Finished!

My Stars and Stripes project is finally done, well as far as I want to take it.  I added some beads, the really cool ladies and some screen mesh stars that I cut out and textured.  It is ok but nothing great.

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I am really concentrating on Mrs. Keys at the moment and trying to work my way through the next steps.  I have most of her body assembled out of fabric and some clay, now I need to decide if I am going to cover that fabric with clay or (if I can find my gesso) just paint it.  Then the clothes which I just keep changing my mind on.  Another lesson learned is that when I painted her head and face, I gave little thought about the paint I mixed for the color and now have the task of trying to match it.  Wish me some luck with that because I was not really thinking about it and it could be hard to match now ....after the fact.  I also want to try my hand at some free motion embroidery with my machine and I am fairly certain that I cannot drop the feed dog on either of my machines.  Didn't they use to make a feed dog cover back in the day?  I will have to ask my Mom that one. 

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What does Mrs. Keys and Quiltie Stars n Stripes have in common?

Not a daburn thing!  This is just some of my current obsessions.  The first is Mrs. Keys, named so after a sweet lady I have known for a very long time.  She is alot quirky and I am hoping to capture some of that quirkiness in this doll head. 

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She is made from paperclay and my first ever hand sclupted paperclay doll head ever!  If you have seen my other dolls they were always from fabric, although a long time ago I use to carve cypress knees into people.  I started her yesterday, today I sanded and painted and decided keep on going.  There is a sketch of what I want her to look like next to the raw head.  We will see if I can pull this off or not but hey if not, I can always try again!  Tomorrow I will varnish her and add hair and maybe more paint if needed,  I just love her eyelashes!  and yes I know she looks a little bit bugeyed lol she is suppose to look that way.  I know way differnt than my norm but hey who said what is normal or not normal?

Next up is my little quiltie thingy.  Not sure what to call it but is is suppose to be the FAMM monthly challenge piece using stars and stripes.  I am still working on getting the hang of this fiber art stuff, I get it but I really don't have the supplies I need to make really cool stuff so I am using what I have at my disposal and my imagination.  I guess it isn't too bad and I am not sure if I am done with it or not.  It will eventually be framed and put in my bathroom for something different to look at.

Home Sweet Home

While I was in Buffalo, NY I went to another class at Buffalo Stamps and sorry I do not remember the insturctors name other than Cari and she was from Pima.  She supplied the canvas house and all the pretty little embellishments and do dads.  The picture above is the front cover.

Back Cover

I think it is pretty!

Chaos!

New York! Well what can I say it was fun at times and not so fun at times! All in all I am so glad I went to see my beautiful family. I travelled a lot while there first flying in to Buffalo, then taking the train to Albany, and in between that travelled here and there and everywhere. Then back to Buffalo by train, finally to arrive back home. In all I was gone 2 and 1/2 months.





While I was there I started a canvas that was done haphazardly here and there just like my life takes it's twist and turns so did the canvas. It is painted on fabric and sewn and embellished. The only name I can give it if it must have a name is Chaos! The hectic pace of my visit reflects my life on the move.



The picture is scanned in two segments and I tried to knit them together in photo shop but it appears to have a seam on the right that isn't there. This really is just one continuous piece.


I also made this little tag book. Can you guess what it is made of?



A toilet paper roll! I think it came out rather cute and I can see a bunch of them to make a tag book.

I made my way to Pennsylvania too to visit more family, that was a very good visit so refreshing! Just look at what I saw...



That is Jack's Mountain. As I sat on my cousin Judy's porch that was my view, so peaceful! On top of that mountain are 3 crosses but you can not see them in my pic. Later on I will do a post about that mountain and a picture I drew in my journal.
On the way down a treacherous mountain we got in a fit of giggles by the time we got to the bottom I was thankful!


I went to an art show in Lockport, NY and picked up a few items. My sister bought a fantastic picture and a beautiful gourd!





and then she went and got a kitty! So sweet...



On the way home I asked her what she was going to name her and she said Coco, so I said OH! like Coco Channel? so that is her name Coco Channel! My sister wears Chanel No 5 a lot and I loved the movie so that is where I got the Channel part. If she thought that first she didn't mention it but she may have, we think alike sometimes.

I played around with paper clay too, and not sure where I will use these but I brought them home and some of that clay too!



And made some pretty flowers...


I did a picture with Citra Solve cleaner. You paint a magazine with citra solve and let it sit for about 20 minutes, press out the ink between sheets of absorbent paper then peel your pages and let them dry. After they are dry you find an image using your imagination and draw it out with a pen. It is a lot like looking at clouds and seeing images.




Finally it was time to get ready for the Tim Holtz weekend at Buffalo Stamps! I was soooooooooo excited! I will make another post about that weekend because it will be lengthy and this one post is already long. I decided to make an apron to wear because I usually tend get paint, glue, ink, fibers, chocolate etc. all over me when I work!








My sister made me a name tag so I wouldn't forget who I was....



Well that's it for now and if you have stayed this long THANK YOU! for reading my gibberish. I will be posting again soon about the Tim Holtz weekend but right now, my daughter from NY (the one I just visited) is here for a visit! LOL she missed her Moma!

Today I am getting ready to go to NY! So waiting for laundry to dry I decided to collect a few things to do on the airplane. This was like trying to figure out that old question of what you would take if you were on a deserted island. So I packed up my watercolor crayons, pencils, chalks, markers, an art journal, eraser ....etc., well before I knew it my little satchel was way too full and I reasoned with myself that the plane ride wasn't that long! I am going to see my sister and my daughter who live miles apart - and my sister has lots of way cool art stuff she will let me play with, BUT ... I will be at my daughters house too, and she is not into anything resembling artsy crafty or painting and doodling etc., so she won't have any of these things on hand. Well I will have to just make room in my suitcase.

In the mean time I got discouraged and started drawing and before I knew it I was in full fledged doodle mode, which lead to the colored pencils, markers, watercolor crayons, chalks and ohhhhhhhhhhhh the Twinkling H2O's! my personal favorite! Well that is until I get my hands on the pan pastels that I am lusting after.

This is what happened...



Unfortunately the luminescence of the TWH2O's can't be seen in the photo and these picture were taken with my phone so they aren't the best. Hmmmm....laundry! packing! right I better get back on task!

Vintage Hankie Birdie

So I was thinking........I have a ton of vintage hankies and buttons so perhaps I could make a bird out of something like that. This is the result of that random thought.





First I had to iron the delicate hankie to some batting to give it strength because this hankie was so think and fragile feeling, then I quilted some of the flowers and the eye area.



I added a bead for the eyes, naturally my bird has long eyelashes too. I used floral wire for his legs and feet, attached the wings, stuffed him, sewed him shut and then I realised I forgot to add the comb and tail feathers!


So it took me a little while but decided to add the silver beads with the feathers instead of all the tiny little size 15 beads that I painstakingly strung on wire a few days ago. I will just use them on another project because believe me size 15 glass beads is enough to make a person blind.


This is a view from the top because I wanted to show the edge of the hankie I had to stitch to another section of hankie to make it all work the way I wanted it to. After it was all said and done I added a little bit of very fine glitter to the posies to give some glitz! Oh how I love glitter!

My photography isn't that great but I do try to capture what I see that is why to different angles and backgrounds.

For the Birds!

I haven't created much in such a long time! I am not really sure why, other than I have been kind of busy both mentally and physically and really don't want to go into the details. Most of my stuff is packed in boxes because I was suppose to move across the land and now I am staying my stuff is still packed!... and that my friends is for the birds! So I made a what else? Bird!


Isn't she colorful?


A close up of her face...she has false eyelashes of course.






A view from the top, I used some recycled copper wire and beads for the tail and comb.


I laid her down so you could see her belly! How embarrassed she must be! I am not big on sewing anything that actually makes something so this I guess I would have to label more of a craft project (like my dolls) instead of quilting or sewing. I do admire those that do all that quilting and sewing but the truth is I have to get my hands dirty.


Anyway I have a lot of plans for this bird pattern that I got from Nellies Needles Blog and she has patterns and tutorials of other way cool stuff for the crafty chick who thinks out of the box or in as the case may be.

I have plans of making this bird out of grunge board paper and so really cool ranger products that go with grunge board. I wanted to try it with fabric first though to make sure it was what I wanted and it is close enough.

This really all started back when my sister took a Wendy Vechi class as seen an earlier post in May called "Just Charming". I was trying to find the darn birds along with a half million others and came close to carving my own but just never got around to it. Well this little bird doesn't even come close but I see a lot of possibilities and it was easy peasy to make. The whole thing from start to finish took me about 8 hours and that was with so much procrastination thinking "should I do this? or....that?" The hardest part was the legs that I made from and old hanger - let me just say I am not as strong as I once was!

I can also envision it made out of a few vintage embroidered and laced hankies of which I have many. That would be more delicate and I have a Mother who would probably love that for Mother's Day this year.

If you make one I would love love love to see it! Just leave a comment with your link and I will go take a looksee!

Beautiful Digi Scraps

These girls deserve a big SHOUT OUT! Go to this blog and read all about it. In a nutshell they get together and make beautiful digital scrapkits to help differnt awareness groups and offer lots of freebies. They are also looking for more digi scrappers to join in, so do something good and join if you have the talent.

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Reflect The True You

This was a doodle and it sort of took off in a myriad of direction. It was also going to say "there was a little girl, who had a little curl ...." lol don't ask.
There is tissue paper, gesso, watercolor pencils, watercolor crayons, acrylic paint, markers, rub on, magazine flowers, chalks and of course a little bit of bling. She looks a little dated back in the 70's as I sit here with my little ipod listening to Santana and such lol. The white frame is added after the fact courtesy of Paint Shop as is my siggy. Thinking I rather like it and may do it for real.

As for "Reflect the true you" well I can't emphasize how very important thoes words are because you get one shot at life and if you can't be true to yourself you will wander the earth forfreaking ever!

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Download a FREE copy of the Artella eBook, Artella Mae's NEW Altered Ancestors!, a 58-page eBook overflowing with ideas and techniques for using vintage photos in your artwork. Download your copy here!

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