next projects...

over the holiday i was able to go to my parents' farm and collect a few more very nice rusty things. not sure what to do with them yet, but i am very excited about them! any ideas?

sequence

finally! i graduated! i now have a B.S. in art education and i am done with school! until i find a job/get my masters....

so i now i have time to make some new art! this assemblage started with an industry inspiration. i got the tail light from my husband's car and the rest fell in behind that. i love the little dangling features at the bottom, that's something i haven't done before. i am also a new fan of 1" wooden cubes, they make excellent spacers and lifters, and they're very easy to recolor! i don't remember where i found the central piece, that metal circle...thing? but it is my favorite part. it fit in so perfectly! so here it is, Sequence, so named for the many tiny numbers scattered throughout. 

and now some teacher stuff

just got started but....

Art From Chaos

this is my new other blog! it's about teaching, art lessons, supplies, etc. check it out if you teach stuff or if you're just interested!

if i'm not updating here, it's because stuff from teacher life has consumed me over there......

domesticating the queen

queen of spades, with a sewing theme.

two of hearts

now that you have that song in your head, here is my 2 of hearts. some Tim paper for the people, the heart cut out and placed on top.

altered deck: 52 card challenge

i have decided to finally take on a project i've had in mind for a while: altering a deck of cards. i have seen some nice examples online, the one above is from a blog called Jazzy's Favorite Art. their group gave each number a different theme and made it a cooperative project. i love the idea, but this time i'm going solo. and i haven't claimed that mine will carry any kind of theme. also i won't do them in any specific order, just whatever comes to mind. i also am not saying that this is a 52 day challenge, i'm way too busy to commit to that. but anyway, i am starting officially. and here is my first.

this is the ace of hearts. simple stuff here. i used 2 $1 stamps from Michael's and a small feather. very simple, but i am satisfied with it. much more to come. feel free to join in on the challenge at any time! post a link in a comment of any of the cards posts to share your work!

on a musical note....

here is another necklace. same idea and process as the other, but this one has the definition of music in the circle. i also overlaid some tan tissue paper on the words to give it a sepia effect.

waiting for something fluffy

i smelled the burning of dust off of a heating element and it reminded me of winter. then i remember all the nice things that come with winter. fall is my favorite season (can't wait to start dressing in layers again), but there are some nice things about winter. and here they are:

• hot cocoa
• snuggling
• pajamas
• slippers
• booties
• scarves 
• more hair down time
• kitty gets fluffier
• snow days
• holiday decorating
• the smells
• holiday foods
• mittens
• fluffy sweaters

....so that's some stuff i got really really excited about today. just sharing. maybe i'll make some more scarves this year. the ones above i made last year for my mom and mother in law. they were extra fluffy and tied with some nice vintage lace. gorgeous!

steampunk art necklace

i felt like making something new for everyday wear, a little more practical than a snail on a chain. so i sat down and created this!

the text is a dictionary clip, a definition of "art". the typewriter keys are from the lovely industrial chic collection from Michael's. i would buy all of it if i could, but it is too expensive. :( but you should check out the site anyway, i'm sure you'll drool.

i filled the text area with some 3D scrapbook gel stuff. it takes forever to get solid, but it's so useful.
can't wait for it to dry so i can show it off. :)
also, i am so glad i held onto some of that old barn wood from my wedding signs. it makes for great display backgrounds, and i just love having it around the studio.

Another Assemblage

with student teaching fast approaching and summer classes coming to an end, it's very hard to find time to craft. this piece has been in progress for a few weeks.

the shelf as actually a small house. i removed the roof and stairs to have a nice neat tray for assemblages.

I stuck with a common color saturation to make all of the items fit together.

I'm most happy with little sewing section and i love the twine that runs across the center. i think it's a happy return to assemblages.

I haven't had time or materials for this in forever, but it is very satisfying to see another finished project.

Nature Fairy

for Alter It Monthly's July theme, Dolls, i created a garden fairy!

The body is a broken Barbie torso. I used leftover petals from my wedding to cover it.
in each flower i placed a small glass bead. The wings are a metal butterfly I found at a thrift store. I held that together with a screw.

It is hung with an eye hook at the top. There is also an eye hook at the bottom for the shiny glass beads. I love the way the sunlight catches in it.

happy fourth!

here's a happy explosion!

something else 2D....

and back to art now. in addition to the frenzy of getting married, i am also taking 4 sessions of summer classes so i can graduate in december and become an art teacher! my first class from may was relief print. i was really excited about this. there are a few blogs i follow who are complete print nerds and i know what kind of close knit community it is. so im glad i'll be able to at least understand the lingo now. not completely proud of all of these, but i did learn things and thats whats important, right?

for this first one, it was based on Durer's work. we each  wrote a description of an animal and had to make a print from someone else's description. turns out, mine was a saber-tooth cat. but isn't he cute? this is my only print using colored inks.

for the next one, we recreated Goya prints. mine has the same composition as the original (Nothing could be done about it) but i changed the imagery subtly. the main figure is wearing a dress. the other figures around him are characters from the Catholic church. the message is about the Spanish Inquisition and the continued persecution of homosexuals. a little more heavy than just a cute kitten, but it's nice.

the next print was from a dream. this is a place i saw, high in the mountains and precariously held up by spindly sticks. every print has a different background. i used a chin-colle method with scrapbook paper for the patterns. wish the imagery was better, i do like the patterns. i think i'll use chin-colle with more pieces, more pieces i actually like.

the theme for this piece is Communication and the Art of Control. mine is about how the government works with the media to keep the people frightened and in control, more specifically, with health scares (bird flu, swine flu, e-coli). not that these aren't legitimate threats, but the government definitely uses that to their advantage. so mine has images from old Spanish doctors from the plague, with the bird masks. it also has some soldiers with gas masks. my favorite part is the community members. apparently, im good at illustrations, who knew? this one took forever because of all the detail, but i had so much fun carving out the tiny people.

the last project was a diptych. i could think of anything really, and we only had 2 days to cut and print an edition. so i went with a male and female skeleton gesturing towards each other on an abstract plane. nothing too deep and not that well executed, but there it is.

and now for some real art. in my current color theory class, we did a little mono-printing with wax paper. our teacher brought in some of her work for examples and i fell in love with it. any one of them would be perfect in my husband's future music studio (he wants a subtle orange, blue and earth tones color scheme). so i was able to trade 2 of my little works for this! it is a full sheet of Stonehenge paper, so it's pretty large. love it!

happy Earth day!

3 years ago on Earth day, my fiance and i went to our high school for some hardcore vandalism...we planted this. lol. it wasn't kept up with after we graduated, but i am still very proud of what we did all by ourselves!

he started the environmental club there and we were voted most earthy and natural for senior superlatives. this day was made for us, ha.

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SIDE NOTE

made it over 2000 views today, whoo!

three muses challenge: mail

the challenge at the Three Muses this week is.....mail! so i FINALLY had an opportunity to use the rusty mailbox door i found over a year ago. this is a shrine to goddess of mail.

first, i laid down some text paper from a Tim Holtz paper stack. next i used the doll head from my first and only WOYWW (remember that?) I took out the flowers that were formerly her hair and instead gave her a wig of newspaper.

i glued her onto the center of the door and wrote in some text with a calligraphy pen (rain, snow, sleet, hail; MTWRFS).

next i glued on the MAIL letters to the bottom and took some other letters form the Tim stack and cut them into circles. then i used some glossy accents clear embellishments to coat those and make them more 3D.

i then wrapped some postage string around one side (you know how i am about wrapping things) and it was finished! ta da! a shrine to the goddess of mail!

how i decorate my easter eggs

while waiting for another project to dry, i started to fiddle around with some stuff on my desk, and made this! it is a forest tea party inside of an egg.first, i used pliers to break into the ceramic (or maybe plaster?) egg. then i glued in some fake moss and a leaf. the table is made from a cork and the tiny cup and spoon are from the same Bratz play set as the bottles on my fish necklace.

so there is it@ so simple, took about 30 mins. to make, but i believe it's one of my favorite pieces. :)

yay!

i won my first challenge! The Time challenge at Alter It Monthly! Sooo excited about my prize, and hopefully you will all understand. Most people don't get very excited when you tell them you won an art challenge, and are less impressed when they hear that the prize is a box of broken watch parts. but i couldn't be more happy! the prize above was provided by Vintage Supply Co. (check out their cute etsy shop).
^_^

what i'm wearing today...

favorite animal=snail. and kitties of course. but i collect snails like crazy, don't know why, i just can't help but take them home! so in homage to my obsession i made a plastic animal necklace of a snail. just a cute and slimy friend to hang out with me all day. :)

and yes, those are the cutest buttons you've ever seen. i put them on myself. ^_^

take a word 21: architecture

the theme at Take a Word this week is architecture, which gave me a chance to use a neat feature on my Cricut as well as a bauble i found on the ground. i created a whimsical and bright cityscape in a gingerbread cookies tin. the background and city are both cut from scrapbook paper and the city is cut using a feature on the Plantin Schoolbook cartridge for Cricut.

i poked some holes in the top and bottom for the hanging ribbon and an embellishment at the bottom. i found the cityscape bauble about a year ago in a parking lot at school. i honestly never thought i was going to use it, but here we are! the color scheme is all based off of that.

i outline the city and clouds with a black pen and echoed that with some black thread that gives the piece some foreground. i added some yarn and beads and was done! i like the minimalist and airiness of the piece, i think i'll try to work lighter more often.

it's not easy being green

happy st. patrick's day! the challenge at Take a Word this week is Green! which made me think of kermit, which led to frogs, which led to this necklace!

i wanted to do an Irish theme, but the inspiration never came. :(
so this is what you get instead.

first, i hammered a spoon into a flat shape, and snapped off the part of the handle i didn't need.
next i used gel medium to glue down some vintage advertisement paper.

i wanted my frog to remain green, but to blend in, so i gave him a light coating of antique gold.
hot glue held it all together, and i added a "G" embellishment for green and hung it on a chain. ta da! cute wearable frog. ^_^

something paper....

i have started following a couple more challenge blogs: Gingersnaps Creations and Take a Word. the theme for Gingersnaps Creations this week is T Y P E W R IT E R S, which gave me the perfect opportunity to use the typewriter stamp i got from Michael's.

i thought about making a tag, then i thought "what the hell does a tag do?" and i can't bring myself to make art that isn't functional or would look nice on display. so i made a bookmark instead. goes with the theme, yes?

i used some cardstock and paper from a Tim Holtz paper stack along with some of his tissue tape along the sides. i gessoed the bookmark at the bottom to make sure my stamp would show up.
then i added some gold highlights and splatters.

of course i had to add some 3D elements, so i gave it a ton of ribbon at the top with an Eiffel tower and heart charm.
i also added a jewelry embellishment to the center.
i never create just paper things, but this was fun! i like it. :)

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Whoo! My first Ginger challenge made it!

three muses challenge: fish

the challenge this week at the Three Muses is Fish! which is perfect, since this week i am really feeling some altered plastic items, and it's an great opportunity to use this it's-so-ugly-it's-cute rubber fish.

technique is pretty basic jewelry making stuff. i put an eye screw into the top of the feesh (that is how i say fish) and put it on a copper chain. i added small beads of a similar color pattern as the fish and chain.

finally, i added some tiny blue bottles i found in a (of all things) Bratz toy set from Goodwill that had a few cute little dishes, like these and plates and cups.

the fish is from an old water toy i played with until it burst. it was filled with glitter and 2 fish (the other fish can be found as a piece of my Field Researcher's Journal assemblage).
there will be more animal pieces to come, but who knows when. stupid school is back in session and i have to do a bunch of stupid things i don't want to. :(
also, not sure why i've taken a shine to displaying my things wrapped around bottles. but i have, i think it's pretty. ^_^

what i love this week....

inspired by Jane Anne Wynn's Altered Curiosities, what i love this week is plastic animals! i have yet to actually create my piece, but i will probably try to make something for the Three Muses challenge this week, which is fish. so i am off to craft, i leave you with my menagerie, pictured above, and this pig on a screwdriver.