home I played some using bits of fabric and lace and more…

we used Sakura’s 3D Crystal Lacquer and I would still like to play with Ice Resin someday…

my origami dress collection keeps growing (can you believe it…I’ve started and can’t stop!)…

here I used some of my paint scraped book pages going international thanks to one of LaWendula’s Paper Swaps and some wonderful old German dictionary pages (and LOTS more wonderful swap treasures)…

old maps are always a favorite ingredient (I made these watching Project Runway on TV)...

and here is a peek at what I won from the lovely Alicia of Altered Bits…

a wonderful array of vintage book pages and some of her super vintage images and more…

“Passion can transform the mind, body and spirit…
Passion can align you with the wisdom of nature and the power of what is in your heart.” ~JoLynne Valerie

 

message in a bottle…

Marit’s challenge this week for her Quirky Dutch Summer #2 (link on my sidebar)  is “Mail art”…

I enjoy decorating things I send in the mail depending on what kind of envelope I use usually with paper/fabric collage and rubber stamping and sometimes paint…

I thought I would try something I have always wanted to use as a container to send in the mail…

we sliced an opening in a plastic bottle and filled it with bits of this and that and even stuffed one of my lavender wands thru the cap end of the bottle…

just in case I thought I would mail a handmade postcard separately to the same person to see if they arrive across the ocean around the same time…

thank you to Karen The Graphics Fairy for the moon face and to my Queen Bee friend Nathalie of Rubyfloy for the perfect punch card for the torn border at the bottom of my postcard…

it was extra fun to see how delighted the postal ladies were today asking was it okay to put necessary stickers here and there on the “package”…

“When we think of ourselves as human, we limit the way we express ourselves in life.  We hear, “I’m just human; I’m not perfect.”  But, if we call ourselves artists, where is that limitation?”  ~Don Miguel Ruiz

ocean deity…

feeling a little betwixt and between in my creativity lately eventho I am really enjoying playing with wool again…

I put the finishing touches on a thank you gift for a friend…

Mr Magpie had flattened and curled lots of pieces of cutlery for me awhile ago…

this piece was crying for attention…

I first tried my hand at altering cutlery back in 2008…

some things never get old…

just a peek …

here is a sneak peek at a little something I made out of wool using some of the fabrics I dyed recently…

with BIG thanks to Fran and Leiann in our local altered arts group for bringing in their die cutting machines and some of their fab die collection to share with the group…

almost makes me think I NEED one of those machines but I am trying to resist temptation…

wish now that I had cut out more pieces…

when all of the ornaments reach the Queen Bees I can show you more…

before November leaves us…I also wanted to share this month’s quote from my “Angel Spirits” The Art of Sulamith Wulfing 2011 Calendar:

“The world and its peoples are blessed with infinite diversity, infinite manifestations of wisdom and spirit.  Open to my teachings, expand your vision and your comprehension of the sacred.  When you keep an open heart and mind, there is no limit to your understanding.” ~Angel of Understanding, November 2011

~* Happy Weekend All *~

regali da Italia

…gifts from Italy…

still trying to catch up on thank you’s here in blogland…

the lovely and talented Gio from Roma surprised me recently with some handmade treasures…

I plan to take the gorgeous fabric covered notebook with me on our upcoming trip to California…

I had admired Gio’s delicate domino book (approx 1.5 x .75 inches…3.81 x 1.90 cm) long before I knew it was meant for me…

precious details both front and back…

even a lovely black swan…

she pinned a very fine assortment of charms onto a fancy pin for me to play with too!

***molte molte grazie caro Gio***

local “what do U see” swap for Sandy

this is the last round for our local “what do U see” swap…

Sandy’s acrylic tag  and ingredients gave me pause at first …

as with most any project once you begin things start to fall into place…

each player received a similar array of items to begin with…

I wanted to leave some open space so the acrylic could be seen…

the “fly” text stamp is from Catslife Press…

I added the Italian paper at the bottom along with the Cavallini bird sticker and butterfly postage stamp from my stash because it all just happened to be handy on my work table…

 a torn piece of my Citra Solv treated National Geographic with a wooden dragonfly clip along with another postage stamp…

because parts of things would be seen from both sides it meant lots of flipping and trying on for size before attaching things permanently…

I stamped some random text on the back of the flower too…

it was a fun creative stretch…

“You can’t stop time. You can’t capture light. You can only turn your face up and let it rain down.” ~Kim Edwards “The Memory Keeper’s Daughter”

July local “what do U see”…girls just wanna have fun…

Fran Podlesney’s cereal box tag called me this month from her bag of goodies…

I decided to go a little different way with her china doll image (not quite 5.5″ tall 13.97cm) by scanning it and printing out three smaller versions (each about 3″ tall 7.62cm)…

I was pleased with how the yellow and green ‘ruffle’ turned out at the bottom…

that was a piece of paper towel that Fran had wrapped a tiny glass bottle in…

the dotted pattern of the towel showed up nicely when inked…

I cut the string of “pearls” apart and put them in the glass bottle sealing the top with string and beeswax…

I added some pretty dotted fabric from my stash to the back of the tag…

can’t wait to see all of Fran’s tags together …

les filles veulent s’amuser = girls just wanna have fun in every language…

also can’t wait to show you the wonderful smooshed tin Linda Yeatman made for me

a Deb ‘sea’ surprise…

everything about Deb Christensen’s surprise package to me recently charmed the socks right off me…

she had me with her fish tail magic islands card…

and goodies galore…

her fresh water pearl and delicate sea glass necklace is beyond beautiful with its pretty silver chain…

I put it on right away…as I just happened to be wearing a pair of green sea glass earrings I got some years ago…

they are in no way as delicate as Deb’s jewelry creations…

a glass vial of fresh water pearls she carefully tucked in reminded me of mermaid’s tears…

or precious babies teeth…so very sweet…

the last packet of treasures I opened totally wowed me too…

how kind and generous of Deb to share some of her treasure trove of perfect rust and patina with me…

with touches of salt and sea and time spent on Alaskan shores…

a place I have only dreamed of…

if you have not yet had a chance to see the fish tail creations she’s made the last several years for a Kodiak Alaska Community Art Auction…you’ll definitely want to take some time to check them out here…

each one is a marvel…

be prepared to get sidetracked by her photography…storytelling and art posts…with SO much to enjoy!

Deb is a mixed media artist extraordinaire…

when I visit her blog and read about her life I am always entranced and feel richer and happier for it…

she’s a great cook and does that professionally in a really special setting each summer…

her absence in blogland for those months always makes my heart grow fonder awaiting her return…

BIG Yay for blog friends and art mail and wonderful surprises!!!

“i hope when you wear the necklace you will feel our misty cool sea breezes and smell the green cucumbery smell of the beaches!” ~Deb Christensen, Dy-ing to be yours

thank you dear Deb for sharing your talents…your art and your heart…it is people like you that help make blogland such a great place to be!!!

last of “what do u see” … for now …

over the last few months I have posted several times about the QB5 “what do you see” swap…

more details about how that started here…

in a nutshell…we each put together bags of items along with a substrate that we mailed off to one another…

mine was a kipper tin that I emptied…grilled and hammered flat … punching a hole in one end…

we all chose different themes and items which made this swap a nice creative stretch…

I didn’t get to show you the back of Margaret’s lovely tin …you can have another look at the front of her tin for me here...

she had some great ideas to decorate the other side of it while Mr Magpie and I were traveling in Switzerland…

 it was ready for me to bring home after our special visit together…

such fun with the girls in the water…my favorite colors included and a fancy but diabolical frog…

Nathalie’s girls were waiting for me when we returned home from our trip…

real beauties too…

they made me giggle…

*you can click to read the words*

I am a big fan of rhinestones and Love the rusty look of these…

very exciting to see what each artist did with some of the same ingredients…

funny no one (except me) used the piece of peach zipper I included…

so much creativity…

front…

and back…

here is a round up of the pieces I created for

Linda … Margaret … Nathalie … me … Carole

Nathalie and I had two sides to our pieces…

these two group photos were taken on a rainy day and then the pieces were put in the mail with no chance for a second photo opportunity…

our local altered arts group liked the ‘what do U see” swap idea so much that we will be swapping our own version of it locally over the coming months…

I am still using a smooshed kipper tin for mine with some different bits of this and that to play with…