International Impromptu Art Exchange

Hopefully the dream box above has safely arrived in Canada by now, also making it safe to post my pictures here on the blog without spoiling the surprise for recipient Heather Robinson of Creative Solace.

I have admired Heather's work for some time, first spotting her during Technique Tuesdays, a former challenge blog, co-sponsored by Heather and Suzan Buckner, whose crazy zetti-style art I also love. Then I ran into Heather as a design team member for Indy (not Indie, well, yes, indie, too) artist Kris Hubick, and IRL friend who runs Retro Cafe Art, the Web site and blog.

Recently, Heather posted a darling ATC on her blog, and I wrote to her to propose a swap. She responded with the suggestion of an altered art assemblage swap, which I gladly accepted.

Heather mentioned she had been doing some altered tins. You can see them on her blog here, as well as a nature-themed piece here. Heather is good at updating her blog almost daily, which is tre's fun for her followers.

It's ironic that the tin 'dream box' or nicho I altered for her, came to me from Canada, having been ordered from another favorite supplier, ArtChix Studio. However, the nicho was hecho in Mexico originally.

I used a gazillion little products to 'art it up.' The paper wings are from Retro Cafe Art, the background is a postcard from Bluhm Studios, the mini eggs, leaf mask and tiny bottle with decorative stopper are from Altered Abbey, the green 'seeds' are from ArtChix, the reeds and corrugated paper are from Random Arts in Saluda, NC., the mushroom is from Paula's Kit Club and the egg-print paper on the back as well as other paper scraps are from Character Constructions.

Nothing like having to link to practically everyone I know! But it's always important to give credit where one gets supplies, and also readers will ask, where did you find that thingamajig? The swap gave me a chance to use various bits and pieces from two years of accumulations. The dream box was one of the first things I ever bought, and the piece of lace on the bottom I received early on in a swap and immediately thought it belonged on the dream box. Some months later, the tiny bottle, stopper and seeds arrived separately and seemed to go together. So I filled the bottle, plugged it with the little topper, stuck them in the lace-embellished dream box, and there they sat for over a year, until it seemed just the right thing to use for this swap.

I hope Heather agrees. Mail sent at the same time as her package has already arrived in both Belgium (a swap with ATheeC on Flickr) and Oregon ( 1:1 swap with Michelle Geller of Hold Dear), so Canada can't be far behind.

Spring-y Art Adventures

The darling chick and pussywillow ATC above arrived from eclecticarchivist on Flickr as part of The Faerie Zine Spring Bunny & Chick ATC swap. Patty not only made the darling ATC, she made the accompany greeting card on which it arrived. That, along with the earlier posted ATC from rachelchristydesigns, were my receipts.

I made The Lettuce Queen ATC pictured above, and also The Cabbage Queen, who is all haughty now because I forgot to photograph here. Supplies for my ATCs were almost entirely from Paula Montgomery of Paula's Kit Club, which I highly recommend. Be sure to read Enzo's report card on her site, and check out the bracelet kit offerings from Kaari Meng of French General.

The crown -shaped paper trinket is just that, a crown- a little cheer-up surprise I received in the mail from the queen herself, Ms. Lisa Kettell. Whether I will wear it remains to be seen, but it's more fun to admire her amazing papercraft skills anyway.

And last but not least the charm bracelet is the product of the Arte du Blythe group on Yahoo! Miss Vicky hosted this swap which had such well-known players as Ms. Lisa as well as Maija Lepore, Angela Hoffman, Sandy Camarda and Kim Tedrow. Another "not sure I will wear it" thingy, but always fun to look at.

Sunday, Storms, Sweets, Siblings and Swaps

You might wonder about this hodge podge of photos. You might ask how I will possibly tie them together. Loosely, is the answer. The terrible weather pretty much all weekend did not dampen my creativity. In fact, I was already in the basement working on pages for the ZNE http://zneart.com/ Zaftig fat book for the annual convention http://znecon.com/, so I didn't even have to stop what I was doing to take shelter, as advised by radio and television. The sky looked quite creepy, as evidenced above, both Saturday and Sunday. But no matter, as I was still smiling from the clear blue skies and fresh air of northern Michigan, having arrived back home Friday night after 600 miles, 18 holes of golf and several hours of meetings, all at the Grand Lodge at Boyne Mountain, near Petosky, MI, at the far end of the lower peninsula.

My very first sight, walking into the house, was Larry (and his twin sibling, Lester), apparently quite happy to see me. I think he is saying, "hi, mom!" Or, he is yawning, which would indicate boredom (surely not) or sleepiness (well, okay, probably).

Art had to wait until Sunday as there was a wedding to attend on Saturday. However, I still managed to get 30 pages done, all originals, using my "sweet treats" kit that had just arrived from http://www.paulaskitclub.com/. The pages are 4" x 4". I'll get a completed book back with 25 different pages when I go to the convention in August.

I also made a few artist trading cards for a swap with a fellow Flickr-ite. 'ATheeC' has the cutest babushka or Russian nesting doll cards on flickr. Here's a link to one that is coming my way http://www.flickr.com/photos/atheec-martine/2587084422/. Posted here are some that I am sending to her.