Patience can be a virtue...when you don't know you're waiting

I was pleasantly surprised to receive a notice in the mail that I had been published in Stampington and Co's summer 2011 Catch Up issue. But then I wracked my brain trying to remember what I had submitted. I didn't remember submitting any cards, and Catch Up is strictly for rubber stamping.

Turns out my memory was fairly accurate, because the card that appears on p. 56 in the new issue was submitted at least two years ago, if not longer. In fact, it might have been in a batch of beach cards I sent in 2007.

Nonetheless, I am always thrilled to have something published. When I started this blog four years ago, getting published was only a dream. Something I wished very hard for, and worked very hard for, until it came true. The thrill and honor are always the same, maybe more so when it is a surprise.

A new journal for a new year

I hoard journals. I love all sizes and types, from purse-size Moleskine to hand-made and hand-bound journals, board books, bound pages, whatever. I treasure journals I have received as gifts. I have a gorgeous handmade one from Laurie Blau-Marshall. I have a beautifully-covered one from Michelle Geller. My great-niece just gave me a pretty one for my birthday. I just bought one on clearance at Pier 1.

So what is the problem, you ask? I don't ever seem to write in them. I have journals with watercolor paper, lined pages, blank pages, pages made from maps and cool ephemera. I love to look at them, and I love knowing I have them in case inspiration strikes. But I couldn't seem to make a mark.

I guess I felt I'd be ruining the beauty of the journal somehow, which I know is dumb, especially because I actually drool over examples of others' filled journals. Even my great-niece has a totally cool journal she writes and doodles in and add mementos. She even stitched herself a fabric cover for it. I bought her Dawn DeVries Sokol's Doodle Diary to keep her inspired.
And she did just that.

Meanwhile, I would buy Stampington's Art Journaling magazine. I would stare for hours on end at cool blogs, especially work by Pam Garrison and Pam Carriker. I even advanced to tearing out magazine pages and pieces of magazine pages that inspired me. In fact, I have baggies of paper bits just waiting for a place to call home.

Finally, I decided the new year and new month are a very good reason to start a journal. That, and the fact that I had been itching to paint, draw, make collages, doodle, draw zentangles, do Zettiology-like art, and what better place to do everything, than in a journal. When I mentally commited, I was so excited, I woke up at 5:30 a.m. on a Saturday and started right in preparing pages.

I am using a plain, 9" x 12" *ish* journal by Canson with watercolor paper pages. I collaged several pages with my paper stash. I was further inspired by a "supply swap" I had just done with Jade Adams, and could hardly wait to use the goodies she sent. I also have a ton of new rubber stamps from Unity and their kit-of-the-month club, as well as Unity Stamps by Suzi Blu, all of which I want to play with.

After I collaged a few pages, I realized I hadn't left myself any room for the "dreaded" writing down of thoughts. Intentional? Maybe. Or maybe just inexperience. So I painted the back side of the pages with watercolors, and ended up making color-theme spreads, each with a blank page for my thoughts.....if I happen to have any.

Published in Somerset Studio

I had read in the email newsletter a week or two ago from my LSS (local stamp store) The Queen's Ink that owner Patti Euler had in the latest issue of Somerset Studio. Normally, I would have run over that day. It's only about eight miles, and I used to have to drive 80 miles roundtrip to get any decent magazines back in Indiana.

But, I've had a viscious case of the winter blahs, and so I didn't go. Until today. Imagine my surprise when the magazine fell open on the way home to a page with a piece of art I recognized well!

Seeing my "Alice" piece, above, was even more of a surprise because I had been expecting Somerset and Stampington to come out with their planned Alice in Wonderland issue. Hearing nothing, I had just sent an email the day before asking what had come of it. It also was a complete surprise to see because normally the magazine sends a postcard and/or a free issue to let you know you are going to be published.

But who's complaining? Not me. A surprise is nice, and being published is even better, especially when one has the blueblahs. By the way, the face in my collage above is from a collage image sheet I bought from Traci Bautista at Art and Soul, after taking a class from her. Here is some of the other work I sent. Very excited for the Alice movie to come out March 5. It looks crazy.

Published Again- Always a Thrill!

I was excited to find this greeting card I made on page 54 of the latest Stampers' Sampler magazine by Stampington and Co. (April/May 2009). It is one of the first pieces of 'art' I ever made back when I started this blog nearly two years ago. The Mona is a rubber art stamp by Tim Holtz stamped with Staz-On ink onto a heat-resistant transparency. It is layered over various papers. There's a couple more layers to the card that you can't see here, so....go buy the magazine!

There's so much art I've been waiting to do: I am in a Marie Antoinette swap hosted by The Junkk Drawer's Maria Rodarte and I am partnered with the talented Kathy Jacobson of a Bit of Serendipity, who is also featured on the COVER of the stamping magazine I just mentioned. Intimidating? Maybe!

The 12 ladies behind Creative Therapy on Wordpress have also asked me to be a guest artist for August 22, so I have a piece of art to create for a prompt they will supply that will in turn prompt their readers to create art from my art/prompt. Follow that?

Book reviews are due to Gabreial, the heart and soul of Vintage Indie, for my friend Rebecca's French by Heart, and The Artist Within: A Guide to Becoming Creatively Fit by Whitney Ferre'.

I celebrated my first Passover, and I have to say, matzoh and I have to get better acquainted. I hear there's chocolate-covered. That would be a good way to start!

Meanwhile, my art journal is gathering dust. My beads are not being beaded. I did plant some pansies, and whipped my crochet hook a few rows through a new afghan, but there's so much to do and so little (free) time. If time were for sale, I'd like to buy some! I guess I'll just have to adopt Mona's mellow countenance for now. Enough blogging! Off to the studio.

Marie's Everywhere: Etsy, Blythe, Stampington, My Etsy!

I cannot wait to get my hands on this gorgeous special publication by Stampington and Co., which comes out April 1. Imagine: An entire magazine devoted to art devoted to Marie Antoinette! I am sure it will be full of gorgeous excess.

Just last week I learned one of my Marie art dolls (I think I can call them art dolls even though they are headless) is featured on the Etsy Cottage Style Blog. What is that, you ask? To borrow from the blog's description: We are a group of women, artists and sellers of the beautiful , whimsical Cottage Style. We are not an Etsy Street Team, but a loving, supportive community of like minded talented women. If you love the Shabby, Romantic, Whimsical, Cottage style, and sell on Etsy come pay us a visit and apply for membership at"Etsy Cottage Style." If you love to shop, like most of us do, you will find lots of cottage style boutiques. The blue Marie featured is still available in my Etsy shop.

And, squee! I also got an email that I have a piece of Marie artwork in the upcoming Somerset Studio Gallery Summer 2009. One of my all-time art goals has been to get published in that outstanding anthology. I can't believe it, and of course I can't wait to get my hands on that either.

I'm picturing some of my all-time favorite Maries here. The pink one with the cake for a head was a gift to Mary Ann in a 1:1 Marie Swap. The first turquoise one above was a gift for Cindi in another swap, this one in The Faerie Zine group on Flickr. And the second turquoise one above, the taller one, was a special gift for Lisa Kettell, and was recently featured in her new book, Altered Art Circus.

The Marie diorama above I made at a special gathering of ZNE art group members in Michigan last June. It is called "The Last Beautiful Dress" and may be headed to Etsy. And then there's always a Blythe, looking quite regal also, while channeling Marie.
Here's a link to all my Marie-related photos on Flickr. It's one of my most favorite photo sets.

Postess with the Mostess. Squee!

Everything thing about this post makes me squeal with delight. In fact, I have been on cloud nine for the last 12 hours, barely stopping to sleep. I AM the postess with the mostess, simply because I feel like the luckiest blogger in the world, well, the www world anyway.

Yesterday I happened upon Altered Art Circus by Lisa Kettell at Barnes and Noble (Quarry Books, 2009, ISBN-13:978-1-59253-487-6; or on Amazon). I say 'happened' because I wasn't expecting to find it on the shelf yet. The publication date has been February 2009 for about the last year and a half, or ever since the author, Lisa Kettell of The Faerie Zine, invited me to submit a piece of art for the book's gallery.

At the time I started making this 3D sculpture representative of Marie Antoinette, my intent was to make Lisa a gift for all her work in our art group. I don't think I even knew then the book had a circus theme, or certainly I would have drawn on my great love for circus art! Nevertheless, I made the 18" 'Marie' in one day, and sent her east to live with Lisa. I never really believed the piece would make it into the book- either because of some mail disaster only I would experience or because it was edited out for being "no good." Every artist has those thoughts, especially one who has never been published in a real book until now. A 'real' magazine, yes. 'Real' books published via Blurb or Lulu, yes. But a real publishing house with a real editor (who didn't cut out my picture)? C'est Magnifique!

Here's a couple more links to my other Marie figures here and here. I have one still for sale on etsy, and I sent the rest off last summer in hopes of finding their way into Stampington's new Marie Antoinette magazine.

But as for being in Lisa's book, I am over the moon! And I share the Gallery with so many wonderful art friends like Bella and Wanda and Ann-Denise. And I share my page with the inimitable DeBriNa Pratt of Spark*Your*Imagination. Thank you again Lisa!

Another great art friend who roams these same circles is Viv Neroni of New York. Out of the blue (and I say that because I haven't been reading everyone's blogs as faithfully as I should) Viv sent me the most darling pin-keep (above), which I won in a contest on her blog. Viv and I swapped goodies once before. She makes the most darling tiny felted bears and paper clay figures and posts the most delicious photos on her blog. Viv is also Violet's 'new mom.' Violet is of the Blythe persuasion, and I only now realized 'V' is the perfect letter. No wonder Viv kept Violet's name after 'adopting' her.

The 'beady' looking photo (top) is a work-in-progress. It's starting with stringing assorted tiny seed beads from a bead soup by Beverly Gilbert of Gilbert Designs in Washington. I met Beverly at Art & Soul, Portland, in October and made two pendants in her class. It is tiny work that requires reading glasses and a task light. See that sliver of a curved beading needle? It's a wonder I can string anything. This strand so far is sort of a freeform Peyote stitch, which I am glad to have finally learned. It really is easy.

I'm planning to use the strand when fully-formed to encase either a 'jingle' shell as shown above or a piece of beach glass or some other shell and a tiny starfish, and that will form a pendant just like the amber one I made at A&S. But, shhhh! Don't tell. It's going to be a gift for someone special who favors shells.

Published: My Cards in Take Ten magazine

My local stamp store, Stamping Day and Night in Fort Wayne, is always so kind to call when they get new art or stamping magazines in and to hold them for me since I travel. The latest call from Sarah and Lana was a special treat since they informed me I was published! When I picked up my little pile of magazines: Take Ten, Stamper's Sampler and Somerset Studio Gallery, all by Stampington and Co., of Laguna Beach, CA., yes indeed, there was my name and a greeting card I had made on p. 26 of Take Ten, Dec-Jan-Feb 2009.

The card uses the boy king stamp from Tim Holtz for Stampers Anonymous and a brown kraft library card/tag, pocket and envelope as well as puffy typewriter key stickers, an embossed initial paperclip, ribbon and several layers of papers to say "Smile-It makes people wonder what you've been up to." I'm smiling since I've finally gotten published by this major rubber stamping and art card magazine, the definitive arbiter in card-making.

Before I even drove away from the store, I discovered another one of my cards on p. 135 of the same issue. I used the template from an earlier issue of the magazine to make the "welcome baby" red dress card with buttons and ribbon added. I also made a matching blue bandana envelope, not shown. Naturally, I had to run back into the store to show off my other page!

I'm hoping this will bode well for the altered art, collage and jewelry I have submitted to Take Ten's sister publications, Somerset Studio (altered art), Belle Armoire (altered clothing) and Belle Armoire Jewelry, Somerset Holidays and Celebrations, and the upcoming Marie Antoinette magazine.

Fat Books, Skinny Books, Books that, oh! Never mind! You get the idea!

Although tiny is not my favorite format in which to work (the bigger the better is generally my motto in most everything!), these "itty bitty" pages from the Flickr Itty Bitty Book Swap Group http://www.flickr.com/groups/ittybittybookclub sure do make for cute books when they're all assembled. Founder Mary Ann http://firstborn.wordpress.com/ and her sister and partner-in-crime Jo http://labouroflovex3.blogspot.com/ started with a robin's egg blue theme and from there the group went wild with ideas and have since produced a house book, vintage prom dress book and now underway are books on Marie Antoinette, Breast Cancer Awareness, Halloween and Christmas.

Since we all know Marie Antoinette is one of my fave themes, that book was a no brainer, using images by Sandra Evertson http://sandraevertson.blogspot.com/ for Stampington http://www.stampington.com/. I embellished them with hair poufs on the front and feathers on the back side. One completed book will be sent to Stampington for their 2009 art call which will lead to a special Marie Antoinette magazine.

The second book I am doing is the breast cancer awareness "pink" book, and extra copies will be given to those in need and/or auctioned for charity. This one was also a quickie because I already have a published "stamp" on the Artchix Studios http://www.artchixstudio.com/pink faux postage sheet that is for sale on their site. You can buy those stamps, including my "P-I-N-K" one right here http://www.artchixstudio.com/mall/p319.asp. So I used some of those stamps, faux post from other art friends, and some actual cancelled pink stamps to make my "Cancel Cancer" page. If only we could cancel all types of cancers, and soon.

Give Me More Marie! I'm on French Overload.

I just finished the biography of Marie Antoinette by Antonia Fraser, wife of Harold Pinter. Fraser is well-known for her amazingly in-depth research, and the book did not disappoint. If only there could have been more to the story! But with a life cut short at 37 by the French Revolution, the biography could only go on for so long. Nonetheless, I was inspired to create another 'Marie' figure based on the incredible couture from the period.

As Queen of France, Marie was a patron of all of the arts, including music, ballet, theatre and of course, fashion. She was not as interested in the great painters, but instead constructed a little theatre, the Petit Trianon, where she put on plays with family and friends. Often her own dress or hair were theatres themselves, with elaborate scenes constructed within.

My glass-bottom 'bird cage' skirt features a scene with vintage millinery and jewelry bits. The skirt hoop and train are constructed from the wire form from an old hat as well as brocade, tulle and velvet leaves and ribbon. This 'bird cage couture,' as coined by the lovely and talented Sandra Evertson http://sandraevertson.blogspot.com/ was made even more perfect for me by the markings on the jar I found just today in an antiques shop.

The bodice or corset is a 7" wire mesh corset form from Stampington and Co. http://www.stampington.com/. I cut the bottom off and used it to form the wire skirt on another Marie I made here http://bly-me.blogspot.com/2008/05/art-and-blythe-come-together.html. It is shown in the middle pictures above also. For the glass-bottom Marie, I placed a vintage doily in the corset top and trimmed the edges with sequins.

After I realized I could get two, two, two Maries in one, I decided to get even more thrifty and used the Stampington two-piece small mannequin with hoop form http://www.stampington.com/html/wire_forms.html for four different projects: 1) the Last Beautiful Dress Castle in the Meadow project I blogged about below here http://lillysoflondonish.blogspot.com/2008/06/last-beautiful-dress-at-castle-in.html, using the top of the dress form, 2) a yet-to-be-done-hopefully-tomorrow papier mache bust into which I stuck the feet from the Stampington form, and 3) two Marie 8 x 8 book pages for The Faerie Zine, http://faerieenchantment.blogspot.com/, which I made by cutting the skirt piece in half at the sides. Those pages are here http://lillysoflondonish.blogspot.com/2008/04/queen-has-spoken-and-she-said-tres-bien.html and here http://lillysoflondonish.blogspot.com/2008/04/if-idle-hands-are-bad-im-looking-good.html.

Oh, and just in case you think I might be sick of all things Marie, I also made the 18" figure shown at the very top as a gift. It is a papier mache form covered with French text, handmade papers, feathers, beads and many vintage trims. I think I might have been good at passenmenterie, the French art of adornment, such as with tassels, brocade trims and such that we might think of as upholstery trims. C'est la vie.

Something Old, Something New

North Myrtle Beach sort of looks the same, I guess. Or maybe I should say my pictures always look the same. New on the scene, though, is the Hard Rock Amusement park, opening April 15 with The Eagles' Life in the Fast Lane Coaster, Led Zeppellin gift shop and more. The Eagles and The Moody Blues (are they even alive?) will play for the grand opening. We will miss both, but I did learn there is now a free "backstage tour" offered at the new theme park. So, why not? There is even a "paying" hard hat tour. Not sure that will be necessary. Too many other things to do. Like shop. Sunbathe. Eat shrimp until I grow a tail. Will not be posting photos of any of these things.

On the art front, as opposed to ocean-front, I completed my first of 12 houses for Jeri Aaron's http://artfulgathering.typepad.com/ House Row Swap. I needed to make a haunted house anyway for an ARTchix contest http://www.artchixstudio.com/ and Stampington & Co is seeking vintage Halloween images until April 15 for publication, so I decided to do triple duty. My house is pictured here. That's handmade holey paper standing in for cobwebs in case you're wondering. Some of the elements used were required for the ARTchix part. I was thrilled that Jeri not only asked me to be in this swap but also in a "side deal," she cut my houses for me in trade for some ephemera. The houses are mat board, which is pretty heavy, and I usually can draw blood just using an ink pen. So I was appreciative of her cutting efforts! If you want to see some really cool finished houses, check out Kathy Wasilewski's at http://alteredantiquity.typepad.com/. They are really great!

And it is such a small art world, really. My dear new Blythe friend Angela, herself an accomplished and published artist http://geminiangelsart.blogspot.com/, invited me to join Altered Art Divas Reliquary on Yahoo, which I promptly did, and ran in to Jeri there! I have yet to look up 'reliquary' to remind myself what it means, but I'm pretty sure it means "bunch of broads with one foot in grave doing art." Don't tell Angela I said that. But our Blythes keep us young. Or, maybe it is just the scouring of vintage stores for valuable doll clothes that keeps us that way.

Back to art.

Published, Well Sort of...Well, Actually, Yes!

This may be the most egomaniacal post yet, but I just had to say "hooray!" I'm published in one of my favorite national magazines, Somerset Studio, issued bi-monthly by Stampington and Co., in California. This gorgeous magazine is considered the altered artists' definitive manual by many, and it is certainly the most luscious kind of eye candy.

Now, before you start mailing issues for autographs, let me clarify by saying I had a letter to the editor published (Jan-Feb '08, p. 5). I know, it's not art. But, it's about art. And they chose my letter from surely hundreds. So I am excited and flattered. And, I'm hoping this will signal good things to come. Certainly, it spurred me on to pack up some real art, write up the necessary documents and get them ready to mail off to sunny CA. I'll keep you 'posted,' pun intended. And by the way, as I was uploading this, I noticed it is indeed my 200th post! Here's hoping my art can be as prolific as my words. Happy New Year everyone!

Teeny Tiny Sewing Machine and Cat Shown Actual Size

Hello there...I was 'sew' excited to find my sewing machine arrived when I got home from La Florida yesterday. What good is this, you ask? It will sew through paper, fabric, do leetle repairs and most importantly, assist in all forms of altered art. Plus, it is the least intimidating sewing machine I have ever seen- considering I haven't seen one since eighth grade- and even then, I didn't like them. No blue ribbons in 4H for skirts and aprons for me. In fact, no 4H for me, which is why I "made" Adrienne do it. But that's another story. Even Lester is not intimidated by this. Got the little gem from Stampington for $10.95. (Go pitiful Notre Dame today). Off for a pedi.