Dreams of Printing Presses Danced in Her Head

7 rms, great view, no BRs, no BTs, piano room, nursery, indoor garden, nice roof, priceless. This lovely little abode, about 18" tall, is the creation of The Seven Shabby Sisters of Shabby Cottage Studio http://www.shabbycottagestudio.com, of which I am one. A Shabby Sister, that is. See that nursery slash laundry room with the three little kittens on the right? That's my room. Hard to see, I know, but I am hoping a combination of pictures will be enticing enough for the publishers from Quarry Books to take a second look.

The house was created for an art call for collaborative efforts to be including in an upcoming book, organized by published artist L.K. Ludwig http://www.gryphonsfeather.typepad.com. Our house was organized by SCS owner and shopkeeper and house-assembler Gail Schmidt http://shabbycottagestudio.blogspot.com. Gail finished the overall house exterior, the intricately-shingled roof and the trims as well as cutting all our rooms to fit exactly after we mailed them to her. That required a lot of engineering. We will hold our collective breath regarding publication.

Meanwhile, my two recent Marie Antoinette pages are for the same book and another collaborative effort, that one organized by Lisa Kettell http://faerieenchantment.blogspot.com. Tonight I got to "know" one of the other five contributors to that a little better by writing about her.

You can check out my interview with the cheery Ann-Denise Anderson over at ZNE Dollz http://www.znedolls.com and see her springy works there and on her blog Whimsical Fancy at http://whimandfancydesigns.blogspot.com. Can't wait to see her Marie pages now that I've seen her work! Wish us luck on publication.

Art & Soul Fat Book, "By the Sea," Here I Come

Suddenly my blog seems to have become "what I did on my weekend." It's not supposed to be just that, although when you eliminate politics, religion, co-workers, family and personal issues, it's either blog about my arting adventures, or tell you what non-food object Larry the Cat has recently consumed.
So, obviously this post concerns the most recent weekend and the approximate 23 hours total I spent on 40 fat book or 4 x 4 original pages front and back. These will be mailed off to a hostess who will create covers, sort pages from other artists, bind the books and return to me at Art and Soul May 1 a fabulous finished book.
I decided to go with a Zetti theme for half my pages and a nautical alphabet for the other half. All the pages were first cut from watercolor sheets and then painted with acrylics, gel medium or gesso in shades of blue. After each side dried, I rubber stamped nautical images with distress ink on one or both sides.
Next came drawing and collaging my Zetti mermaids a la Teesha Moore http://www.teeshamoore.com/, then watercolor painting, glitter, gel pens and other accents. The pages you see here are not done yet, but are waiting for embellishments of beads, charms and fibers to be added before they are mailed. All these additions help make the fat book fat!


Besides this, I kicked off my weekend by finishing 32 handmade Mermaid Ballerina charms pictured further below, which were mailed off today for another Art & Soul swap. Now I am down to my miscellaneous charms and swaps I will take with me to trade with the other artists there, a highlight of Art & Soul for sure.

And, to prove I have more to talk about than just my weekends, I have to say Yay! to Alex who made the high school varsity baseball team, which we kicked off tonight at a team and parent dinner. (We have a scrimmage planned for tomorrow in the rain and sleet). I also have to say Whew! to me for surviving today: a 6 a.m. drive out of state for a day of meetings, a rush home to take two dozen homemade lemon bars to said baseball dinner, and living through a 90-minute radio interview on blogtalkradio.com for my ZNE art group. Finally, I have to say Happy Birthday (the 18th) to my childhood friend Jeaniene: you're older than I am once again!! Yay!

Good night, Gracie!

Check out My Latest Review

Check out my latest book review pf Kaari Meng's French-Inspired Jewelry at http://www.vintageindie.com or click the headline above to go straight to the review (hint: I liked this book!). The author has also written The French-Inspired Home which I will be reviewing soon. Vintage indie has tons of great ideas, links to sites and just a lot of good eye candy.

I also interviewed ZNE Art Dolls group founder, artist and collector Judy Keefe here http://chelise.typepad.com/zne_dollz/2008/03/zne-art-dolls-g.html. You can check out my article as well as many other artists' profiles. Be sure to click on the links within the interview because Judy has some way cool doll photos and art.

So what's on tap for my weekend? I have some ATCs due in a couple of swaps: Sugar Skulls and WWBD (What would Barbie do?), both for ATC World on Yahoo! I have bits and pieces of jewelry findings spread out all over, having hit La Beada Loca today in Valparaiso, and needing to make 32 charms before April 1. I also got my watercolor paper cut for my Art & Soul pages, so now I just need to paint 44 pages front and back, so they can get dry and be ready for embellishing. Finally, I want to take some Blythe photos for the Blythe in America beauty pageant, and I need to make a 3D fairytale vignette box and get it shipped off.

Please someone make a staying awake pill that lasts 48 hours! Oh, did I mention I have a canvas due for my book club, um, tonight, actually, and chipboard thingies due for Shabby Cottage Studio design team and something tulip-y due for the Cottage Style Street Team campaign on Etsy? Must. back. away. from. computer. now.