Altered File Folders

The humble manila office folder never looked so good. I took a class from Maude May at Letters of Joy called Manila Folder Magic. Ever wonder where to put those little bits of important paper, tickets stubs, travel ephemera, recipes, etc.? We created custom folders using letter and legal manila folders, collage ephemera, stamps, fibers, eyelets and decorative paper. It was a blast, no over-analyzing the process, just collaged our way to happiness. Loved this project and have made two more since the class, two are in the pipeline and lots of grandiose ideas for even more elaborate ones with multiple pages and pockets.

This is the one I did in class, which was only 2 hours, so it was quick and dirty collage, which means no over-thinking the placement of ephemera, great way to get out of your box.

Book of Roses

The wonderful techniques I learned from Orly Avineri at ArtFest and my own favorite background and collage work has resulted in my Book of Roses. The pages are of different sizes and cascading with lots of bling and fiber embellishments. It was a undertaking that included liquid inks, black & white & clear gesso, stencils, stamps, acrylics, distress inks, gel and glaze pens, fibers, trim, decorative tape and of course rhinestones. Binding is a 4 hole Japanese with grosgrain ribbon. There are flowers other than roses but they were the main inspiration so they get the accolades. There was some binding angst involved, I now have a Zutter Bind-It-All so future projects with be free of banging the head against the art table. Thanks to Steve at Stampadoodle for ordering in this latest nifty toy for me.

I have been on a bit of a purge fest in the studio, if we ever move it would take me a month to pack the studio so I need to start the paring process. First up, going through all of my books and magazines I have collected for images. How long does it take to go through a cabinet full of National Geographic and cut out only the images you think you will use in the future? It takes a L.O.N.G  time, that's what. Those old encyclopedia's? It was a brutal quick and dirty selection and then into the paper recycling they went.

And too boot I think I have sustained a crafting injury. All of the eyelets in the Book of Roses were put in with the Big Bite punch and setter, its takes some muscle to set the eyelets, so after oh, say a million of them my arm and side muscles were a pretty sore the next day. Gerry was not sympathetic and would not fetch and carry for me, as I sat in my easy chair whining about my serious art injury.

In the garden news portion of this post we are having a freaky spring, too much rain, everything is late, rhodies just NOW blooming, finally could not wait any longer to plant the tomatoes so they are in but with their comfy little water jackets on them. In my world tomato growing is a competitive sport and things must progress ON SCHEDULE, lest I fall behind my rivals (you know who you are!).

Where's the Ark?

I think we will need to start building one, it may be really small and only have two poorly behaved cats and ourselves as passengers but at least we will be set to survive the downpour that has being going on for three days. Our new gutters are going up none to soon, I am trying not to look at the garden, the poor tomatos are in a very sad state. Gerry was supposed to take Precious to a car show today but she does not go out in the rain....cause she is made of sugar and might melt. This is just a quick post, the True Blood finale is on tonight, I can't wait to see if Eric is able to redeem himself. I am not a Twilight fan, a little too much teen angst for me, but I love Sookie and Company, Gerry thinks I might need an intervention.

Cats are still rotten, Apollo was chastised severely today for licking the butter out of the dish....while I was sitting there at the counter looking right at him. I did the right think and scraped that part off before Gerry buttered his toast in the morning, see what a good wife I am?

I finished off a new CD/DVD book tonite, lots of lovely gold on this one.

This is one of the classes I will be teaching so here is my not so subtle plea to sign up for it!

Classes for Fall

I will be teaching at the Sparrow's Nest Studio this fall and winter, there is a new "classes" tab at the top of this blog to click on for details, Layered Shrines, Surface Explorations and CD/DVD Memorabilia Books are the classes on the calender. The Sparrow's Nest also has many other wonderful classes by very talented teachers and a retreat on 9/24, still a couple of spots left!

Surface Exploration's is a new class, student's will come away with a sampler like this of many different techniques.

The wet weather has come, the garden is doing OK but some things are pooping out. Got enough red tomato's to can a bunch of salsa, I was fairly liberal with the Habanero and Serrano peppers so it will have some kick to it. The kitchen still smells like a mexican restaurant when you walk in. Dilly beans will be next, my friends and family love them and those who are real nice to me will get some for Christmas (heh!).

Prescious got 2nd place in her class at the Silver Reef Casino car show Gerry attended, we are so proud!

Art Metal Jewelry, Photo Book & Upcoming Classes

After altering my template for the CD/Memorabilia Book I came up with a Photo/Memorabilia Book, same binding but the pockets hold 4 X 6 photos and another photo is attached to the front of each pocket/page. The photo corners allow this one to be changed at your whim. I made this one for moi to hold my pics from a trip to the Butchart Gardens on Vancouver Island, BC last year.

Have also been messing around with some art metal, basically sheets of brass, aluminum or colored aluminum that can be texturized, colored and made into all sorts of fun stuff. This pendant was made from two layers of medium thickness aluminum, textured and colored with Pinata Inks, eyelets were set in to hang the chain and embellishment at the bottom.

In other good news the Paper Zone has put me on the schedule for more Shrink Plastic Charms and Sticky Note & Memo Pad Booklet classes, the dates are as follows:

Shrink Plastic Charms: July 10 and 24

Sticky Note & Memo Pad/Booklets: July 17 and August 7

And now a plea to any weather deities that may be listening, PLEASE STOP RAINING ON BELLINGHAM, its getting old, the slug army of darkness is getting ready for a total takeover, and the lawn is now a lovely shade of moss, with just a hint of grass.

Its has been a while since a crazy cat lady picture so before anybody goes into withdrawal here is Apollo practicing his Certified HP Printer Technician skills. Nothing voids your warranty faster than a big, furry cat paw stuck up into the innards of your printer.

Chilly December

Sub-zero temperatures, snow, freezing rain...this is what we have had for the past couple of weeks. The positive side to this is all I want to do is hang out inside the studio with the heaters on, so some projects are actually getting done. My calligraphy guild had its annual Christmas party last weekend, we have a gift exchange where everyone brings a hand lettered piece, numbers are drawn and you get a lovely piece of calligraphy done by a guild member. A couple of posts ago there were pictures of some letters I had done, this is the one I took to the party to exchange, all gussied up with some machine stitching, rhinestones, and layering on fabric and paper.

I have just finished a elegant little CD & Memorabilia book, holds 5 CD's and a great presentation when you give someone music or photo CD's. This is a class I look forward to teaching in 2010.

The plate will be full after the New Year, I will be attending ArtFest again this year with my Art Posse (you know who you are!) so there are 32 ATC's due by Feb 15th and about 80+ trades to come up with and complete before March 23rd. I figure if I lock myself in the studio with the iPod on shuffle and a case of Merlot...I should have everything done by March, hopefully. I have many ideas, just need to get them from the brain in the real world, I foresee large piles of STUFF on every available surface, but it's important stuff as every artist knows, even if the spousal unit or non-arty friends don't see it that way.

As this is the holiday season I must of course share the obligatory Christmas pictures. Our Christmas lights did not make it up this year, the wind was blowing stink the weekend we had planned to put them up and I did not think it was really fair to make husband go up on the roof to swap out bulbs when it was blowing 60 mph. Here is a pic of lights from previous years, we tend to go the Tackiest House On the Block look, the neighbors may be blinded but its very pretty!

Yes, that is a giant penguin and polar bear, the power company LOVES us. My Christmas village is a staple every year, the cats love it too, there are usually a couple of times when I come home at lunch and the tiny Victorian people have been trampled beneath the paws of Catzilla.

I just noticed in the picture that the house on the left doesn't have a light on, oops...they must have not been able to pay the power bill because they blew all their cash on plum pudding and those highly over-priced Christmas Trees being hawked in the Town Square.

Of course no Christmas is complete without the usual Pet Humiliation pictures, here is one of Dana, from a couple of years ago after being stuffed unwillingly into the Santa outfit.

 And here is Wolf, Rest In Peace big guy, you're picture is on the tree, Momma misses you this year.

Happy Holidays to all, be safe and see you in 2010!