(Spr)ing it On!

Finally! A blast of color for the property and some evidence we might actually be crawling out from winter afterall. Even with some kind of wacky sleeting hail balls hitting my car Tuesday morning, I still managed to find my garden spirit, apron and trowel by Saturday. I LOVE my pineapple plant! I've never seen one before. Supposedly, with lots of sun and water it can be harvested off later this summer.

The rest of the pics are just a few vignettes around my house. My solar lights worked like a charm the first night, and the landscaping looks light an enchanted fairyland at night. The grass is green and freshly striped by mowing. The trees are blooming. The cats have the crazies. I feel inspired. Yep, it must finally be spring.

Time for the Big Reveal; My Relationship with Art and Other Dramas

The Marie canvas of which I posted a sneak peek here, left Indiana for sunny California and recipient Kathy Jacobson a few days ago, so hopefully it is safe to post the finished piece now. This was my canvas in Maria Rodarte's "Marie Bits & Baubles Swap." The idea was to use an 8.5" x 11" canvas and create 12 different sections, although it was completely open to interpretation. I used a bit larger canvas and there are 12 sections, although irregular in size.

There's a pocket wherein I stuck a Marie-inspired tag, an artist trading card and some Marie ephemera. I also love the old glass bottle in the lower right corner. I wired it on to make it a vase. The turquoise pin is a brooch I bought a few years ago and seldom wore. There's vintage millinery from an old hat I took apart (the turquoise velvet leaves and buds), a ceramic bird, lace, ribbons and lots of great stuff. It was fun to make!

But that was last weekend's work. This weekend started on Friday when I got some great beads half price at my LBS: Bead Source in Fort Wayne, IN., which has been in business well over 10 years. I went for pink and that's what I got. In fact I had this bracelet in my head, and spent several hours last night making the various dangles, then cutting and wire wrapping them, and then attaching them with jump rings to the bracelet. There are more than 25 different stacked dangles with glass and resin beads, vintage buttons, sterling and other metal bits, crochet beads amd ceramic beads from Earthenwood Studio. I can't decide if I will sell it or keep it, but if I sell, you can always find it in my Etsy shop!

I also stopped by my LSS: Stamping Day and Night in Fort Wayne, to pick up the latest Catch Up magazine from Stamper's Sampler and while I was there sweet Sarah showed me a new old technique which uses alcohol inks and blending solution on glossy paper to make some cool backgrounds. I couldn't wait to try that either, so sometime after midnight I let my tired jewelry-making eyes play around with that. I'll cut these examples up for backgrounds for greeting cards or artist trading cards (ATCs).

At the bookstore I got two exciting books, Journal Bliss by Violette and Painting with Watercolor, Pen and Ink by Claudia Nice. The journaling book is just a RIOT of color, and I couldn't wait to start doodling, so in the wee hours, when I had finally settled into bed- sort of- I started doodling faces in my sketchbook. Can't wait to play with that later today!

Meanwhile, after getting to sleep at 4 a.m., I somehow sprung up at 8:30 (yes, a.m.) to go buy flowers and plants. Although we had sleet, snow and hail in northern Indiana just Tuesday, we have now had two (count 'em, two) days in a row of sunshine and 80F degrees. There's definitely an Indiana (and maybe even a redneck) joke in there somewhere about planting too soon, but I just couldn't stand it another minute. Everything was looking so bare, plain, ugly, drab, blah, you get the picture.

So I loaded my little car at Wal-Mart, Lowe's and the local greenhouse and came home with a huge fern, a couple of hanging plants, filler plants, geraniums, pansies, and dirt as well as a dozen solar lights for the landscaping after running into an acquaintance who said the $2.99 lights work like they cost a million bucks. At dark, we'll see. If they do work, I have a feeling I'll be making a return trip. With a graduation open house looming, 'sprucing up' takes on a meaning of astronomical proportions. And since it is only April 25, this won't be the first year I'll probably be dragging plants in and out of the garage each day, to protect them at night.

One of my purchases was a real pineapple plant, with the cutest pineapple ever growing on it! Photos next post-if it doesn't snow. Ack. I feel the gardening muscles coming back to life after half a year and starting to ache already.

So about Art. No, not Art the college algebra instructor who was barely two years older than my flirty 18 and who at 6'5" was extremely more interesting than 'x' and 'y' unless you were talking chromosomes 'back in the day' at Ball State U.

No, not local car collector Art Gakstatter and his wife Cookie, to whom I sold Longaberger baskets for a time. I just got a kick out of saying their names. Of course, my children use 'gak' as a verb to alert me to partially-digested cat deposits about the house.

And no, not Art M., one of my all-time favorite customers from work: the kind of person who makes doing business a pleasure, who enjoys a good chat about families or business, and who shows you he gets that having a life and having a job are two different things.

So about my art: I was thinking while I was doodling random heads that my faces weren't half bad. No, not Picasso good. Not even like-my-famous-art-friends good. Just good 'for me.' See, I never thought I could draw. In fact, I don't think I could when I was a kid. My drawings from imagination were nothing special, no perceptive perspective, no amazing use of colors. But, by junior high school, I must have shown either some kind of talent or perhaps just amazing organizational skills (OCD, anyone? Yes, just a little), or maybe just enthusiasm, because a couple different art teachers took me under their wing, not necessarily for drawing, but for creating stuff.

Suddenly, I could do 'it.' And the more I believed I could do it, the better my 'stuff' seemed to look, at least to me. I remember being asked by the librarian to make bulletin boards when I was in seventh grade, and it got me out of some other class. I remember making an album cover in eighth grade that was a highlight because I learned to score paper. Big deal, right? By ninth grade, drawing all those biology cross sections was a breeze, and I still remember with pride my frog done in pencil that the teacher gushed on about.

So, my question is: could I do it just because I believed I could do it? Or did I/do I have some artistic talent that comes from a gene pool that just needed to be let loose? Could I draw those faces last night because I believed I could, fully intended to, before I even got out my pencils and sketch pad? Or was my right or left brain (whichever side isn't still thinking about algebra class) just properly engaged with all the drawing neurons from eye to finger firing?

I don't know. But either way, I like it.

Just Leave Me Alone...

Lester sez. But sometimes, I can relate.

ATCs, ACEOs and Sneaky Sneak Peeks: It's All Code for Art

First off, I hate how my camera angles make my ATCs look crooked, but trust me, they're not! They are perfect rectangles as prescribed: the size of baseball trading cards. I made 24 of the little buggers this weekend for no reason. Usually I do a batch for swaps when I'm headed to an art event, but I had all this good collage art from some folks that I wanted to use. By the way, in case you don't know, the 'collage art' means they post or sell or give-away images for other artists to incorporate into their own images, like I have done here. Often 'their' images are from vintage photos or vintage cards, which they have enhanced digitally with color or other effects. Then they have made the work available for the next round of artists (like moi) to cut up, embellish, digitally alter more or whatever.

I have had a project looming, which I'll describe in a minute, but to ease into it I started playing with images and ended up making artist trading cards (ATCs) or ACEOs: art cards, editions and originals. ATCs are always traded, not sold, and ACEOs are considered miniature works of art and may be sold (or traded).

So I gathered some of my newest favorite images from Teesha Moore, Sandra Evertson, Lisa's Altered Art and iTkUpiLLi on Etsy and began creating. The Dresden foil trims I used are from both ArtChix Studio and Paula's Kit Club.

The bottom picture is a 'sneak peek' for Kathy Jacobson of an altered art canvas I made for her and will be mailing this week. Kathy was my assigner partner in Maria Rodarte's Marie Canvas Swap. The task was to divide an 8.5" x 11" wrapped canvas into 12 sections with Marie Antoinette-inspired art. Like Marie, the assignment was intended to be 'over the top.' And I think I did that.

This little sneak peek contains a copy of one of Kathy's own pieces of artwork, a Marie-inspired altered letter 'M' that just appeared on the cover-no less- of the April-May 2009 issue of Stampers' Sampler magazine. It was also featured on page 37.

After painting the canvas in shades of blue, green and cream, I used vintage ephemera like an old postcard, old prescription, French book pages, Marie images to make a collage. I sectioned it off with new and vintage trims and added an old bottle for a vase, vintage jewelry bits and baubles, new and old buttons, lace and fabric scraps, rhinestones, a key, a keyhole, vintage millinery and of course, lots of glitter.

I'll post a full picture after the swap is complete. Of course this means I have something yummy coming from Kathy, too. Can't wait!

Swaps bring out the best in friends and art

Random swaps sometimes bring the nicest surprises. Recently I was assigned to swap a spring artist trading card (ATC) with Rachel Christy in our Flickr group that I help moderate, The Faerie Zine. I was not familiar with Rachel or her work or our other partner for that matter, Patty Porter.

When I checked out Rachel's work on her Etsy site, I noticed she embellishes trinket boxes. Like me, she covers them with paper, tissue, glitter, baubles and other goodies. So we agreed to swap a paper box as well. Ironically, our box swap resulted in nearly similar boxes. I sent the pink box above shown with the Cabbage Queen ATC I made for her; she sent turquoise, and we both used a face image from Sandra Evertson.

But lucky me! Rachel was generous enough to send not one but two! boxes. Today was a great sunny day in the Midwest to photograph these. In the heart-shaped, mermaid-embellished box she tucked a bunch of ephemera/art supplies to keep me creating. Visit her Etsy shop for more goodies like these.

Off The Shelf: Check my Latest Review for Vintage Indie

I just read and reviewed this doll of a book for Vintage Indie by my sweet blog friend Rebecca Ramsey of Wonders Never Cease. Click on the hyperlinks to check it and her out!

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.

Whipped my WIP; Another Peachy Project Done. Now I'm Feeling Blue.

So the peach afghan I blogged about below did indeed get done this weekend. In fact, I was able to finish the entire trim in about one hour Friday night. Do you ever experience that combination of let-down and relief when finishing a major project? I do. And now what to do with it? Well, I just folded it up to tuck away. I decided it didn't need to be blocked after all, although it could do with some softening.

The afghan is about 36" square and is a riff on a dragonfly pattern afghan from Crochet! magazine, July 2006. Speaking of crochet magazines, I weeded out my enormous collection and have over 30 knitting and crochet magazines for sale on Ebay right now. You can search by seller for hpsgsmith or just click here. They'll be ending Monday night and need to go to some other Happy Hooker or crazed knitter! Is that you?

Without even coming up for air, I started a new work in progress (WIP): yet another baby afghan. This is rather funny because there are no babies in the family or on the horizon (thankfully!) but I love the cute patterns and colors, and the size is right at my tolerance level. That's how the peach afghan went from 20 large squares to nine and finally got completed after three years.

The new project pictured above is from Crochet Today magazine and is a ripple stitch with lavender, blue and lime-y green. It really is such an easy stitch, and I hardly ever do a ripple. This is going quickly already. The edges have crocheted flowers scattered about, so even though it is boy-ish colors, it would be a girly blanket. Or, the flowers could be omitted; we shall see.

The cornflower or periwinkle blue color reminded me of the sweater I made myself with a similar color in Cotton Classic. It was my first blue ribbon in crochet at the local county fair. I was beaming! I also made a bobble or popcorn stitch clutch/makeup bag with zipper, which you can see above. I've never used it! But, I actually did wear the sweater- once, I think.

Hooked on Crochet, Yet Again

I don't know about you, but I hate WIPs. Call me OCD, but "works in progress" bug the heck out of me. If I start something, I usually have to finish it, even if it takes awhile. This peach crochet sweater/shrug was never really a WIP. I took a class a couple of summers ago, and made the whole thing during the three-week class, using Cotton Classic yarn, a granny square pattern, assembly instructions from the teacher and the subtle, simple encouragement of just being "in class."

So, why am I talking about WIPs then? Maybe it's the color that reminded me to find this thing to see if I could wear it. You see, the color, although not the yarn, is the same as an afghan I have been working on for nearly three years.

It was a dragonfly and bobble-stitch monotone stripe pattern I saw in Crochet! magazine that inspired me to search high and low for enough skeins to take on a big project. I'm much better suited to baby booties, baby-sized afghans, even a purse or sweater. But a full-size afghan was daunting and a challenge at the same time.

I found some yarn at a Ben Franklin store near the upper peninsula of Michigan while on a work-travel trip. Ben Franklin stores had gone out of business in my area years ago.

When I realized I didn't buy enough yarn (yes, I read the instructions), I was lucky enough to find the same lot number in the Herschner's catalog.

I thought I'd make a peach afghan to go with some new Lands End peach paisley bedding I had ordered. After completing about seven of the required 20 12-inch x 12-inch squares and taking on bobble stitches and front-post double crochet for hours and weeks on end, I was so sick of both peach and of crochet in general that I figured I could redecorate the bedroom again sooner and more painlessly than finish the darned afghan.

Still, the stack of finished squares has haunted me for years- every time I open the armoire holding my yarn stash in hopes of being re-inspired to make something, anything. Every so often I'd pull them out and look at them longingly, and admittedly, I'd admire my work. Some of those stitches were a real challenge for me! Making something uniform without losing count of rows and chains- also a challenge for me, since I hate making a gauge swatch. It always seems like such a waste of time!

So, a couple of weeks ago, while going through this very same exercise: take out squares, arrange, admire, repeat as needed, I realized if I just could finish the one that was half-done I'd have nine squares, not seven. That would be enough for a 36" square throw or baby afghan! Someone else could live with peach! Inspiration struck long enough to finish the square after reminding my clumsy fingers how to do the stitches again. I'd lost a lot of speed, confidence and deftness after three years. But I sailed through, no longer in love with the color or even the feel of the yarn (scratchy! what was I thinking?). Now I was motivated by the finish line and getting rid of the only WIP I had ever left unfinished.

I assembled the nine squares. Somehow, even though the original pattern of 20 called for four different kinds of squares, I had enough of each to make a uniform assembly: five stripe squares, two bobble squares and two bobble/stripe squares. Now that was a happy accident!

The squares, looking more like rectangles to me for my imperfect stitching, were sewn together during late-night DVD marathons of '24' the last two weekends. Nothing like Jack shooting and killing 2.3 people per minute to make one feel warm and cozy while assembling an afghan.

I'm down to just putting on the shell-stitch edging. I even did a search of pattern books for a more elaborate edging to celebrate my achievement. Not sure which I'm going to use, but I'm determined that in one more weekend I'll be washing (with lots of softener) the thing and blocking it. And then I'll be done and WIP-free! Free to start another less-daunting project! Free to sell all the left-over peach yarn in my stash, too! Might just pay for the other half that I used or perhaps a little of my time these last three years.

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.

A breath of spring arrives!

Just when I thought another snow flurry in Indiana in March would leave me stark raving mad, this lovely little breath of spring arrived in the mail from Rachel for The Faerie Zine Bunny/Spring ATC swap.

Rachel makes the loveliest boxes and sells them in her Etsy store. We are also doing a 1:1 box swap- can't wait! Gotta get my cards and boxes done this weekend and will post pics. My other ATC parner is Patty, Eclecticarchivist.

And I really can't complain. Although it is gloomy today, it was sunny and 60+F degrees yesterday. Just a little tease.

Also another bright spot received are the two blog awards (top right) that I received last night from Lisa Kettell, who is one to always share in her bountiful art tidings.