A Few Childhood Mementos

I took these pictures for my ZNE Book Club assignment and decided to post them here, too. Our assignment was to reflect on where we stash our little treasures we accumulate and what special life mementos we have kept.

There are a couple places new acquisitions go, depending on what they are, and I consider them in a "holding pattern" until I decide what to do with them. Besides having a candle shelf in my linen closet, I have sort of a junk jewelry drawer for all small miscellaneous. That drawer presently also has some coupons and a crocheted bird in a fabric bowl. That's where my high school charm bracelet, pictured here, resides. It is too noisy and kind of tattered to wear, but I still love to look at it. Every charm means something. This is "back in the day" when brides gave their maids a charm instead of a new car for being in the wedding.

There is also an armoir in my office, full of my yarn stash, mailing supplies, a jewelry box, and my grade school girl scout sash, pictured. Look at all those badges! I see one for scultping- I have no idea what I did to earn that.

And finally my baby shoes and a little silver spoon my mom gave me, although not my baby spoon, are tucked (usually) into the drawer of the little antique desk in my office that is too rickety to sit at.

We were supposed to solder a charm and make a magic wand to close out our assignment. I did actually get the wand started, and it is painted silver and gold at the moment. It is also in a holding pattern and may get moved on to my witch hat swap holding pile (along with my stuffed crow and rat that were in the armoir) since it would be a key accessory.

Our new book for September is Alphabetica by Lynne Perella. ZNE is absolutely a wonderfuly group of talented people, and we are having great fun right now with our new and improved chat home on Ning. Come check it out:http://zneiscraft.ning.com/.

Thanks also to Falcon or Spastikat of Artists who Love Art on ebay for my crocheted flip flops in our secret swap and to Sue Johnson of CaaT for my incredible goody box in our Art and Scent swap. The candle is burning right now!

Art Treasures and More

When checking for my next book club assignment with the international ZNE book club, I was thrilled to see my results from assignment #1 posted on the home page of the Book Club http://www.znebookclub.info/. It not only is gratifying and makes me feel my art can't be that bad, but it helps to bring other visitors to my blog. So, the art world continues to go 'round and 'round. I was pleased to have this same artwork featured on another related site ZNEBlogz. Also, a great new feature at the bottom of this page on my blog is the ZNE Site Ring. Click on next or random to be directed to other wonderful ZNE members' blogs.

If you're loooking for other inspiration, Stamping Day and Night, in Fort Wayne, Indiana (linked at right) is having a week-long garage sale of other artists' and crafters' cast-offs of supplies, rubber stamps and scrapbook materials, publications, etc. The sale started today and lasts a week. I am trying to keep myself out of there, so I can just show up next week and reap (and spend) my rewards. I took a great batch of stuff, so hopefully someone will want it all!

Speaking of shopping (I should blog just about that!)....I had the opportunity to go to Schoolcraft, MI yesterday. The cute old downtown is lined with antique malls and shoppes. I hit the jackpot with a box of antique dominoes still sealed in their original package for $2 and three old magazines, including Better Homes and Gardens from 1933 and a fabulous McCall's from 1955. I was sad the Betsy McCall paper doll page was missing - that was a monthly highlight from my childhood. I don't know who looked more forward to the subscription arriving each month- my mother or me. I also found a glass baby bottle and a very old hair dye box.

My other treasure, which arrived today, was a package of ephemera I had ordered from ArtChix Studio, possibly the most wonderful source of collage and ATC supplies ever! Check it out: http://www.artchixstudio.com/.

I will post some pictures here soon. I just took a break from reading the old magazines and tearing out pages for collage (which I sort of felt bad about, but that was always the plan). The reading is so entertaining as well....BH&G in 1933 was encouraging readers to break out of their ration habits and start spending more to beautify their home and yard, to help the overall economy after the war and crash...little did they suspect another war in the offing.

I Saw A Spirit - collage

Here is a little collage I did for my ZNE Book Club assignment this week. We are to create a mixed media collage one step at a time, by drawing random tasks from a bowl and performing them in order. Mine were: write, use Twinkling H2Os, sandpaper, sand again, stamp with bleach, distress in some way, use water color crayons, paint, distress, apply a photo, scratch, apply a transparency, apply magazine bits, apply background paper bits, apply text, overstamp, seal.

I made this copy, and also a sepia one, before sealing as I think I will coat it with beeswax or maybe spooky beeswax drips, I haven't decided.

Next up is a numbers theme ATC for my ATC/ACEO Enthusiasts group on ebay, and the collage will also serve for the August month-end collage challenge for CaaT. I am continually amazed by all the talented people on ebay! It would be so great to do nothing but create, post, sell, buy, read beautiful blogs, rinse and repeat all day long!

Tonight I picked up some more art supplies. I am going to try my hand at acrylics, so I got some paint, brushes and thick little fat canvases (5x5). I also got a bunch of paint swatches (Lowe's) and will be collecting wallpaper swatches for my next endeavor.

Finally, I am awaiting some domino-size tiles in the mail from my BkNq (book-nique) group, out of which I am supposed to make a tiny book. Not sure what my subject will be! I have gotten lots of suggestions at home for verrrry short books, such as "Guide to Safe Hunting," by Dick Cheney and so on...you get the idea...and I don't want a political blog!

ZNE Book Club for a Good Cause

I am so excited to be joining the ZNE book club for August. We are studying Sally Jean Alexander's Pretty Little Things http://www.sallyjean.com, already one of MY favorite books! I already have assignments in reading, writing about my studio space, posting a photo and have a collage assignment to create and post. Sheesh! Just like school- only better!
Even nicer is that the book club fee goes to support an animal rescue farm site, a Place to Bark (see the right side of my blog), run by Bernie Berlin, a collage and ATC artist.
Besides this little bit of work, my ATC/ACEO group on ebay has given out individual dares for an ACEO to complete and post, and I am waiting to get my assignment. ACEO stands for Art Cards Editions and Originals and ATC stands for Artist Trading Cards.
An example of another dare was "What would Medusa look like if snakes didn't exist." So, you get the idea...
As well, my ebay "Respect-Artists who Love Art" group has a challenge due tomorrow based on the word "rock"- any interpretation/any medium. I have a couple of ideas but nothing done yet, plus I am off to Michigan for the cancer walk. Sheesh again!