Liberate Your Art 2015 Postcard Swap

Kat Sloma’s Liberate Your Art Postcard Swap celebrated its fifth anniversary this year (you can visit her link above to find out all about it)…

this is my first time participating thanks to the encouragement of friends in our local mixed media collaborative group who took part last year … I sent postcards made from a favorite piece of my artwork above …I included a quote from the Dalai Lama XIV “Only the development of compassion and understanding for others can bring us the tranquility and happiness we all seek.”  I also included my address because I think it is fun to know where mail comes from along with Brightest of Blessings and the address to my Magpie’s Nest…I am hoping to find out where my five cards landed…

it was fun watching the mailbox for the first card to appear and what to my surprise it was from one of my mixed media friends from the group I mentioned above (what are the odds that this card would randomly come to me all the way from Oregon when Fran lives so close to me here in Virginia) … Fran wrote on the back of her card “From Virginia, USA. Gelatos, Acrylics, gesso, stencils & Napkin collage.  Always create!” …

the next card arrived from Dorothy Louis in Corvallis, Oregon and her card was rubber stamped in individual letters “PEACE   BEAUTY    TRUTH    LOVE“…

Dona Hyll wrote “Once you choose hope, anything’s possible.” ~Christopher Reeve  When not at my day job, I find I have a need to be creative?  Here are examples of the tablet weaving I do for a Viking recreation group!  We have our own festival the last weekend in April each year in Ashville, Ohio!”

Yellow Sun Lisa wrote on the back of her Flowers in Gouache card: “Dear Artist: If you have good thoughts they will shine out of your face like sunbeams and you will always look lovely.” -Roald Dahl

Kat van Rooyen’s postcard “Taken in the beautiful Appalachian Mountains of Virginia, USA” reads “Let your creativity shine like the sun over the Appalachian Mountains here in this photo.  No one sees the world exactly as you do so express yourself!  Enjoy! Kat ♥“

and last but not least is a card from the person we all have to thank for such a grand event “Imminent Downfall” by Kat Sloma and on the back it says:  “When you Liberate your Art the world is a better place.  Thank you! Kat”…

many many thanks to everyone that participated and to Kat Sloma who is amazing and generous and so well organized…

I hope there will be a swap next year but until then I am off to join in Kat’s Blog Hop…

Configurations Box Round Robin Part Two

not quite a year ago our local mixed media art group began a swap using Tim Holtz’ configuration boxes…

it was back then that I shared some details about our swap with you here…

one of my gypsy themed boxes went out to the each of the six participants in the round robin…

they had the choice to use any of the bits I included or not…

I received so many wonderful creations leaving me three boxes to finish myself…

the project was completed some time ago but I am just now getting around to sharing my finished box with you (my talented art friends brain stormed with me about how great the finished box would look with something at the top like half of a tambourine maybe…I have some extra bits I could attach to the front too which would help pull everything together better … still looking for my tambourine!) …

part of my delay was dismay that we didn’t take any photos of the other finished boxes and there were some spectacular ones with feet and finials and all kinds of fancy finishes…

here is a sampling of the boxes I created for others in our group minus a mermaid nature box I got excited about and forgot to photograph…

 

Blessings on the breeze …

our local Mixed Media Collaborative arts group exchanged prayer flags at a recent meeting…

several of us were inspired to use some of our handmade fabrics from previous gelli monoprinting sessions we had together…

the only guidelines for the swap were to make our flags approximately 5 x 8 inches with a 3 inch or so sleeve for stringing (for my flags above I used monoprinted cotton, bits of lace, ribbons and trim, buttons, beads, charms, some funky old plastic flowers and bits of paper, needle, thread and even some glue)…

I hope you can feel the blessings and good wishes wafting their way out into the universe from our creations…

Lisa has a nice prayer flag post at inanoctopusgarden …

Susan at rosieinspirations …

it is always a delight to spend time with these talented friends…

speaking of talented friends be sure and stop by and visit Linda Kunsman of heARTfully Inspired who is having a wonderful giveaway with five chances to win some of her beautiful artwork…

* JoY *

thanks to my special Queen Bee friends (QB5) I made my first prayer flags back in August for a swap that not everyone has completed yet (good things are worth waiting for)…

 sitting out on our back porch stitching away on pieces of cotton that I monoprinted using a gelatin plate (must admit I didn’t want to cover up much of my printed fabric on the first ones I made)…

off one end of the porch are prayer flags my son gave me last year for my birthday from the Tibetan Prayer Flag company…

if you would like to purchase prayers flags I cannot recommend this company highly enough…

the new flags already a year old now strung with the previous flags to help keep the prayers going…

 here is a lovely flag from my friend Linda in Texas

and another beauty from Margaret in Switzerland…

Carole in New Zealand sent me this special Indian mirror fabric banner that she made which was a little tricky to photograph as it is hanging over our kitchen window…

and another talented and generous artist Linda Kunsman of heARTfully inspired surprised me with this beautiful and uplifting flag a while ago…

left to right: Margaret W, Linda R , mine,  Linda K and mine

there are two very special prayer flag projects going on presently by Jane DeFazio here and Leighanna Light who has a Facebook group that will be sending prayer flags to the Sandy Hook Elementary School families early in January 2013…

*footnote to clarify that Jane DeFazio’s prayer flags are not meant to be mailed…rather anyone can make a prayer flag or flags full of intention and prayers and fly them at home…you can share photos and such by going to Jane’s link above…

Also the deadline for mailing your flags to Leighanna Light is before 3 January 2013 as that is when she will be putting the flags in the mail to Newtown, CT … hope I haven’t confused anyone…

guess I got excited…

if you are not on Facebook and need her mailing address just ask me and I will send it to you*

with no small children in the house and very little Christmas madness going on here I have been stitching into the wee hours to add my prayers to those of so many others…

with several more in progress…

and some already at their destinations…

I wanted to share a sweet song called “JOY”  with you that I stumbled upon never having heard of the artist Tracey Thorn before here…

be sure to answer when JOY knocks at your door dear ones…

*Twinkle*

Natalea of Kandeland hosted a handmade ornament swap and I was lucky enough to be able to join in…

here are the lovely ornaments I received with some of their pretty wrappings in the background…

Joy to the World stuffed heart from Natalea…

 JOY stocking from Vivian…

fabric tree and framed Rousing Rudolphe from Sandy…

 a baker “REJOICE” shaker from Linda…

   an altered doll leg from Kimberly…

and a French jam jar snow globe from Jeanne…

each ornament is inspiring and adds so much charm to our tree…

thank you all!!!

here are the altered spoons that I really had a great time creating for the swap using spoons bent by Mr Magpie…feather wings…golden German Flimmers and some rhinestone bling along with several kinds of glitter and a favorite word of mine…

thanks to my art pal Fran Podlesney for sharing her die cut machine I just happened to have the perfect frills to use as tags on my tuille wrapped ornaments…

I admit I’ve gone a little glitter crazy this season…more on that in another post…

put a bird on it …

or in this case create a Christmas ornament with a bird theme…

our local Mixed Media Collaborative group meets twice a month and has such a wonderful creative time together with lots of sharing and laughs…

our recent December meeting had a one for one exchange of handmade ornaments randomly traded…

each so very unique and special…

my quickly snapped photos don’t really do them full justice…

Andrea Taylor created a wool felt bird with sparkling eyes and real peacock feather tail…

Leiann Quesnel created a beaded paper cube with a curved wire hook at the top that is just out of view in the photo…

Fran Podlesney created a bird using die cuts and lots of layers of dictionary pages colored with a special blend of inks…

Linda Scimeca altered a vintage green ceramic cup by decorating it inside (too bad you can’t really see the cup from this angle)

Linda Yeatman has a real eye for treasure and altered a squished drink can decorating it with great details on both sides “Imagine” and “Dream”…

Lisa Murphy created a bird made with punched out and decorated metal from recycled cans with a precious round crown and more…

Susan Godby wool felted her bird head and body giving it layers of glitter edged vintage map paper for wings and a frill collar “Joy to the World”…

I had taken a photo of the back of my spoon before our get together and it shows a bit of the pretty silver pattern on the folded over handle…

the spoon was flattened and bent by Mr Magpie …

I added a favorite Graphics Fairy Bobolink bird image and several different kinds of glitter along with one of my handmade wire birds nests with some found golden trim for the hanger (the trim shown better in the first photo at the top of this post was something I found on the ground outside a craft store and knew our group of altered artists would appreciate that I rescued it and gave it a new life)…

wish you could hear the details of what all went into each creation from the artists themselves as there is so much more to tell…

we enjoyed some delicious food and friendship and have an exciting line up of things planned for the new year

*I joined in on Karen of the the Graphics Fairy Brag Monday today here…I am #38*

Bat Girlz…

our local Mixed Media Collaborative group is having a one for one altered tin swap with a Halloween theme…

Lisa kindly supplied us each with a tin which measures about two inches (5.08 cm) across with a see through top…

I forgot to take a photo of the plain tin before I started…

it was a little tricky to photograph because of glare and my pix do not show the wide black rick rack I used around the sides of the tin but you get the idea…

Nathalie’s “Collections” Zine…

the hardest part about playing in Nathalie’s “Collections” Zine was narrowing it down to “what”…

I amaze myself sometimes in what I actually do end up gathering with everything from security envelopes to rocks and so much more…

my pages pretty much speak for themselves (the piece of heart ribbon was something I found on the street)…

waiting for one more zine and I’ll be finished with my part of this Queen Bee swap…

‘Grandma’s Photos’ Zine

Linda’s zine was already wonderful when it arrived here in Virginia…

it’s first stop was to Margaret in Switzerland…

I had such a lot of fun with it…

thanks to my friend Judy Post for sharing a 1930’s School Memory book with me a while back…

the bits I used for the left hand side are original pieces from that memory book…

Linda had already worked on the right hand page above…(vintage metal Kodak film clip, rubons, old negatives and photos, muslin bag, torn card from the mail that day)

I could have kept on going with this theme…

turns out I have quite a collection of faux relatives as I seem to be very drawn to old photos…

the thin piece of 8mm film strip I used above is a precious ingredient from Nathalie’s Rubyfloy shop…

even the greeting card above had photos on it…the zine is already on its way to Carole in New Zealand…

I used the quote below on one of my pages and realized that it helps explain my long time fascination with photography…

“Photography takes an instant out of time, altering life by holding it still.” ~Dorthea Lange

Medieval Thymes

back from our wonderful trip to Puerto Rico…

it will take some time to sift through the oodles of photos we took…

I will have some beautiful stone angels to share with you on Sunday from the Santa Maria Magdalena de Pazzis Cemetery in Old San Juan…

today I wanted to share a project that went in the mail just before we left on our trip…

the Queen Bee five are having a zine swap…

“zine” comes from the word maga’zine’ and is pronounced the same way…

you can find out a little more about zines here if you like…

each of us chose our own theme and created the shell of our zine…

I was inspired by some Lebkuchen packaging  that fit nicely with my medieval theme…

I chose torn canvas for my pages after seeing Susan Godby’s beautiful canvas book for a local round robin…

I found out that paint and water shrunk the canvas pages a bit giving them some character…

burned velvet for the cover of my almost postcard sized pages

with an image stamped into a leather looking foam sheet and my book has already arrived in New Zealand…

it will be fun to see everyone’s creativity as our zines make their way around the world…

I am also looking forward to catching up with each of you dear ones

where did the time go…

the last two months of 2011 really slipped away from me…

as I am now finally feeling much much better I didn’t want to miss the chance to share a lovely Queen Bee 5 holiday swap with you…

here are the special handmade creations that I received from around the globe…

Linda’s bee skep shaker…

Margaret’s altered matchbox…

Nathalie’s china doll leg pin cushion…

and Carole’s  snowman…

each one a real delight…

below are the wool and lavender hanging sachets I made…

luckily I got these finished and in the mail early …

each white wool bird ‘feather’ was cut out and stitched on one by one…

I enjoy making the wire and bead bird nests so much that I am always happy when I think of a new way to use them…

one of the things I did get to do this holiday season was bleach and dye bottle brush trees …

so while I had my jar of dye handy I threw in some silk ribbon and odds and ends of white linen and doilies…

thanks to generous Leiann Quesnel and Fran Podlesney in our local altered arts group for sharing their die cut machines and to Susan Godby and all the gals for their inspiration and support…

I baked my first batch of cookies yesterday…

in a ‘normal’ Christmas season I would have baked many different kinds…

sometimes things don’t turn out quite like we plan…

“Be content with what you have, rejoice in the way things are.  When you realize there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you.” ~Lao Tzu

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 *~

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”