My First Art Show at ARTchix

Today is the day the entries in the ARTchix Holiday Art show were unveiled on the Yahoo! site. I have four entries: my Spook House Village, a Halloween Artist Trading Card called "Mysterious Presence," an altered domino necklace with an image of a vintage Santa and a paper crafted heart-shaped box called Easter Bunny Princess Treat Box. These were all made specifically for this show, and most of these pictures have never been seen before today. Members of the group will be voting for three winners, who receive gift certificates to ARTchix Studios http://www.artchixstudio.com/. What I could do with that!!

While I was at it, I also used an antique inkwell to make an "Emergency Wand Holder." Don't ask me why; it just came to me when looking at some jewelry scraps. The bottom edge has the better part of a cheap tennis bracelet on it. The wands have beads, starfish, pieces of earrings and other gems. I have no plans for it. It is a "just because." We are allowed to offer our items for sale in the show, but the only thing I chose to list was the domino necklace.

I am pleased with the way my paper house and paper box turned out, so I have some more empty boxes I plan to alter soon. Today I also received some cool Halloween tags in the mail from Tiffany Jane Marshall http://www.beyondthevintagepath.com that I purchased during the ZNE fund raiser Hope Sees a Star, and I also received my first kit from Paula Montgomery of Paula's Kit Club http://www.paulaskitclub.com/, formerly Rubber Baby Buggy Bumpers. It is called "Kitschmas." Can't wait to play!

Is This Obnoxious or What? (Yippeeee!)

I was so excited to come home from work (after about 300 miles) and log in to all my various spots to find I had won some awards from one of my ebay groups! CaaT - Complementary Art And Things held a collage sale contest starting Aug. 31. This announcement had been up almost all month, and as a lover of collage, I couldn't wait to list my entries. Unfortunately for all the sellers, collage did not do very well, but I was thrilled to win (can I say it?) ALL THREE prizes!! Wheee! They were: most entries (natch), highest sale and most unique bids. I entered prints of some of my collages pictured here on my slide show below as well as 3 different styles of my ZNE August Book Club beeswax collage "I Saw a Spirit." What actually sold, though, were collaged domino pendants, also pictured here.

I hope the slow sales don't indicate bad things for collage in general; but we shall see. I have enjoyed collage for as long as I can remember, including collaging one whole wall of my college dorm room. I also remember helping my brother collage the walls of his antique shop in the 1970s, and those were like 20' high walls and huge rooms. Ahhh, the 70s.

The Bestest Things in Small Packages

Now, why anyone would think G stands for grump, I do not know. But, irregardless, I purchased this highly embellished artist trading card on ebay from Kim Laws of ajoy*2*bheld. The same day it arrived, this adorable charm from Michelle Geller of Hold Dear http://michellegeller.typepad.com/ also arrived from a trade we did. After some blog correspondence about fat books and skinny books (and books that climb on rocks), she mentioned some charms she was making for an art gathering and was gracious enough to offer one to me in trade for one of my domino pendants. Art people are just the greatest.

So not to belittle either artist, I decided these two just looked perfect together. Since the ATC wouldn't fit in a normal collector's pocket anyway, I decided to combine them for my bulletin board so I could enjoy seeing them every day. Thanks, ladies!

It's been another few days without making anything, and I am going crazy.....arrrrgh! (It IS National Talk Like a Pirate Day, according to Flickr, so there's my contribution). At least I can blog, and that gets us all that much closer to my 100th post- which means (insert drumroll) freebies, give-aways, goodies to commenters, as is a long-standing 100th post tradition. So, stay tuned!

A Domino Art Bonanza

These gorgeous dominoes arrived recently - 32, count 'em 32, I scored on ebay for the grand sum of $10. Some were mostly finished, some blank and some were somewhere in between. Not sure who would want to part with this saleable cache, but I touched them up, embellished some, added chains, and still have several blank to play with. I also still have my package of $2 antique dominoes I haven't even opened yet.

So, it looks like I will be busy altering dominoes. Besides my recently acquired crop-o-dile, my next two purchases look like they will be a teeny tiny drill and a soldering iron. Of the ones pictured here, some are for swaps and some are for sale on ebay, starting today. Get yourself a domino pendant and be on the cutting edge of altered jewelry! (Cutting edge for Indiana, that is).

All of these are big, chunky heavy dominoes (what are dominoes made of anyway?). The red one already had eyelets attached so I cobbled up some charms to attach. Others I added glitter, gold ink, sealer and more. The one I kept for myself (not picture) has a bulldog on smaller square domino with turquoise butterfly wings and a tuquoise crown, of course.