Chubbyville Fat Book Swap

Okay, who would name a group Chubbyville? But I am a late-comer, so who am I to say? This group includes many talented and published artists, so I am excited to receive my first pages! I am mailing off this Asian-theme 4 x 4 watercolor page (front and back shown) that includes a text transparency, postage stamps, a metal flowers, fibers and charms. I painted the random background first and embellished it with Twinkling H2Os - the greatest, sparkliest little paints ever.

The swap is for one page per month of different themes. You can bind your book whenever you want- after a year or? This swap was a piece of (cup)cake. My next swap requires 27 original pages, all 4 x 8, sent together, front and back finished. I guess I had better go into training mode.

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!

Swap Goodies

Here are some things I finished up tonight to get in the mail for Artsymama's sweet and sinister swap. Photos of all the goodies are on Flickr, a free, public photo-sharing community herehttp://www.flickr.com/groups/493018@N23/. I stuffed the bear myself for something sweet, although I purchased his sweater, which is tres chic. I also painted and decorated a tiny hanger for the sweater. The felted pinkeep cat is for moi, by Elona's Originals on ebay. He is about 6 inches tall. Next, I covered the band box with black and white papers and tucked lots of sweet and sinister goodies inside, and added ribbon, a Beware sign and skulls on top. The Halloween dress card is made from a template from Somerset Studio and is one of my all-time favorite card shapes. It has real pockets (with candy and a bone) ric rac and ribbon trim, buttons, and can also fit on the tiny hanger. Hope my swap partner likes her package!

Twinkle,twinkle .....

Twinkle,twinkle .....
Originally uploaded by abbietabbie

Isn't this the most beautiful cupcake you have ever seen? It's one of thousands and thousands on Flickr, a photo sharing community, where I do belong to this cupcake group as well as Zetti and Artsy Mama's Sweet and Sinister Swap. I think I'm getting hungry.

Sweet and Sinister Swap In Progress SIP

Here is the Haunted House I made last night (possibly) for my Sweet and Sinister Swap with Artsymama's group on Flickr. I say possibly because it is supposed to be black and white with thouches of Halloween colors, and this is possibly a little too colorful.

The potions bottle should be a shoe-in though, as it is black and sparkly, with a skull, black and silver fibers and my black cat charm attached. Makes a nice gift I think, as the charm can be detached for wearing, making into a pin or displaying on a tiny easel. The other swap pictures posted on Flickr are all luscious, so I am a little bit intimindated to send my offerings. I hope they pass muster- wouldn't want to be the target of an evil spell or something.

Speaking of Flickr and my new-found love for it (see below), there is a Cupcake group on Flickr which I have joined. Surely someone who not only paints but crochets cupcakes should be in this group! I just love like-minded (weird) people!

My other Flickr group is a Zetti group. Zettiology is the company of Teesha Moore (see links) and her husband Tracy, whom I have written about before. There are over 1,000 pieces of art (and now 5 of mine) in the Flickr Zetti group for admirers of this style. It is a color celebration! Check it out.http://www.flickr.com/groups/zettiology/.

I am in Love with Flickr

Just figured out how to use Flickr, and I like it so much better than Photo Bucket. It was so much faster and easier to upload and identify photos, and I made this cool mosaic in no time.

The best Fall loot!

The stuffed Eek pumpkin head with her toy cat on a piece of vintage ruler just made me take her home from the Plymouth Blueberry Festival Friday. She is about 18 inches tall and very well made by a woman from Missouri. Her booth was outstanding, and I also got some potpourri and a pumpkin lid for a wide-mouth ball jar, that I can use for fall candy or a gift.

I usually don't like cutesy stuff, but primitive cutesy is a whole different thing, especially Halloween primitive cutesy. In fact, you can search ebay under "prim" and find all sorts of wonderful things. One particular group is NEPG, New England Primitive Gathering. A favorite seller and site in NEPG is pumpkin*seed*primitives.

It still amazes me how crafters come from all over the United States for this festival. It also amazes me that there were about 500 booths to peruse. Add to this the corndog, loaded potato skins and elephant ear, and this is one of my favorite Labor Day traditions for over 15 years.

The beautiful ripe tomatoes were a pleasant weekend surprise from the Gormans.

A couple more Halloween ATCs

Here are a couple new Halloween artist trading cards I made last night for gifts in my ebay and blog swaps. I am in a Sweet and Sinister swap (see logo at right) which requires something sweet and something sinister (duh!), something handmade and a home decor item, all in shades of black, white and Halloween colors.

The skull card was made by using bleach and a rubber stamp, to stamp an image on black art paper (construction paper does not work). I used various amounts of bleach to get varying degrees of spooky images. I first saw this done in either Somerset Studio or Cloth, Paper, Scissors, two excellent magazines. The examples used an egg stamp and went further by using a brush and paint to add some color to the bleached images- have to try that!

I am also in an Art and Scent swap for my ATC and ACEO Enthusiasts group on ebay and a Secret Swap for Respect: Artists who Love Art, AWLA, on ebay.

I have tons more fall clip art to use, plus I just got 48 new Lyra Aquacolors, so I really need to get back to my journal and start drawing more new stuff. Making these ATCs is addicting. I have to laugh, because only a month ago when I was buying some stuff from Kris H at Retro Cafe Art Gallery on ebay, I asked her how she could stand to do such tiny work- ha!

Eeeek! My First Collage Pendant

So I tried to make a tiny collage (1.5 x 1.5 inches) to put under memory glass and into this tiny memory frame, which can now be a pendant or go on a tiny easel. Actually, I found a cute black bottle that says something like "eye of newt," so I think I am going to put this on a ribbon around the neck of the bottle, and give it for one of my swap gifts (swappers, close your eyes). The back is a spooky looking 6 also on red. I colored the cat with gel pens and added the collar. The glass or collage look wavy in this photo, but it turned out just fine.

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.

Sally Jean's Pretty Little Things - for Me!

I was so pleased to finally receive the charms I ordered from Sally Jean, author of Pretty Little Things. I had been coveting these miniature silver soldered collages for months, and then to my surprise, the book was our ZNE August Book Club assignment. After a month of pouring over the book and completing writing and art assignments, my charms arrived, as if to reward me for "graduating." I added the four small ones (G, create, home and chocolate chip fairy) to a silver charm bracelet where I also added danglies I made out of "that" turquoise as Sally Jean calls that shade of robin's egg blue. The larger pendant, the Shopping Fairy, could make a necklace or I am hoping to find a tiny silver easel for it. It is about 1 x 3 inches. The charms are much tinier. Love it!

So Happy About School!

Not to be outdone by his cousin Chloe, a recent post postess, here's Jake Dye looking cute with his friend Reagan from school. According to the email via mom to grandma to great uncle, Jake was getting a hug for the end of the school day. Wonder if they hugged everyday at the end of pre-school? That's a lot of hugs! Thanks to grandma-ma's friend Ruth for setting me straight on the timing.